New Loki twist reveals the big lie at the heart of the Time Variance Authority
Turns out the TVA don’t know everything after all… **WARNING: SPOILERS**
The third episode of Loki was fairly light on appearances by the Time Variance Authority, with the all-powerful temporal bureaucrats remaining largely in the background as Loki and Sylvie (Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino) battled and bickered on a doomed alien settlement.
However, that relative absence didn’t stop the series from dropping a major twist about the TVA and how it operates, which could change everything about Loki… if not the universe – and Marvel multiverse – itself.
Look away now if you haven’t seen Loki episode three yet, because we’re about to delve into spoilers.
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Early in the episode, the female Loki variant (who prefers to go by “Sylvie” as it turns out) enchants and interrogates Sasha Lane’s Hunter C-20, enjoying a gossip over some frozen margaritas about where to find and kill the Time-Keepers. You know, the usual stuff.
And later, she reveals the reason she was able to do this is because Hunter C-20 once had a life on Earth, hundreds of years before her current state in the TVA. While her memories were oddly foggy her human life and love of cocktails was still there, much to the surprise of Loki.
“That young soldier from the TVA, her mind was messed up,” Sylvie said. “Everything clouded. I had to pull a memory from hundreds of years prior, before she event fought for them.”
“She was just a regular person on Earth,” she adds to an incredulous Loki. “Loved margaritas.”
“I was told that everyone who works for the TVA was created by the Time-Keepers,” replies Hiddleston’s God of Mischief.
“That’s ridiculous. They’re all variants, like us,” Sylvie says.
However, as 'our' Loki informs her, the real truth is even more shocking – because “they don’t know that!”
In other words, it seems like the TVA agents are completely unaware of their own background, snatched from time and brainwashed into doing the Time-Keepers’ bidding. And, now we think about it, there were some hints about this before – why else would Hunter C-20, fresh from her friendly interrogation with Sylvie be babbling about going “home?”
Clearly, she’d realised she did used to have a home to go to before she was an (apparently) immortal Time Cop. And perhaps that resurfaced memory could open a rift at the heart of the TVA, assuming it isn’t just Loki who drops the truth bomb on Mobius (Owen Wilson) and his colleagues.
Frankly, it’s hard to see them believing Loki right off but we’re guessing the truth will out by the end of the series. And who knows? If this does lead to a rebellion of the TVA, it could be what finally allows the Sacred Timeline to fracture, opening the Marvel Universe up to a multiverse… of madness.
Still, for now we’re just wondering who Mobius used to be. Somehow it has to involve jet skis, right?
For more details about the latest instalment, check out our Loki episode three review or our breakdown of the Loki post-credits scene.
Loki episode one is streaming now on Disney Plus – for more information see our Loki release schedule guide. To watch, you can sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now.
Check out more of our Sci-Fi and Fantasy coverage, as well as our guides to the best movies on Disney Plus and best shows on Disney Plus.
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Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
