The Ringer-Verse - 'Loki’ Season 2, Episode 1 Easter Eggs | Splash Page [VIDEO]

Episode Date: October 7, 2023

Jessica Clemons is back to share all the Easter eggs, theories, and breakdowns she has from 'Loki' Season 2, Episode 1. Is Loki in the past, present, or future (2:10)? Who is X-5 (2:57)? Is the Temporal Loom related to 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' (8:30)? What do the credits tell us (13:50)? Host: Jessica Clemons Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Isaiah Blakely Aditional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Loki Season 2 is here, and I'm here to give you a full breakdown of theories and Easter eggs from episode one. I'm Jessica Clements. This is Splash Page on the Ringiverse. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tramphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's

disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a bite of vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiaraio.com. You are now watching Splash Page. Welcome to Splash page where we break down the latest episode of your favorite shows serving up Easter eggs, theories, and breakdowns. As mentioned earlier, we're going through Loki Season 2, Episode 1, the premiere. If you're listening to this, you can also watch it on

the ringer.com, YouTube.com slash the ringer, or on Spotify at the ringerverse. This is your one warning that we will be spoiling Loki Season 2, Episode 1, The Premiere. We'll be spoiling the premiere, the first season of Loki, and basically any of Loki's appearances across the MCU. You've been warned, I'm going to get into it. We start with Miss Minutes recapping season one with her intro video like she did in the first episode of Loki explaining how variants work. We then see Sylvie Kill He Who Remains and everyone forgetting what happened.

We open to the Marvel intro, and it's the same montage from Ant-Man and Was Quantummania, but at the bottom of the R in Marvel, we went from Tony's snap and endgame to Miss Minich, which feels just really weird and gross. A man that sacrificed himself to bring everyone back in a monumental moment transitions to a clock that works alongside the man that shapes the sacred timeline where he died. I mean, why would you do that? Where the normal Marvel Studios logo is silver and red,

this one is green and gold for Loki's colors. We see the statue of He Who Remains that we've seen from the season one finale. The statue in the premiere is outside the TVA building amongst the flying cars, but essentially we pick up right where season one ended. Loki tries to alert Mobius and Hunter B-15 about He Who Remains, and it's clearly not going well. He's still in the same clothes he's been in since Season 1, Episode 4. He hasn't even showered once, and he's a stinky, stinky god. We see Casey shining or buffing or just cleaning the TVA logo until Loki cracks it.

The TVA logo was there in the first season and looked the same, just flip the colors, but that symbol's here to stay. Before the ball drops, we see a pretty good view of the sacred timeline with minimal branching, unlike what we saw in season one. Right when Casey snitches out our boy, we see the first time slip. We've seen Loki time slipping in the trailer a lot, so we can expect to see him at the jet ski shop or around the inflatable tube men like we saw in the trailer sometime in the future. We also learn in the series he's being pooled between the present and the past. So right here at the second time slip, he's been shot back into the present. Currently, the sacred timeline is messed up after Sylvie wrecked, he who remains, who created a million branches. There's a bunch of beans inside all of these timelines.

If these extra timelines get pruned, many people will die. People who don't know that their existence stemmed from another timeline. Remember that after B-15 realized that they're all variants in season one, she began questioning everything. So she really cares about the truth. As for Mobius, we're not sure how he feels about it all. He seems intent on helping out Loki and just not losing his skin. And who wants to lose their skin?

When Casey tells B-15 and Mobius about Loki time slipping, Mobius pulls out his tempad to ask Miss Minutes for help, which we know is a bad idea, as she works for He Who Remains, and is actually a bad guy. Luckily, reaching her isn't working. Then we meet X-5, who's played by Raphael Casal, the same actor playing Brad Wolf, aka Zaniac. If you saw my trailer breakdown,

you'll remember I noted that in the comics, Brad Wolf actually becomes a serial killer. At the war room, we see punk-ass hunter D90 that prune Mobius in season one episode four. He's apologetic, though. So, you know, he was just taking orders. You don't have to take orders. You could have just not done it.

Whatever. Regardless, when Loki reaches the war room, we see faces of different statues. The statue we get a better view of later, I think is actually a Minuteman soldier for the TVA. Then we see more or less the same Kangs, the He Who Remain Kangs just shifting to showcase every bit of their features. Clearly, Loki is somewhere in the past or possibly the future.

We have no proof that this right now isn't the future, and time works differently outside of time and space where the TVA is. The now could be then, and then could be the future, and I don't understand how time works. The head that was sliced off in episode four sits in the middle of the war room table, so the TVA seems to be aware of most everything. Ravona missing, like X5 said, and the timekeepers being a fake. X5's also sitting on the ground like a puppy next to General Docs, and I just hate it.

I hate the look. I hate everything about it. Kate Dickey, best known for her role in Game of Thrones, is completely different from General Ducks, and I already love her much more than her character in Game of Thrones because she was creepy and weird.

But she still has that same weird motherly instinct in this show. Well, we'll get into it. They're listening to the recording of Loki revealing to Mobius in season one, episode four. You're all variants. Everyone who works at the TVA,

the timekeepers didn't create you. They kidnapped you from the timeline. And it raised your memory. Memories she can access. Behind Judge Gamble is another statue, and I think that statue is actually of her. Judge Gamble is being played by Liz Carr, who you might know from Good Elmins, but I loved her in The Witcher.

Regardless, the character Judge Gamble doesn't really exist in the comics, but there is a Professor Justin Gamble, who was an employee of the TVA but quit when he didn't agree with their decisions. With the sacred timeline in Chambles, B-15 and Mobius orders a stop to the pruning, which is beyond protocol and pisses General Docs off. We also see X5 Scar on his forearms, and it lines up perfectly with his arms with his armor. We should keep that noted in case we don't know which X-5 we're working with.

We might get a variant standoff, and that will be used to identify our X-5 from a different timeline version of X-5. Whatever timeline Loki is in, he begins listening to a different recording, not of himself with Mobius, but one with he who remains talking to Rivona. Instead of the usual, for all time, always. They said, harassed. Always.

And it's cute. It's like, it sort of feels like they could be them when they were an item. I don't know. I kind of like it. As a lot of folks know, Victor Timely and Kang dated Ravona in the comics. So like, how Dr. Strange was always after Christine, this could be he who remains as Ravona. Also, he says, you made a difference in this war, which he's probably referring to multiversal war, aka the clash of Kang's he mentioned in the finale of the last season.

So we know a variant or our version of Rvona was there for it. Side note, I'd love to just believe that Ravona is actually the model for Miss Minutes, and he who remains made her after losing his Ravona somewhere in his timeline. Anyone can be a variant, you know, like everyone except for. America Shabb is, I guess. This universe doesn't have a me. What? None of them do.

Well, how do you know that? Because I've looked, and because I never dream. Then Loki time slips into the present timeline war room and sees Mobius for the first time since last season. After acute reunion, Loki exposes the mural in the war room that is covering the statues of He Who Remains. This is the same shot that we actually saw in the trailer. Then we get this scene between General Docs and X-5, which felt weirdly affectionate. Like maybe he's her son, but in reality, I think she was just, whispering their next move in an affectionate way

because he's a little taken aback by everything that's happening. So X5 and general docs are planning to find Sylvie and figure out what happened at the end of time. And to that I say, good luck. You're going after a woman that literally murdered and trance and crashed into the TVA in season one. It just seems like a bad idea. When Loki and Mobius step outside the war room to talk, you really see how great of a friend Mobius is. He doesn't really question whether Loki is telling the truth because he believes him. Behind them are murals of Kangs and the Timekeepers.

On the right is the Timekeepers floating above a bunch of. of people bowing to them. This is probably to boast their godlike nature. The middle mural shows the timekeepers trimming the branches of a tree, like them facilitating the sacred timeline, while people below them pick up the pieces. These people being the TVA. Then on the left we have Kang's fighting and people hiding. This is probably the multiversal war and how they needed to be stopped. As Loki and Mobius are on their way to see Oroboros, aka OB, I can't believe I said that right, the first time. They pass a poster that says, limit your lunch breaks to 17 minutes, which is so funny to me because that's the 17-minute rule, where allegedly the most productive people

work for 52 minutes and then break for 17 minutes. So if you want to stay productive, make sure those breaks last only 17 minutes. I don't think this is true, but it is a scientific, weird experiment. We're taken to the repairs and advancement bench of the TVA that's actually in the basement. This is where we meet Obie, played by Ki-Hi-Kwan. Like I said in our trailer breakdown, Obie is new to the MCU, but not to the TVA. He's a man that you go to with any and all questions regarding technology and maintenance within the TVA. We saw a lot of these scenes in the Loki teaser trailer, but there's still some new stuff. One of my favorite parts of the episode

is Loki and Mobius having a conversation with Obie via different timelines. So the information Obie is getting in the past from Loki is slowly coming to him in the present while talking to Mobius. It's just so fun to me. It's like Back to the Future without the weird family stuff. You just know the second season will be filled with moments like this where past individuals can deliver

information to the present. I guess you can also like weaponize that, but for now it's really fun. We also learned to fix time slipping you need a temporal aura extractor. Temporal aura extractor. Say that 20 times fast. I can't. A device that can pull Loki out of the time stream,

aka violently rip himself out of every thread of time and space, aka prune himself. Obie says it better. Why? Well, when something is pruned, it's released from time. So the hope is that after you prune yourself, the extractor will pull you into the present. And if that doesn't work...

Yeah. And then if it doesn't do that? Well, have you heard about how if you fall into a black hole, you turn into spaghetti? Which completely reminds me of Ant-Man and Wasquantam. how Kang ushered Scott to jump into the multiversal engine core, and the versions of himself did turn into spaghetti upon doing so. So maybe it just looks exactly like that same thing.

Also, right when Obie willingly hands Loki the stick to prune himself, there's a poster in the next shot that says, prevent self-pruning, like a big eff you to Loki, and I just like it. As they walk down the aisle to the temporal loom, Obie mentions the TVA handbook, which we see Casey gripping at the beginning of the episode, and it was written by Obi. It basically details every mechanical and technological item in the TVA

and how to keep up with its maintenance and how to use it. Once they reach the doors to the temporal radiation, the warning sign on the bottom says, temporal radiation levels escalate exponentially beyond this threshold. Likelihood of spaghettification increases 7,000 percent. Proceed with caution. Probably written by Obie. We learn time slipping and the endless branches are overloading the loom,

which is causing the power surges and will ultimately lead to destruction if it goes unfixed. The temporal loom is the heart of the TVA. Obie says this is where raw time is refined into physical timeline, But this episode isn't about fixing the loom. It's about pulling Loki out and stopping the time slipping. I think they realize stopping the time slipping first, then fixing the loom next is the proper plan of action,

which I solely disagree with. I think Loki can wait, and the destruction of the TVA and everything that ripples with it is way more important. We're doing this because Mobius just doesn't like the look of him time slipping. I thought he said it didn't know that bad. I was lying. It's terrible. It looks like you're being born or dying or both at the same time.

It's really, it's freaking me out. The rumor we're in that monitors the temporal loom is dusty as hell, it looks like it's never been touched. That's because it's overseen by Miss Minutes, and Obie would run diagnostics on it every few hundred years. No one else went in there, I assumed. Obie tells them he's got to protect the TVA and put up the blast doors to protect everyone from the looms radiation.

Unfortunately, once those gates go down, they can't send anyone out to pull Loki from the time stream, so they're working under a very tight deadline. You've got about an hour. You've got about five minutes. Anyway, I'm going to get everything ready. Also, Mobia's sulking in the corner about losing his skin and writing skin, question mark on the monitor is

very hilarious to me. This guy is true comedy. We Scooby-do this thing by splitting up. B-15 leaves with Hunter D-90 to handle the Minutemen, and general docs raiding the armory in search of Sylvie, Loki time slips, and Obiasis is suiting up Mobius. We see Loki jump to the future, and he's still in the red with the loom tracker.

Mobius' skin writing is still engraved on the dusty monitor. The temporal radiation is already doing damage to Mobius's suit, and it feels like there's no time. We're racing against it like this is Inception, and I'm screaming at my TV. Loki searches for a new prune steak as the one he dropped was picked up after time slipping. The sacred timeline that only had a few red branches earlier, now is exploding with branches

and a red warning sign that says loom critical. Everyone has left their station, so clearly we're in a bad spot. The tracker has turned green and Loki still has no prune stick. Obie has to close the gates and Mobius' suit is literally disintegrating. This felt too slow and I'm still screaming at my TV. I'm like, Loki, hurry the hell up because I don't want to see Mobius die in the first episode. Who wants to see Mobius die in the first episode? That's another Maria Hill.

I don't want that. No one wants that. Unfortunately, OB closes the gates and we see the TVA motto for all time always above the doors and we start to lose faith and believe Mobius might actually die in the first episode. Then we see Sylvie for the first time in the season peeling open

an elevator door and says, there you are. What is this? How did Sylvie get there? Is she time slipping? There's so many questions. This episode is brought to by Nass Energy introducing new Nass Energy Grand Prix Guava for those that want to be fueled up and fired up with a hundred-pound hour tropical

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Luckily, just in time, Loki shoots through the time stream, crashing into Mobia, saving the two of them from death. We cut to the Minutemen stocked with stuff from the armory to stop Sylvie, and to that D90 says, I don't buy it, and neither do I. I think the goal is to prune the timelines and stop the branching because General Docs has zero faith in B-15 and Judge Gamble's plan, where we save innocent people in those timelines. To play devil's advocate,

the men of men are ordered to preserve the sacred timeline and to protect the TVA by any means necessary, so it's not like surprising they are sticking to their values over morals. The episode closes with credits montage of different areas of the TVA, some we've seen before in season one's outro, and some, I think, that are worth flagging. The time variance head on the war room table, a bunch of sticky notes that I could not figure out what they mean.

It is literal chaos. The TVA logo on the floor without the crack, but later we see it with the crime. crack. A beautiful slice of key lime pie, a hand-drawn depiction of the temporal loom. This is probably a part of the TVA handbook because it says maintenance above and the sacred timeline. Then we see the physical temporal loom, doors closing to the temporal loom, a little toy version of Mobius walking to the temporal loom, an old-school McDonald's, which we think is where Sylvie works based off the trailer. He remains his home at the end of time with the fireplace going. Additionally, his little wristwatch he used in the last season to create the little figures of what happened with the variance. The official TVA handbook, can't wait to see all that merch. that comes from it, the murals of the timekeepers. Then we close with our boy Loki's name. Or so we thought, because we have a mid-credit scene. Sylvie comes out of the tempad to 1982

Brockston, Oklahoma, and a branched timeline in the same outfit she just fought He Who Remains in. She finds a McDonald's truly in the middle of nowhere, and as people enjoy their meals and time with the people they love, she orders one of everything on the menu. She just wants to be normal and live life without the hunger of revenge. And that's it for Splash Page on the premiere of Loki Season 2. Everyone's looking for Sylvie.

and the TVA soldiers really think they have a chance of stopping her. Just makes no sense. She kicked your ass in season one. I don't think she... She's just going to do it again. Subscribe to The Ring Reverse on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Make sure to follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and X, formerly known as Twitter.

You call it whatever you want at Ringervverse. And make sure to follow The Ringer at YouTube.com slash The Ringer. Thanks for watching and listening. We'll be back next week for episode two for all time always.