I feel like I watched a different show than the people that say this episode didn't focus on 'character'.
Episodes 1 through 5 were about putting Loki through a series of experiences that possibly changed him. Episode 6 was about testing those changes over and over again. PROVING that Loki had actually changed.
•Originally, Loki wanted ultimate power. He wanted this because he felt unloved his entire life, looked down upon, alone. But when he -saw- ultimate power, the TVA, he realized that it was even more alienating than a lack of it. The TVA was dry, boring, empty, soulless.
•Originally, Loki was alone. His family cared for him, but he couldn't see it. He thought his father and brother looked down on him, or were ashamed of him. And even though he did not resent his mother, he probably felt like she couldn't possibly actually love him, because he wasn't hers, and he was such a fuckup. But these people loved him, and he couldn't accept it or risk the vulnerability to love those people back. Over the course of the series, he is forced to spend time with people that understand him in some way, and this allows him to understand himself better, but also develop true and meaningful connections (Mobius and Sylvie)
In this episode, his character development is tested and confirmed TWICE. Miss Minutes offers him Asgard, Midgard, Thanos, The Infinity Gauntlet, and he turns it down. He could have had incredible power, but his newfound selflessness prevailed. Then Kang offers him the ultimate throne: dominion over ALL OF TIME AND SPACE. LITERAL KING OF SPACE. And he turns it down again! Everything he's ever wanted is right in front of him, but he begins to put the needs of others first.
And every word with Sylvie, everything they do together, every aspect of the fight, it proves that he has finally found a person he can love, and that it's not fragile, not a lie. Loki barely fights her, begs and pleads for her to stop, puts his own life on the line to spare everyone from a multiversal war but also to spare Sylvie the guilt and regret and emptiness that comes with mistakes made out of anger and resentment and loneliness.
The Loki of episode 1 would have killed Kang the second it was offered to him, slipped on the super TemPad without a second thought, and gone on a rampage throughout time and space to subjugate the Avengers. He would have been truly and utterly alone doing it, too.
Episode 6 had a lot of Kang exposition, but every single Loki and Sylvie moment was crafted with geniune purpose. Even things like the way he literally steps out of her way when they get to the front door, he knows that this is HER destiny that is approaching, and does not try to usurp the moment until the very end when he has to try and stop her to save her.
Edit: And one more thing: Several times through the show, it's noted that Loki is a survivor. Surviving is what he does. He survived falling from the bifrost, survived the encounter with Kurse, survived Ragnarok, survived Lamentis, survived the void (different versions, etc). But in episode 6, survival is the last thing on his mind. He came within a hair's breadth of being killed by Sylvie so that he could try and talk her down, dissuade her from making a mistake, so that she could be okay. The finale is selfless act after selfless act, genuine heroism from a guy for whom it seemed impossible.
