With last week’s episode descending into a Doctor Who-esque cul-de-sac, episode 4 of Loki, ‘The Nexus Event’ pulls things back to a much more enthralling direction.  *Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*

We’ve waited longer than we should have for this series to take off, but finally with this episode it seems things are actually happening.  As we’ve previously noted the preceding episodes spent far too long meandering around establishing the TVA and not really doing much, so it’s nice that some of that is paying off now.

Primarily, ‘The Nexus Event’ revolves purely around events in the TVA.  With the emotional connection between Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) creating an extremely divergent branch from the Sacred Timeline, Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) are able to spot them and appear just before the Loki’s are destroyed, taking them into custody.  The TVA and Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in particular see this as a massive win, but really it’s the start of the unravelling that’s about to occur.

In some ways they do get their moment of glory, but the seed of doubt has already been placed, especially with Hunter B-15.  There has been some nice development of her character through these past couple of episodes, moving from the initial presentation of a by the book, dogmatic soldier, to the now more compassionate, open minded person out for justice.  This has been played very nicely by Mosaku who has added these layers with care.

Not only does Hunter B-15 get her moment of clarity, but even Mobius digs a little deeper and discovers enough to convince him that Loki was right.  This doesn’t end well for him or the series though, as after breaking Loki free, Renslayer prunes him, and the series kills off a major character.  It is possible, given what comes later, that he isn’t really dead, or maybe we’ll discover that there’s a whole host of Mobius clones kicking around.  We’ll have to see, but Wilson has been a great element, so it would be sad to lose him.

The big reveal of ‘The Nexus Event’ comes when Renslayer takes Loki and Sylvie to see the Timekeepers.  At first this seems to go as Renslayer hopes, but Hunter B-15, now cognizant of the lie behind the TVA, soon intervenes, releasing the Loki’s and a fight ensues.  This ends with Renslayer unconscious and Sylvie attacking the Timekeepers.  Here we get what is either a nice twist or a roll your eyes moment, depending on your viewpoint, as it goes full on Wizard of Oz.

With the Timekeepers in the chamber revealed as androids, it isn’t clear whether there is another power behind them, or the Timekeepers themselves are somewhere else with their feet up.  That mystery definitely sets things up to push this series in an intriguing direction, even if the manner in which it occurred could be classed as a bit ropey.  I’m sure there will be many theories at this moment floating around, with many aspects of the comics being touted as possible future directions.  We shall have to see.

Crucially, it is after the ‘big reveal’ that a more significant turn of events occurs, which again could be seen as great or cheesy.  With the Loki’s about to have a quasi-incest moment, Renslayer wakes up and prunes Loki.  Sylvie then almost prunes Renslayer, which she is urged to do, but instead decides to threaten her for answers.  The other half of this significant moment is actually in the post-credits sequence, as Loki wakes up somewhere else, with three alternate Loki’s standing above him.  This includes the long-awaited arrival of Richard E. Grant, finally!

Like a few other things which have been left up in the air, this twist opens the door for Hunter C-20 and Mobius to still be alive somewhere.  At this point all bets are off, and it now feels like this series could go in a unique direction, moving away from some of the very staid setup of the first half of the series.  This all gives the feeling that the last couple of episodes could be really interesting and up to the standard of Wandavision, much like ‘The Nexus Event’ has been.   Let’s hope so.