Avengers: The Old Man Won’t Kneel Before Loki

When the old man in Avengers refused to kneel before Loki and told him there were always men like him it seemed that his fate was left up in the air. Did he survive? Did he get Mjolnir back in the end?

The central dynamic between Loki and Sylvie is really well realised with an excellent and believable relationship established through the excellent performances from Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino. As is to be expected with two Lokis they don’t trust each other but with a truce founded on the fact that they both have something useful to offer each other (Loki has the Tempat and Sylvie knows how to operate it) their partnership allows them to work together without killing one another until advantage shifts in favour of either of them.

For all his deceptions Loki still seems to have a genuine sense of altruism when it comes to people who are forced into servitude by the Time Keepers. He comments that they’re often willing to choose some effortless and more beneficial way of living over what they know to be right in the face of certain punishment which is a heartfelt comment with the loss of his mother clearly weighing on him.

The episode does feel a little underpacked with its 45 minute run time but it confidently accomplishes its main goal of reintroducing the God of Mischief to the MCU and this particular version of him who managed to escape his preordained timeline during the team’s Time Heist in Endgame. It’s a fitting full circle moment for a character who has an uncanny survival instinct given that he fell off the Rainbow Bridge in Thor and was stabbed on the battlefield in Ragnarok but somehow found himself king of Asgard in Infinity War.