Recap / Loki Episode 2 "The Variant"

"If you think too hard about where any of us came from, who we truly are, it sounds pretty ridiculous. Existence is chaos.

Mobius enlists Loki's help, but initially, Loki is uncooperative and attempts to deceive the TVA. However, Loki eventually proves to be useful when he deduces that the Variant seeks refuge in apocalypses. In these events, the catastrophic nature ensures that any potential changes to the timeline would be negated by the imminent destruction and death of all witnesses, allowing the Variant to remain hidden from the TVA's radar. As a team, Loki and Mobius piece together several clues and discover that the Variant is hiding in Haven Hills, Alabama, in the year 2050, where a hurricane will obliterate the entire town.

Accompanied by a team of Hunters led by B-15, Mobius takes Loki with him to Haven Hills as they attempt to capture the Variant. Once there, Loki tries to persuade the Variant, who turns out to be a woman, to join him in overthrowing the Time Keepers. However, she has her own agenda and activates all the stolen Reset Charges before leaving through a Time Door. After a moment of hesitation, Loki decides to follow her.

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Tropes:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: 2050 Alabama doesn't look too different from the early 2020s, with one noticeable difference being that the Roxxcart employees have digital name tags.
• The '80s: The beginning of this episode starts with a few Minutemen investigating a scene at a 1985 Renaissance Fair in Wisconsin. Loki, Mobius, and B-15 later investigate what happened at that place as though it were a standard crime scene.
• Anachronistic Clue: The Kablooie bubblegum pack left in 16th century France from the previous episode is brought up again; this episode reveals that the Variant likes to leave anachronistic objects such as the bubblegum pack at the scene of the crime.
• Apocalypse How: The TVA has its own classification system for apocalyptic events throughout the timeline. The destruction of Asgard, for example, is a Class Seven event which means "total planetary destruction". A hurricane that destroys a small town is a Class Ten, suggesting that it's graded on a reverse scale similar to the DEFCON system.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Once again, Loki expresses his skepticism that the TVA is really as all-powerful as it seems. This time, Mobius calls him out on it by pointing out how absurd Loki's own backstory sounds from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with his life.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Mobius gives Loki two near the start of the episode.
  • After Loki botches the opening mission, he once again tries to charm Mobius into letting him meet the Time-Keepers. When Mobius asks if it's so Loki can overthrow them and take over the TVA, it finally wipes the smug smile off Loki's face.
  • When Loki tries to recover by asking why Mobius is sticking his neck out for him then, Mobius suggests it's because he sees Loki as a scared little boy shivering in the cold. While Loki later claims that he felt it was rather condescending, in the moment he looks completely shaken and can't think of a pithy response. He can only somberly reply that he doesn't need his pity.
• Artistic License – History:
  • When Loki and Mobius go back to Pompeii to test Loki's theory about no variance energy showing up in an apocalypse, Loki starts shouting about how the volcano's about to erupt... everyone was well aware of that, because it had already erupted. A primary eruption showered the region with broken rock and people started fleeing the city. Only a fraction of the population (still gathering their things to flee) were broiled and buried by ash. Instead of staring in confusion, the people should have said, "Yeah, we know, dumbass, that's why we're carrying all our things and running the fuck away."
  • The TVA agents are told by a Renaissance fair worker that they’re dressed wrong for the event. Sci-fi cosplay as time travelers, the Doctor, or Star Trek characters are a common sight at Ren fairs, including in the 80s.
• Badass Boast: Loki attempts to make one while fixing Mobius's tie. It falls flat because Mobius already has figured out what Loki's plan is:
  Loki: It is adorable that you think you could possibly manipulate me. I'm ten steps ahead of you. I've been playing a game of my own all along.
  Mobius: What, charm your way in front of the Time-Keepers, hustle them, and seize control of the TVA? Am I getting warm?
• Bad Future: 2047-2051 in Earth is simply one catastrophe after the next, among others:
  • 2048: climate disaster.
  • 2049: eruption of Krakatoa.
  • 2050: extinction of the swallow.
  • 2050: category 8 hurricane in Haven Hills, Alabama.
  • 2051: tsunami.
• The "Be Careful!" Speech: Ravonna Renslayer is visibly worried about Mobius's request to be allowed to seek out the Variant's hideout.
  Ravonna Renslayer: There's not much I can do if it doesn't work out.
  Mobius: For all time.
  Ravonna Renslayer: Always.
• Bland-Name Product: Roxxcart is a stand-in for a big box store like Wal-Mart or Target.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Loki claims that leaving the tent at the Renaissance fair is a trap and tries to barter for a meeting with the Time Keepers in exchange for his help. Mobius realizes that he's full of it and has the branch purged.
  • Loki claims that he won't stab Mobius in the back because it's boring. Mobius points out that, having reviewed most of Loki's timeline, he's quite literally done that, like, fifty times. Loki then says that he wouldn't do it again, because it got boring.
• Body Surf: The Variant has the ability to enchant others, controlling them remotely. She uses it to make Hunter C-20 attack her fellow Minutemen and have a conversation with Loki using several different people.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: Mobius refers to his existence at the TVA as his own "glorious purpose".
• Bringing in the Expert: This is Mobius's justification for risking working with Loki. He might find ways to defeat the Variant that other TVA agents never would have thought of.
• Buffy Speak: Loki to Mobius, when he tells the people of Pompeii that they're from the future:
  Loki: We are from the future, right? What is the TVA? I mean, it's from the future. It sounds from the future. It's pretty future-y.
• Casting Gag: This isn't the first time Owen Wilson plays a character who visits Pompeii just before it erupts, as his character Jedediah visited a living Pompeii diorama in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: This tendency of Loki is lampshaded by Mobius:
  Mobius: Well, here's a fun theory. You lure me out into the field, and stab me in the back. And that's a theory I don't wanna test.
  Loki: [indignant] I'd never stab anyone in the back. That's such a boring form of betrayal.
  Mobius: Loki, I've studied almost every moment of your entire life. You've literally stabbed people in the back, like, fifty times.
• Classified Information: Loki asks a clerk for all files pertaining to the creation of the TVA, which she rejects because they're classified. He then asks for all files on the beginning and the end of time, and is rejected both times on the same grounds. Finally, he asks what isn't classified, and she hands him his own file.
• Company Town: Loki tracks the Variant down to Haven Hills, Alabama, a town owned by the Roxxon Corporation in 2050.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Once the Renaissance Fair timeline gets pruned and the timeline is seen going back to normal on the TVA monitor, a separate timeline involving Nidavellir can be seen.
  • The TVA's file about Ragnarok has the Revengers listed as the ones who initiated it.
  • The shot of Loki picking himself up off the floor and saying "I would never treat me like this" is framed the same way as the "I have been falling for thirty minutes" shot in Thor: Ragnarok, complete with Loki doing a Hair Flip in both shots.
  • The locations that the Variant bombs with the reset devices include Vormir, Sakaar, Ego, Titan, Hala, and Xandar.
• Copycat Mockery: During the fight against a man possessed by the Variant, when the Variant sneers that Loki really loves to hear himself talk, Loki mutters "You're the first person to tell me that." The Variant then imitates him with a whiny voice.
• Damsel in Distress: Hunter C-20 is taken hostage by The Variant, and is later found tied up and seemingly traumatized in The Variant's hideout after being tortured into giving up the Time Keepers' location. The Variant seemingly decided to underscore this trope by having "Holding Out for a Hero" play during the abduction, and at a Renaissance Fair Save the Princess-style stage show.
• Dancin' in the Ruins: Loki is a little bit too excited to be about to witness the eruption of Vesuvius and destruction of Pompeii.
  Loki: Imagine. All that volcanic ash...
  Mobius: I know. We don't want to get too giddy.
  Loki: Oh, come on! It's cool.
  Mobius: No, it is cool, but it's just not in good taste because...
• Deep Breath Reveals Tension: Loki takes a deep breath while he's looking at Mobius and the others running towards him, before he eventually follows the Variant through the Time Door. Tom Hiddleston explained in an interview that Loki is actually quite conflicted about whether he should follow her or not, since he doesn't want to betray Mobius's trust in that moment. But he eventually follows her because he is too curious.
• Distaff Counterpart: The TVA agents (and Loki) assume that the Variant they are chasing is male. This Variant turns out to be female.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": When Loki calls the Variant "Loki", she tells him not to call her that and instead suggests the name of her current host, Randy.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Loki says this to Mobius:
  Loki: Why are you in there sticking your neck out for me?
  Mobius: I'll give you two options, and you can believe whichever one you want. A, because I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold. And you kinda feel bad for that ice runt. Or B, I just wanna catch this guy, and I'll tell you whatever I need to tell you.
  Loki: I don't need your sympathy.
• Doomed Supermarket Display: During the fight in the Roxxcart store, Loki is thrown into a shelf full of toy dogs.
• Downer Ending: Although the TVA manages to track the Variant down, it is only because the Variant wanted them to track her down. The Variant then mass-bombs the Sacred Timeline with the stolen reset charges, and C-20 apparently gave her the information that she needs to find the realm of the Time Keepers. Worse still, there are no witnesses to Loki's conversation with the Variant because she took out B-15, so the TVA might suspect that Loki has switched sides since he chases after her rather than let her escape.
• The End Is Nigh: Loki initially leaves this impression on the people of Pompeii, rambling about how he is from the future and all of them are about to die. They don't take him seriously until the volcano erupts.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • Loki reads about Ragnarok and the destruction of Asgard, and when he sees the minuscule amount of Variant energy on the report, he realizes that his Variant could easily hide in such an event and go unnoticed by the TVA.
  • While taking a coffee break with Loki, who reflects on Mobius's "scared little boy" insult and shares his understanding that nobody is entirely good or bad, Mobius recalls the French boy from the previous episode. In addition to being scared, this boy was given a pack of gum by the Variant, which is an act of kindness from the Variant whom Mobius perceives as evil. These connections trigger an insight: Mobius realizes he can use the manufacturing date on the gum to narrow down which catastrophe the Variant is hiding in.
• Extinct in the Future: The swallow goes extinct in 2050, which screws up the ecosystem.
• Extreme Close-Up: There is a close-up shot of Loki's eyes when he reads the report on Ragnarok to show viewers that he is tearing up.
• Fallout Shelter Fail: There is a shelter in the Roxxcart store that is supposed to protect the people from the hurricane, but the Sacred Timeline dictates that this shelter will eventually fail and everyone present will be killed in the storm.
• Fist Pump: Loki, when Mobius leaves Renslayer's office and tells him that she approved their mission to Haven Hills, Alabama.
• Follow the Chaos: Loki deduces that the Variant is hiding in deadly catastrophes based on a theory that the destruction wrought by these catastrophes will wipe out any potential disruptions to the timeline. He and Mobius test this theory by traveling to 79AD and making a scene in Pompeii just before the eruption of Vesuvius, which doesn't even register on Mobius' scanner.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During a mission briefing at the beginning of the episode, it's stated that there are many Loki variants that the TVA has dealt with across time, and that each time they were different. Loki also refers to the Variant as they, not he. The Loki that our Loki is looking for is revealed to be female at the end of the episode.
  • Loki gives a long speech noting the difference between casting a duplicate on the one hand and projecting an illusion on the other. Our Loki casts perfect copies of himself. Later we'll meet another Loki who can create perfect illusions of other things.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • In the beginning of the episode, the test question on the screen of the computer reads: "Thanos has 2 apples, which he eats because he is hungry. Realizing he wants more, he goes back in time to eat those two apples again. Does this mean that the apples will not have existed in the timeline he left?" There are three answers to choose from.
  • One of the TVA incident reports that Loki flips past while Mobius is eating blames an unauthorized timeline alteration on "Sylvie Laufeydottir", hinting at the Variant's true identity.
  • Among the locations hit by the Variant's branches are Hala, Vormir, Xandar, Ego, Titan, and Asgard.
• Funny Background Event:
  • After Loki tries to swat Miss Minutes out of boredom and she hops into the computer, there's a "Test Failed" message on the screen behind him when Mobius comes to fetch him.
  • Loki spends time bragging about how he was right about the apocalypse being a hiding spot while the ash and powdered rock from Vesuvius pours toward Pompeii.
• The Ghost: While talking to Ravonna Renslayer, Mobius mentions that even he has never actually met the Time Keepers.
• Global Warming: Among the apocalyptic events where the Variant might be hiding, Loki mentions a climate catastrophe in 2048. In addition, it is implied that climate change made strong hurricanes so common that the classification had to be expanded from 5 to at least 8 to account for them. The hurricane that destroys Haven Hills, Alabama, occurs in 2050.
• Godzilla Threshold: This is how Loki's recruitment is justified; the other Loki Variant is such a danger that they're willing to try things that they normally wouldn't.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Mobius turns out to be this at the Renaissance fair mission. He may be willing to give Loki the benefit of the doubt, but when it becomes clear that the God of Mischief is just trying to run out the clock, Mobius doesn't remain fooled for long.
  Mobius: You had me for a second. My ears are sharp, too.
• GPS Evidence: The Kablooie gum was sold regionally from 2047 to 2051, narrowing down which apocalypse the Variant is hiding in.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Loki expresses this in a conversation with Mobius:
  Loki: You see, I know something children don't.
  Mobius: What's that?
  Loki: That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The Variant uses the TVA's own technology to mass-bomb the Sacred Timeline and destabilize it.
• I Know You Know I Know: Loki says to Mobius, "Half the fun of being a trickster is knowing everyone knows you're a trickster, and then, many of your tricks can come from exploiting the fact that you know that they know..."
• Immaturity Insult: Mobius calls Loki a "scared little boy" when Loki asks him why he still tries to convince Renslayer to let Loki work with them. Loki later tells Mobius that Mobius is wrong about it because he knows things that children don't: That nobody is wholly bad or good. He implicitly suggests that Mobius is the immature one for blindly believing in the benevolence of the Time Keepers despite never meeting them. Then, he says that he thinks that Mobius went too far by calling him that, saying that he found it patronizing.
• Improvised Weapon: Loki uses a Roomba as a shield and a vacuum as a whip against the Variant Loki.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Ravonna Renslayer gives Mobius a drink after the failed mission to the Renaissance fair:
  Ravonna Renslayer: You might need this for our discussion.
  Mobius: I hope it's a double.
• Insistent Terminology: When Mobius is briefing the other agents on their mission to investigate what happened at the Renaissance fair, he refers to one of Loki's powers as "illusion-projection," which Loki promptly corrects to "duplication-casting."
  Loki: No, they're two completely different powers.
  Mobius: How?
  Loki: Illusion-projection involves depicting a detailed image from outside oneself, which is perceptible in the external world, whereas duplication-casting entails recreating an exact facsimile of one's own body in its present circumstance, which acts as a true holographic mirror of its molecular structure.
• Instructional Film: Loki has been instructed to watch the TVA's training videos and is tested on his retention by Miss Minutes. He's not really into the task, and later admits to only watching "as many as I could stand."
• Internal Reveal: Loki learns about Ragnarok happening.
• It's All About Me: Narcissism is something that all Loki variants possess.
  • Mobius states that Loki will do everything he can to catch the other Variant Loki just to prove that he is superior and make the TVA acknowledge his brilliance.
  • Loki's conversation with his fellow Loki Variant can be summarized as the two saying "I am the superior Loki, and only my plan matters" to each other.
  • In fact, the first words that the female Loki Variant says on the show, personally and from her own body, is "It's not about you" to her fellow Loki Variant.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Hunter B-15 refers to Loki Variants as "it" when telling her squad to prune any that they see.
• I Work Alone: Loki says this to the Variant:
  Loki: Cowardly, a bit amateur-ish, but clever.
  The Variant: Almost as cowardly as working for the TVA.
  Loki: I'm working for me.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Hunter B-15's rivalry with Mobius, the analyst from another division, carries forward from the previous episode. Before going to Roxxcart, B-15 snatches and hides Loki's daggers Mobius was about to return to him. Inside the superstore, B-15 and Mobius argue over who takes Loki with them. B-15 wins because it is her field operation and tells Mobius to go "litigate with Renslayer" if he disagrees.
• Kick the Dog: Loki gets bored with his TVA lessons and starts trying to swat Miss Minutes with a magazine, apparently just to test what will happen if he hits her. This is after confirming that Miss Minutes is "sort of" alive. After dodging a few times, she retreats into the computer and calls him a jerk.
• Law of Time Travel Coincidences: The Variant deliberately chooses to "hide" in apocalyptic events because, as Loki works out, alterations to the timeline go undetected if the area is doomed anyway. This prevents the TVA from seeing what she's doing until it's too late. Loki and Mobius confirm this with a trip to Pompeii just as Vesuvius erupts.
• Layman's Terms: When the Variant enacts her plan, the monitors at the TVA see the timeline start to wildly diverge. One of the two at the main desk starts fumbling through his manual as he calls in the code for this event, only for his partner to grab the phone and succinctly summarize the situation as "Someone just bombed the Sacred Timeline!"
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Renslayer sees all the timelines that the Variant bombed, she storms out of her office and grabs her baton, clearly meaning business.
• Literal Metaphor: Loki's promises that he's not going to stab Mobius in the back fall flat when Mobius points out the numerous people that Loki has literally stabbed in the back.
• Loophole Abuse: Loki realizes that while a nexus event can form from even a slight deviation in behavior, it requires interaction with others in order to perpetuate any changes. If there's a catastrophic event that will wipe out any changes and/or anyone that might be there to observe them, you can do pretty much anything and not even a blip will appear on the timeline. He demonstrates this in Pompeii by making a scene, telling everyone they're about to die, and telling them where he's come from for good measure.
• Lost Food Grievance: Both Mobius and Casey express anger when Loki steals parts of their lunches in order to demonstrate his theory about apocalyptic events.
• Madness Mantra: Hunter C-20 repeats "It's real" over and over when Mobius and the others find her. While they do manage to snap her out of it, they (so far) fail to learn what she meant by it.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Sylvie's device goes off, it drops all the devices she stole all across the timeline. This results in multiple, steeply branching timelines.
  1182-E: [panicking over the phone] This is Analyst 1182-E, uh, reporting a code, uh, 000. [continues scrabbling through emergency handbook] Branches rapidly forming at a slope...
  Fellow Analyst: [grabs phone] Someone just bombed the Sacred Timeline.
  [Renslayer, in her office, stares in horror at monitor]
  [soldiers run through time doors]
• Meaningful Look: Loki gives Mobius a long "I'm sorry I have to" look before disappearing in the Variant's portal. Mobius must consider Loki's actions a betrayal.
• Metaphorgotten: Loki explains his theory of how the Variant takes refuge in times just before an apocalypse, by taking away Mobius' salad and putting random ingredients all over it to ruin it, much to the latter's chagrin. Loki concedes that it wasn't the best metaphor after rendering the salad thoroughly inedible.
  Loki: So, let's just say... [takes Mobius' salad bowl]
  Mobius: What are you doing?
  Loki: ...your salad is Asgard in this scenario.
  Mobius: No. It's not Asgard, that's my lunch.
• Mind-Control Eyes: When the Variant takes over another person's body, their eyes briefly flash bright green.
• Mind over Matter: Loki uses telekinesis to summon a Roomba to his hand to fight the Variant, who is controlling a man in the Roxxcart market and attacking him.
• Mission Briefing: B-15 gathers the team twice, before venturing to Oshkosh, 1985 and Roxxcart, 2050, respectively, and provides them with infodumps about these locations and the reason they go there.
• Mocking Sing-Song: Mobius to Loki, when he explains why he is working with him:
  Mobius: I believed, stupidly, that insecure need for validation would motivate you to find the killer. Not 'cause you care about the TVA mission or being a hero, but because you know this Variant is better than you and you can't take it.
• Mock Surprise Reaction: When Loki reads yet another report on the Variant killing Minutemen and stealing their reset charges, he expresses his fake surprise so loudly that a member of the TVA has to shush him down.
• Motor Mouth:
  • After Mobius talks to Ravonna Renslayer following the failed mission at the Renaissance fair, Loki starts to talk nonstop about how he was just teaching him a lesson in not trusting a trickster like himself, which Mobius remarks upon.
    Mobius: Just shut up! Please. What happened to the guy I met on the elevator? Who didn't like to talk. Remember him?
  • When possessing a random guy in Roxxcart, the Variant makes a similar observation.
    The Variant: Thank you for helping me stall for time. You really do love to hear yourself talk.
    Loki: You're the first person to tell me that.
• Mundane Utility: Loki uses his magic to dry his clothes. And then lampshades it by explaining what he did, because at least he won't lose the element of surprise by squeaking when he walks.
• Mythology Gag:
  • "Holding Out for a Hero" also appeared in Vote Loki #2.
  • Ravonna Renslayer is shown to have a collection of "souvenirs" from all of Mobius' missions that she approved; her sometimes lover in the comics, Kang the Conqueror, also had an affinity for collecting trophies from his victories.
  • One of the floor levels seen behind Loki as he's reading the files is 372. The Mighty Thor #372 marked the first appearance of the Time Keepers.
  • The opening takes place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the hometown of the late Marvel writer/editor Mark Gruenwald. In the comics, the TVA staff were all modeled after Gruenwald, as an homage to his keen grasp of continuity.
  • Roxxcart is presumably a division of the Marvel Universe's resident Big Bad megacorporation, Roxxon.
• Never Heard That One Before: When the Variant tells Loki that she has been stalling for time:
  The Variant: You really do love to hear yourself talk.
  Loki: You're the first person to tell me that.
• Next Sunday A.D.: Haven Hills, Alabama, in 2050 is not much different than the present day (which in the MCU would be 2024 - 2025) besides having easily available holographic technology. The supermarket still sells standard flat-screen televisions, and several brands still use their 2020s era logos.
• No Endor Holocaust: In Thor: Ragnarok, it was never revealed how many people died as a result of Asgard's destruction. Some people theorized that they actually managed to evacuate all remaining citizens on the Statesman, but here it is revealed that 9,719 people died (unless, of course, they're counting Hela's previous rampage as part of Ragnarok).
• Noodle Incident:
  • The TVA has pruned quite a few variants of Loki. Among the ones Mobius shows, one took part in the Tour de France and won, and another evidently became his version of the Hulk.
  • Mobius mentions that Loki has literally stabbed people in the back on about fifty separate occasions.
• Not Bad: At first, Mobius is less than convinced when Loki destroys his salad to demonstrate his theory on the variant's hiding spot. However, when Loki rephrases his theory in a more concise manner, Mobius concedes with "Not bad."
• Oh, Crap!: Once the Variant Loki bombs the timeline, the TVA as a whole pretty much craps its pants in fear.
• Orbital Shot: The camera circles around Mobius, Loki, and the other agents when they prepare for their mission to 2050 Alabama.
• Order Versus Chaos: Discussed between Mobius and Loki during a lunch break. Mobius is a staunch supporter of the Time-Keepers' upholding of the Sacred Timeline, believing that the TVA exists to enforce order upon what would otherwise be a chaotic timeline filled with endless branches, pruning alternate timelines until the Time-Keepers find the one "true" epilogue amongst a myriad of possibilities. Loki, being Loki, naturally disagrees with this assertion.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Loki quickly becomes frustrated with the condescending way the Variant talks to him, and mutters that he now understands why Thor was so annoyed with him.
  Loki: I would never treat me like this.
• Overworked Sleep: When Loki and Mobius realize that the Variant is probably hiding in apocalypses, they start to go through all files on such events. Since they haven't found a way to narrow it down yet, they have a lot of files to go through, and in the next cut Loki is sleeping at the desk, with Mobius not that far behind him.
• Planning with Props: When Loki goes to tell Mobius his revelation about how the Variant is hiding, Mobius is at lunch, so Loki uses various bits of tableware along with Mobius's lunch and then part of Casey's lunch to illustrate his theory.
  Loki: So, let's just say... [takes Mobius' salad bowl]
  Mobius: What are you doing?
  Loki: ...your salad is Asgard in this scenario.
  Mobius: No. It's not Asgard, that's my lunch.
• Polyglot: Loki speaks Latin in part because Hiddleston studied Latin at Cambridge.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Like Thor to Loki in Thor: Ragnarok, Mobius reveals to this Variant that his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder makes it difficult to trust anything he says, and easy to predict his next betrayal, since Loki is "history's most reliable liar."
• Present Company Excluded: When Hunter B-15 tells her squad to prune any Loki Variant that they see, Loki adds "the bad Loki, preferably."
• Product Placement: The climax of the episode takes place in a Wal-Mart-esque department store, which means that, despite being set roughly 30 years in the future, several prominent real-world brands are displayed front and center to the camera, including a large in-store advertisement for Arm & Hammer, as well as the first Reset Charge bomb that Loki finds being placed in between two HyperX gaming products.
• Propaganda Piece: Loki sees the TVA's training videos as such:
  Mobius: Did you watch any of the training videos you were supposed to?
  Loki: Well, as many as I could stand. Your TVA propaganda is exhausting.
• Properly Paranoid: Hunter B-15 is immediately suspicious of someone shopping at Roxxcart as though they were a regular customer in the middle of a deadly hurricane. Rightfully so, as the person is under the Variant's control, which jumps to B-15 on physical contact.
• Red Filter of Doom: The red emergency lights of the Roxxcart store turn on when the Variant reveals herself and activates the reset charges.
• Renaissance Fair: Hunter C-20 and her Minutemen visit a Renaissance fair in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1985, where they get attacked by the Variant. One person attending the fair tells the science-fiction looking people that they are not dressed properly for the event.
• The Reveal:
  • The Variant is revealed to be a female version of a Loki.
  • The Variant has been stealing reset devices so she can mass-bomb the Sacred Timeline, creating dozens of branch timelines that force the TVA into a mad scramble to fix the damage. Meanwhile, her intent seems to be to find the realm of the Time Keepers, and C-20 told her where to look.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Miss Minutes appears in holographic form to berate Loki for not listening to her lectures, to which the latter responds by attempting to swat her with a magazine; she only manages to escape by diving into a computer screen. Miss Minutes herself reveals that she's partially an actual living being.
• San Dimas Time: Because branch timelines are unstable, the TVA have to follow them in real-time, unlike their ability to jump to any point in the main timeline.
• Scenery Gorn: The initial shot of Haven Hills shows most of the town slowly being consumed by the storm surges generated by the massive Category 8 hurricane. (In the real world, the scale only goes up to Category 5. Climate change is evidently to blame for them adjusting the scale.)
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Loki lampshades his love for a nice suit:
  Hunter B-15: Could that be you?
  Loki: I mean, I probably would have worn a suit, but, yes, maybe.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Holding Out for a Hero" is played when the Variant takes control of Hunter C-20 and causes her to fight against her colleagues.
  • Loki mentions an Asgardian saying that goes "Where there are wolf's ears, wolf's teeth are near", which is a line from chapter 19/20 of The Saga of the Volsungs.
  • At the '80s Renaissance fair, you can briefly see the Ogre from Time Bandits.
  • Intentionally or not, some details in the episode are similar to The End of Eternity (of course, considering the similarities between the organizations...).
    • Loki and Mobius leafing through files is similar to a scene where Asimov's characters are looking for a displaced time traveller by leafing through old journals.
    • The Variant's method of hiding is reminiscent of Eternity's preferred execution method; stuff the criminal onto an airplane about to explode in twenty seconds. No one will know 105 people were vaporised instead of 104.
• Single Tear: Loki sheds one while reading the TVA's file on the destruction of Asgard.
• Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Loki briefly discusses this with Mobius. Loki surmises that since everything is determined by the Timekeepers, there is no free will, but Mobius says it's more complicated than that. On the other side of the scale, Loki Variants are more common than any other Variant. This suggests that Loki is able to do whatever he wants, unfettered by whatever the Time Keepers dictate, and is only reigned in by the Minutemen. One particular Loki Variant is still on the loose, beyond the control of the entire TVA.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: While the Variant begins to slaughter the Minutemen sent to apprehend them at the Renaissance fair, "Holding Out for a Hero" is blaring on a loudspeaker.
• That's What I Would Do: When Loki's theory that there will be no detection of Variant activity during an apocalypse is proven right, Loki concludes: "If it were me, this is where I would hide."
• This Explains So Much: Mobius, when he asks Loki whether they have candy on Asgard, and Loki answers "Yeah; grapes, nuts...":
  Mobius: No wonder you're so bitter.
• Time Crash: The Variant mass-bombs the Sacred Time line with the stolen reset-charges, which creates dozens of branched timelines, all of them speeding towards the "red line". If they reach this line, the TVA would no longer be able to reset them, and reality could (supposedly) crash.
• Tricked Out Time: Loki makes a scene in a village near the Pompeii volcano where he warns its citizens of its impending eruption, which doesn't register on Mobius' TemPad because the eruption will destroy the changes Loki made to the timeline, even though they're currently experiencing said changes in real time.
• To Make a Long Story Short:
  • Loki starts an elaborate explanation about what he thinks happened in the tent at the Renaissance fair (in order to stall for time). The other agents get increasingly impatient and annoyed, and Mobius asks him to make a long story short.
  • Loki ends his long salad metaphor with:
    Loki: If everything and everyone around you is destined for imminent destruction, then nothing that I say or do will matter, because the timeline's not gonna branch. 'Cause it gets destroyed.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: An employee at the Renaissance fair sees men and women in body armor come out of nowhere, and all she has to say is that they're breaking the immersion and risking her job.
• We Can Rule Together: Loki tries to talk the other Loki into taking over the TVA as his second-in-command, but the Variant has her own plans and has no interest in ruling the TVA, nor working with him for that matter.
• Wham Shot: The Variant removes their hood, revealing that this Loki is a woman.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Loki says this word for word to Mobius when he tells him about testing his theory that everything you do at an apocalypse event won't create a divergent timeline. Fortunately for him and the timeline, his theory pans out.
• What You Are in the Dark: Loki instinctively reaches for B-15 to catch her when she collapses after the Variant controls her. He only stops himself because of the Variant's new host standing next to them.
• World-Healing Wave: The Reset Charges are shown to release a wave that purges any deviations in the timeline and resets it back to the Sacred Timeline. Loki, in his skepticism, says that this is a nice way to say "vaporizing everything in the vicinity".
• World-Wrecking Wave: The Variant uses her stolen reset devices so they create branch timelines, by dropping them all over the Sacred Timeline to vaporise whatever they land on.
• You Can't Go Home Again: The 2012 Loki-variant is understandably stunned to learn that in the main timeline, Ragnarok has occurred and Asgard has been completely destroyed. All of his schemes prior to this involved taking over Asgard. Now, even if he could escape the TVA, he simply has nowhere left to escape to (except for the handful of Asgardians who escaped as refugees to Midgard/Earth).
• "You!" Exclamation: Casey says this with an irritated voice when Loki approaches him in the cafeteria to take his juice box.

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