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[DISCUSSION] [SPOILERS] LOKI S02E02 - Breaking Brad

"Loki" Episode #2.2 (TV Episode 2023) ⭐ 8.2 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18271346/?ref_=tt_eps_rec

| TV-14

"Loki" Episode #2.2 (TV Episode 2023) ⭐ 8.2 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

EPISODE	RELEASE DATE	RUNNING TIME	CREDITS SCENE?
S02E02 - Breaking Brad	Oct 12th, 2023 on Disney+	51m	NONE

Premise:

With the TVA on the verge of a temporal meltdown, Loki and Mobius will stop at nothing to find Sylvie.

Director(s):

Dan DeLeeuw

Writer(s):

Eric Martin, Michael Waldron

CAST
Tom Hiddleston	...	Loki
Liz Carr	...	Judge Gamble
Sophia Di Martino	...	Sylvie
Gugu Mbatha-Raw	...	Ravonna Renslayer
Tara Strong	...	Miss Minutes (voice)
Owen Wilson	...	Mobius
Ke Huy Quan	...	O.B.
Rafael Casal	...	Brad Wolfe

19 comments

canthidium

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That's the greenest key lime pie I've ever seen.

Also, "Everyone's gonna die! Oh hi, nice to meet you. Everyone's gonna die". OB continues to be gold in this show.

RootBeerGuy

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Hm, I think the second episode was a bit weaker than the first.

One thing I don't get, they pruned those extra branches. But aren't they just going to regrow again in time? I mean thats what happened when they killed He Who Remains, or not? He controlled the timeline by pruning, then he got killed, no pruning done, Multiverse comes back. What is different now?

burkybang

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Maybe because new timelines growing back would be different timelines than the ones pruned. It would create new people, not recreate the same people (even though they may look the same). In season 1, He Who Remains was having the TVA continuously prune those timelines to prevent those new people from being created at all.

IonAddis

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I liked parts of this, but not the episode as a whole, I think.

The execution of how they jumped in mid-scene at the start didn't work for me. Like, I know what they were doing...but it didn't land when I was watching. It felt like a genuinely skipped scene, like they were airing episodes out of order. I feel that was a directing problem, as the individual acting from everyone was great, and I especially liked Loki being reminded he's a villain and mischief-maker. Hiddleston is wonderful as Loki.

However, I didn't feel the emotion I should have later on in the episode when the branches were being pruned. But that might have been a "me" thing, as I've noticed I don't get as much enjoyment from things as I used to. So I will defer to others here, and whether it "hit" for them.

I think over all, I liked a lot of little details, and I liked how it set up various things for later, and I liked the banter between Loki and Mobius, but the episode as a whole didn't gel as a narrative whole. I almost wonder if it was intended to be shown as a two-parter with the first episode.

canthidium

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Very much agreed. They mentioned Brad's tempad at the beginning but it was so quick that it really felt like we skipped an episode. I enjoyed it overall but it did seem like a lot was going on and the plot was easy to miss if you weren't paying attention.

And yeah the branches getting pruned just didn't have the effect for me either. I don't know what they would have done to have more impact besides just showing people getting pruned all over but that probably wouldn't have much effect either.

It was really a "moments" episode for me. Cool set pieces and moments, but overall kind of messy.

Yazer

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There was a lot going on in this episode. Big ramifications. I felt they could have slowed down a but, given more details and explore more. Not a lot of setups. Big, quick jump from McD's to a fight to save billions. Look away for 2 seconds and you'd be very confused.

Shonzi

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Yeah I didn't expect Dox's plan to be implemented that quickly. I thought they'd spend more time trying to find out what she was up to.

kttnpunk

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I thought this one was real weak. Really, really infuriating how none of the youtube reviews I've heard so far (that convienently drop minutes after the episode) mention the product placement. McDonalds must have shelled tf out, paid all these people off because it ruined the new season already for me. Far too much of the runtime felt like a ad. Also Loki and Mobius should kiss.

canthidium

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I was going to argue with you about the product placement just because we've known about the McDonalds stuff for a while now, but then you said Loki and Mobius should kiss and you got me on your side.

Microw

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Is it actually a product placement? Or maybe a plot point that was written anyways and Marvel said "pls McD pay us money or we'll make it into a Burger King"?

hansl

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I didn’t fully get the knock knock joke…

r2vq

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Mobius: Knock Knock

Brad: Who's there?

Mobius: Brad

Brad: Brad who?

Mobius: That's show business

This is a bit of an old joke but the humour comes from two layers.

The first layer comes from the last two lines. Brad is a famous actor, so probably a household name. So the expectation is that nobody would ask who he was in the same way nobody would ask "Beyonce who?" But Hollywood is fickle and stars today can easily become forgotten tomorrow. Pretending not to know a celebrity is an insult that is associated with this nature of Hollywood. Hence the "That's show business line" where the jokester acts like they're reluctantly agreeing that the celebrity isn't famous anymore. This is extra hurtful since the famous person is the one tricked into saying "...(their own name) who?"

The second layer comes from the expectation of the structure of a regular knock knock joke. Since this joke doesn't follow that structure, it breaks expectations and creates humour.

Mainly it's the first part though.

crappingpants

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"It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me"

Microw

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I really liked this episode. Did you guys notice how tense some of the scenes in the first half of the episode felt, how long the camera remained on a shot and didnt cut that much? Gave me the vibe of british TV shows.

Seeing Loki doing villainous mischiefery was awesome.

I get why people want to see more of Silvie, but her role at this point of the show clearly needs to be mysterious and not on-board with the rest of the main cast. I didnt get what she was doing there at the end of the episode, was she using magic?

The ending of Ep1 to the start of this definitely feels like they cut a whole episode or at least parts of it. The General's storyline of pruning branches - which was quite obvious from Ep1 that she would do this - already being through that soon surprised me.

IonAddis

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So, X-05...from the previous episode, I almost had the feeling that he was born within the TVA, and didn't actually have another life. And that the general woman might be his mother.

Like, if TVA personnel have kids together, might not those kids be outside the timelines? (Although I suppose if someone becomes a variant because they have a kid they "shouldn't" have had, both the mother and kid might have been grabbed by the TVA. And someone who'd GROWN UP as a hunter might end up a good one, as X-05 was said to be.) But I don't know if there's some detail I missed about X-05 where we were told for sure he was actually a pruned variant, so maybe this thought I have where he was born in the TVA has already been proven false.

Speaking of variants--do you think the reason Mobius is in the TVA, and is so familiar with Lokis, and doesn't want to know his other life, is because he had a run-in with Loki that put him in the TVA? I mean, his name is Mobius. It wouldn't be surprising if there's some weird loops going on here with him.

bappity

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THE Ws WITH THIS SHOW NEVER END

stephfinitely

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I'm enjoying the show but just like most marvel story lines lately everything is going so quickly. While I dough General Dox plan is over the jump from getting Sylvie to storming General Sox base seemed like whiplash. I would like time to explore some of these situations more.

delitomatoes

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Definitely not as good as the first episode, maybe a 6/10.

Brad had way too much screentime when it should have been Sylvie. The whole Dr Who time travel thing wasnt really expanded, they just dropped by the 80s for a few mins.

Seems like they were filling time again and so early in the season

IonAddis

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Brad had way too much screentime when it should have been Sylvie.

Yep.

I really want to see Sylvie become more mischievous. Like, have a mischief-making charm to her. So far she's a bit of a hard-bitten survivalist, and hasn't really had a chance to show off some Loki-esque theatrical dramatics. I feel like a Sylvia very being Goddess of Mischief should have a sort of Hela air to her.

(If I can make a tangent, my pet theory is that in the MCU, Hela is actually Loki's mother, and Loki was half-Asgardian and half-frost giant. Perhaps when Hela was imprisoned, it was right after Loki had been born, thus why Odin was around to find him. And all this would make Odin his blood-grandfather, and Frigga his blood-grandmother. And I imagine they didn't tell him because they didn't want to talk about Hela. And when Hela broke out, Odin again didn't tell Loki for fear he'd side with her instead of supporting Thor.)