Recap: Loki, The Nexus Event

This week’s episode included what people expected: Loki and Sylvia saved from certain death at an apocalypse in a place called Lamentis
The rest of the episode include a lot of twists that could wind up unraveling the Time Variant Authority…and ends with what could be the greatest final shot in MCU history.

SPOILERS BELOW

It starts with the Minutemen of the TVA arresting a young girl at Asgard for ruining the Sacred Timeline. She soon finds herself in court, but gets away by stealing a TemPad (not to mention biting someone and stomping a foot). Either the kid was busy early in her life, or someone jumped the gun on what this girl may have done. Of course, the girl grows up to be Sylvie (Sophia DiMartino), who has been creating Nexus events everywhere and hiding in apocalypses

All Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) cares about is to get Loki and Sylvie, but she won’t let Mobius (Owen Wilson) talk to Hunter C-20 about how Sylvie tapped her memories. She even says C-20 (Sasha Lane) is dead because her brain is mush. Renslayer says it was to protect him and everyone at the TVA, but the way she says it hints that she’s not completely honest.
The TVA does find Loki and Sylvie but they are taken away very quickly.

Loki gets the more interesting cell: a time loop prison where Sif clobbers him for something. She should be mad, because Jaimie Alexander is not in the credits. Still, the experience gets Loki to admit he likes doing awful things for attention because he doesn’t like being alone. Sylvie is kept away from everyone because she’s too dangerous.

Mobius eventually springs him, and grills him about how Loki and Sylvie are plotting something to destroy the Sacred Timeline. Loki disagrees, but eventually plays along. He also tries to convince Mobius everyone is a variant, but he’s too smart to believe that…right?
What’s more interesting is that Mobius accuses Loki of falling in love with his female counterpart. In this case, it’s understandable, because they’re not exactly the same person. It still bothers Loki a little. Mobius also claims Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) killed Sylvie, but that was part of the interrogating. What will happen to those ladies will be more interesting.

Later, Mobius shares a drink with Renslayer, and discuss what to do with Loki and Sylvie. It seems they’ll likely be “pruned” or removed from reality, by order of the Timekeepers. All Renslayer cares about is preserving the TVA and everything it does. Otherwise, all worlds will fall apart. Mobius seems to agree…until he switches his TemPad with the judge’s. Thanks to that move, he finds out what really happened to C-20, and who was there.
Yep, it’s Renslayer.

Mobius meets with Loki to decide what to do next, but Renslayer has the drop on them. She grabs Loki and prunes Mobius. More on that decision later.
Hunter B-15 decides to talk to Sylvie, and they sneak away from the Roxconn store from a couple of weeks back. B-15 asks Sylvie if she can fake memories, because B-15 remembers a life before the TVA (which is impossible unless they are all Variants). Sylvie says she can’t and proves it. This is going to change things.

Now Renslayer is set to get rid of Loki and Sylvie. She asks Renslayer why she was arrested as a young girl. Renslayer won’t answer or claims she forgot. Again, our guess is Sylvie was arrested too early because they thought grabbing her before she caused the Horrible Nexus Event would be a good idea. So maybe trying to stop a future event caused something worse? Maybe.

The execution winds up to be very interesting. The Timekeepers look like living statues, while Loki and Sylvie aren’t scared. Then B-15 frees them, setting off one very lively fight. It ends with the Timekeepers claiming that she is a “cosmic disappointment” as a daughter (what?), and she winds up beheading one of them. The other two also stop working.
Yep, the Timekeepers are fake, or they are (or it is) somewhere else. Loki is about to tell Sylvie something when he’s pruned by Renslayer’s Time Stick. Sylvie grabs it, but doesn’t kill the judge. She hopes confessing the truth about the TVA will be worse. It probably will be.
If Sylvie’s mission was to dissolve the TVA, she must be amused it’s doing most of the work.

What about Loki? He thinks he’s in Hel, but is met by three people who insist he isn’t.
Yes, this is real (and Old Style Loki is Richard E. Grant).

So, is there a chance everyone else who has been “pruned” is in the same place, including the Hunters and Mobius? It seems trying to preserve the Sacred Timeline is causing more problems than stability. As Sylvie said, the universe wants to be set free even if it causes chaos. Someone or something thinks that’s not true, and that’s where we are. Order or freedom…again.
What’s next? The final two episodes should be interesting.