The Nexus Event

There are lies, damn lies and LOKI episodes which laugh to scorn at the audience’s expectations. Delivering on the event promised by its title, THE NEXUS EVENT retrospectively justifies the naval-gazing of LAMENTIS (which some, but not I, found so tedious) with a premise-shattering payoff. Quite simply, you couldn’t get to THE ENXUS EVENT without LAMENTIS and THE NEXUS EVENT is an event worth getting to.

Marooned on the doomed world of Lamentis-1, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) find intimacy in impending doom, an outcome so absurdly unlikely that it generates a timeline variance so strong it brings the TVA right to them. Temporarily reprieved from annihilation, the TVA’s most wanted find themselves separated and scheduled for a quick debrief ‘n’ trim. Except, that is, for the fact that Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and Mobius’ (Owen Wilson) façade of certainty has started to crack and into those cracks, Loki and Sylvie manage to sow seeds of doubt which eventually bear fruit in the form of an audience with the Time Keepers themselves. And that’s when the episode really gets going.

This episode picks up the theme of its predecessor by continuing to explore what defines a Loki. This time, though, the introspection is prompted not by a tactical need to seek advantage but in confronting the consequences of Loki’s recent actions and, uncomfortably for a self-loathing narcissist, the idea that he may actually have started to love himself a little – albeit himself in a female and very different form. We find ourselves as intrigued by Sylvie as our eponymous hero too, thanks to the increasingly pertinent question of why she was trimmed as a variant, an event which we see occur at a very young age.

The Nexus Events

Loki, meanwhile, gets a crash course in self-reflection thanks to a time loop prison featuring a welcome return for an MCU character we haven’t seen since AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., continuing his series trajectory away from the conniving, 4D-chess playing incorrigible schemer that we knew to a much more passive, reactive iteration of the character than we’ve ever seen before. Indeed, once we reach the confrontation with the Time Keepers, it’s Sylvie who is the playmaker and while Loki plays his part, he’s no longer the ringmaster of his own circus.

There are some jaw-dropping surprises in this episode, including one or two shock trimmings as Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer reveals her true colours but, as a mid-credits tease makes deliciously clear, we haven’t even been told the truth about what happens to people who are trimmed.

LOKI may have started out feeling like an MCU riff on DOCTOR WHO but THE NEXUS EVENT sees it stake a claim to a much more contemporary inspiration: RICK & MORTY. It’s gleeful comic-book craziness all the way and while the series has ended up answering most of the questions we had in the opening couple of episodes, its answers have simply served to admonish us for our gullibility and make it abundantly clear we haven’t been asking the right questions. With just two episodes to go, we’re due to get some proper answers, but from this character – and this series – how can we be sure we can believe what we’re told?

the nexus event review
the nexus event review
Score 10/10


Hi there! If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up to get new posts sent straight to your inbox?

Sign up to receive a weekly digest of The Craggus' latest posts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

logo

Related posts

Craggus’ Trek Trek Phase II Vol 2

Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II Vol 2

Get a wiggle on - it's Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II Vol 2! Welcome to Craggus' Trek Trek Phase II Vol 2, returns to boldly continue going through those early episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, this time episodes 9 through 16! Star Trek The Next Generation S1E09...

BlackBerry (2023) Review

BlackBerry (2023) Review

BlackBerry is a tale of Glenn Howerton's bald ambition BlackBerry landing in theatres is the cinematic equivalent of finding one of your old mobile phones at the back of a bric-a-brac drawer – a forgotten artefact from a bygone era that you’d pretty much forgotten. Directed by Matt...

Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013) Review

Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013) Review

Blue Is The Warmest Colour Review Blue may be the warmest colour, but the prurient gossip and rumour-mongering circulating the making of Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palm D’Or-winning movie has generated heat enough to obscure the truth of the film itself. But if you dismiss the salacious...

A Simple Favour (2018) Review

A Simple Favour (2018) Review

There's no such thing as A Simple Favour. From the opening strains of Jean Paul Keller’s “Ca S'est Arrange”, you can practically feel Paul Feig donning on a black turtleneck and slipping into auteurship with a mischievous sense of insouciance. He’s in playful mood indeed as he indulges...

Doctor Who: In The Forest Of The Night Review

Doctor Who: In The Forest Of The Night Review

This episode made me want to make like a tree and leave Well, it had to end at some time. After soaring so high recently, “In The Forest Of The Night” brings us crashing down to Earth with a bump, featuring some of the sloppiest writing and worst...

There Is A Tide…

There Is A Tide...

It may be a new year but it's the same old problems for Star Trek Discovery. *SPOILERS* “There Is A Tide…” brings “Star Trek” back to Shakespeare country, with a title borrowed from a passage in “Julius Caesar” - one which has been raided for titles before, not least of all by Agatha...

Batman: The Shadow Of The Bat

Batman: The Shadow Of The Bat

Batman: The Shadow Of The Bat There’s been a lot – and I mean a lot – of comment about Ben Affleck being the new Batman. I don’t understand the fuss. After all, I’ve always believed the actor “playing” Batman is incidental. You don’t need to be a great actor to be Batman – you need a...

Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) Review

Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) Review

Here's hoping Ice Age: Collision Course turns out to be an extinction level event There’s a tendency among long running movie series – especially those which have no business being there – to launch into outer space. And so in "Ice Age Collision Course", its fifth and conspicuously...