There is a lot to be unpacked here. Let’s get to the end. Loki and Sylvie, which were taken prisoner by the TVA’s Ravonna (Tom Hiddleston) and Sophia Di Martino, wound up in front of the lizard Timekeepers, who are the puppetmasters of this entire timeline and the policemen for those who stray from it. Loki and Sylvie engage in a fight between Ravonna’s troops and Sylvie. Sylvie manages to throw a sword at one Timekeeper and cut its head off. She rolls it over and discovers that it’s a Wizard of Oz scenario. It’s actually worse than that: the Timekeepers themselves are androids. What is the matter? Ravonna “prunes” Loki using the cattle-prod weapon that her TVA troops have on them. He vanishes. Sylvie wins the episode and leaves Ravonna. Episode 5 will show us what Ravonna has to say about the evils of the universe.
Loki wasn’t the only one “pruned” today. He convinced Mobius (Owen Wilson), the TVA agent, that every TVA employee is a variant and that they all had previous lives that were taken from them when they were captured. Mobius refused this truth throughout the episode and returned Loki to interrogation. The Thortrickster, Sylvie, and the fellow femme loki Sylvie, were both saved by the TVA and whisked away to Lamentis via some times doors. They were immediately shackled around the neck when the pair returned to the TVA. Mobius is finally convinced Loki is not lying about the TVA because he finds, on Ravonna’s TemPad a video confession by Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane), in which she states, “I had an entire life on the sacred timeline…so are all the people in this place (a variant).” Ravonna then steps into the video and says, “I’m ending it.”
What now? What happens if you are “pruned?” Are you going to die? We can see the light at the end. Thank God for the epilogue. Loki wakes up and asks, “Is that Hel?” Loki awakens and asks, “Is this Hel?” He then looks up to see three lokis. Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Kid Loki(Jack Veal), which holds a Komodo Dragon; and Boastful Loki [DeObia Oparei]. Classic Loki replies, “Not yet.” “But you will be, if you don’t come with us.”
