Why Miss Minutes’ huge ‘Loki’ reveal might not be the AI awakening we think it is

Warning: the article contains spoilers for Loki season 2 episode 3.

Loki season 2 episode 3 was a showcase for everyone’s favorite artificial intelligence who also harbors a lot of secrets, Tara Strong’s Miss Minutes. However, the reveal at the end might be more complex than it appears.

In the latest Loki chapter, Miss Minutes reveals she has unrequited love for Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, AKA He Who Remains, AKA Victor Timely. Normally, in sci-fi stories, AI being able to experience emotions normally reserved for humans is a tell-tale sign they are becoming self-aware or truly sentient, human-like. For instance, Brent Spiner’s Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation often struggles with his lack of being able to feel human emotions.

So does this mean Miss Minutes will join the ranks of I, Robot‘s Sonny, Terminator‘s Skynet, and 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s HAL 9000, or even the MCU’s Ultron by becoming fully autonomous, no longer strictly conforming to pre-destined programming? Not so fast.

Kang’s long game

It’s entirely possible Miss Minutes is becoming fully self-aware and thus, that is why she has the ability to fall in love and even demand that Kang give her a human body so that she can be his girl. On the other hand, maybe the calculating timepiece is actually still under the control of the very way her code was written. After all, He Who Remains made her, so wouldn’t it make sense for her to be infatuated with him, in order to carry out his orders without hesitation? This possibility was pointed out by executive producer Kevin Wright, explaining in an article on Marvel’s website:

“Is her programming [written] to make that loyalty for him? Or, as she says, she was given the free will to write her own programming? Is this a naturally growing kind of emotion that she’s having? I just think that’s a cool space creatively to sit in. And of course, when she’s rejected, she’ll go off the rails. That’s fun, too, because she’s vindictive.”

This is an interesting question to consider, because of the fact that Minutes comes across as someone who is actively forming some kind of scheme. If that scheme is a bid for power as the throne-sitter at the Citadel at the End of Time, where He Who Remains once sat, it could be doomed if her programming gets in the way. Out of loyalty to Kang, her very personality as created by him could prevent any kind of power play she’s trying to pull off. Or perhaps it is Miss Minutes who is duping us all.

We’ll have to see if Miss Minutes herself will become the new head of Time Variance Authority, or if Victor will stamp out those potential dreams, when a new episode of Loki season 2 drops on Disney Plus on Thursday, Oct. 26.