Major spoilers below for Loki's Season 1 finale, so if you're not in a timeline where you know all the answers, be warned!
For any Marvel fans who thought Loki would wait for the last minute to drop its big villain reveal, the finale "For All Time. Always" proved them both wrong and right. The exposition-packed episode sated the wishes for everyone waiting to see Jonathan Majors' MCU debut, while technically still not giving viewers the "real" Kang the Conquerer, as it were. But at least now we know for sure that Loki is the first live-action MCU series to confirm a second season is on the way.
But just because that one particular very important Loki question has been answered doesn't mean all of our brain-shattering inquiries and curiosities were fully explained away. So before the end of time gets here unexpectedly, I'm running through some of the biggest issues I'll be wondering about until Season 2 arrives.
Where Is Ravonna Renslayer Going?
Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Ravonna Renslayer has been a mystery in and of herself throughout Loki's first six episodes, and while the finale gave viewers a look at her past as one "Rebecca Tourminet" before she was taken from her timeline and brought to the TVA, it left us uncertain about her future. Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a loving reunion with Owen Wilson's Mobius, Ravonna is only looking out for Number One, and she used a Time Door to go off "in search of free will." It appears as if whatever documents Miss Minutes downloaded had quite the impact if it caused Ravonna to immediately pack up and leave the TVA behind even as she's still defending its purpose. Is this how the MCU is setting up Ravonna and Kang's comic book relationship?
Did Ravonna Actually Have A Secret Analyst?
While we're on the subject of Ravonna, one of the bigger tangential theory threads revolved around the TVA judge's supposed secret analyst, which Mobius suspected was connected to the non-TVA ink pen she used. However, Wunmi Mosaku's Hunter B-15 proved that pen came from Ravonna's FDR High School past, and no analyst references happened in the finale. So does that mean it was all just misdirection? Or, as it's gone with other MCU projects were every line is put under a microscope, is this just something fans took too far, like WandaVision's ? Considering the show also didn't explain Episode 5's reference to a space ship that can reach the end of time, perhaps this analyst thread is still a knot waiting to happen later in these characters' narratives.
What Happens Next For Sylvie: Villainy Or Heroism?
When it comes to characters getting what they want, Sophie di Martino's Sylvie has a wildly solid success rate, to the point where she bungled the entire universe to get revenge for her misplaced life. Now that she finally succeeded, though, what will be the next motivation to guide the next phase of her life? Will she attempt to atone for murdering He Who Remains by going out and killing all the war-mongering variants? Will she continue attempting to destroy the TVA in addition to direct attacks on that particular version of Kang? How will her reunion with Loki go whenever it happens? In Sylvie we trust...most of the time.
Will Any 'Good' Kang Variants Emerge From The Multiverse?
Perhaps as a reflection of the two Lokis he was facing, Jonathan Majors' He Who Remains was a playful trickster, as opposed to the time narcissist that Kang the Conqueror can be in the comics. And while we obviously know that some super-evil version(s) of Kang are coming in the future - definitely to Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and possibly to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness - does that automatically mean that every single Kang variant in the MCU's future will be on a destructive tear? Or is there a chance that, similar to how things went in Loki for Tom Hiddleston's character, a fairly decent iteration of Kang will arrive at some point to assist Marvel protagonists in taking the big bad down? Am I looking for "The Matrix Reloaded's Mr. Smith fight, but with Kang" in the end? Probably.
Were The Time-Keepers Other Kang Variants?
This question may not pan out as being important, but certain answers could definitely tie into the previous idea. As Loki and Sylvie go deeper into the castle, they are in a room with three standing statues (dubbed "Sentinels of time" by production designer Kasra Farahani) and one that's been demolished. Would that fourth statue have been of He Who Remains, similar to the lone statue viewers see standing at the TVA in the final scene? I can easily see this lonely AF dude smashing his own face in after so many years. Plus, it's pretty interesting that during the animated backstory, each of the variants was noticeably made to resemble Jonathan Majors EXCEPT for possibly the Time-Keepers, whose faces were blurred out and unseen when they appeared. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!?
Where Did That Apple Come From?
Okay, so I know for sure that this one won't be vital to the MCU's future, but where the hell did Kang get an apple from? Does the Citadel have a garden somewhere? Where did the dirt come from? And what about the coffee or whatever it was he was pouring for them to drink? There aren't even any lights in this place, so does he have a battery-powered espresso machine? How long should I spend on this one?
Did One Of Kang's Variants Create Miss Minutes?
Intriguingly, the big backstory from He Who Tells Backstories didn't get into the origin story of Miss Minutes, whom viewers witnessed zipping from the Citadel to the TVA. (That seemingly halted any theories about there being more than one Miss Minutes out there.) She was doing Kang's bidding in giving Ravonna whatever documents that sparked her exit, but she clearly still has some of her own agency that isn't tied to "doing whatever the humans tell her." And because she wasn't seen being particularly chummy with the Loki finale's version of Jonathan Majors' antagonist, does that mean she was actually created by another more duplicitous version? Or was someone else entirely responsible for bringing her artificial (or not) intelligence to life?
Why Didn't B-15 And Mobius' Roles Change?
Surely, part of the point in Loki's final scene was tricking viewers into thinking Tom Hiddleston's character was back in familiar territory, though that notion was quickly upended. But if everything is changed now for the Kang-run TVA, with its myriad timeline splits, then why weren't things different for Mobius and B-15? They seemed to have the same general motivating factors, and also appeared to be in semi-authoritative roles, but isn't that...weird? Wouldn't they either revert back to how things were before all the Loki mess? Is Mobius actually in charge, or does this timeline have Ravonna back in the boss role?
Where Will Loki Season 2 Kick Off Its Story?
Loki's finale fully unlocked the multiverse in ways that we only thought WandaVision would. (I do wonder if the precise moment He Who Remains died is when Wanda heard her children's voices in that finale.) But there are obviously lots of other Marvel projects happening in between now and Loki's second season premiere that have the potential to completely change the MCU around, making it hard to believe Loki Season 2 will be able to just fall back into showing what happened next during that final scene. I think the creative team will need to push the story forward quite a bit and then use flashbacks to fill in the blanks, especially if Quantumania features Kang being defeated (which it probably won't). Which is to say nothing of how Thor: Love and Thunder might affect things, and what might happen if Loki shows up in Doctor Strange's sequel.
Whether all of these questions get answered soon or none of them do, I couldn't have had a better time with Loki's six-episode first season and all the big swings it took. Relive each and every installment on Disney+ as we wait for more news about Season 2 and beyond, with the rest of the 2021 Summer TV season also there for the enjoying.
