'Loki' Episode 1: Mobius wants god of mischief to catch a variant, is it Loki himself?
Spoilers for 'Loki' Episode 1
'Loki' in its first episode digs into the god of mischief's (Tom Hiddleston) past as well as a future that doesn't exist anymore because he manipulated the sacred timeline by using the tesseract and disappearing. So as punishment, the Time Variance Authority arrests Loki and Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) sentences him for a reset. Until that moment, it has not really sunk in, that Loki is at a dangerous place and if he were to be reset, the outcome might not really be what he wants.
So if Loki doesn't want to be punished, he must take the request of one agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) from TVA seriously. However, before he hears the deal, he has to go through a session of conversation where Mobius decides to dig deep into his characteristics. For instance, did he like hurting people, and enjoy inflicting pain on others? Why did his expression reflect joy when he hurt people? Finally, Mobius also showed what would have happened had Loki not picked the tesseract and disappeared.
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Turns out Loki would have been taken to the prison in Asgard where he would have met his mother who might have tried to convince him to not go further on this path. He believes that he is sending the Dark Elves towards his brother Thor but ends up sending them towards Frigga and that is part of the sacred timeline that the TVA is protecting. So it is something that will have to occur, come what may but this doesn't make Loki feel any good.
The fact that he could have led to the death of his mother comes as a shock to him, and momentarily, it also forces him to run away from the room where he was seated with Mobius. He manages to use one opportunity to distract Mobius and disappears when Mobius is trying to convince Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) to not reset Loki. Loki tries to run away after finding a tesseract, however, after looking at so many infinity stones locked away in a junk box because it is of no use to the Time Variance Authority, something in Loki changes.
He returns to where Mobius showed him footage of his mother Frigga and he replays it all. He also sees his father Odin again and he relives the moment when Odin had said that he loved his sons. When the file on him comes to an end, a switch flips and he seems ready to listen to Mobius' offer now. This must have been Mobius' intention from the very beginning because he finally reveals the reason he needs Loki to be on his side.
The TVA is currently on the hunt for a variant; one that looks strangely like Loki with horns and Mobius believes this variant to be none other than Loki himself. So he wants the god of mischief to help him hunt his own version down.
'Loki' new episodes can be streamed every Wednesday on Disney+.