In Loki's season 2 premiere, the God of Mischief found himself slipping through time. He had Sylvie to thank for that after she used He Who Remains' TemPad to send him back to the TVA, not realizing she'd thrown her Variant into the organisation's murky past.
With some help from Mobius and OB, a plan was concocted to extract Loki from the time stream. Doing so would avoid his eventual death and, crucially, keep him in the present where he could help stop Kang and get to the bottom of what's happening to the Time Loom thanks to the emergence of those branching timelines.
However, in order to pull off this save, Loki needed to prune himself at a very specific moment. As he wandered through the TVA - in the future - we watched as a ringing phone drew him to an elevator where he was reunited with Sylvie right as he was pruned.
Who did that to him, and what role Sylvie played, has been a mystery ever since, with most fans assuming she must have been the one to save him (which raises even more confusing questions).
Well, with things going badly wrong in the TVA in tonight's episode, we follow Loki back to that moment (in the present this time) where he sees his past self come face-to-face with Sylvie, who travelled there alongside Loki and Mobius last week.
Realising what's happening, Loki prunes his past self - who had travelled to the future - as he realises it was the only way he could be freed from the time stream. Remember, at the moment of his "death," the premiere's Loki was frantically searching for a means to prune himself before he encountered Sylvie.
In other words...
It's actually a very clever twist and, moments later, we learn who was on the phone. It's OB, requesting that Loki get back down to the basement where he and Sylvie can help stop time itself from being destroyed as the Time Loom continues to buckle under the strain of the Multiverse's apparent rebirth.
What did you think about this surprise reveal?
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+.