Main cast: Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie), and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Ravonna Renslayer)
Director: Kate Herron
In the previous episode, Loki finally confronts the Other Loki. When this episode opens, they fight, mostly because the Other Loki, who will later reveals that she’d rather be called Sylvie, is not keen on working together like he suggests. In the ensuing scuffle, Loki gets hold of Sylvie’s teleportation and time-traveling device, the tempad, only to accidentally send them ahead to 2077, on the moon Lamentis-1, just about 12 hours before it will be destroyed by CGI. Oops, the tempad is low on battery and oops, it’s now broken. Now they have to work together to get themselves off the planet. So, is Loki his own worst enemy or best friend?
Oh, this episode is adorable. Lamentis isn’t action-packed, with it ending on a cliffhanger, but there is an old-school sci-fi of the old days vibe to the episode that I can’t help but to enjoy. Like those sci-fi romps, this one touches on some social issues such as the rich and the wealthy getting free passes to the evacuation ship, leaving the rest of the population to die. While the woke incarnation of Disney tends to tackle these issues with such an awful heavy-handed and often hypocritical manner, here it is applied with just the right, appropriate touch. I see parallels to this in the current situation in my country, so maybe that hits close to home and is more poignant.
Aside from that. the core of this episode is an adorable love story of sorts, as Loki finally meets someone he can get along with nicely—a variant of himself. Sylvie is more physical, more aggressive, while Loki believes that charm and guile are the more effective ways to win a battle. What I like here is that both of them are actually on equal footing. Sure, one can argue that Sylvie is a better physical fighter, but that’s because Loki has never been a truly capable warrior. Both fail and succeed with equal measure here, and it’s fun to see them bicker yet reluctantly work together like the best of any opposites attract partners-in-crime. Just like with Owen Wilson, Tom Hiddleston has good chemistry with Sophia Di Martino that feels real and organic, making these two characters’ so much fun to follow.
This is also the first time in ages that features a Loki that is the closest to his incarnation in Thor. He’s not a complete oaf or butt monkey here, and he is even allowed to get philosophical. The scenes of him and Sylvie sharing their back stories and realizing how lonely and messed up they both are is a nice touch. Finally, the people in the MCU remembers that Loki is a trickster, a rogue, and occasionally, a man of culture. Some folks are not happy that Loki reveals that he’s screw anything that moves if given the chance, but come on, in folklore, this fellow transformed into a horse and use equine sexy times to distract a giant’s horse, and gave birth to the magical eight-legged horse of Odin as a result. If anything, calling Loki “bisexual” or “pansexual” is a huge understatement. While I am not a fan of race- and gender- and sexuality-swapping established characters for the sake of coming off as woke, here, it makes perfect sense for Loki to go for anyone and anything that will want him back.
As a fan of campy, cheesy sci-fi shows of a few decades ago, I also find a personal kind of joy in how the garish colors and lighting here seem to resemble those in those shows. This may not be a compliment to the show itself, as things look on the cheap and fake side even if these people had blown a lot of money into this episode.
Lamentis is the first episode in any MCU Disney+ show that makes me sit up and love every second of it, even wanting to watch it again once the credits roll. So yes, well done indeed to all involved in this episode, and god I hope they keep this momentum up for the rest of this season.
