Warning: This article contains spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 4.
Who said Loki season 2 has been treading water? (Well, me, but let’s not talk about that right now). The sophomore run of the Tom Hiddleston Disney Plus just ramped up the stakes higher than ever in its explosive cliffhanger to its antepenultimate episode. In fact, the stakes are now higher than they’ve ever been in the entire MCU as it’s just possible that the entire MCU has been blown up.
“The Heart of the TVA” ends with the God of Mischief and his friends’ plans coming to naught when Victor Timely isn’t able to fix the Temporal Loom in time. The various branched timelines overwhelm the loom and explode, thereby surely destroying the TVA and perhaps going on to unravel all of time itself. The episode ends with the screen fading to black as we’re left to contemplate if we’d just witnessed the end of Earth-616.
There’s a strong case to be made that the MCU hasn’t shattered its status quo so thoroughly since Thanos snapped his fingers in Infinity War, but really this cliffhanger is even bigger thanks to the totality of existence being under threat. This is a real first for this franchise, then, even if long-term viewers of another time-traveling universe that these days is a fellow Disney baby might be suffering from déjà vu.
Loki‘s big twist is eerily reminiscent of Doctor Who‘s most ambitious cliffhanger
In 2010’s “The Pandorica Opens,” the Doctor finally discovers what’s been causing the cracks in time he’s been investigating all season — it’s the explosion of his own TARDIS, which is doomed to destroy all of time if it occurs. Believing the Time Lord is to blame for ending reality, his assembled enemies lock the Doctor in an unbreakable prison, not realizing he’s the only one who can stop the TARDIS’ destruction. And so the time machine indeed blows up and the episode ends with the stars in the sky going out, the Earth vanishing, and the screen fading into black.
By nature of being a time-travel series, Loki has always owed Doctor Who a tip of the hat, but it certainly seems that the show is homaging the sci-fi institution rather directly here. For starters, the explosion of the Temporal Loom fills the exact same function as the destruction of the TARDIS, as both are devices of enormous power that are responsible for holding the timeline together. The heroes having a plan to fix things, only to have it cruelly prevented from happening, is another matching feature.
Last but not least, the final shots mirror each other, with the fade to black in both episodes serving as a stunning moment to let the audience pick their jaws up off the floor. As for whether Doctor Who‘s solution for this cliffhanger can feed into Loki, let’s just say if Tom Hiddleston saves the day in episode 5 wearing a fez and holding a mop then the BBC might want a word with Disney. Although, given the two studios are pals now that Doctor Who is a bonafide Disney show, maybe they’re happy to share and share alike.
