Tamal Kundu
The Disney+ superhero series ‘Loki’ continues with what seems to be the fundamental concept behind Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the exploration of the weird and unconventional. The show unfolds like a procedural series, with the God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) and his antics at its core. In episode 2, Loki begins working closely with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), and other TVA agents as they go after the murderous Loki variant.
The search for the Variant takes them to a Renaissance Fair in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1985 and the fictional town of Haven Hills, Alabama, facing imminent destruction due to a Hurricane in 2050. Loki and Mobius are seemingly involved in a mental game that has layers upon layers. Throughout the episode, they try to take advantage of each other’s innate qualities to turn things in their favor. Here is everything you need to know about ‘Loki’ episode 2 ending. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Loki Episode 2 Recap
The search for the Variant brings a team of Minutemen under the leadership of Hunter C-20 to Oshkosh in 1985, but they are ambushed by the Variant, who neutralizes all other members of the team except for C-20, whom he takes as captive. And like before, the Variant takes their reset charge. Mobius and B-15 come to the crime scene to investigate the matter along with Loki and a team of Minutemen. Once there, Loki stalls for time as the Nexus event gets dangerously close to branching past the red line, which, as the audience was informed a few minutes ago in an exposition scene involving TVA’s anthropomorphic clock mascot Miss Minutes (Tara Strong), is “a very bad thing” and can “lead to the destruction of the timeline.”
Because of Loki’s antics, Mobius gets into trouble with his immediate boss, Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), but ultimately convinces her to give Loki one more chance. Mobius previously tried to convince Loki to give his best efforts promising him that an audience with the Time-Keepers would be arranged if Loki helped catch the Variant. He then appealed to the God of Mischief’s vanity by repeatedly calling the Variant a superior Loki. Neither apparently worked. But an immediate threat to Loki’s life seems to do the trick, and he finds out that the Variant is hiding in apocalypses to avoid detection by the TVA.
To test the theory, they go to Pompeii, Italy, in 79 AD, right before Mount Vesuvius’ cataclysmic eruption, and discover that no new nexus is being created despite Loki’s attempts to disrupt the timeline. They get back to the headquarters and eventually find out that the Variant is in Haven Hills, Alabama, in 2050. After they get there, Loki meets the Variant, who seems to have the ability to control other people’s minds.
The Variant uses a countdown device to trigger all the stolen reset charges and teleport them to various points in time, effectively creating numerous branches in the timeline. Meanwhile, Mobius learns from C-20 that she has told the Variant about how to get to the Time-Keepers. The Variant is revealed to be a blonde woman with short hair and of medium height. As she leaves, likely for another apocalyptic event, Loki follows after some hesitation, much to Mobius’ dismay.
Loki Episode 2 Ending: Who is the Variant?
In the final scenes of episode 1, Mobius reveals to Loki that the Variant that the TVA is chasing is a version of him. In episode 2, we learn that the Loki Variants have garnered a reputation among the TVA employees. As Mobius reveals, the TVA has pruned more versions of Loki than almost any other Variant. To digress from the main point a bit, that “almost” part is quite curious and really makes you wonder about these Variant(s) with worse records than Loki and whether they will appear in future episodes.
Anyway, we see the holographic images of the Loki Variants the TVA has pruned in the past: a champion cyclist Loki, a gamma-ray-affected Loki, a Loki that seems to have merged with Rasputin, and a berserk Loki. The TVA seems to have the temporal aura sample of the Variant to compare it with what they found at the 1985 site and know that it is indeed the Variant they are chasing.
However, during his fight with a person controlled by the Variant, Loki offhandedly remarks that he won’t treat himself like this. This is likely an important reflection on the protagonist’s part and probably indicates that the blonde woman is not really Lady Loki, as many fans presume her to be. Lady Loki has flowing black hair in the comics and is about 6 feet 4 inches tall, making the Variant an improbable candidate to be her.
An apparent goof-up in the end credits of Loki episode 2 (the dubbing section of the Castilian dialect of the Spanish language) lists the Variant as Sylvie, who is likely Sylvie Lushton. In the comics, she is one of the two characters who become the powerful sorceress Enchantress. The show can follow the comics’ route and reveal that she is Enchantress and not Lady Loki, or it can depict her as the MCU version of Lady Loki.
Are the Time-Keepers and the TVA Forces of Good?
The TVA and its masters, the Time-Keepers, seem to control the timeline with an iron fist. In episode 1, we learn that there used to be multiple timelines, and there was a great war between them. The three Time-Keepers then stepped in and created a singular timeline. In episode 2, we get more information about the Time-Keepers and TVA’s mission in a conversation between Mobius and Loki. The doctrine that the TVA follows dangerously resembles that of a cult, especially the idea that once the god-like Time-Keepers finish their task of unraveling the sacred timeline, there will be only order.
Loki, ever the cynic, clearly sees through this. But he has also noticed the immense power that the TVA possesses and decides to make it his own. The general TVA agents also seem to have very little regard for life. They wipe out timelines, not caring how many people they erase from existence. Mobius is an apparent exception to this. In episode 2, he shows very uncharacteristic compassion for a TVA employee for the doomed residents of Haven Hills.
Read More: Where Is Loki Filmed?
