Recap / Loki Episode 9: "1893"

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"All that matters is order vs. chaos. I'm order."

Renslayer, on Miss Minute's orders, leaves a copy of the TVA Guidebook on the windowsill of an inventive young boy in Chicago, 1868. Loki and Mobius then track her down to the same city in 1893, where they come across that young boy, who is none other than a variant of He Who Remains.

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Tropes:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Miss Minutes is revealed to be this for He Who Remains and she projects that onto his variant Victor Timely.
• Affectionate Nickname: Mobius calls Ravonna "Von" when he tries to talk her out of pruning Victor.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Miss Minutes started her existence as a chess-playing program to help He Who Remains pass the time before he upgraded her and gave her the ability to reprogram herself. Now she's a Green-Eyed Monster Stalker with a Crush who is seriously creepy toward Victor.
• Air Quotes: Miss Minutes mimics quotation marks with her fingers when she recounts how He Who Remains never created a body for her despite his "abilities".
• All for Nothing: Despite the widespread destruction Dox's faction caused in the previous episode, the timeline has already begun branching out again. Without constant maintenance, there's no point to pruning branches because new ones sprout up just as fast.
• All Part of the Show: Loki gets rid of a bully trying to pick a fight by teleporting him away, in the middle of a crowded room at the World Fair. Mobius quickly covers this by making everybody think he's a Stage Magician, shouting "The Amazing Loki, ladies and gentlemen! He'll be here all week."
• Anguished Declaration of Love: As she starts to lose her temper with Victor, Miss Minutes begins laying it on thicker and thicker that she's in love with him by proxy of being in love with He Who Remains, and her last words before being sealed away are "I love you", being cut off after "I". She only gets the last two words in after Renslayer releases her.
• Artistic License – Geography: Renslayer and Victor Timely ride a ferry from Chicago to Wisconsin, but the cityscape in the background shows the boat heading south.
• Art Shift: Miss Minutes changes her appearance to an older, sepia-tone clock to "fit in".
• As You Know: In the beginning of the episode, Mobius is explaining to Loki (and the audience) that they are in Chicago 1868/1893 because they want to find Ravonna, and the last time she used her TemPad she went there. Loki already knows this.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Loki and Mobius once again put on some nice formal wear while chasing a lead that can help them in another timeline. In this case though, they have to put on some period-appropriate suits to attend the 1893 Chicago World Fair, complete with a bowler and top hat for each respective protagonist.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Sylvie notes that Renslayer wants to be close to power, namely having a seat at the end of time. "Be careful what you wish for," she warns, then kicks her through a time door to the decaying citadel, where He Who Remains is still rotting in his chair.
• Become a Real Boy: It's revealed that Miss Minutes desperately wants a physical body so she and Timely (or rather, He Who Remains) can become lovers.
• Beyond Redemption: Mobius tries to convince Ravonna twice that she's lost her way and should help them instead of being a Broken-System Dogmatist, to no avail. And that is after he did the same in season 1 finale. Ravonna says that there is no "them" anymore, and Mobius's words don't mean a thing to her. When Ravonna is at Sylvie's mercy, she looks pleadingly at Mobius, but he's finally given up on her and just walks through the time door, leaving her to her fate.
• Breather Episode: The previous episode was quite serious in tone, and ended on a very somber note. While this episode isn't without its dramatic moments, it has a much more lighthearted mood in comparison (particularly during the action sequences, which are accompanied by jaunty, period-appropriate music).
• Brick Joke: Renslayer is insistent on keeping Miss Minutes hidden, after she's been spotted and mistaken for a ghost a few times. At the climax of the episode, Miss Minutes is forced to lean into it and act like a huge ghost to provide a distraction.
• Chekhov's Gun: While Loki and Mobius are scouting the area, a cage with pigs is being pulled past them. Loki later traps a man who was trying to provoke him in that same cage.
• Chewing the Scenery: Victor Timely, who normally stammers his way through his sentences, starts really getting into it when doing his demonstration.
• Child Prodigy: It's shown during Renslayer and Miss Minutes's time in 1868 that Timely was an inventive genius from childhood.
• Cliffhanger: Sylvie banishes Ravonna (and Ms. Minutes) to the End of Time, where Minutes tells Ravonna that she knows a "pretty big" secret about her.
  Ms. Minutes: I could tell you, but…
  Ravonna: But what?
  Ms. Minutes: It's gonna make you real angry.
  [Cut to credits]
• Clingy Jealous Girl: More like Clingy Jealous Clock, but Miss Minutes is clearly unhappy about having to share Timely's attention with Renslayer, and takes the first opportunity she can get to split Renslayer off from him. She ultimately wants He Who Remains to herself, and wants a body to that end.
• Comically Missing the Point: Renslayer points out that Miss Minutes stands out like a sore thumb in 1800s Chicago. Miss Minutes then changes herself to a sepia color, despite still being a cartoon anthropomorphic clock.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The first scene with Victor Timely is an expanded version of The Stinger of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
  • When trying to protect Victor from Sylvie, Loki shouts "I've never met this man before in my life!", much like his Sacred Timeline self did in Thor: Ragnarok when claiming he and Thor aren't brothers to the Grandmaster. Here though, Loki is completely serious about not knowing who Victor is.
  • Miss Minutes and Renslayer both are sure to lay on the charm and compliments whenever they try to manipulate Victor to their side. In the Season 1 finale, He Who Remains admitted that one of the most common traits shared by his variants was a massive case of narcissism; while Victor is seemingly not as malevolent as his other variants, the ladies' sweet-talking still works all the same for the most part.
• Contrived Coincidence: Loki and Mobius just so happen to come across a newspaper boy with an article on Miss Minutes when they enter the Fair.
• Creator Cameo: Composer Natalie Holt has a cameo as one of the musicians playing before Victor's presentation.
• Crush Blush: Played with. Miss Minutes blushes when she confesses her love to Victor, then the blush spreads and restores her normal orange coloration.
• Dead Guy on Display: Sylvie never bothered to get rid of He Who Remains' corpse, leaving him in the chair she killed him in at the Citadel of Time. By the time Ravonna and Miss Minutes find him, it's heavily rotted and decaying.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The band that plays shortly before Victor's presentation is performing an 1800s marching band version of the Loki Green Theme from Season 1.
• Dirty Coward: The robber baron that got swindled by Timely is ready to duke it out with Loki and Mobius when it seems they'll get in the way of his revenge. One magical blast from Loki later, and he immediately admits defeat to the "ratbags" he yelled at a few seconds ago.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Central Theme of the episode. Mobius immediately recognizes that Victor is his own person. Loki, Sylvie, Renslayer and Miss Minutes initially see Timely as He Who Remains because they assume all His variants are the same. Loki is scared of him, Sylvie wants to kill him, Renslayer wants to rule alongside him, and Miss Minutes wants to be his girl. One by one, they realize that Victor isn't He Who Remains and should not be treated as such — Loki is convinced by Mobius on the spot, Sylvie and Ravonna come to the same conclusion at the end of the episode.
• Dramatic Irony: While Loki and Mobius are in 1868 Chicago, they believe that it is of little importance because no key event happened during this time, not knowing that Miss Minutes and Renslayer gave a young Victor Timely, a variant of He Who Remains, a TVA handbook, and that they're standing directly beside his bedroom window.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Renslayer feels her eons of work in maintaining order at the TVA was a thankless job, and that is what's driving her to seek recognition through helping He Who Remains.
• Evil Sounds Deep: When Ravonna catches up to Victor Timely after he dumped her and threatens him, her voice goes very low to show that she stopped pretending to be nice and her intentions are far from benevolent. When Sylvie shows up and confronts her, Ravonna sounds deeper than her.
• Exact Words: A man tells Loki to take their fight outside. Loki agrees and poofs the larger man outside.
• Fate Worse than Death: Sylvie banishes Renslayer to the end of time, dropping her in front of He Who Remains' corpse in the decaying Citadel of Time. She failed to account for Renslayer still having a TemPad on her, however, so it's likely not a permanent relocation.
• Fling a Light into the Future: Or the past. Or sideways. Whatever. He Who Remains had a plan for what would happen after his death and tasked Miss Minutes and Renslayer with carrying it out. The first step, at the least, involved giving Victor Timely access to the TVA Manual.
• Flirty Voice Ploy: When Ravonna tries to get into Victor's good graces and is flirting with him, she speaks in a higher and softer voice than usual. She keeps giggling and praising him. After he dumps her and she stops all pretense, her voice becomes much lower.
• Foreshadowing: During his presentation of "Temporal Marvels", Victor talks about the difference between science and fiction, and the stage behind the Loom prototype is decorated with an image of big trees.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the newspaper that Mobius buys, there is an ad for room bookings placed by H. H. Holmes.
• Gaslighting: Renslayer as ever. When Mobius confronts her over her actions, she spends most of the argument gaslighting him for his actions that were largely taken in self-defense against what she had done to him.
• The Gay '90s: This episode takes place almost entirely in 1893, with Loki and Mobius going undercover to find Ravonna Renslayer and Miss Minutes. They end up getting side-tracked when they end up finding Victor Timely, a man native to the era trying to make a name of himself with his inventions that seem suspiciously advanced for his time...
• Get It Over With: When Ravonna is alone with Sylvie, she asks her to go ahead and kill her if that's what she's going to do.
• Gilligan Cut: When Victor and Ravonna escape, Mobius tells Loki to get on the back of a tandem bike so that they can pursue them, which Loki refuses. The next time we see Loki and Mobius, they arrive on the tandem bike.
• Giving Radio to the Romans: Miss Minutes directs Renslayer to give Timely a TVA manual, allowing him to (poorly) reproduce 32nd century technology before the 19th century has ended.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Lampshaded by Ravonna, when she tells Victor he can't trust Loki even though Loki was protecting him because Loki killed the other version of him.
  Ravonna: He switches sides. It's a well-documented behavioral trait.
• Hunting the Rogue: Loki and Mobius are in Chicago to find Ravonna Renslayer, a former judge and Miss Minutes, a sentient AI who both worked for the TVA and then went AWOL.
• Hypocrite: When left to Sylvie's mercy, Renslayer acknowledges she's been wanting to kill her for a long time, but asks her to kill her quickly; even though she has countless victims she's had pruned to the End of Time who were Put on a Bus to Hell and likely didn't get the mercy of a quick death if Alioth didn't gobble them up immediately.
• Implausible Deniability: Mobius unconvincingly claims that taking a detour to the concessions stand is part of his investigative method and the delicious snacks are just a bonus.
• Internal Reveal: Miss Minutes tells Renslayer that Loki and Sylvie killed He Who Remains.
• Iris Out: After Mobius and Loki see the article on Miss Minutes in a newspaper, the screen closes in around them before transitioning to the next scene.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The robber baron after Timely initially tells Loki and Mobius that Timely is his. Loki then displays his magic and said baron is quick to give up.
• Laugh of Love: Ravonna Renslayer is uncharacteristically giggly around Victor because she pretends that she is falling for him. Once her mask drops at the end of the episode, so does this newly acquired habit.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of Loki's problems with the presentation of the Asgardians at the World Fair is the inclusion of Balder the Brave, since "No-one's even heard of him." Up until this moment, Balder had never been alluded to, despite being a major Asgardian/Aesir in the comics and original myths.
• Leave Him to Me!: Sylvie spares Timely for Loki's sake, telling him not to make her regret it, then insists on dealing with Renslayer personally.
• Literal-Minded: Leads to O.B. making himself false hopes when the team tries to think of a solution for the Temporal Loom problem.
  Mobius: We can hack into the system.
  O.B.: Really? Oh, that is such a relief.
  Mobius: No, no, no. I'm wondering.
  O.B.: What?
  Loki: I think he meant it as an idea.
• Logo Joke: The Marvel Studios logo music is rearranged as a ragtime song, fitting for the episode's setting, 1890s America.
• Mind over Matter: Sylvie uses telekinesis to suspend Victor in the air while she and Loki are arguing over him in the Ferris wheel cabin. Loki then uses telekinesis himself to let Victor down, and again a bit later to move him out of the way when Sylvie attacks.
• Missed Him by That Much: When Loki and Mobius arrive in 1868, they assume they're in the wrong place and walk straight past young Victor's window on their way to the time door.
• Mistaken for Servant: Victor Timely is under the impression that Mobius is Loki's butler.
• Moment Killer: Miss Minutes interrupts whenever Ravonna and Victor start to have a moment.
• Motive Rant: In Timely's lab, Renslayer rants to Loki and Mobius how she sees herself as the order in Order Versus Chaos in the TVA.
• Mythology Gag:
  • At the Chicago World Fair, Loki and Mobius come across three statues of Odin, Thor, and Balder the Brave. Loki is especially annoyed with the latter's inclusion, complaining that "no-one's even heard of him".
  • Victor Timely making incredible inventions that please the townsfolk during a historical time in America is similar to what his comic self did in the source material. Though in that case, Timely was able to found an entire small town in early 20th century Wisconsin, while here he's still barely able to make ends meet in 1800s Chicago.
  • Relatedly, while Victor might not have been able to build his own community in Wisconsin, his lab is still located in that state, with Chicago only being a temporary workplace for him.
  • Renslayer's brief romantic interest in Victor is a reference to her relationship with Kang in the comics.
  • Ravonna finds the decayed corpse of He Who Remains, still in the chair he died in, just as Kang found Immortus's (possible) corpse in his citadel in the comics, right down to both corpses having the same pose.
• Oh, Crap!: Victor, when Loki and Sylvie argue about what to do with him:
  Loki: Maybe you're right. Maybe we should throw him off this Ferris wheel.
• Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: A variation. Ravonna and Victor enjoy the view, praise and flirt with each other as they cross the lake in a boat, with Ravonna wearing a period dress and posing as a Proper Lady. But the boat is actually one of safety vessels attached to a much larger ship and does not move on its on. And when Ravonna falls asleep, Victor cuts the ropes and leaves Ravonna in her boat behind because he does not want to do partners.
• Order Versus Chaos: Ravonna angrily states that she has been trying to make sure that order prevails over chaos her entire life, thanklessly.
• Point of Divergence: When Ravonna first arrives at Timely's house, it's part of the Sacred Timeline. Her delivering the TVA guidebook causes the timeline to split, so when Loki and Mobius go looking for the adult Timely, they arrive in a branch.
• Politically Correct History: In 1893, America was in the midst of what is considered to be the Nadir of Race Relations, but here, the most we get from period-appropriate racism comes from one unnamed robber baron who calls Timely "boy".
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The robber baron is shown to be racist, derogatorily calling the black Victor Timely "boy" and only mildly changing his tone when he sees financial potential in the Loom.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Despite anti-black racism being much more common in the episode's time period than today, the Real Life 1893 Chicago World Fair had a designated "Colored American Day", and there was in fact a young black man doing a Real Life presentation there — George Washington Carver. If Kang variants are all geniuses, Victor Timely would have been in a situation similar to Carver's, making the premise of this episode much more plausible than many viewers would believe.
• Remember the New Guy?: Despite having never appeared even before Hela's reign of terror and Surtur's destruction of Asgard, it's revealed that Balder the Brave does indeed exist in the MCU and that Loki is familiar with him. Loki even lampshades it by pointing out that no-one's even heard of Balder.
• Revenge Before Reason: Sylvie shows up to kill Timely, just as she promised Loki she would do to any He Who Remains variants that popped up. She ultimately chooses to spare him so Loki can try his plan.
• Shout-Out: Miss Minutes is revealed to have originated as a chess program that eventually evolved into a fully sentient A.I. and now also possesses extreme ambitions. All this is just like the MCP from Disney's TRON.
• Snake Oil Salesman: Timely uses his expertise to sell inventions based on dramatic demonstrations and bold claims, but they never work the way he claims. He defends himself by claiming that the principles behind his inventions are sound, but the technology to properly implement them doesn't exist yet.
• Special Edition Title: A honky-tonk piano version of the Marvel Studios fanfare.
• Stable Time Loop: Though not perfectly stable, He Who Remains' final gambit was to get Miss Minutes and Renslayer to deliver the TVA Guidebook to a young variant of himself, kickstarting the events that led to his rule and Ouroboros authoring the guide he now holds based on the technology He Who Remains pioneered.
• Taking the Fight Outside: A man that Loki accidentally bumps into tries to pick a fight with him, telling Loki to meet him outside. Loki then agrees and teleports the man outside into a cage with some pigs.
• The Theme Park Version: Loki dismisses the diorama of the Asgardians at the Chicago World's Fair as "a crass generalization" of a complex culture.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Miss Minutes is this to both Ravonna and Timely, manipulating the former into ensuring her future boss gets set on his path towards creating the TVA and convincing the latter to abandon Ravonna so she can keep him for herself.
• Tuckerization: The ship that Renslayer, Timely and Miss Minutes get on to evade Loki, Mobius and Sylvie is named the SS Herron — a shout-out to Season 1 director Kate Herron.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: While Loki and Sylvie work out their differences inside a Ferris Wheel cabin, with mild shouting and hitting each other involved, Mobius and Ravonna stand outside and calmly discuss their falling out. The two scenes keep replacing each other, and some words of both men and both women could be very well said by their counterparts from the other pair. Both conversations end simultaneously when Loki and Sylvie break the cabin doors, with the same result — no-one found common ground.
• Un-Paused: Miss Minutes is in the middle of declaring "I love you!" when Timely freaks out and deactivates her. When Renslayer reactivates her at the citadel, she finishes the line before realizing where she is.
• Vertigo Effect: There is a dolly zoom on Victor's face when the light is turned on during his presentation.
• Woman Scorned: Miss Minutes quickly grows angry with Renslayer's budding bond with Timely and goes off on a rant about her desire to be his lover in a real body. Renslayer lampshades it when she busts into his hideout, asking if he had lady trouble, before she goes off on him out of rage from being abandoned.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Loki's reaction when he sees the Norse Mythology diorama.
  Loki: This has to be a joke.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Miss Minutes talks Timely into ditching Renslayer on a life raft as they sail to his lab, wanting Timely to herself now that Renslayer has set him on the path.

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