Loki's second season gets off to a bang, as the eponymous god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) finally reconnects with his allies in the Time Variance Authority after his harrowing encounter with He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors). Together with Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan), and more, Loki struggles to keep the many fracturing timelines from wreaking havoc throughout the multiverse. In so doing, Loki Season 2 acts as an essential chapter in setting up the final stages of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Multiverse Saga, which will come to an end with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Although Loki's arc in Season 2 is only just beginning, it is already shaping up to be far darker than in the previous season of his Disney+ series. The second episode of the season, entitled "Breaking Brad," makes several references to Loki's history as a supervillain, including his conquest of New York City during the events of The Avengers. Although the god of mischief remained resolute that he had changed his ways since his more villainous days, his dark history seems to be coming back to haunt him. With so many callbacks to Loki's villainy, it seems clear that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is setting up a darker storyline for the character's future.

RELATED: Loki Season 2 Isn't Ke Huy Quan's First Experience With a Marvel Production

Loki Needs to Remember That He is a Villain

As the future of the MCU's multiverse hangs in the balance, so too does the future of Loki himself. Once one of the MCU's most conniving, albeit misunderstood, villains, he seems to have made quite a pivot in the last few years. However, in the second episode of Loki's second season, someone finally calls Loki out for his heel-face turn. Brad Wolfe (Rafael Casal), a.k.a. Hunter X-5, reminds Loki of all the terrible things he had done prior to coming to the Time Variance Authority, questioning whether he can ever truly change his ways. His words seem to cut Loki to the heart, leading him to lash out at Brad before finally being reared in by Mobius.

Loki was once one of Marvel's most important villains, and his time thereof may not quite be finished. According to Brad, Loki's villainous return is inevitable, but it might also be necessary in order to defeat the coming variants of Kang the Conqueror. With the chaos that came about from the reveal of He Who Remains and the near-destruction of the TVA, Loki's methods heretofore aren't enough to defeat Kang. Much as he was forced to let his villainous side out in order to get information from Brad, Loki may need to unleash his darker desires in order to properly defend the Sacred Timeline from Kang and his variants. By the end of Loki's second season, the god of mischief may not be quite as heroic as he once believed himself to be.

RELATED: Thor and Loki Are Sure to Reunite in the MCU - But Maybe They Shouldn’t

Loki's Villainous Return Fixes One Season 1 Complaint

After being arrested by the Time Variance Authority in season one, Loki underwent what seemed to be a rather rushed redemption. The MCU originally took several films to orchestrate Loki's redemption, culminating with his heroic death at the hands of Thanos (Josh Brolin) in the opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War. However, when a variant version of Loki was resurrected during the events of Avengers: Endgame, this redemption was undone. The new variant had none of his predecessor's redemptive arc but was instead thrown into his own Disney+ series, where he underwent a completely different--and far more rushed--series of events to become a hero.

By having Loki revert back to his villainous roots, even temporarily, the Disney+ series would allay the criticism that its first season rushed its protagonist's redemption. The series essentially condensed Loki's entire MCU timeline into a single episode, taking the character from his arc in The Avengers all the way to Infinity War in a matter of minutes. While this rushed storyline was necessary in order to tell Loki's story in season one, the current season has a chance to fix this by revealing Loki's redemption isn't quite complete. In fact, the most recent episodes of the series could be hinting that Loki is still far more villainous than he is heroic.

RELATED: Loki Used Simple Methods to Change Comic Book Television Forever

Can Loki Ever Really Be A Hero?

With the question of Loki's morality still in the air, it remains reasonable to wonder whether or not the god of mischief can ever truly deny his past villainous actions and become a real hero. When Brad accused Loki of remaining a villain to this day, it became clear that, no matter what Loki does, many people will always see him as the evil man he once was. This has been a subject that the god of mischief has often wrestled with, as he wonders whether the world will ever see him as anything other than a villain. At the end of Thor: Ragnarok, the Sacred Timeline Loki even wondered whether Earth would accept him after his invasion in 2012. As it stands, Brad might be right: the universe may never accept Loki as the hero he is so desperately trying to become.

Even when fighting the variants of Kang the Conqueror in order to save the multiverse itself, Loki's heroic actions are not public knowledge. The rest of the world--and the rest of the universe--still remembers Loki for the atrocities he committed in his early life, namely the invasion of New York City. As such, Loki will never become a hero in the same way as his brother, Thor, is a hero. No one will ever celebrate Loki's name as they do Thor and the other Avengers. Even so, Loki can become a hero in his own way, fighting evil from the shadows in order to win a war that the world doesn't even know is happening. In the end, the only people who may ever see Loki as a hero are those closest to him--those who know him for who he is now, not who he once was.

Even over a decade after his first appearance, Loki remains one of the most complex characters in the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As he struggles between his light and dark side, Loki must now make his final choice about whether he will be a villain or a hero.