“Glorious Purpose” — an examination and praise of the first episode of “Loki”
Note: This recap and analysis does contain spoilers.
Loki, Episode 1: Glorious Purpose
From the physical comedy based on time gags to the set design’s hint of retro-futurism, the exploration behind Loki’s motivations, and the comedic chemistry between Owen Wilson and Tom Hiddleston in a philosophical cross-examination, Glorious Purpose made for an entertaining series debut.
On a personal note, I’ve found Loki to be the most immediately intriguing Marvel Studios’ television series. To some extent, this may have always been the case, looking back at the setup for the plot in Avengers Endgame. More broadly, the critical success of WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier have marked a promising start for Marvel Studios’ new projects on the Disney+ platform, so the anticipation of this series has been heightened for a while.
We saw the concept of time explored in Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Endgame, but the introduction of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) adds another dimension to the MCU. Beneath all the films and series that we’ve become invested in, lies a workforce subject to the Timekeepers who have been overseeing all of the events that have unfolded before us.
In the scene in which Loki is on trial for deviating from the timeline, his rebuttal was that the Avengers, not him, had begun the time-jumping and intercepting of infinity stones. He isn’t wrong and this makes sense to us, the audience, as those who are only newly introduced to the TVA and its mission. However, to the TVA hunters and minutemen, the Avengers’ plan was “supposed to happen.” Loki’s interception of the tesseract was not. This leads us to question what constitutes as “okay” to the TVA and what is “variant.” We are unclear of the Timekeepers’ full motives, which Loki pokes at throughout the episode. I hope that this is further explored throughout the series, especially since it seems like there are bad events that are allowed to happen (such as Thanos’ collection of the infinity stones) and good ones (the Avengers’ undoing of his plan), but why is this? Their decision making doesn’t seem to be based on morality, but rather a grand plan and a vaguely touched upon scientific explanation. We still don’t know much of how events in time’s distinctions are made yet.
The presence of the Timekeepers also dredges up queries around free will within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In speaking with Loki, Mobius notes “you always lived in your set path.” In which Loki replies, “I lived in whatever path I choose.” On multiple occasions they have exchanges along these lines in which the Time Variance Authority agents look knowingly as if that isn’t true, perhaps alluding to pre-determined fate.
Loki, Episode 1: Glorious Purpose
To highlight another success of Loki, I found the set design to be particularly charming. Much like that of Wandavision, the embracing of retro aesthetics was well utilized. The TVA seems like a futuristic society, hidden from plain sight, as shown in the scene when Loki and Mobius overlook the city and Loki is convinced the advanced-appearing society is “an illusion.” Yet, when we see the office-type compound they are in, there are many nods to sixties mid-century modern interior design, common color schemes of the seventies, and the use of outdated “technologies” like printed paper and printed ticketing systems. The retro and anachronistic feel of the TVA lends a nice backdrop for much of the humor, especially that surrounding bureaucracy in their society. It also makes the institution and society appear timeless, which works with the plot and the function of the TVA.
We see this retro style also show up in the informational video that Loki sees in line, after grabbing a ticket that explains what the timekeepers do and what “variants” are. The animation style alternates between a 1960s style when showing information on the TVA workforce and mission and an 80s style animation when showing the lore of the Timekeepers. The latter style is reminiscent of older superhero cartoon series, which felt like a nod to the genre.
There is a lot to unpack from Glorious Purposes, in how Loki sees himself and in curiosity around the Timekeepers. Looking at the highlight reel of his life and finding a drawer full of confiscated infinity stones, which worker Casey jokes are used as “paperweights”, Loki looks in wonder at the scale of the Timekeepers’ magnitude and influence. What he saw as some of the most powerful pieces of matter in the universe, the stones, are reduced to non-magical inanimate objects. It appears that Loki is both in awe of this fact and contemplative of his own schemes and reality.
For the rest of the series, I still have so many questions on how time and timelines function within the MCU, which I hope are further explored. Loki has always been one of the most morally complex characters of the MCU, so I look forward to watching his journey unfold further, especially now that he has seen how his life ends. All in all, I think Glorious Purpose did its job at setting up the TVA and in introducing the inevitable Loki versus Loki literal confrontation, which meshes well with his introspective confrontation with Self that we’ve seen in the premiere.
