Loki: Episode 4 Event Report

THE NEXUS EVENT

In Episode 4 of Marvel Studios’ Loki, unable to create a Nexus Event on Lamentis-1 and secure a safe departure, Loki and Sylvie share an intimate moment as they’re minutes away from the complete destruction. 

Suddenly, two Time Doors open before them, and the two variants are apprehended and taken back to the Time Variance Authority (TVA).

Now the question on everyone’s mind —  how were they able to create a Nexus Event in the face of an apocalypse?

Stream Episode 4 “The Nexus Event” of Loki now on Disney+, and read on to discover some notable highlights from our Event Report below!

•    Asgard
•    Lamentis-1, 2077
•    Roxxcart, Haven Hills, Alabama, 2050

•    Hunter B-15
•    Agent Mobius
•    Judge Renslayer
•    Time Keepers

Crimes Against the Sacred Timeline

In Asgard, a young Sylvie sits on the terrace happily playing with a wooden Valkyrie and Pegasus figures. Suddenly, a Time Door opens behind her, and a young Renslayer, in Hunter attire, leads a team of Minutemen through it.

Renslayer scans Sylvie, declares her the variant they’re searching for, and arrests Sylvie for crimes against the Sacred Timeline. Despite Sylvie’s protests, Renslayer pulls Sylvie through the Time Door as the Minutemen set a reset charge.

Sylvie, scared and overwhelmed, navigates the Time Variance Authority (TVA) alone as she’s shuffled through the various processing rooms ahead of her trial. Back in Renslayer’s custody in the TVA courtroom, as she’s dragged up the aisle to the judge’s dais by the hunter, Sylvie bites Renslayer’s hand and steals her TemPad. Eyeing Renslayer with venom, Sylvie opens a Time Door with the TemPad and escapes through it.

In present day, Renslayer is called into the Time Keepers’ chamber as Mobius nervously waits for her outside. When the golden elevator doors open, Mobius catches Renslayer rattled and asks what the Time Keepers said and if she’s okay. Still shaken, Renslayer states it’s jarring to stand before the Time Keepers even in the best of circumstances. Unfortunately, they’re upset with the revelation that there are now two Loki variants on the loose, and blame Renslayer for it as she was the person to give Mobius permission to leverage Loki. In a stern, hushed whisper away from prying ears, Renslayer reminds Mobius how difficult it is to keep the timeline stable, and it’s the Time Keepers that stand between them and full-scale calamity. If the Variant had reached the Time Keepers, there’s no telling what would have happened.

Understanding the risk to protocol, Mobius asks for access to Hunter C-20 in order to learn what she saw under the Variant’s control and to track down Loki and the Variant. Renslayer adamantly refuses. Following the incident at Roxxcart, Renslayer reveals that the Variant’s enchantment scrambled C-20’s mind resulting in a steep decline when she arrived back at the TVA. Hunter C-20 is dead, and Renslayer requests Mobius keep that between them to avoid creating a panic within the organization. Renslayer reminds Mobius that every moment those variants are out there, they’re all in danger, and tasks him with finding them.

The Goddess of Mischief

After the destruction of the Ark on Lamentis-1, Loki finds a dejected Sylvie sitting at a crater lake and sits beside her. As the overhead planet crumbles above them, their entire struggle on the moon weighs on them both.

Sylvie tells Loki she remembers Asgard, admittedly not much, but she remembers her home, her people, and her life before the TVA took her prisoner and erased her reality. She believes the universe is trying to break free of order so it manifests chaos like her being born the “Goddess of Mischief.” She’s been running for a long time since she was a child, but everywhere and everywhen she went, she caused a Nexus Event simply because she wasn’t meant to exist. After figuring out where to hide, she grew up at “the ends of a thousand world,” and now that’s where she’ll die. 

With just a few moments left before the complete destruction of Lamentis-1, Sylvie asks Loki, “Do you think what makes a Loki a Loki is the fact that we’re destined to lose?” Not good with genuine displays of emotion, Loki reflecting on Sylvie’s words for a beat before speaking. Loki reassures her that while they may lose, sometimes painfully, Lokis don’t die; they survive. He praises Sylvie and admits how she’s amazing for taking on the TVA, and she nearly took them down all on her own. Despite their brief time in each other’s presence, the look on his face reveals that he meant every word of it. In response, Sylvie puts her hand on his arm and looks into his eyes as they share these final moments together.

The God and Goddess of Mischief are startled from their brief, intimate interaction when two Time Doors suddenly materialized in front of them.

Work Your Loki

Back at the TVA, Mobius and Hunter B-15 task the analysts in the chronomonitoring wing to magnify the Nexus threshold. Despite the increased threshold, the timeline remains stable. An analyst speculates wherever the variants are, they’re not certain anyone could survive the apocalyptic event. Hunter B-15 asks Mobius on the status of Hunter C-20; Mobius clocks how uncharacteristically on edge she is. He keeps his word to Renslayer and doesn’t say anything.

An analyst spots an anomaly on the chronomonitor and alerts Mobius they’ve got a temporal lock. Mobius and Hunter B-15 are taken aback as they watch a large branch grow rapidly from the timeline in a complete 90-degree angle; they’ve never seen anything like it.

After being taken through the Time Doors on Lamentis-1, Sylvie and Loki are escorted down a hallway by the Minutemen with Mobius and Hunter B-15 behind them. Hostile and refusing arrest, the two variants are separated and placed in different Time Theaters. Loki and Sylvie share one last fleeting glance at one another. Mobius and Loki trade barbs declaring how the other betrayed him, before Loki tells him to grow up.

Uninterested in hearing whatever lie Loki throws his way, Mobius calls Loki “an asshole and a bad friend,” which appears to slightly wound the God of Mischief. The agent then motions to the Minutemen to force the trickster through a glowing Time Door. Dropping all pretenses and before being pushed in, Loki whispers, “Mobius, the TVA is lying to you,” to which Mobius just laughs off.

In Asgard, Loki wonders what punishment awaits him when Lady Sif emerges furious. Holding a large chunk of her hair, she calls Loki a “conniving, craven, pathetic worm” for cutting her hair. Loki recalls the memory and chuckles just as Sif slaps him hard, knees him, and delivers an uppercut to the jaw. Speaking plainly, she tells the Asgardian prince, “I hope you know you deserve to be alone, and you always will be.” After Sif exits, Loki dismisses the so-called bad memory prison as a quaint punishment remembering that he never thought of the incident ever again. Suddenly, the scene resets; Loki is stuck in a time loop with Lady Sif.

Cockroach’s Survival Mechanism

Mobius walks down the TVA corridor, passing Sylvie’s Time Theater. Hunter B-15 calls after him questioning if Loki has revealed anything, which has Mobius pausing in his tracks intrigued. He shares that Loki said the TVA is a lie, laughing it off. He clocks that Hunter B-15 is concerned by that revelation, sensing something is amiss. 

Back in the bad memory prison, Loki is on his knees unable to endure any more of Lady Sif’s attacks in this perpetual time loop. He pleads with Sif telling her he cut her hair because he thought it was funny, but he realizes it’s not. He craves attention because he’s a narcissist who’s scared of being alone. Appearing moved, Sif extends her hand and helps Loki to his feet. His self-realization means nothing as she replies, “You are alone, and you always will be.” Her words in response to his vulnerability wounds him.

Mobius enters the time prison ready to talk and determine if there’s any merit to what the God of Mischief said. Sitting across each other in the Time Theater, Loki remarks that they’re in a time loop of their own. Mobius asks Loki to clarify his earlier declaration that the TVA is lying to him, his involvement with the Variant, and what triggered the Nexus Event on Lamentis. Loki firmly states he will not tell Mobius anything just so the TVA can turn around and delete him. Reaching a dead end, Mobius wistfully states he’s going to miss their tête-à-tête and asks Loki to send Lady Sif his regards. Still not recovered from his first several time loops with the Asgardian warrior, Loki begs Mobius to wait. Telling him what he thinks the agent wants to hear and hoping to maintain the upper hand, Loki dishonestly reveals that he’s been conspiring with the Variant all along to overthrow the TVA, and dismisses Sylvie as a pawn that he’ll dispose of eventually.

Calling his bluff, Mobius remarks that they saved Loki the trouble; she’s already been pruned by Hunter B-15 after breaking out of her Time Cell. As Mobius remarks, turns out, Loki is the superior Loki, after all. Crestfallen, Loki does his best to keep a straight face, unable to accept his only equal is now gone. The hurt in his eyes betraying Loki, Mobius’ suspicious are confirmed as he lets out a loud chuckle to himself. The agent states out loud what the god can’t admit to himself, “YOU LIKE HER! Does she like you??” before calling out Loki probably doesn’t have a clue what caused the Nexus Event. Seemingly impressed, Mobius continues, “Two variants of the same being, especially of you, forming this kind of sick, twisted romantic relationship—that’s pure chaos. That could break reality! It’s breaking my reality right now. What an incredible seismic narcissist, you fell for yourself!”

Processing Mobius’ outburst, Loki questions if Sylvie is alive, which the agent coolly confirms that she is. Loki then relays what Sylvie told him about the TVA: everyone who works here, they’re all variants, including him. The Time Keepers didn’t create them — they were all kidnapped from their timeline and had their memories erased. If he’d only listen, Sylvie can access his memories through enchantment. Unwilling to take the word of two natural liars, Mobius declares the case closed and sends Loki back into his Time Cell. Before he leaves, Loki proclaims that of all the liars in the TVA, Mobius is the biggest because of the lies he tells himself.

Friends Against Time

In Renslayer’s office, thrilled that the case has been put to rest, Renslayer pours Mobius a drink as she can finally relax. The Time Keepers personally want to oversee the Loki variants’ pruning, and want Mobius present for it. However, Mobius’ mind is somewhere else. He asks Renslayer why she wouldn’t let him interrogate the variant Sylvie and when she first noticed something wrong with Hunter C-20. Unsure of Mobius’ line of questioning, Renslayer sees that her longtime friend is undeterred and explains she was trying to protect him; the Variant scares her and she doesn’t want Mobius to lose his mind like Hunter C-20. She reminds him what they do matters; they’re fighting for the fate of the Sacred Timeline, but they’re also fighting for their friendship— “friends against time, allies to the end.” Their friendship is uncommon and worth fighting for, like the Sacred Timeline, because he’s been through it all, seen all of existence, just like her. Unconvinced with her answer, Mobius distracts Renslayer with her latest trophy, Sylvie’s machete. With her back to him, he swaps her TemPad with his own. Calling out his exhaustion, he excuses himself and tells Renslayer he will catch up with her later.

Outside of Sylvie’s Time Theater, Hunter B-15 stares at a TVA poster — Did you get them all? Verify through deletion. Steeling herself, a resolved Hunter B-15 approaches the theater’s doors demanding the guards open the door. Finding Sylvie alone, she pulls up her TemPad and opens a Time Door ordering the Variant to follow her.

The Hunter brings her to the apocalypse at Roxxcart; the potential fight delighting Sylvie. Standing in the parking lot in the middle of the hurricane, Hunter B-15 tells her she saw something when Sylvie was in her head. She asked the Variant what she did to her. Seeing the fear and humanity in B-15’s eyes, Sylvie admits that she showed her what her life was before the TVA. Hunter B-15 dismisses that as a deception, but Sylvie assures her she cannot create memories, only use what’s already there. Hunter B-15 has been lied to, everyone at the TVA has; she’s a variant just like her. Hunter B-15 asks her to show her. As she closes her eyes, Sylvie’s enchantment shows Hunter B-15 her old life. Learning that she lived a happy life, the Hunter asks the Variant what do they do now?

At the TVA Archives, Mobius ducks between a hidden quiet aisle of bookcases and pulls up Renslayer’s TemPad. He searches for Hunter C-20’s profile, which reads ‘Deceased.’ Just as he was to put the TemPad away, he spots a link to the Roxxcart mission debrief and pulls up the video. In an interrogation room, Hunter C-20, clearly lucid, pleads with someone to hear her out She had seen a real memory, of a bar she had frequented with friends before. She had a life on the Sacred Timeline, that she’s a variant—so is every single person in the TVA. Pausing the video, Mobius sees Renslayer come into frame in the interrogation room.

In his Time Cell, Loki is plagued by the unyielding time loop with Lady Sif. Suddenly a Time Door appears and Mobius rushes in asking Loki if he cares about the Variant and if he really believes he deserves to be alone. Loki doesn’t have an answer, but Mobius tells him he better figure out real quick; he thinks the Nexus Event Loki and Sylvie created with their connection is powerful enough to bring down the TVA. Mobius wonders if he can trust the word of two Lokis; to which Loki replies, how about the word of a friend.

Mobius tells Loki that he was right about the TVA, and if they stand a chance in saving Sylvie, Loki will need to trust him. Before exiting the cell, Mobius turns to his friend and states, “You can be whoever, whatever you want to be. Even someone good.” He needed Loki to hear this in case anyone has ever told him any different. 

Emerging from the loop and returning to the Time Theater, Mobius and Loki find themselves surrounded by Renslayer and a group of Minutemen. Renslayer accuses Mobius of taking something of hers; Mobius admits he accidentally switched TemPads and didn’t realize until he got downstairs. Knowing the hopeless outcome and seeing Renslayer’s sad eyes, Mobius tells her he has an answer to her earlier question of where he could go if he could anywhere and anywhen. Defiant, he tells his oldest friend Ravonna, he would go wherever he was really from, before the TVA took him, and that he’d ride his jet ski. Renslayer orders the Minutemen to prune Mobius as she looks away, deeply affected.

Do Your Worst

Renslayer arrives at Sylvie’s Time Theater and finds her dripping wet. To her dismay, she discovers Hunter B-15 was most recently with the Variant. Renslayer puts out an alert for her whereabouts stating that the hunter has also been compromised.

The judge and her Minutemen lead Sylvie to the Time Keepers’ elevator where Loki is already in custody and waiting. Relieved to see Loki, she asks if he’s okay but senses something is off due to his solemn expression. Renslayer dismisses the Minutemen, escorting the two variants to the Time Keepers’ chambers herself.

In the elevator, Sylvie asks Renslayer if she remembers her, and she does. However, she does not remember the Nexus Event was that led to Sylvie’s arrest. Sylvie absorbs Renslayer’s dismissive response as if her life and suffering was inconsequential.

The three exit the elevator and stand before the Time Keepers. As Renslayer forces Loki and Sylvie forward, three giant reptilian faces with large glowing eyes stare down upon them. An imposing voice booms across the chamber asking the variants if they have anything to say before they meet their end. Angry, Loki diminishes the entire spectacle; if they’re only going to kill them, he invites them to as he’s lost count how many times he’s already died in his lifetime. Aghast at the disrespect, the Time Keepers state that the two variants are not a threat to them, just simply a cosmic disappointment, and orders Renslayer to delete them.

Renslayer is unable to control a defiant Sylvie as she advances toward the Time Keepers. Suddenly, emerging from the elevators, Hunter B-15 unlocks both Loki and Sylvie’s Time Collars with her TemPad and tosses Sylvie her machete as she proclaims, “For all time. Always.” The room descends into an all-out brawl as the guards attempt to protect the Time Keepers. Hunter B-15 is knocked out in the fight, while Renslayer and Sylvie face off in a brutal back and forth. After eliminating all the guards and knocking out Renslayer, Loki and Sylvie approach the vulnerable Time Keepers, who now plead that they’re a child of the Time Keepers too. Uninterested in what they have to say, Sylvie flings her machete towards one of the Time Keepers and slices their head clean off. 

As she goes to retrieve her weapon, Loki tells her to wait. The remaining Time Keepers malfunction like failing machines before slumping and going limp. Picking up the decapitated Time Keeper’s head, Loki and Sylvie realize they were nothing more than mindless androids. The Time Keepers aren’t real, and they are nowhere closer to understanding who created the TVA. 

Loki reassures her that they’ll figure this out. But, tired and demoralized, Sylvie tells Loki she cannot bare another pep talk. Taking her hand into his and locking eyes, Loki brings up Lamentis. Before he can finish, Loki lets out a scream as he dematerializes right before her. Sylvie stands before Renslayer who has pruned Loki with her Time Stick. Seething with anger, she pummels Renslayer and disarms her. The judge threatens her to end her life, but Sylvie firmly says no, demanding she be told everything.

Hel

Loki opens his eyes as he lays on the ground of a grassy moor. He gasps for air and takes several deep breaths, trying to get his bearings.

Pondering out loud, Loki asks himself, “Is this Hel? Am I dead?” Startling Loki, a voice responds, “Not yet, but you will be unless you come with us.” Loki looks over to a heroic semi-circle of variant Lokis surrounding him. 

FOR ALL TIME. ALWAYS.

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