LOKI 2x02 BREAKDOWN! Easter Eggs & Details You Missed!

Welcome back to New Rockstars. I'm Eric. Voss, and this is a breakdown of Loki. season 2 episode 2. All the Marvel. Easter eggs, interesting filmmaking. choices, complex timeline logic, and. clues for where this season seems to be. going. I got you covered, folks. And. huge thanks to everyone who spent part. of their past week with us by watching. our episode 1 breakdown, our reaction, any other video we released this week. about Loki. It's just this show, its. themes, and the corner of the MCU it is. establishing just mean so much to me, and I'm just grateful to be able to. share my observations with you. Okay,

after an updated Marvel Studios title. card that reminder includes He Who. Remains from the season 1 finale as the. Citadel elevator doors open into his. office, and added Miss Minutes stalling. with those fake records with Sylvie and. Renslayer in season 1 episode 5, episode. 2 opens in London, 1977, which the lower. third title confirms is the sacred. timeline. The contrast to the episode 1. post-credit scene that clarified that. Sylvie in Broxton, Oklahoma is a. branched timeline. So, here we are. looking at a part of history as the TVA. planned it in normal MCU history. There. is always been an actor in the '70s.

named Brad Wolf in a movie called Zaniac. starring him. In the opening shot on the. left is a London newsstand with the. Daily Enquirer spelled with an E, not an. I, like the British tabloid. The. Enquirer sign on the far left prints a. headline, "Dreams, what do yours say. about you?" We are seeing X-5 live out. his dream life here on the sacred. timeline. And for him, his dreams tell. him that he is a narcissistic prick. All. of our characters this episode are. tempted to live out their dreams or roll. up their sleeves and do the dirty work. to keep the universe from imploding. Now, if you're feeling a bit of whiplash.

in this opening scene with Mobius and. Loki already wearing '70s movie premiere. tuxedo costumes, yeah, this all happens. pretty fast. They were just looking for. Sylvie, and X-5's tempad going offline. is their best lead since Dox and X-5. were pursuing Sylvie. But, it still. feels like a scene is missing that, you. know, maybe would have shown Mobius and. Loki finding this date on the sacred. timeline from the TVA Chronomonitor Bay, and then deciding to go there. But, there is no scene like that, and they. said that there was no scenes that were. reshot for this season of Loki, but you. know, maybe there should have been in.

this case. But if you watch the scene. closely, a line was added with Owen. Wilson dubbing in some exposition in the. post-production step. But you said you wanted to find Sylvie, right? With Dox and X-5 not responding, this our only lead. There are some fun Easter eggs on the. posters here. First is a poster for the. 1974 Herbie Rides Again, a sequel to the. '70s Disney franchise. And all of the. descriptions of Herbie in this poster. apply to Loki in this sequel season. He's daring. He's playful. He's. romantic. He's athletic. And he's. defiant. Loki rides again. Next is an.

amazing Easter egg, a Bollywood movie. poster for a movie starring Kingo, Kumail Nanjiani's Eternal from Eternals, who does what Brad Wolfe is now doing, living a dream life as a movie star. This poster was actually on Kingo's. private jet on the far left in the. Eternals film. The movie is Sarosh Ke. Putra, or in English, Son of Sarosh. We. also saw Kingo posters in Hollywood in. the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday. Special. And then on a sign for this. Leopold theater, it boasts a new and. improved cinema snack bar with hot. popcorn, orange juice cartons, and ice.

cream. And then at the bottom, tea and. snacks offered at intermission. Beneath. that is a fully ridiculous poster for a. fictional movie called Phone Ranger. Perhaps a play on the Lone Ranger with. the tagline, "Grab an old seat, he's got. your number." Starring Charles Theobald, Rick Dune, Lorenzo Macarver, and Victor. D. Eliwood. Produced by Goodman. Productions, which is the same company. and production team that made Zaniac. The Phone Ranger's head is a red phone, and his chest emblem is a phone keypad. His sidekick uses a corded phone as a. weapon. I guess you could draw some TVA.

connections here, like the mystery. ringing phone of episode 1 and the idea. of anthropomorphizing a face into a. phone instead of a clock like Miss. Minutes does. But this premiere is for a. horror movie called Zaniac, which. according to the marquee stars Brad. Wolfe and George Ethan Walker, Stephen. Allen, and Leah M. Jensen. It looks like. the artist of this poster used Rafael. Casal's likeness to render this monster, but Zaniac is actually detailed from. Marvel Comics, a Thor villain from Thor. 319 in 1982 introduced as a swarm of. demonic creatures from the dark.

dimension that possess a host and gives. them a bloodlust and a desire to kill. women, which it does for the actor Brad. Wolf while he is shooting a slasher film. at the University of Chicago in the same. site where they conducted the test of. the Manhattan Project. Watch Oppenheimer. goes into that. And while he was dressed. in a costume as this goofy movie. villain, whose name was a Zaniac, he. gets possessed by the swarm and caught. in a radioactive blast. University of. Chicago students don't go into the. football field. But years later in. Marvel Comics, Zaniac returns in 1986's. Thor 371-372 when Thor teams up with TVA. agent Justice Peace to prevent the.

Zaniac from starting a world war. So I. think that's really the reference point. here with Loki teaming up with the TVA. to intervene with Brad Wolf as Brad Wolf. is living out the timeline as he was. supposed to live it. I guess we should. assume that X-5 pruned his sacred. timeline self and took his place, maybe. doing this months ago to allow himself. to grow out this haircut. Now, I've. compared this season of Loki to the. Matrix, and X-5 is absolutely an analog. for Cypher, Joe Pantoliano's character, who betrays the other humans in a deal. with the agents to plug himself back. into the simulation and specifically.

makes this request. I don't want to be rich. Or. someone important. Like an actor. So in the theater lobby, we hear a disco. rendition of Natalie Holt's Loki theme. music. A reporter asks Brad, Are the Brigitte Bardot rumors true? Brigitte Bardot was a French actress and. sex symbol in the 50s through the 70s, but she withdrew from the spotlight in. 1973. So this would be Brad Wolf kind of. canoodling with her to bring her back. out of retirement. Mobius asks if there.

will be a Zaniac 2, and I just love this. gag of having more famous actors. pretending to be the less famous face at. a public event. My favorite example of. this gag being Steven Soderbergh shot in. Ocean's 11 as Topher Grace and Joshua. Jackson came out of the nightclub and. got mobbed by fans while George Clooney. and Brad Pitt walked by all these people. unnoticed and given some like annoyed. side eye by some of those fans. I love. food. A good meal is a movie for your. mouth, but I particularly love it when. it's delicious and delivered straight to. me, and that's what Cook Unity is all. about. You know, mouth movies. Cook. Unity is the first chef-to-consumer.

platform that delivers freshly prepared, pre-selected meals right to your door. weekly. Cook Unity is basically a. pipeline from your home to a diverse. group of talented chefs that cook. delicious, inventive meals fresh every. day in regional micro kitchens, not. warehouse production facilities. And the. meals they make are so good. There's no. artificial ingredients. The meat is. humanely raised, and Cook Unity chefs. use organic ingredients whenever. possible. There's meals for everyone, including options for vegan, paleo, gluten-free diets, all covering a wide.

range of cuisines. You could be eating. Ruby Garcia's crispy tilapia one night, classic Italian meatballs from Chef. Dustin Taylor the next night, and then. kickstart your weekend with bulgogi. bibimbap from Chef Esther Choi. And you. got to see my first Cook Unity meal. This week we're having shrimp and smoked. andouille sausage jambalaya. Jambalaya. Mhm. How is it? good. So good. All the meals are delivered. fully cooked, so all you have to do is. heat them up. No more cleanup, no more. meal planning. All you have to do is set.

up your weekly subscription. If you want. to pause, skip a week, or cancel, it's. super easy to do. So go to. cookunity.com/N. Rockstar 50, or click the link in the. description below, and use my code N. Rockstar 50 to get 50% off your first. order of Cook Unity meals to try them. out for yourself. So Brad scampers out. of the side door and tries to use his. modified temp pad, but B-15 intercepts. Oh my god, it's Brad Wolf. Can I get. your autograph? Anything for a. Hey, B-15 uses a young, dopey American. girl accent here in London. And even.

though Wunmi Mosaku is a British. actress, and would be right at home. playing an English girl, she uses an. American accent here because it's Brad. she's trying to woo here, and he would. probably be more into an American. tourist. B-15 wears this TVA orange. color, the lights the alleyway bathe. them all in orange. She just looks. awesome. But when Brad initially spills. out into the street, a few punk rockers. are leaning against that back wall in. the background. These are the ones that. Loki later illusion projects to fool. Brad. So this would be the moment that. he clocks them and stores them in his.

mind for later. Loki blasts Brad down. some steps. There's a pile of newspapers. and matches that would have been. convenient for Brad to land on, but no, he lands on cold hard pavement. Now if. you look at the sign, this is Strand. Lane and I actually mapped out this. exact spot in the Covent Garden. neighborhood of London and these steps. are the Surrey Steps, which is adjacent. to an easy to miss London historical. curiosity, what was called a Roman bath. according to Victorian Londoners, but. this just dates back to the early 17th. century. By the way, I am obsessed with. the city of London. I actually lived in. this neighborhood in summer 2008. It's. filled with real world Easter eggs like.

this and I am as insufferable on London. walking tours as I am on YouTube. Now. they almost get run over by a Miller and. King classic Range Rover and then X-5. uses what looks like a prisoner time. twister to escape, but rather than it. being on his neck collar, he wears it on. his wrist like a watch. X-5 twists right. back to that base of the Surrey Steps on. Strand Lane where Loki knocked him on. his ass before. X-5 then runs into a. gang of punk rockers, but if you look. closely, some of them are mods based on. those bikes that they're riding. So. mods, you remember, are the London gangs. that they based the Tatooine gang on,

remember from the Book of Boba Fett that. made everyone really mad? While those. mods were around mostly in the 50s and. 60s, there was a mod revival period in. the late 70s. So it would make sense. that they're here. Now behind them on. the street is a pub called The Hat and. Tun, which is in a different part of. London than Covent Garden. This is on. Hatton Wall and Hatton Place, thus the. Hat and Tun. Loki reveals himself as an. illusion projection and swipes the. twister off X-5's wrist. You quit with THE MAGIC AND FIGHT FAIR. OH, YEAH, I LIKE THE CAMERA trick they do by.

cutting away from Loki close up back to. X-5 yelling at him and in that reverse. shot of X-5, they already have Tom. Hiddleston standing in the background. from the beginning of that shot. So, Loki's duplicates close in on X-5 as he. backs toward a wall with less is enough. written on it, which is ironic because. Loki is totally using some overkill. here. Meanwhile, on the wall behind Loki. is graffiti reading, "Piss off." So, it's kind of like their backdrops are. shouting at each other. "Less is. enough." "Oh, piss off." Loki's horned. shadows grab X-5, and I know I bring it. up 1990s Ghost a lot because I just. watched it. It's like one of my favorite.

movies, but this is a lot like when the. demon shadows come to life and grab the. damn to drag them off to hell. To make. that sound effect, they use the sounds. of babies crying and they stretched out. lowered it and makes it sound so creepy. So, Loki asks, A little over the top, don't you think, all the shadow play? I thought it was spot-on. Yeah, we all assume Loki is middle. projection, but he's actually on the. right. He's never where you think he'll. be. So, D-90 and B-15 escort X-5 through. the TVA, and they pass this poster that. instructs, "When prompted, take deep. breaths." In the bottom left corner, it.

reads, "Enhance conversations with. variants." So, it's interesting advice. for these TVA interrogators as the. center section of this episode explores. Mobius and Loki's interrogation tactics. on X-5, tactics that he, as a TVA. hunter, would know how to resist and. counteract, including an ability and an. inability we'll see inside that time. cube to take deep breaths. Mobius and. Loki approach OB in the RNA, and he. mutters to himself, Got to weave these two wires together I. got to make this thing even. Uh-huh. Yes, weaving cords together tightly is. also physically what the temporal loom. is supposed to do with timelines. Now,

behind his desk, you can see a popcorn. bucket. So, popcorn, was he at that. Leopold Theater Zeniac premiere? Also, there's a box labeled Mullard, which is. a British electronics parts manufacturer. that was founded in the early 20th. century. OB offers to look into X-5's. Tempad, but he asks, Do you think this is a higher priority. than preventing a temporal meltdown? I love Ke Huy Quan's delivery here. because while this line could be read as. sarcastically, there is not a hint of. attitude in his voice. Instead, he just. flips them his TVA handbook. And notice. every time we see him handle it, he. flips it elegantly. In fact, I didn't.

fully appreciate enough the smooth. over-the-shoulder toss and grab from Ke. Huy Quan to Tom Hiddleston while they. were in motion and perfectly hitting all. their complex dialogue in that long take. last episode. Never forget that Ke Huy. Quan is great at physical acting and. stunts. In fact, he worked on the stunt. crew of the 2000 X-Men film. We have not. seen his full forum on the series yet. He is going to fight at some point this. season. In fact, I really do get the. sense that Ke Huy Quan is kind of an. angelic entity, the original He Who. Remains, the OG. Like Morgan Freeman and.

Bruce Almighty in that Obi here is just. kind of tossing them a hotel nightstand. Bible and hinting, "All the answers are. right here if you were to just open this. book." B-15 checks in with Casey who. speaks softly thinking that the. Renslayer traces the secret. I like this. because every time Owen Wilson talks on. the series, he's like practically. whispering. But B-15 correctly points. out that now that they're in this. existential crisis mode, there's no. point in information siloing. She. reminds us that Renslayer killed C-20. referring to that poor hunter from. season 1 who was kidnapped by Sylvie and. gave up the information to the. Time-Keepers' location at the TVA. Just.

a reminder that there is a difference in. the TVA between pruning, which banishes. one to the void, and directly killing, which would eradicate one from existence. akin to spaghetti-fication. Casey says, Miss Minutes down, the analysts are. running traces manually. Yeah, we're seeing how reliant the TVA. was on Miss Minutes. She wasn't like a. Microsoft Office paperclip friend, but. kind of an extension of He Who Remains. ruling unilaterally on which variants. and which branch timelines to make a. move on. Mobius and Loki try to unscrew. X-5's keypad themselves. I don't know. Section 42 should match.

with the system. Is that where the red. light is? Did we try that already? We'll. try it again. Ah, the number 42. Because media. literacy is dead and everything equals. everything, everyone thinks every. mention of the number 42 is a reference. to the answer to the great question in. Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide, or. Miles Morales' Spider-Verse number, or. Jackie Robinson's number, or a number. that shows up in Everything Everywhere. All at Once also starring Ke Huy Quan, or the number of the rounds on Ripley's. pulse rifle in Aliens as she was going. down the elevator. Sometimes it's just a. high enough double-digit number that. screenwriters like to use, kind of like. the recurring number 17 in the MCU, and.

12 often used as a highest single. syllable number. And really, I just. think they chose the number 42 cuz it's. pretty amusing that a temp had would. have at least 42 sections to it. Casey. reports that Miss Minutes is helping. Renslayer, and Loki relays that audio. recording that he heard in the past that. Renslayer and He Who Remains were. partners. So, we're getting a sense of a. love triangle at the heart of the. season. He Who Remains is burning. Renslayer for some reason, and He Who. Remains' other side piece, Miss Minutes, as a fellow spurned ex, with his two. girlfriends joining forces, like two. ghosts of girlfriends past. A theory.

that we've been chewing on is that Miss. Minutes may be part of Renslayer's mind. or memory or soul or consciousness that. was extracted from her body and. contained in a separate animated shell, like the second half of Renslayer's. bicameral mind. In Tuesday's video, we. talked about the possibility that. Renslayer could have been Kang's female. variant the way Sylvie was Loki's. variant. So, if/when Renslayer and Miss. Minutes unite and share notes, they. could amount to full Kang variant of. equal threat or even greater threat than. He Who Remains. B-15 says about Miss. Minutes,

She really is. full of surprises. Yeah, it kind of sounds like she was. about to say, "She really is. annoying." The glass panel of. Mobius's cubicle has words he's written: station detail cards, time detail cards, error details, and then some graph with. a stair-step increase there, but on the. x-axis, of course, is time. So, they. interrogate X-5, and you'll notice this. room is all orange. Orange is often. considered the most irritating color. visually for interior design, at least. when it's in an overwhelming amount. Loki tells X-5 that there are lives at.

stake, which X-5 throws back in his. face. You're just trying to make up for all. the terrible, awful you've done in. your life, you pathetic little man. Just a reminder that L-1130 is not the. Loki who went through Thor: The Dark. World or Ragnarok or Infinity War, but. rather this one. He killed 80 people in 2 days. He's adopted? But, since Loki's already made peace. with that life, he lets X-5 go on. See, everything you and Sylvie have ever. done to try to help.

has only ever made it worse. Ooh, X-5 going after Sylvie pisses Loki. off because Loki knows that this Sylvie. from a young age was really a victim of. the TVA. So, he's ready to tell X-5 to. keep his girl's name out his mouth. X-5. notices that Loki's trigger is when he. brings up the women in his life. So, he. does it again. You just make everything worse. For Mobius, for B-15, for your mother. Oh, not Frigga. Don't talk about guys'. moms. X-5 calls Loki a loser and a.

villain, and Loki embraces being a. loser, calling back he and Sylvie's. conversation in season 1 episode 4. Do you think that what makes a Loki a. Loki. is the fact that we're destined to lose? Mobius eases the tension with a. knock-knock joke. Who's there? Brad. Brad who? That show biz. I think the funniest thing about it is. just that little laugh that Owen Wilson. gives afterwards. But Mobius is thinking. that he can catch more flies with honey, but that backfires as X-5 gets under his.

skin, questioning who Mobius was back on. the sacred timeline, who he left behind, making me wonder if Mobius might have. had a co-pilot while he was riding that. jet ski. And instead, Mobius gives X-5. the Mr. Jada Pinkett Smith treatment. Open-handed. Nowhere man. You're a. You're a nowhere. Ah, in there you heard them calling each. other a nowhere man, which is an. interesting term now that we got the. cosmic MCU in the idea of someone being. a nowhere man with a K, meaning a. refugee who would find himself starting. over inside of a skull. Afterwards,

Mobius says, Nope. He didn't get under my skin. He. got under your skin. Yeah, suddenly Mobius treating the word. skin in the dust bears some new meaning. So, they make it to the automat, a green. room with only one entrance at the end. of this remote hallway that kind of. looks like it's just past the RNA. No. one else is in here, but there is a. whole wall full of cases of slices of. key lime pie, which I must say is. normally not this shade of green. The. walls of this automat contain this. poster that reads, "One slice per week. Bartering for extra tokens is forbidden. 17 minutes is sufficient." Tokens? Have.

the TVA employees been getting weekly. tokens and they had no idea what they. were for? Or are these just tokens for. any food that they could purchase at the. cafeteria and didn't know that they. could also be used here at the automat? And yeah, there's that number 17 coming. back. And sure, since we did this before. with two, let's play this game with 17. So, 17 was one of the Winter Soldier. activation words. 17A was the Avengers. compound storage unit that contained. Iron Spider armor. Also, Infinity War. T'Challa ordered to open northwest. section 17. Is there any significance? Or is the MCU just an Overwatch. franchise with dozens of films and. commonalities are bound to occur? And 17.

is just kind of like another weirdly. specific prime number that's. simultaneously a lot of something, but. also not enough of something. Loki. recalls the events of 2012's Avengers. You remember that time. I was so angry with my father and my. brother, I went down to Earth and held. the whole of New York City hostage with. an alien army. Interesting for Loki to now frame it not. as pure ambition, but as bitterness he. felt toward Thor and Odin. He goes on. Tried to use the mind stone on Tony. Stark. It didn't work. So, I threw him. off the building. I mean, let me say something.

Wasn't tactical. Another interesting detail because this. Loki was extracted from the year 2012. And back at that point, he must have. known that the scepter contained an. Infinity Stone. That wasn't something. any of the Avengers at that time, or the. studio, or we knew to be true, at least. in 2012. Loki also asks Mobius if he was. ever curious about his sacred timeline. life in case it was something bad. And. Mobius says that he could handle. something bad, but he would hate it if. it were something good, which tells us. that Loki can only imagine his sacred. timeline life as a series of tragedies.

Losing Frigga, losing Odin, his own. death. He can't imagine a happy life. that he would be missing out on because. his life in the TVA with Sylvie has been. the happiest he's ever been. When Obi. first enters the loom room, he passes a. screen that reads perpetual sequencer C. And on that screen, a few links in a. chain with a flashing center, which may. represent the overwhelmed temporal loom. On a second computer screen, which we. see in close-up, it reads interconnector. B, displacement B, and a bunch of VAR, which I assume would stand for variants. And we see that the value for F VAR is.

null. I don't know what that means, I. just wanted to point that out for you. OB's temporal aura reads as invalid. So, someone with the right time soul. fingerprint needs to activate this. If. OB said Miss Minutes would keep this. running and he only needed to run. diagnostics and they need He Who. Remains' aura, that could fuel my theory. that Miss Minutes is a kind of. derivative of a Kang variant because she. would carry a trace of his aura. In. sense of color palette this episode, I. just kind of find it interesting that. this episode swings back and forth. between alarming orange filling the.

frame to relaxing seafoam filling the. frame. Scalding our rods and cones with. orange and then soothing them with. seafoam. For round two of X-5's. interrogation, they wheel in this device. that we actually saw on the end credits. montage. And all of these scenes, we've. seen this vent hose hanging from the. wall and now we see that it plugs into. this thing that kind of looks like an. old school vacuum or shop vac. But Loki. switches it on and Mobius does a really. good job pretending like he doesn't want. this to happen to be the good cop that. the bad cop locked out of the room. Mobius, hey, get in here.

Yeah, there's his tail. He calls him. Brad through the door, not X-5, to kind. of make himself sound like he's X-5's. friend that he doesn't want him to get. hurt. Loki creates a time cube around. the stool and then crushes it and then. forms one around X-5. Last episode we. saw a poster explaining the time cube. atmosphere and now we know what this. does and it's horrifying. I actually. love this textural detail of all the. scratches on this plexiglass like. surface. Kind of makes it feel tangible. to us the viewer and somewhat creepy as. the scratches might have come from. people desperately trying to claw out of.

this or suddenly scratching along the. floor as it shrunk in size. And now we. have some context for why this floor is. graded. It's for when people trapped. inside this time cube get crushed down. to viscera, and that would ooze down to. the drain. We are seeing a. slaughterhouse killing floor. And yeah, they really must have pressed Rafael. Casal's arms against some surface. because now we see his elbow skin. pressing against it. And just apologize. to any claustrophobes watching this. episode because it must have been. torture for them. The loom room X-Men. doors open again. I brought these up. last episode. I don't think this is an. intentional Cerebro reference or.

anything. Trust me, after breaking down. movies and TV shows for 7 years, X's and. hexes show up everywhere. And we learn. how Casey is starstruck to meet OB. Will you sign mine for me? Of course I will. Happy to do it. Yeah, just next to your picture. Yeah, OB's picture is in the TVA. guidebook. I'm telling you, for Miss. Minutes or He Who Remains to allow or OB. to retain any public authorship on any. literature inside the walls of the TVA. means that OB has some power that they. cannot override. OB might be the OG, the. original He Who Remains. Yet, OB cannot.

access the loom room without He Who. Remains' aura. So, they kind of have. these checks and balances on each other. X-5 takes them to the McDonald's in. Braxton, Oklahoma 1982 where the sign. reads over 40 billion served. In the. 1980s, McDonald's would boast how many. billions of burgers they had served, but. they officially stopped counting in. 1993. So, the signage now simply reads. over 99 billion served. You can imagine. Sylvie seeing this sign and thinking, "After watching billions upon billions. of people die in apocalyptic events, maybe now I can work for a service that. just serves tens of billions of people.".

Loki finds Sylvie inside working the. register, now having grown a solid '80s. mullet. You can also see that she's. wearing ankh earrings. One detail I. missed from episode one that many of you. pointed out to me in the comments was. that Casey's guided meditation tape was. the same recording listened to by Steven. Grant in Moon Knight. Clear your mind and relax. Solving puzzles is a great way to keep. your mind awake. So, I don't know, maybe there will be. further connections between the TVA and. the Egyptology of Moon Knight. And we. get some more orange versus seafoam. color contrast here in the parking lot, Sylvie's orange McDonald's uniform as.

she sits on the bed of a green Ford. Ranger. Loki tells Sylvie that he saw. her in his future, but she says that she. made sure that the future wouldn't be. written. What Sylvie isn't considering. is that maybe He Who Remains might have. wanted her to kill him. That that could. have been part of his original plan. That's Loki's assumption that He Who. Remains was telling the truth that they. can't let the TVA go unfixed. He offers. even to let her enchant him so that she. can see what is in his mind, something. he never wanted her to be able to do. back on Lamentis. This is a big. concession from him. The last time we. saw Sylvie enchant something, it was. Alioth when she enchanted him to see.

where the Citadel was at the end of. time. And for the second time this. episode, Mobius chows down on some pie, this time a McDonald's apple pie to. compare to the key lime pie earlier. And. I love how X-5 is framed perfectly next. to the Hamburglar. Rubble rubble rubble. rubble. One of these wearing old-timey. prison garb striped uniform, whereas X-5. is wearing the TVA prison garb. Both of. them, they're just little burglars. Rubble rubble rubble rubble. Mobius. coaxes X-5 into talking about the. Zaniac. It's not scary. It's elevated thriller, all right? It's cinema. Cinema! Marvel must have known this. season of Loki would be dropping around.

the same time as a Martin Scorsese movie. because the last time Marty was in the. press circuit, it was 2019 for The. Irishman when he famously pissed off. Marvel fans by saying that the MCU. wasn't, quote, cinema. But you know. what? Marty had the last laugh because, uh, Marvel, apparently according to The. Hollywood Reporter, is on fire right now. and Killers of the Flower Moon is great. But the reason X-5 has been so jumpy is. that they are currently in a branched. timeline. And he knows what General Dox. is planning to do to all these branches, which Sylvie enchants out of him. A-bombin' is a-comin'. So, Sylvie taps.

something on her hand to make her. McDonald's uniform dis-enchant back into. the armor she showed up here wearing. after she killed He Who Remains. Presumably, what she tapped is He Who. Remains' tempad, but she must have. cloaked it to be invisible on her hand. Back in the TVA chrono monitor bay, the. screen shows branches getting bombed. And notice they are all numbered with. codes beginning with 616. We see branch. 616-07K, TR470, bombed. Branch 616-011QY435, branch 616-13PER002, like error, That's bombed. Branch 616, 44U, UQ001, and other 616 coded branches.

in the ticker above. The TVA is. apparently using the same universe. designation system for the Marvel. Comics, in which 616 is considered the. main Marvel Universe number. Loki also. used this in season 1 when Loki's film. strip was labeled ETH616, and Multiverse. of Madness established the MCU as 616, at least from Christine Palmer's. perspective from University 38. This. rightfully drives Marvel Comics readers. nuts because the MCU film universe was. supposed to be labeled Earth 199999. And. the film universe exists as a separate. universe within the pages of 616 comics.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse even. fired a shot by re-establishing the MCU. as Earth 199999. Don't even get me. Dr. Strange and a little nerd back on. Earth 199999. I did a whole video diving into this. debate, and I revealed that Kevin Feige. actually never said that the MCU was. Earth 199999. That myth was made up in a. Reddit comment and never fact-checked. This actually came from a 2008. sourcebook from a wholly different. division of Marvel from the film studio. So, this idea of labeling all these. branches 616 something is Marvel Studios.

saying that the MCU sacred timeline is. 616, and each branch is a subset of 616. But, I completely agree with Iman. Vellani and every Marvel Comics reader. who find this confusing. I always say, if you want to call it 616, put an. asterisk next to it that says, "Not yet. Not until after Secret Wars and we have. like X-Men, Fantastic Four, and all the. rightful Marvel lineup in the universe.". So, Mobius, Loki, and Sylvie find. General Dox and her hunters in this. remote command center. This shooting. location is a historic Chatham Dockyard. in Kent in the UK. This was established. in the 16th century following the. Reformation and has since built over 500.

ships for the Royal Navy until it was. closed in 1984. In the background, you. can actually see the sign "D'Elia and. Sonner Bet Bijeri." Dan D'Elia is. Marvel's long-time VFX supervisor who. directed this episode. Bagland Bet. Bijeri is actually a shipyard in Norway. Dox has rigged up reset charges with. temp pads to bomb branch timelines, something that Sylvie recognizes because. think about it. This is more or less. what she did at the end of episode two. of Loki season 1, dropping all those. reset charges from the Roxxcart. Superstore. Except her charges caused. chaos throughout the timeline. Dox is. dropping these bombs to try to clean it.

all up. But the three of them shut down. the operation. Sylvie uses that sword. that she used to stab He Who Remains. Loki uses a pruning stick, and he chucks. it at one hunter from a distance. And. then the variants join hands and finish. the job. Did everything get. Sylvie doesn't want Loki to fall in love. with her through this gesture. Yet, notice how they are always more powerful. when they are joining hands. Episode two. of the first season ended with Sylvie. opening a time door and walking through. it, trusting Loki to follow her, but. coming off as if she didn't care whether. or not he did. And that's what Loki does. here. He just gives Sylvie one glance. and then turns to walk through the door.

and trusts her to make her own choice on. whether or not to follow. And she does. But they all watch in horror at Dox's. success. Billions of people being pruned. out of existence. The dead timelines. turn the color gray, which is the color. of the dust that Thanos's victims turn. into when they were erased from. existence. A visual effect that Dan. DeLeeuw actually led the design of. And. on that screen at the bottom, it says. 802 active, which makes me think that. there might still be 802 active. branches, which would still be a lot for. OB to try to manage. But earlier they. said that Dox successfully pruned at. least 30% of them. So doing some math.

here, 802 over X equals 70 over 100. That would mean that there were. originally a total of 1,146. branches, and that at least 343 of them. were pruned. 343 different Earths. Now, our Earth's current population is 7.888. billion. So multiply that by 343 of. them, that would mean over 2.7 trillion. people were just erased from existence. by General Dox. But we still see some. orange branches still intact, so I. assume that would include the branch.

timeline of Sylvie's McDonald's in. Broxton. But this pruning of the. haystack has a silver lining. The. temporal loom won't be in as much of an. immediate crisis, but they also have a. clear enough signal to lock onto. Renslayer's tempad. That screen lists. the TVA entity as 221/A. There's a still intact branch F-2, one. branch pruned, and then a branch Q-2. that flashes. I assume that is the. branch that Renslayer is now on. But. Sylvie says, The TVA is the problem. It's broken. It's rotten. And she leaves, and Loki says,

It's harder. to stay. This episode began by asking what our. dreams say about us. For Sylvie, her. dreams say that it's easier to just. chill out and eat a Big Mac than it is. to do the hard work and face a life full. of consequences. So, we end with Sylvie. back in that McDonald's parking lot, her. hands folded over her stomach where she. hides He Who Remains tempad, the trophy. that she has no intention of. surrendering. We see some photos in the. closing credits that have been updated. to include Brad Wolfe's actor headshot. Also a photo of Casey and B-15, Sylvie. at the McDonald's, Loki and Mobius in. London, and General Dox. Meanwhile, the. song playing over the closing credits is.

Janis Joplin's "Cosmic Blues", which. features Janis Joplin starting out slow, "Time keeps moving on, friends they turn. away." Then she gets more impassioned. and she says, "I keep moving on, but I. never found out why." And then Janis. Joplin just goes into her signature. scream, "AND I KEEP PUSHING too hard, and babe, I keep trying to make it right. through another" And then she slows down. and says, "Lonely day. Oh, oh." And I. love how this music frames Sylvie as an. older, wiser woman trying to enjoy her. peace and quiet, but then angrily.

turning on herself as she hasn't really. gotten over anything. Thank you so much. for watching this breakdown of Loki. episode 2. I'm just blown away that so. many of you cared enough to make these. analyses part of your viewing. I. appreciate all of you. So, please hit up. those comments with your thoughts and. theories, and be sure to check out our. reaction to this episode, and stay tuned. for our sneak peek at episode 3 coming. this Sunday. We're actually going to mix. it up with a new rotating guest every. week. You can support us by grabbing. some of our exclusive Loki inspired. merch designs over at nerdriot.shop. Please subscribe to all three of our. channels on the Nerdy Rockstars Network. You can follow me at EAVoss, and I'll. see you next week. Bye, everybody.