LOKI Season 2 Episode 1 Breakdown | Ending Explained, Easter Eggs, Post Credits Scene & Review

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show, I’m your host Paul, and your savior has returned.

Loki is back, and episode 1 of Season 2 is now out online. Packed with easter eggs, lots of timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff, and a big post-credits scene, I have to say I’m loving it.

Over the next 8 weeks, I’m going to be breaking down the series frame by frame to bring you all the comic book references and things you missed in it. We’ll then be following that with MT handling the big theory and analysis videos, so make sure you’re subscribed to never miss a video.

Anyway, I’m going to stop wasting time and get right into it.

LOKI SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 BREAKDOWN

Now, as always, we begin with the Marvel Studios logo, which turns green and gold just like how it did in the first season. As always, they’ve updated this slightly, with us now getting a clip of “Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3” and “He Who Remains” in The A.

He Who Remains looms large over the season, with the statue of Kang being how we left things last time. This is where we pick up, with us pulling out from one of his statues. We can actually see these littered throughout the TVA, and when Loki runs into Hunter B-15, you can catch one behind him. After Loki crashes the car, we can also see several of them in a line outside in the windows, creating this idea that he’s a dictator looking over his domain.

His eyes are the first things we really get focus on, and their stone carvings give the impression he’s unbreakable. Now, the stonework here resembles an Egyptian-style statue, with the texture reminding me of how the Sphinx looks. The Sphinx is actually really important with Kang, as the ship he traveled time with resembled this as well. This had a fixed nose on it and actually appeared in the void during Loki Season 1.

I think it also echoes the Colossus of Rhodes, which was one of the wonders of the world. The clothes he’s wearing are more like Kang’s rather than He Who Remains, showing that we’re in a slightly different time period.

I feel like these statues may get pulled over at some point, and it could echo things like the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Now we’re actually dealing with two points in time here, with Loki constantly being pulled back and forth between the two.

The first of these is when Kang controlled the TVA before he wiped everyone’s memories and built the timekeepers. The latter of these is in the aftermath of Season 1, with it being where Mobius and B-15 saw the timeline fall apart.

We will talk about the indicators of this throughout the video, but there are some really cool things they do in the past that affect the future. When we pull out, we see Loki then run in front of the statue, possibly foreshadowing where things are gonna go. I think that he’ll actually take over the position of He Who Remains, and this may symbolically show where we’re going with the series.

Now, the attention to detail here’s really spot on, with Loki even carrying the cut on his arm that he had in the last entry.

When you think about it, man’s had a pretty crazy couple of weeks, with there being a number of changes in his life. First, the whole thing went down with the Avengers, which took place roughly a year after Thor. After grabbing the tesseract, he managed to escape and then was taken by the TVA before he worked his way up to He Who Remains. We’re now here with Endgame and Loki season 1 all taking place over a couple of days for him.

They’ve done a terrific job of lining things up and elevating this beyond what’s come before.

Now Loki does a fifth element and jumps over the edge, which is where he lands in what looks like a TVA post truck. The outfit the woman wears is similar to a UPS one, and there’s a potential easter egg with the cart’s number.

This says 4 35, and in Fantastic 4 354, the group tried to escape the TVA through using a time train.

Reach? Nah, but she crashes into the Kang statue, cracking its face, carrying the idea his empire’s gonna come crumbling down. This is echoed in the crack in the floor, which holds the TVA logo and the destruction of the mural with the timekeepers.

Now from here, we cut to Casey cleaning the floor, which shows this is before he was promoted to work the desk. This is actually the same room that the pair met in during Season 1, with Loki saying, “I’ll gut you like a fish.” Casey is also rocking an 80s Walkman, and as we later see, all the tech at the TVA is stuff modified from

the past. Later on, when Loki appears, we see him getting ink in his pocket, which might be a way in the future they differentiate the two versions.

Now, a number of things happen here that affect the future and explain why certain things in the TVA change. Firstly is the glass which the car crashes through, and later all three of these windows get replaced with metal paneling.

The TV is also smaller and more spherical, with it eventually falling down from the ceiling. This is later replaced with the more widescreen one, with the crack on the floor it makes then carrying over. This helps to show the two different points in time which Loki is constantly pulled back and forth between.

Also, shoutouts MT for pointing out the TV itself begins glitching similar to Loki’s time-slipping.

Now, this effect is similar to glitching like what we see in the spider-verse films, but there’s actually a deeper reason for why it looks this way. Everything kinda a bit sort of spaghetti-like, which is an effect we’ve seen in the MCU before.

During Quantumania, Ant-man got stuck in a probability storm, with one of his versions getting torn to ribbons. This is like what we see happen here, but Loki gets pulled back together.

Now, Endgame showed that time travel has to happen at a quantum level due to this being where one jumps back and forth through time. The probability storm happened in the quantum realm as well, with this all taking place at a molecular level. Thus, I think that this might be happening at that point with Loki being pulled down to a quantum level before then expanding at the other point in time. I also think the TVA could even exist down there, and later on, we hear mention of the chronobase.

Kang’s home was actually called Chronopolis, which itself was located in the quantum realm. Might be nothing, but might be all connected, and the quantum realm may be where the TVA is.

Anyway, in the present, we see Loki warp back into the room years in the future, where Casey recognizes him. Holding a rule book, this becomes something that appears throughout the episode.

Now Casey says, “the crack, it’s been here as long as I can remember.” ‘As long as I can remember’ highlights that something has been done to his memory to hide the past in which Kang ruled.

After the title sequence, we cut to where we last left this version of Mobius and B-15. Wrestling with the fact that they’ve been murdering people en masse, they grapple with how to inform the TVA about what they’re really up to.

X-05 then shows up and asks about Mobius’ Jet Ski magazine, which is something that appeared in the first season.

He also mentions Judge Gamble, who is a play on Justin Gamble from the comics. Once a TVA professor, this character ended up turning against the organization in order to stop a group known as the incinerators.

This character was kinda based on Doctor Who, but it seems like they’re leaning more in with a judge. She actually seems to believe B-15, which could highlight her turning against the organization.

Anyway, we find out they’re in the war room, which is a little play on Dr. Strangelove. War rooms have, of course, always been a widely used term, which demonstrates how bad things have got for the TVA. A war room like this appeared in Fantastic Four 353, and this was what the team was brought into whilst they were being judged.

As they head towards it, we can see a room of murals that we later get a better look at.

This is broken up into three panels, and it echoes the sisters of fate from Greek mythology. They used to control destiny by pulling on threads of life, which the temporal loom may be building off the back of. A loom, of course, pulls in threads, and the timelines themselves are represented like this.

On the left panel, we see the multiversal war between all the Kangs, with them fighting it out to attain timeline supremacy. Throughout, we can see them standing on hover platforms, which the villain used to get around on during Quantumania.

A lot of the humans we see running below either look like Loki or TVA members.

The second one has the timekeepers constructing the sacred timeline, with people below praying to them like a god. This shows how indoctrinated the TVA are into it, and they blindly follow these false gods.

These religious metaphors carry across to the final panel, where their hands are pressed together like a prayer.

The timeline itself looks like a tree, which is something we also saw in Across the Spider-Verse.

Now, just before hitting the war room, Mobius bumps into the soldier who pruned him during episode 4. Mobius says, “just following orders,” which is something that the SS used as an excuse when explaining why they committed the atrocities they did. This idea of following orders speaks to the TVA who will blindly do anything without questioning the logic or reason.

This idea of following orders speaks to the TVA, who will blindly do anything without questioning the logic or reason.

Now, we see as Loki enters the War Room in the past, which is where he sees different heads on the wall. These actually represent the judges, and they end up remaining because Kang never replaced them.

However, what he did is cover up that he was there, and we see that there are five versions of Kang’s head. I actually think that this represents the council with these five being different versions of him. These echo emperor heads from Rome and show how important Kang views himself as. The armor and headpieces all look slightly different, potentially highlighting that these were different versions of them. In the comics, Kang worked with the council before betraying them and then becoming Immortus. This is possibly what he who remains did, and the central head could belong to him.

Now, speaking of heads, we see the timekeeper leaders in the future, which were beheaded during episode 4. This is in front of the grand mural, which itself has the timeloom at the center of it.

Listening to a recording of Loki explaining the truth, the judges all sit around trying to make sense of the recording. I love how we even catch one asleep, and it kind of speaks to the bureaucracy that we have to deal with in real life.

Now, this tape recorder is also used in the past with us hearing Kang’s proposal to Ravonna Renslayer.

“You are quite the marvel.”
Ah, he said it, he said it.
The pair were lovers in the comics, and we’ll likely see what happened with them later in the series. Now Kang says,

“For us, for all time, always.”
This is, of course, the TVA’s motto, with it even appearing above the door before the temporal loom. Jumping back to Season 1, we also had this in the episode titles, with it being the name of the final entry.

I was actually surprised at how much this appeared in the first season, with the saying popping up at several times throughout.

Now, Kang is clearly in love, and he very much wants her to rule all time with him. This was similar to how Loki and Sylvie were meant to rule together, but as we know, both ended up alone. Kang is kind of destined to be by himself, and this is something we explored in his new origin story. Titled “Only Myself Left to Conquer,” this had a young Nathaniel Richards getting found by his older self. Trained by a bitter version, he ended up trying to escape after he met a woman from a local tribe. This was Ravonna, but the older Kang ended up killing her, which led to the young version going down a darker path.

Throughout time, he met several versions of her reincarnated, but she’d always turn against him because of how he truly was. In the end, Nathaniel turned into the bitter man he first met, who went back in time to meet Nathaniel and start it all again.

I’m guessing that Kang became he who remains after she decided not to join him, and he kept her around as a judge in the organization.

She was then possibly replaced by Ms. Minutes, who we also learn has abandoned the TVA.

Now, in the present, B-15 talks about how everyone had a life on the timeline, which she discovered due to Renslayer’s real life. Also, I love how Katie Dickie’s General Dox has timekeeper faces on all her medals. She’s the one who finds it most difficult to accept because clearly, she’s devoted her life to propping up the lie. As they say, it’s easier to scam someone than to tell someone they’ve been scammed, and she’s clearly going to become one of the major antagonists.

I also wonder if these medals were attained during the multiversal war, as that’s the only major conflict when they could’ve been taken.

Now, her name, General Dox, also pulls from the comics, with her being a play on the character Paradox. This was one of the judges that appeared during the She-Hulk trial before he was erased from existence with the retroactive cannon.

She says,

“What on earth are you suggesting?”
Now, MT pointed out that technically they’re not on earth, but this turn of phrase could show their memories are starting to come through. X-5 also has X and 5 written on his gloves, possibly showing his narcissism, which we’ll talk about later. There are lots of things with him they tease in the trailer, but I’ll save that for the end in case you don’t want to know.

B-15 wants them to take a stance and turn their back on what they believe in, with Gamble even saying,

“I can do anything.”
She orders that they stop pruning and give the people on the timelines a life.

Now, Loki warps in and

reveals the truth behind the mural, pruning it to wipe out this false timeline.

It’s kind of when Hela revealed the truth about Odin, and it shows the man who enslaved them for the first time.

Now, X5 and Dox put their heads together, which B-15 reacts to weirdly. They might be in love, or it might be his mother or something, with the pair potentially being pulled from a timeline together to work here.

To quote Heavy Spoilers theory time,
“Whoa, don’t quote me on that, mate, might not be his mum, I dunno, still early doors mate, episode 1, still throwing out loads of shit to see what sticks.”

Now, Sylvie is ordered to be found, which leads into what happens later. Loki tells Mobius about what happened, and he also talks about how Kang was the Devil.

LOKI SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 EASTER EGGS AND REFERENCES

This is something He Who Remains referred to himself as, and we also had a lot of biblical imagery with him. Loki and Sylvie were stand-ins for Adam and Eve, with him tempting them with the knowledge to rule all time. Kang even appeared holding an apple, riffing on the snake in the garden of Eden. Tempting Eve, she was the one who was turned, pulling everything from this together.

Also, I love how Loki says it was a draw ’cause it’s like a bad breakup where you want to keep your dignity.

He finally sees things from the point of view as he who remains and sees it being better the devil you know. They have to go through two lifts to get to OB, showing how far that character is out of the way.

When they go to it, they have to pass through the cafeteria, which has a poster on the wall similar to ones from World War 2.

This says no chit chat like loose lips sink ships, and it also tells you to limit your lunch break. This is to 17 minutes, which is like…weird…weirdly specific time.

Obviously, the TVA is super focused on time, so maybe this is like the perfect amount for a lunch break to be.

We also see a postman walking through the corridor, building off the back of the one in the truck. A poster also says catch a nexus, prevent a red line, building off the back of the Ms. Minutes video in episode 1.

I love the ‘I have no memory of having my memory wiped’ line, and these whole scenes flow so well.

I love the way that the camera moves with them, and the whole episode is shot expertly well. Just keeps up the dynamism of the scene and adds an extra layer to how the dialogue plays out. When you think about it, this whole episode is just people standing about in rooms talking, but the way the camera moves helps to elevate the scenes. All in all, it makes this even better than the first season, with the direction being something that really shines here.

Now, down in the basement, they meet Orobos, who, as we learn, repairs the TVA tech. This is highlighted in a poster to the right, which is about repairing a user’s temp pad.

The name Orobos actually means a snake that eats its own tail, which this highlights a never-ending destructive cycle. This is something that the TVA constantly does with the multiversal war being a stage of the universe. The way things go is that Kang rises up, and all his variants fight it out to gain supremacy. Once one has won, they become he who remains and wait at the end of time until a Loki shows up. This leads to their death, which causes the multiverse to open, and the cycle starts again, beginning once more.

Now, in the room, Mobius says,

“I don’t think I have any memory of being in here,”
Showing he had his memory wiped, whereas OB didn’t. This is how he remembers Loki visiting in the past, whereas everyone else simply forgets it. We sort of get a brief idea of how long ago it was, with Mobius last visiting 400 years prior. Mobius seems to start to remember, and it could show that their memories may end up coming back.

Ke Huy Quan kills it in this entry, with him basically being the TVA’s Q. Key Huy Quan, of course, played Data in the Goonies, with him too also being an inventor there as well.

I love how B-10 put in a request for a browning banana, and this might be for their lunch break, where…you’ve got 17 minutes, mate.

Now, Orobouros was actually part of the She-Hulk trial too, with him being a clone of Mr. Paradox. They’re clearly not going in that direction, but I love the way that these ideas are carrying over. Now, the way that we can help differentiate the two versions is the one in the past doesn’t have glasses.

Also, shoutouts to our editor Matt for pointing out that OB having green on his uniform might be a nod to Star Trek where it indicates engineering.

We can also catch an old Sprite vending machine, and it’s possible that OB has him confused with Mobius. In the present, he said Mobius called him that, whereas in the past, we see that Loki gives him the name.

It’s possible that his name also talks about how the past and present both rely on each other due to Loki’s time traveling. It’s even possible that Loki doing it in the past changes things in the present, which is why his memory changes.

I think, though, that it’s more in line with the bootstrap paradox, which involves the past and present both impacting each other. In this, a scientist one day gets a knock at the door and opens it to find a book lying on the ground. This explains how they can build a time machine, which they carry out and travel back in time. They then knock on their door and leave themselves the book, showing how the cycle can then continue on.

It’s lots of timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly stuff, and they also mentioned the temporal aura extractor. Temporal Auras were shown in the first season with Loki’s being taken when he entered the TVA.

This device will allow Loki to be pulled out of the time stream and finally saved from the constant time slipping. I love how they keep talking about Mobius getting his skin peeled off, which is a joke they keep doing for the rest of the entry.

They talk about Loki being pruned and also say that if you fall into a black hole, you turn into spaghetti.

This is basically what’s happening with Loki, and even my man Reed Richards became his mom’s spaghetti.

Realizing that the TVA is destabilizing with the time stream overloading the temporal loom. We see what this looks like later on in the entry, with it appearing like a great machine that pulls together the threads. This imagery was actually shown in season 1 at about 10 minutes into episode 5. Here we saw Ms. Minutes showing the time stream with it branching out into a rainbow, like what we witness here.

They head towards the access point, and I was sitting, wondering how many times they had to shoot that bit where Loki catches the book.

Nice one, mate.

Now, just before they head in, we can see a warning on the floor, which talks about the danger of approaching the loom.

It says:

“Temporal radiation levels escalate exponentially beyond this threshold. Likelihood of spaghettification increases 7000%.”

Spaghettification makes sense if you consider that the TVA exists inside one of the black holes in the Loki S1 finale. It’s such a good scene, with this being an amazing way to take the entry that builds up the tension as they try to save Loki.

Loki seems to travel to his own future when he sees Sylvie in the elevator. He was likely pruned by his own future self to send him back to where he needed to go. This is an older version of Sylvie who isn’t the one that we meet in the post-credits scene when we see her traveling out to McDonald’s. This is the version from when she’d just killed He Who Remains and was then finally free from the TVA.

Sylvie was someone who was hunted throughout her life and had to hide out at apocalypses in order to survive. Now, though, she’s able to roam free, and the first thing she does is go to a McDonald’s.

I believe that the one in the elevator is a future version of her interacting with Loki from the future and that she’s mistaking him with the one from the present.

Theory on this, but I think that a Loki from a future episode steps in and then prunes himself so he can get sent back to the past. I’d love it if that were the case, and then we’d have the bootstrap paradox playing out across multiple entries. Loki from the future would know this would need to happen and thus he’d carry it out to keep things in line.

I feel like we’ll see more of this scene in a future episode, and it’ll bring it all together with Loki pruning himself. He knows he needs to do this so that he can be there at this moment, so prunes himself to keep time consistent.

Phew.

Anyway, the heat is on with them just having five minutes while Dox’s crew raid the armory to go after Sylvie.

Mobius is put in what looks like a bomb disposal suit, and it’s such a cool way to take things for the finale. Now, Loki jumps ahead, and we know this is minutes from now due to the crack in the window and the skin written in dust. Thus, they may travel back to this moment to help secure other things, and the fight could be about them taking Dox down.

Theory time, theory timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly stuff, but I actually think that Dox may be raiding the arm

ory because they attack at this point. This is when the TVA is at its weakest, so it makes sense Loki and Sylvie would travel here to make a big strike.

Also, yeah, if you’re enjoying the video and want to support the channel, we’ve just launched a Loki-inspired t-shirt that, if you don’t get, you’re going to get your clock cleaned. We’ve also got lots of theory time ones and other franchises on there like House of the Dragon, Ahsoka, Ant-Man, and a lot more.

All goes towards keeping the lights on and helping us stay independent so we can keep making videos for you without our evil corporate overlords telling us what to do. These timelines will not be pruned.

Anyway, that’s the end of theory time, theory time for all time always.

Now, I love the way we have an old World War II air raid siren as Mobius steps out.

This immediately heightens the tension and, with it coming from old tech, it makes sense to pull this across.

Mobius ends up putting the device in, and this acts as a harpoon, eventually pulling Loki out and into one stable place.

LOKI SEASON 2 EPISODE 1 ENDING EXPLAINED

As he runs through the offices in order to warn Sylvie, we also see that the timelooms bringing the branches together on the screen. This could be killing the multiverse out in the main world, though they did kind of go against that due to what they said.

Either way, there are lots of mysteries with what’s happening with Sylvie, and you can tell that Loki’s still desperate to see her. From what she says, they obviously reunite, and we also have that ringing phone which draws his attention. He may even be calling himself at this point to pull himself towards it so he can be pruned.

OB locks stuff down, and we see Mobius arrive, which is when Loki’s pulled out. He says they need to find Sylvie, and we see TX-5 and his forces mounting up their men. Dox is joining them too, with the death squad moving out to put an end to her. They’re arming up with lots of pruning charges, showing they plan to wipe out numerous timelines.

Now, the credits of the show have a lot going on with them, and with this being the first time seeing them, I thought we’d break them down. We’ll then talk about the post-credits scene and the trailer shots before going onto our review.

Now, there’s the same Loki file from season 1, but this is then coupled by the Timekeeper head.

Cut to some post-it notes which talk about a pool of deception, potentially riffing on the lies with the Timekeepers. They also talk about the “Secret of the Dark Mountains,” which is possibly a reference to Mount Wundagore. Also mentioned are “Yoren’s Betrayal” and the Falaxian Calendar, a Re-Echoed Sound, and “The Boy Betrayed the Tower Keeper.” This could be a note about He Who Remains, with Loki potentially being the one who betrayed him.

One of the clocks also says “Chronos per hour,” with that being time in the TVA. There’s also the pies that appear in the trailer, one of which Mobius ends up pulling out.

There’s also Ms. Minutes and Schematics for the Time Loom, which we see Victor Timely building during the trailer. There’s also the book “Black Holes: The End of the Universe?” by John G. Taylor.

This again is pointing to the Loki S1 Black Holes at the end of time from the finale, which is possibly where the TVA is located.

Other books in the background include “The Final Program” by Matthew Moorcock (lol) and “Phoenix in Obsidian,” also by the same author.

We also see Infinity Stones, a coffee machine, an Obs light flickering on and off with holoprojector 35 making an appearance too. This is what Loki watched his life back on in Season 1, and they’re used to interrogate time deviants.

There’s also the “The Zartan Contingent” book, which doesn’t seem to exist IRL…but also seems like a book that is connected to OB’s character, as the actor’s name shows up on this frame.

There’s the model of Mobius’ suit, which may show them planning this out in the future so that it’s able to happen in the past.

Then there’s Wake Magazine with Jetskis, along with some photos from the episode and a crack in the floor. We also see McDonald’s too and the mural of the Timekeepers with Ms. Minutes on a Tempad pad and He Who Remains’ castle. This is empty, with his hand device lying there, showing what’s happening in the wake of his death.

I also think that we get a sling ring too, and the official TV handbook before we cut to the murals.

Lastly, this leads us into the post-credits scene where we watch Sylvie arriving at Mcdonald’s. For the first time, we see that this is a branched timeline with the bottom telling us the year 1982.

Broxton is actually a big location in the comics, and this is where the home of New Asgard was.

Happening in Oklahoma, this is where Sylvie attacked before, and it was here she made her first appearance back in Season 1.

I loved going back here because I remember these McDonald’s when they used to have birthday sections and stuff that you could sit under that creepy tree.

Judging by what she says:

– not possum or rats

She’s clearly had to hunt these herself, and she’s been going on for decades, desperate to survive.

I also get the feeling that she kind of misses Loki, which is cemented by her looking longingly at the couple.

Now, going into the trailer teases, we know she ends up working here, and that Loki arrives to see her again. Now, the trailer looks like it shows X-5 as a movie star attending a premiere for his film. This is Zaniac, which itself is a character from the comics. I think he’s realized that with all these timelines branching out, he’s now able to change things and do what he wants.

Now, the trailer also shows stuff getting spaghettified, and the forces of Kate Dickie’s Dox hunting Sylvie and Loki. We also had them traveling to Victor Timely to see the time loom being made.

So, lots of stuff to look forward to, and as for this episode, I think it was a great way to start the series. They really put their all into the production, and again, I can’t hammer home how much the direction and the way the camera elevates it all. It takes what could be basic and creates tension, dynamism, and energy in the scenes that makes it gripping to watch.

I love the jumping back and forth through time stuff as well, and it kept the episode constantly developing with new twists and ways of playing out the dialogue scenes.

I’m back to shilling, but after so many duds and meh releases from Marvel on Disney Plus, this was a great way to start things off. They don’t waste any time hitting the ground running, and they instantly pick up where we left off and don’t drop the pace. I also love how there’s this constant mystery as well, with us getting more questions than answers about what’s going on.

Overall, it was a great way to start the show off, and I can’t wait to discuss it for the next six weeks.

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With that out of the way, a huge thank you for sitting through the video. I’ve been your host, and I’ll see you next time. Take care. Peace.