How ‘Loki’ Could Be Plotting a ‘Good Place’ Worthy Twist

The introduction of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fans questioning the proposed overlap between the events of Avengers: Endgame and Loki.

Many have speculated how this series would address other’s involvement in the sacred timeline. After all, Loki is being condemned for stealing the Tesseract when the Avengers not only borrowed six time-stones, but Steve Rogers used them as an excuse to reunite with Peggy.

The series addresses this during Loki Season 1 Episode 1, “Glorious Purpose,” when Loki claims the Avengers are the ones who should stand trial for his crimes. Judge Renslayer shuts this accusation down, stating, “What they did was supposed to happen. You escaping was not.”

At face value, this comment clears up many of the concerns fans may have. However, the throwaway line has created more questions than answers about this show’s larger role in the MCU.

This begs the question, is it the fault of plot inconsistencies that Loki contradicts pre-dated events in the MCU? Or is this part of a larger narrative, one where the TVA is not being entirely truthful with us?

Trusting the TVA

Here lies the one piece of evidence Loki has given us in spades: we cannot trust the TVA.

It’s not the first time a TV show has introduced an all-knowing entity and tricked us into believing we knew everything about them when we knew nothing. The Good Place infamously used our blind trust in larger narratives to orchestrate a season-long twist; one that assured us its characters were good despite constantly contradicting this.

Mobius may seem trustworthy, but he shares more in common with Ted Danson’s Michael than just hair color, and so does the organization he works for.

Just like the fake Good Place, nothing about the TVA suggests they’re fundamentally good. The Time-Keepers decided how time should play out according to their individual preferences, and then they created a blindly devoted workforce to reinforce their ruling. If that sounds bad, it’s because it is.

This “Kafkaesque bureaucratic organization” has the final say in all matters of existence and has been established as more powerful than the Infinity Stones. Factor in the propaganda, the creepy mantras, the fact that few TVA members have met the Time-Keepers in person, and you have one massive red flag.

There’s no one to hold the TVA accountable. So they decide what the narrative is — which is likely why nothing they say adds up.

We are learning about this organization for the first time from the perspective of an outsider, and we rarely have scenes that take place without Loki present. This essentially means everything the TVA has told us is one-sided.

The TVA claims we can trust them, yet every inch of their workspace tells us otherwise. The cold prison-like environment reflects the TVA’s indifference to those inhabiting the timeline. The lack of soft textures and comfy seating warns us not to get too comfortable with this unknown entity.

There’s also the issue with the TVA’s chain of command.

Mobius receives orders from Judge Renslayer, who relays her information from the Time-Keepers. We know Mobius is an unreliable source because as comfortable as he is with Loki, the man was created to serve the TVA. His mysterious upbringing and obsession with ’90s trends suggest he may even be a memory-wiped variant.

Ravonna Renslayer, however, holds an immense amount of power as the middle man. We’ve yet to have any direct communication from the Time-Keepers, so anything she relays to her analysts could be misinformation. As far as we know, the Time-Keepers might not even exist, and she is the one calling the shots.

Renslayer is always positioned in front of the center Time-Keeper statue, both in her chambers and the courtroom, suggesting she has an intimate relationship with this being. If Kang the Conqueror, a lover of hers from the comics, is operating things from behind the curtain, it could explain the TVA’s behavior.

The Guilty Party

The TVA claims Loki is guilty of crimes against the sacred timeline for escaping with the Tesseract. However, their accusations don’t exactly match up with what Endgame has already told us.

Loki stole the Tesseract and escaped, effectively creating a variant of himself that was never to exist. Yet, his detour does not hinder the Avengers in their mission to stop Thanos. Steve and Tony simply adjust their plan once Loki interferes, and borrow the Tesseract from Howard Stark in 1970.

It is also during this second attempt to secure the space stone where Steve sees Peggy and consciously makes the decision to return to her time at the end of the film.

The timeline is never reset to the original plan because, in the TVA’s own words, what the Avengers did was supposed to happen. What Loki did was not. However, that’s not what the scared timeline suggests.

Steve likely would not have gone back to Peggy if Loki had not disrupted the timeline and given them a reason to travel to the seventies. Tony may not have decided to sacrifice himself if he hadn’t run into his father and realized he wanted to be the type of parent who put others before himself.

Even Doctor Strange’s infamous line about there only being one possible outcome to Endgame contradicts the TVA’s claim that what Loki did went against the sacred timeline. According to Strange, Loki’s escape was always a necessary part of the one chance they had to defeat Thanos.

To the TVA’s own logic, Loki disrupting the timeline taints any events that occur after, and the timeline should have been reset due to his involvement. The fact that it wasn’t reset suggests in some form his actions were imperative to the sacred timeline, even if his variant was not.

This could be a byproduct of Loki attempting to clean up the vague time sciences Endgame brings into play. But if this overlap is intentional, it would suggest the TVA is lying to Loki about the extent of his involvement in their greater plan.

No doubt so the organization can use his desire for self-preservation to manipulate the god into catching this Loki-variant. The very same variant that is threatening to destroy the order these Time-Keepers have enforced for centuries.

At this point, the only narrative telling us Loki is guilty is coming from the secret society too powerful to contradict.

The Devil Is In The Details

We could fill an entire book with every detail about the TVA that doesn’t quite add up because this world has ultimately been created to deceive us.

The TVA has established the Avengers did what they were supposed to do. Yet during Episode 1, we see what looks to be a Peggy Carter lookalike being lead down a hallway by a hunter when Loki escapes custody. The figure is sporting a hairstyle and blue dress almost identical to Peggy’s look in Agent Carter.

This suggests Steve returning to Peggy caused a branch in the timeline to form, despite the TVA stating otherwise. It could also be a nod to Peggy accepting the Captain America mantle in Marvel’s What If…?.

Regardless, the existence of a Peggy variant means a certain Avenger did not do what was “supposed to happen.”

Another detail that stands out against the TVA’s narrative comes when Loki is alone in the time theatre with his tape. As the final clip rolls and he dies in Thor’s arms, the screen flickers to reveal the label on the reel’s tail. On the screen, Loki’s film reel is numbered as “TAIL- 112914/7112914 LOKI LAUFEYSON”.

However, when the scene transitions to a shot of the physical film reel, it reads “TAIL- 1-ETH-616/ I-ETH-616 LOKI LAUFEYSON.” Not only do the numbers on the film reel not match up, but we know this Loki variant is from Earth 616. This could mean the TVA tampered with Loki’s film reel, splicing in footage from another variant’s file.

These clues suggest the TVA’s word is no more sacred than the neat timeline they claim to keep.

Welcome to the Endgame

Could this series be capable of orchestrating a The Good Place level plot twist?

As WandaVision has demonstrated, these Disney+ series are more than capable of high-caliber trickery and season-long mysteries. The layers of deception on display within this organization suggest we are building to a reveal worthy of Loki and the likes of television’s greatest plot twists.

All signs suggest this season’s biggest reveal will involve the TVA in some capacity. This twist could be as straightforward as exposing the TVA’s more sinister operations throughout time or it could be as groundbreaking as revealing the Time-Keepers are no longer the ones in control of the sacred timeline.

Regardless, the decision to have this organization exist amongst so much deceit and misdirection, suggests their betrayal is inevitable.

We know the sacred timeline cannot stay intact forever given the existence of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and there are rumors a multiversal war will have repercussions for Spider-Man: No Way Home. That means the TVA cannot survive in this state for long.

If the beginning of Loki is any indication, this mysterious enterprise still has a few tricks up its sleeve.

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Do you think Loki is plotting a major twist? Share your theories in the comments below!

New episodes of Loki air Wednesdays on Disney+.

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