Another week, another slice of weirdness from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Loki. There’s just one episode left to go, and an awful lot of major characters and subplots still in play, so it’s going to take an impressive balancing act for director Kate Herron and the writing team to ensure the Disney Plus series ends on a note that’ll please audiences everywhere.
Today’s installment continued what’s become one of Loki‘s more infuriating traditions, though, with the cliffhanger from last week turning out to be completely irrelevant. Ravonna Renslayer told Sylvie absolutely nothing about the origins and machinations of the Time Variance Authority, leading the variant to prune herself in order to get to the bottom of things.
Where the episode soared was in the myriad of Lokis introduced into the mix, with Richard E. Grant a particular standout, bringing every ounce of his gravitas and comic timing to a sorcerer dressed in the most ludicrous ensemble imaginable. However, as you can see from the reactions below, some fans were left hugely disappointed by the minimal screentime afforded to President Loki.
#Loki absolute crime that president loki was only in episode 5 for like 4 minutes or something pic.twitter.com/6LfvFDxDUv
— blind (@Blind03) July 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/llimsm_/status/1412678607537848321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1412678607537848321%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fepicstream.com%2Fnews%2F%2FBriConstantino%2FLoki-MCU-Fans-are-Let-Down-by-President-Lokis-Appearance-in-Episode-5
#LOKI SPOILERS
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–PRESIDENT LOKI GETTING HIS HAND BITTEN OFF LMAO pic.twitter.com/LfNmpIqaB2
— rae (@raefilmss) July 7, 2021
#LOKI SPOILERS
I NEED PRESIDENT LOKI BACK I WANNA KNOW HIS NEXUS EVENT WHAT THE FUCK HE IS THE MOMEMNT pic.twitter.com/1Ulc6Wowui
— jamie ♡ (@hiddlesbubbles) July 7, 2021
#loki spoilers
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no because this was me when president loki had 30 seconds of screen time and literally added nothing to the plot
— hunter 🪩 lokius era (@shezzacurls) July 7, 2021
LOKI EPISODE 5 SPOILERS#LokiWednesdays#Loki
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the way we were all so hyped for president loki just for him to get hand bitten off and get shoved into a popcorn machine pic.twitter.com/4zxZmC6a4o— ethan 🎶 (@parkerspilot) July 7, 2021
#loki spoilers
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ALL THE HYPE FOR PRESIDENT LOKI JUST FOR TO SEE HIS HAND GETTING BITTEN OFF BY GATOR LOKI 😭 pic.twitter.com/t6vHBHLlEW— billa ४ loki era (@616sLOKI) July 7, 2021
#Loki spoilers #LokiWednesdays
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.the way President Loki only have 36 seconds
of screentime but it will be forever ICONIC.pic.twitter.com/p8Oi50gGA7— chris (@chrisdadeviant) July 7, 2021
https://twitter.com/coleslawslut/status/1412764851236179968
https://twitter.com/tomdilf/status/1412790415523123215
Admittedly, it was a little bit of a rug-pull when President Loki had factored into virtually all of the show’s marketing and promotional appearances, only to get a few lines of dialogue, find himself double crossed and then ultimately lose a hand to the alligator variant. Then again, there were more than enough tricksters on show to satiate even the most demanding of viewers, and at less than 45 minutes per episode there was no way the burden could be spread out equally, and at the end of the day the right ones got the lion’s share of the focus.