Recap / Loki Episode 5 "Journey into Mystery"

"Will someone please explain to me what the hell is going on?!"

With the Time-Keepers revealed as covers for the true mastermind behind the TVA, Loki finds himself trapped in the Void beyond the Sacred Timeline with multiple variants of himself, while Sylvie interrogates Renslayer for the truth behind the TVA's creation.

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Tropes:

• Achievements in Ignorance: Having spent countless years after faking his preordained death in voluntary isolation away from everyone, it was only when Classic Loki eventually tried to leave his self-imposed exile that the TVA detected him. Without Classic Loki having any knowledge of the TVA at the time, he managed to avoid detection for what must have been at least centuries.
• Actor Allusion:
  • President Loki gets his hand chomped off by Alligator Loki; this is a deliberate reference to Captain Hook, whom Hiddleston voiced in The Pirate Fairy.
  • Mobius makes use of an old pizza delivery vehicle; a regular Easter Egg of Pixar's, for which Owen Wilson voiced Lightning McQueen of the Cars films.
• Advertised Extra: President Loki was heavily featured in the marketing, but has less than 5 minutes of screentime.
• Alliance of Alternates: On the one hand there is Loki joining up with the four Lokis from last episode's stinger, until one defects, but there is also President Loki and his gang, who are made up of Loki variants, one of whom was shown in episode 2 as an example of past Loki variants. The latter group demonstrates that an "alliance" of Lokis is something of a contradiction in terms.
• All There in the Script: Classic Loki, Kid Loki, Boastful Loki, and President Loki are never called that, but are labeled as such in the Captions.
• An Arm and a Leg: Alligator Loki bites President Loki's hand off.
• And I Must Scream:
  • Throg is trapped in a jar buried underground, with Mjolnir inches away from the jar, but Throg is unable to break free from the jar to touch his weapon.
  • Classic Loki mentions turning himself into debris to float around in space before landing on a planet. He never specifies how long that was, but it could have been centuries, if not millennia before he landed.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The reason the other Lokis respect Kid Loki as their leader is that he killed Thor somehow (though it's not established if he did it on purpose or not).
• The Bad Guy Wins: According to Boastful Loki, he conquered the Earth of his timeline after killing the Avengers and claiming all of the Infinity Stones. Of course, the other Lokis don't buy his story.
• The Bait: Loki uses himself as bait to distract Alioth while Sylvie tries to enchant it.
• Bat Deduction: Classic Loki is sure that Alligator Loki is also a variant because he's green.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: How the Minutemen see Sylvie's self-pruning after the brief standoff, not knowing that she was actually sent to the Void.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • Alligator Loki is such a silly concept that even the other Lokis have a hard time with it. However, he is still an alligator, and as such he can move very quickly over short distances and easily bite a person's hand off.
  • Classic Loki looks pretty silly in his costume and could be mistaken for a washed-out has-been. He is probably the most powerful sorcerer among the Lokis, as he was able to fool Thanos with his magic and then had centuries to hone his craft, and now can cast energy blasts, open dimensional portals, and project massive, very realistic illusions. He's also the most mature of the Lokis.
  • Kid Loki seems harmless at first, but he is one of the few Lokis to manage to kill Thor, and his survival skills in the Void are so good that the other Lokis fear and respect him. He has actually managed to get three other Lokis to cooperate with him long-term, though Boastful Loki does betray him during this episode.
• Big Damn Heroes: Mobius shows up in a pizza delivery van to help Sylvie escape from Alioth upon her arrival in the Void.
• Big Damn Hug: When parting with Mobius before facing Alioth the cloud monster, Loki refuses to shake Mobius's hand and instead gives him a long sweeping Man Hug while calling him a friend.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Among the creatures living in the Void are a group of an unusual bird-like species. They have four legs, metallic purple-green feathers, and a floating sphere atop a stump above their necks instead of a head.
• Blank Stare: Loki silently stares in disbelief when Kid Loki says that his Nexus Event was killing his brother Thor.
• Bullying a Dragon: President Loki doesn’t think much of Alligator Loki, whom he threatened along with the other Loki variants. But alligator Loki is still a predator known for having one of the strongest bites in the world, so President Loki learned the hard way it was a bad idea after getting his hand snapped off.
• Call-Back:
  • Back in the very first episode, "Glorious Purpose", Loki threatens Mobius that he's going to burn the TVA to the ground. In this episode, Loki asks Mobius what he will do once he returns to the TVA, and the latter answers, "Burn it to the ground!"
  • Loki's earlier Insistent Terminology explanation about the difference between illusion projection and dupilcation casting explains how he, Classic Loki, Kid Loki and Alligator Loki are able to leave behind solid duplicates of themselves to distract and delay Boastful Loki and President Loki while they make their escape, when usually Loki's illusions are shown to dissipate on touch if there isn't another physical object behind the illusion and he can only project them a set distance away from his own location, both properties of which Classic Loki later demonstrates when he's distracting Ailoth and skillful use of both of them being the reason why he was able to avoid being killed by Thanos in his own universe.
• The Cameo: An uncredited Chris Hemsworth provided the voice of Throg, recording new grunts even though the character appears for only a few seconds.
• Cannibal Clan: Discussed. Kid Loki says that a car driving around usually means cannibalistic marauders, or cannibalistic pirates.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • Loki still can't quite bring himself to confess his feelings for Sylvie. The closest he comes is basically inviting her, after they bring down the TVA, to stick together when deciding where to go from there.
  • Likewise, it's heavily implied that Sylvie returns his feelings, but since by her own admission she has never had friends or anyone at all since being arrested by the TVA, she doesn't seem to know how to say it either.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Renslayer has B-15 in a cell because she has been linked with Sylvie and can provide insight into how she thinks.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: When Classic Loki, Kid Loki, and Alligator Loki decide to help Sylvie and L1130 (the "main" Loki of the show) in their mission to enchant Alioth, they only agree to bring them as far as Alioth itself before leaving so they don't die. Classic Loki, who was the most adamant about not wanting to fight Alioth, ends up coming back and creating a massive illusion of Asgard to distract it long enough for Loki and Sylvie to enchant it, even dying in the process.
• Chekhov's Gun: Right before Sylvie prunes herself, she tucks Ravonna's TemPad into her clothes so it will come to the Void with her. When she and Loki decide to stay behind in the Void to learn who really runs the TVA, she gives the TemPad to Mobius so he can return to the TVA.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Kid Loki is considered to be the leader of the quartet of pruned Lokis that L1130 Loki meets. It turns out that Boastful Loki, though, is not content with this, and betrays the rest of the group to President Loki so he can take over leadership.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • Boastful Loki betrays his friends for the promise of President Loki's army. President Loki betrays him to keep power for himself. His army of Lokis betrays him to take power for themselves, leading to a free-for-all.
  • Sylvie lampshades the general tendency of Lokis to do this when she asks L1130 Loki how she can be sure that he won't betray her. Loki replies that he's betrayed everyone he's ever loved and is well aware of why he did it (with the implication being that it ultimately brought him no satisfaction and didn't give him what he wanted), and that's not who he is anymore. Though Loki himself cannot say it, it's also clear that he could never bring himself to double-cross her because of his feelings for her.
  • Classic Loki repeatedly expresses his contempt for his fellow Lokis' backstabbing ways, having had a very long time to reflect on them while drifting through space.
• Cliffhanger: Loki and Sylvie successfully enchant Alioth, such that it opens up some kind of portal leading to a giant castle where the true founders and leaders of the TVA presumably reside, and walk through the portal while Holding Hands. Mobius uses the TemPad that Sylvie stole from Ravonna to return to the TVA.
• Combination Attack: After Sylvie fails to do it on her own, Sylvie and Loki use their magical powers together to enchant Alioth.
• Continuity Nod:
  • One of President Loki's henchmen is his own variant seen in episode 2.
  • A carton of Roxxcart-branded wine appears.
  • When the Lokis are heading off towards Alioth, we see wrecks of the Dark Aster and a Helicarrier.
  • A giant version of Yellowjacket's helmet from Ant-Man is also lying around in the Void.
  • Red Skull's plane can be seen in the Void.
  • One of the buildings in the Void is the destroyed remains of the Sanctum Sanctorum.
• Cool Sword: Kid Loki gifts Loki with the mythical sword Lævateinn; in Norse Mythology it translates as "wounding wand" — i.e. a magical sword, ideal for the Trickster God.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The crew of the U.S.S. Eldridge find themselves and their vessel dumped wholly onto desolate dry land and confronted with the Eldritch Abomination Alioth bearing down on them. They respond by firing everything they can at the towering creature, which swiftly disintegrates the crew and turns the destroyer into a rusting wreck in mere seconds before moving off.
• Dead Alternate Counterpart:
  • Kid Loki killed Thor on his Earth.
  • Boastful Loki claims to have killed the Avengers of his reality. It's still unknown if this is true or not.
  • For a Living Alternate Counterpart, Classic Loki is what would've happened if Loki survived his encounter with Thanos.
• Dead Hat Shot: All that is left behind of Classic Loki after Alioth devours him is his horned helmet, decayed from exposure.
• Deck of Wild Cards: Since Loki defines himself as a trickster, a liar and a chessmaster, every Loki variant (with the exception of Kid Loki, Classic Loki and the protagonist) think of themselves as the smart one, either believing themselves to be leaders or as a Dragon-in-Chief. When President Loki's group tries taking Kid Loki's hideout, having recruited Boastful Loki as a mole, he then betrays him... only for his own men to turn on him in-turn, devolving into a free-for-all.
• Decon-Recon Switch: In this episode, Alliance of Alternates is deconstructed when how it shows Loki’s alternate selves difficulty with working together, especially with their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder. When Boastful Loki betrays Kid Loki by turning him in to President Loki and his army to remove Kid Loki from his throne, but this in return leads President Loki betraying him so he can take the throne for himself, which in return leads to President Loki’s army betraying him as they want the throne themselves, ultimately leading to free-for-all between the Lokis. But it is also reconstructed at the end of episode with Classic Loki helping Loki and Sylvie by distracting Alioth long enough for them to find The TVA’s true leader, at the cost of his life.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Sylvie prunes herself to reach the Void, and through it to the timeline beyond, where the Time-Keepers may be hiding.
• Draw Aggro: Sylvie needs time to cast her enchantment spell, so Loki taunts Alioth to distract him. When this does not work, Classic Loki summons an entire illusion version of Asgard into existence. This succeeds in distracting Alioth, and the "beast" proceeds to try eating the illusion. Classic Loki maintains his illusion spell long enough for Sylvie and Loki to cast the enchantment spell together.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Classic Loki dies disintegrated by Alioth, but does so after conjuring a gigantic projection of Asgard to distract the abomination, shouting "GLORIOUS PURPOSE!" and laughing in the face of his annihilation.
• Eldritch Abomination: Alioth is a massive cloud of purple smoke that devours matter and energy, serving as a barrier between the Sacred Timeline and the new timeline from which the power behind the TVA is running things.
• Epic Tracking Shot: The episode starts with a continuous tracking shot, first through the TVA and then over the void where all the pruned Variants end up.
• Escalating Brawl: When President Loki's army invades Kid Loki's base, it looks like there will be a brawl between the two factions. Then almost all of the Lokis end up betraying each other, leading to an enormous brawl between all of them.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Hunter D-90, who was previously insensitive towards the scared people in the shelter in "The Variant", looks shocked at Ravonna's callous reaction to Sylvie seemingly committing suicide.
  • Kid Loki is still a minor, so he doesn't drink wine with the other Lokis.
• Evil Sounds Deep: President Loki speaks with a slightly deeper and raspier voice than main Loki, which makes his high-pitched screams after getting his hand bitten off even funnier.
• Face Death with Dignity: Out of power, surrounded, and with no hope of escape, Classic Loki chooses to laugh in the face of death, in his final moments shouting "Glorious purpose!"
• Face, Nod, Action: When Sylvie realizes that they need a distraction, Loki puts a hand on her shoulder, making her turn around and look at him, nods, signalling that he'll take care of it, and then runs away to taunt Alioth with a Flaming Sword.
• Facepalm: Loki massages his brow several times as President Loki and the other Lokis argue about Kid Loki's "throne".
• Facial Dialogue: When Sylvie tells Loki that they need a distraction so she can enchant Alioth, Loki puts a hand on her shoulder and gives her a Meaningful Look. Sylvie shakes her head as if to beg him to not put himself in danger, but Loki gives her a nod as an answer and he runs towards Alioth, using himself as bait.
• Fake Defector: Renslayer claims, with some degree of honesty, that the truth about the Time-Keepers was just as surprising to her and she wants answers. However, she still believes in the TVA, so she tries to stall for time until backup can arrive to help her eliminate Sylvie.
• Faking the Dead: Classic Loki used his illusion magic to fake his death at the hands of Thanos, making a realistic copy of himself while hiding as a piece of debris.
• Fastball Special: When a fight breaks out among the gathered Loki Variants, Classic Loki creates an illusion of Kid Loki throwing Alligator Loki into the brawl. Looks like he still remembers "Get Help!"
• Flaming Sword: Kid Loki gives Loki a sword to help with Alioth. As part of a distraction, Loki ignites the sword to get Alioth's attention.
• Fog of Doom: Alioth is a giant living fog cloud that devours everything that gets sent into the Void.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When trying to brainstorm a way out of the Void, Loki suggests using a TemPad. The other Loki Variants laugh and point out that TemPads don't exactly grow on trees. When Sylvie arrives in the Void, she's carrying Renslayer's TemPad, which Mobius later uses to return to the TVA.
  • Classic Loki explains how blades are a crutch compared to a Loki's magic potential, despite how cool they look. When trying to distract Alioth, Loki unsuccessfully waves a flaming sword, whereas Classic Loki succeeds with a projection of Asgard.
• For Want Of A Nail: Classic Loki resembles his Sacred Timeline counterpart, except for one crucial difference: he faked his death with an illusion, rather than use his last moments to defy Thanos. He admits that it's what a Loki does, and is surprised at the thought that any version of Loki would truly give up a chance to live.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Many of the Mythology Gags seen in the episode are "blink and miss it" moments.
  • The Sphinx in the Void has its nose.
• Friendship Moment: Mobius offers Loki his hand to shake before leaving through a Time Door. Loki considers it but decides to hug Mobius instead, saying "Thank you, my friend."
• Funny Terrain Cross Section: When the Lokis enter the underground bunker, the camera pans through the earth revealing a buried Mjölnir and a glass with Throg inside.
• Gambit Pileup: Boastful Loki, President Loki, and the latter's army all had plans to usurp each other and take over leadership of the various Lokis of the Void, culminating in all of them duking it out with each other.
• Go Out with a Smile: Classic Loki has a manic grin on his face in the final moments before he's devoured by Alioth.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam:
  • Classic Loki had pangs of conscience and loneliness when it sunk in that he was waiting out the war with Thanos, alone. He decided to get off the planet, reunite with Thor, and atone for his actions. The TVA apprehended him before he could do that, and sent him to the Void.
  • It's implied that Kid Loki regretted killing Thor, and that the TVA stopped him before he could try and fix things, and that this has happened any time a Loki Variant has tried to undergo Character Development, all so they can be the villain for Thor and the Avengers.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Classic Loki conjures a massive illusion to distract Alioth, ultimately being surrounded and devoured by the beast.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • As the Lokis approach Alioth, the U.S.S. Eldridge materializes; the ship in question being the one at the center of the "Philadelphia Experiment", a purported incident where the ship supposedly disappeared and reappeared by using a cloaking device.
  • An alternate timeline version of the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx appear in the Void, with the latter having its nose intact.
  • A Polybius cabinet is in the lair of the Lokis: the urban legend of a mind-altering arcade game in the '80s.
  • While the other Lokis drink wine, Kid Loki drinks Hi-C Ecto-Cooler, a product tie-in to The Real Ghostbusters.
  • Classic Loki is listening to "Wonderwall" by the Mike Flowers Pops, a supposed "lost original version" of the Oasis song that was in actuality a very convincing Retraux cover released a few months after the original.
• Holding Hands: Loki and Sylvie at several points, typically emotional or stressful points. They end the episode walking into Alioth's portal hand-in-hand.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Both Boastful and President Loki try making deals with other versions of Loki, only to seem genuinely surprised when they get betrayed as soon as their "allies" get what they want. Loki obviously finds all of it annoying.
• Hypocritical Humor: Boastful Loki betrays Kid Loki, which pisses him off. President Loki betrays Boastful Loki, which pisses him off. His army of Lokis betrays him, which pisses him off.
• I Choose to Stay:
  • Loki gives up the chance to join Mobius in returning to the TVA, because he wants to stay with Sylvie.
  • Kid, Classic, and Alligator choose to stay in the Void because they've made it their home.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Both Mobius and Sylvie tell this each other when they talk about their former antagonism during the car ride:
  Mobius: All that time, I really believed we were the good guys.
  Sylvie: Annihilating entire realities, orphaning little girls, classic hero stuff.
  Mobius: Well, I guess when you think the ends justify the means, there's not much you won't do. By the way, you did some annihilating too.
  Sylvie: I did what I had to do.
  Mobius: Yeah, so did I.
• If We Get Through This…: Loki and Sylvie agree that there is no time for idle conversation when so much is at stake, but Loki tentatively suggests that once it is over they can figure out what to do next together, and Sylvie concurs.
• Insistent Terminology: When Classic Loki refers to President Loki and his army as wolves:
  President Loki: We prefer snakes to wolves.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Loki lays out a plan to slay Alioth while it is distracted with a bigger meal. He reconsiders when Alioth devours an entire destroyer in the time it takes Loki to explain his plan.
• The Little Detecto: Kid Loki has a handheld device that apparently allows him to track when something new is about to arrive in the Void.
• Logical Latecomer: When L1130 Loki comes off as the most reasonable one after his parallel selves betray each other, you know he's taken several levels in Character Development.
• Man Hug: Mobius extends his hand when he and Loki say goodbye right before he returns to the TVA and Loki and Sylvie attempt to enchant Alioth. Loki hesitates for a moment and then decides to hug Mobius instead.
• Match Cut: The golden elevator doors that lead to the Time-Keepers dissolve into the walls of the Time-Keepers's chambers, with the slit of the elevator doors matching the pattern on the walls.
• Mirror Match: A free-for-all rumble featuring every pruned Loki variant. L1130 Loki, Kid Loki, Classic Loki, and Alligator Loki escape through a portal amidst the fight.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The episode's title is taken from the comic book series Journey into Mystery where Loki and the rest of Marvel's Norse mythology characters debuted in the '60s. Journey into Mystery (Gillen), in particular, is a run that helped shaped modern perceptions of the character, including portrayals of Kid Loki and "Ikol".
  • The destroyed Stark Tower in the void has a sign saying "Qeng" on it, which is a reference to the comics where Tony Stark sold the Avengers Tower to Qeng Enterprises, the company of Mr. Gryphon, one of the aliases of Kang the Conqueror.
  • In the Void, buried near the Lokis' bunker there is a Mjölnir and a glass jar marked T365, with Throg inside trying to break out. This refers to Thor Issue #365, where Thor is transformed into a frog but still lifts Mjölnir, becoming the Frog of Thunder. The incident was previously referenced in Thor: Ragnarok.
  • There is also a statute of the Living Tribunal lying around in the void.
  • President Loki is from Vote Loki.
  • The number plate of Mobius's car is "GRN•W1D", which is a reference to Mark Gruenwald, the Marvel artist that Mobius was based on.
  • The oft-memed Thanos-Copter can be seen in the void early on in the episode.
  • Classic Loki's heroic sacrifice is eerily similar to comic Loki's sacrifice in Siege.
  • Classic Loki says that the only role Lokis ever play is "the God of Outcasts", which becomes Loki's title in Loki.
• Naïve Newcomer: L1130 Loki has no idea what is going on in the Void and has to have it explained to him by the other Lokis. When he makes a Rousing Speech about killing Alioth, the other Lokis burst out in laughter at how naive he is.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers seemed to imply that the Loki dressed in a torn suit with a "Vote Loki" button was actually "our" Loki, but it turns out he's another variant (dubbed "President Loki"), and he gets taken out fairly quickly (it's uncertain whether he's dead after the free-for-all with the other Lokis).
• Noodle Incident: Alligator Loki is a Noodle Alligator. He is accepted as a Loki ("He is green, isn't he?") but nobody seems willing (or able) to explain how he came about... and the response to questioning it is very much "just go with it."
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Kid Loki's Nexus Event was killing Thor.
  • Boastful Loki claims that he defeated the Avengers during the Battle of New York, claimed all six Infinity Stones, and conquered Earth in his timeline. The other Lokis don't buy it.
• Older and Wiser: Classic Loki is still undeniably a Loki, but he went through not only the Character Development of the main MCU timeline, but decades (if not centuries) of time to reflect on his life and his actions, and came out much mellower and wiser for it.
• Only Sane Man: Classic Loki evidently has the same reaction as L1130 because he knows they can be better than this.
• Other Me Annoys Me: L1130 ("our" Loki) witnesses quite a few other versions of himself displaying their Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, to an almost farcical degree, and betraying each other in a Gambit Pileup that leads to a giant brawl, and just looks exasperated and annoyed by the whole thing and tries to escape the chaos without joining in the fight, highlighting his Character Development compared to his fellow Variants. Classic Loki, having gone through the same character development, is even more irritated by their backstabbing behavior.
• Place Beyond Time: The Void exists beyond the end of the Sacred Timeline, and can only be reached through pruning, as the TVA's TemPads can only go to points on the Sacred Timeline. Nothing that happens there matters, as it's the equivalent of a waste dump.
• Properly Paranoid: Sylvie finds it a little convenient that Renslayer would just happen to have a spacecraft capable of traversing the Void when the TVA would have no need of such a thing according to their dogma. That Miss Minutes is having trouble finding the file only further drives her suspicions. Naturally, she turns out to be right on the money and Renslayer has actually covertly alerted security.
• Quit Your Whining: Kid Loki tells the protagonist Loki to "stop wailing" after the latter angrily explains how he is feeling after having been pruned and demands answers from the group.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: All the more so awesome since he's technically the youngest Loki in the Void. We find out that, on realizing none of them could escape, he took command of the few Lokis that would listen to reason, to make a home for themselves. When one of them betrays the Kid, he's not even surprised but gets his remaining allies out of dodge. Kid Loki and Classic Loki also take the time to talk down the L1130 variant and remind him not to be rude to Alligator Loki. He agrees to help L1130 Loki and Sylvie find a way out but refuses to risk his life or that of his comrades personally because no-one has found a way out of the Void for eons. With that said, he gives L1130 his short sword, and wishes of best luck.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: B-15 tells Renslayer that she won't get to the power behind the TVA before Sylvie, because the need for revenge that drives Sylvie will push her harder than Renslayer's desire to simply know what that power really is.
• Redemption Equals Death: Classic Loki freely admits that he faked his death and abandoned his brother. The guilt weighed on him after he imposed exile on himself and waited out the war with Thanos, before realizing that he had to return to help Thor. Here, he makes up for his past mistake by sacrificing his life to help several Lokis escape the Void and seek answers, maybe even freedom.
• The Reveal:
  • Pruned Variants and branching timelines are not actually destroyed or reset, but are instead sent to the Void at the end of time to be devoured by an Eldritch Abomination smoke monster called Alioth (which does permanently destroy them). Alioth directly guards access to the real leader and mastermind behind the TVA.
  • It's confirmed that Renslayer is as in the dark about the true leadership of the TVA as everyone else.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: The Loki Army betray President Loki, who betrays Boastful Loki, who betrays Kid Loki.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Mobius states that he's never heard of an alligator variant of Loki, and Classic Loki is sure that he's a variant because he's green. Mobius points out that he could just be a smart alligator pretending to be a Loki to pull a long con, which he immediately concedes is something a Loki would do.
• Rousing Speech: Loki attempts inspiring Classic, Boastful, Kid, and Alligator about killing Alioth, but they just laugh him off.
• Running Gag: Characters lampshading how bewildering it is to see an alligator wearing Loki's helmet, only to get distracted or roll with it.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: President Loki lets out a high-pitched scream when Alligator Loki bites his hand off.
• Screw Destiny: Mobius has come to share the freedom viewpoint with Loki after learning the truth about the TVA. He admits that he doesn't know what he's going to do when he returns there after devoting his life to serving the TVA, but states that it's never too late to change, which ends up inspiring Classic Loki to take this view as well.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • When Boastful, President, and the other Variant Lokis engage in a massive melee with each other, Classic Loki conjures up a portal to get the hell outta Dodge ASAP, with L1130, Kid, and Alligator Lokis quickly joining him.
  • Classic Loki explains that, in his timeline, when Thanos attacked The Statesman, he cast a projection to fake his death and escape Thanos.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Loki and Sylvie are too vehement in denying that they have feelings for each other for it to be believable:
  Sylvie: So… Mobius and his, uhm… theory about…
  Loki: Oh right, right. About our nexus event!
  Sylvie: Total rubbish, right?
  Loki: Absolutely! Of course. I mean…
  Sylvie: I don't mean that it wasn't, you know, a nice moment…
  Loki: No, it was great! It was really ni–, it was, it was great.
  Sylvie: It just… sounds like another TVA lie.
  Loki: A hundred percent. I mean, totally. Yeah.
• Shout-Out:
  • A Polybius machine is standing in the lair of the Lokis.
  • Alioth looks and acts similarly to the Rhino from James and the Giant Peach. Both take the form of living tempests, but the difference here is that Alioth's head appears to be the skull of either a big cat or a bear. A few times, Alioth has a passing resemblance to Dormammu as depicted in Doctor Strange.
  • The score that plays while Classic Loki distracts Alioth with an illusion of Asgard is reminiscent of "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner.
  • One of the Loki variants led by President Loki is a female variant with dyed red hair, a reference to the timeline branching film Run Lola Run.
  • The Void, Alioth, and their purpose are reminiscent of Stephen King's The Langoliers.
  • Loki waving a flaming sword while running away from Alioth closely resembles Ian Malcolm's attempt to distract the T-Rex with a flare in Jurassic Park.
  • A battered pizza-delivery vehicle is a frequent Easter Egg in films from Pixar.
• Sibling Murder: Whether he did it on purpose or not, Kid Loki reveals that his Nexus Event was killing Thor.
• Silly Reason for War: Several Lokis break out into a brawl over who should get Kid Loki's throne. Said throne is just an old mall Santa's chair in an underground bunker in the middle of an apocalyptic wasteland.
• Sincerity Mode: When Sylvie lists all the awful things the TVA did to her, Mobius gently points out that she did her share of awful things too. When Sylvie counters that they hunted her like a dog, Mobius looks like he wants to argue further (perhaps point out that she lured over twenty teams into traps and slaughtered them all), but instead stuns her with a sincere apology.
• Single Tear:
  • Loki sheds a tear when he hugs Mobius prior to the latter departing for the TVA.
  • Classic Loki sheds a tear when he shouts: "Glorious Purpose!" right before he is devoured by Alioth.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Classic Loki serves as Alligator Loki's interpreter.
• Standard Snippet: A triumphant orchestral variation on "Ride of the Valkyries" plays as Classic Loki conjures up an exact replica of Asgard to distract Alioth from Loki and Sylvie.
• Stock Unsolved Mysteries: One of the things ending up in the void is the U.S.S. Eldridge, which allegedly was involved in the "Philadelphia Experiment", a supposed military experiment that is said to have turned the ship invisible.
• Thinking Up Portals: Classic Loki can conjure up portals, which he uses to get himself, Kid, Alligator, and Loki out of the bunker while everyone else brawls.
• This Is as Far as I Go: Classic Loki tells Loki that he and Kid Loki will take him to Alioth, but that they'll stay behind after that.
• The Three Faces of Adam: Three male Loki Variants dynamics follows this pattern: Kid Loki, the youngest of them, is the ambitious Hunter, L1130 (the protagonist) Loki is the Lord, and Classic Loki is the Prophet who is older and wiser.
• Trapped in Another World: Loki and Mobius find themselves in the Void after getting pruned, and Sylvie joins them willingly by pruning herself. Sylvie gives Mobius her TemPad for him to return back to the TVA, while Loki and Sylvie decide to go forward through Alioth, a giant entity that looks like a fog cloud and guards the realm beyond, by enchanting him.
• Twice Shy: Loki and Sylvie agree that Mobius's theory about their nexus event on Lamentis I is totally wrong and ridiculous, even as they struggle to verbalize how much they mean to each other. The scene ends with them cuddling under a blanket, and the conversation leading up to that is awkward.
• Unreliable Expositor: Boastful Loki claims that he defeated all the Avengers and collected all the Infinity Stones, but the other Lokis don't buy his story.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Loki lampshades that the sight of an alligator wearing his crown isn't all that strange, under the circumstances. When told that the alligator is a Loki, he just decides to roll with it.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Discussed between Mobius and Sylvie. When Mobius says he genuinely thought the TVA were the good guys, Sylvie counters that they kidnap Variants, orphan little girls, and destroy whole worlds. Mobius weakly points out that when you think the ends justify the means, there are few lows you won't sink to.
• Void Between the Worlds: Pruned Variants and timelines are dumped in the Void at the end of time, to be devoured by Alioth.
• Wasteland Elder: Kid Loki and President Loki are both this to competing factions of Lokis.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Even trapped in the Void, the Loki variants are unable to cooperate with each other. Kid Loki is given a lot of respect because he managed to get three other Lokis to cooperate with him long-term without constant backstabbing, and that only works till Boastful Loki gets envious and betrays them all. Once the other Lokis have taken over Kid's base, they almost instantly fall out and start fighting each other. When L1130 arrives, Classical and Kid Loki recognize that he is different because he seems not to be interested in scheming for dominance.
• Weirdness Search and Rescue: After Sylvie learns that Loki is still alive in another dimension, she follows him by pruning herself together with the TemPad that would allow her to return back to the TVA. However, Loki refuses to leave her and Mobius is the one who gets her TemPad instead.
• We Need a Distraction: Unable to wait for a branch timeline for Alioth to feed on, Loki decides to distract Alioth while Sylvie tries to enchant it. It ignores him in favor of her, but then Classic Loki conjures up a recreation of Asgard, which succeeds.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see either Martin or Hunter C-20 even though it's implied (at least in the latter's case) that they ended up in the Void. They may well have been killed by Alioth.
• Willfully Weak: Classic Loki feels that every other Loki's reliance on daggers stunts their potential as magicians. He then puts his money where his mouth is by conjuring an illusion of the entire city of Asgard.
• The Worf Barrage: The crew of the U.S.S. Eldridge attempt to fire all the armament on board at Alioth when they find themselves and their ship dumped onto dry land in the Void with the massive creature bearing down on them. Since Alioth is an Eldritch Abomination, however, the brief assault does nothing but attract its attention, getting the crew and most of the ship disintegrated in seconds, before Alioth moves off in search of its next meal.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Classic Loki's backstory of how he got arrested and pruned by the TVA turns out to be an example of this. He avoided their Sacred Timeline counterpart's fate of being murdered by Thanos by using an illusion to fake his death successfully. After Thanos blew up the ship, Classic Loki drifted in space and eventually landed on an isolated planet, living there in solitude for a while. He eventually realized that he was lonely and missed his loved ones, his brother especially, and decided to return to them, but just before he was able to get off the planet to do so, the TVA showed up and apprehended him (presumably because returning to Thor would have drastically altered the timeline), making his survival up until then nearly meaningless.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Classic and Kid Loki are both shown to frustratedly believe this about Lokis in general after Boastful Loki's betrayal, stating that they exist only to betray people that they care about and aren't able to change. Naturally, Loki, who has changed and gone through sincere Character Development, disagrees with this, as does Mobius. The latter's words seem to make Classic Loki, at least, reconsider this stance, leading to his Changed My Mind, Kid moment at the climax of the episode.
• "You!" Exclamation: Sylvie says this when she climbs into the car that comes to her rescue in the Void and sees that Mobius, the man who hunted her her entire life, is the driver. The two later reconcile.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Loki's reaction to his many Variant selves taking turns backstabbing each other one right after the other.
• You Must Be Cold: Loki conjures up a blanket for himself when he and Sylvie sit together in the cold wind; after a moment, he uses his magic to make it cover her as well.

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