Loki – Season 2 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Episode 3

Episode 3 of Loki Season 2 starts with Renslayer showing up in Chicago, Illinois, way back in 1868. Miss Minutes is here too and she explains that Renslayer needs to post the package she has in her bag through the window. She explains that their variant of Kang may be dead but this is the plan he made when he knew the end was near. In doing this, the boy inside picks up the package and opens it up, to find the TVA handbook.

Back at the TVA, OB explains that the branches Dox initially pruned are actually growing back. As a result, they can’t get in and increase the diameters of Loom’s intake ring. OB tells them they need to scale the Loom’s capacity to manage all those new branches.

Now, Miss Minutes has administrator access to the entire TVA but given she’s gone and is in Chicago in the past, the only one to open it is the person who created it. That way they can scan his live aura. And that man? Only the deceased He Who Remains. It seems like an impossible task.

Mobius and Loki show up in Chicago at 1893, 10 years after the initial time Renslayer and Miss Minutes shows up. They believe this is a pivotal moment in history. They arrive at the World’s Fair but need to figure out what Miss Minutes and Renslayer have planned.

Well, she actually shows up in the local paper, referenced as Ghost Clock. They also find an attraction known as “Temporal Marvels”. This seems to be where they’ll find Renslayer.

As it happens, Renslayer is here (and hasn’t aged a day so I guess they also teleported forward in time?) and she has Miss Minutes in her bag. She’s in the crowd but is unaware of Mobius and Loki lurking about.

They watch as Kang’s variant, that same kid from the start of the episode, is up on stage but much older now. He claims that time is the future of everything and shows off his Temporal Loom. He intends to use this to light up the entire word.

Having seen this machine in action, Mobius is convinced that they need to bring him back to the TVA. Loki is shocked, pointing out that this is a bad idea. Renslayer is also shocked but for a different reason – this man is destined to become Kang in the future.

Renslayer, Loki and Mobius all show up to see “Timely” outside, and wrestle for control of his powers. He’s basically a conman and a trickster, but he shrugs it off as the era not keeping up with the creative prowess of his mind.

As another chase ensues, Sylvie suddenly shows up in this timeline with a sword, intending to kill this variant. Loki tries to hold her off. He explains that if they can’t fix the Loom, with the TVA melting down and in desperate need of someone to fix it, this variant is the only key to stopping it. Sylvie warns that working with him is not going to do any good.

In the wake of this, when Timely ends up out in the middle of this commotion and after being thrown out the Ferris wheel, Miss Minutes shows up and turns gigantic, going on a rampage and forcing the crowd to disperse.

Loki and Mobius decide to leave, while Renslayer and Miss Minutes talk to Timely in private. The y discuss the timeline and, specifically, how Timely actually created the TVA. Renslayer promises to keep him safe, while Miss Minutes  explains that he created her. However, Timely refuses to go anywhere until he picks up his prototype.

Eventually they make it onboard a boat, and Timely discusses how he was given the guidebook as a child but only now, he realizes that it was Renslayer who handed it over. The most important discovery he’s found though is that of the Throughput Multiplier, which could be the key to helping with this Loom. However, that night Miss Minutes and Timely betray Renslayer, dropping her off the boat and leaving her behind in a rowboat.

Victor Timely eventually makes it back to his workshop, but Miss Minutes decides against going to the TVA and decides to lay low for a while. Timely decides to get rid of Minutes for now, just as Renslayer shows up. She decides that she’s now in charge and this partnership is back to being a dictatorship.

Loki and Mobius show not long after and try to convince her to think about her future but she bites back, claiming Renslayer is the only one who’s helping stabilize order here, given all that matters is chaos VS order. So with that established, Sylvie suddenly shows up, blasts the place with a green shockwave of power and confronts Timely with her sword.

Sylvie decides against killing him though, as Timely pleads that he’s not the same man that killed millions. Sylvie is left with Renslayer for now, while Mobius and Loki take Timely back to the TVA.

As for Sylvie, she pushes Renslayer through a portal all the way to the End of Time, where Kang is dead and the place is crumbling apart. Renslayer opens up her TemPad and gets Miss Minutes out, who claims that she has big secrets – even about Renslayer herself – but it’s going to make her angry to learn about them.

The Episode Review

Loki returns with an intriguing episode and this time we see another variant of He Who Remains, coming in the form of Viktor Timely.

Sylvie is still here lurking about but her character is incredibly one-note, basically revolving around wanting to kill Kang…until she decides not to. As for Renslayer, Sylvie decides to send her through to the future, seemingly not thinking to actually take Miss Minutes away, given this rogue AI would have been very useful to have in their possession.

With Kang’s variant back instead, this seems to be trying to loop time around so Loki and the others are the ones who brought Timely into the TVA, who in turns uses the timeline to create it in the first place.

It’s a little messy at times and Sylvie’s role in this is a bit one-note right now but hopefully the episodes ahead will improve on this. We’re now halfway through and still waiting for the threat of Kang to reveal itself properly, given we’re just getting more set-up for the inevitable clash further down the line.