'Loki' 1.04 Review: The Nexus Event

This post contains spoilers for Loki.
Check out our last review here. 

Up until this point, it seemed that Mobius had been able to tell the difference between Loki's lies. "The Nexus Event" proves that has never been more true. It's also a stark reminder that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will rip your heart out whenever it sees fit. Then again, legends never really die, do they? 

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) are saved from their untimely deaths on Lamentis-1, but they're hurled into something that may be worse. Sylvie once again finds herself in the TVA's grasp, and Loki gets stuck in his own personal time-loop torture chamber that re-introduced a much-missed Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) in the MCU. At first, it seems as if Mobius' (Owen Wilson) interrogation of Loki is for naught, but the God of Mischief manages to sow enough doubt that his friend finds himself questioning Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and her motives when it comes to the sudden death of C-20 (Sasha Lane) and the refusal to allow anyone to interrogate Sylvie. 

"The Nexus Event" signals a sprint toward the finish line in Loki. Up until this point, the writers have been setting up an intricate house of cards. But, with the realization that the time keepers are nothing more than robot puppets — something a certain critic may or may not have called on Rotten Tomatoes' Loki talk weeks ago — that house is starting to fall and it's got two trickster gods dancing amongst the chaos.

What I did not call was Mobius getting straight up murdered in the middle of the episode like it just wasn't a thing. We might realize by the end that "murdered" might be too strong a word, but offing him so suddenly almost felt like Loki's personal comeuppance for the murder of Phil Coulson all those years ago. You see what it feels like, you little goon? No more stabbing people for no reason! Loki's face when he thinks he's lost his friend is sheer agony. The guy had just told him — the son of a frost giant who has always been "doomed" to be the villain — that he can be good if he wants to and then he's just deleted out of nowhere. 

It's a hard time for the Trickster god. He's losing best friends, he's realizing he's in love (nevermind that it's with himself). I gotta tell you, if the chaotic event that brings this whole thing to the ground is love I'm going to cackle my way all through Phase 4. That's some Care Bear Stare shit and I'm delighted by it. Sylvie doesn't seem to have quite realized what's up yet, though. And Renslayer deletes him before he has the chance to spit out his frightened proclamation of love. 

S'pose it's a good thing that people removed from the timeline don't actually die. Hopefully you stayed through the credits, because a lot of folks work really hard on these shows. And in this case there's an after credits stinger that reveals Loki's fate as well as highlighting Richard E. Grant in a classic Loki costume.

"The Nexus Event" is pretty close to being a perfect episode of television. WIth the pacing of the first half of the season, there was some concern over what kind of story they'd be able to tell in these 6 episodes. Now that said episodes are straight up sprinting and spitting out answers and intrigue at every passing scene, those concerns seem much less, well... concerning. 

Every single actor just crushes it this week. Tom Hiddleston's pained face as he realizes Mobius is gone, Owen Wilson starting to doubt Renslayer, Wunmi Mosaku doing more with a sixty-second scene than most folks do in whole episodes of television, and just everything about Sophia Di Martino... the writing is spectacular and the effects are gorgeous but this cast is what makes all of this weird, wibbly wobbly stuff feel real. Exceptional work all around. "The Nexus Event" is the exact kind of episode that gets you asking "is it Wednesday yet?!" and I can't wait to see more from this show.