LOKI Season 2 Episode 5 Breakdown | Ending Explained, Easter Eggs, Trailer Theories & Review

Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show. I’m your host, Paul, and in this video, we’re breaking down Loki.

Season 2, episode 5, is now here, and it’s packed with a lot of timey, wimey, wibbly, wobbly stuff that we need to get into. Throughout this video, we’re going to go through the Easter eggs, hidden details, and all the things you missed to explain exactly what’s going on with the show. So grab that Jetski, wave goodbye to your old life, and let’s get ready, because we’re at the point of no return, and I don’t mean spaghetti.

Ey, pasta point. Anyway, last week saw Dox getting put in a box like Sniperwolf’s Instagram story. We also watched as the temporal loom exploded in the wake of Victor Timely’s untimely death.

It seemed like it was all going to come crashing down, but as this episode shows us, it wasn’t the end.

‘LOKI’ SEASON 2 EPISODE 5 BREAKDOWN

Now the entry is called “science/fiction”, and it basically gives us the life stories of the characters from the TV series.

Huge shoutouts to Simon A. burman on Twitter for pointing out that this is, of course, a reference to OB being a science fiction writer, but this actually has a deeper tie to time travel. George McFly was also one in Back to the Future, and beyond that, we have a big reference to another film. That is the rocky horror picture show with Lokis timeslipping being like the time warp. If you think I’m reaching, then don’t be a summbich because the first song in that is called Science Fiction.

Now we begin with eerie music over the Marvel Studios logo, akin to 2001, a space odyssey that itself took place across time and showed the evolution of humanity. That also had an alarm siren, like what we start off with with the monolith providing a signal that reached out across the cosmos.

We’ve got a full breakdown of the film if you want to check it out, but we open up with Loki, who has clearly time-slipped to a time before the loom exploded. Time slipping is a major thing in this entry, and we watch as he wanders the empty halls of the tva before starting to drift. I absolutely love the shot that we get of him in a doorway, and it showcases the box that he’s sort of trapped in, unable to escape.

The TVA has very much been like a prison to him, with him constantly being pulled back to it due to either duty or because he’s held captive. From here, he warps out in front of the TVA elevator and catches a man looking at the TVA manual.

Now this is a shot that was shown all the way back in the first trailer. It has Loki timeslipping in the back while the other reads the manual in the front, and it just brings things full circle to show the cause and effect of things. Seconds later, we see this scene playing out from the other perspective, giving us lots of timely, wimely, wibbly, wobbly stuff.

At this point, things get spaghetti-fied, and I’m guessing that it was at this point that the loom exploded back in the past.

Now this spaghetti effect is something that’s been laced throughout the season, but it’s also appeared in the greater MCU a lot as well. During Quantumania, we watched the giant man get turned into it, and Reed Richards was also ripped apart like this when Wanda turned Sue Storm into a single. Both of these moments dealt with reality, with Wanda’s hex powers being linked to that too. I think what we’re seeing is the destruction of reality in all these cases, with things being ripped apart at a molecular level. That’s why the effect was with them too, and why Marvel keeps reusing it, unless it’s like their favourite plugin.

However, they also look like strands and share the iconography of how timelines themselves look, which links into how everything is thread-based. This has ties back to sisters of fate, who too looked over life lines, which were represented as threads. Looms were also apparent there too, and thus we have these things all connecting. It’s all connected.

Now, as per usual, we get the title sequence, but where things change is that the characters slip out before coming back. This is a really cool little effect that pretty much highlights exactly what’s going on in this entry.

Last week, I theorised that the show was happening before the events of Quantumania and that the council of Kangs we saw was actually a result of this. Right after the video dropped, that actually got confirmed with the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe official timeline. It now has the endgame happening, and then Loki seasons 1 and 2 are off in its own branched timeline, while the other Disney Plus shows and MCU movies continue after. This means that the multiverse being opened like this has created the council and all of the members that we see in it at the end of Quantumania.

Now it’s theory time, theory time. I lost the tie.

Now I think that this is likely how He Who Remains was created. Whether that’s with Victor or someone else, I think that He Who Remains knew he could only be created through a branched timeline, and this could only be achieved through one Kang. Thus, he sent Ravonna back with the book to give it to Victor, knowing full well that this would lead to the loom exploding and leave the door open for his arrival. He Who Remains had to be created through a branched timeline, and this could only be achieved by things happening with Victor. In the comics, Kang’s name is Nathanial Richards, but these other versions may be the ones that help to make him. This also explains why that was classified as the sacred timeline because it was the one with Victor on it. All the other timelines were pruned originally, but this was left so that He Who Remains could be created if he fell, leading to the events of the show playing out.

This could then lead to more branches, with all the Kangs convening to get what we have in Quantumania. Due to the Ms. Minutes message thanking people for their service, it’s obvious that this was always part of the plan. You don’t write a message thanking people for their deaths if you’re not fully aware that it’s going to happen.

And that’s theory time…

Anyway, from here, we cut to a prison, which is revealed to be a branched timeline in which Kasey was a prisoner at Alcatraz.

This prison scene, I believe, is loosely based on the story of the three men who managed to escape Alcatraz. This was adapted into the Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alacatraz, and it was also used as a basis for the storyline in The Rock…or the Rocksh as it was pronounced in that movie.

Anyway, in the film, they used a fake dummy to make the guards think they were in their beds, like what we have here. Casey is called Frank, like Clint Eastwood’s character, and they also bring across the iconography of the poster with the three popping their heads out the way.

It was believed that the three drowned while swimming across the bay, but as their bodies were never found, the mystery of what happened still lingers.

I found that hilarious, and also, huge shoutouts to Britt from Streamr for theorising that back in episode 3, and I loved this reveal.

Now Loki arrives, alarming everyone, and he ends up timeslipping as they try to ship the boat out. Cutting to the McDonald’s from 1982, this is obviously where Sylvie was working.

Now at this point, Loki warps to a…wacky flailing.

I love the kind of mirror with him also waving his arms about, which happens with that too. This takes him to the jetski shop, and if you’re from England, then you might recognise this location.

This is actually Ace Cafe, which has been designed to be the workplace of our favourite TVA agent. They do a lovely coffee, tea, biscuit, and crumpet for 50p at the meal deal, and all you have to do to get this is go in and use the Code ACE Spoilers for 50%.

If you’re also feeling generous and want to support the channel and get something else out of it, then check out our merchandise store below the video. We’re currently selling a Loki-inspired t-shirt along with our classic movie breakdowns, one and a couple more from all your favourite franchises. If you’re feeling extra generous, then please hit the join button to get early access to videos for just 99 pesos a month.

Shabow.

Now this place is called Piranha Powersports, which I couldn’t find a business for before June 2023, but Piranhas, of course, are known to eat things, which might be a reference to the timeline.

Anyway, from here, Loki slips to Time Theatre 25, which is a location I believed popped up during the first episode.

It was here that he came face-to-face with his future and saw how everything he did would lead to death and misery. It was probably one of the defining moments for this version, in which he decided to go and help people.

Speaking of helping people, we learn that Hunter B-15 was actually a doctor, and this makes a lot of sense when you look at her character.

She started off as someone who was cold and cruel, willing to wipe out entire timelines because she deemed it fit. However, after Sylvie showed her some of her memories, she’s changed and has become a warmer and more welcoming person who wants to keep all the timelines active. B-15 will have, of course, taken the Hippocratic Oath, meaning that she has to protect all life no matter what. I think this personality slowly starting to seap back in was mirrored in Mobius, who too longed to be back riding on a jetski.

Anyway, this is back in 2012, out in New York, which is a big point in the MCU. 2012 and New York were when the battle of New York happened, which was of course caused by Loki.

Getting a brief glimpse of him, we get Mobius riding out to some 80s music and learn man is the dong when it comes to selling Jetskis. Also, I know people have their own names in these timelines, but I’m just going to keep it simple and stick to their TVA ones. Ultimately, in the end, thats what they choose to go with, and it’s kind of sad seeing all the lives they had. I even got free donuts, and as we know, man loves the desserts at the Automat.

Now Mobius is alive in 2022, which means that he and his kids survived the snap. However, as we learn, his wife died, but maybe she was taken during this. I’d love it if, in the end, he returned to her and found that she’d been brought back so he could be with his family.

Mobius being a Jetski salesman is something people have been theorising about since that first season, and I’m so glad that they brought it into the show. Knowing all their ins and outs would explain why he was obsessed with it, and it would also show that memory erasing doesn’t completely wipe out everything. There’s still that little part buried in the back of your mind that will keep you longing for it. I think deep down Mobius knew that he was happier in his real life, and this is why he didn’t want to go back and look at himself because he knew it would pull him away from his duty at the TVA. To him, that’s all he really knows, and it makes him way more complicated than he could be.

Mobius also talks about an ATV, which, according to Google, is a quadbike that turns into a jetski. I didn’t even know they made them, bro. Make sure you watch all the ads on this video, you schmuck, because I want to buy one, you chump.

WHICH TIMELINES DOES LOKI VISIT IN SEASON 2 EPISODE 5?

Cut to 1994, where we see OB picking up the Zartan contingent, which is a book that actually appeared in the show before. This popped up during the season 2 credits, setting up what was going to happen here.

This could potentially be a nod to the Xartans, spelled with an X, who were created by the Celestials.

He still has his bubbly personality, and we learn that he was the one who bought his own books. Man hasn’t been selling well, though, and thus he’s been sticking his books up in stores to try and gain some word of mouth. Living out in the wilderness is sort of like being at the tva and shuffled away from society.

Now this also brings us an image from the credits, as we see in the post notes from them in his home. It turns out that these are all the ideas he jotted down, like the falaxian calendar and so on and so forth.

Now I instantly recognised this room as being an OB with all the stuff taken out of it. You can even catch the mail chute up at the back, highlighting where this actually is.

There’s also two big fans at the back, which somewhat resemble the two windows in the office of He Who Remains.

They themselves had little spirals in them that looked like spirals, showing that they’re all connected.

I kind of wonder if this was where the tva was built out from, with his being the only real-world location that exists both here and at the tva.

Now we can also see equations up on a chalkboard, potentially setting up the chalkboard and equations we could catch in the He Who Remains office at the end of time.

He has so many inventions scattered about the place too, and they’re pretty much exactly the same as what you would expect from the character.

I was instantly sucked into his story. OB believes Loki right away because of how dull his real life is. Man has poured all of his imagination into his books, which we see he still has lots of copies of lining the place. He says The Sons of Yorens is his most popular book of all time, which we see piles and piles of.

I kind of hope that when this all comes crashing down, he returns home and writes all about it. This could be its own best-selling novel, which is similar to what Omni-Man did with his books on Earth.

Now though he writes failed science fiction books, hes still a genius, and Lokis is desperate to control his time, which he does throughout the entry. This is sort of the power of a god of time, hinting at where I think things may be going. He’s basically the living version of a temp pad, but at the moment he can’t stop anything.

If the tva can’t be saved, then it’s all going to go crazy and let Kang’s war overtake the multiverse.

Now, the way that the show seems to be operating as a whole is that it’s a time loop within a time loop. Wrapping around this, it seems like it could be creating its own oroboros as a never-ending cycle. An orobos is a snake that has its own tail, and this creates an infinite cycle of death and rebirth. That’s very much what’s going on with the show, and what happened here had to play out exactly the way that it did because the TV is now in its rebirth stages. Thus, it couldn’t have any carryovers from last time, and therefore things had to be reset. I think that in the end, it might be revealed that Loki actually created the TVA by recruiting all the members like this, and then Kang took over, which is when things were pruned. Loki then died, but the version from the endgame then came back to the TVA and helped destroy it, which started this whole thing up again.

Can We Get Some Toast on Twitter dropped a great graphic of this based on what was happening in the new midseason trailer that was released earlier in the week, and it makes a lot of sense. We have Episodes 1-4 in their own loop, with Episodes 5–6 probably being off in their own one too. This then all comes together and breaks both loops, leading to time continuing in a linear fashion again.

As you can see, these loops create an oroboros, and potentially, he’s the key to stopping this all. There was a reason why he was shuffled off and why he was the only TVA member that never had his memory wiped, and it shows that he could be the key to breaking it all.

Now from here, they decide to get the band back together, literally, and this will place their temporal auras together and use them almost like coordinates to go back to that moment in time.

OB could build a temppad, but he doesn’t have the knowledge. However, the bootstrap paradox comes into play with Loki giving him the one that he picked up before.

Now from here, we cut to Don or Mobius pulling in the bins, and we have a couple of little details, like his kids bikes outside the house.

However, if you look at the window on the top floor, there’s also a bed sheet hanging out of it. His kids have clearly been sneaking out into the night and breaking the rules, like my man playing his games on the TV computers.

His son Kevin has also been burning matches, and he is a regular little Sid from Toy Story. This little soldier looks like a tva minuteman, and his burning it symbolically shows his affront to what his father represents.

Theyre your classic little lads, burning stuff, wanting snakes, and just being a nightmare, and it reminds me of my two boys. I love them. Nah, take me to the tva to work for eternity, please, please anything.

Ever the salesman, he tries to sell Loki his own personal jetskis, with Loki dropping the line that he said to him back when they first discussed them. With there being two here, I kind of wonder if both Loki and Mobius will ride out on them together at some point.

Unlike OB, Mobius doesn’t buy the story, but his mind quickly changes when the former arrives. Man, man actually had a wife, and well done, not a lot of people do. Especially those watching this channel, ey, we can laugh. Nah, love mine; love her; nah, take me; take me to the TVA.

Nah, im just kidding, I did well for myself, didn’t I? to be fair, dunno how I did it, but it wasn’t through spoiling TV shows.

Anyway, I love how we have Loki basically recruited everyone for the TVA, and he probably made the organisation that ended up trapping him. This is its own bootstrap paradox too, with him being stuck inside a constant loop. Though he promises he can bring Mobius back, as we see, that is not the case.

I think he probably will in the end, but you can see why they wiped his memory. All these lives would probably pull the agents back, and thus they stole the memories from them to continue as slaves.

B-15 is also recruited along with Frank, whom we see arriving at the shore. Again, it kind of explains where the real Frank went, and it’s such a cool scene filled with slow-motion shots of the group together. Ey, put that back.

In the end, Loki ships back to the McDonalds, which is where we see reality disintegrating around Sylvie. Unlike the rest, though, she managed to keep her memories, and they headed out to discuss what was going on.

At this point, we cut to a Zaniac arcade machine, which you might remember as being the movie that X-5 made. We already did a big video breaking down that character from the comics, so if you want to see that, check out our episode 2 video.

The cliffnotes are that Zaniac was a movie star too, who was fused with his costume and possessed by a demon. The credits actually end with this line. Which is, yeah, a nice way to end things.

‘LOKI’ SEASON 2 EPISODE 5 ENDING EXPLAINED

Long story, but the story of people’s lives is what Sylvie thinks she should let the others have. MT did a big video about how the explosion is basically its own multiversal big bang and the resets have been pressed. They talk about it as an effect after the cause, but really it’s a chicken and egg situation. This is actually them being recurited so the tva can be started again rather than being it when its ending.

Sylvie keeps asking Loki why he wants to save the TVA, and in the end, it’s because he just wants his friends back. Guys have basically been lied to his entire life, and this ended up turning him into a villain. Finally, though he has managed to meet people that he loves, he is now just a man out of time.

This conversation is also all about choice, and after ordering her drinks, the bartender even says

–

Back at the room, we see it starting to look more like it does in the TV, with the colours getting closer and the clutter piling up. It shows OB is messy everywhere, and I was actually pretty surprised Mobius didn’t try to sell Casey a jetski. The perfect escape item

Anyway, Loki returns deflated and tells them to return home, which is when we cut across to a record store. Here we see a monkey figure, and you might recognise this as being from the credits too.

A mug there says take me, which, in the end, Sylvie kind of wants to happen.

At this point, we see a top-down view of a record player, which symbolically holds a lot of meaning. Records spin in cycles, and after they are stopped, they can start back up again. Records also go down predetermined paths and play the same thing each and every time, much like this series is one big loop. This in itself is an oroboros, further adding to these themes, and the player itself is surrounded by circles created by the knobs and lampshade.

This top-down shot is also mirrored by how we see Sylvie sitting on her sofa, creating almost a god’s-eye view of a god. It lets us know that time is the true god in all of this and that, at the end of the day, it is the main power in every universe.

Listening to Oh Sweet Nuthin by The Velvet Underground, it tells the story of Ginger Brown. Homeless and all out of love, this sort of reflects Sylvie, who’s now just drifting through life endlessly. However, the song also mentions others that have nothing, reflecting the group that is being assembled.

I wonder if this person entering the door was Loki, and he may also have been the one who took the coffee cup.

This reality falls apart around them, and I love the camera work in this scene. Everything just flows brilliantly, and we focus on the record and spin around the room before closing out.

In the end, she uses the He Who Remains wrist device, which she has kept hidden all this time. Going to the meetup, she says the branches are dying, and thus there is no real choice and they have to act.

Finally, they are together, but the happiness doesn’t last long, and we see as reality falls apart around them, including the people. In the end, Lokiman manages to slip back through time without changing things, thus breaking the loop once and for all.

No longer is he on a predetermined path, and he’s able to alter things in the past. He says that it’s about who, which might even be a nod to who remains. In the end, he warps back to where he was, but this time he’s conscious.

Now the credits also contain some new shots, including Mobius on a jetski and a prison mug shot. Theres a record too, and yeah, nice little additions.

Now for the next part of the video, I want to give some of my predictions for next time and how I think that the series is going to wrap up. This will be talking about things shown in that midseason trailer, which actually spoils a fair bit of the series. If you don’t want to know, then please turn it off now because there are a couple of clips and one bit of leaked comic book artwork that could spoil it.

Anyway, I believe we’re going to get the reveal that there’s actually a Loki behind him who remains, who was not only controlling him but also everything in the series. This is given a bit of a hint to us in the trailer when we see the time stream strands appearing green, which then lead directly into Loki himself.

There was also a piece of leaked comic book artwork to promote the show that had Loki walking down the stairs holding these strands, showing that he’s now in control of all the time streams. This has a lot of basis in the comics, and in the Agent of Asgard Run, we saw Loki trying to change his fate. Throughout time, he’d been a loser who had been used to boost up others, which is something they also touched upon during season 1. However, he changed things and eventually, at the end of time, encountered an older version of himself, which was known as King Loki. King Loki was the one who was actually in control of everything, and him being outside the loop would make a lot of sense.

Josh at Den of Nerds did a big video covering this, and he brought up a lot of really interesting points that could highlight where things are going. In case you don’t know, Kevin Feige recently got promoted at Marvel, and he’s now in charge of not only the films but also the comic book side as well.

This means that Kevin can control the storylines in both and actually set things up for the MCU that also appears here. Josh was talking about how he thinks Loki might actually be Avenger Prime, who exists at the end of time. He’s currently collecting Avengers for a big battle, which may hint at where things are going with Secret Wars.

Loki could be the one who ends up going around and collecting the avengers to fight against Kang in secret wars. This would be such a flip on his character, who initially also helped to bring them together by being a threat.

This is a motif that is sort of teased here too, with him very much doing the same thing to the agents throughout their lives.

It’s also possible that he designed the TVA, and Ryan Arey pointed out the similarities between the bridge and the bifrost. It has some design motifs that pull directly from it, perhaps showing that Loki actually had a hand in making it.

Someone had to be the one who gave he who remains the script of what happens, and thus there has to be someone who remains who remains longer than he who remains.

Obviously, we’re going to have to see, but let me know below if you have any other theories.

We get one with Loki walking along the bridge without a suit on, and I think hes able to survive this because hes a god. He has to be the one, and we also watch him guide those who remain and fail to change things. I think he thinks he is the one, but in the end, it has to be Loki.

Anyway, that wraps up the episode, and a huge thank you for watching up until this point. As I’m sure you know, Marvels is out next week, and it’s going to be a bit weird covering both this and Loki. At the moment, it’s out in the UK on Friday, so we’re probably going to cover Loki first and then go see that. I’m hoping that nothing in it completely contradicts what we say about the show’s ending, but I’m just letting you know. We are trying to get a screening for MT to go check it out earlier, but just in case you’re wondering where it is and what order we’re doing them in.

Anyway, leave your thoughts on the episode below and also what you think will happen in the finale.

Now, if you want something else to watch, we have a video on screen right now.

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.