Mobius Loses His Cool In Loki Season 2 Episode 2, And We May Have A Hint About His Old Life
This post contains spoilers for "Loki" season 2, episode 2.
In the first season of the Marvel Disney+ series "Loki," we learned that Time Variance Authority (TVA) analyst Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) loved jet skis. We also learned, of course, that the agents and hunters from the TVA were all variants taken from their real lives to work there, with their memories erased.
Everyone has reacted differently after Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Mobius, and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) broke the façade wide open. B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) is angry and sad about what she's lost. And X-5, aka Brad Wolfe (Rafael Casal), has gone off to be an actor starring in the film "Zaniac." Mobius, however, is insistent that he doesn't need to know about his old life. He's fine where he is and loves his job. Whatever happened before just isn't important to him. Or is it?
In the episode 2 scene where Mobius, B-15, and Loki are interrogating Brad, the hunter/actor calls out Mobius for not wanting to see his old life. While Mobius insists that he doesn't need to know who he was before, there may be something he doesn't want to see there. In addition, an official featurette about the series hints at what Mobius left behind.
Discussions over key lime pie
Mobius is a company guy. We know it from the entire first season and his defense of the TVA. While he knows it's all been a sham created by He Who Remains, Mobius feels that his work as a TVA analyst is his real life, no matter what he left behind. Of course, if he really believed that, Brad giving him crap for not wanting to know about the life he lost wouldn't have shaken him. When Mobius punches Brad for calling him a "nowhere man," it's apparent that he's pushing something away. Part of it also might be that he's still clinging to what he believed was real, including his friendship with Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) — given his obvious crush on her — though that's clearly not all it is.
Mobius doesn't know what he's pushing away, but his love of jet skis managed to bleed through his memory wipe, even before he found out he'd had another existence. Something else is bleeding through as well, and whatever that is, he doesn't want to know. His conversation with Loki in the Automat over key lime pie reveals a lot more.
Piranha Motorsports
When Mobius and Loki are chatting, he doubles down on not wanting to know what happened. It's obvious how much it's getting to him, though, because Mobius punching someone is kind of shocking. He doesn't want to know about it, he tells Loki, and I believe the sentiment but not the motive.
While he clearly enjoys his job and calls the TVA "the only life I've ever known," the idea of his old life is impacting him. He says he could handle knowing that his life was bad. But if it was something good, he doesn't want it "rattling around" in his head.
I think that was the real clue, now that I'm looking at the happy picture above of Mobius from the featurette. He's wearing a Piranha Motorsports vest and what appears to be a cord for sunglasses in front of an ocean background. Was he filming a commercial for the local sporting goods store he worked at and loved? While the featurette was showing a lot of outtakes, and this could be one, he looks so happy.
It makes me think of someone dealing with trauma who just wishes for a normal life. Now, for Mobius, that trauma could have been in his former life, but what he said makes me assume the trauma is in his subconscious. Perhaps some part of his brain knows he was taken away from a life he loved and that pain is what is making him commit fully to the TVA in order to avoid the agony of losing his old life. Please, Marvel, just give Mobius a jet ski scene, okay?
"Loki" season 2 is streaming on Disney+.