After an initially promising premiere, Loki's second season finds itself adrift in a peculiar limbo. Its befuddling second episode merely spins its narrative wheels, creating a disconcerting sense as if an entire chapter has been skipped over. Ever since Avengers: Endgame, Marvel has been walking a tightrope, balancing individual storylines with a sprawling multiverse framework, often leaving one aspect more captivating than the other. "Breaking Brad" embodies this ongoing struggle, where one longs for either the personal narrative or the overarching mystery to fully blossom into something meaningful, but alas, neither quite delivers.
Last week's cliffhanger saw Loki liberated from his temporal quagmire, as the TVA's General Dox dispatched legions of Hunters through time portals, ostensibly in pursuit of Sylvie, though B-15 harbored doubts about Dox's true intentions. This fresh installment unfolds some indeterminate time later, with composer Natalie Holt adding a flamboyant twist to the opening theme, enticing us into a glitzy 1977 London movie premiere where Hunter X-05, now rechristened Brad Wolfe, reigns supreme. However, Loki and Mobius, seemingly reinstated as TVA agents, have caught up with the rogue operative, determined to bring him in for questioning, as his abandonment of duty is suspect.
The ensuing chase is exhilarating, with Loki finally unleashing his signature trickery—shadowy illusions and body doubles—for the first time in ages. Yet, it takes a moment to disentangle the "who," "what," and "why" amidst the déjà vu of last season's dynamics. Once again, Loki and Mobius are on the hunt for an anomaly in a deviant timeline, but the context and stakes appear blurred—a fog that refuses to clear. Last we knew, X-05 was following Dox's orders; something must have shifted in the interim, and the duo must decipher this enigma. But the episode's dramatic inquiries lack urgency, hovering in a state of indecisiveness.
Based on some vague assumption by Loki and Mobius, X-05's newfound life as a Hollywood star somehow equates to him harboring knowledge of Sylvie's whereabouts—a logical leap that remains unbridged, despite their feeble attempts at justification. Thus, he becomes the focus of the TVA's interrogation, where he taunts Loki and Mobius, probing their vulnerabilities rooted in their pasts. Loki's villainous past is an open book, whereas Mobius' backstory remains a mystery he shuns, choosing not to unravel. The intrigue surrounding Mobius' identity lingers, as does his reluctance to confront the life he left behind—especially if it was idyllic. However, the debate over Loki's heroism versus villainy feels like a worn-out path, given the first season's exhaustive exploration of this theme.
Through a subtle yet intense application of TVA's high-tech interrogation chamber—a box that gradually constricts around X-05, squeezing the life out of any resistance—Loki manages to coerce a confession from him, revealing Sylvie's whereabouts. This revelation echoes last week's post-credits tease, where Sylvie materialized in an Oklahoma McDonald's in 1982, inadvertently spawning her own divergent timeline. Midway through the episode, a semblance of captivating drama unfolds in the form of a tense, wordless confrontation between Loki and Sylvie, huddled in the cramped confines of her pickup truck. They are former lovers, scarred by a final encounter that left a bitter taste of mutual betrayal.
The true impetus behind Loki's relentless pursuit finally surfaces, albeit with a whimper rather than a bang. It's not so much a revelation as a belated clarification: Loki glimpsed Sylvie's future involvement in the TVA's dire straits, and he yearns to uncover the why behind it. Her response is stark and simple—she's as clueless as he is, for it's yet to unfold. This plot rationale falls flat, lacking both the intrigue to pique curiosity and the payoff to satisfy it, paling in comparison to the myriad of richer narratives the episode could have embraced.
Perhaps Loki sought reconciliation, or perhaps he was compelled to recapture her, despite his lingering feelings. But this flimsy subplot is swiftly overshadowed when X-05 spills the beans to Mobius about General Dox's sinister plan to obliterate this and countless other splintered timelines. The setup for this revelation is wanting; Dox's rogue operation and the TVA's ambiguous role—whether pursuing her or guarding timelines through preservation—remain nebulous.
Nonetheless, the conflict is resolved in a blink, as Loki and Sylvie swiftly track down Dox's clandestine lair and dispatch her forces with ease, albeit at the cost of numerous unseen alternate realities being eradicated off-screen. Wunmi Mosaku, as B-15, valiantly attempts to impart gravity to the situation, her anguished cries of "Those were people! Those were lives!" ringing hollow against the backdrop of a narrative filled with time travel, resurrections, and constantly reset universes. Without even a fleeting glimpse of the lives at stake, it's hard to muster empathy for this theoretical loss.
'Breaking Brad' not only stumbles over a crucial narrative step but also leaves a lingering sense of incompleteness, its potential untapped and its storytelling feeling unfinished.
As Loki's self-contained narrative (to whatever extent it dares to be autonomous) flounders in shallow waters, there are fleeting glimpses of progress on the shared-universe front, albeit barely surpassing mediocrity. Casey embarks on a quest to uncover the elusive Ravonna Renslayer, a development that Loki alludes to, referencing a past recording, subtly suggesting Renslayer's collusion with Kang/He Who Remains. Meanwhile, Ouroboros, amidst snappy and amusing exchanges, arrives at the realization that salvaging the TVA from the impending doom of the malfunctioning Time Loom and its jammed blast doors necessitates the intervention of its very creator, Mr. Remains himself. Their quest may lead them to the clockwork AI, Miss Minutes, who seems to be aiding Renslayer in her enigmatic endeavor. Thus, the episode at least sketches a linear path for Loki and his allies to reintroduce Kang back into the series' intricate tapestry, albeit overwhelmingly plot-driven (a chain reaction of finding Character A leading to Character B, and so forth, reminiscent of Disney's Star Wars formula), offering little in terms of Loki's personal growth or story arc.
Director Dan Deleeuw masterfully captures the fleeting moments and exchanges between Loki, Sylvie, and Mobius, intuitively knowing when to harness stillness and movement to enhance each conversation. Yet, ultimately, the show's creativity feels constrained by a mechanical framework that scatters its characters like pawns on a chessboard, waiting patiently to be maneuvered into position. The scarce essence this season possesses is but a fleeting whisper in the second episode, yearning to be fully realized.
