This Week in MCUTV 6/16/21

Welcome to This Week in MCUTV, where the Twisted Cape examines, breaks down, and gives a quick review of all the original shows that Marvel has released this week. This will run weekly and start on Sunday and end on Saturday, so we catch everything on Disney+, Hulu, as well as any other projects that may pop up on other networks, like ABC. We’ll also include an average on the week to help determine whether the week was a success. Keep in mind there will be spoilers on a regular basis so read on at your own risk.

Weekly Score (4 Out of 5) -

Disney+

Loki – 4/5 – “The Variant”

Mobius puts Loki to work investigating The Variant, but not everyone at the TVA is thrilled to be working alongside the God of Mischief. SPOILERS – This episode was so much fun. Now that the world building and bureaucracy establishment is out of way, we could get into more timeline madness. Owen Wilson paired with Tom Hiddleston may be the best pairing in the MCU to date, although there are other strong entries. This episode manages to flesh both characters out more, while also reminding you not to trust Loki in any capacity throughout the entirety of the episode. The discovery that there are points that are perfectly placed hiding spots makes things far more interesting. Also, the Variant’s plan really takes effect in this episode by creating a cluster of branches to overwork the TVA while the Variant goes after the Time Keepers is a heck of a misdirect. And now, the big reveal of the episode – The Variant is actually a female Loki and she has different powers overall than our Variant does. I love this twist, but I have to confess I figured it out much earlier than they revealed it. It was either going to be Kid Loki or Lady Loki, and I’m happy they went Lady Loki. This solves the Mephisto misdirect that was teased in episode one. Speaking of episode one, another call back to the episode title and one of Loki’s most famous lines, “Glorious Purpose” was tossed out in this episode. Overall, this episode was quite interesting and I look forward to seeing the central Variant interact with his female counterpart more in the coming episodes.