Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is a character who has shown remarkable resilience and adaptability throughout his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He debuted in Thor as a fan-favorite villain who later became an anti-hero. His survival skills have allowed him to return to the MCU in various films, such as the Thor trilogy and the third and fourth Avengers movies. He finally starred in his own TV show, Loki, which premiered on Disney+ as part of the first batch of Marvel TV series in Phase 4 of the MCU.
The show was a groundbreaking exploration of Loki’s multifaceted personality and a previously unseen aspect of the franchise’s expansive fictional world. It was the only series to be renewed for a second season, which will be part of Phase 5. Since the first season aired two years ago, here is a summary of the main events that happened in its six episodes.
1. Loki’s Time-Travel, Variants & The TVA
The show Loki begins with a scene from Avengers: Endgame, where the 2012 version of Loki escapes with the Tesseract after the Battle of New York. He is a variant who deviated from the Sacred Timeline, the predetermined course of history according to the Time Variance Agency. He lands in Mongolia, where he is captured by TVA agents and taken to their headquarters.
There, he faces trial before Judge Ravonna Renslayer, who is about to sentence him to be pruned (erased from existence) when Agent Mobius intervenes. Mobius recruits Loki to help him catch a dangerous variant who is killing TVA agents and stealing their time-travel devices. Loki agrees, after seeing how his original fate was to cause his mother Frigga’s death and be killed by Thanos.
He also realizes how insignificant he is in the grand scheme of things, as the TVA has dozens of Infinity Stones that they use as paperweights. Mobius reveals that the variant they are hunting is another version of Loki himself.
The show Loki introduces a formidable adversary for the titular character, a variant who can possess the bodies of others, especially the TVA agents who pursue it. Mobius’s idea of using Loki as an ally pays off, as he helps him track down the variant’s movements and motives. He also makes a breakthrough – the variant is hiding in events where the world is about to end, as its actions there will not affect the timeline.
They test this theory in Pompeii, and then locate the variant in a Roxxcart store in Alabama in 2050, where a deadly hurricane is imminent. Loki confronts the variant, who is revealed to be a female version of himself named Sylvie.
Although he wants to assist Mobius, he also shares Sylvie’s curiosity about the Time-Keepers and their secrets, so he attempts to negotiate with her. She rejects his offer and flees after activating several time bombs that create chaos in the timeline. But Loki follows her, leaving Mobius and his team behind.
2. Loki’s Female Variant Sylvie
Loki and Sylvie escape to the TVA after their encounter at Roxxcart, but they end up in Lamentis-1, a doomed planet, after a heated argument. They board a train that could take them to a safe place, and they bond over their shared experiences and identities (revealing their bisexuality in the process).
However, they are discovered and ejected from the train, and their TemPad (the device that allows them to travel through time) is destroyed. Sylvie tells Loki how she can manipulate the minds of others, and she reveals a shocking truth – the TVA agents are variants who have been brainwashed to forget their past lives.
As they await their inevitable death on Lamentis-1, Sylvie wonders if a Loki’s fate is to always lose, but Loki disagrees and says their fate is to always survive. Mobius and Hunter B-15 find them when they detect a huge anomaly in the timeline (caused by Loki’s self-love for Sylvie), and they rescue them in the nick of time. Loki tries to warn Mobius about the TVA’s lies, but he is sent to a time loop as punishment (where he meets Sif again).
Mobius and Hunter B-15 begin to doubt the TVA’s legitimacy, but Ravonna notices this and prunes Mobius and arrests Hunter B-15. Loki and Sylvie are brought before the Time-Keepers, who turn out to be fake robotic puppets. Hunter B-15 helps them fight back, but Ravonna prunes Loki just as he is about to confess his feelings for Sylvie. He wakes up in the Void, where he is greeted by four other variants of himself.
3. Introduction of He Who Remains & Loki’s Other Variants
Loki meets four other variants of himself in the Void, a place where everything that is pruned by the TVA ends up. They are Kid Loki, who killed Thor in his timeline; Boastful Loki, who claims to have defeated many enemies; Classic Loki, who survived Thanos by creating a realistic illusion; and Alligator Loki, who was captured by the TVA for eating a neighbor’s cat.
They take Loki to their shelter, where they hide from Alioth, a monstrous cloud that devours everything in the Void. Sylvie, who pruned herself to follow Loki, arrives in the Void and joins forces with Mobius, who also survived his pruning. They find Loki and the other variants and plan their next move. Mobius decides to return to the TVA, while Classic Loki sacrifices himself to distract Alioth and allow Loki and Sylvie to pass through it and discover the true mastermind behind the TVA.
Loki and Sylvie enter He Who Remains’ citadel, where they are welcomed by Miss Minutes, the TVA’s animated mascot. She offers them a deal: they can have their own happy lives in the timeline if they leave He Who Remains alone. They reject her offer and proceed to meet the man behind the TVA.
He is an eccentric and powerful being who reveals that he is a variant of a scientist who discovered the existence of multiple universes. He also explains that his variants waged a war for supremacy, which he ended by using Alioth, a creature that can consume time and space, to create the Sacred Timeline.
He has been maintaining the order of the timeline for eons, but he is tired and ready to pass on his role. He gives them two choices: kill him and unleash his evil variants, or take over his job as guardians of the timeline. He tells them that they have reached the threshold – the point where he no longer knows what will happen next.
Sylvie and Loki disagree on what to do, and they fight each other. Sylvie manages to send Loki back to the TVA and then kills He Who Remains, causing the timeline to branch into countless possibilities.
The show Loki concludes with a shocking twist: he returns to a TVA that is controlled by a variant of He Who Remains, who has replaced the Time-Keepers. Ravonna is nowhere to be found, and Mobius and Hunter B-15 do not recognize Loki when he approaches them. They are busy trying to manage the chaotic timelines that have emerged after He Who Remains’ death.
The first season of Loki expands the horizons of the MCU while paying tribute to the Loki who died at the hands of Thanos. It also makes this version of Loki a sympathetic and charismatic character. The show ends with several unresolved mysteries, but it has returned for a second season to address them as much as possible.
4. About Loki
Loki is an American TV series created by Michael Waldron for Disney+ and Marvel. It is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with events of the series taking place after Avengers: Endgame.
Tom Hiddleston reprises his role as Loki along side new faces like Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane, Eugene Cordero and Erika Coleman.
After stealing the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame, Loki is apprehended by the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA) and their Time-Keepers. Loki is given a choice between fixing all the timelines he broke with the Tesseract and death at the hands of the TVA.
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