Warning: The following recap of Loki Season 2, Episode 1, “Ouroboros,” contains spoilers for the Marvel Cinematic Universe show.
Loki‘s first season ended on a bit of brain-buster: After Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killed Kang the Conqueror variant He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), Loki found himself in a TVA (Time Variance Authority) he didn’t recognize, with versions of his friends who didn’t seem to recognize him. The second season’s premiere immediately addresses this cliffhanger with the reveal that Loki is involuntarily traveling between the past and present.
The first scene (after the Season 1 recap) zooms out on Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) and a cluster of guards chasing Loki — in slo-mo, hilariously — through the TVA’s sterile hallways. Mobius continues to insist he doesn’t know Loki, which confuses everyone further. Loki evades them by commandeering a nearby transport and crashing it into another section of TVA headquarters, where he encounters a variant of receptionist Casey/Hunter K-5E (Eugene Cordero) who, of course, doesn’t know him, either. Moments after Loki’s crash landing, one of the monitors attached to the ceiling falls and cracks a section of the floor. Casey responds…poorly and reports Loki’s position to Mobius and the search party.
Before Loki can react to Casey’s reaction, he is suddenly pulled in several directions simultaneously and transported to the same room, but this time with the Casey he does know. He notices the crack in the floor — the one made by the falling monitor moments before his episode — and deduces time is tearing him away to different points in the TVA’s history. He asks where he can find Mobius, but before Casey can answer, Loki vanishes again.
Cue opening title card.
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Meanwhile, in the TVA Principal’s Office…
Amidst a series of power surges, Mobius and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) discuss their next moves in front of the TVA’s many timeline monitors. Another Hunter, X-5 (Rafael Casal), interrupts their chat and informs them that they are needed in the war room. As they head there, Loki appears behind them for a split second, screams in pain, and disappears again.
In the War Room, Judge Gamble (Liz Carr) and high-ranking Hunter Dox (Kate Dickie) question Mobius and B-15. They’re outraged that the branches of the timeline have gone past “red line” and ask why they paused “pruning” the timeline branches. B-15 attempts to explain what pruning really is: mass genocide.
Loki, who has been ripped away to the past once more, finds himself in the War Room. In this War Room, however, there’s a key difference: giant renderings of Kang’s face adorn the walls. In the present, Kang’s likeness is hidden behind a mural of the Time Keepers. Loki hears a recording of Kang talking to Renslayer before his affliction brings him screaming back to the present. He reappears in the middle of Gamble’s questioning and, realizing he’s been reunited with his Mobius, starts rambling about Kang’s return. When he doesn’t feel heard, Loki snatches X-5’s weapon and uses it to reveal Kang’s face behind the mural. The meeting ends.
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Introducing Ke Huy Quan as OB!
Desperate for answers, Loki and Mobius visit the TVA’s repairs and advancement guy, Ouroboros, or “OB” (Ke Huy Quan), who may be the only person at the TVA who can help. OB informs them that Loki is “time slipping” and that the only way to restore him to his pre-slipped self is by using a temporal aura extractor.
Deep breaths, because this next bit is convoluted. OB produces one and tells them they need to take the extractor to something called the temporal loom, where they can pluck Loki straight from the time stream. OB notes the frequent power surges and accompanies them and B-15 to the temporal loom. He explains that the branches are overloading the loom and that pruning the new timelines is the safest way, an option B-15 passionately rejects. After a back-and-forth, OB concedes that he could retrofit the loom to accommodate each new timeline, but he needs Mobius to approach the loom directly and use the extractor. Essentially, Loki must prune himself so that he’s released from time.
Loki suddenly time-slips to the future while Mobius suits up and makes his way to the loom. Things begin to go south, prompting OB to smack a big red button and abort the operation. Before returning to the present, Loki glimpses Sylvie forcing an elevator door open. Just as Mobius is about to be destroyed by the loom, Loki, now freed from the timeline, collides with him and sends them tumbling back to safety at the TVA.
Loki Season 2, Episode 1, ends with Dox and her Hunters carrying mysterious bags through Time Doors, presumably to carry out plans we aren’t privy to yet.
That’s not all, though. In a mid-credits scene, Sylvie stumbles into a Broxton, Oklahoma McDonald’s and orders everything on the menu.
The next episode of the MCU show will release on Oct. 12 at 6PM PT/9PM ET on Disney+. For a full list of the various premiere dates, check out our coverage of Loki Season 2 here.
