Warning: This article contains big spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 5.
Loki Laufeyson has perhaps undergone the most transformative character arc of any MCU character ever, so it’s somewhat ironic that he missed the event that transformed the MCU’s universe forever. Except, thanks to the events of Loki season 2’s penultimate episode, he knows what it felt like.
In season 2, episode 5, “Science/Fiction,” Loki employs his handy-dandy time-slipping abilities to collect his friends from their regular ol’ lives on the timeline in a bid to restore the TVA into existence and rescue the multiverse. Unfortunately, the timelines unravel too fast for the gang to fix things and Loki witnesses all of his friends disintegrate in front of his eyes. Thankfully, he time-slips back to before this happened and is all set to change time in the season finale.
In essence, Loki just offered its own retelling of the plots of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, condensing five and a half hours of epic storytelling into 47 minutes. Just like the surviving Avengers following Thanos’ snap, Loki had to watch his loved ones reduced to nothing before his eyes — albeit turning into human spaghetti instead of dust — but then, just like in Endgame, he was able to use time travel in order to undo the tragedy that was done.
What’s more, Avengers 4 and 5 provided a turning point in the emotional evolution of so many of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and Loki received his own version of this in episode 5 to boot. Specifically, when he admitted that he really wants to rescue the TVA because he misses his friends and would be lost without them. Which is similar to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers rethinking their personal priorities in Endgame. If Loki ends season 2 dancing romantically with Mobius, though, then social media may explode.
Due to Thanos killing him at the beginning of Infinity War, Loki never got to experience any of this along with the rest of the MCU, so it’s only right that he belatedly learn what The Blip felt like for everyone else in the universe. Now we’re just left to wonder what Loki season 2’s own endgame will be.
