Warning! This article contains spoilers for Loki season 2. If you're not yet caught up, and don't want to know anything that happens, turn back now!
It was good news and bad news for the God of Mischief in Loki season 2 episode 5. On the plus side, the Temporal Loom explosion didn't quite destroy everything as had been warned, it just reset the members of Team TVA back to their original lives on the Sacred Timeline. The snag, however, was that Mobius, Hunter B-15, and co could no longer remember who Loki was, or anything that happened pre-Loom Boom for that matter.
Everyone but Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) that is, who pushed back on Loki's re-rallying of the troops while encouraging him to admit why he's so hellbent on restoring things back to the way they were. "I want my friends back, I don't want to be alone," the Asgardian eventually confesses, realizing that his actions up until this point haven't been entirely altruistic.
"It's a psychological breakthrough. Right? I think we've probably all had those where you just suddenly go, 'Oh, that's why I do that thing. That's why I'm doing this'. And when he sees it, he can't unsee it," the Marvel series' head writer Eric Martin tells GamesRadar+. "This has been told to him, and now it's there so that's bound to change how he approaches things; we see him go into that room and own up to it, like 'Okay, I've been selfish. I'm sorry, go back and live your lives. This isn't about me.'
"Free will is at the heart of all of this and there's no black and white here. It is just various shades of grey. Who is the one to grant free will? Is it anyone's to grant? You could just let everything be chaotic and wild but if you do that, you're also making a decision that's impacting people.
"But I think what that conversation with Sylvie also does is that we see all of that fall apart," Martin continues. "Loki goes back into that moment and is like, 'Yeah, I care about these people. This is worth saving. I need to save them. I can save them.' Ultimately, that's what opens up his ability to control the time-slipping. So now he has that ability and he's going to try to save his people." (In the comics, Loki often uses magic to teleport, so this new development might bring the MCU version closer to the one on the page. On the big screen, he's only been able to teleport using aids, like the Tesseract, so far).
Whether or not his pals really want to be saved remains to be seen, and something that the show's upcoming finale is likely to address. Characters like O.B. (Ke Huy Quan) and Casey (Eugene Cordero) aren't exactly living it up on the Sacred Timeline; one, a struggling sci-fi writer and the other, an Alcatraz inmate. But Mobius (Owen Wilson), now a father and Jetski salesman named Don, seems content, as does Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), who is actually a pediatric nurse called Verity Willis.
In the Marvel Comics, Verity is one of Loki's greatest allies, and one of the main reasons he went on to adopt the new mantle of 'God of Stories', a title the MCU Loki appears to be on the path toward himself.
"It's fun to lace those little crumbs throughout, those little Easter eggs from the comic books," says Martin. "Whenever we get an opportunity to do that, and obviously, with the timeline and some of our characters, that's exactly where you can do that. You know, I don't know where that'll go. But I love Wunmi and I love B-15. I think she's like the heart of the TVA, so hopefully she does continue to exist in the MCU as a character. That would be cool."
Martin hopes to still be collaborating with Marvel in a near future where that plays out, though he's got his eye on a different franchise within the franchise – though he could have some stiff competition. "I think everybody's probably chasing after X-Men because I think that's where the richest characters are," he laughs. "But I mean, who knows? That's a decision for someone who's not me."
"As long as Marvel is happy, of course, I'd love to [work on more MCU projects]. I mean, Marvel has changed my life by trusting me to write this season. It was a lot of responsibility, and I hope I've earned that trust," he adds. "I think, for me, it all comes down to the characters. Do we have deep, interesting characters to work on? That's what gets me out of bed in the morning. Can I tell a deeply emotional, character-driven story with these people, and on this huge canvas?
"Marvel has got such an incredible reach and that's the gift with these [titles]. There are so many different characters that I think can do that, I don't know, It could be a number of them."
Loki season 2 is streaming now on Disney Plus. Ensure you don't miss an episode with our Loki season 2 release schedule guide. For more on the show, check out our deep-dives on:
- When does Loki season 2 take place on the Marvel timeline?
- Loki season 1 recap
- How to watch the Marvel movies in order
- Marvel Phase 5
- Upcoming Marvel movies and shows
- Victor Timely comic book history explained
- He Who Remains comic book history explained
- The Time Variance Authority comic book history explained
- Mobius comic book history explained
- Sylvie comic book history explained
- Loki season 2 episode 1 post-credits scene explained
- What is time-slipping?
- All the differences between comic book Loki and show Loki
- Loki season 2 episode 1 recap and Easter eggs
- Loki season 2 episode 2 recap and Easter eggs
- Loki season 2 episode 3 recap and Easter eggs
- Loki season 2 episode 4 recap and Easter eggs
- What’s Sylvie holding at the end of episode 2?
- Brad Wolfe isn't the Zaniac fans know from the comics
- What is the Zaniac in Marvel Comics?
