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It is only obvious, that a show centered around Loki, God Of Mischief has to be a little tricky to understand. So here we are, breaking it down for you.

And obviously, Spoiler Alerts, for this and other related Movies!

Our Loki episode 3 review explores “The Variant,” , who (spoiler alert) calls herself Sylvie now, and  

Episode 3 of Loki is the shortest one yet, and yet it keeps you on the edge of your seat for its entirety, because there is literally no way to predict what is gonna happen next. 

RECAP

The third episode opened with a quick recap of the previous episode and the premiere where Loki was last seen coming face to face with the mysterious figure the TVA had been hunting for. The female variant of Loki ultimately escaped through a time door that regular Loki quickly followed through. This episode picks up right where that cliffhanger left off.

A Trip to Another Apocalypse

Cut to we’re in a coffee shop.

The design looks modern, the drinks look good, and the people are well familiar.

Lady Loki and the not so long ago kidnapped C-20 are sharing a friendly chat as if nothing had ever happened before.

After jumping through the time door at the end of the previous episode, Lady Loki busts through and begins vaporizing guards using their own weird time batons.

Reminder, magic doesn’t work here.

A curious Loki stumbles after Lady Loki and retrieves the daggers that were placed in a nearby locker not too long ago.

Loki confronts his newfound rival and the two battle it out after Loki suggests they work together.

Judge Renslayer appears and Loki sends them both through a time door.

So which impending apocalypse did Loki send them to?

None other than Lamentis-1, a moon and civilization set to be completely annihilated by an incoming planet within a mere half a day.

In Loki, Lamentis-1 is a purple planet that, since the series takes us to it on the eve of its destruction, has chunks of its moon constantly crashing onto its surface like an endless barrage of missiles. Fortunately, the planet’s chaotic destruction ultimately serves as the perfect backdrop for the tempestuous relationship forged by Loki and Sylvie throughout the episode.

The time door controlling device TemPad is by now low on battery and the plan to find a power source to escape the doom is on.

Loki, doing as Loki does, hides the TemPad in an effort to keep the two working together.

All this happens within the midst of swift kicks and dagger swings, obviously.

Finding nothing of value within an abandoned town, the two stumble upon an older lady on the outskirts of town. Both go about approaching the lady for help differently.

Lady Loki, now going by her real name Sylvie, goes with brute force and knocks the front door down. Loki takes the form of the lady’s husband and tries to talk his way with trickery. Both backfire and both get knocked back with a hefty air blaster.  (That must have hurt)

The two learn of an emergency vessel called the Ark that can only be reached by train.

With an immense source of power revealed, the two use Loki’s shape-shifting and Sylvie’s mind-capture abilities to get on board.

Plenty of time to spare as the two wait to reach their destination. After some heart-to-heart, the two decide to prepare by resting in their own ways.

For Sylvie, that’s sleeping.

Loki? That’d be drinking and getting the train singing and roaring with Asgardian chants.

This happy but suspicious display gets them thrown off the train and stranded in the desert. The impact smashed the TemPad leaving them with no way home.

!! Sylvie reveals the TVA consists of humans plucked from Earth at some point in time. They’re all variants! SHEEESH right !!

Will Loki & Sylvie survive???

The time door is no longer an option. Doom is around the corner. The only way to survive? Change the course of history. In the end, the Ark is never meant to escape the planet. If Loki and Sylvie can manage to guide it to safety, they’ll have a way off the moon.

Now at the town where the Ark is set to take off, the two head for the massive ship. An announcement for final departure blasts through the speakers of the city and the crowds erupt into chaos. Loki and Sylvie fight their way through and just when things are starting to look up, a massive asteroid slashes through the Ark destroying both the ship and their hope in one strike.

“What Exactly Makes a Loki a Loki?”

Episode 3 uses Loki and Sylvie’s journey across Lamentis-1 to establish and begin developing a relationship between the two characters. It’s a bond that, at least at first, is pretty heavily indebted to the kinds of Nora Ephron rom-coms and screwball comedies Loki head writer Michael Waldron has previously expressed admiration for. There’s plenty of bickering throughout, and since these are two Loki variants we’re dealing with, more than a few attempted betrayals.

Some of the more revealing tidbits come from their quiet time on the train. Loki chats a bit about his adoptive mother and how she taught him everything he knows about magic.

Sylvie barely knew her mother and she taught herself magic, specifically the power to create illusions in other people’s minds. They also bring up past loves and what it means to love, including women and men from Loki’s past.

Sylvie isn’t interested in being another Loki. She doesn’t want to be referred to as one and she doesn’t want to associate herself with her counterpart. Loki is a clown as she says. He seeks pleasure and dominance whereas Sylvie is hinting that she wants just the opposite.

But the more time the two spend together, the more that Loki, as a show, continues its meta exploration of who Loki is as a character (“What exactly makes a Loki a Loki?” Sylvie notably asks at one point). The pair exchange stories about their childhoods and discuss how they each learned magic.

We even learn that, according to Sylvie, she’s spent most of her life on the run from the TVA, which just raises even more questions about her history with the organization she aptly refers to as the “boring, oppressive time police.”

All of this culminates in a discussion between the two characters about, well, love.

Sylvie hypothesizes that love may be nothing more than hate or mischief in the end, but Hiddleston’s Loki doesn’t agree with those theories.

However, after clumsily attempting to compare the emotion to an “imaginary dagger,” he ultimately ends the episode unsure of what he believes love really is.

What to expect from next-weeks Episode?

Loki Episode 3 is a rare thing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe: a rom-com. The episode explores the rivalry (and budding romance?) between Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and “Sylvie” as it develops and evolves over the course of their time trapped together on a planet facing total annihilation.

Honestly speaking, at this point we cant even predict what is gonna happen in next weeks episode, but we know it for sure that the next episode of loki will be as exciting as the previous ones.

The reveal also adds further credence to the popular fan theory that the love Owen Wilson’s Mobius has for jet skis is a direct result of his time on Earth as well. Fingers crossed that also means we actually will get to see a shot of Mobius riding a jet ski before Loki Season 1 concludes.

Unfortunately, how exactly Hiddleston’s Loki will share this newfound information with Mobius and the other TVA agents is a problem for another time. First, he and Sylvie will need to figure out how to get off of Lamentis alive following the destruction of their only escape vehicle at the end of Loki Episode 3.

Things are moving quickly for Loki’s world and the Disney+ exclusive show will release each of its six episodes on a weekly basis. Catch each episode of Loki, along with our detailed recap, every Wednesday at 12:30 PM IST.

And also be sure to check out our decoding of each episode too!

Check out the review for Loki Season 1 Episode 1 here &  Loki Season 1 Episode 2 here

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