‘Loki’: The Fight Against the TVA Begins & [SPOILER] Dies…? (RECAP)
Spoiler Alert
[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Loki Season 1 episode 4, “The Nexus Event.”]
Everything we thought we knew about the TVA is a lie, and “The Nexus Event” proves it …although there are definitely still questions to be answered.
Rescued in the nick of time from Lamentus-1 by the TVA, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) go from one unpleasant situation to another. But the Lokis might just have allies within the organization as they reveal the truth — and by the end of the episode, it seems like it all could come crumbling down. Plus, there are a couple of shocking deaths that we’re not entirely sure were deaths at all. Here’s how it happens.
Stuck in a Loop
We see flashbacks to a younger Sylvie (Cailey Fleming) being brought in by the TVA — and Renslayer, specifically. Turns out, Ravonna let her escape just before she was about to “stand trial” for her crimes… a decision she probably regrets now.
In the present, Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) goes before the Timekeepers — who are visible as three shadows with glowing eyes — and then goes back to the TVA. She says they blame her for what happened, and that Mobius (Owen Wilson) needs to find the variants as soon as possible. But he won’t be able to talk to C-20 about what “it’s real” meant, because she’s dead.
Thankfully, Mobius picks up on a Nexus event on Lamentus-1 (seemingly caused by the Lokis holding hands) and, just in the nick of time, he manages to get Loki and Sylvie out before the planet is destroyed. Loki’s then put in a “bad memory prison,” trapped in a loop of a time when he cut off half of Lady Sif’s (Jaime Alexander) hair, and she, ever the Asgardian warrior, beats him up for it. So, for hours, he’s getting beaten up over, and over, and over again. Yikes!
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What Comes Next
When it’s time for Loki to be interrogated, he just can’t help himself — he lies again, saying the plan was his all along. Mobius tells him Sylvie is dead, which hurts him (apparently, he’s developed quite the crush on himself), and they argue; Loki finally yells that everyone working for the TVA is a variant. Mobius reveals Sylvie is alive, for now, but he doesn’t seem to believe Loki when he says he had a life before the TVA. As he’s put back in his time cell, Loki tells Mobius that of the two of them, he’s the biggest liar, because he’s lying to himself.
Meanwhile, B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) goes into Sylvie’s cell and opens a portal to Roxxcart. She asks Sylvie to enchant her again so she can see her memories, and when she does, she cries. “I looked happy,” she says, then she asks Sylvie what they’ll do now.
A Shocking End…?
It seems Loki’s gotten through to Mobius. As Ravonna congratulates him for closing the case, he asks her why she wouldn’t allow him to interrogate Sylvie, and when she first noticed what was happening with C-20. She launches into a speech about how she was only trying to protect him and how their friendship is something to cherish, like the Sacred Timeline. But when her back is turned, Mobius swaps their TemPads, and he later finds interrogation footage of C-20 on it… in which she insists she had a real life, and that she’s a variant. “I’m stopping this,” someone says, and — surprise! — it’s Ravonna.
From there, Mobius springs Loki from the time cell, implying he has a plan to save Sylvie and bring down the TVA. But they don’t get very far. They’re met outside the cell by Ravonna, who noticed Mobius swapped the TemPads. Mobius tells her he thought of an answer to the question she’d asked him in her office: if he could go anywhere, any time, he would go back to the life he had before the TVA. Then Loki watches in horror as he’s pruned, and he’s led away to reunite with Sylvie… and meet the Timekeepers.
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Even More Lokis!
That’s where things get weird. Ravonna brings the Lokis before the Timekeepers with the intent of pruning them both, but they’re interrupted by B-15, and a fight breaks out. Loki and Sylvie fight off everyone, including Ravonna, who’s knocked unconscious. One of the Timekeepers is decapitated, and it turns out they’re all mechanical; someone else has been controlling them. But who? Doesn’t matter, Loki says — they’ll figure it out. He turns to Sylvie and starts to confess his feelings, stuttering and saying, “this is all very new for me,” and then a hole of light appears in his chest. Ravonna has pruned him!
Enraged, Sylvie throws Ravonna to the ground and aims the pruning stick at her. “Do it,” she says, but Sylvie has other plans. She demands Ravonna tells her the truth, about everything.
In a post-credits scene, a pruned Loki is very much alive! He thinks he’s dead, but that’s not quite true; “you will be,” a voice says, “unless you come with us.” He looks up to see four other Lokis staring at him — Kid Loki (Jack Veal), Classic Loki (Richard Grant), a crocodile Loki and a Loki holding a Mjolnir-like hammer (DeObia Oparei). What?! Just how many Lokis are there? Are all of them in this universe? Is Mobius there, too? We’ll have to wait for next week to find out.
Loki, Wednesdays, Disney+
