Warning! Spoilers for Loki episode 2.

episode 1, Loki had been officially contracted by TVA analyst Mobius M. Mobius to help apprehend another rogue Loki variant wreaking havoc on the timeline. In Loki episode 2, the hunt commences, culminating in a shocking twist and several major nexus events.

At the beginning of episode 2, Loki and Mobius are hard at work trying to track down the renegade variant who keeps taking out TVA hunter squads. Eventually, Loki makes a breakthrough – the variant is hiding in various apocalyptic moments across time, using the inevitable cataclysms to mask their impact on the timeline. After some digging, the duo whittle down the possibilities to a single moment in 2050 Alabama. They deploy with a team of hunters, but it’s all for naught as the Loki variant – a female Loki named Lady Loki in the Marvel comics – has already set her plan in motion. The episode ends as Lady Loki sends dozens of the TVA’s own reset charges to different points along the Sacred Timeline, sparking numerous nexus events just before vanishing through a time door with the other Loki  at her heels.

Related: Loki Confirms A Huge Villain Theory (And Debunks An MCU Return)

The whole episode is taut and action-packed, moving quickly from one revelation to the next as the search for Lady Loki intensifies. And with Loki now effectively framed for the crime, things could get even crazier in episode 3. Until then, Loki episode 2 has left some big questions hanging about Lady Loki, the Time-Keepers, and the very nature of the Sacred Timeline itself.

7. Where Did Lady Loki Come From?

Loki Episode 2 Lady Loki Reveal

Near the beginning of Loki episode 2, Mobius mentions that the TVA regularly encounters Loki variants, and that many of them vary in their physical appearance. Presumably, Lady Loki’s differences from the main MCU Loki are results of this same phenomenon. But where exactly do these altered variants come from? If the TVA does such a good job of keeping the Sacred Timeline intact, how is there room for so many different kinds of Loki? Lady Loki didn’t just appear from nothing, after all. She too must have been born, grown up, and had similar misadventures to the main Loki. So why is she only being discovered and confronted now?

It’s possible that, because the Sacred Timeline has been described as looping forever, it simply allows for different minor variations. Loki’s gender, for instance, might not matter much in the grand scheme of the universe, and therefore a female Loki appearing in one timeline, rather than a male, might not demand any intervention from the TVA. What level of variance demands intervention and what level is permissible hasn’t been made entirely clear yet in Loki, but it stands to reason that some things would be allowed to differ from one cycle of the timeline to the next. Still, that doesn’t explain how Lady Loki became aware of the TVA, or why’s she’s straying so far from her set role in the Sacred Timeline.

6. What Is Lady Loki’s Plan?

Loki Episode 2 Lady Loki In Red

Lady Loki effectively bombs the sacred timeline at the end of Loki episode 2. A TVA readout lists an ongoing set of times and places where she sent reset charges, including non-Earth locations like the living planet Ego and Thanos’ home world of Titan. The reset charges are meant to erase divergent branches from the Sacred Timeline, but by erasing moments of the Sacred Timeline itself, Lady Loki set off a chain reaction of major nexus events that will be difficult to contain.

Related: Loki: Every MCU Easter Egg In Episode 2

But why did she do it? And why did she kidnap a TVA hunter to find out the location of the Time-Keepers? The clearest possible answer is simply that Lady Loki wants to use her powers to destroy the Sacred Timeline and resurrect the original multiverse. That could just be an act of chaos – a believable motivation in itself for any Loki variant – but it’s likely that her motivations are more complex. There’s clearly something wrong about the Time-Keepers, from their mysterious mission to the fact that almost no one has ever seen them. If Lady Loki knows some secret about the Time-Keepers, or even if she just disagrees with three people determining the fates of the entire galaxy, that’s plenty of reason for her to want to restore the multiverse and end the TVA. The details, however, have yet to be revealed.

5. What Do The Time-Keepers Actually Want?

Loki Episode 2 Time Keeper Statue

The true motivations of the Time-Keepers have remained a mystery in Loki so far. Ostensibly, they simply want to maintain order by keeping the multiverse distilled into the single Sacred Timeline. However, there are already lots of clues that what the Time-Keepers truly want is more sinister. In episode 2, Mobius tells Loki that the Time-Keepers are busy figuring out how the Sacred Timeline should end, and that once that puzzle is solved, the TVA and all the rest of reality will converge into a single, peaceful conclusion. But there are a lot of holes in that story.

For starters, the Time-Keepers have presumably existed for eons. If they possess the power to create the entirety of the TVA and keep countless realities in check, it seems odd that they wouldn’t have been able to work out the end of the timeline by now. It’s also strange that almost no one at the TVA has ever even seen the Time-Keepers. Renslayer claims to interact with them, but that hasn’t been proven. How exactly the Time-Keepers managed to create the Sacred Timeline in the first place and what all happened during the purported multiverse war, also haven’t been revealed. In short, there’s a lot about the Time-Keepers that still doesn’t add up, and they’re only getting more mysterious with time.

4. What Does Ravonna Renslayer Know?

Ravonna Renslayer in her office with papers in her hands in Loki Episode 2

In Loki episode 2, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. That doesn’t necessarily mean that she’ll become a villain in the MCU, but it does open a lot of possibilities for her character. Given how little is truly known about the Time-Keepers, it’s possible that Renslayer knows more than she’s saying.

Related: Loki Has Already Made Odin's TWO Biggest Lies More Painful

3. What Would Happen If The Sacred Timeline Was Destroyed?

Sacred timeline TVA in Loki

During the start of Loki episode 2, Loki has a brief conversation with the sort-of-recorded, sort-of-sentient animated character Miss Minutes, who tells Loki that if the Sacred Timeline is permanently warped by an unfixable nexus event, reality as it’s known would be destroyed. But what does that actually mean? An MCU multiverse existed prior to the intervention of the Time-Keepers, which means it could be sustainable again. The only reason to think that the end of the Sacred Timeline would destroy reality is that, allegedly, the existence of the multiverse in the past led to a devastating war between the timelines. But the Time-Keepers could be lying about that war, and even if they’re not there’s no way to prove that the same thing would happen again if the multiverse were restored.

2. How Many Other Loki Variants Are There?

An image of Loki looking at a bearded Loki variant

The existence of Lady Loki begs the question, how many other Loki variants are out there in the MCU? Theoretically, there would be an endless number if the timeline truly continues to cycle in perpetuity. That means other Lokis could show up in the series, either on the side of Lady Loki, or as independent agents of chaos. Mobius says in episode 2 that rogue Loki variants pop up more than nearly any other person in history. Is that simply because of Loki’s mischievous nature, or could there be a deeper reason?

1. What Happens At The End Of The Sacred Timeline?

Loki New Timelines

Mobius tells Loki in episode 2 that the Time-Keepers haven’t yet sorted out how the Sacred Timeline ends. That detail opens up countless further questions about how the Sacred Timeline actually works. How far into the future does the current timeline go, and what happens when it hits the point that hasn’t yet been decided? Does the universe exist through its heat-death? Beyond? And what would a proper ending actually look like? As with many time travel stories, these questions ultimately just lead to more questions. It remains to be seen how many of the details will actually be revealed and explained. For now, the end of time will remain classified.

Next: Loki Episode 2 Ending Explained

Loki releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

Key Release Dates