Loki season 1, episode 6 review: For All Time. Always.

“We write our own destiny now.” Spoilers for Loki season 1, episode 6 follow.

Loki and Sylvie are that the end of their journey as they finally venture toward the end of time itself and find what awaits them there in the finale of Disney Plus‘ Loki.

As for the Time Variance Authority, the implosion that they began continues as the TVA begins to fall apart.

The end of time

So, we’re finally there. The end of time itself. The Time-Keepers are fakes. The TVA is built on a house of lies. What can truly lie at the end of time itself that will satisfy Sylvie and Loki? Well, that answer truly is nothing because who they find at the end of time isn’t who they might have thought. The truth is, they found none other than a version of Kang the Conqueror, which is the most surprising thing for anyone with some basic time travel knowledge of the Marvel Universe (if it’s time travel, 99.9% of the time, Kang). Yeah, the name Kang isn’t said here, but it’s Kang.

Even if it’s not the most shocking twist ever, Kang’s presence is the absolute best part of this finale. Jonathan Majors absolutely kills it with his scenery-chewing portrayal of this version of the Marvel Comics villain. The Kang featured here is older, and probably insane, and Majors plays it as such and it’s very clear that he had an incredible amount of fun doing so. Every time he was on screen, it was impossible to take your eyes off of him. And this episode also assures us that he’ll eventually portray a more comic-accurate version of the character, so it’s nice to see him just let loose here.

Beyond just a fun performance from Majors, what does Kang’s presence actually do in the episode? Well, Kang’s entire presence is a long-winded way of giving Loki and Sylvie two disastrous choices while also playing with the notion of free will and predestination. This is something that could be interesting, and it mostly is because of Majors’ performance, but it kind of becomes apparent now that this season has a lot of plot points that “take inspiration” from Snowpiercer. This isn’t an inherently bad thing. Snowpiercer is phenomenal. But, when the inspiration becomes that noticeable, Loki needed to do a better job in execution than what it ended up doing.

Predestination

In the context of Loki though, Kang’s offers that he gives Loki and Sylvie creates an interesting view about the metaphysical idea of predestination. Throughout the entire series, Loki and Sylvie believe that they are fighting and choosing what they are doing, in defiance of the TVA and the sacred timeline. I mean, they’re variants, that’s what they do. The first line of this article is a quote from Loki’s own hubris regarding destinies.

However, as it’s made clear by Kang, he planned everything and knows everything that they will do, including when and how Sylvie will try to kill him. It’s an interesting idea that forces you to think about your own life to a certain degree while viewing the episode. Did I make the choice to watch this season all the way to its conclusion or was I always meant to? Am I choosing to write about the idea of predestination at 1am or was I positioned to by an invisible hand thousands or even millions of years ago?

The wrench thrown into this concept of predestination is that Kang knows everything that is going to happen… until he doesn’t. This then offered the notion that predestination doesn’t exist and that, if ungoverned, free will is the natural state of the universe. This is all done in a way that is long-winded at times and sometimes a little bit boring, but they are interesting concepts for the show to explore nonetheless.

End of the TVA; a new beginning for Loki

As for the TVA, with the truth about the Time-Keepers revealed, what does that mean for all the variants working there now? Well, it brings up the concept of nihilism and what does one do when the meaning that you thought your life had is stripped away?

This isn’t really delved into much here in this episode, but it presents the idea in a relatively subtle way and leaves more room to explore the idea in (spoilers) season 2 of Loki.

Anchored by a phenomenal Jonathan Majors performance, Loki ends its first season on a relatively strong note that leaves a lot of avenues open for future seasons.

What did you think of Loki‘s season 1 finale? Let us know your thoughts and feelings in the comments below!