3 ‘Loki’ Season 2 Theories to Explain That Mind-Boggling Twist in Episode 1

*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

The God of Mischief is back and on a high-stakes mission to save the universe in season two of Marvel's Loki. But there's just one problem: He keeps glitching through time, and he has no way of controlling where (and when) he'll end up.

As the Time Variance Authority (TVA) continues to fall apart at the seams in the present day, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his pal Mobius (Owen Wilson) enlist the help of O.B. (Ke Huy Quan), a brilliant engineer at the TVA, to save Loki from getting lost in time forever. But of course, things don't go according to plan. Loki drops the Time Stick and slips through time at the worst possible moment, and Dox suddenly orders an army of Minutemen to go after Sophie. But in the midst of all this chaos, there's one question that's been running through our mind since the credits rolled: Who pruned Loki?

In case you need a quick refresher, towards the end of the episode, Loki makes his way to a ringing telephone after realizing that he's run out of time. When he gets there, the elevator doors are pried open and he comes face to face with none other than Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who doesn't look that surprised to see him. Before he has the chance to respond, however, a mystery person sneaks in and prunes him with the Time Stick, making it possible for him to return to the present day.

Now, given the state of the timeline and the wealth of resources available, we're almost certain that these events didn't happen by accident. In fact, we're convinced that someone from the future intentionally called that phone, lured Loki to that location and pruned him just in time to save him. But the real question is, who's responsible? Here's what we think.

courtesy of Marvel Studios

Theory #1: It Was Loki

It makes total sense when you think about it. In that future scene, Sylvie pops up and casually says, "There you are," which means she expected to see him there. It's likely that she was either working together with the future version of Loki to lure the present-day Loki there, or mistaking him for the actual future Loki. We don't see who pruned the present-day version, but it's entirely possible that future Loki constructed a plan to steer his past self in the right direction and turned up to prune himself.

courtesy of Marvel Studios

Theory #2: It Was Mobius

Future Mobius may have been in on this plan all along, since he was so determined to save his friend. It's worth noting that he didn't panic at all when Loki vanished. He held on to the Time Stick and told himself that Loki would "make it back." And when he went out with the Temporal Aura Extractor, he kept insisting that O.B. give him more time—as if he was sure that he'd see Loki again.

What if, somehow, the future Mobius intervened to ensure that Loki would have enough time to make it back? Perhaps he was the one who made that call and then stepped up to save his friend's life.

courtesy of Marvel Studios

Theory #3: It Was One of Kang's Variants

Yes, it's a bit out there, but hear us out. For one, we already know that one variant—specifically Victor Timely—will play a crucial role in this season, as the show's producer Kevin Wright confirmed with IGN. He said, “Timely becomes a really big part of the team, and we’re super excited because we had a very specific Victor Timely story that we wanted to tell this season.”

He added, “I don’t want to say too much without spoiling, but it’s unexpected. I think when you come with the warning that war is coming, you’re expecting a sci-fi villain from the future. The fun of Timely is that he is a very introverted, slightly eccentric inventor from the past, which is going to cause a lot of conflict amongst our characters because he may not be what they were expecting.”

Now, if you've seen the trailer for season 2, you may have noticed that Timely is actively involved in the TVA and possibly working on the Temporal Loom. He already strikes us as a brilliant inventor who's capable of mending giant messes in the most impossible situations. (Like, say, the god of mischief involuntarily slipping through time.) Maybe, in a surprise twist, he is the mastermind who pruned Loki. And we suspect it's part of a bigger plan that none of us will see coming...

The first episode of Loki is now available to stream on Disney+, with new episodes airing every Thursday.

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