2x02 Breaking Brad

[7.1/10] We’re only two episodes into the new season, so it’s hard to make any grand pronouncements (but I’m going to try anyway). The show is dull and difficult to invest in when it falls headlong into plot, but it’s engaging, and even fleetingly profound, when it leans into character.

The big climax of “Breaking Brad” involves General Dox’s crew “bombing” the extra branches of the timeline that have popped up since Sylvie did her thing with He Who Remains. And I have to tell you, I really struggle to care.

Loki does its best. Hunter B-15 declares “those are people” as she watches the read out, and Wummi Mosaku delivers it well and earnestly, to help give us a perspective character to all of this supposed horror. But to me, they’re not people. They’re just lines on a chart. We don’t know anyone affected. We haven't really seen how and why it matters. And when everything is an apocalyptic event on a weekly basis, nothing really registers anymore. This is supposed to be a big deal, and it just isn’t.

Why do General Dox and her loyalists want to bomb the branches exactly? Presumably it’s to preserve the sacred timeline, but it’s not really fleshed out; it just sort of happens. How are she and her confederates accomplishing this? I think there’s an answer, something involving temp pads or some other technobabble, but because it’s explained super fast in a stage whisper by a bunch of characters about to blow it all up anyway, none of it quite lands. Who are the TVA die-hards taking her in, and why are they on Mobius side and not hers, and where are her people going to go? No one cares to explain, or note loyalties, or anything else. Stuff just sort of happens.

It’s my big problem with this episode. We don’t get any set up for Loki and Mobius hunting X-5, aka “Brad” in the sacred timeline; it just happens. The same goes for the search for Sylvie -- obviously Loki wants to find her because he cares about her, but why are the others so invested in it? And what is the deal with Casey and his ability to recognize what’s going with Brad’s modified device? Is it just to setup his partnership with OB? When your storytelling is sloppy, it’s hard to distinguish between what’s a cryptic tease for something yet-to-be-revealed, and what’s just a frankenstein’ed together episode of random threads and bits without a real structure or soundness to it.

Despite all of those complaints, I actually like a lot of the themes and character work here. For as random as Brad feels as a major character in this one, he does a good job of drawing interesting things out of everyone he’s paired with. He makes a good point -- akin to Cypher in The Matrix. If none of this is real, why play the game? Why not head back into the timeline somewhere and have your fun? Why play the parts assigned to you? His casting off of his hunter responsibilities to be a movie star is silly, and so is Brad’s general vibe, but he ends up having a point about why should they keep up the charade.

HIs recriminations touch a nerve when it comes to Mobius. The interrogation scenes are well-written. There’s a nice subversion with Mobius warning Loki not to let a pro like Brad get under his skin, when it turns out to be Mobius himself who ends up bothered by what the prisoner has to say. I like the idea that Mobius isn’t interested in his “real” life in the timeline, because he likes his life in the TVA. He believes in what they’re doing. He doesn’t care if it’s “real” anymore than Brad does, in his way, because it’s real to him. So being called “Mr. Nowhere Man” (hello Beatles fans!) is an insult because it demeans the life he chooses to live and the work he believes in.

That's a fascinating idea, and it ties into one of the themes the show’s spun from the beginning -- what do you do when you believe you’re “burdened with glorious purpose” only to discover that there is no external purpose? It is the classic existentialist dilemma. And seeing different people find meaning in different places in the wake of the revelations about He Who Remains and the truth of the TVA is the most compelling part of the show.

That includes Sylvie. There’s something wonderful about the idea that without the TVA breathing down her neck, without needing to run constantly anymore, with the entire multiverse as her oyster, she chooses to...work shifts at a fast food restaurant. I dunno, the idea of wanting to live a simple, uncomplicated life after ages of being on the run is kind of beautiful. It makes Loki and company walking in to puncture the pleasant existence she’s scratched out for herself a bit sad, honestly.

And then there’s Loki himself. I appreciate Brad’s recriminations that, again, he’s not a hero; he’s a villain. He’s not a winner; he’s a loser. Loki thinks he’s found new purpose with the TVA, acting as an agent and basically Mobius’ partner. So Brad undermining that, saying that he’s going against type and it’s not working, works on both an in-universe and a meta level.

The fact that Loki turns that around to his advantage is marvelous. The signature scene of this one is Loki “locking” Mobius out of the interrogation room, turning on his villain bona fides, and intimidating Brad with a continually shrinking box. It comes with nice visual flair mixed with Loki playing up to expectations, oyl to reveal that this was part of his and Mobis’ plan all along. Whatever he was before, Loki is a good guy, or at least a better guy now, even if he still has the skills to put on his old persona for effect.

Those are the kinds of things I want from this show. Reinitiating the temporal loom, or finding out how Rendlsayer is in league with He Who Remains, or un-pruning the branches on the timeline is all of pretty mild interest to me at this point. The plot doesn’t really drive the drama here; the characters do. I’d probably rather have great characters than great story at the end of the day, but there’s no reason Loki couldn’t have both, and instead it only has half of the equation.

Okay somehow the structure and plotting of this episode is more abaffling than the premiere. We spend more than half of it interrogating a random TVA agent we've never met before in the hopes of finding Sylvie. The story doesn't clarify why finding Sylvie is so important until waaaay late into the episode when we discover another random tva agent we barely know is carrying out multiversal genocide. IMO maybe the focus should have been Dox and the multiverse purges over Brad the movie star.

I also really don't understand both Loki and Mobius motivations as characters. I don't understand why either of them are with the TVA still and what their aims and goals are at any given moment. This episode gives Brad a lot of shit for attempting to live a life on the main timeline and "abandoning his post" which literally makes no sense because all of last season was building up to the TVA being an evil organization. Like why should any TVA agent feel obligated to stay there at all? Why is Loki still working for the TVA? why is Mobius? The only character I actually understand is Hunter-B15. She wants to protect all the branches because she sees that they have as much of a right to exist as she does and I guess that what Mobius and Loki believe too???

This series so far has done an piss poor job of establishing its stakes. Two back to back episode where I couldn't figure out why we're doing what we're doing is a bit concerning.