In the “Loki” recap for episode 4, Loki and Sylvie prepare to meet their demise on Lamentis-1 while the TVA searches the sacred timeline trying to find them…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It didn’t take much in the first few episodes of “Loki” to realize that the Time Variance Authority wasn’t the altruistic organization they were made out to be, guarding a sacred timeline and protecting the universe from splintering into a million different directions.
Little bit by little bit, the TVA’s nefarious nature started to bubble to the surface and the latest episode of “Loki” really pulled back the curtain, although there are still plenty of questions left unanswered.
The opening moments this week saw a young Sylvie — the Loki Variant who’s been causing havoc that the TVA wants wiped off the map — sitting and playing with her toys in Asgard when a group of Minutemen led by Ravonna Renslayer show up to kidnap the little girl because she’s considered a nexus level event. Before she could stand trial for her crimes against the sacred timeline, Sylvie snatched a TemPad from Renslayer and made a quick escape, which put her on the run ever since as she tried to survive with the TVA constantly giving chance in an attempt to eliminate her.
If that doesn’t sound bad enough, last week’s episode — as much as it didn’t add to the overall story — did manage to drop one piece of information that will undoubtedly play a huge part in the rest of the series.
While the TVA pretends to be a righteous organization founded by the mythical Time-Keepers and everyone working there were created by them, the truth is much different. In fact, the entire workforce at the TVA is made up of variants captured throughout history, who had their minds wiped and then reprogrammed to make them slaves of the Time Variance Authority.
Needless to say, that played a major part in the latest episode as Loki and Sylvie stood up to the TVA in an attempt to right the wrongs of the Time-Keepers.
With that said, let’s get to our recap for the latest episode of “Loki” titled “The Nexus Event”…
A Friend for the End of the World
Following the debacle in the mission carried out at the Roxxcart store in Alabama in 2050, Renslayer is called in for a meeting with the Time-Keepers and when she emerges, Mobius is there trying to find a solution to his botched plan to use Loki to snuff out his own variant.
Of course, Renslayer conveys to him that the Time-Keepers are none too pleased but Mobius believes he can track down Loki and the Variant but he needs access to Hunter C-20 — the TVA security force officer who was taken hostage and found mumbling to herself after being enchanted by Sylvie.
Sadly, Renslayer tells Mobius that C-20 has died after her condition continued to worsen following her return to the TVA and eventually her will just gave out. For now, Mobius is ordered to track down Loki and the Variant and return them to the TVA.
The only problem is Loki and Sylvie escaped to an apocalypse world on Lamentis-1, which meant their presence doesn’t cause a disturbance in the timeline because that entire planet and everybody on it will soon be obliterated.
Back on Lamentis-1, Loki and Sylvie begin to reconcile with the reality that there’s going to be no escape after the ship they tried to hijack and leave the planet was destroyed. Now with no TemPad and any form of communication to reach out for rescue, they have accepted their fate and now they’re just waiting for the end of the world.
That’s nothing new for Sylvie, who reveals to Loki about her brief time on Asgard before the TVA showed up to take her away and she’s been living on the run ever since, growing up at “the ends of a thousand worlds.” She then questions Loki if they are just meant to always lose because it’s in their nature.
He response that perhaps Loki’s always lose, sometimes quite painfully, but but they don’t die. Loki’s survive just like she manage to nearly topple the TVA single-handedly without any support whatsoever. Loki also commends Sylvie for her survival instinct after she was tasked with finding a way to evade the TVA for years after her childhood was ruined by them.
Sylvie — perhaps for the first time in her life — feels something for another person and she puts her hand on Loki’s arm as they lock eyes and connect for a brief moment while awaiting imminent doom.
The intimacy between Loki and Sylvie also has another effect — the sacred timeline is disturbed and a splinter breaks apart unlike any other nexus event in history. That alerts Mobius to the location where his Variants are hiding and just before Loki and Sylvie are killed, a doorway opens up and they are brought back to the TVA.
Now in custody, Loki and Sylvie share one last moment together before being separated for interrogation by the TVA. Loki ends up going with Mobius, who berates the God of Mischief for his distrust and proving to be an “asshole and a bad friend.” In response, Loki says that the TVA has been lying to him but Mobius is not interested in believing anything else he says.
With that, Loki is placed inside a time cell, which is essentially a point of history from his past that replays in a loop over and over again.
This particular incident involves a prank that Loki played on Lady Sif (who makes her return, albeit in a TVA torture chamber) where he cut off a chunk of her hair and she pays him back with a punch and a knee to the groin while also reminding him that he’s alone in this world and he’s always going to be alone in this world.
As for Mobius, he walks past the time theater where Sylvie is being held in custody and he stops for a conversation with Hunter B-15, who asks if he got anything out of Loki. Mobius more or less laughs off anything Loki told him, particularly that the TVA is lying to all of them.
While Mobius seems to discount Loki’s words, B-15 suddenly doesn’t seem as sure.
Back in the time cell, Loki continues to find himself beaten up and then taunted by Lady Sif until Mobius finally returns asking if he’s ready to talk. Loki then goes back to Mobius’ office where he’s questioned about the relationship with Sylvie and the true nature of his plans.
Refusing to cooperate, Loki is nearly sent back to his time loop groin punishment session when he decides to tell Mobius “the truth” that he’s been orchestrating these attacks all along and Sylvie was nothing more than a pawn in his end game. Loki says that he’s been plotting to overthrow the Time-Keepers and Sylvie was just a means to an end but she means nothing to him really.
Mobius then turns the tables by telling Loki that the TVA has already killed Sylvie for her crimes against the timeline so they saved him the trouble of turning on her down the road. Loki attempts to play it cool like Sylvie never really mattered to him but Mobius can see right through those somber eyes after believing that his variant has been destroyed.
“You like her! Does she like you? Two variants of the same being, especially of you, forming this kind of sick, twisted romantic relationship—that’s pure chaos. That could break reality! It’s breaking my reality right now. What an incredible seismic narcissist, you fell for yourself!”
~ Mobius
Mobius then comes clean that Sylvie wasn’t actually pruned out of existence but that only gives Loki so much solace as the TVA’s torture continues. Finally he lashes out and tells Mobius that he’s the biggest fool of all because he’s been following the orders of the Time-Keepers despite the fact that he’s nothing more than a variant, who’s been brainwashed to work for them. In fact, Loki tells Mobius that he could discover more about his past life if Sylvie was able to enchant him because there’s something about that spell that allows her to unlock previously guarded memories.
Already burned by lies in the past, Mobius refuses to believe anything said to him and he puts Loki back in the time cell where Lady Sif will make him pay over and over and over again. Before leaving, Loki lashes out at Mobius calling him the biggest liar of all because he’s lying to himself about the TVA and the Time-Keepers’ true intentions.
After putting Loki back into the time cell, Mobius visits Renslayer in her office where they sign off on the case being closed and celebrate with a drink to a job well done. As much as Renslayer wants to put all of this in the past, Mobius is still curious about the condition that led to C-20’s death as well as the information that could be provided to them by Sylvie after all of trouble she cased on the sacred timeline.
Realizing that Mobius isn’t going to stop asking questions, Renslayer attempts to put his mind to rest by saying that she’s just concerned about the way Sylvie infected C-20 with madness and that bleeding over to hurt him as well. She explains that she’s just trying to protect him but Mobius isn’t buying it.
While Renslayer celebrates her latest win by putting Sylvie’s sword up on her wall of trophies, Mobius swaps his TemPad with hers. He then calls it a night while telling Renslayer that he’s exhausted from his travels and chasing down the variants and he’s just ready for some rest.
After leaving her office, Mobius sneaks away to the TVA library where he accesses her TemPad to find out more information about Hunter C-20. He sees that she’s truly deceased but then he spots a debrief video that shows her being interviewed after returning to the TVA.
He watches as C-20 is lucid and clear — not rambling or mad as Renslayer told him — and she’s explaining how Sylvie’s enchantment unlocked memories from her past life including the bar she used to frequent. C-20 continues to insist that she had a life before the TVA but just before the video ends and we assume she was snuffed out, Mobius catches a glimpse of her interrogator — it’s none other than Renslayer.
Meanwhile back at Sylvie’s holding cell, Hunter B-15 makes a decision that she needs some answers of her own. She then confronts Sylvie while opening up a time portal to take them both back to that same apocalypse event at the Roxxcart store in 2050.
While Sylvie is gearing up for a fight, B-15 asks if the memories that she accessed in her head were part of the enchantment placed on her or was this really something that actually happened from her past? Sylvie explains that she can’t create new memories with her powers — only access the ones already there and use them to her own advantage. B-15 then asks Sylvie to provide further context through her enchantment power.
Sylvie touches the hunter and B-15 begins remembering more and more from her past. Once she’s brought out of the trance, B-15 realizes that she not only had a life before being kidnapped and brainwashed by the TVA but she was actually happy.
Back at the TVA, Mobius bursts into Loki’s time cell and he asks the God of Mishief if he really cares about Sylvie and whether or not he truly believes he’s destined to be alone. Loki doesn’t have an answer but Mobius tells him to figure it out quick because he believes that connection they shared back on Lamentis-1 could be the key in bringing down the TVA once and for all.
It seems Mobius has finally accepted that the Time-Keepers really did kidnap him as a variant from some point in history and he’s now been brainwashed into serving them in the TVA. Now he’s ready to bring them all down and he needs Loki’s help to do it.
Sadly when they emerge from the time cell, Renslayer is there with a security force ready to apprehend them. She realized that Mobius took her TemPad, which means he already knows more than she wanted and despite his best effort to talk his way out of it, Renslayer knows his loyalty to the TVA has been compromised.
Finally, Mobius comes clean and answers an earlier question from Renslayer when she asked him if he could travel to any time throughout history where would he go? He tells her that his greatest wish would be to revisit the life he had before the TVA stole him away and turned him into an agent.
With that, Renslayer orders his execution and Mobius is pruned out of existence much to Loki’s horror as he watches his friend disappear into the ether.
She takes him into custody and then goes to retrieve Sylvie from her holding cell as well.
Inside the time theater, Renslayer is surprised to see Sylvie is soaking wet and Hunter B-15 is nowhere to be found. It doesn’t take long for Renslayer to realize that B-15 has been compromised as well and she sends out an alert for her to be found.
With both Loki and Sylvie in custody, Renslayer leads them to the golden elevators where they all get aboard and travel down to the chamber where the Time-Keepers are located. Along the way, Sylvie questions Renslayer about the day she was taken from her world as a child and brought back to the TVA.
She wants to know the nexus event that occurred that alerted the TVA to her presence as a variant but Renslayer doesn’t remember. Sylvie then realizes that Renslayer is just cruel because she was willing to kidnap a child simply because a magic timeline told her it had to be done.
After reaching the chamber as the doors open, Loki and Sylvie are finally in the audience of the Time-Keepers — three lizard like creatures sitting on gigantic thrones where they apparently rule over the sacred timeline.
The Time-Keepers berate Loki and Sylvie while calling them both a disappointment. Loki answers back by telling them that he’s died a thousand times before and he invites them to do their worst.
Angered by his demeanor, the Time-Keepers order Renslayer to eliminate both Loki and Sylvie but before she can get to pruning them, Hunter B-15 shows up in the elevator and unlocks both of them from their constraints. Loki and Sylvie then engage in a battle with Renslayer and the Minutemen as they attempt to bring down the TVA once and for all.
Renslayer orders the Minutemen to protect the Time-Keepers at all costs but it doesn’t take long before Loki and Sylvie begin to gain the upper hand. After knocking out Renslayer and disabling the rest of the security force, Loki and Sylvie confront the Time-Keepers.
They tell Sylvie that she’s a child of the Time-Keepers, too, and now they can talk but she’s done listening to them — and with that she launches her sword and decapitates one of them. But something strange happens when the head falls to the floor — it’s not an organic being but rather a mindless android.
A second later, the rest of the Time-Keepers power down because they were nothing more than puppets putting on a show. This was just theater and Sylvie is beyond frustrated and angry while Loki is left with even more questions than he had before.
As they prepare to pursue answers about the TVA, Loki decides to come clean to Sylvie about his feelings for her after they shared that moment back on Lamentis. Before he can confess, however, Loki is disintegrated by a now conscious Renslayer, who has finished her job by eliminating one of the variants.
Sylvie quickly turns the tables on her and Renslayer doesn’t beg for her life but instead tells the variant to finish her. Instead of giving into anger or a thirst for vengeance after Loki was just executed, Sylvie demands that Renslayer give her answers to what’s really going on at the TVA.
But that’s not all….
In the post credits scene, Loki awakens in a strange new world after he was pruned out of existence. While he can’t help but wonder if he’s dead and gone to Hel, he’s soon greeted by some familiar faces as a group of variant Loki’s from across time stand over top of him and explain that he’ll die soon enough if he doesn’t come with them.
What does this all mean? Where did Loki go after he was eliminated? And what exactly is going on with the Time-Keepers and the TVA?
Only two episodes remain so we won’t have to wait too long for answers with “Loki” returning next Wednesday for the penultimate episode on Disney+.
