The following contains spoilers for episode 4 of Loki, “The Nexus Event.”
The fourth episode ofLokistarts to really peel back the layers of the Time Variance Authority afterSylvie’s bomb drop last week. While Loki and Sylvie are held and interrogated, members of the TVA start to wonder if Sylvie and Loki are telling the truth. Even Mobius, who is ready to declareLoki one of his friends, comes to believe Loki and Sylvie.
While members of the TVA like Mobius and B-15 start to come around, however,Ravonna Renslayer attemptsto put a stop to anyone uncovering the TVA’s secrets. Amongst all of the action and conflict are plenty of references to past Marvel Cinematic Universe properties and Easter eggs forLokifans.
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Sylvie’s Toys
The episode opens with a return to Asgard, thoughit’s not the usual Loki. Instead, the audience gets a look at the young Sylvie as she plays with toys. Those toys will be familiar to fans of the trilogy ofThormovies. While Sylvie names a Valkyrie as she makes a winged horse swoop against a dragon, there’s also a large toy wolf on the floor. That’s a nod to Fenris, whom the audience saw at Hela’s side inThor: Ragnarok. The same movie introduced Valkyrie as well.
Lady Sif
Lady Sif hasn’t appeared in the MCU since her guest spot onAgents Of SHIELDin 2015. Her fate inThor: RagnarokandAvengers: Endgameis unknown.Lokigives the audience a look at a past version of Sif as Loki relives a moment with her in a time loop of a prison used by the TVA.
Lady Sif isn’t an Easter egg herself. Instead, it’s the event the time loop recreates that is. The time loop sees Loki being reminded of a prank he pulled on Sif which resulted in him cutting off a chunk of her hair. That particular prank is inspired by a story from Norse mythology in which Sif is married to Thor. Her immense pride in her hair is cut down by the god of mischief.
Morag
Asmembers of the TVAmonitor potential branched timelines, eagle-eyed fans will notice they’re actually monitoring a particular location when the timeline begins to branch. That location is Morag.
Morag appears in the firstGuardians Of The Galaxymovie. It’s the planet where Peter Quill dances his way to the ruins housing an Infinity Stone. It’s not clear what the Nexus Event is that takes place there just yet - or when.
Time Theater 47
Like all of the episodes ofLokiso far, the audience can see a lot of numbers on the walls. It’s likely that not all of them are significant, but the frequency with which the audience sees the label for Time Theater 47 makes the number seem pretty important.
There are a lot of #47 issues in the catalog of Marvel comics, but one that nods to Loki isin theWhat If…series.The series, which is getting its own Disney Plus adaptation as well, gives Marvel fans a taste of what would happen if one piece of a well-known story changed. In this case, it’s what the universe would be like if Loki wielded the hammer instead of Thor. That idea is even echoed in the episode’s mid-credit scene.
Kree, Titans, And Vampires
The audience has mostly seen, as far as they can tell, regular humans in the TVA. There’s been a Skrull in the officein the first episode, and of course, the Loki variants, but this line actually tells the audience some of the powerful variants the TVA has taken on in the past.
Kree aren’t surprising since the alien race has been prominent in the MCU corners in space - even inAgents Of SHIELD. Titans are the race of beings Thanos belonged to. Vampires, however, haven’t actually been seen in the MCU yet. A joke was made about the beings by Korag inThor: Ragnarok, but they likely won’t appear in the fleshuntil Blade makes its way to the screen. Listing vampires amongst their variants is a nice reminder that the movie is on its way.
The Wizard Of Oz
The idea of the Time Keepers being hidden away where the people following them can’t see them has garnered a lot of comparisons tothe wizard inWizard Of Oz. That comparison becomes even more apt in this episode.
Not only are the Timekeepers Loki and Sylvie are taken to revealed to be less powerful than believed, but they get there along a yellow path. The halls that Ravonna leads the two through to get to the Time Keepers might as well be the TVA’s version of the yellow brick road.
Sam Wilson’s Big Three
InThe Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson has a theory about the adversaries the Avengers face on a regular basis. They include a “big three” of androids, aliens, and wizards. With the reveal of the Time Keepers as “androids” according to Sylvie, it looks like he’s not wrong. Of course, it also opens up the question of just whether or not the audience will see the real Time Keepers, or if those androids have been a ruse all along.
Loki Gets Pruned
Fans wondering exactly what happens to variants who get “pruned” from the sacred timeline now have the start of an answer. Ravonna manages to stab him from behind (in a nice nod to just how he killed Phil Coulson inThe Avengers) whilehe’s speaking with Sylvie.
The audience gets to see that pruning doesn’t mean immediate death. Instead, it looks like Loki is a new place, potentially a new dimension. He’s also found by a handful of his own variants. Amongst those are an older Loki styled based on the 1960s comic book appearance. There’s also Kid Loki, who appeared in comics in the 2010sand joined the Young Avengers.A crocodile version of Loki and a Loki credited as “Boastful Loki” round out the group. The latter has a hammer, not unlike the Loki of theWhat If…story referenced earlier.
Avengers Tower
Fans should pay close attention to the new world in which Loki finds himself. In the background is a crumbling version of Avengers tower. The landscape looks like a post-apocalyptic world, and it’s possible there’s plenty of other Easter eggs there.
Thefinal episodes ofLokiwill be available to stream on Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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