This review contains spoilers for episode 3 of Loki.
Loki’s first two episodes took care of introducing the Asgardian prince to his new job at the Time Variance Authority, but he’s taken temporary leave in his third outing as Loki’s short-lived partnership with Mobius M. Mobius is shunted aside in favor of a more intimate adventure with his enigmatic female variant.
The real shining light in “Lamentis” is definitely the on-screen chemistry between Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino as the pair try to reconcile their differences to work together for whatever glorious purpose each has in mind. However, they do so by unpacking a couple of big reveals: the first being clarification that this Lady Loki is not be called that, but instead just Sylvie; and, the second is confirmation that MCU Loki is fully embracing his bisexual identity from Marvel Comics.
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Episode three starts right where the last one left off showing a glimpse at how Sylvie's powers work before cutting to her quickly disposing of some unlucky TVA Minutemen as she looks to infiltrate the agency’s headquarters to execute her still unknown plan. Loki is of course chasing after Sylvie and when the two finally meet, their hostile introduction is cut short by Ravonna Renslayer, although the variant duo manages to make a run for it through another portal.
That’s about it for the TVA and other characters previously shown in Loki’s other two episodes, because from here onwards “Lamentis” fully focuses on Loki and Sylvie making their way through a moon that certainly looks destined for a doomsday scenario in 2077. Regardless of that, it’s this setting that manages to squeeze the best out of the Loki and Sylvie relationship, as the latter teases a bit of what her ultimate plan is to overthrow the TVA from omnipotent status across the many universes out there.
So how does Loki accomplish this? Well, in a similar way to how the show played the buddy cop dynamic between Mobius and Loki in the first two episodes, it kind of looks to recreate the same trick here, but achieving very different results. Just like with Mobius, Loki takes on the playful jokester role whereas Sylvie is the uptight side of the equation as she’s laser-focused on her mission, something that she’s quite keen on reminding the trickster god.
Sylvie is for all intents and purposes unimpressed by Loki’s cunning schemes or powers because she actually appears to be a more capable magician than the beloved antihero and can hold her own in hand-to-hand combat. On top of that, Sylvie is really the one calling the shots because she’s way more familiarized with the inner workings of the timeline splits and the TVA itself since Loki was too busy slacking off during his mandatory training.
Things also start to flow more smoothly between the two after spending a few minutes together and realizing that they are not getting off Lamentis-1 unless they start working together, due to the very relatable issue of their TemPad device being out of battery. Even in their brief tussles before embarking on the plan to get themselves out of the mess they've got themselves into, Loki and Sylvie experience a rather odd moment from up-close as the first out of several times the camera tries to tell viewers that these variant Lokis feel some kind of attraction to their other versions, despite their huge personality differences and goals.
Loki and Sylvie then head on to solve their common problem, resulting in them infiltrating a train to head towards the ark cruiser that's supposed to be carrying a part of Lamentis' more privileged population to safety. If episode two borrowed from David Fincher's Se7en, this gives off some serious Mandalorian vibes, due to the fact that the duo is stranded on a deserted planet sneaking past entry checkpoints. Lamentis as a whole adds a splash of color to Loki after spending two hours trapped in the TVA's sober and brutalist surroundings.
The whole setup is perfect for Loki and Sylvie (or rather just Loki) to share a drink together and talk to each other about their life experiences both being powerful hedonistic adoptive children, yet the paths that have taken them up to this point are revealed to be much different. It's here where a little digging into each other's love life reveals that Loki has always identified himself as a bisexual man (god, actually), guessing that Sylvie is just like him in this regard as both muses about their past lovers before Loki proceeds to get absolutely drunk and compromises the entire mission by getting them both kicked out of a moving train.
Nevertheless, the utter failure of their plan and finding out that the TemPad is just as fragile as a smartphone sitting in one's back pocket does little to ruin Loki and Sylvie's growing relationship as, despite the initial outrage from Sylvie, the two have no option but to sit down and come up with a new plan to get themselves off Lamentis. From here on audiences are treated to again more intimate conversations between Loki and Sylvie with the two at times now genuinely cracking a smile or two out of the other before they head on to force their way onto the ark ship, but not before Sylvie drops a couple of truth bombs on Loki by telling him TVA agents are all variants that just like them had previous lives before being enlisted on the agency's payroll.
The final sequence sees Loki and Sylvie unsuccessfully try to make their way aboard the ark as Lamentis starts to collapse and also, just like the entire episode before it features a few fight scenes that probably exceeds Loki's action output so far. And yet, the show ends on a more memorable image as the two variants are left to look at their exploding escape plan to realize that they're stranded.
Loki's third episode does a great job to cement the idea that Loki and Sylvie not only can work together but it gives the feeling that they really should be doing so to benefit the latter's plan, and that coupled with the growing notion that the TVA's true purpose might be a lot shadier than what first appearances show will probably define where the series goes next. In any case, whatever destiny may have in store for Sylvie and Mobius, there is clearly way more to them than meets the eye, especially for the blonde Loki so let's hope neither gets deleted before the show ends its first season.