The 7 best sci-fi/fantasy TV episodes of 2023

2. Loki, "Glorious Purpose" (Disney+)

In the year of our lord 2023, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to get me excited about a Marvel show. The MCU has been running a bit of a hype deficit lately, with shows like Secret Invasion and movies like The Marvels not inspiring the kind of excitement they would had they come out only a couple years earlier.

Generally speaking, there are understandable reasons for the MCU's failing fortunes, but it also means that an excellent season of television like Loki season 2 can get overlooked, and that's a shame. Whereas some Marvel content is becoming more meek and mild, Loki went boldly into a timey-wimey wonderland featuring 1890s period pieces, creepy Freudian clocks, and twisty art deco production design. But it wasn't about style for style's sake: the whole series culminated in a finale that left me impressed, thoughtful and emotional, which I'd thought Marvel had lost the ability to do.

To quickly summarize, "Glorious Purpose" ends with Loki taking responsibility for the fraying timelines of the multiverse, dooming himself to an eternity of making sure existence doesn't tumble out of control, immobile upon his faraway throne. It's a great inversion of what Loki always said he wanted: glorious purpose, the chance to do something meaningful. But usually when he talked about that, he meant ruling over people and being pampered like the godking he considered himself to be. In the end, he chooses a lonely life without glory, only duty.

It's a huge development for Loki's character, one that lead actor Tom Hiddleston pulls off with pathos and charm to spare. And as dramatic as the ending is, the episode is pretty funny, too, especially in the early going when Loki and company try and fail over and over to stabilize the timelines, with poor Victor Timely getting spaghettified so often he could feed all of Italy.

"Glorious Purpose" has it all. It's just good for a Marvel show; it's one of the best episodes of the year.