Loki's time-hopping adventure reached its end Wednesday, with the sixth and final episode of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hitting Disney Plus. The season finale, entitled For All Time, Always, picks up with Gods of Mischief Variants Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) after they uncovered the path to the castle hideout of the mastermind behind the Time Variance Authority, and leaves us with a post-credits scene that opens up a multiverse of Marvel possibilities.
Separately, former TVA agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) returned to his old workplace, determined to reveal the truth that he and his former co-workers are all Variants who were snatched from their old lives and had their memories erased. It's unclear if TVA Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) will help or hinder Mobius in his quest.
Following a fun encounter with a more sinister side of Miss Minutes – who acts like a reminder to save your progress before a final boss battle in a video game – the show wastes no time in pulling back the curtain. But unlike an action-packed boss battle (something pretty familiar to Marvel viewers), this is much more of a war of words. It’s an engagement more suited to Loki and Sylvie, who would much rather talk their way out of a scenario than have it result in combat.
he tables are turned the moment an elevator door opens, with the variants confused to see a mere man standing before them. It’s an understated but impactful reveal – while the pair may well stand bemused, anyone who has kept half an eye on Marvel casting news will have a smile creep onto their face the moment Jonathan Majors appears on screen. A smile that won’t go away for another half an hour or so.
This is largely due to the stellar writing (some of the MCU’s finest to date) and the joy that Majors seems to take with delivering every line. It’s wonderfully Shakespearian, a stage set by Tom Hiddleston’s Loki but thoroughly stolen by Majors over the course of the episode. Playing the enigmatic “He Who Remains”, the Lovecraft Country star owns the screen, and even if you know not to trust him, you just can’t help but be drawn into him. It’s a mistake that Loki himself fittingly makes.
Stepping into the Citadel at the End of Time, Loki and Sylvie meet He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), who appears to be a version of time-hopping comic villain Kang the Conqueror. We already knew this guy was meant to make his MCU debut in February 2023 movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Since he's never referred to as Kang in this episode, it seems like the Kang has yet to appear. He Who Remains claims to be the last survivor of a multiversal war that broke out when multiple versions of him made contact after the multiverse was discovered in the 31st century.
He tamed and weaponized Alioth, using the trans-temporal being to end the war (presumably by gobbling up the other timelines). To stop it happening again, he created the TVA to manage the Sacred Timeline.
All of this leads up to one final scene for Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie to clash, kiss, make up, then clash again. Again, the writing and direction is fantastic, leading to the manipulation of both variants, their true natures pitted against one another. The episode’s only action scene is a brief but exciting flurry of blades, which ends in a touching moment that all Sylki shippers out there I’m sure enjoyed greatly – even if genetic similarities of the situation does make me feel a little uncomfortable. Is this allowed between variants? I don’t know. Go for it, I guess.
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Of course, this sweet moment for Loki turns bitter almost instantly as the Loki mantra comes back to haunt him. You just can’t trust one, and he really should know that better than anyone. Hiddleston and Di Martino unfortunately don’t have a whole lot to do during the episode when compared to Majors, but they hold their own and act effectively as an audience proxy throughout. Villain monologues full of exposition can often grind things to a creaking halt, but this just isn’t the case here due to the energetic back-and-forth from the trio on screen. Given that almost the entirety of the 40-minute runtime is spent sitting at one desk in an office, that’s no mean feat.
It’s when the episode steps away from this desk that the less exciting aspects of Loki rear their head. Renslayer remains a cryptic character, but not in a particularly fun way. We still don’t know a whole lot about her and the fleeting moments we get with her here don’t do much to address that. The brief revelation of a Renslayer variant is more of a Season 2 set-up (which, of course, was confirmed in a mid-credits scene) than a true plot pay-off. Mobius returns, but Owen Wilson isn’t given his best material to work with, and it feels like a misstep after his emotional exit last week. While these characters can’t just be pushed to the side completely, I did just find myself wishing I was back at the end of time whenever visiting the TVA.
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It’s at the end of time where Loki delivers its grandstand finish. Where WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier stumbled across the finish line, showrunner Michael Waldron and director Kate Herron manage to cross it with aplomb. Sylvie’s decision is a visually spectacular one that causes literal ripples through time as the branches appear in the stars like cracks in ice. It’s a choice that not only makes complete sense for Sylvie’s character development, but also one that should change the MCU as we know it. For all time. Always.
At the end of Loki episode 6, Sylvie kills He Who Remains. With no one at the helm to keep the timeline stable, branches begin to form.
As he dies, He Who Remains tells Sylvie that he will “see [her] again soon.” This is clearly a nod to the versions of himself that will now be let loose. Expect to see an evil version of He Who Remains in upcoming MCU media. Kang the Conqueror looks set to be the next big bad.
Meanwhile, Loki ends up back at the TVA. However, Mobius doesn’t recognize him and the Time-Keeper statues have been replaced by He Who Remains. Clearly, Loki has been sent to another timeline where a different version of the TVA exists. It’s unclear what this means for the character.
It’s also important to mention that Mobius never got to rid a jetski, though his survival means it’s a possibility in the future!
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