[In-Depth Analysis & Review] Loki Episode 4 [Impressions & Easter Eggs]
Hello!
Today it’s Loki episode 4, which dropped on Wednesday 30 June — the points worth flagging, the theories, and predictions for where all of this goes next.
Quick notes on everything that caught my eye on the first watch, the Easter eggs, and the theories after that.
Spoilers ahead
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Contents
What I’ve been into lately
Started shooting all sorts of things for fun recently. Camera is a ZV-1, shooting RAW and editing in Lightroom.
This time it was Ueno and a few other places.
Episode 4, “The Nexus Event”
The Valkyries
The word “Valkyries” comes up while the young Sylvie is playing!
Pretty sure all of them except Valkyrie herself were killed by Hela. Dropping a piece of continuity like that in so casually is exactly right.
What Ravonna did
The one who failed to prune the young Sylvie turns out to be Ravonna!
And sure enough, she doesn’t even try to stop Sylvie running.
Pruning a small child was probably a bit much for her.
There’s also someone standing in front of Sylvie who looks very much like the boss of the TVA.
Sif shows up
A surprise appearance from Sif!!!
First time since the second Thor film? There are rumours she’s in Thor: Love and Thunder as well, so presumably she dropped in here while she was at it!
Lovely to get a glimpse of ordinary life for Loki and the rest in this scene. For all his nonsense he does seem to be loved by everybody… so why betray them…
The change in Loki
So good to get this much feeling out of Loki’s face this week!
First the look on him when he realises what he feels for Sylvie on Lamentis. Then the forced face he puts on when they lie to him about Sylvie being pruned. And finally the grief when Mobius is killed right in front of him. Every one of them landed. Genuinely shook me…
If you could go anywhere in time
Love the running “if you could go anywhere in time” bit between Ravonna and Mobius.
Mobius never says what he actually thinks at first, just keeps insisting the question is beside the point. Then, once he knows he’s about to die, he finally says it — he wants a jet ski, wherever he came from — and gets pruned…
Never thought they’d really prune Mobius…
Mobius or the TVA
Ravonna looked like she had some kind of special feeling towards Mobius, and in the end she picks the TVA anyway… Really looking forward to the TVA secrets she’s presumably going to spill next week!
B-15 turns
B-15 spent episode 1 at Loki’s throat, and here she trusts her own instincts over the TVA and pulls them out of a corner! A properly stirring turn.
After watching episode 4
What Sylvie actually is
From what Mobius says in episode 4, Loki and Sylvie being Variants born from the same person is now more or less confirmed. What still isn’t clear is why she’s a woman. Sylvie asks Ravonna straight out what her nexus event was, and the answer gets fudged.
Theories so far:
- A copy Loki created with his duplication magic when he was small
- Loki is the fake and Sylvie isn’t a Variant at all — she’s the real one
Theory 2 especially. The idea being that Sylvie is the genuine Loki, and that the male one is a fake the TVA put in place to keep the Sacred Timeline neatly under control.
But all those other Lokis turn up at the end, so maybe theory 2 doesn’t hold? Hmm~ Why does the shape change too…
What the Time-Keepers are
Called it — there are no Time-Keepers!
Which makes the mastermind Miss Minutes, exactly as predicted from the start?
One other thing that stood out. The remaining Time-Keepers are laughing at the destroyed one, which reads as: no damage done at all. Something very dark going on there.
So who built Miss Minutes? If it’s Kang the Conqueror, the name floated back in the episode 1 analysis, and he becomes the MCU’s main villain going forward, that is a seriously exciting direction!
Kang the Conqueror goes by a lot of other names, incidentally: Nathaniel Richards / Iron Lad / Rama-Tut / Scarlet Centurion / Immortus, among others.
And why has the TVA gone this far off the rails? Maybe because the era the TVA sits in is the deep future (the 100th century or something?), and they’re protecting the single road that leads to it — the Sacred Timeline.
Loki and Mobius
Loki and Mobius both get pruned… Such a sad scene…
That said, they get sent somewhere else rather than wiped out, so they’ll be fine one way or another.
What triggered the branch
A quick theory on why the branch happens in this scene.
By the rules so far, nothing done at an apocalypse can affect the timeline at all… so why does it branch… Because Mobius and the others were out looking for them, surely.
Meaning a timeline where Mobius saves them and one where he doesn’t were both born right there. Bit of a chicken-and-egg paradox lol
Hoping episode 5 or later clears it up!
All the other Lokis
What is this lot of Lokis who look like they wandered straight off a Comic-Con floor lol
Kid Loki and King Loki from the comics are in there, plus a Hammer Loki and a Lizard Loki nobody here has ever heard of!
They don’t look likely to stick around the MCU long term, so they’ll probably be gone by episode 5 or 6…
Where is that place, anyway? Where pruned Variants end up? In which case there’d probably be Infinity Stones and all sorts lying around there!
And as it happens, it was already there in the trailer, as above.
Episode 5 is here
[In-Depth Analysis & Review] Loki Episode 5 [Impressions & Easter Eggs]
