Top 10 Things You Missed in Loki Episode 1

Shortly after arriving at the Time Variance Authority, or TVA for short, Loki faces a machine that will melt him if he’s a robot. He quickly becomes worried that he might be one and not know it. Loki’s doubt over whether he’s a humanoid being or not echoes the conflict of several characters in the “Blade Runner” franchise. But this scene also has a few parallels to the “Terminator” universe. Not only is the franchise full of time-traveling robots that look human, but it also has a character that looks normal before discovering that he’s part machine. Fortunately for Loki, he's neither a replicant nor part Terminator. He’s a completely organic Frost Giant who can’t be melted by just one machine.

Despite knowing that his usual magic didn't work in the TVA, Loki still seemed confident that he’d be able to use an Infinity Stone. But his world is turned upside down after he finds a drawer full of the powerful cosmic items just lying there. Loki would’ve known that the iInfinity Stones wouldn't work in the TVA earlier if he paid closer attention from the start. The Tesseract is known for its constant radiant blue glow. But as soon as he steps into the agency, the cube loses its signature shine. If the TVA can depower an Infinity Stone in an instant, how powerful are they? And more importantly, how strong are the people that scare them?

While Loki’s waiting to be judged, the animated Miss Minutes tells him there was once a war between different realities that threatened to destroy existence itself. The conflict ended when the timelines of those dimensions were combined into one by the Time-Keepers. A similar storyline played out in the 2015 Secret Wars comics. After two big Marvel universes collided and caused massive destruction, aspects of different realities were combined into a place called Battleworld. Although heroes helped recreate more universes at the end of that storyline, the Time-Keepers in the MCU seem strongly against having too many timelines around. That means that we may never know what other realities existed outside of the main MCU timeline before the war began.

TVA agents were willing to “reset” Loki after finding him guilty. Fortunately, agent Mobius stepped in to save the God of Mischief before we figured out what being reset meant. The time cop’s counterpart saved somebody completely different in the comics. After She-Hulk is found guilty of a time crime, she was nearly erased from the timeline. When Mobius is left to decide her fate, he gives her a second chance. He also makes She-Hulk watch over an Avenger that committed a time crime as her punishment. Maybe Mobius will follow his comic counterpart and make Loki supervise a hero by the time the season ends.

Loki attempts to call out the Avengers for the time heist they pulled off in “Endgame” during his trial. To his surprise, the TVA knows all about what Earth's Mightiest Heroes did and said it was supposed to play out that way. But this doesn’t necessarily mean the Time-Keepers are friends with the heroic team. In the comics, the Time-Keepers secretly tried to weaken or break up the Avengers on several occasions because they didn’t want the heroes to become too powerful. They only avoided destroying the team outright because it might’ve messed up the timeline. Seeing them work from the shadows to weaken the team on the page makes us wonder if the Time-Keepers were somehow behind events like “Civil War” on the screen.

The judge that oversaw Loki's trial was Ravonna Renslayer. In her first comic appearance, we learned that she was a princess that lived in the 40th century. Mobius seems to give a subtle nod to her royal blood during the episode. But she may do more than preside over cases in the future. Ravonna has had an off again, on again romance with the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror. Jonathan Majors is set to portray the comic antagonist in “Ant-Man and the Wasp” Quantumania”. Maybe the film will see Kang try to use the quantum realm to manipulate time. If so, Ravonna could make an appearance to either stop him or fall for him.

Over the years, Loki has shape-shifted into many different forms. But did the god of Mischief appear as a prince of hell? In the episode, we learn that there's an alternate version of Loki taking down Minutemen across the timeline. When Mobius asks a witness who was behind the attack, the kid points to a stained glass window of a satanic figure. There’s a weird precedent for this in the “Venus” comics. Loki ends up ruling hell and having a child that calls himself the Son of Satan. So, in an odd and roundabout way, there was a time where Loki went by the name Satan. The alternate version of the god of mischief may be following comic history and shapeshifting into a devilish form.

When agent Mobius showed some of Loki's greatest hits, we eventually cut to a scene on an airplane. The god of mischief proceeds to hold a plane full of people ransom. After he acquires the cash, Loki parachutes off the plane mid flight and is whisked away to Asgard. The seemingly random incident is based on a real life event. In 1971, an anonymous man, later nicknamed D.B. Cooper, did exactly what Loki did on the show. But unlike the god of mischief, this mystery man was never caught in real life after he exited the plane mid flight. Although the FBI stopped investigating the case in 2016, they might want to try asking Loki a few follow-up questions.

Ever since the Dr. Strange sequel was given the subtitle “Multiverse of Madness”, fans wondered how it would be caused. The first episode of “Loki” decided to literally spell it out for everyone. Miss Minutes says that variants who don’t follow their predetermined path on the timeline can cause reality to descend into madness and potentially spark a multiversal war. Now that we know how, the only question is who. Could Dr. Strange causes timeline damage while trying to replace his time stone? Will Wanda Maximoff break time while looking for the people she lost? Or will one of the Lokis be behind it all? It’s only a matter of time before we find out who’s truly responsible.

Loki gets the bombshell revelation that the variant causing the TVA so much trouble is...Loki. This timeline wrecking version of the god of mischief could be a clone, imposter or maybe even a robot. But the mystery of this second Loki could come from the comics. In one reality, the god of mischief was reborn as a kid. One day, he confronts a wicked older version of himself. The elder Loki claims his younger counterpart is destined to become just as evil in the future. This would be a great conflict for the show. Within the first episode, Loki struggled to confront harsh truths about his wicked deeds. Who knows how he’d react if he learns he’s destined to be evil in the future.