Loki's Episode Three Twist is Key to Understanding the TVA Mystery
Well, well, well. In a twist that comes as a surprise to absolutely no one (save for Owen Wilson stans), it looks like the Time Variance Authority is probably, most definitely evil.
Episode Three of Loki, which debuted on Disney+ Wednesday morning, doesn't exactly confirm as such—Loki and Sylvie are busy, you know, evading extinction and certain death—but there's a quick line near the end of the episode worth dissecting. When Sylvie is explaining her powers to Loki, she says that the TVA agent she prodded for answers at the beginning of the episode, Hunter C-20, was a pretty tough cookie to crack. When Loki and Sylvie get to discussing TVA agents, Sylvie says that Hunter was once a humble human from Earth, not a mysterious being created by the Time Keepers, as Loki was led to believe. More than that, all of the TVA agents are variants themselves.
This brings up a lot of questions, not to mention hints at what will certainly be a massive twist in the second half of the season. Let's dig into it.
First of all, if it wasn't already obvious long before this episode, the TVA likely does not have Loki's best intentions in mind. Sure, Sylvie could be the one lying to Loki, but it would make much more sense if it turned out that the ultra-mysterious TVA didn't give Loki the full, unadulterated version of its company strategy. So with Sylvie's reveal, expect Loki to have some questions for Mobius and the TVA when they meet again. This revelation could even be the turning point that would make Loki side with Sylvie and fully embrace whatever her TVA-destroying mission is. Speaking of Mobius—if anything, the TVA-agents-can-be-any-variant thing backs the theory that Mobius is extracting information and manipulating "our" Loki at all costs, with his timeline at stake. (He might even be stuck in a time loop himself.)
All right. Now, if a TVA agent really can be any variant, from any timeline or planet, that brings up an alarming number of questions—ones that we really don't have answers to. Does this mean that the seemingly all-knowing Mobius is a variant himself? Do these variants even know they're variants, considering that Hunter B-15 gave Loki so much shit about being a variant? If Hunter C-20 was just chillin' and having a margarita "hundreds of years ago" in her flashback, how the hell does time work in the TVA? Are the Time Keepers just plucking random variants, brainwashing, and making them work in the TVA for eternity? Or is someone else pulling the strings here? Are you a variant? Oh no. Am I a variant? We need answers, Marvel. Please.
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