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"I have no memory of my memory being wiped." So says Mobius in the surprisingly mind-bending first episode of Loki season 2, which opens with the main characters all scrambling to make sense of things in the wake of the events that took place at the End of Time, in the previous season.
I will admit I had low expectations for this season, in contrast to my high expectations at the start of season 1. I always was a fan of the Villain Loki from the first Avengers movie. Throughout the MCU movies, Loki evolved from villain to antihero to the mischievous but otherwise helpful brother of Thor, culminating in his death at the start of Avengers: Infinity War. When the first season of Loki was released on Disney + in June 2021, I was excited to see the continuation of the events that unfolded in the alternate Avengers timeline in Avengers: Endgame, with Loki stealing the Tesseract and escaping. This was the Villain Loki. "Kneel! I said... KNEEL!!!" Yes, that Loki!
To my disappointment, it took less than one episode to transform Loki into the mild version of himself as he was in Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War. Bummer. He then teams up with Mobius to stop a dangerous variant of himself: Sylvie, aka Enchantress. The story plays out in fits and spurts as an unconvincing romance between Loki and Sylvie develops, one that ends in disagreement over how to handle He Who Remains, the genius villain behind it all. Sylvie wins this argument, stabbing He Who Remains, despite the looming threat of not only his return, but thousands of his variants in the wake of the splitting of the timeline.
And so "Ouroboros" — the first episode of season 2 begins precisely where the previous season left off. Loki is back at the TVA, having been kicked there through a time door by Sylvie, only to find that no one remembers him, not even Mobius. This anomaly is quickly explained as Loki time-warps against his will into a different time period, and finds himself back in the "present" — wherein he is recognized. This is intriguing given that the TVA, as briefly explained in the previous season, follows different rules of time. Unfortunately for Loki, he quickly finds that he cannot control his time-warping, and continues to do so, zipping all around the timeline within the confines of the TVA.
Meanwhile the agents of the TVA are unsure what to do with themselves in wake of the fact that everything they thought they knew was a lie. They all had lives in the timeline, but had their memories wiped — possibly more than once — by He Who Remains.
Loki is a show about two things: 1) time travel and 2) Characters who must question not only their own memories but also their very identities and existence altogether. The first season introduced these themes, but then pushed them into the background to focus on the quasi-romantic relationship between Loki and his own variant. Season 2, in contrast, actually deals with these two very fascinating concepts. The original theme of Loki now takes forefront and center.
One clever thing about this first episode that I greatly appreciated was the dialogue. There is a lot going on here, and it is explained (or, more often than not, questioned) through back-and-forth between Loki, Mobius and some new characters. It is clever writing when you disguise exposition with casual conversation, and make it convincing as such. And with everything that plays out, there is more show here than there is tell.
He Who Remains is not onscreen for the duration of this episode save in flashbacks, but his presence is felt all throughout. He is coming back — a great many of him, in fact — and the characters are in a race against time to beat him within an anomalous timeline. They also must contend with themselves; what do you do when the sacred timeline is breaking? Pruning timelines means wiping out millions of lives. Letting the branches go means untold and unpredictable chaos. This is totally not a black-and-white situation.
With all this going on, I am definitely excited for what is to come!