‘Loki’ Season Finale Explained: Episode 6, “For All Time. Always.”

There are two big takeaways from the Loki Season 1 finale, “For All Time. Always.”, one of which is pure plot stuff for the MCU, and one of which is all story for Loki, the first popular villain of the MCU and still one of its most beloved characters. I’m not going to lie, I thought Hiddles-Loki wouldn’t survive this, simply because Tom Hiddleston has been playing the character for a solid decade, will he ever get tired of it? But they’ve uncovered so much new and interesting stuff about Loki, and now there is an almost infinite possibility of what can be done next, and Hiddleston’s performance has, quite frankly, never been better. He’s such a good actor even his tiniest, throw-away moments deliver punches straight to the gut. He has a quick, barely breathed “no” in his fight against Sylvie, a plaintive, almost childish cry, which says so much about where Loki is at and how genuine his feelings truly are, it’s an incredible, incredible bit of business from Hiddleston. I guess as long as he gets to do stuff like this, he’ll never get tired, and Loki will keep coming back.

MCU-wise, we’ve obviously set the stage for the upcoming multiverse nonsense we’re going to be dealing with for the next several movies, starting with Spider-Man: No Way Home. To that end, we meet Jonathan Majors as Kang. Or, well, we meet Jonathan Majors as A Kang (Immortus, maybe?). This Kang has survived all other Kangs and sealed the “sacred timeline” and created the TVA to prune branches because the potential for evil that originates within Kang is so great that variants cannot be allowed to exist. To that end, ALL variants, of everyone, ever, must be pruned. Space-time must be managed like a topiary to stop any Kang from ever seeking to conquer other worlds. Yikes! Scary guy! Good luck, heroes, you’re going to need it!

More importantly, though, is that while Loki includes a sword fight in the finale, the climax is really built around a conversation which demonstrates how far the two Lokis have, or have not, come. For a very long time, I have wanted a Marvel thing to end more cleverly than the hero punching their way out of a jam. The closest we’ve come is Doctor Strange, and now Loki pretty well does it, and damn if it isn’t every bit as satisfying as a good fight. This episode is a tragedy unfolding in real time as Loki and Sylvie are admitted to Kang’s citadel, which looks an awful lot like a Sanctum Sanctorum, and then just like, have a nice chat about everything that has happened. But the crux of the problem is that Sylvie, after endless years alone on the run, cannot trust. And Loki, after a millennium of lies and power-mad insanity, cannot be trusted. The worst part? Loki actually grows enough to earn trust, but Sylvie doesn’t grow enough to give it.

I’m still not sold on the grand romance of the two Lokis—it just doesn’t seem like the point of their relationship—but there is no denying these two care for each other, and that it absolutely CRUSHES Loki when he can’t reach Sylvie. I guess it’s something that Sylvie doesn’t kill him, but she sends him away because she can’t let go of her pain and anger and her need to kill Kang. But game recognizes game, and Loki Silvertongue recognizes when Kang is telling the truth and believes his warning about the potential calamity of allowing multiple Kangs to exist in space-time. It says everything about Loki’s growth that even when he believes Kang, even when he recognizes there might be a need for the TVA after all, he doesn’t want a throne, or see himself as head of the new TVA. He just wants to work out a solution with Sylvie, one where they fix things together.

Why was Loki able to change when Sylvie was not? Was it that he came into this already knowing his own failings? He admitted to Mobius early on that his villainy was just a performance, a way of living down to the expectation that he was cruel and manipulative. That was never who Loki truly was, it’s who life forced him to be. Once at the TVA, though, he was outside that predetermined role, and free to become something else—someone else. Kang claims he paved the road, and maybe he did, but Loki still had to walk the path. Loki changed enough to give up his quest for power, in fact, his growth brought him to a humbler place where all he wanted was for his friend/love/person to “be okay”. He just cares about Sylvie.

But at the same time, he is Loki. He’s not stupid. He’s doing that math in his head, and decides that if Kang is right, the risk is too great. They can’t kill Kang. But Sylvie hasn’t changed that much, she’s still holding onto all that hurt and anger. Loki grew past the hurt child inside, Sylvie didn’t. Does that make him the superior Loki? Well, maybe. Or maybe it doesn’t matter because Loki doesn’t care anymore. Loki has learned a lot about himself, and in that learning, he has truly been humbled. He’s not special, he has no glorious purpose, he’s fate’s jester, at best. The prideful Loki of Thor and The Avengers is gone, and in his place is a powerful man who no longer cares about power, which is kind of ironic, because he and Sylvie both have reached new levels of power—Sylvie is slinging magic now—which will be fun to play with in Loki season two. But for now, we’re left with a Loki who knows he is capable of great things, but who also knows he’s just made a great mistake. And he’s had his heart broken, maybe for the first time, to boot.

He’s also friendless. The cliffhanger about the multiverse is whatever, the MCU will work that out. The bigger cliffhanger is that Loki is essentially stranded in time. Mobius has forgotten him, and the Time-Keepers’ image at the TVA has been replaced by Kang. Is Loki in a different timeline, separated from “his” Mobius? Has the TVA rebooted with Kang as its leader? It doesn’t really matter because the effect is the same: Loki has a great deal of knowledge and no one with whom to share it. He’s cut off from Sylvie, Mobius doesn’t remember him, and it’s not like he can go to the Avengers for help. If Loki showed up out of the blue and started talking about multiverses and a conqueror, who would believe him? Loki has basically been rendered the MCU’s Cassandra, which is an interesting place to leave him.

A stinger on this episode confirms a second season is coming, and this is the first time I actually want to see more from a Marvel+ show. With multiverses, two Lokis with a river of complicated feeling between them, and a Cassandra Loki who has to find a new path forward alone, the possibilities are endless. For now, season one leaves us with Loki, the perpetual survivor, suffering his greatest defeat. He couldn’t reach Sylvie, he couldn’t talk her out of killing Kang, and now the universe is imperiled. His heart is broken, and, for all intents and purposes, his only friend is gone. We’ve seen Loki in some bad spots, but this is probably the worst. And now there is no choice about embracing chaos. Chaos is upon him.

Sarah Marrs is a film critic and writer at LaineyGossip.com and co-host of The Hollywood Read podcast. She also has bylines at Pajiba, SYFY Fangrrls, and Consequence of Sound. She can be yelled at on Twitter @Cinesnark. Sometimes she goes places and does things, though not so much in 2020.

Watch Loki Episode 6 on Disney+