Warning: The following recap for Loki Season 2, Episode 5, “Science/Fiction,” contains spoilers for the Marvel Cinematic Universe show.
Loki Season 2 still has a ton to do — or undo, if the writers are committing to last week’s wild cliffhanger.
Loki Season 2, Episode 5, titled “Science/Fiction,” opens with a terrified Loki, eyes squeezed shut against what may be the end of the universe, realizing that the Temporal Loom didn’t obliterate him and that he’s now alone at the TVA. That’s right: Mobius, B-15, Casey, and OB are nowhere to be found. Hell, no one is anywhere to be found. The TVA seems to have been abandoned, leaving a time-slipping Loki alone in its crumbling headquarters.
As Loki cautiously investigates, everything around him morphs into a noodle-y mass that envelopes him before consuming the TVA. The screen in the timeline-monitoring room enters its fail safe mode, and then everything is gone.
The next scene takes us to 1962 San Francisco on a branched timeline, where a group of prisoners — a group that appears to include Casey — attempts an escape from Alcatraz. Casey insists his name is Frank and that he has no idea who Loki is. Before they can get any further into the conversation, Loki time-slips to another branch, this time encountering Hunter-15, who works as a pediatrician at a New York hospital. She glimpses Loki before he’s ripped away to another branch.
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Cut to the shot we’ve been waiting almost two seasons to see: a grinning Mobius straddling a jet ski. In this timeline, Mobius is a jet ski salesman in Cleveland, Ohio, and he’s just shown off one of their newer models to a thoroughly disenchanted customer. Loki appears and chats with him just long enough to learn that Mobius also doesn’t recognize him. Cue another time-slip.
In 1994, OB is a struggling science fiction author who sneaks his books into bookstores and then buys copies of them to shore up interest in his work. Loki shows up and manages to avoid time-slipping long enough to explain his situation to OB, who remains intent on selling his books but eventually offers some insight. He points out that it’s impossible to time travel in a place that has no time, and that traveling to a time/place that doesn’t exist anymore is just as impossible. He tells Loki that he needs to rein in his time-slipping, but Loki claims it’s random and there’s no way for him to control it. OB points out that because Loki keeps time-slipping to the specific points in time to which his friends were sent to, he can control it. And — this is where things get more convoluted — that if he assembles everyone who was present when the loom exploded, he can undo what happened.
Loki time-slips away again, but not before handing OB the TVA guidebook. He reunites with Mobius in Cleveland and attempts to explain everything to him, only for OB to join them via Time Door. Loki convinces Mobius to come with them, and using the Time Door, they fetch B-15 and Casey from their respective branches and convene in OB’s reality.
Loki then visits Sylvie at her McDonald’s, where he’s shocked to learn she still remembers everything that happened. They discuss their options over a drink. Sylvie explains that Mobius, Casey, B-15, and OB are all where they’re supposed to be and that Loki should leave them in their timelines. Loki admits he doesn’t know where he belongs without his friends, and that he wants to save everything because he doesn’t want to be alone. Sylvie leaves and Loki tells everyone he’s sending them home.
Shortly after, Sylvie’s timeline starts coming apart. She uses a Time Door to reunite with Loki, who is still trying to convince everyone to go home. With Sylvie now present, Loki realizes they have everything — and everyone — they need to reset time and reverse the Temporal Loom’s destruction. Casey, OB, Mobius, and Sylvie suddenly unravel the same way Victor Timely did, prompting Loki to time-skip to just before the Loom bursts.
New episodes of Loki Season 2 release Thursdays on Disney+.
