After episode 3 of Loki on Disney Plus, we’re now halfway through the latest series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The twists and turns continued in this somewhat more introspective episode, while we still got plenty of action as well.
When we left off from episode 2, Loki had just stepped through a time portal, to follow Lady Loki who had just created a wave of devastation on the Sacred Timeline, by forcing a huge number of simultaneous branches in the timeline at various points in history. We saw the Time Variance Authority (TVA) HQ watching in horror as the timeline started branching out in numerous unplanned directions as Lady Loki entered her time portal to head off to points unknown to execute her (evil?) plan. Loki, perhaps spotting his chance to escape the TVA, followed closely behind and the doorway shut before Mobius and the other TVA agents could reach him.
Loki vs. Loki... Sylvie
The action picks up basically right where we left off, with first Lady Loki and then Loki stepping through that time portal, to emerge… in the TVA HQ! Lady Loki seems to know exactly where she is headed, an elevator that will take her to the Time Keepers. She fights her way through a few distracted members of TVA security, only to have Loki catch up to her before she can get into the elevator. We find that the Lokis are pretty evenly matched in a fight, and the two are confronted by Judge Ravonna (who sentenced Loki to erasure in episode 1) and more TVA security. Loki uses Lady Loki’s TemPad to get them out of trouble but drops them right into another apocalypse (where Lady Loki been hiding from the TVA).
After a brief scuffle at their destination, the Lokis decide on an uneasy truce, to get themselves out of their new location before the inevitable (and looming) apocalypse happens. This gives us a chance to learn more about Lady Loki or Sylvie as she prefers to be called, as well as our own Loki.
These two had very different childhoods, as we learn that Sylvie was never adopted by Odin and therefore never had Frigga as a step-mother, Thor as a step-brother, etc. We still don’t learn a ton about her, other than that she is still at least somewhat like Loki, but mentions that the TVA has been after her for more or less her entire life.
We also learn just a bit more about Loki and his relationship with his step-mother, Frigga and how she taught him to use magic. It’s interesting that Sylvie also uses magic, but a somewhat different type than Loki.
The two have these conversations on a train bound for a spaceship that will give them a power source large enough to recharge the TemPad and get off the planet before it’s too late.
Timelines and Variants
Before going on with the episode summary, a couple of questions have popped up for me that I wanted to delve into a bit.
The TVA propaganda videos and the history we’ve been told by TVA agents like Mobius have painted a picture of the universe for us. In the past, there was a Multiverse, with who knows how many variations on reality, all existing at the same time and going on their merry way. But then there was a Multiverse War, where these realities clashed and nearly destroyed everything. The Time Keepers brought peace to the universe(s) by creating one, official, Sacred Timeline and then built the TVA out of nothing to maintain this timeline against all possible variations. Occasionally, a variation occurs, and TVA agents descend on that place in the Sacred Timeline to round up the Variant and prune the branch from the timeline.
Assuming this is all true, we can see how a small change in the timeline could occur, like Loki grabbing the Tesseract and escaping custody after the battle of New York. I could even see how a character might be born female instead of mail (like Sylvie vs. Loki). However, based on what we have seen, the TVA would have descended on that branch immediately and pruned it, likely removing that Variant as a baby. But, Sylvie grew to an adult, despite being a Variant from birth. How would that happen and how would she have survived at all?
Seems to me that either, baby Sylvie would have needed to have a lot of help from someone to keep her alive to become an adult, or maybe this whole Sacred Timeline - no Multiverse story that the TVA is telling isn’t entirely the truth. What if there is still a Multiverse? Hmmm…..
Cracks in the TVA Propaganda
In line with my little tangent on the truth of the TVA and the Multiverse, we are given a real piece of information that throws part of the TVA origin story into disarray. Sylvie has been hunting the Time Keepers for some time, clearly. We see scenes where she and the TVA agent she kidnapped in episode 2 are sitting in a bar (ostensibly on earth), drinking and acting like best friends. This is how Sylvie extracted the location of the Time Keepers, by visiting a memory in the agent’s mind and using it to convince her to provide vital information. This is immediately weird since we have been told that the Time Keepers created the TVA agents themselves. But, Sylvie confirms that every TVA agent is actually a Variant, who has had their memories altered.
Mow that scene with Mobius being obsessed with jet skis makes more sense. Maybe that is actually a memory of something he loved in his pre-TVA life? Loki is very surprised by this and clearly wants to use the information to create cracks in the TVA. It also begins to confirm all those doubts about TVA propaganda that many viewers have had since the beginning.
There will be more to come on this topic, for sure and we can expect the truth to come out before the series wraps up in 3 episodes.
They Picked the Wrong Apocalypse
Back to Sylvie and Loki, trapped in the worst possible apocalypse on a planet called Lamentis-1 (what a terrible name for a planet?). They alter their plan to take power from the escape ship and instead will hijack the ship and make sure it leaves the planet - which it apparently doesn’t do in the Sacred Timeline. However, once they arrive at the ship, the planet’s destruction picks up steam, as we watch the descending moon begin to break up and shower the planet’s surface with debris. One big piece of the moon destroys the escape ship, seemingly dooming Sylvie, Loki, and the inhabitants of Lamentis-1 to their fates. That’s how we leave things after episode 3.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode where we can assume Sylvie and Loki find a way to escape and we get to see what has been happening at the TVA during episode 2.
