Loki episode 5 — out now on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar — set up the end of the new Marvel series, and possibly, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As we head into the season finale, Loki episode 6, due next Wednesday, Loki episode 5 was naturally a table-setting episode in some ways. That’s fitting, for so much of it took place in a vast purgatory called The Void.
There, we were introduced to a new Marvel villain, the dark purple cloud mass known as Alioth, that consumes everything it touches. Per Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), it’s hiding the originators of the Time Variance Authority. Though it might end up being more too, given Alioth has ties to the multiverse — a key component of MCU’s Phase Four — and Kang the Conqueror, the villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Additionally, the penultimate episode of Loki season 1 confirmed that the alligator from the Loki episode 4 post-credits scene was in fact, an alligator Loki. “Don’t question it,” as Loki says deep into Loki episode 5. There were a lot of funny asides and moments thanks to the alligator Loki, alongside further jabs and teases for what else other Lokis — whom we met inside The Void — have been up to in their lives. The Kid Loki (Jack Veal) killed Thor. Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) became a recluse. There’s even a President Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Loki episode 5 had Easter eggs too, with an interesting one being a Mjolnir and a shrunken Thor in a bottle buried in the earth in The Void.
Loki episode 5 — titled “Journey Into Mystery”, directed by Kate Herron, and written by Tom Kauffman — began with a stylistic stroll through where we left off in Loki episode 4, with the camera spinning and drifting through the TVA, the golden elevators and into the Time Keepers’ chamber, and then beyond into The Void, a desolate and dreary wasteland where Loki (Hiddleston) is now stuck. The scene won’t make much sense if you haven’t seen Loki episode 4 post-credits scene, as Classic Loki tells Loki to run from Alioth, saying they are his lunch.
Back at the TVA, having decided to spare Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Sylvie wants her to spill the beans. But the TVA judge claims she’s as in the dark as Sylvie is — and wants the truth as much as Sylvie does. Ravonna then reveals that branched timelines aren’t rest, they are more like transferred to place where they can’t continue growing. That’s The Void, somewhere at the end of time. Nothing ever comes back from the void, Ravonna says, but she is willing to help Sylvie.