Loki
Season 2, Episode 1
Episode title: Ouroboros
Original release date : October 5, 2023
Episode summary:
In “Ouroboros,” Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is slipping back and forth through time after being kicked through a time door by Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) and struggles to rush back to Mobius (Owen Wilson) to tell him the events at the End of Time.
* * *
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
Hold it right there, Variant!
LOKI: What is going on?
Mobius, it’s me.
I don’t know you.
GUARD: Hey!
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES)
(DRIVER SCREAMS)
(GASPS)
WOMAN ON RECORDING: Calm your mind and relax.
(LOKI GRUNTING)
(EXHALES)
I’m fine. I’m fine.
Morning!
(DRIVER GASPS)
(DRIVER SCREAMS)
(VEHICLE THUDS)
She’ll be fine.
(PEOPLE GASPING)
(GROANS)
WOMAN ON COMMS: Level five intruder.
He’s hopped into a mail cart and descended to the lower level.
Casey.
Have we met each other?
Casey, help me. Please, tell me you know what’s going on.
Don’t you remember me?
I got him. I got the intruder.
I got the intruder!
(GRUNTS)
(PANTING)
Loki.
What?
Just a second ago, you didn’t know me.
Casey. Casey.
Casey, something terrible is happening.
I’m being pulled from…
Wait, no.
Has that always been there?
CASEY: The crack? It’s been there as long as I can remember.
I was in the past.
Where’s Mobius? B-15?
They’re probably in, uh, Chrono Bay Three, so…
(LOKI GRUNTS)
Loki?
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMPUTER BEEPING)
MOBIUS: Now what?
HUNTER B-15: Now, the branches keep on growing and we tell the people of the TVA the truth about this place.
And you think people are gonna be ready to hear that?
HUNTER B-15: People have lives on the timeline, Mobius.
Yes, I know.
They should have the chance to live those lives.
Think about it.
Hey, everything you’ve been doing is wrong and all your gods are dead.
How are people gonna take that?
HUNTER B-15: (SIGHS) We have to give it a shot.
Hey, Mobius, Loki was just here looking for you.
Loki’s here?
CASEY: He was, then he disappeared.
I don’t understand.
He disappeared right in front of me.
He looked like he was in pain.
Maybe Miss Minutes can locate him.
You just saw him?
I did.
MOBIUS: Miss Minutes? It’s not working.
HUNTER X-5: Hey, I have a question.
Can I help you with something, X-5?
We don’t see you down here too often.
This one here. Is this on the Sacred Timeline?
‘Cause looks fun.
Jet Skis, Sea-Doos. (CHUCKLES)
Is one of these calling your name, Mobius?
Well, I don’t know about calling, maybe gently whispering.
“Mobius! Come take us for a little spin.”
The funny thing about Jet Skis, everyone thinks that it’s a personal watercraft, and it’s actually a brand, same way Kleenex is.
Mobius, I don’t care.
Why’d you ask?
With Renslayer missing, there’s a new judges’ council.
So, General Dox and Judge Gamble would like to see you both in the War Room.
I wonder what that’s about, huh?
(ELEVATOR DINGS)
(LOKI SCREAMS)
(GASPS)
Mobius. Where is he?
He’s in the War Room.
HUNTER B-15: We’re answering to the judges’ council now?
Okay, they probably heard the rumors…
Mob…
What?
Nothing. Let’s just ease them into it.
We’re just gonna tell them the truth.
Agreed, but gently.
(RATTLING)
What is that?
I don’t know.
Mobius, I was just doing my job.
You mean pruning me.
Yeah, well, I guess you were just following orders.
It’s actually Renslayer who really owes me the apology.
What’s the mood like in there?
(SIGHS)
(SCREAMS)
(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)
LOKI ON TAPE: You’re all Variants!
Everyone who works at the TVA.
The Time-Keepers didn’t create you. They kidnapped you from the timeline and erased your memories.
Memories she can access through enchantment.
So, before this, you had a past, maybe you had a family, a life.
The branches are growing. They’re way past red line.
And you put out an order to stop pruning.
We just need a moment to explain.
Into the microphone, Hunter.
We are doing this by the book and on the record.
We just need a moment to explain.
Make it make sense.
HE WHO REMAINS ON TAPE: You are quite a marvel.
I will be proud to lead with you.
You made a difference in this war.
Thank you for being on my team.
For us.
For All Time.
RENSLAYER: Always.
HE WHO REMAINS: Ravonna Renslayer, you are quite a marvel.
I will be proud to lead with you.
And under whose authority did you make the call to stop pruning branches?
We didn’t have time for proper protocol.
Don’t you understand? We’re all Variants!
JUDGE GAMBLE: D-90 testified that he went to the timeline and saw Renslayer’s Variant.
And that would certainly corroborate what B-15 is saying.
HUNTER B-15: That’s right.
Renslayer had a life on the timeline.
On the record, 15.
To hell with the record.
You had a life on the timeline.
And so did you.
So did I.
MOBIUS: Look, we get the concerns ’cause we had ’em also.
But let’s also admit that the timeline is branching.
The sky hasn’t fallen, we’re…
HUNTER X-5: What sky are you looking at?
Are you seeing this robot head on the table?
The sky is falling, Mobius. This changes everything!
This changes nothing.
We won’t let the timeline branch. I’m sorry, Hunter.
If we don’t protect it, what on earth are you suggesting?
Protect? Is that what you think we’ve been doing?
With all due respect, ma’am, we haven’t been protecting, we’ve been destroying.
There are people with lives on those branches, and we have committed atrocities every time we prune.
GENERAL DOX: Atrocities?
Yes.
Take caution in your tone.
Call it whatever you want, but we have to take a moment to understand what is…
We don’t have a moment.
You’ve made your position clear.
So we don’t have time for protocol now?
And you’ve made your position clear, Hunter.
All my life, I’ve always handed down the same verdict.
Guilty.
The Time-Keepers deemed it so.
HUNTER B-15: Ma’am, I know how hard it is to turn your back on everything you’ve believed in.
But the TVA has to change, and it has to start now.
We can’t go back to pruning those branches.
I can do anything.
Anything.
Tell the TVA to stop pruning, effective immediately.
(GRUNTING)
Loki?
Mobius. You know me.
MOBIUS: Where the hell were you?
HUNTER X-5: Hey. LOKI: Help me.
HUNTER X-5: Hey!
What just happened?
LOKI: A moment ago, you didn’t know me.
GENERAL DOX: Stand down!
Tell me you recognize me. Do you know me?
Yeah.
Everyone, stand down!
Come on. Come here.
Mobius. We found him.
Who?
Him.
Loki?
(HUNTER X-5 GASPS)
Get back!
That’s who built this place! That’s who stole your lives!
That’s who’s coming back!
Okay.
Easy, put it down.
Put it down.
She was going to kill him.
MOBIUS: Who, Sylvie?
Mobius, yes.
Sylvie? Where is she?
I don’t know.
It’s okay. It’s all right.
Come.
LOKI: She kicked me through a Time Door.
(DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES)
The Time-Keepers are fake, but their warnings were real.
Seems pretty straightforward to me.
What do you want me to do?
We need to know what happened at the End of Time.
Find Sylvie.
She’s the reason we’re in this mess.
Who’s she? What does she want with Sylvie?
General Dox. Don’t worry. Are you okay?
What happened with the cloud monster?
Alioth?
Alioth was a distraction.
He was a guard dog. We found him.
A Citadel at the End of Time.
But where’s Sylvie?
I don’t know, she’s still there.
I just wanted time to think.
It was an impossible choice, but she seemed so certain.
How could she be given the consequences?
I just wanted time to think.
Okay, slow down, Loki.
You wanted time to think, so, let’s think.
It’s okay.
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Mobius, we got to the man at the End of Time, and he made sense.
We thought it was about freeing the timeline, but that brings only more malevolence, more violence, more war.
More of him. They’re coming.
They’re all coming.
Who?
“You came to kill the devil.”
I don’t understand.
Maybe he was.
But maybe he wasn’t. She was convinced he was.
We fought, Mobius, and she kicked me through a Time Door.
Well, I’d ask who won, but…
It was a draw.
You both kicked each other through Time Doors simultaneously?
No. I was actively trying not to fight her.
I was trying to stop her. She was gonna kill him.
Stop. Relax. Forget about it.
Look, Renslayer kicked me down some steps, too. Listen, just calm down.
I just wish I had tried harder, I wish I’d had more time.
Don’t do the coulda woulda shoulda. Focus on what we know.
That.
That is what we know. War. And it’s on its way.
Maybe it’s true, everything he was doing, the pruning, the preservation of the Sacred Timeline.
It was about preventing more of him.
There was no simple choice, no other way.
That’s who you showed us in there?
He Who Remains.
This is his kingdom.
And he said he keeps us safe, but how can you believe that?
He built this place.
No, how would I not remember that?
How could he…
Because he wiped your memories.
And he obviously did it more than once.
They have to listen to us.
Hey!
Believe me, they listened to you, okay? We heard you loud and clear.
You have to explain to me exactly, how did you just appear in there?
Did you come straight from the End of Time?
No, I was in the past.
What do you mean, in the past? Where?
Here, the past TVA.
No, there is no past TVA.
Time doesn’t work like that here.
It does, it’s happening to me.
It’s impossible. No, it’s not.
It’s possible.
(GRUNTING)
Did you see it?
Yeah, I saw it.
Yeah? What does it… How does it look?
It looks… I mean, how does it feel?
(SIGHS) It’s not that bad.
Really? I mean, it look…
I guess it doesn’t look that bad, but we definitely gotta get you help.
Let me call Miss Minutes.
No. You can’t trust her.
What?
Are you sure?
Pretty sure.
She was there with him at the End of Time.
No, we gotta get you checked out.
Yeah, let’s swing you by Repairs & Advancement. Come on.
They’ll have a look at you.
Where’s that? I need to get back.
MOBIUS: Come on.
LOKI: We need to deal with the bigger problem here.
He Who Remains.
I understand and we’ll get to that.
In order to do that, I need a Loki Who Remains.
We need to address you disappearing.
What? I don’t keep disappearing. We don’t have time…
Loki…
You just disappeared.
I can’t keep looking at it ’cause it’s horrible.
What? I thought you said it didn’t look that bad.
I was lying.
It’s terrible, looks like you’re being born or dying or both at the same time.
It’s freaking me out.
It’s okay.
It looks really painful.
It’s not that bad. I can handle it.
Come on. How does it look?
(GULPS)
Okay, and Sylvie kicking you through the Time Door into the past, that somehow started all this?
All I know is I was in the past.
It was He Who Remains’ TemPad, so maybe that’s how it was possible.
Wait, that’s who you said had my memory wiped?
Yes. He Who Remains.
Is that what you’re calling him, or that’s his name?
That’s how he’s introduced.
That’s arrogant. It’s like calling yourself “Last Man Standing.”
LOKI: Is it arrogant if you can back it up?
Can he back it up?
Yeah.
That’s scary.
Imagine a million of them.
I’d rather not.
Where are you taking me?
It’s all right, it’s a little off the beaten path.
I have no memory of having my memory wiped.
LOKI: You know where you’re going?
Yeah, it’s just right up here.
It’s been a while since I’ve been down here.
Actually, I’m not sure I’ve ever been down here.
Oh, hey, welcome to R & A.
MOBIUS: Good. We’re in the right place.
We have a little bit of a situation we wanted to run by you.
Mobius!
Wow.
Great to see you again.
Good to see you, too. Yeah, I…
Loki, I wanna introduce you to…
I’m Ouroboros.
Nice to meet you, Loki.
Sorry.
Ouroboros.
LOKI: Ouroboros, hi.
But he calls me O.B.
Yeah, I call him O.B.
That’s a nickname I have. Yeah.
Wow.
How long has it been?
(EXHALES) How long has it been? Uh…
Could it be three or four…
Four hundred years.
What?
Feels like a thousand, right?
Yeah.
Remember, you got off on the wrong floor and I told you it was the wrong floor…
Wait, that’s right! Yes!
I stayed for a little bit. He took me over…
You stayed…
No, you left immediately.
Well, I’m back.
Yes, you are.
Believe it or not, he was my last visitor.
Wow.
Reunited. Four hundred years.
Yeah.
That’s right.
LOKI: Yeah.
Hey, how are the other guys doin’?
What other guys?
What other guys?
It’s just O.B.
It’s just O.B.
Yeah. O.B.
Oh. Hang on.
Hold on, O.B. Okay.
The work orders really pile up if I take a break, so I just keep at it.
Forever. No sleep.
O.B., we just have a quick question for you.
(MACHINE RATTLING)
Great being part of a team.
So, how is the team doing up there?
Pretty great. Yeah. I mean, well…
You know about the Time-Keepers and, you know…
That! That’s what’s been happening.
Wow. Time slipping.
What, you… Time… You know that?
Yeah.
You’ve seen that?
Yeah.
Can you fix that?
No.
It’s impossible to time slip in the TVA.
I know, but we just saw it happen.
Yeah. I’m having trouble reconciling that.
(WHOOSHING)
(SIGHS)
Ouroboros.
Uh, may I call you “O.B.”?
“O.B.”?
I like that.
Uh, do I know you?
Yes.
In the future. Well, it’s your future.
My present. It’s complicated.
I’ve been pulled through
different times in the TVA…
Time slipping.
That!
I’ve been time slipping in the TVA…
It’s impossible to time slip in the TVA.
But you saw it happen.
Yeah.
I’m having trouble reconciling that.
Looked like your friend was time slipping, but it must be something else.
I’ve never seen anything close to that happen before.
Wait.
No.
There was one time.
That guy that was here? What was his name?
Loki?
Yeah.
A long time ago, he came to me complaining about time slipping.
How did I not remember that?
Wait, is he talking to you in the past and you’re just remembering it?
Wow. That makes perfect sense.
There’s no flaw in that logic.
Yes.
Time slipping is possible at the TVA.
Yes. You remember.
What did you tell him?
I told him…
That’s impossible.
That’s not impossible because I was just with you in the future.
Mmm… I think I would remember that.
Yes, but it hasn’t happened to you yet.
Do you see?
Good point.
It would be convenient if we were having this conversation in the future and this were the past.
We were. This is the… Never mind.
O.B., look, for the sake of argument, let’s just say, if it were possible to time slip in the TVA, how might one…
It’s not.
I understand that.
But theoretically, if it were possible to time slip in the TVA, how might one remedy that?
First off, someone in the time you want to end up in would need a Temporal Aura Extractor.
Do you have one of those?
I do not.
O.B.: Ha! I got it.
One Temporal Aura Extractor.
Great.
Can you hold onto that until my friend Mobius drops by?
No. Wait.
Yes?
I actually do have an Extractor here.
One Temporal Aura Extractor.
And did you happen to discuss how to use such a thing with my friend?
You need to get to the Temporal Loom, so the Extractor can pull Loki directly out of the time stream.
Wait, so, I need to get to the Temporal Loom so the Extractor can pull Loki out of the time stream?
But it could be dangerous.
How dangerous?
Not too bad if you’re quick about it.
Gotta be quick about it.
If you spend too long in it, that kinda temporal energy will peel the skin right off you.
Wait, you said “not too bad” and you’re talking about me getting my skin peeled off.
Not too bad compared to what Loki has to do.
Why, what’s Loki gotta do?
Violently rip myself from every thread of time and space?
All at once?
That means prune yourself.
Why?
When something is pruned, it’s released from time, so the hope is that after you prune yourself, the Extractor will pull you into the present.
Of course.
Yeah.
Um… and then if it doesn’t do that?
You heard about how if you fall into a black hole you turn into spaghetti?
No.
Good.
The less you know about that, the better.
(LOKI GRUNTS)
Damn it!
O.B.: Hey, Loki’s back.
I guess you two are ready to go.
Wait, am I ready to get my skin peeled off? I don’t know.
Am I ready to rip myself from every thread of time?
I’d rather have that.
You’d rather be disassembled and never reassembled?
Than have your skin ripped off?
LOKI: At least you get to live.
Live? What’s the quality of life with no skin?
There has to be another way.
Huh. Been doing that all day.
MOBIUS: No, it’s not the lamp.
We’re having power surges all through the TVA.
What did you say?
So, the timeline is branching now?
I bet that’s what’s causing the power surges.
And maybe your time slipping.
Really? How?
Things are a mess upstairs. This better be important.
It is.
The branching is overloading the Temporal Loom.
Temporal Loom?
That’s bad.
You know, the Temporal Loom.
It’s in the TVA Guidebook.
LOKI: The what?
O.B.: There’s one on every desk at the TVA.
It’s a detailed index of every mechanical classification and maintenance routine in each sector, on each device, and inside every computer program at the TVA.
(DOOR OPENS)
I wrote it myself.
Okay, O.B., this piece just came off right here.
Is that important? I think…
(MACHINE RUMBLING)
(RUMBLING CONTINUES)
The Temporal Loom is the heart of the TVA.
It’s where raw time is refined into physical timeline.
And it’s not constructed to weave together so many new branches, so it’s overloading.
I’ve never seen it like this.
LOKI: It looks like a disaster.
O.B.: It is a disaster.
You don’t get down here too much, I guess.
O.B.: I never had to.
Miss Minutes took care of everything.
I just ran diagnostics every few hundred years.
So, O.B., what do we do? How do we stop it? The meltdown?
We need to prune those extra branches.
That means the death of countless people. We can’t do that.
Then I’ll need to close the blast doors to protect the TVA, while I figure out how to retrofit it to handle those branches.
What about the time slipping?
Once those doors close, we won’t be able to re-sync you, so, it’s now or never.
What?
(BREATHING HEAVILY)
Okay.
Now!
O.B.: Wait!
It’s now, but now isn’t for a little bit.
We still gotta get Mobius into position.
But first…
Mobius, to fix Loki’s time slipping, you’ll go out there and launch the Extractor,
which will pull Loki from the time stream before I need to close the blast doors.
Loki, this timer is synced to the Loom.
You’ll stand by to prune yourself within moments after this turns green.
Green means Mobius succeeded.
Green means prune.
If you’re too late, you will be lost to time forever and Mobius will lose all of his skin.
Okay, you’ve got about an hour.
You’ve got about five minutes.
Anyway, I’m gonna get everything ready.
Okay.
Dox and her crew are raiding the armory.
They’re going after Sylvie. That’s their only lead.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing? Where are you going?
Sylvie, Dox…
No!
We have one shot at this.
HUNTER B-15: I’ll handle Dox.
Good luck.
Mobius, if I… If I don’t make it back, I…
You’ll make it back.
Right, but when I use this thing, I might not make it back…
(CLATTERS)
He’ll make it back.
(GRUNTS)
(MACHINE WARBLING)
It’s the future.
The Timestick.
Once these doors open, the temporal radiation will start aging away your suit, so get down the gangway, lock the Temporal Aura Extractor into place, and hoof it back here the moment I tell you to.
How am I gonna hoof it in this?
You got to.
Or what?
Or the blast doors will close and lock you out.
And then, your suit will age away, you will age away,
and you’ll get very old, and all your skin will get peeled away, and you will die.
Is this cracked?
You’re good.
O.B.!
Get ready to see some hoofin’ like you’ve never seen before.
Okay.
(DOOR BUZZES)
WOMAN ON PA: All personnel, report to your nearest Time Door evacuation point.
LOKI: The Timestick.
WOMAN ON PA: TVA code 1127.
All personnel, report to your nearest Time Door evacuation point.
All personnel, report to your nearest Time Door evacuation point.
LOKI: Come on. The Timestick.
WOMAN ON PA: TVA code 1127.
LOKI: There’s still time.
All personnel, report to your nearest Time Door evacuation point.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
MOBIUS: Damn it!
Go.
(BEEPING)
No.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
Mobius, I need to close the blast doors now to have any hope of fixing the Loom.
MOBIUS: Give him more time. He can still make it.
O.B.: Mobius, we have 30 seconds.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
(DOOR THUMPING)
(RINGING CONTINUES)
O.B.: Five.
Four.
Three.
Three.
Three.
MOBIUS: No. Not yet.
Not yet!
Give him more time!
Sorry.
(ALARM BLARES)
No. No.
O.B. OVER RADIO: Mobius, listen to me.
There is nothing you can do for him.
He’s lost to time.
(MOBIUS GRUNTING)
He’s not going to make it.
(TELEPHONE RINGING)
(PANTING) There you are!
(GRUNTS)
(LOKI GRUNTS)
(MOBIUS GROANING)
We need to find Sylvie.
Where are they going?
All this for Sylvie?
HUNTER D-90: I don’t buy it.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
(PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
How do I do this?
What would you like?
Not squirrel, not possum, not rats.
Something that’s already dead, and nothing with a face.
Please.
You can try our new Chicken McNuggets, and we have a Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, and a hamburger, cheeseburger.
(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
I quite like the Quarter Pounder, which you can try with or without cheese.
I wanna try everything.
Okay.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
