SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains massive spoilers for the Loki episode “Lamentis.” If you have not yet watched the episode, read on at your own risk!
As you may recall, things went seriously screwy at the end of the second episode of Loki. In addition to it being revealed that the killer variant going around causing mischief throughout time is a Lady Loki, she also essentially bombed the Sacred Timeline with a linked set of reset charges. It was quite a place for the Marvel Studios show to leave things – but now, one week later, Episode 3 is live, and we have a whole new series of revelations to spotlight and analyze.
“Lamentis” is primarily orchestrated as a two-hander story with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia di Martino’s Lady Loki a.k.a. Sylvie navigating the titular moon as it nears total obliteration – but the events and conversations depicted move the larger story in Loki forward in wonderful ways. There are four big reveals in particular that caught our eye watching the episode, and we’ll dive into them below!
TVA Agents Are All Variants
Thanks to help from Miss Minutes, Loki’s premiere episode provided audiences with a full low-down on the Time Variance Authority – serving up a history lesson for the organization, and explaining how they establish order in reality. After the third chapter in the new Marvel series, however, we find ourselves questioning how much of what we’ve learned is true. After all, we were initially led to believe that the agents of the TVA were all created by the Timekeepers to assist in their greater mission, but now we’ve learned that may be a total fabrication.
We admittedly have to take this information with a grain of salt given its source, but Lady Loki drops a major bombshell in “Lamentis” with the revelation that TVA Agents aren’t explicitly inventions of the Timekeepers, but instead variants who have been enlisted into the system. Thinking back on some of what Owen Wilson’s Mobius was talking about in the first two episodes, it definitely doesn’t sound like this is information that the agents themselves know about, so it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction it gets when Loki inevitably shares the news later in the series. Perhaps it will in some part explain Mobius’ particular fascination with Jet Skis – it’s now actually possible that he used to ride them himself back in the 1990s before some kind of major event changed things for him.
Lady Loki a.k.a. Sylvie Has Her Own Unique Backstory, And Isn’t A Fan Of Being A Loki
There was a particular expectation going into Episode 3 of Loki that the story would give fans more information about Lady Loki and her whole – satisfying the big cliffhanger at the end of last week’s chapter – and in that way the show has delivered… and also not delivered. While Tom Hiddleston’s titular God of Mischief is more than willing to discuss himself and his own history, Lady Loki isn’t anywhere near as forthcoming. That being said, there are some key details that are revealed, including her preferred name, and bits and pieces of her family history.
For reasons that have not yet been made clear, Lady Loki isn’t a fan of being referred to by her variant designation, but instead goes by Sylvie – and while she doesn’t have a backstory exactly the same as her counterpart, there are details that are shared. For example, both Sylvie and Loki were adopted, but one key difference is that the former was actually informed of this fact by her family. And speaking of her family, it’s interesting to note that her excuse for not sharing more about her mother is that she doesn’t have a terrific grasp on her memories. Assuming this isn’t a lie (admittedly a big assumption), it’s an aspect of the character that invites more questions. For starters, who was her family, and did it include a brother/sister named Thor? And is the reason she can’t remember them magic related, because they are long dead, or something else entirely?
How Lady Loki’s Enchantment Works
As noted, Sylvie is more than happy to just let Loki spill his guts and tell her everything she wants to know while she herself stays mum, but one key thing she does give up is the functionality of her principal power: enchantment. It’s a magic that requires physical contact – either by herself personally, or through someone she has enchanted – and while many are susceptible to instant influence, others with stronger wills require extra effort involving the manipulation of memories.
This process is put on full display early in the episode with the revelation of exactly what it was that happened to Hunter C-20 following her abduction by Sylvie. It’s an interesting table-setter, because it ultimately has the effect of making one question everything that happens in the episode. At one point Sylvie tries to enchant Loki, and it appears that he is too mentally strong to allow it… but what if all of the events on Lamentis I are projections by the former to try and extract any information she may need from the latter? That likely isn’t the case (it probably would have been included as a twist in the episode if it were), but it is still something to chew on while we wait for the next week’s continuation of the story.
Lady Loki Has Been Working On Her Plan For Years
In the first two episodes of Loki, Sylvie proves to be quite efficient at what she does. While taking shelter in apocalypses, she uses TVA technology to travel back in time, disrupt the sacred timeline enough to draw a cadre of hunters, and then assassinates them in the aim of acquiring their reset charge. We saw a big part of her overall plan culminate at the end of “The Variant,” with the stolen charges activated and sent around the multiverse, but a particular comment she makes in “Lamentis” has us thinking that her big picture operation is much larger than just what we’ve seen.
Relatively speaking, Sylvie has been able act on her mission and make great strides very quickly – her goal apparently being to locate and get to the Timekeepers – so it makes one wonder: what encompasses the “years” of work that she claims to have committed to the cause already? It seems fair to guess that it took her a minute to get her hands on TVA technology allowing her to time travel, but one has to wonder if the situation is far more complicated than we give it credit for at this stage in the game, and if Sylvie has a mission more radical than a mere power grab.
At the end of “Lamentis,” the ark that Loki and Sylvie are hoping will take them off the doomed moon explodes, seemingly leaving the villainous duo stranded with no escape… so what will happen next? Your guess is as good as ours, and you can be sure that we are already counting down the minutes until we get some answers. The fourth episode of Loki will be available to stream on Disney+ at midnight/3am EST on Wednesday, June 30 – and you should definitely stick around here on CinemaBlend this week as we continue to break down the events in this latest chapter.
