‘Loki’ Season 2, Episode 1: ‘Ouroboros’ Review: Likable Characters Can’t Save A Boring Season Premiere

Warning: spoilers ahead!

Loki season two, episode one: “Ouroboros” takes place directly after Loki season one finale.

Loki Laufeyson/Variant L1130 (Tom Hiddleston) is sent back by an alternate version of himself named Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) to a past version of the Time Variance Authority headquarters, an organization within the show that monitors the Sacred Timeline.

Sylvie killed the being known as He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) in the season one finale. In doing so, she had created unstable timeline branches in the Sacred Timeline in which the counterparts of He Who Remains would be released and start another multiversal war.

After the Time Variance Authority debates whether or not the branches should be erased, Laufeyson tells his colleague in the first season, Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), of the danger they are in.

However, Laufeyson cannot stop this inevitable conflict yet as he is “time slipping,” according to the Time Variance Authority agent in charge of the Repairs and Advancement department, Ouroboros/O.B. (Ke Huy Quan).

Ouroboros spends the rest of the episode helping Laufeyson and Mobius find a way to pull Laufeyson out of the time stream so as to stop his time slipping.

This season premiere episode ably showed that it had not forgotten that part of the charm of Loki season one was allowing its viewers to root for its characters.

In particular, Laufeyson was understandably more anxious to stop a threat in this episode given the events of the season one finale.

With this in mind, Laufeyson seems to have developed from an arrogant and mischievous person who wanted power into a more selfless individual who now wants to protect others.

Such character development for Laufeyson shows viewers that they can still root for him. He wants to do whatever it takes to help others instead of being selfish and deceitful towards them.

Even though viewers are still able to cheer for characters like Laufeyson, the episode itself felt more like a detour from what should have been an exciting continuation of the story set up in season one.

Admittedly, viewers can appreciate that the season premiere introduced new themes and characters.

The suspenseful climax in which Mobius came face-to-face with raw time when trying to cure Laufeyson of his “time slipping” was particularly effective.

But with that said, spending an entire episode waiting for Laufeyson to stop himself from “time slipping” seemed underwhelming.

This plot point of the season would have worked better if Laufeyson spent most of the second season “time slipping” instead of just the season premiere.

There could have been moments during the episodes where Loki told the other characters in the present important information about the past and future, much like he did in the opening when he told Mobius and Hunter B-15 about how He Who Remains once ruled the Time Variance Authority.

Viewers of the previous season probably enjoyed the shocking twists in season one and having Loki discover something they did not already know would make for good twists that would keep viewers intrigued.

“Ouroboros” shows that the series is not running short on likable characters, but its mostly bland story might make viewers worry if this season will be just as enjoyable as the last.