This week Disney+ and Marvel Studios released the final episode of LOKI season one. Some mild spoilers for the history of the MCU through Avenger: Endgame are part of my review.

Loki, adopted brother of Thor and former villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after meeting his fate at the hands of the mad titan Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, lived on by way of a parallel time stream variant that escaped captivity due to the Avengers time heist to save half the universe in Avengers: Endgame. The series LOKI follows this edition of the character who
has not experienced the character growth from the films Thor: The Dark world or Thor: Ragnarök as he is hunted as a ‘variant’ by the Time Variance Authority the mysterious organization charged with keeping the timeline orderly and proceeding according to plan. Whose plan and why is the central mystery of LOKI as it compresses three feature films worth of character development for Loki into a montage and then challenges the character with a number of variations on himself exploring the question are we fated to be who we are, or can we choose who we are.

LOKI is a series that I could not review until the complete run had been released. It’s central mystery and eventual character development revealed in the final episode are too critical to the piece’s artistic vision. Overall, I think that they writers, directors, and actors, including some surprise and fun guest stars, landed their craft admirably and delivered an entertaining and even occasionally thoughtful series. Not as deep into exploring human emotion and motivation as WandaVision’s examination of the power of grief but a little more subtle and nuanced than The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s dive into identity and social racism. Revealing one last mystery in its final scene LOKI promises more adventures for the Asgardian with an announced second season.