After last week’s episode left us on an exciting cliffhanger involving Renslayer and Miss Minutes at the end of time, the fourth episode of Marvel’s Loki wastes no time getting right back into the hectic energy of the imminent doom of the TVA. With Timely now back at the TVA, the team races to stop the impeding temporal meltdown.
The fourth episode, titled “The Heart of the TVA,” stars where we left off: with Renslayer and Miss Minutes at the End of time. Miss Minutes plays a hologram of Renslayer speaking with He Who Remains at some point in the past (I guess. Who knows anymore). Renslayer learns that he wiped her memory and the memories of everyone who helped him win the war against his variants and establish the TVA. Miss Minutes explains that Renslayer didn’t just help him, she commanded his army in the war. She also explains that she doesn’t think they need him at all.
We then see Timely arrive at the TVA, in the meeting room with golden statues of his face on the wall. He makes his way through the halls where he is found by B-15 and eventually Loki, Mobius and Sylvie. After some understandable hesitancy, he agrees to help them with their problem, which they promise to explain later, only after he sees that his loom is at work here.
B-15 asks Judge Gamble what they should do with General Dox and her Minutemen, who they have locked up in a cell. It’s clear there is a power vacuum here as no one is technically in charge any more. Gamble tells B-15 Dox is a general and will do anything to protect the TVA, potentially setting her up as an ally in the future.
The group brings Timely to the Loom where they meet O.B and Casey. There’s a bit of a meet cute between O.B. and Timely as they each inspired the other’s work. Loki briefly questions how that’s possible and O.B. goes as far as to describe the infinite nature of this infinite loop as “a snake eating it’s own tale.” This is of course is the symbol of Ouroboros, which is O.B.’s full name.
The O.B. fun doesn’t stop there though as Loki asks for their plan and he begins to bring out a model to help explain it. He apologizes to the group for his work because the model is “not to scale.” This is playing off of Back to the Future, in which Doc Brown apologizes to Marty for the same thing in regards to his model of the clock tower.
O.B. explains the plan to implement a new device in the loom, but to do so they’ll need someone to go out into the unprecedented temporal radiation. They also explain that they still have one issue with their device, for which Timely has a solution. We conclude with Timely, O.B. and Casey working on a way to integrate Timely’s solution.
Mobius mentions getting some pie while they wait for a solution which send Sylvie into a fit of rage. She is not happy to be working to save the TVA as she still doesn’t see the need for its existence. She questions whether or not Mobius has ever bothered to look into his real life, which again appears to set him back. She storms off and Loki follows.
In the holding cell, X-5 tries to rally the Minutemen into an uprising to break free but is quickly shut down by Dox. She reveals she know he is the one who sold out their plan after he bailed on them to go live out his real life. B-15 enters and makes a pitch for Dox to be an ally in the coming fight, to protect the TVA, which clearly interests Dox at least a little.
Sylvie’s outburst leads to a powerful conversation between her and Loki about the importance of free will and protecting those who now have it. Sylvie asks what Loki’s plan is for the future of the TVA, pointing out that all they can do is hope that it doesn’t become the same infrastructure run by a monster like it once was. She points out that if they’re the ones running it, they’re playing god. Loki simply responds, “we are gods.”
X-5 continues to try and rally the Minutemen and Dox but is interrupted by Renslayer and Miss Minutes, who enter through a time door. Renslayer attempts to recruit Dox and the Minutemen to help her in a fight for the TVA. She offers them the chance to join her and get their life on the timeline. And if they refuse, she threatens to use that same machine that trapped X-5 in a box a couple of episodes back. X-5 agrees to join her but the rest refuse and are crushed to death in the box. In a moment that will be scarred into the minds of Marvel fans forever, Miss Minute watches with a look of genuine excitement and glee on her artificial face.
Timely, O.B. and Casey successfully integrate their machines when Mobius walks in. Timely is instantly fascinated by the cup of hot cocoa Mobius is holding and the machine that made it. Casey and O.B. notice they are having issues with their TemPads. Eventually, a guard agrees to take Timely to the machine because he refuses to stop asking questions about it.
B-15 enters the holding cell to find the horror that Renslayer has left behind. She checks her TemPad to see that she has been locked out of the system. And the way that is represented is an animation of Miss Minutes saying “ah ah ah, access denied,” in a way that is very reminiscent of Jurassic Park. Clearly, someone who worked on this episode has a thing for classic Universal movies.
Timely makes some kind of adjustment to the hot cocoa machine and offers a cup to the guard. He reluctantly takes a sip and makes a face to imply something Timely has done has greatly improved it. It appears he is a genius when it comes to time travel and chocolate. The guard is suddenly pruned by X-5 though and he takes Timely captive.
O.B. continues to work to get back into the system before he gets the same message as B-15, realizing Miss Minutes is the culprit. They race off to find that Timely has been taken. Loki and Sylvie arrive, followed by B-15 who explains that Renslayer is back and she killed Dox and her men. Loki points out that Renslayer wants the TVA so she must still be there. He picks up a timestick and they go looking for her.
X-5 brings Timely to Renslayer and Miss Minutes and he is shocked to see they are still alive. They threaten to kill him if he doesn’t tell them where to find his device. Loki and Sylvie rush to find them and Sylvie gets locked in an elevator by Miss Minutes, separating the two of them. Meanwhile, Mobius and the rest of the group see that things are getting worse at the loom.
We get back to Loki and it becomes evident this moment is the one which he traveled too back in the season premiere, where he sees the TVA in complete chaos. Loki races into a hallway where he finds a phone ringing and sees an elevator door begin to push open. Loki then arrives to find himself looking at the elevator. Trust me, this makes more sense when you’re actually watching it. Sylvie forces her way out of the elevator to find Loki standing there only for him to be pruned by… Loki. So in the season premiere we thought it might be Renslayer who prunes Loki, but instead it was himself. Well, not HIMself but… himSELF. Again, it makes more sense when you’re watching.
After letting it ring far too many times, Loki finally picks up the phone in a very dramatic moment. That drama doesn;t last though as we find out that it’s O.B. on the other line, wondering what’s taking them so long. Loki brings up Miss Minutes and O.B. explains that he could reboot the system to shut her down but that would mean also shutting down their security systems that prevent people from using magic at the TVA. Loki and Sylvie loudly implore him to turn it off.
Timely explains his machine to Renslayer and her group but X-5 tells them he is just stalling. Miss Minutes begins to fade out of existence because of the system being rebooted. Before she disappears she tells Timely “you’ll never be him.” The lights go out and Renslayer sends X-5 out to investigate. Now with their magic back, Loki and Sylvie ambush him and Sylvie enchants him.
The lights come back on and X-5 comes back into the room, though clearly not himself. He approaches and distracts Renslayer long enough for Loki and Sylvie to get Timely out of the room. With Renslayer’s attention turned to them, X-5 prunes her before snapping out of Sylvie’s enchantment.
Back at the loom, Timely’s temporal aura to open the blast doors. As Loki prepares to rush out toward the loom and into the radiation, Timely interjects and volunteers to go. O.B. helps him to get suited up for a chance to be the hero. With their device in hand, Timely heads out into the radiation and is immediately eviscerated by it. The rest of the group looks on in horror as they realize he’s gone. Only a few seconds pass before the radiation grows and a flash of light engulfs the TVA and the screen cuts to black, ending the episode.
What a wild finish that was. Now, it’s time to speculate. Everything involving the TVA appears to hinge on the existence of Timely and He Who Remains. My guess is, Timely didn’t die in that moment but rather he was split into a new infinite number of variants, one for each timeline being forced out of the loom.
As for the storm overtaking the TVA, I mentioned this in a previous episode already, but this moment really did have “Death of the Marvel Universe” vibes. As I explained previously, the 2015 “Secret Wars” story arc includes a moment that features the complete annihilation of the universe at the end of the first issue. This moment felt very similar.
Whatever we just saw, we’re very lucky we only have a week to wait to see where this show goes next. There is obviously a whole lot up in the air here and those first few seconds of next week’s fifth episode will be some of the most anticipated in the history of the MCU.
The second season of Marvel’s Loki is now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes coming every Thursday night.