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Owen Wilson grins at Tom Hiddleston as he says these words in the first episode of Marvel’s Loki, now streaming on Disney Plus.  Wilson’s Agent Mobius is trying to weasel into the mind of Hiddleston’s God of Mischief and starts by calling out this particular trait. 

It ended up being the best tagline for episode one.

That’s not to say that’s a bad thing. In fact, this episode serves as a well-written introduction to Loki, and introduction to the concept of the Time Variance Agency. Introducing a group that holds more power than the infinity stones is a big undertaking, especially when finding ways to blend this story into the canon already set forth by the MCU. Using the 2012 version of Loki is a good example of this struggle. In the films that came out between 2012’s Avengers and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, Loki has changed drastically, but pulling the character out before the events of Thor: The Dark World, and Thor: Ragnorak means that Loki hasn’t developed into the Anti-hero yet. Marvel had to find a way to redevelop eight years of character development from villain to anti-hero in 53 minutes.

That means talking. And lots of it.

But it also means that Hiddleston gets to show off his incredible emotional range in this first episode. Revisiting the “Villain” Loki from 2012, Hiddleston displays a stunning series of emotions mainly conveyed through facial expression as Loki watches how the events of the later MCU films unfold. This quietly scored scene serves to grow the character into who the audience last saw in the MCU timeline. 

Beginning with grief and guilt over the loss of his mother, regret joins in after the death of Odin and his recognition of Loki as his son. Cutting to scenes with Thor, grief is replaced with bittersweet compassion. Thor’s respect and admiration quickly shifts Loki to a tentative sense of hope reflected in a smile that breaks across Hiddleston’s tear-stained face. It’s so natural and genuine that watching it crumble and drop as the scene shifts to his death in Infinity War at the hands of Thanos- a character this Loki had just worked with- took me back to that movie theater in 2018. The change in score from gentle to uneasy and foreboding creates a sense of anxiety and tension that is needed to propel the story forward in place of the action.

All in all, I thought the first episode was needed, but not fully satisfying. As someone who has seen all the films and shows, the amount of new story introduction was a little sparse. Revisiting Loki’s past was cathartic, but repetitive. It didn’t feel like much happened. While it may not have been the first episode I wanted, it was needed so the rest of the season has the opportunity to shine in action and storytelling, as I expect. We’ll see if that’s just big talk. 

New episodes of Loki stream on Disney+ on Wednesdays.