On to episode 4, and things are getting really crazy! After some important revelations last episode, we learn more about the dark truth behind the Time Variance Authority, Sylvie’s history, and what lies in wait for Loki. So without further ado, let’s toss out a spoiler warning (because there will be major spoilers) and take a look at “The Nexus Event.”
1. Sylvie vs the TVA
As the episode begins, we see the moment when Sylvie was taken by the TVA. This does confirm that she is absolutely a Loki, even if she has many qualities of Enchantress from the comics. So rather than thinking of her as an exact translation of the comic book Lady Loki or Enchantress, it’s best to think of her as a character that uses attributes of both. Let’s not get too tied up in direct one-to-one page-to-screen translations.
When Sylvie gets taken, she’s just in Asgard, playing with toys, making her sudden capture a more terrifying occurrence. When we saw Loki go through TVA processing, it was amusing because we got to see a grown god with a history of villainy get put through an inescapable bureaucracy. But with a young Sylvie, it’s just a child suddenly pulled away from home and sent through a cold system that puts her on trial for a crime she didn’t even understand.
No wonder she wanted to bring them all down. This is a moment designed to solidify the TVA as being in the wrong and build sympathy for Sylvie, and it worked. In fact, even now she doesn’t know what she did to cause a Nexus Event – my only assumption is her existence itself is the issue, since she’s a Variant of the “Sacred Timeline” Loki, and the TVA is obsessed with ensuring there’s only one timeline.
Speaking of multiple timelines, a lot of people seemed certain that Sylvie’s attack on the TVA would create a multiverse and alternate timelines to explore. Yet when we catch up with the TVA, we see them searching the time stream for Nexus Events that could help them find Loki and Sylvie, so clearly all those Nexus Events have been pruned.
So the point wasn’t to create chaos in the timelines, but just cause a distraction big enough to let Sylvie get to the Time Keepers. It did indeed cause a distraction, but the TVA still managed to get it cleaned up. Is there some missed potential there? Perhaps, but we’re still going to get What If?, we’re still getting Multiverse of Madness, so we’re not actually losing anything from it.
(Besides that, Doctor Strange already confirmed that “this universe is only one of an infinite number – worlds without end,” so it’s not like we need an event to create a new multiverse.)
2. Loki x Loki?
So how do Loki and Sylvie manage to get off Lamentis before it explodes? In this case, the TVA grabs them after detecting a branch in the timeline. What is this branch?
The power of love, apparently.
Yes, as Mobius interrogates Loki about Sylvie, he realizes something: Loki has a crush.
On an alternate version of himself.
Which is, admittedly, the most narcissistic thing that a person could do, so it is almost fitting for Loki. When I said the characters had good chemistry, I didn’t mean in a romantic sense, but here we are; I suppose there’s nothing like escaping almost certain death to bring people together, even if those people are alternate timeline versions of each other.
Is the relationship incestuous if it’s different versions of the same person? That’s a question I choose not to fully analyze. (Of course, Loki is still bi whether he’s currently into a male, female, or nonbinary version of himself, that doesn’t change.)
3. Goodbye, Mobius?
Loki and Agent Mobius are reunited, and Mobius isn’t happy. Yet he’s also not an idiot, and starts putting pieces together, especially after he’s told that Hunter C-20 died from Sylvie’s enchantments. So after doing some investigating of his own, he realizes that Loki was right: the TVA agents are all Variants themselves.
This gives us a nice little scene where he and Loki team up again, including an exchange where Loki admits that Mobius is a friend. Mobius’ turn to Loki’s side is solidified when he confronts Ravonna about being a variant, saying that if he could, he’d go back to the life he had. Maybe he’d even have a jet ski. (Yes, he came to the same conclusion that the majority of the Marvel Twitterverse did. Good job, foreshadowing!)
Continued belowAnd then he’s unceremoniously zapped and pruned.
So, did they just kill Mobius off? I’m going to file that under “probably not.” Sure, it looks bad, but we never actually saw him and Loki discussing their plan, and Loki has been known to fake his own death on multiple occasions. It could be that they’re faking Mobius’ death as well, and he’ll be back at the right moment.
Or I could be overthinking things, and the show really did kill him off suddenly.
4. The TVA Starts to Break
Mobius isn’t the only one realizing something is up. After Enchantress used her magic on Hunter B-15, she also began to regain memories of her past life. So B-15, the same agent who made her distrust of Loki abundantly clear, turns to Sylvie for information.
That’s just one of the dominos that begins to fall as Loki and Sylvie are taken before the Time Keepers. When we see them, they match the same general aesthetic of the Marvel aliens we’ve seen in movies like Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy, and while they are certainly ominous, they’re not exactly the most intimidating beings we’ve ever seen.
And there’s a reason for that, which we learn when Sylvie decapitates one of them. The Time Keepers, at least the ones we’ve seen, are robots. It’s not the biggest twist, but a decent one nonetheless; there’s clearly someone else pulling the strings here, and we have a few episodes left to see who.
Current theories have people guessing Kang, but honestly, I doubt we’ll get much more than easter eggs about Kang until he appears in Quantumania. Though I have been known to be wrong.
Anyways, Sylvie and Loki kill a few more TVA agents, and Sylvie defeats Ravona Rennslayer, so it seems like she got her revenge against the TVA.
Although that is right after Ravona zaps Loki, so…
5. Lokiversity
Oh, like they were really going to kill Loki off (again) with two episodes left in this show.
Marvel fans know that you always check for a post-credits scene, and while the last few episodes didn’t have one, episode 4 did. And it’s a doozy.
Loki wakes up after getting “pruned” from reality, and who should he find waiting for him but… himself. Multiple versions of himself, actually. Not only do we get a classic older Loki, complete with the yellow and green bodysuit (credited as “Classic Loki” and played by Richard E. Grant), we also get Kid Loki – and as someone who absolutely loved Kieron Gillen’s run on “Journey Into Mystery,” this is the Loki that has me the most excited. (Will we get to see Ikol too?)
Plus, we have a Black Loki (credited as “Boastful Loki”) with a hammer of his own, and… apparently a crocodile Loki. (Or is that an alligator? I’m sure someone will correct me in the comments.)
These are likely more Loki variants, but where did they come from? Did Sylvie find them, are they on their own quests against the TVA, or is this what happens to any Loki variant that gets pruned? Equally important: what’s with the smoldering wreckage of the world around them, and is that a destroyed Avengers Tower in the background?
The post-credits scene leaves us with so many questions, and I cannot wait to get answers. Until then, I’m just going to enjoy the fact that Kid Loki has made his MCU debut.
Extra Thoughts:
– A casual line from Mobius confirms that vampires exist in the MCU (beating Blade to the punch.)
– It was nice to see Sif again, even if it was just in a temporal loop prison
– If you watch with subtitles on, you’ll notice that Loki asks “Is this Hel?” with one L. It’s a small thing, but a nice detail to include.
– There’s just one other Loki I wish we’d seen in the Loki crew: “Cat Thor” Loki, as seen in the pages of “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.”
