A Loki season 1 recap to prep you for season 2’s confusing premiere

Loki season 2 is here, but after a two-year break, the events of Marvel Studios’ Disney Plus debut series may be a little hazy. The new season of Loki starts with a light recap of season 1 and its big cliffhanger, the frenetic events of season 2’s premiere might throw viewers for a loop. Part of that seems intentional; Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), and the rest of the TVA seem pretty confused about what’s happening to Loki and the Sacred Timeline in the first episode of LokiSeason 2

If you’re looking to remember what happened to Loki, Mobius, Sylvie, He Who Remains, and the TVA employees at the conclusion of the show’s first season, we’ll try to catch you up to speed quickly.

[Ed. note: The following contains spoilers for Loki season 1, naturally.]

What happened to Loki Season 1?

Image: Marvel Studios

After the first season, Loki, the god of mischief and his variant/romantic interest Sylvie travel to the end of time to find answers about who’s You can also find out more about the following:TVA’s puppeteers. Recall that the Time-Keepers – the purported masterminds of the Time Variance Authority – were a fabrication. A man was behind the curtain.

Loki and Sylvie meet Miss Minutes when they get to the Citadel of End of Time. She is the cartoon AI clock that controls many TVA systems. Miss Minutes gives them the chance to live an idyllic existence in the Sacred Timeline, which is run by Miss Minutes.

The two Lokis decline and confront He Who remains (Jonathan Majors) who tells them that eons before, He and his variants discovered the Multiverse and, more importantly, the way to travel from one universe into another. While initial meetings between universes were cordial, some of his variants were aggressive and warlike — conquerors. He Who Remains’ variants were ultimately responsible for a Multiversal War and the near-annihilation of reality. He Who Remains, who describes himself as “pure of heart,” created the TVA as a means to snip more dangerous timelines and their variants out of existence to protect “cosmic harmony.”

Faced with two sword-wielding Lokis, He Who Remains explains that if they kill him, they’ll soon face an “infinite amount” of his variants and a new Multiversal War. An alternative option he proposes is that Loki and Sylvie take over his duties, running the TVA “as its benevolent rulers” and telling the workforce there who they are (people kidnapped from the Sacred Timeline and conscripted to prune rogue timelines) and why they do what they really do.

Image: Marvel Studios

Loki believes that if Sylvie kills He Who Remains at the End of Time, it will cause chaos. But Sylvie doesn’t trust He Who Remains or Loki in the moment, believing that the famous trickster wants to claim the throne in the Citadel at the End of Time and assume power. Loki attempts to convince Sylvie of his good intentions, but she kicks him through a time door using He Who Remains’ unique TemPad device. After that, she stabbing He Who Remains in the heart.

He Who Remains warned that the timelines of the multiple universes would splinter uncontrollably. We are led to believe that He Who Remains’ variants will soon run wild across time and space.

Loki, a distraught man, finds himself once again in the TVA. Coming to grips with losing Sylvie and reckoning with the timeline branching uncontrollably, Loki goes to warn Mobius and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) of He Who Remains’ dire warning of an invasion of infinite variants. As he attempts to explain himself, Loki faces a twist: Mobius has no idea who he is or what Loki’s talking about.

Loki is perplexed when he looks through the window of the TVA office and notices something disturbing. Instead of the Time-Keeper statues previously seen in the series’ backgrounds, Loki sees statues of He Who Remains. Loki seems to be in a completely different version of TVA. What’s What is happening?

TVA Employees

Image: Marvel Studios

You may not remember some of the TVA characters from two years ago. The major characters and their current status at the end season 1 are listed below.

• Mobius M. Mobius — The TVA agent with a hankering for a hunk of key lime pie was the guy who interrogated and enlisted Loki into tracking down his variant Sylvie in season 1. Over the course of that season, Mobius was pruned by TVA judge Ravonna Renslayer, sent to the Void at the end of time (where pruned folks go), and returned to the TVA to confront Renslayer about the reality of the organization and who’s behind it.
• Ravonna Renslayer — Mobius’ former friend and superior at the TVA bails at the end of season 1 after thwarting the agent’s attempts to apprehend her. She still supports the mission of the TVA, despite knowing workers were forced to do horrible things for the sake of timeline purity. When we last saw her, she had ducked out through a time door in search of what she called “free will.”
• Hunter B-15 — An agent of the TVA who is a brainwashed time variant, B-15 remembers that she has a family in season 1. Her newfound knowledge is used to show other TVA Hunters, specifically Minutemen U-92, and D-90 that they too had lived on the Sacred Timeline. She visits Renslayer as a former high school vice-principal to demonstrate this to them.
• Casey — This TVA employee was a relatively minor character in season 1. Casey (Eugene Cordero), a receptionist, was memorable in season 1 for several moments. One of them included showing Loki that there were Infinity Stones in TVA drawers and paperweights. He’s also the guy who said “What’s a fish? I’ve lived my entire life behind a desk.” after Loki threatened to gut Casey like a fish.
• Miss Minutes — We last saw the clock at He Who Remains’ place at the end of time, trying to bargain with Loki and Sylvie — and protect He Who Remains. Prior to that, she had been asked by Ravonna to provide her with information about the TVA’s creator. Presumably, Miss Minutes obliged.
• New people — There are some fresh faces in season 2, so don’t be alarmed if they don’t look familiar, at least in a Loki context. The newcomers are O.B./Ouroboros, a TVA tech support employee who is inventive; Brad/X-5, a TVA actor/hunter; Dox (Kate Dickie), and Gamble as TVA judges.

What about Kang’s plot in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania?

Image: Marvel Studios

You don’t need to remember much from that movie, other than that Jonathan Majors’ Kang is a variant of He Who Remains and that Victor Timely (another Kang/He Who Remains variant), who appears in LokiIn a sequence that followed the credits, season 2 was hinted at.

In the first post-credits sequence, Kang’s destruction in Quantumania brings together hundreds (or thousands) of variants for some sort of meeting, but three important Kang variants — Iron Lad, Immortus, and Pharaoh Rama-Tut — get the spotlight. It is unclear if any of the three Kang variants are going to appear at this year’s E3. LokiThe season 2 title is not known.

It is just a preview for Loki’s second season. The first post-credits sequence is a teaser for Loki season 2. QuantumaniaThis quality Polygon breakdown explains what teasers are.