Marvel Studios series ‘Loki’ explores the God of Mischief’s fate after the events of Avengers: Endgame, where he escapes with the tesseract.
After Loki (Tom Hiddleston) escapes with the tesseract, which holds the space stone, a group of ‘hunters’ capture him and set a charge to heal the timeline as he was never supposed to get away in the first place.
This makes him a ‘variant’, someone who caused an event that broke the timeline, creating a different branch. Such individuals cannot return as their timeline is destroyed and the original can only have one of them.
He is taken to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an entity that passes judgment on variants and dispatches hunters to keep the ‘sacred timeline’ secure and eliminate branches as well as capture variants.
Instead of standing trial, Loki is recruited by TVA agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) to help him capture another variant version of Loki.
This turns out to be a female version that calls herself ‘Sylvie’ (Sophia Di Martino). Apprehensive of the true nature of TVA, Loki betrays them and sides with Sylvie.
When the two reach the timekeepers, apparently the all-powerful beings behind the TVA, they are revealed to be fake robots.
This fuels Loki and Sylvie to find the real culprit. Their quest leads them to more variant versions of them and the end of time itself. Even Mobius becomes their ally after figuring out he’s a variant as well, and so are all of TVA’s workers.
Who are the real timekeepers? Will Judge Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) stop them? What’s next for the Marvel universe? The finale answered some huge questions.
Loki ending explained in detail: (Episode 6: “For All Time. Always.” recap)
Finding the one who created TVA
After Loki and Sylvie are successful in enchanting ‘Alioth’, the being that protects the void at the end of time, they find a citadel, home to the one responsible for everything.
Inside it, they find the mastermind who created the TVA. The real ‘timekeepers’ turn out to be just one individual: ‘He Who Remains’, a version of ‘Kang The Conqueror’ from the comics.
He can predict Loki and Sylvie’s attempts to kill him and dodges them all, taking them to his office for a chat.
Meanwhile, Mobius confronts Ravonna, who still sides with the one who created the TVA, believing that they must have had a good reason.
But she’s alone, as Hunter B-15 has persuaded all TVA agents to join their cause by showing them the human version of Ravonna, revealing to them they were all humans once.
She disarms him but opts not to prune him again and uses the time-travelling device TemPad to ‘find her own free will’.
He Who Remains narrates his past. Eons ago, a variant of him lived as a mortal in the 31st century. He was a scientist who discovered that there were universes stacked over his own.
Other versions of him learnt the same, leading them to make contact and meet each other. While it seemed great at first, but some versions of him only viewed these universes as new worlds to conquer.
This caused an all-out war between his variants. Each fighting to preserve their universe and annihilate the others.
The first variant found a creature made from the tears in reality that could consume time and space itself, now known as Alioth. He experimented on it and weaponised the creature to end the multiverse war.
He then isolated his timeline and used the TVA to manage the flow of time and prevent branches.
Deciding the fate of humanity
He Who Remains tells them that he’s not quite the devil they came to kill, and that other versions of him are far worse compared to him. If they kill him, something much more threatening will take his place in the void.
He gives Loki and Sylvie two options: Kill him and unleash a multiversal war or take his spot as the rulers of the timelines as well as the TVA.
He also reveals that the threshold has passed and he can no longer predict their actions. He is completely vulnerable at this point and the fate of the world is up to them.
Sylvie makes it clear that she wants them to kill him and free all timelines, but Loki intervenes as he’s fearful about He Who Remains’ words.
He asks her to reconsider, because he does not think that the man is lying, and if he isn’t, the world will be plunged into a mad war.
Sylvie starts to question Loki, thinking he wants to become the conqueror himself. But he says that he just wants them to think over it.
Realising they think differently, they begin battling each other. Loki again tries to make her reconsider, seemingly getting through to her.
She kisses him, but says she’s not him, and uses the TemPad to send him back to the TVA. She then proceeds to avenge her timeline by killing He Who Remains, who laughs and says he’ll see her soon as he claims he’ll be reincarnated.
Future of the multiverse
As soon as he’s killed, the branches on the timeline go out of control. B-15 and Mobius look at the chaos on a monitor, determined to face what’s coming. Mobius says: “For All Time,” and B-15 replies: “Always,” a TVA phrase.
Loki meets the two and quickly tells them everything that happened at the citadel and that a huge danger is approaching them for which they need to prepare.
But to his shock, the two do not remember him at all. Mobius thinks he’s an analyst at the TVA.
Loki looks at a huge statue of He Who Remains at the TVA, which wasn’t there before; everything has changed. The season ends with him fearful of what’s about to happen because of their actions.
Loki’s ending sets up a multiverse for upcoming Marvel projects that are part of phase 4. The post-credits scene confirmed a season 2 for the series as well.
Also Read: Marvel Studios’ ‘What if…?’ explores reimagined events in multiverse