'Loki' Takes Us On A "Journey Into Mystery" With Its Thrilling Penultimate Episode
Loki's fifth episode, "Journey Into Mystery," is chock-full of Lokis, and an Alioth to boot. Tom Hiddleston finds himself among himselves in the Void at the end of time, and Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie is still bent on finding out who's behind the TVA.
Things really come to a head this episode, and as "Journey Into Mystery" ends, we're teed up to hopefully find out who's behind it all.
Warning! Major spoilers abound below for the fifth episode of Loki.
The TVA is Shook, and Everyone Wants Answers
The truth about the Time-Keepers — the fact they don't exist — has upheaved everyone's reality. Even Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) seems shocked by the revelation, though I'm fairly confident she still knows more than she's letting on. She and Sylvie start out with an uneasy truce at the beginning of the episode, and they ask Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) to do some research.
It's clear Ravonna isn't on the up and up, however, and Sylvie becomes wise and decides to prune herself to get to the Void where our Loki is. Ravonna still wants answers though, and she even asks an imprisoned B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) on how she can find the person behind the Time Keepers.
What Ravonna wants to do when she finds them, however, remains unclear. Does she want to protect them? Ask them why they're doing what they do? Kill them, just like Sylvie? My guess (and it's only a guess!) is she wants answers and wants to hold on to her power. Ravonna likes being in control, and she likes order, and I think she'll do whatever she can to keep both.
Meanwhile, in The Void…
In The Void, Loki meets many other Lokis. We first spend time with the four teased in the post-credit scene from last week's episode. Richard E. Grant (AKA Classic Loki) gives us the lay of the land — the Void is where the TVA sends every reset timeline and every pruned Variant. It is a wasteland that is inhabited by Alioth, a cloud-lion-beast-thing that Deobia Oparei's Loki calls "a living tempest that devours matter and energy."
In other words, Alioth is no good. Hiddleston's Loki, along with Grant's Loki, Oparei's Loki, Kid Loki (Jack Veal), and Alligator Loki, flee from its wrath and pass an Easter Egg or two (I'm looking at you, Thanos Copter) on their way to relative safety.
The group has a little time to get to know each other when another band of marauding Lokis shows up and — in the episode's most comedic moment — all betray and fight each other. Hiddleston's Loki escapes along with Kid Loki, Classic Loki, and Alligator Loki. He wants to find Sylvie again, ostensibly because he thinks she's the only one who can get to the TVA. (But also because he likes her.)
Saved by a Pizza Delivery Car
Sylvie, however, is way ahead of our Loki. After pruning herself to get to The Void, she finds that Alioth wants to eat her as soon as she arrives. Just when the cloud-monster is about to devour her, however, a beat-up pizza delivery car drives up and saves her, and the driver is none other than Mobius (Owen Wilson).
I was so glad to see Mobius had survived his pruning, and I can't wait for the final scene in Loki to be Mobius jet skiing off into the sunset. Mobius is also now full Team Loki after finding out the truth about the TVA. His 180-degree reversal is a bit sudden, though I suppose effectively being killed by the organization you devoted your life to serving can cause a sudden change of heart.
Sylvie and Loki, Together Again
Speaking of hearts, Sylvie and Loki are together again. She and Mobius catch up with Loki after he's convinced his other Variants to try to kill Alioth. Sylvie tells Loki his plan is dumb and shares her plan — she wants to enchant Alioth. Sylvie thinks (correctly) that Marvel's version of the Lost smoke monster is a guard dog. Whoever is behind the guard dog is the one pulling all the timelines' strings.
Sylvie and Loki have another touching moment sitting side-by-side while staring off into The Void, and seem ready to trust each other (as much as a Lokis can). This heart-to-heart didn't cause a Nexus Event this time, but it was impactful all the same.
(Why did that Nexus Event on Lamentis-1 occur? Did Loki and Sylvie connect their powers when they had special feelings for each other, perhaps? Was that combined power enough to disrupt the timeline?)
The end of the episode sends Loki and Sylvie off to enchant Alioth. It's just the two of them, at first — Mobius takes the TemPad Sylvie stole from Ravonna and goes off to burn the TVA down. The other Lokis wish everyone well, heading off to continue their existence in the wasteland as our Loki and Sylvie confront Alioth.
Off to the Place Past the End of Time
Classic Loki, however, has a change of heart and steps in to save our heroes at the last minute. He creates an illusion of Asgard to distract Alioth, sacrificing his life and allowing Sylvie and Loki to combine their power and enchant the creature. The last moments of the episode have Alioth fading away to reveal a battled, Sauron-esque castle where the person behind the curtain of the TVA resides. Sylvie and Loki walk hand-to-hand to confront the time lord. Who that person will be remains a mystery for now, though my bet is on Kang the Conqueror. We'll have to wait until next week's final episode, however, to know for sure.
The last episode of Loki will drop on Wednesday, July 14, on Disney+.