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The latest episode of Loki is called ‘The Nexus Event’ and combines the classic ‘guy realizes something is wrong’ plot with also classic ‘actually it was me the whole time’ nonsense. The first moment of the episode is watching young Sylvie as a girl on Asgard simply playing with dolls (of note is her talking about a Valkyrie saving Asgard) before being captured by Ravonna in her apparently younger days.
The episode makes it immediately clear how troubling this is, as she sees some other Variant being violently manhandled by a TVA agent and shouts for someone to get help. It’s a point referenced later by Mobius, that maybe Loki is capable of being ‘good’ — here this Sylvie Variant starts with expressing empathy and seeing authoritarian thugs before quickly escaping.
When we get back to Loki and Sylvie, which is thankfully not revealed to be a double layered twist (Sylvie did not enchant Loki for most of last episode, which was a common theory online), she reveals that she’s been running for years and ‘grew up’ in the ‘ends of a thousand worlds’. Certainly a traumatic upbringing, but there is a connection between her and Loki — is it romantic or something else?
The idea of a self-proclaimed narcissist (as we hear a few times this episode) desiring themselves certainly fits into the old Greek myth of Narcissus, who fell in love with his reflection, but here it’s more about Mobius noticing that their connection (whatever it is) might be the thing that caused the titular ‘nexus event’.
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Of course the episode also makes sure to give us plenty of time with Mobius solving the mystery so that when he is eventually pruned, it’s suitably shocking and heartbreaking. Whatever Ravonna’s connection to things is still unclear, as the episode ends on Sylvie demanding answers — which naturally we can’t know until the next episode at least.
One of the big themes of the episode is Loki and his realization that much of his ‘mischief’ is based on a fear of being alone. Thus his connection with his Variant self is openly subverting that, perhaps it’s about some sort of ‘becoming his best self’ and that’s why the ‘nexus events’ happen? Although I did find it funny about the reference to Loki cutting Sif’s hair, which is in fact based on one of the Norse myths. Still a lot of questions left, but we also get a few character reveals.
Hunter B-15 is able to understand the truth of her existence with Sylvie’s help and nearly saves the day at the end of the episode, while Ravonna is revealed to be some sort of tool (or in charge?) of actually controlling things. Of course things are never so simple, as to be expected, the ‘Time-Keepers’ weren’t as they appeared to be — in this case they are simply alien androids controlled by something else.
And I was legitimately surprised by Loki’s ‘pruning’ except of course he wasn’t, not exactly, because in the post-credits scene Loki is saved by four other Lokis — an older one in the classic comics costume (Richard E. Grant), a guy that looks more like a Thor Variant (DeObia Oparei), and a young Loki (Jack Veal) holding what I guess is an alligator Loki? It’s certainly a great tease for the next episode.
Overall, it really was a well constructed episode, letting us hope for Mobius to solve the mystery and building him to really feel his loss, while using B-15 and Sylvie’s scenes to paint the TVA even worse than before. So far, it really has been a great show, even if it’s half over — it feels like things can go anywhere at all now.
New episodes of Loki premiere Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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