Loki and company have been having a rough time of it in their second season. Reality keeps unraveling around them, and things seem to keep getting worse. Loki had trouble winning as a villain, and now things aren’t going his way with him trying to do the right thing. I can’t really say he’s being a hero, since he goes if the rest of reality does, but at least it puts him on the right side for once. Loki, Mobius, and the rest have a lot of unexpected things to deal with in “Science Fiction.”

After the chaotic events of last episode, Loki wakes up to find himself alone. Looking for his friends, or at least teammates, Loki sees the strange changes in reality happening all around him, and his time-slipping is getting worse. He sees a lot of strange things as the TVA is affected by the erosion and warping of reality, and then we see even the credits for the show have gone through some changes.

Loki skitters through several different realities, and we see what appears to be the “real” lives of Mobius, Casey, and B-15. Some of their occupations are surprising, and Loki doesn’t really get a chance to spend any time with them as he skips between timelines. Finally, we see what Ouroboros is up to without the TVA. After we get a feel for this alternate life, Loki arrives again. Whatever life he’s living, Ouroboros remains relatively unflappable, and he accepts Loki’s fantastic story with barely a question or doubt. Slipping in to the role of advisor once again, Ouroboros gives some advice and Loki, not having a lot of other options, starts trying to follow it. Between them, they start to form a plan that involves, among other things, Loki telling Ouroboros that some version of his deepest wish comes true, at least in another life.

With another abrupt scene shift, Loki finds himself in Mobius’ other life. They have an amusingly strange conversation which plays on the great chemistry between Owen Wilson and Tom Hiddleston. Mobius and Loki really shouldn’t work as friends, but they do due to these two actors, and I enjoyed every scene they shared. Ouroboros shows up eventually, and they go around getting B-15 and Casey back from their original lives. After getting them established in OB’s old lab, Loki has one more errand to run, involving a fast food parking lot and a goddess who seems to be content with asking, “Do you want fries with that?” Loki ends up having a deep discussion about what he really wants, and he leaves with more questions, but not who he came for.

The rest of the group debates what they want, which tends to be heavily influenced by their real lives, not the versions of them we have gotten to know at the TVA. It makes for an amusing contrast. Sylvie, off on her own, tries to stick to her normal life. She’s clearly been here some time and established some relationships. Unfortunately for her, the danger the others are trying to stop has a long reach, and Sylvie can’t hide in her dreams of normalcy and the mundane.

Back in the lab, Loki has come to a series of realizations. With his new focus, he starts acting very unselfishly, and releases the others. They all go, although some are definitely more willing than others. Finally trying to use his new skills, Loki does a bit of traveling, and closes a time loop that’s been open for several episodes. Reliving a scene from another perspective isn’t something wholly new in a time travel story, but they do it really well here. Finally grasping the scope of his powers, Loki travels once again and manages to set things up for a very event-filled finale for the both season and, apparently, series finale.

What I Liked: Hiddleston and Owens deliver great performances individually, and together they create some great scenes. After the life she has told us about, while some might find it boring, I can understand why Sylvie settled where she did and wanted to stay there so badly. Ke Huy Quan is also fantastic as Ouroboros. Loki’s frustration at what he’s going through shows very clearly and is completely understandable.

What I Don’t: It’s an odd choice to take almost an entire episode in a limited series to do so much character work. It was well done, but almost felt like filler, as good as it was. Overall, I have no real complaints about this episode and no major dislikes.

I’ll give this a very high 4 out of 5 stars. The episode and the story are very well done. So much so that it’s worrying that there’s only one more installment left.