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Loki Episode 2.06: Glorious Purpose

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"Glorious Purpose" is the sixth and final episode of season two of Loki.

Loki learns the true nature of 'glorious purpose' as he rectifies his past in this gripping finale.

Plot[]

Loki time slipped into the body of his past self in the Temporal Loom control room as Victor Timely went to launch the Throughput Multiplier. Once again, Victor was spaghettified almost instantly as he headed for the launcher. As Mobius, Hunter B-15, Casey and Sylvie panicked and the Temporal Loom melted down, Loki asked O.B. what they could've done differently. O.B. admitted that it was a good question, and they took too long. As the Temporal Loom exploded, Loki declared that he'd do it again, but faster.

Traveling back in time repeatedly, Loki attempted to speed up the process of launching the Throughput Multiplier at the Temporal Loom. When that failed, Loki attempted to enlist the help of Miss Minutes to finish the Throughput Multiplier faster while Miss Minutes, Renslayer and Brad were holding Victor captive. Loki acknowledged that she was hurt and angry, but they needed her help to get the device done faster. Miss Minutes appeared rather shocked, but it was left unclear if she helped or not. However, Loki's efforts kept failing with Victor spaghettifying before he could launch the device, although Loki eventually managed to make it fast enough that Victor got a short way down the gangway rather than instantly spaghettifying.

Taking a different approach, Loki traveled back in time to when Victor first arrived at the TVA and sped up his introduction to O.B. Loki gave everyone the presentation that O.B. and Casey had given the first time about how their plan to use the Throughput Multiplier on the Temporal Loom would work and revealed that combining Victor's prototype device would make it work. However, it would take time for O.B. to adapt the Throughput Multiplier to work with Victor's device. Loki asked how long it would take for him to learn everything that O.B. knew about mechanics, physics and engineering, but O.B. and Victor admitted that even though Loki was a god and a fast learner, it would take centuries.

After spending centuries learning everything that he would need to know from O.B., Loki led everyone into the control room and took charge, confusing Loki's friends with his suddenly advanced engineering skills. Using Victor's Temporal Aura, Loki was able to unlock the blast doors and he quickly gave Victor directions on how to launch the Throughput Multiplier, ordering Victor tape his suit's right thumb, left knee and faceplate to avoid the temporal radiation peeling his skin right off and to avoid putting the device down on the gangway or it would roll off. Loki gave further instructions to the confused O.B. and Casey, causing Mobius to joke that Loki was coming for O.B.'s job. This time, Victor set out early enough to make it down the gangway, successfully launch the Throughput Multiplier and make it back alive, albeit with some difficulty.

As everyone celebrated, the Temporal Loom's rings began widening and O.B. and Casey discovered that it was working: the Temporal Loom was integrating and weaving the new branches together and stabilizing. However, moments later, the Temporal Loom started overloading again. While they had succeeded in increasing the throughput, there were just too many branches for the Temporal Loom to handle. Victor realized that the branches of time were duplicating and expanding at an infinite rate. The Temporal Loom would never be able to accommodate for an infinitely growing Multiverse meaning that no matter how much they increased the throughput, it would never be enough. The Temporal Loom would always fail, and the new timelines would always die. Sylvie realized that it was almost as if as soon as the timelines started branching, this was doomed to happen. The Temporal Loom exploded again, and Victor apologized as everyone watched the blast wave coming towards them.

Loki time slipped back to the Citadel at the End of Time as Sylvie attempted to kill He Who Remains and tried to stop Sylvie from killing him as everything would end if Sylvie did. However, Sylvie accused Loki of being seduced by a throne and warned him that Loki would have to kill Sylvie in order to stop her. Loki repeatedly tried and failed to stop Sylvie from killing an amused He Who Remains who simply watched the fight each time.

Finally, Loki asked why He Who Remains never tried to do anything to stop Sylvie. Much to Loki's surprise, He Who Remains paused time around them using his TemPad. He Who Remains asked how many times Loki had been at this and was amused that Loki hadn't figured out how to pause time yet, having figured that Loki would be way past that. He Who Remains made Sylvie disappear and revealed that he not only knew about the time slipping, but he had paved that road for Loki too, just like He Who Remains had paved the road that had led Loki and Sylvie to meet him in the first place. He Who Remains asked if Loki had really thought that he was just going to sit back and let Sylvie kill him before bringing Sylvie back and telling Loki to go through this a couple of thousand more times and then come back to have a conversation. Freezing time himself, Loki asked why He Who Remains thought that this was the first time that they'd had this conversation.

Impressed, He Who Remains called Loki his favorite and sent Sylvie away again. He Who Remains revealed that he was aware of both Victor Timely and the problems with the Temporal Loom. He Who Remains explained that the Temporal Loom was a failsafe intended to delete all of the branches except for the Sacred Timeline when it was overloaded and his variants were already out there. Loki insisted that he'd find and stop them, but He Who Remains stated that there were too many. Even though Loki would try, the outcome to this equation would remain the same: Loki would lose which Loki acknowledged. After a moment, Loki declared that he would change the equation and break the Loom, but He Who Remains reminded Loki that the Loom prevented a brutal war where nothing survived, not even the Sacred Timeline. The Sacred Timeline could only survive with He Who Remains keeping watch at the End of Time and he asked Loki if Loki could see what he was offering was mercy. After a moment, Loki decided once again to find another way, and He Who Remains summoned Sylvie back to kill him and repeat the cycle. He Who Remains challenged Loki to make the hard choice of either breaking the Temporal Loom and causing a war that would kill them all, or killing Sylvie so that they could protect what they could.

Loki time slipped into his past self during Loki's interview by Mobius when he had first arrived at the TVA. Loki recalled how the interview was supposed to go, and asked for his friend's help with figuring out how you choose who lives and who dies. However, Mobius stated that they pruned, not killed, and the Time Keepers had that responsibility. Loki dismissed the dogma and pointed out that it was actually the TVA who was doing it, but Mobius told him that they did it because it was the proper flow of time and there was no comfort to it or at the TVA. Mobius told Loki the story of a couple of Hunters who went after a variant near the Black Sea who was going to cause 5,000 deaths that were not a part of the proper flow of time. The variant turned out to be an eight-year-old boy who was just minding his own business, swimming with his brother and jumping off of the dock. One of the Hunters who had never had trouble pruning before hesitated for the very first time. As a result, the timeline started to branch, more variants appeared, and it happened so fast that the Hunter's partner had to step in and prune the kid. However, the cat was already out of the bag by then and a couple of Hunters died because that one Hunter lost sight of the big picture which had to be kept in mind. Most purpose was more burden than glory, but you never wanted to be the guy who avoided it because it was impossible to live with the burden. Realizing that the story was about Mobius himself, Loki asked how he lived with it, but Mobius called it scar tissue. Mobius' partner that pruned the boy when he couldn't was Ravonna Renslayer who knew the impossible thing to do was the thing that had to be done. There was no comfort, you just had to choose your burden. Loki thanked his friend, and they shook hands before suddenly, Mobius and the TVA spaghettified around Loki.

Loki time slipped back to Doug's workshop as everything started to spaghettify and pulled himself and Sylvie outside of time, bringing them back to just before everything spaghettified around them. Loki explained that he had finally learned to control his time slipping, and went back, but he couldn't fix the Temporal Loom because it was a failsafe designed to protect the Sacred Timeline and nothing else. Loki was out of options after having tried everything and Sylvie realized that the only way that anything survived was if Sylvie never killed He Who Remains in the first place, meaning that Loki would have to kill Sylvie. Loki can't see another option, believing that it was the Sacred Timeline or nothing. However, Sylvie argued that it wasn't enough to protect the Sacred Timeline, stating that even down there it was full of death, destruction and injustice. Sylvie asked if Loki really wanted to be the god who took away everyone's free will in order to protect that, but Loki felt that there was no point to free will if everyone was dead. Sylvie pointed out that it wasn't up to Loki to decide that they couldn't die trying and fighting for it. Loki would only be replacing one nightmare for another and, having grown up in apocalypses, Sylvie knew that sometimes it was okay to destroy something. Loki suddenly came to a realization that it was okay to destroy something if there was a hope that you could replace it with something better.

Loki returned to the moment that Victor unlocked the Temporal Loom and, with a sad expression on his face, silently entered the airlock followed by Mobius and Sylvie. Loki declared that he knew what he wanted and what kind of god he needed to be for his friends and for everyone. Walking down the gangway, Loki shed his TVA identity, donning his godly attire and horns instead. As everyone watched, Loki used his magic to detonate the Temporal Loom and release the branches which began withering away. O.B. realized that the branches were dying, but when Loki grabbed the branches, his magic revived them and created a gateway. Loki took one last look back at his stunned friends with Victor nodding in agreement of his plan while Sylvie silently shook her head in despair. Holding the branches, Loki ascended into the gateway which sucked in all of the branches and closed, and Sylvie sadly declared that Loki was giving them a chance. In the ruins of the Citadel at the End of Time, Loki ascended to his throne, weaving the branches of the Multiverse into a tree reminiscent of Yggdrasil with Loki at the heart of it.

Afterwards, the TVA has become changed for the better with posters up everywhere showing the new tree with the TVA's changed message and mission of "let's grow together. Nurture our nature for a better future." The screen once monitoring the Temporal Loom and the timelines to prune now monitored the status of the Multiverse instead. Having taken on a leadership role in this changed TVA, Hunter B-15 praised her comrades work and told them to ask if anything that they needed. At a console, O.B. and Casey reactivated a reprogrammed Miss Minutes, although O.B. admitted that he wasn't sure if the AI would try to kill them all or not. Casey promised to save B-15 a seat in the War Room and Mobius gave B-15 a report on the variants of He Who Remains, none of whom knew about the TVA yet. While one had caused a bit of a ruckus in an adjacant realm, the situation had been handled, so they were all good for now. After B-15 left, Mobius looked at his own case file which he had requested.

Looking at the mural of the Time Keepers and the Multiversal War, B-15 told Mobius as he joined her that Casey was going to get them taken down. Mobius suggested that they were a good reminder not to forget the past so that it wouldn't be repeated. Mobius revealed that he was leaving the TVA, asking if the TVA would even miss a tired, washed-up old analyst with a heart of gold, but B-15 suggested that one or two of them would. Mobius admitted that he had to see what exactly it was that they've been protecting for all of this time. Accepting this, B-15 promised that if Mobius ever wanted a seat in the War Room, it was his. The two sadly parted ways and B-15 entered the full War Room and started talking with Judge Gamble.

In Repairs & Advancement, O.B. received a box containing the Time Variance Authority Official Handbook Second Edition which was now credited as being co-authored by O.B. and Victor Timely. In 1868, a young Victor Timely experimented and looked towards the window, but this time, the package containing the handbook did not come through it, sending Victor on a different path on the Sacred Timeline from the branched timeline from which the Victor who had gotten the handbook and built off of it came. In the Void at the End of Time, Renslayer, having been pruned earlier, awakened as the wind blew grass away from the TVA seal on the ground nearby - at least part of the Void was actually the TVA at the End of Time. Alioth approached Renslayer to consume her and she defiantly stared the creature down as Renslayer met her fate.

From down the street, Mobius watched his Sacred Timeline counterpart Don playing with his children and going back inside of their house. Joining Mobius, Sylvie commented that Don's yard could with a bit of work, but Mobius said that it was fine and was amazed that his Sacred Timeline counterpart lived in the best house on the block and that if you "never look, never know." The two found it weird that Loki wasn't with them and Sylvie promised to see Mobius around, admitting that she wasn't sure where she was gonna go while Mobius decided to stay where he was for a little bit and let time pass. Sylvie departed while Mobius continued to observe Don and his family.

On his throne at the End of Time, Loki heard the conversation between his two friends and smiled sadly, having finally found his glorious purpose as a true god and weaver of time who protected and maintained the Multiverse.

Cast[]

Continuity and References to the Marvel Cinematic Universe[]

Trivia[]

  • This episode shares its name with the series premiere of Loki.
  • Loki's words as he saves the Multiverse echoes what he told Odin in Thor: Loki tells Mobius and Sylvie that "I know what I want. I know what kind of god I want to be. For you. For all of us." In Thor, Loki told Odin "I could've done it, Father! I could've done it! For you! For all of us!"
  • In Thor, while discussing the Nine Realms and Yggdrasil, Thor tells Jane Foster that magic and science are one and the same where he comes from. Loki uses his magic and the scientific knowledge that he had gained from O.B. to turn the branches of the Multiverse into a tree resembling Yggdrasil.
  • Hunter D-90 can briefly be seen in the War Room talking to a colleague, meaning that he was rescued from the Void at the End of Time at some point.
  • Brad Wolfe's picture can be seen on the corner of the jet ski magazine under Mobius' file, meaning that he was allowed to quit the TVA and start a new life on one of the timelines. His name can also be seen when the file is moved.

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