Let's Talk About the Game Changing LOKI Episode 4 - "The Nexus Event"
Wow! That fourth episode of Loki sure was incredible! On top of it being a great episode, a lot of things happened and there was a lot of interesting stuff revealed.
So, let’s just dive right into it! It’s revealed that the Time-Keepers are robots!? After Loki and Sylvie are recaptured by the TVA, they are eventually taken to the Time-Keepers by Ravonna for their execution. But, they manage to overpower the guards, and Sylvie cuts the head off one of the Time-Keeper's and reveals their true nature. They are robots, this is a big Wizard of Oz-style illusion, and now we know that someone is behind the curtain pulling the strings.
It’s funny because when we first see the Time-Keepers, I was like, “Damn, those look more animatronic than CGI.” Then it turned out they were! That made me laugh. But the big question is, who is controlling the TVA!? The obvious suspect is Kang the Conqueror, who is a time-traveling villain from the 31st century. He’s already set to appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where he'll be played by Jonathan Majors, so this just seems like the perfect opportunity to introduce him. But, we’ll have to wait and see.
After they cut the head off the Time Keeper and take out the guards, Loki is about to tell Sylvie how he feels about her. Yes, he crosses that really weird and strange line where he falls in love with another Variant of himself. It looks like he’s about to tell Sylvie that he loves her, when all of a sudden Ravonna sneaks up from behind and prunes Loki, seemingly wiping him out of existence!
But don’t worry! He’s ok! The post-credits scene shows Loki waking up in a ruined city and wondering what in the hell is going on. He asks aloud if he’s dead, and then a voice comes in and says “Not yet, but you will be unless you come with us." Loki looks up to see three new Loki Variants Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Kid Loki (Jack Veal), and Boastful Loki (Deobia Oparei). There's also a crocodile wearing a Loki crown!
I have no idea where this is going to take us next, but I can’t wait! I can’t help but think everyone that has ever been pruned by the TVA ends up in this place and it’s probably completely out of control, a place filled with misfit variants. Regardless of what this place is, there’s no doubt it’s going to bring some great entertainment to the fans.
After Loki is pruned Sylvie puts Ravonna in a situation where she is going to have to tell her "everything." With what this episode sets up, there’s no doubt we’re going to learn a whole hell of a lot more in the next episode.
The TVA has found itself on a downward spiral, but Ravonna did do her best to try and keep it together. She obviously knows what is going on behind the curtain. In the previous episode it was revealed that the TVA agents are actually variants who have had their minds wiped clean and are pretty much forced into service.
Sylvie ended up unlocking memories in Hunters C-20 and B-15, played by Sasha Lane and Wunmi Mosaku. They got glimpses of their old lives. It seems that C-20 was pruned by Ravonna to preserve the secret, but B-15 kept a low profile until she was able to talk to Sylvie about what she experienced, and when Sylvie enchanted her again, she learned that she had a happy life.
She ended up helping Sylvie and Loki in their effort to take down the TVA. B-15 was knocked unconscious in that scene, and we’ll most likely see her team up with Sylvie in the next episode as they continue to search for answers.
The episode also saw Loki reveals the truth to Mobius, and he’s shaken by it. He needed to find proof for himself before he completely turned his trust over to Loki, which he did. So, Mobius ultimately agrees to help to down the Time-Keepers, but unfortunately, he doesn’t get the chance. Ravonna comes in to stop them and as Mobius talks about the awesomeness of riding around on his jet-ski, she has him pruned!
I was seriously upset by this! In this moment, I actually got a little emotional because I freakin’ love this Morbius character! Luckily we know that Mobius isn’t dead. Hopefully, he ends up where Loki is so we can see them get to team up. We also need to see him riding around a jet ski before the series ends! Hell, he needs to be riding on a jet ski with Loki on the back!
Now, before all this happens, Mobius puts Loki into a Time Cell. This place is designed to soften up prisoners for interrogation by having them relive bad memories over and over. In this case, Jaimie Alexander returns as Lady Sif! The MCU movie we saw her was in Thor: The Dark World.
So, the bad memory Loki lives over and over again involves Sif coming to him holding up a chunk of her hair Loki cut off and says, "You conniving, craven, pathetic worm. You did this. I hope you know you deserve to be alone and you always will be." She then proceeds to knee him in the balls.
This memory of Loki is actually pulled from the comics (and actual Norse mythology —ed.), in which Loki cuts off Sif's golden locks as a prank, and this pisses off Thor. He demands that Loki fix it, so Loki convinces dwarven craftsmen to create new hair for Sif.
The episode also offers us some backstory on Sylvie. In a flashback scene, we see a young Sylvie living in Asgard when a team of TVA agents led by Ravonna comes in, arrests her, and wipes out her reality. Luckily for Sylvie, she manages to get a hold of Ravonna's TemPad and escapes.
Later in the episode, Sylvie asks Ravonna why she was arrested, but Ravonna says she doesn't remember. Of course, she says this with a sinister smile, which tells us she’s probably lying. We’ll eventually find out the answer to this question!
One question I have about the series, why didn’t the TVA could have just left Sylvie and Loki to die on Lamentis? That could have stopped all of this from happening.
One other thing I want to point out, there’s a mention of vampires in this episode, which is fun little nod to what’s coming with the new Blade series.
What did you think of the recent Loki episode, and did you notice anything that I might have missed?