Loki Season 2 Episode 3 Makes It Clear: Miss Minutes Wants Her Clock Wound Up
The following post contains spoilers for "Loki" season 2, episode 3.
Since the beginning of the Marvel Disney+ series "Loki," the character of Miss Minutes has been intriguing. At first, she seemed like an AI character who was there to give slightly sinister instructions to variants who were about to be pruned. The explanation video for the multiversal war in season 1, episode 1 could have been boring exposition, but Miss Minutes — and actor Tara Strong's amazing voice work — made it fun. As the first season went on, Miss Minutes began to show a different side of herself. She was no longer coming across as that overly friendly instructor trying to make you feel good about the awful things she was telling you. It became clear that she was more than just a hologram who could talk. She's in on the darker side of things.
In episode 3 of the second season, we find out a lot more about her, including the fact that she's got it bad for He Who Remains/Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors). Maybe she's really into more of the Kang variants as well, but at the moment, she's thirsty for the ones we're seeing in this series. Let's take a look at what happened in this episode, and maybe start looking askance at our alarm clocks.
It's time for some Timely
It was clear in season 1 that Miss Minutes was loyal to the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and, by extension, whoever was running it. We know now that it was the Kang-variant He Who Remains who engineered the entire thing. However, we didn't know the extent of her loyalty until she engineers the rise of another Kang variant, Victor Timely. (The circular fact that a He Who Remains created her with his scientific knowledge, and that she brought that knowledge to Victor Timely makes my brain itch.) Though Miss Minutes appears to be helping Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), we later find out Ravonna may have had a romantic relationship with He Who Remains, though her perceived love may not have been reciprocated. That's what sets Miss Minutes off on her quest to convince Victor to give her a physical body so they can ... um ... spend some quality sexy time together.
Miss Minutes is all over this episode, giving herself an old-timey makeover with her grayed-out appearance and showing off as a ghost in public. She even blushes in one scene. She clearly imagines herself as a human, despite the fact that she reminds Victor that He Who Remains made her as an AI companion to play chess with. I think she actually fell in love with He Who Remains when he let her write her own program.
The thing is, you can't really blame her for thinking there is something between them. I mean, He Who Remains created her, gave her autonomy to become the best version of herself, allowed her to gain sentience, and then trusted her with helping him carry out his plans. As she says, they spent night after night together, talking and playing chess for eons.
Love in the age of AI
It's also understandable (but incredibly creepy) that she took the opportunity to declare her love and try to hook up with Victor Timely, who's such an innocent Kang variant, the one she thinks she can convince to give her a human body. I don't know about you, but I have a fear of mannequins, so seeing her superimpose her face on one was very unsettling.
Once she realized she wasn't going to get some ... I don't know, mannequin sex, I guess, because Victor Timely probably can't be the one to give her a body at this point in history ... she got really pissed off. Sometimes when spurned, uh, people ... sentient clocks? ... get rejected, they find someone else who has feelings for that person and commiserate.
With Ravonna sent to the Citadel at the End of Time with He Who Remains' desiccated body, Miss Minutes finds the perfect co-conspirator. As Miss Minutes says at the end of the episode, "It was foolish of him to make an enemy of someone who knows all his secrets. I know a really big one about you. I can tell you but ... it's gonna make you real angry." Ooh, that won't end well. If Miss Minutes gets a corporeal form for her team-up with Ravonna, it could be very bad. Would I like to see Miss Minutes get a human body in the form of her voice actor? Yes. Yes, I would. Would any variant of Kang want that? Not if he values any of his lives.
"Loki" is currently streaming on Disney+.