‘Loki’ Episode Four Recap: “The Nexus Event”

*Warning: This piece contains spoilers for episode four of Loki*

Secrecy and deception! Truth’s revealed! Twists upon turns! In episode four of Loki, which might even be the best episode yet, we’re taken on yet another adventure.

We begin with Sylvie sharing her harrowing journey of being captured by the TVA as a mere child. Her existence wasn’t supposed to happen, and she was apprehended by none other than Renslayer back when she was a hunter. Shortly after, as she is a “Loki” after all, she steals a TemPad and escapes, growing up on the run.

After the always thrilling opening sequence, we’re taken back to the TVA, where Mobius asks Renslayer if he can interview Hunter C-20, the one who Sylvie previously captured, to learn more information. Renslayers says this is impossible because C-20 is dead. Rensalyer states that despite being last sen reasonably coherent and in a stable condition, C-20 lost her mind progressively and eventually died (which sounds fishy to me). Back on Lamentis-1, the impending planetary crash draws ever nearer. When Loki holds hands with Sylvie as the planet descends closer, they seemingly trigger a very large Nexus event, alerting the TVA of their whereabouts. They’re, sadly, taken back into TVA custody, but at least they won’t be killed by a crashing planet, though.

Loki and Sylvie are taken to different rooms. As punishment, Loki is called an asshole and a bad friend by Mobius, and is then put into a time loop where he is confronted* by an angry Sif for cutting off a large section of her hair.
*confronted = kneed in the groin + punched in the face after some searing words).

After a meeting with Renslayer where she tells him she won’t allow him to interrogate Sylvie, Mobius passes the room and encounters Hunter B-15, who asks if Loki said anything to him in there. Mobius shares that Loki told him the TVA is lying to him, to which B-15 gives a concerned look (I’m thinking Sylvie told her the same). Mobius doesn’t currently think much of it, however.

As Mobius interrogates Loki after being pulled out of his time-loop punishment, Loki lies about Sylvie’s plan in an effort to save her, claiming that it was his and he was just using her as a pawn. Mobius tells Loki that Sylvie was pruned, to which Loki responds with some genuine distress. Well, at least for a moment before Mobius reveals that was a lie and taunts Loki about liking Sylvie. Loki gets more specific this time, telling Mobius all TVA workers are variants whose memories have been erased. Mobius scoffs it off and sends Loki back into the time loop. At this time, Hunter B-15 and Sylvie head back to the Alabama hurricane so that Sylvie can use her powers to bring back B-15’s memories, getting her on board.

During another meeting with Renslayer, Mobius questions what happened to C-20, and Renslayer doubles down on her stance. When Renslayer turns around, Mobius, ever the TVA rule follower, steals Renslayer’s TemPad. He goes off to the TVA records/library area and watches an interrogation video of Renslayer and C-20. What does he find? That C-20 was perfectly sane, and remembered her life on Earth now. Renslayer abruptly ends the session and cuts the video. Quite safe to assume what happened after that.

Mobius returns to Loki to ask him if he really trusts that Sylvie didn’t implant those memories into C-20. Loki confirms that he trusts Sylvie, and Mobius informs Loki that whatever connection they had on Lamentis-1 that caused the nexus event could bring the whole TVA down. Woohoo! Mobius taking charge! Staging a mutiny is always a win.

Until it isn’t. As Loki and Mobius exit to free Sylvie, Renslayer and several hunters surround them. Mobius gets a couple jabs in at Renslayer, questioning his life and the powers of the TVA, before being PRUNED on Renslayer’s orders. Ah! No! Not Mobius! She then whisks away both Loki and Sylvie to… the Time-Keepers, where they are to be pruned. However, before any pruning can happen, Hunter B-15 frees and arms our variants and they fight the hunters. Sylvie, quite amazingly, decapitates one of the Time-Keepers, who turn out to be mindless androids. Renslayer PRUNES LOKI, and Sylvie, who subdues Renslayer, demands to know everything about the TVA.

That’s it. The episode ends.

That is, until we see, in a mid-credits scene, Loki being awoken in an unknown realm surrounded by other Loki variants looking for him to join them.

And then the episode ends. For real this time.

Episode 4 of Loki boasts some great character development and story. During moments in the MCU we have seen a compassionate Loki, but nothing compared to Loki in this series. You can tell he clearly cares about Sylvie and Mobius, and truly doesn’t want to be alone. We learn Sylvie’s tragic backstory and how she just wants to live her life, the life that was robbed from her as a child. We learn to sympathize with all of the hunters and TVA employees, who have all had live before this. Mobius shows he certainly is a friend of Loki, and went down this episode defending himself and his pal. What will happen next? Will we see more of Mobius? Who created the TVA? Does Miss Minutes know more than she lets on? We’ll find out next week when episode 5 of Loki is released.

You can stream Loki now on Disney+