‘Loki’ Season Two, Episode Three: ‘1893’ - Recap
From Tarek
The third episode of Loki opens in 1868 Chicago. Renslayer zaps in and is looking for Miss Minutes. She asks her what she’s doing there, assuming she is going somewhere important. Miss Minutes asks her for a package she was supposed to bring. She says that he who remains wants the package dropped off through the window of a nearby home. Renslayer is confused. She asks why he didn’t do it and Miss Minutes says he’s dead. She said he put this plan in place before his death. She says once he comes back he’ll once again be atop the TVA. The package was a TVA handbook.
Loki and OB are freaking out because he needs the aura of he who remains to stop the pruning. Mobius says finding Miss Minutes is a bad idea after Loki suggests it. He thinks it’s the only way to figure all of this out. Loki and Mobius zap to Chicago in 1893 looking for answers. It was the Chicago world's fair. They find a kid selling newspapers and of course, Miss Minutes is on the front page. They have some playful banter as they take in the fair. Their relationship has been the best part of both seasons thus far. They see a sign of temporal marvels and go to investigate. Renslayer is sitting front row. They push past some onlookers but stop to watch the show.
It’s at this point we get our first glimpse of Jonathon Majors. Mobius seems a bit let down. He says he thought He Who Remains would be more menacing. Loki tells him that he definitely is. Loki wants to leave because he was warned about this version of He Who Remains but Mobius doesn’t believe that this version could be responsible for the end of time. He’s getting heckled by the crowd. He says he wants to light the entire planet. The machine he has on stage electrifies and the crowd erupts. Renslayer approaches him and says she’d like to talk but a man from the crowd interrupts and says he wants his machine but Timely brushes him off. Everyone wants his Loom and now everyone is bidding for it. He sells it to someone for a thousand dollars. He slips the money under a man’s hat and walks out.
Renslayer still can’t believe that Timely will wind up being He Who Remains but Miss Minutes keeps reassuring her. She approaches Timely again but Loki and Mobius intercept them. They start talking to each other. It’s revealed that he’s conning the townsfolk by hustling his inventions onto them. Many of them are asking for their money back and he can hardly make it out without someone running up to him. Sylvie then runs up with a sword and immediately tries to kill Timely. She wants to watch the TVA burn. Loki is trying to explain to her that without Timely providing his help to fix the loom, her life on her branch is going to be over. They go back and forth a bit more and Sylvie still isn’t grasping the weight of what’s happening. She says I can’t let him live and sends Timely and Loki flying through the air. Miss Minutes becomes a giant and scares all the townsfolk off so Renslayer and Timely can escape.
Once alone he starts showing her a temperature-controlled chair. They’re trying to explain to him how important he is to the fate of the universe and he’s looking at them like they have three heads. Miss Minutes says he created her and says she knows that he will become a great man at the end of time. They explain how they need him to fix the Loom. He escapes through the door when three men want their money back for inventions. Loki pushes them aside but doesn’t find Timely as he and Renslayer are hiding in a corner.
They escape and get on a boat together. They’re talking about the guidebook that Renslayer dropped at the beginning of the episode. Timely eventually puts two and two together. He says whoever it was he thanked them. He says that book has shaped his whole life. Renslayer says she’s starting to see the man he’ll become. He then puts her in the rowboat while she’s asleep drops it into the ocean and takes off with Miss Minutes. The next day he’s frantically looking for something in a lab of some kind. He finds something he calls the culmination of his life’s work. Miss Minutes talks about how much she and Timely have gone through together but questions why he never allowed her to have a real body.
Renslayer shows back up and threatens him with a weapon when Loki barges back in. He and Mobius say they need him. She says she put the TVA above her happiness. Then Sylvie appears with her sword Timely pleads for his life saying he isn’t the man she thinks he is. Sylvie lets Timely go with Mobius and Loki through the time door. Sylvie and Renslayer are alone together and Sylvie wants to kill her too. She opens a time door and kicks Renslayer into o it. She winds up seeing a decrepit version of Kang sitting on the throne in a wasteland. Miss Minutes says she knows secrets about Renslayer but if she told her she’d be really angry as the episode ends.
New episodes of Loki premiere every Thursday on Disney+.