Episode 6 includes a major guest star, 'Doctor Strange 2' setup and a massive cliffhanger.
New episodes of Marvel's Loki drop every Wednesday on Disney+ and each week. ET is breaking down the biggest moments from the God of Mischief, his new friends Mobius and Sylvie and the entire TVA. Make sure to also check out our recap of last week's Loki episode.
For a finale that's set in a psychedelic gothic castle amid the cosmos and features two trickster gods (or one trickster god, Variant-ed) taking on a character only known as "He Who Remains" and ultimately culminating in the dissolution of the very fabric of time and space as we know it, Loki's finale episode was downright low-key compared to the massive Marvel endings we've come to expect.
There was no city-leveling witch-off like in WandaVision, nor the super soldier pound downs of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Instead, Loki's final episode -- for now -- largely played out as a conversation between three characters: Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) and someone we predicted was coming but still freaked out just the same when he actually showed up, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors, in his MCU debut).
Or, maybe not Kang the Conqueror? But we'll get there in a moment.
After enchanting Alioth and arriving at the end of time, Loki and Sylvie arrive at a mansion on a space rock circumnavigated by the literal Sacred Timeline and discover that the person behind it all -- the TVA, the Time-Keepers, The Void -- is... Miss Minutes! Just kidding, unless...
Miss Minutes (who remains the new HBIC of the MCU) is indeed there at The Citadel at the End of Time to introduce our Lokis to Kang. It's worth noting that he is never actually referred to as Kang in the episode. "I've been dubbed many names by many people," he explains. "A ruler, a conqueror, He Who Remains, a jerk. But it's… it's not as simple as a name."
Turns out, that multiversal war we heard about all the way back in episode 1? Kang started it. In the 31st century, he discovered the multiverse and used it to connect with his Variants throughout multiple realities. But one Kang Variant decided he wanted to conquer all realities, nearly bringing about the end of everything. So, our Kang used the power of Alioth -- created by the tears in reality -- to manage the flow of time, creating the Sacred Timeline, the Time-Keepers, the TVA.
"If you think I'm evil, well," he says, "just wait till you meet my variants."
It's up to our Lokis, in the end, to decide what becomes of Kang and the empire of time he built. And they can't agree: Sylvie wants to kill Kang. Loki fears what will come in his absence. She thinks Loki wants the throne. He says, "I just want you to be OK." And so they fight, with their magic and their swords, and then they kiss.
"But I'm not you," Sylvie says, opening a TemPad portal and sending Loki through it back to the TVA.
And she's not our Loki: She stabs Kang in the chest, not the back. "See you soon," he says as he dies. It's the ultimate Nexus Event, freeing the Timeline and busting the multiverse wide open, which will have MCU-wide ramifications across Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And, it seems, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the movie we knew Majors was cast in as Kang the Conqueror. A Kang who is a Variant of the Kang we've just met.
At the TVA, Loki finds Mobius and B-15 and in a panic, informs them of what happened at the end of time. "Someone is coming. Countless different versions of a very dangerous person and they're all set on war. We need to prepare."
"Take it easy. You're an analyst, right? What division are you from?" Mobius responds. "Who are you? What's your name?"
This Mobius and this B-15 don't know our Loki -- as it seems Loki may have portalled to another timeline completely. Loki turns and the statues of the massive Time-Keepers we've seen in the TVA lobby all season long have been replaced by a new statue: Kang.
Mischief Managing:
◦ What will Sylvie do now that she's gotten her revenge? Having killed the person responsible for stealing her life away, will Sylvie rejoin Team Loki? Or could she potentially take on more of a villainous role moving forward, becoming more like the Lady Loki of comic canon? Also, when will she finally learn her Nexus event?
◦ What about the other Lokis? Last we saw the other Variants -- Kid Loki, Alligator Loki, a now one-handed President Loki -- they were stuck in The Void, but now that Alioth is enchanted and the multiverse is wide open, will they start popping up elsewhere? Or will future appearances be saved for Loki season 2? (Kid Loki, mind you, is a member of Young Avengers, a team that appears to be assembling throughout Phase 4.)
◦ Will we see Jonathan Majors again before Ant-Man 3? He Who Remains may be dead, but a multiverse of other Variants are out there. We know Kang the Conqueror is set for Quantumania, but might we see other Variants appear before then?
◦ What is Renslayer's endgame? Loki's most mysterious character, Ravonna Renslayer (who we now know is a Variant of a teacher at Franklin D. Roosevelt High, hence the pens) leaves the TVA with some light reading from He Who Remains and "in search of Free Will," as she tells Mobius. I half expected the post-credits scene to show her meeting up with a Kang Variant -- considering their comic history together -- but alas, where she portalled to is left unanswered.
◦ When will Mobius finally ride a jet ski? Are we saving that for the series finale?
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