Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 3.
The latest episode of Loki entitled, “1893”, finally gave us a chance to catch back up with Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Miss Minutes (Tara Strong), who went rogue at the end of the first season. After handing a child a copy of the TVA Guidebook in 1868, Renslayer and Miss Minutes stepped 25 years into the future to retrieve the Kang variant they created. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) are on a similar mission to capture the essence of the He Who Remains Variant and use it to fix the Temporal Loom and, because of their same target, the episode becomes one big game of “Capture the Kang Variant.”
The Variant in question is a man named Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors), who we saw teased all the way back during the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania post-credit scene. Timely is a con artist who prefers the term inventor, hooking people with elaborate performances of his machinery and selling them for large sums of money before the owners discover the inventions are merely scams. He’s made several of the townspeople angry, which complicates things for both parties hunting him, but it is Ravonna and Miss Minutes who manage to escape with him. Following several betrayals between the three and the odd, unexpected realization that Miss Minutes is very much in love with He Who Remains, Loki and Mobius finally catch up to the bunch. During the confrontation, Mobius gets a chance to clear the air with Ravonna who used to be just as much his friend as his boss.
Ravonna’s Absence Created a Power Vacuum at the TVA
Ravonna seems to have changed, as Mobius tries to get through to her by saying she has lost her way. Ravonna is unamused and rhetorically inquires about the state of the TVA. The answer that she is fishing for is, of course, fairly clear. As we’ve seen in the episodes since the premiere, the TVA, as fabricated as it may be, is still vital to keeping the Sacred Timeline and its branches intact. And since Ravonna took off, there has been no order.
Vacating her position as Judge just as Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killed He Who Remains and unleashing chaos on the Sacred Timeline was particularly bad timing as there was no one to call the shots and leaves gaps open for power to be seized. Ravonna may lean more on the “evil” side of things now, but during her time as Judge, she maintained order at the TVA — an order that seemed to be working, because nothing like what happened during the events of Loki have occurred for eons on the timeline. Without her, however, we saw disorder at the convened council in Episode 1 and witnessed the rise of General Dox (Kate Dickie) and her rogue agents, whose plan to prune any and all branches of the Sacred Timeline was absolutely devastating, killing billions across all timelines.
Though Loki, Mobius, and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) have been doing their best to keep things moving smoothly, there is still no elected Judge to fill Ravonna’s spot at the TVA and even if there was, it is likely they wouldn’t be respected the way Ravonna was. As she tells Mobius during their confirmation, “You have no idea what it takes to lead.” She argues that everything crumbled in her absence because she is the only one who can stabilize the TVA. Since meeting her in Season 1, we’ve discovered that Ravonna is a very power-hungry figure, something that clouds her morals greatly and allows her to give a villainy monologue every once in a while. And while monologues like this are typically antagonists blowing smoke, Ravonna might actually have a point here.
Could Ravonna Have Stopped Dox’s Genocidal Mission?
Pre-Loki and Sylvie shaking up the status quo, Ravonna had a firm grip on the organization. Her collaboration with Miss Minutes and Mobius, combined with the respect she had from her Hunters and Analysts, allowed for the swift flow of time, unimpeded by any rogue Variants. Now, it is important to stipulate that Ravonna’s reign occurred before the secrets of He Who Remains were uncovered — they still sought the wisdom of the (faux) Time Keepers and believed that pruning branches was the only way to keep the Sacred Timeline safe from harm. But imagine, for a moment, that Renslayer never left at the end of last season. If she had taken a stance on the TVA similar to Mobius or Hunter B-15, she would be able to steer the TVA in the right direction, letting the unpruned branches grow in peace. General Dox would never attempt her uprising, and if she did, she’d likely be pruned by Ravonna herself. As she points out to Mobius, she was consistently picking up his slack and making the choices he never had the guts to make.
Although Mobius is undeniably a good person and one of the most important members of the TVA, if there is one thing we know about him, he’s scared of reality and change. He would rather not know the truth of his real life on the Sacred Timeline, so it would make sense that he wouldn’t want to make the big timeline-affecting decisions that Ravonna had to make on a daily basis as Judge. Ravonna worked thanklessly for eons at the TVA, so her desire for more power — power equivalent to He Who Remains’ — is at least understandable, if not confoundedly naive.
Alas, it seems as though Ravonna has hit her point of no return, literally and figuratively. While the new digs are likely temporary, Ravonna finds herself at The End of Time after a confrontation with Sylvie, leaving the TVA to continue to spiral without leadership. After summoning Miss Minutes, the now heart-broken clock alludes to knowing all of He Who Remains’ secrets and a “really big” secret about Ravonna that she may not even be aware of. As the episode ends on Miss Minutes’ tease, it’s clear that Ravonna’s story is not yet over, even though her rule at the TVA might just be.
The Big Picture
- Ravonna’s absence at the TVA has resulted in a power vacuum and chaos since there is no one to maintain order and make crucial decisions in Loki Season 2.
- If Ravonna had stayed and maintained her position as Judge, she could have potentially prevented General Dox’s genocidal mission and kept the Sacred Timeline intact.
- Despite her power-hungry nature, Ravonna’s desire for more power and her ability to make tough decisions as Judge is somewhat understandable, given the challenges she faced and the circumstances at the TVA.
