If I were writing Loki, and I had chosen to have Loki be out-of-character in manic, over-the-top, careless, and kinda dumb ways, I would be deliberately writing it to show that he is doing anything possible in whatever way possible to not to have to stop or think or feel for even a few seconds bc he literally cannot process everything that's happened and that he has learned over the past few days (in addition to everything that happened in Avengers and prior!).
I would also specifically write someone (Sylvie, but under other circumstances Mobius would do as well) calling him out on this behavior, since it has now had the consequence of royally fucking her plan and also putting their lives at definite risk; and if I were to have this happen at the midway point of the series -
- it would be because I would then spend the next three episodes having Loki actually confront and face what he's been through/going through (meaning not only the TVA nonsense but also Thanos and the time in-between Thor and Avengers, plus the whole actual invasion Chitauri invasion) and promptly have a total emotional breakdown (like, much moreso than we saw in episode 1). I would have him crash down so hard that he goes right through the rock bottom layer and lands facedown in the basement, out of which he must slowly pull himself, and he probably wouldn't really make it before the end of the series but the journey toward healing would continue in the next series.
I say all of this bc I am desperately hoping (what did we say about hope, little artichoke?) that this is what the writers actually are doing here. The setup is there. The pieces are there. They just have to move them in exactly the way that I would for exactly the result I want ways that make sense in order to explain Loki's ooc behavior thus far, as well as have him grow in ways that have nothing to do with whether or not he's a villain.
Soooo yeah.
