Loki S02E02: 'Breaking Brad'

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‘Loki’ reunites the gang and creates a new minor villain in the process.
by Jeremy Fogelman

The latest episode of Loki throws us into the action confusingly, although eventually everything is explained. In 1977 in the Sacred Timeline (meaning the default one) we follow Brad Wolfe, who is also the jerkish Hunter X-5 in the last episode, at the premiere of a ridiculous looking movie called “Zaniac”.

There’s a clear time jump from last episode, as we know he was off doing something for or with General Dox but this isn’t really fully explained. Instead Mobius and Loki show up and “Brad” is running scared from them, leading to a pretty engaging sequence where Loki utilizes some fun magic to trick and then restrain the dude.

They discover that Brad has a modified TemPad and he’s continuing to simply tell a bunch of lies. Apparently his powers of being a jerk are so strong that even Mobius and Loki together get frustrated interrogating him, although it’s Mobius specifically who is far more triggered for some reason about the idea of not wondering about his own variant. The reasoning Brad gives about wanting his own cool life does make sense, and it’s possibly true.

The way Loki does break Brad with the horrific torture device is effective, even it only works because Brad is desperate to live (as opposed to being a TV shill still). His reveal does give the critical info they need to finally track down Sylvie -- and all while they uncover that Miss Minutes and Judge Renslayer are working together in some capacity.

At the same time a new problem arises -- after the blast doors closed, they now will not open except for a variant of He Who Remains, which none of them are. Even with the clever combination of Casey and OB together they don’t really have an idea of how to fix anything -- so instead they wonder if they can somehow track down Miss Minutes and get her to override the lock.

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But the big reunion happens back in the branched timeline at the 1980s McDonalds commercial, which gets quite a bit more blatant -- Mobius literally talks about it being a great deal and a fulfilling meal. The reunion between Loki and Sylvie is still a meaningful one, and it’s clear that they are still connected despite Sylvie wanting her new freedom in her new life and still at odds about what happened at the end of time.

Sylvie’s mind reading skills come in clutch as she reads Brad/X-5’s mind and discovers the plan of Dox and her allies -- to massively prune the various timelines in one shot, and naturally this horrifies our team, especially B-15 who understands that it’s countless lives suddenly gone. This is a decent enough little action scene, buoyed by Sylvie taking Loki’s hand to supercharge their attack -- despite saying “don’t overthink it”.

Yet consider that last line -- it’s harder to stay -- as the connection is as strong after nearly losing it, and they still want different things. Sylvie wants freedom for all and to kill any He Who Remains variants that show up, while Loki is terrified of the prospect of worse versions showing up. And they still deeply care about each other despite all that.

As an episode it wasn’t as strong as the first one, and it wasn’t really as interesting until they got back to the TVA -- the en media res of dropping us into the Brad Wolfe world was a little more confusing than I think it needed to be, but the rapport between all of our heroes still remains as great and watchable as ever. It’s like Ke Huy Quan has been there the whole time, he fits in so seamlessly -- and although this episode is a little dip for me, I think what comes next is as strong or stronger than even what came already.

Note: This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. We support the strike and emphasize the importance of actors and writers, and ensuring they and fellow creatives are compensated and treated fairly for their work. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.