Spoiler alert:The following recap contains spoilers for the second episode of Loki on Disney+. If you don’t want to be spoiled, come back after you’ve seen the episode.
The TVA hasn’t gotten any less inept between episodes, as we pick back up in 1985 at a renaissance fair where a task force has determined the Loki variant is located. Almost immediately, the variant sneaks up and takes control of Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane), dispatching the other before they know what hit them.
Back at the Time Variance Authority, the slightly less evil Loki variant (Tom Hiddleston) is reading a magazine about jet skis while Miss Minutes quizzes him on what he’s learned about the sacred timeline and the rules governing the universe. Loki clearly hasn’t done all of his reading, and after trying to bash the Miss Minutes hologram over the head, Loki is greeted by Mobius (Owen Wilson), who tells him that there has been another attack on TVA agents by the murderous variant.
Mobius gathers a group of agents to investigate the scene of the crime along with him and Loki, and before they depart, we learn that the TVA has dealt with many Loki variants in the past, none of which look much like the one from the MCU.
The group then heads back to 1985, and Mobius suggests to Loki that if he can help them hunt down the other variant, he might get an audience with the Time-Keepers. They find C-20’s helmet at the renaissance fair, but she’s nowhere to be found. Apparently, variants have never taken hostages before, but leave it to Loki to break with tradition while breaking reality.
Loki then attempts to take this opportunity to convince the team of TVA hunters that he has figured out the variant’s scheme, and that the variant is waiting outside the tent to ambush them. Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) points out that Loki is wasting valuable time, but Mobius wants to hear him out. After Loki finishes laying out his theory, Mobius is unconvinced, they place a reset charge to wipe the timeline clean, and they head back to TVA HQ.
Mobius then meets with Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) — the judge from the first episode — who tells him that Loki has one more chance to assist in catching the variant. Mobius passes the message on to Loki, who is then tasked with going over all of the case files of the variant in order to search for any clues about where it might be hiding.
While rifling through the files, Loki discovers that Ragnarok destroyed his homeworld of Asgard. The same file notes that no variance energy was detected during the cataclysm, which leads Loki to realize that a variant could theoretically “hide” in an apocalypse, because no matter what they do, it wouldn’t change the outcome if everything and everyone is eliminated anyway.
He rushes to Mobius, who is eating a salad in the lunchroom, to share his revelation. The two then visit Pompeii, Italy, moments before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, in order to test Loki’s theory. Despite Loki causing trouble and messing with the timeline in ways that should affect the future, zero variance energy is detected, proving Loki’s point.
The two head back to the TVA where Mobius explains to Loki that in order for his theory to hold, the disasters have to be naturally occurring with “no warning, no survivors,” and so they head back to the library to find out how many such disasters have happened. Their research is fruitless, but after a discussion about jet skis, belief, and purpose, Loki says something that gives Mobius an idea — the Kablooie candy wrapper the TVA found in France might be connected to the apocalyptic natural disaster in which the variant is hiding.
Kablooie was only sold on Earth between 2047 and 2051, so if they can find an apocalyptic event that took place during that timeframe, they might be able to find the variant. It turns out that Earth is riddled with disasters in the coming decades, but only one such disaster fits the bill for the variant: A category eight hurricane at a Roxxcart retail store in Haven Hills, Alabama in the year 2050.
Mobius once again gets reluctant permission from Renslayer to gather a task force. They arrive in Alabama as the hurricane is gaining force. After entering Roxxcart (presumably owned by the Roxxon Energy Corporation), the task force splits up into two teams, and Hunter B-15 tells Mobius that she is going to keep an eye on Loki. Loki and B-15 set off in search of the variant and find a man shopping for plants. They are both suspicious of the man, and when B-15 approaches him with her weapon drawn, the man reaches out and grabs her arm. At this point, it’s clear that the man was being controlled by the variant, which has now taken over B-15’s body.
Loki tries to reason with the variant, explaining that he intentionally stalled for time back at the renaissance fair and that he wants the variant to help him overthrow the Time-Keepers. The variant, who has discarded B-15’s body and moved on to a Roxxcart employee named Randy, is not interested in teaming up. Meanwhile, Mobius and his team find C-20, who appears to have lost her mind. She tells Mobius that she gave away the location of the Time-Keepers.
After trying and failing to figure out what the variant’s plan is, Loki spots a reset charge on a shelf, suspecting that the variant lured them all here to erase them. At this point, Loki loses track of Randy, and a much larger man emerges, kicking him over. While the two are fighting, Mobius finds B-15 wandering around the store and realizes that Loki has betrayed the TVA.
The fight doesn’t last long, as the variant throws Loki around for a while before walking away to set off all of the reset charges that he has placed around the Roxxcart. Loki picks himself up, marches over to the variant, and asks what he wants from him. The man laughs, drops to the floor, and Loki turns around to be greeted by the unmasked variant: Lady Loki (Sophia Di Martino).
She tells Loki that this isn’t about him, the timer hits zero, and the reset charges are all teleported to various locations throughout the sacred timeline just as they begin to go off. “Somebody just bombed the sacred timeline,” a TVA employee says over the phone. Renslayer grabs a weapon, TVA hunters begin rushing through portals, and Lady Loki disappears from Roxxcart through a portal of her own, Mobius and B-15 rush down the hallway, yelling at Loki not to go. After a moment’s hesitation, he steps through Lady Loki’s portal an instant before it closes.
