And with that, Victor Timely is no more.
Yes, despite He Who Remains seemingly believing his Variant from the past could take his place in the Citadel at the End of Time, the fourth episode of Loki featured the shocking death - and spaghettification - of the Kang Variant!
With the Time Loom reaching breaking point thanks to the emergence of so many new branching timelines, the Temporal Radiation reaches a critical point. Victor shockingly volunteers to do what's necessary to save the day (it seems not every Kang is bad), only to step outside, heroic music and all, and immediately die.
It's then too late; time itself breaks and, as the episode ends and the screen cuts to black, it appears our beloved heroes are gone. Is this the end of the MCU as we know it?
We'd guess not! In Loki's trailers, we've seen more of the God of Mischief slipping through time, and even the TVA itself seemingly undergoing the spaghettification process. Something tells us the Asgardian will have one final chance to save time, though we can't help but wonder what the end result will be.
Marvel Studios has always played fast and loose with Loki's place in the wider MCU timeline but it's obviously believed He Who Remains' death is what led to the Multiverse's rebirth. That would thereby explain what we saw in movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
If so, it likely means Loki isn't done setting the stage for those stories yet, so whatever comes next could help clear up a lot of the Multiverse Saga's biggest mysteries.
We're also not discounting the possibility that He Who Remains wanted this to happen. Earlier in the episode, it's revealed that OB based the TVA's Handbook on Victor's work, while Victor based his work on OB's TVA Handbook, creating a rather confusing time loop!
Something tells us there will be plenty more surprises to come over the next couple of weeks.
Loki season 2 will pick up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
The series stars Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Rafael Casal, Tara Strong, Kate Dickie, Liz Carr, Neil Ellice, with Jonathan Majors, Ke Huy Quan and Owen Wilson.
Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Dan Deleeuw and Kasra Farahani direct episodes. The Head Writer is Eric Martin.
The first four episodes of Loki season 2 are now streaming on Disney+.