After "Loki" Episode 4, "The Nexus Event," ended with a shocking cliffhanger, the wait
for Episode 5 was excruciating. But now the latest installment, "Journey Into Mystery," has arrived,
and with it, some big questions. Here's the ending of "Loki" Episode 5, explained.
It's established very quickly — thanks to a forced confession from Judge Renslayer to
Sylvie — that the TVA's pruning batons don't actually kill Variants. Instead,
they transport them to a place in time called the Void, where they can be vaporized by a malevolent
smoky-force called Alioth . The Void's existence is obviously a highly-classified TVA secret, which
is why Loki didn't learn about it when he was asking for files from the clerk back in Episode 2.
In Marvel comics, Alioth is closely tied to a notorious time-traveling villain who many
fans are expecting to see very soon in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" — Kang the Conqueror,
and he's reportedly being played by "Lovecraft Country" star Jonathan Majors.
The big smoky beast had his own temporal empire when he was originally introduced back in 1993's
"Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective" #1, but Kang constructed a time-barrier to keep the
villain out of his own domain, called Chronopolis. That doesn't sound too dissimilar to what the TVA
has done with Alioth in "Loki" — trapping the entity in the Void so they can use him
to wipe out pesky Variants and other things that don't belong in the sacred timeline.
The bulk of the episode follows our main Loki chatting with the other Variants and discovering
what makes them so different from himself, all while trying to find a way to defeat
Alioth and figure out who's really behind the TVA. The episode doesn't rush through things,
giving this "God Squad" plenty of time to bounce off one another, all while
expanding the mythology and development of everyone's favorite God of Mischief.
Classic Loki explains how he lived past the events of "Avengers: Infinity War."
He reveals that he conjured an illusion of himself so exacting that he fooled
Thanos into thinking the decoy was real, and that he'd killed Loki.
From there, Classic Loki went into hiding as "inanimate debris." Cowardly and smart — yes
that's classic Loki, alright. But not only is it an insightful anecdote as to what
Lokis are capable of when they put their mind to it, it's also a clue as to how the
vibrantly dressed character will have an impact in the final fight against Alioth.
It all ends in a big scuffle when a variant we'll call President Loki shows up with an
army of other Variant Lokis from across the Void's wasteland. However, they all
start betraying each other — because that's just what Lokis do, isn't it? At this point,
it looks like the small appearance from President Loki might debunk a few of those theories
suggesting that he's the one behind the TVA. It's still not impossible, but it's highly unlikely.
They just couldn't stay apart for too long, could they? Sylvie follows Loki to the Void
after Renslayer reveals that the Void is a place at the end of the timeline.
That means it's out of harm's way and can't affect past events. Sylvie's self-pruning shows that
the Variant clearly cares as deeply for the main Loki as he cares for her. Her main motivation is
finding out who's really behind the TVA, but she's just not very good at expressing her emotions.
This is something that comes across very clearly in a touching moment leading up to the
final battle. While Kid, Classic, and Gator Loki shelter in a hollowed out building with Mobius,
Loki and Sylvie huddle together in a conjured blanket while they try to untangle the romantic
mess they've created for themselves. It's clearly the first time Sylvie has ever let
herself be vulnerable with anyone, so it's quite fitting that she's opening
up to an alternate version of herself. But she even struggles to connect with Loki.
"I don't have friends, I don't have anyone."
Finally, Loki gets his own redemption arc as he promises not to betray Sylvie. He hugs
Mobius and calls him a friend before the TVA agent heads back to work to "burn it down."
Loki and Sylvie head off to face Alioth themselves while the rest of the God
Squad decides to stay in the Void — after all, this is their home now. Thankfully,
Sylvie vetoes Loki's simple plan of trying to stab a smoke monster, and goes with her idea
of enchanting the creature into revealing where and who the person behind the TVA is.
However, just because she's been nefariously murderous up to this point doesn't mean she
can't inspire Loki to have a little faith in himself. He unlocks his own enchanting abilities
just in the nick of time on the battlefield, with a little encouragement from Sylvie.
Thankfully, Classic Loki decides to give his life "glorious purpose" by creating a fake
Asgard to distract Alioth. It is a brilliant moment to witness, especially for an older,
bitter version of the character, to finally feel like he's doing something positive
in the timeline rather than constantly being a villain. His trickery succeeds,
but at the cost of his life. However, Classic Loki points out earlier on that he cheated death
by conjuring a fake version of himself during the confrontation with Thanos, so who knows?
Once Alioth is enchanted, the smoke clears to show a bizarre castle or manor in the middle of
a swirling cosmic background. With all the Kang the Conqueror connections to Alioth,
is it possible that this is Chronopolis? Alioth clearly couldn't get inside it. In the comics,
Chronopolis lies on the outskirts of limbo and contains time-points to places under Kang's
control. Will we see Jonathan Majors as Kang next week, in the "Loki" finale? Only time will tell.
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