Loki and Sylvie confront the true mastermind behind the TVA, and their confrontation comes to a shocking conclusion with dire consequences.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing:
- Implied by He Who Remains. Sylvie killing him will result in another Multiversal War between his variants, which will inevitably culminate in another variant of He Who Remains fixing a single timeline, and restoring the TVA, all over again. This is seemingly proven true in the ending, after Sylvie finally kills him...only for Loki to return to a TVA that is just as before, only this time with a giant statue of a version of He Who Remains in place of the Timekeeper statues.
- This is what Renslayer fears, as she can't accept the TVA has all been part of a bigger lie and that it has to be something more. If the TVA is a lie, then their mission is meaningless, she betrayed her best friend, and has been party to kidnapping and brutality for ages. All of this would make her a monster, which she can't accept.
- Sylvie gets what she wanted, finally killing He Who Remains... but it doesn't make her feel better, and because she sent away Loki due to him trying to prevent her revenge at the last minute, she's left alone at the end of time with nothing left to do. Adding in that she may have realized He Who Remains was maybe telling the truth all along, and that there could be another multiversal war. She reacts to finally killing He Who Remains not with triumph, but broken weeping.
- Alliance of Alternates: He Who Remains mentions that when he initially used his technology to meet his variants, they worked together to improve each others' realities. This alliance fell apart after more malevolent variants emerged and others became more concerned with preserving their own timeline.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Sylvie killing He Who Remains opens the door for his variants, some of whom are implied to be even more malevolent and dangerous, to emerge and fight for control of the multiverse.
- Ambiguous Situation: Once He Who Remains is killed, Mobius and Hunter B-15 quietly watch and accept the vast branches in the timeline spread into a brand new multiverse. However, the next time we see them, both are panicking over the branches and working to correct this before Loki shows up. When Loki tries to talk with them, they have no idea who he is or what has recently transpired. The episode then ends revealing a variant of He Who Remains is in direct control of the TVA now, instead of acting through a proxy, but doesn't confirm whether this is the original TVA completely rewritten or if it's a different version of the TVA that Loki was sent to.
- And Starring: Jonathan Majors is listed as a "Special Guest Star", playing He Who Remains.
- Any Last Words?: This exchange between Sylvie and He Who Remains, just before his demise.
Sylvie: Aren't you gonna beg for your life?
He Who Remains: Um, could, could.
[Sylvie stabs him]
He Who Remains: ...I'll see you soon. [winks at Sylvie and chuckles, before his body goes limp]
- At Least I Admit It: He Who Remains shouts down Sylvie when she tries to call him out on his actions, deriding her as a murderer and a hypocrite and pointing out that everyone in the room is a villain and has done "horrible, terrible, horrific things".
- The Big Damn Kiss: Between Sylvie and Loki, when he tells her that all he cares about is that she's ok. She also uses it as a distraction to grab the TemPad on the desk and send him back to the TVA.
- Blue/Orange Contrast: Tiny orange Miss Minutes really stands out against blue walls of the Citadel at the End of Time. This is an inversion of the color palette of the first episode, where Loki holding a tiny blue cube was surrounded by orange walls of the TVA.
- Call-Back:
- He Who Remains pulls a pile of paper documents showing dialogue that predicted what Loki and Sylvie would have said before they even said it. Said documents are printed and presented in a similar manner to the documents of everything Loki had ever said that he had to sign, all the way back in the first episode.
- Before Sylvie pushes Loki through the time door, she tells him "I'm not you", which is a call-back to this conversation in "Lamentis":
Loki: Your years-in-the-making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then just walk away. I'd never have done that.
Sylvie: Yeah? Well, I’m not you.
- Cassandra Truth: Sylvie is so obsessed with revenge that she believes that what He Who Remains is saying is just lies to keep the duo from killing him. Loki realizes that it's truth, and is proved right when Sylvie killing him lets Kang take over the TVA.
- Catch-22 Dilemma: He Who Remains presents this to Loki and Sylvie. They can either run the TVA and keep the Sacred Timeline intact or they can kill him and let other, less benevolent versions of him, take over and throw the multiverse into chaos. Either way the TVA won't die with him and they'll still be stuck outside their timelines. Sylvie, too consumed by vengeance, goes for the latter and...well ended up proving exactly what he said would happen.
- A Chat with Satan: Loki and Sylvie meet He Who Remains, an ancient near-omniscient being who calls himself a devil and offers them a Sadistic Choice of either ruling the TVA together or killing him and causing a multiversal war.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Part of the problem at the end between Loki and Sylvie regarding settling the issue with He Who Remains and what he's been saying is, as Loki says, "You can't trust, and I can't be trusted".
- Cliffhanger: With He Who Remains dead, the Sacred Timeline branches out in many directions beyond the TVA’s control. Sylvie, having pushed Loki back into the TVA and killed He Who Remains, is now all alone at the End of Time, realizing how meaningless her mission was. He Who Remains's many Variants break free, and Loki ends up stuck at a TVA ruled by one of the evil variants, implied to be Kang the Conqueror, where nobody remembers who he is.
- Composite Character: The MCU version of He Who Remains is a combination of He Who Remains from the comics, who created the Time-Keepers to protect the flow of time, and Immortus, a variant of Kang the Conqueror who mellowed out of his villainy and helped to preserve timelines instead of conquering them.
- Continuity Cavalcade: The opening montage through time and space is set to clips of dialogue pulled from multiple previous Marvel Cinematic Universe installments interspersed with various songs (including most notably, "It's Been a Long, Long Time") and quotes from real life public figures.
- Copycat Mockery: He Who Remains, when he tries to pit Loki and Sylvie against each other:
He Who Remains: Sylvie! You think you can trust this guy?
Loki: Don't listen to him.
He Who Remains: "Don't listen to him." [laughs]
- Curb-Stomp Battle: When Mobius tries to stop Ravonna from leaving, she overpowers him extremely quickly.
- Dark Reprise: The song used for the end credits of this episode is an intense and ominous arrangement of the show's main theme, "TVA", which is presumably a reflection on the state of the TVA after He Who Remains dies and Kang takes over.
- Death Seeker: He Who Remains has tired of eons of life and the weight of his position, and doesn't really fight being killed after making his proposal to Sylvie and Loki. He even says that he could beg for his life, but doesn't bother doing so.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Two beings, a male and a female, created from the same source, come before an all-knowing tempter holding an apple who offers them a choice -- maintain or disrupt the status quo. The woman succumbs first, but the male feels responsible for the deed as well.
- Downer Ending: Not just for the episode, but the entire season. Sylvie has killed He Who Remains and has finally exacted her revenge, but is left sobbing in the Citadel at the End of Time while the timeline branches out of control. Loki is sent back to the TVA, but Mobius and B-15 don't remember him, indicating that he may be in a different timeline or the TVA has been reset entirely. The last shot then shows Loki staring in horror at a statue of one of He Who Remains' variants — Kang the Conqueror.
- Eldritch Location: The Citadel at the End of Time is a castle on a jagged, circular asteroid floating in the void of space-time from which the Sacred Timeline can be seen around it as a giant circle of light.
- Empathic Environment: The view outside the Citadel of He Who Remains is of the Sacred Timeline. The instant He Who Remains no longer knows what's going to happen, the Timeline starts to branch. After Sylvie kills him, the branches start branching, fractally.
- End of an Era: The death of He Who Remains marks the end of the original Sacred Timeline and begins the start of a new Multiverse, and possibly a Multiversal War. By the time Loki goes to find Mobius, the TVA itself has reset, with Kang/He Who Remains now overtly controlling them instead of working through the Timekeepers as intermediaries.
- Eternal Recurrence:
- He Who Remains figures this is the case. If he's killed, the Multiversal War will kick off again, a version of him will recur to set the timeline on a single course, and events will come back to the end of time once again. "Reincarnation, baby", as he puts it. The ending does make it a bit unclear if it was actually as point for point as he made it out to be though.
- The toroid shape of the Sacred Timeline that surrounds the Citadel at the End of Time implies that there is no end to history in the universe.
- Evil Power Vacuum: He Who Remains warns that there are far worse Variants of him waiting to take his place should he be killed. Loki agrees, and tries to convince Sylvie that something will try to fill the void left by the death of a dictator. The final scene shows this wasn't an idle threat.
He Who Remains: You may hate the dictator but something… far worse is gonna fill that void if you depose of him.
- The Extremist Was Right: For all his flaws, He Who Remains was right to warn Loki and Sylvie that Variants of himself are dangerous, as one of them has apparently taken over the TVA Loki arrives back in.
- The Final Temptation: As Loki and Sylvie cross the final threshold to meet He Who Remains, Miss Minutes pops up to try to persuade them to abandon their quest. She assures them that He Who Remains can arrange it so they can end up in a world where they have everything they ever wanted, together. However, Loki and Sylvie realize that even if he's not lying, the world they live in would just be a Lotus-Eater Machine, and they turn her down. He Who Remains later admits that he knew they would turn him down, and it was just a final test.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- When Loki reunites with Mobius and B-15 in the final scene, they're shown frantically analysing the branching timelines, in stark contrast to the quiet, reserved acceptance they showed in their previous scene. When Loki speaks to them, he discovers that they have no idea who he is.
- Hunter B-15 also asks "Does he want us to just let them all branch?", despite not knowing that the Time Keepers were fake, nor who the real leader of the TVA is. Then Loki sees what the statues have been replaced by...
- Foil:
- He Who Remains reveals that he once met another variant of himself and they formed a strong friendship, not unlike how Loki romantically fell for Sylvie. But while Loki genuinely grew to care for Sylvie and overcame his selfishness, the variants of He Who Remains were driven apart by their own egos, and their falling out resulted in the Multiversal War.
- While Sylvie and Loki are variants of the same being, their differences are brought in stark contrast this episode. Sylvie cannot trust, and Loki cannot be trusted. Loki wanted to Take a Third Option, while Sylvie just wanted to kill whoever was in charge and tear it all down. Loki is a schemer who likes to work every angle, while Sylvie tends to attack and kill all in sight. When He Who Remains offers the Sadistic Choice to either take over the TVA or kill him and risk other variants of himself taking over, Loki wants to take time to think about the best outcome while Sylvie just wants to kill He Who Remains.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- Pausing during the scene inside Judge Renslayer's teaching office reveals that her real name (before she was taken away by the TVA) was Rebecca Tourminet, as written in her diploma on the wall.
- The script He Who Remains shows to Loki and Sylvie reveal that Sylvie's variant number is L1190.
- Ghost Butler: The doors to the Citadel open by themselves just as Sylvie was hesitating to push them. And then, they close behind Loki and Sylvie once inside, just adding to the spooky atmosphere.
- Go Through Me: Loki reappears right in front of Sylvie as she swings her kukri at He Who Remains, and begs her to stop.
- Great Offscreen War: He Who Remains explains that he was the cause of the often-mentioned Multiversal War that led to the creation of the TVA and the Sacred Timeline. A renowned scientist in the 31st Century, his research and resources allowed him to meet variants of himself from other timelines. While this interaction initially appealed to their narcissistic tendencies and was beneficial to their respective realities, they eventually met variants with less noble intentions. Cooperation gave way to conquest and their alliances fell apart over the preservation of their respective timelines. This resulted in a battle where all of the variants fought to protect their own timelines while destroying the others'. The variant that became He Who Remains eventually emerged victorious, and streamlined the multiverse into a single timeline to prevent his own variants from ever interacting again.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: In a sense. He Who Remains points out that either choice Loki and Sylvie make will lead to the continuation of the TVA. Even if they decide to kill him, it just means another Multiversal War will happen and another variant of him will just end up weaponizing Alioth again and recreating the TVA.
He Who Remains: What's the worst that could happen? Take over and my life's work continues or, you plunge your blade in my chest and an infinite amount of me start another Multiversal War and I just...end up right back here anyways.
- History Repeats: It's revealed that the Multiversal War referenced in "Glorious Purpose" was actually a conflict between the variants of He Who Remains, the last of whom created the TVA and the Sacred Timeline to prevent other variants of himself from coming into conflict. After Sylvie kills him, the timelines continue to branch out and it's implied that the variants of He Who Remains have re-emerged and gone to war with each other all over again, once again resulting in one of the variants taking control of the TVA.
- Hypocrite: He Who Remains accuses Sylvie of this when she takes issue with his actions as creator/ruler of the TVA.
Sylvie: You treated
real people's lives like some kind of
game.
He Who Remains: It's not...personal. It's, it's
practical —
Sylvie: It was
personal to
me.
He Who Remains: [growling] Grow up! Grow up, Sylvie! Murderer!
Hypocrite! We're all villains here.
- I Have Many Names: He Who Remains says this about himself.
He Who Remains: Oh, I've been dubbed many names by many people. A ruler,
a conqueror, He Who Remains,
a jerk.
- Internal Reveal: B-15 lures her fellow hunters into an engineered meeting with the Sacred Timeline version of Ravonna, demonstrating that B-15 is telling the truth about the TVA being built on a lie and all of them being variants themselves.
- Irony: In the previous episode, Loki promised that he wouldn't betray Sylvie only for him to (unintentionlly) basically do just that, especially in her view, by pulling back on the plan to kill whoever was in charge of the TVA.
- Jump Scare: As Loki and Sylvie slowly enter the main hall of the Citadel, Miss Minutes suddenly appears in front of them, with the appropriate spike in the music. This easily gave some watchers a fright.
Miss Minutes: Hey, y'all!
[Loki and Sylvie draw out their weapons]
- Large Ham: Jonathan Majors as He Who Remains is clearly having a great time in this episode.
- Let's You and Him Fight: He Who Remains sits back and watches Loki and Sylvie go at it against each other; Sylvie wants to kill He Who Remains while Loki takes seriously the threat of leaving the timeline to its own devices. It ends when Sylvie kicks him back through a portal to the TVA.
- Little "No": Loki lets out a quiet, broken "no" when Sylvie tells him to go ahead and kill her so he can take his throne.
- Living Lie Detector: Loki tells Sylvie that he is sure that He Who Remains isn't lying about the consequences of unleashing the multiverse because he himself is a liar.
- Logo Joke: The Loki variation of the Marvel intro still plays out like normal, but the fanfare has been replaced with a barrage of quotes from every superhero shown in the intro (along with real-life figures like Greta Thunberg and Nelson Mandela), along with "It's Been A Long, Long Time" as heard in Avengers: Endgame.
- Love Cannot Overcome: Try as he might, Loki cannot talk Sylvie out of taking her revenge, regardless of how much they may care for one another.
- Malicious Misnaming: He Who Remains calls Sylvie "Loki" as he offers her some tea, even though he knows that she goes by Sylvie, as he calls her by that name at a later point in the episode.
- Meaningful Name: "He Who Remains" reveals that all of his variants fought each other, either to conquer other timelines or to defeat the hostile variants. He was the sole survivor who ended all of the alternative universes to create the Sacred Timeline.
- Meet the New Boss: After Sylvie kills He Who Remains, another variant of him took over the TVA, as Loki finds out.
- Mirror Match: When Loki fights Sylvie, both of them use a short sword / kukri, employ telekinesis and make similar moves. Unsurprising, given that they are Variants of the same being.
- Mood Whiplash: Immediately after Loki and Sylvie share a kiss while uplifting music plays, she betrays his trust and pushes him through the portal, while she stays to complete her mission and kill He Who Remains.
- Moral Myopia: He Who Remains accuses Sylvie of this after she condemns him for treating real people's lives like a game. When he tries to protest that it's Nothing Personal and she counters that it was personal to her, he suddenly shouts that she's a murderer and a hypocrite and needs to realize that they're all villains here.
- Mythology Gag:
- He Who Remains mentions that he originally came from the 31st Century, and claims that one of his many titles is that of a conqueror.
- Ravonna Renslayer's real name (before she was taken by the TVA) was "Rebecca Tourminet". That name is one of the names that the comics version of Ravonna Renslayer went by at one point.
- He Who Remains claims that he had many names and titles. Indeed Kang went by different identities and alias at various points in his life including his given name, his Kang identity, Iron Lad, and Immortus.
- Narcissist: He Who Remains admits that he and his Variants were very self-interested, which was great when they first met and work together. However, it is also part of what led to the multiversal war.
- Necessarily Evil: He Who Remains acknowledges that the Sacred Timeline and the TVA are stifling, heavy-handed, oppressive etc, but he insists that they are also necessary to prevent destruction on a cosmic scale. Though erasing variants and their branches for arbitrary differences seems highly unethical, he claims it's the only way to prevent his own variants from emerging and fighting for control over the multiverse.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Sylvie fought for free will and wanted to free the multiverse from the dictate of He Who Remains, but killing him and allowing the timelines to branch uncontrollably resulted in his variant, Kang, taking over the TVA. Both He Who Remains and Loki believe that he is set to start a multiversal war.
- No Name Given: He Who Remains claims that he has been called many names and titles over the years, but doesn't reveal his true name, claiming it's "not as simple" as that.
- No, You: Renslayer returns Mobius' accusation of betrayal against him, insisting that he's the one that turned against her and eons of work just to help a pair of Lokis.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: He Who Remains has been replaced by a worse version of himself who has allowed the Sacred Timeline to fragment into a new multiverse and Mobius doesn't remember Loki.
- Nothing Personal: He Who Remains tells Sylvie that what happened to her wasn't personal and was simply a Necessarily Evil to protect the timeline. She doesn't feel the same way.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Hunter B-15 somehow escaped her imprisonment from the previous episode. Based on what Mobius says to Renslayer, it stands to reason he had a hand in that.
- Oh, Crap!: He Who Remains becomes noticeably more nervous the moment they pass the Threshold, where his knowledge of future events ends.
- The Omniscient: He Who Remains knows everything about what Loki and Sylvie did across the timeline and how their confrontation with him will end up, and has the documents to prove it. However, his omniscience is only up to a certain threshold; he admits that he lied about knowing everything, and past the Threshold, he doesn't know how things will end up and offers Loki and Sylvie a deal to spare his life/life's work/the universe of a multiversal war.
- Orbital Kiss: Loki and Sylvie share a kiss as Sylvie turns Loki around to take the TemPad on the table, giving the impression that the camera rotates around them to highlight the moment.
- Order Versus Chaos: He Who Remains forces Loki and Sylvie to choose between taking over the TVA and maintaining the order of the Sacred Timeline, or killing him and allowing it to spiral into the chaos of The Multiverse. Notably, Loki and Sylvie's clash isn't because one prefers order and one prefers chaos; rather, Loki just wants time to think about which option is better, whereas Sylvie believes He Who Remains is lying about what will happen if he dies and wants to get the deed over and done with.
- Passing the Torch: Attempted. Despite his physical appearance, He Who Remains realizes he's getting too old and tired to continue maintaining the Sacred Timeline and has been looking for a suitable successor. He offers the position to Loki and Sylvie, but Sylvie is too hellbent on revenge to even consider it.
- Pass the Popcorn: He Who Remains watches in enjoyment as Loki and Sylvie clash.
- Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: He Who Remains invites Loki and Sylvie to his office and offers them tea while calmly explaining his situation, but they have their swords out the whole time and Sylvie tries to kill He Who Remains more than once.
- Psychological Projection: With a small case Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. When Loki asks Sylvie to wait and think about the best outcome before killing He Who Remains, she accuses him of just wanting to take his offer of ruling the TVA because it's what he wanted when he first met her, and she refuses to believe he's changed because she hasn't.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Sylvie murders He Who Remains, avenging her timeline and the life that was taken from her. However, she is now left alone at the end of existence, the TVA is being controlled by an evil variant of him, the multiversal war may be re-ignited, the timelines are branching at an uncontrollable rate, no one at the TVA remembers Loki anymore, and she's left with the realization that the revenge she gained wasn't worth what she lost
- Race Lift: He Who Remains is a version of Kang the Conqueror, who is white in the comic books and black here.
- The Reveal:
- The true ruler of the TVA is He Who Remains, a variant of a 31st century human scientist who reorganized the multiverse into a singular timeline after he and all the other variants of himself duked it out against each other in a multiversal Great Offscreen War. He managed to do so by harnessing Alioth's power to devour time and space itself.
- Ravonna Renslayer was formerly a high school teacher in 2018 Ohio, before she somehow got involved with the TVA. Her real name, as seen in her diploma, was "Rebecca Tourminet".
- Immediately after Sylvie kills He Who Remains, Loki learns upon returning to the TVA that another variant of He Who Remains has taken over as the leader of the TVA, and none of Loki's friends over at the TVA remember who he is anymore.
- Revenge Before Reason: Sylvie is so hell-bent on killing He Who Remains that she refuses to believe his warnings about the massive consequences of doing so, even though Loki is sure he's being honest, nor does the mutual love she and Loki have for one another dissuade her.
- Rule of Symbolism: After He Who Remains takes off his TemPad, he slides it forwards on his desk towards Loki and Sylvie and then keeps his hand there as he talks to the duo while the camera slowly zooms in on him at the same level as the desk, almost making it look like the TemPad is still on his hand. In taking off the TemPad, he might be giving Loki and Sylvie the choice to act freely, but he is still in absolute control of the situation.
- Sadistic Choice: He Who Remains gives Loki and Sylvie two options: they can kill him as they initially intended, which will reignite the Multiversal War and threaten all of existence; or they can take over his job of running the TVA and pruning the branched timelines, a practice they've grown to despise. It's both played straight and subverted; Loki realizes that both choices have dire consequences and he wants time to think it over, but Sylvie believes He Who Remains is bluffing about the consequences and goes straight for Option 1.
- Self-Deprecation: He Who Remains is willing to admit that he and his variants were too driven by their own narcissism, and it was his fault that the multiverse fell into chaos. He's also well aware of the TVA's unethical restriction of free will, but insists that it's the only way to keep order.
- Sequel Hook: The credits promise Loki will return in season 2, and there's a few threads to clean up.
- The TVA has been taken over by a Variant of He Who Remains, and it isn't the same TVA Loki left.
- Sylvie killing He Who Remains leaves the Sacred Timeline to branch out of control. She is also still at the end of time, with a TemPad that can take her anywhere.
- Judge Renslayer has departed to when and where unknown, given a hint by He Who Remains through Miss Minutes.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: He Who Remains is good at countering or shutting down the Lokis' accusations towards him.
Sylvie: You treated real people's lives like some kind of game.
He Who Remains: It's not personal. It's-it's practical.
Sylvie: It was personal to
me! He Who Remains: [angry growl] Grow up! GROW UP, Sylvie! Murderer, hypocrite! We're
all villains here.
[chuckle] We've all done horrible, terrible, horrific things.
- The Snack Is More Interesting: He Who Remains talks circles around Loki and Sylvie while eating a green apple.
- The Stinger: One scene after the credits shows a TVA document of Loki, being stamped with a mark that says "Loki will return in Season 2."
- Take a Third Option: After their falling out, it looks like Sylvie will have to choose between killing Loki and letting He Who Remains live. Instead she uses He Who Remains's TemPad to port Loki back to the TVA, which gets Loki out of her way without hurting him. (Not that it's actually safe there, but she has no way of knowing that.)
- Tempting Apple: After Miss Minutes offers Loki and Sylvie the deal they reject, He Who Remains meets them holding an apple. He goes on to offer them yet another choice.
- Title Drop: This specific episode's title is stated word for word by Mobius and Hunter B-15 as they watch millions of timelines branch out uncontrollably.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: After Sylvie kills He Who Remains, she collapses to her knees crying, as killing him didn't bring her the satisfactory conclusion she was hoping for.
- Was It All a Lie?: When Loki tries to stop Sylvie from killing He Who Remains, she asks him whether all the tender moments between them were a lie. Loki looks heartbroken by this accusation, and then turns it around and asks if she still can't trust him after all their tender moments.
- We Can Rule Together: He Who Remains offers Loki and Sylvie control of the timeline as an alternative to the chaos that would ensue if they kill him. Sylvie brushes it off, while Loki at least seriously considers that he's telling the truth about the alternative.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He Who Remains insists that the Sacred Timeline is the best outcome he could create from the chaos of the Multiversal War.
- Wham Episode: One for the whole MCU: The death of He Who Remains allows the Multiverse to branch out unchecked, allowing chaos to reign — and one of his conquering Variants to replace him — and setting up the next major plot arc for the main continuity.
- Wham Line: When Loki finds Mobius at the TVA and explains to him what happened, Mobius mistakes Loki for an analyst and calmly asks for his name, showing that he and B-15 no longer remember who Loki is.
- Wham Shot:
- The reveal that He Who Remains is played by Jonathan Majors who has already been cast as Kang is a big one.
- After being sent back to the TVA, Loki finds Mobius and B-15 so he can explain what happened, but they have no memory of him. He looks out and sees that the statue of the Time-Keepers has changed. A Variant of He Who Remains, implied to be none other than Kang the Conqueror himself, is now running the show.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: He Who Remains has lived countless lifetimes, and orchestrated the entire set of events that brought two Loki variants to him to end it one way or another.
- Xanatos Gambit: He Who Remains sets things up so he benefits either way. If Sylvie and Loki take his deal, he gets to retire. If they kill him, the multiverse will be unleashed and another version of him will end up fixing everything once more. Either way, he is released from his duty.
- Your Heart's Desire: Just before Loki and Sylvie meet He Who Remains, he has Miss Minutes offer for them to abandon their quest in exchange for getting everything they ever wanted in a little branch of the timeline reserved just for them; Loki will have the throne and the adoration of Earth, Asgard, even all of Creation; Sylvie will wake up in Asgard with nothing but a lifetime of happy memories, and they can have it together. Loki and Sylvie quickly realize that even if the offer is genuine, it would just be a Lotus-Eater Machine, and they turn Miss Minutes down.
- You Will Be Spared: Even when facing a Loki that doesn't want her to kill He Who Remains, Sylvie can't bring herself to hurt him. It helps that Loki doesn't want to kill her either; he tries to point out that they both want the TVA gone, but taking this action may make things worse. Instead, she forces him into a portal that returns him to the TVA, knowing the TVA won't kill him. She is right on that count, at least.
