Last week we, and Loki, got to know Sylvie—his female variant—a bit better, seeing them build a rapport as they tried to escape the destruction of Lamentis-1, before dropping the bombshell that the TVA employees are all Variants themselves. And, after the evacuation ark got destroyed, we left them seemingly awaiting their demise.
SPOILERS AHEAD
We begin with a flashback to Asgard, Sylvie’s Asgard as it turns out. We see her as a little girl, just playing with her toys, when the TVA suddenly arrive, led by Renslayer back when she was a Hunter herself, and arrest her. She goes through the same process as Loki did back in episode 1, though not so comical now it’s being done to a scared child. When taken to court however, Sylvie manages to steal Renslayer’s TemPad, open a time door and escape. We then cut to present day Renslayer, who seems to be steeling herself for something. Elevator doors open to a cavernous chamber full of dry ice fog and three sinister shadows backlit in red.
We return to the TVA after the opening titles, Mobius asking Renslayer for permission to interview Hunter C20, as she might have valuable information regarding what the Lokis are up to, only to be told—much to his shock—that she’s dead; the result of Sylvie’s enchantment scrambling her mind. On Lamentis Sylvie and Loki can do nothing but sit and wait for the end. She tells Loki that the universe wants to break free and to do so it manifests chaos, like her being born the ‘Goddess’ of Mischief (giving more credence to the theory that the TVA’s singular “Sacred Timeline” is not its natural state), explaining that after she escaped the TVA, she was constantly on the run from them—as she’s basically a walking Nexus Event because she’s “not supposed to exist”—until she figured out where to hide, and so she grew up “at the ends of a thousand worlds.” She then asks him a particularly poignant question: “Do you think what makes a Loki a Loki, is the fact we’re destined to fail?” To which Loki replies: “No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don’t die. We survive.” He takes her hand, in a show of solidarity and kindness, which somehow manages to create a Nexus Event, even in the midst of an apocalypse, allowing the TVA to find them and bring them in.
Mobius puts Loki in a time cell, but not before Loki tries to tell him that the TVA has been lying to him. The time cell turns out to be a ‘bad memory loop’, in this case, Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) continually beating him up for cutting her hair, leaving with the parting shot “I hope you know you deserve to be alone, and you always will be.” Meanwhile, Mobius tries to persuade Renslayer to let him interview Sylvie, but Renslayer shuts him down, declaring quite forcefully that no-one is to speak with her. B15 asks Mobius whether Loki said anything to him and Mobius scoffs when he recalls Loki’s claim that the TVA is lying to them. But while Mobius is dismissive, it seems to strike a chord with B15.
Back with Loki in the time cell, he’s been worn down to the point where he apologies to Sif, confessing that he does what he does because he’s a narcissist who craves attention because he’s scared of being alone. She doesn’t punch him in the gut this time; her words do it for her. Then Mobius arrives and asks if he’s ready to talk. He begins his interrogation by asking Loki what his Sylvie’s plan is and Loki, in his own narcissistic way, tries to take the blame by claiming that it had been his plan all along and that she was merely a pawn that he’ll dispose of when he’s finished with her. But he’s wrong-footed when Mobius tells him that they’ve already taken care of that for him. Loki tries to play it off as meaning nothing, but his eyes betray him and Mobius realises that her likes her, accusing him of falling in love with himself. Loki retorts that her name is Sylvie—reinforcing that, while they might be variations of the same being, they’re different enough to be their own people – and demands to know if she’s alive. Mobius replies that she is, for now. Loki again tries to tell Mobius that the TVA is lying to him, revealing that everyone working for them is a Variant and that he had a life (and maybe a jet ski) that they stole from him. Unconvinced, Mobius has him taken back to the time cell, but Loki has a parting shot: that out of all the liars in the TVA, Mobius is the biggest for the lies he tells himself. This seems to get under Mobius’s skin.
B15 goes in to see Sylvie, opening a time door and telling her to follow, while Mobius shares drinks with Renslayer in her office, celebrating the closure of the case. She asks him if he could go anywhere in time, where would it be? He asks again about C20 and Sylvie but is sidestepped each time, but manages to distract her in order to swap her TemPad for his when her back’s turned. Meanwhile, B15 has taken Sylvie back to Roxxcart, demanding to know what she did to her when she was in her head. Sylvie tells B15 that they were her memories and B15 asks her to show her. Sylvie does, and although we don’t see the memory, B15 tearfully remarks that she looked happy. Back in the records department, Mobius looks through the footage of C20’s debriefing on Renslayer’s TemPad, who confirms that Loki was telling the truth about them all being Variants, but the debriefing is interrupted and cut off by Renslayer herself. Implying that, if C20 is dead, it’s not due to anything Sylvie did to her.
After this revelation, Mobius goes back to Loki in the time cell. He asks Loki if he’s absolutely sure Sylvie didn’t implant the memories in C20. Loki’s affirmative makes Mobius nervous that all he has to go on are the words of “two Lokis”, to which Loki counters “how about the words of a friend?” They agree to take down the TVA together, and Mobius tells Loki that he’s not confined to his assigned role as a villain, that he can be anything he wants to be, even someone good, “just in case anybody told you different.” Unfortunately, they leave the time cell only to be immediately confronted by Renslayer and her Minutemen. She figured out that Mobius stole her TemPad and what he must’ve seen on it. Mobius answers her earlier question, that if he could go anywhere in time, it would be to wherever he was from before the TVA picked him up. Though it appears to pain her, she orders Mobius pruned (insert a Darth Vader big “NO!” here), much to Loki’s devastation.
They go to pick up Sylvie, and seeing her soaking wet, work out that someone must have gotten to her and, after finding out it was B15, Renslayer orders her brought in too. She takes Loki and Sylvie to see the Time Keepers, and, in the elevator, Sylvie asks her what her Nexus Event was. She’s denied the catharsis of closure however, as Renslayer claims she can’t remember.
So we finally meet the Time Keepers, and they’re…kind of hilariously janky, with really generic dialogue (though we soon find out there’s a reason for this). They order Loki and Sylvie pruned, but then B15 pulls a “Big Damn Heroes” moment, arriving to free Loki and Sylvie and give Sylvie back her sword that was confiscated earlier. B15 and Renslayer are knocked out in the ensuing confrontation and after Sylvie throws her sword at one of the Time Keepers’ heads, severing it, it’s revealed that they’re nothing more than “mindless androids” (clearly the TVA’s budget didn’t extend to the animatronics). Loki tries to assure Sylvie that they’ll work out what’s going on, and says he has something else to tell her, though this time his way with words seems to desert him. But before he can get it out, Loki’s pruned from behind by Renslayer (insert another Darth Vader big “NO!” here). This angers Sylvie and she pins Renslayer to the floor with her Time Baton. Renslayer tries to goad her into killing her but Sylvie instead says that Renslayer is going to tell her everything.
We then cut to the end credits, over which Brenda Lee sings ‘If You Love Me (Really Love Me)’. Then have a mid-credits scene, showing Loki waking up somewhere and asking if he’s dead and whether this is Hel (the Norse one). To which a voice replies that he isn’t yet but that he soon will be if he doesn’t go with them. Loki looks up to see… himself. Yes, it’s ‘Into the Loki-Verse’ as our Loki is confronted with four more Variants of himself: ‘Boastful Loki’ (Deobia Oparei), wearing a more Viking-esque outfit and carrying what appears to be a makeshift Mjolnir; ‘Kid Loki’ (Jack Veal); ‘Classic Loki’ (Richard E. Grant) wearing Loki’s original outfit from the comics (showing, if WandaVision’s Halloween episode didn’t, why costumes aren’t more “comics-accurate”), and Loki…gator? (Don’t know, don’t ask). They also appear to be in a ruined version of New York, as we can see, in the background, a building that bears a strong resemblance to Avengers Tower.
So, if the Time Keepers are robots, who created the TVA? Who’s pulling their strings? What’s their ultimate goal? If pruning a Variant doesn’t completely erase them, where do they go? Does that mean there’s still hope for Mobius? What the hell is going on? I’ve no idea but I’m excited to find out!
