The following contains spoilers from Loki, Season 2, Episode 3, "1893," now streaming on Disney+.
Loki season 2, like much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's post-Endgame storyline, relies heavily on Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror as a multiverse threat. This has been going on since Majors' surprise cameo as He Who Remains in Loki's original season finale, but it's certainly grown murkier in recent years. Partially because viewers didn't really vibe with Kang's threat status in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, or the MCU multiverse at large; partially because Majors' domestic abuse trial raises questions if Marvel Studios will even keep him by the time Avengers: The Kang Dynasty comes out. But Loki needs a Kang variant to go on, and the latest episode, "1893" certainly gives fans one... with some mixed results.
Majors' turn as the oddball, mustached inventor Victor Timely was teased as far back as Quantumania's post-credit scene, but the role he plays in "1893" might surprise some fans. Opening in Chicago, Illinois, circa 1868, the episode begins with Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes rendezvousing after the events of season 1 to formulate a new plan. By this point, Mr. Timely has invented a prototype of a temporal loom to show at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. He scams a boisterous robber baron into overbidding for his half-finished device because the technology to make it work isn't quite there yet in 19th-century America.
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Loki and Mobius accidentally stumble upon Timely while tracking down Renslayer and Miss Minutes, as they need the latter to access TVA's Temporal Loom and manage all the overloading time branches before the entire institution falls apart. Eventually, they realize that Timely might have He Who Remains' temporal aura and could do the job himself. A job Renslayer and Miss Minutes also want Timely to do, which raises questions of why they must dissuade the inventor from working with Loki.
There are a lot of secret/unexplained motives at play in this episode. Hopefully, Loki will explain in due time, but for now, the season feels a little too convoluted. Miss Minutes' millennia-long infatuation with He Who Remains and Ravonna's quest for more power have the potential to be compelling, but at the moment, neither plotline feels fully fleshed out.
All this runs the risk of pushing Loki himself into the background. Tom Hiddleston still gives a strong performance in "1893," but aside from one argument with Mobius over "inaccurate" wooden statues of Odin, Thor, and -- to Loki's bewilderment -- Balder, Loki doesn't really develop much in "1893." He's mostly concerned with stopping the TVA's destruction at all costs. But hopefully, Loki's back half will use this situation to progress Loki's story rather than reducing his complex character to a vessel for whatever Phase 5 has in store for MCU fans.
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Majors' performance as Timely is also unique. It's Marvel's version of a Victor Frankenstein mad scientist, complete with high-pitched inflections and dramatic pauses -- only slightly more weird than the actor's He Who Remains scenes. Of course, that weirdness added an extra level of charm to Majors' season 1 exposition dump, and it is fun to watch a version of Kang, who isn't a danger yet. He's ambitious and clever but nowhere near the temporal mastermind he will be in another lifetime. What Loki does with that characterization and how it eventually sets up a connection to The Kang Dynasty is anyone's guess.
Loki is clearly having fun with its ambition and set design. The look of the Chicago World Fair and Timely's Universal horror-meets-steampunk equipment really sell the atmosphere of this era that's at once grimy and whimsical. But that same ambitious approach risks derailing the series. Loki season 2 is setting up a ton of threads across the Temporal Loom and at the End of Time to complement Marvel Studio's wider Multiverse Saga ambitions. Hopefully, it resolves them all before the show runs out of time.
New Loki Season 2 episodes stream on Thursdays at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST on Disney+.