Its been a few years: wasn't the studying montages just about studying for the LSAT?  My recollection was her GPA was 3.9ish already. 

No, the implication was that all the other Lokis died. The Old!Loki was a variant because didn’t die, but the TVA didn’t notice him until the first interacted with something as that was the first time he affected the timeline.

No

I loved Loki’s reaction to Kid Loki killing Thor was, “Hm, Respect.”

Old Loki, why must you hurt me so?! That man really created an illusion of his home one last time and went out laughing. I already miss him. (Also makes me wonder if there is a Loki out there on an isolated planet who never came back to Asgard.)

perhaps because there’s never any real sense of risk that Loki and Sylvie aren’t going to make it out alive.

Because some of us ENJOY storylines that take time for character-heavy development and interaction.

Who is Loki when not scheming or obsessing over the giant chip on his shoulder from being Thor’s brother? Turns out he’s just a guy who likes to sing and dance and get hammered like any other Asgardian.

• I had guessed that all of the TVA employees were variants, but that one woman has been alive for hundreds of years? How are they doing that?

• I kind of get the feeling that this is all an illusion to get Loki to trust Lady Loki by showing him how bad things can get, and at the beginning of next episode he’ll come out of it.

I don’t think there is a “hump.” It’s just another type of story at this point, like rom-coms or action movies. There will be good stuff, there will be bad stuff. Just like any other subgenre. Invincible was pretty good, so unless that “hump” occurred sometime this week, it probably doesn’t exist.

When I was younger I myself had a snooty, typical stance along these lines. One thing that helped me was comparing romantic movies to other genres— you don’t wave off seeing an action movie by saying “ugh, who cares, we all KNOW the good guy’s going to win!”

“Wells came up with the idea that Maggie has no internal sense of self and instead simply adopts her boyfriends’ interests, right down to the way they like their eggs.”

Dude, literally nobody who’s seen it has forgotten the opening to Saving Private Ryan.

“Magic Vagina Makes Men Good” is pretty much one of about three standard rom-com plots.

But it is kind of a classic trope in screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s -- if there’s a couple who start the movie hating each other, it is practically a given that they will fall in love by the end.

He is eleven years older than her.

I think it’s supposed to be an exaggeration of Taylor Swift’s evolution from young country star to pop powerhouse.