Episode 4 of the Loki series marks a turning point for the Marvel universe. We explain the mind-blowing ending of this chapter to you. Warning, spoilers.
Warning, spoilers. It is recommended to have seen episode 4 of season 2 of Loki before continuing reading this article.
Season 2 of Loki, currently streaming on Disney+, is almost coming to an end. And episode 4, entitled “The Heart of TVA”, marks a turning point in the series but also in the Marvel universe.
In this new burst of episodes, the God of Malice played by Tom Hiddleston continues his adventures with the TVA (Tribunal of Anachronic Variations), which manages inconsistencies in the Multiverse and flaws in the Eternal Temporal Flow.
This Loki, escaped from 2012, is a cosmic anomaly and he will try to bring balance back to the Multiverse with agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Sylvie, aka Lady Loki (Sophia Di Martino), one of his variants .
But the TVA hides dark secrets, like its creator “He Who Remains” (whose variant Kang the Conqueror was introduced in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), played by Jonathan Majors.
The murder of “He Who Remains” by Sylvie at the end of season 1 disrupted the Eternal Temporal Flow and created too many new branches in the Multiverse, which caused an overload of the Temporization Center.
The solution ? Find Victor Timely, who is at the origin of the creation of the TVA and which gave rise to all its variants “He Who Remains”, Kang the Conqueror and many others. Loki, Mobius, Sylvie, OB (Ke Huy Quan) but also Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Miss Minutes, who have “evil” plans, set out to look for him and find him.
The end of the Marvel Universe as we know it?
In episode 4 of season 2 of Loki, the whole gang tries to control the overloaded TVA Timing Center and Victor Timely volunteers to go to its heart and control the temporal energy.
But the radiation was too great and Victor Timely was unable to control the problem in time. We then see it disappear completely. But that’s not all since the end of episode 4 shows us the beginning of the explosion of the Eternal Temporal Flow and what seems to be the “disappearance” of Loki and the others, helpless in the face of the situation.
Disney+
So is this the end of Loki and the Marvel Universe? The series’ executive producer, Kevin Wright, explained to TheWrap that the last two episodes of Marvel fiction were going to be decisive for the rest of the Marvel universe, especially since there are still Renslayer and Miss Minutes somewhere:
“At the end of episode 4, we don’t know where the group is, or where they’re going, or if they’re alive. But if we could go back to this TVA, do Renslayer and Miss Minutes know what what to do to put time and reality back on track? Is Victor a key element in this?”
The only hope for everything to return to order could therefore lie in the future actions of Renslayer and Miss Minutes, who have been portrayed until now as antagonists. But are they really? Both have a great thirst for power and know that they have worked with “He Who Remains” in the proper functioning of the TVA, despite the numerous times he erased Renslayer’s memory.
Disney+
One thing is certain in any case, war is coming. The one which will surely lead to the events planned in phase 6 of the MCU with the next films Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, as Kevin Wright explains:
“Reality is perhaps even more in danger today. For even without Victor Timely, the warning remains relevant: war is coming. The TVA, in Loki’s opinion, was the only thing that stood perhaps opposed this war and the collapse of reality.
If they somehow manage to bring reality back to order after episode four, I’d say they still have a very serious problem to solve. And they may have just lost a very valuable tool in the person of Victor Timely, who was essential to carrying out this mission.”
The final two episodes of Loki season 2, which Kevin Wright considers to be “profoundly beautiful”, will be decisive for the future of the MCU. Has the timeline of the Marvel Universe as we know it disappeared forever? Will we discover another timeline in the Multiverse?
With the MCU’s big plans often being implemented in Marvel films, it’s hard to imagine such a huge shake-up happening in one of the series. It is more likely that the protagonists, whoever they are, will manage to put the TVA and the Eternal Time Flow back in order, but there will inevitably be consequences, and Victor Timely could return in another form or leave his place to Kang.
Episode 4 of season 2 of Loki is available on Disney+.