In Season 2, Episode 3 of Disney Plus’s Loki series, titled “1893,” we delve into the journey of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) hunting for the former Judge of the TVA, Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Miss Minutes (Tara Strong). The episode begins in Chicago, Illinois, in 1868 in the Sacred Timeline, where Renslayer meets with Miss Minutes. The two are on a mission to fulfill He Who Remains’ (Jonathan Majors) final request before his death. Miss Minutes states that their first task is to put a TVA manual book through a window in a random house in Chicago, to Renslayer’s confusion. Unknown to Renslayer, the house is resided by a young Victor Timely (Nasri Thompson), one of He Who Remains’ variants across the Sacred Timeline and the multiverse. The young Victor finds the TVA manual and picks it up to read it.
In the TVA, the Temporal Loom overloads again by the growth of more branched timelines. The Temporal Loom’s overload will destroy the TVA if not modified by Ouroborus (Ke Huy Quan). However, only He Who Remains and Miss Minutes have access to the Temporal Loom, so the next course is for Loki and Mobius to hunt Renslayer because Miss Minutes is with her. Loki and Mobius track Renslayer’s TemPad to Chicago in 1893 and arrive at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 in a Branched Timeline. During their investigations, the duo attends the “Victor Timely’s Astounding Temporal Marvels” presentation after noticing the word “Temporal” in the advertisement. Renslayer and Miss Minutes are present to watch the presentation to complete their second task: Meet Victor Timely. During the presentation, Loki is shocked that Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors) is one of He Who Remains’ variants. Timely introduces to the audience his invention, the Temporal Loom Prototype, a device that can power up all of Chicago and the world with energy. Following the presentation, Timely meets Ravonna, who wants to discuss his future. However, Ravonna is interrupted by the Robber Baron (Richard Dixon), who wants to partner with Timely and acquire ownership and the rights to produce the device. Timely refuses because he does not want to have partners. Instead, the Robber Baron purchases the Temporal Loom prototype from Timely with one thousand dollars.
Timely attempts to leave with his one thousand dollars, but he is confronted simultaneously by Loki, Mobius, and Ravonna. Loki and Mobius want to take Timely to the TVA to access and fix the Temporal Loom, while Ravonna wants to complete He Who Remains’ task of grooming Timely to become the next He Who Remains. The encounter ends badly with the Robber Baron and his men chasing Timely because the Temporal Loom Prototype turns out to be fake along with Timely’s other inventions, proving he is not an inventor but a con man. Timely escapes the Robber Baron, and Mobius calls Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) about Timely’s identity as one of He Who Remains’ variants. Suddenly, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) appears and attempts to kill Timely because she vows to kill any of He Who Remains’ variants to prevent his rise and return. The confrontation leads to a fight and a chase to acquire Timely, with Ravonna and Miss Minutes finding Timely first. Miss Minutes transforms into a giant ghost-like projection of herself to create a distraction by scattering the scared crowd of people.
Timely takes Ravonna and Miss Minutes to his home to hear why they came for him. Renslayer tells Timely about He Who Remains, the creation of the TVA, and He Who Remains’ death at the hands of Sylvie and Loki. Renslayer also informs Timely they need him to fix the Temporal Loom in the TVA. Timely agrees but wants to acquire his latest prototype in his lab across the lake.
Loki, Mobius, and the Robber Baron find Timely’s home, and they attempt to chase them again, to their failure. Later, Timely, Renslayer, and Miss Minutes take a ship to cross the lake. While on the ship, Timely thanks Renslayer and Miss Minutes for giving him the TVA manual and tells them he is a genius, but he does not have the proper equipment to make his ideas and the machines in the TVA manual work. Timely and Renslayer begin to bond to Miss Minutes’ jealousy. Miss Minutes’ jealousy leads to her conspiring with Timely to drop a sleeping Renslayer into the lake on a floating lifeboat. Renslayer is furious at the betrayal and quickly rows after the ship.
Soon, Timely and Miss Minutes arrive at the former’s lab, where he collects all his research papers and an unknown device. Timely is ready to head for the TVA, but Miss Minutes wants him to remain in Chicago and continue his work. Miss Minutes reveals she was in love with He Who Remains and now Timely. The reason was that in the past, He Who Remains transformed a chess-playing AI into the powerful sentient AI Miss Minutes. He Who Remains also gave Miss Minutes the autonomy to write her programming and find her path in life. However, Miss Minutes resented He Who Remains for not giving her a female human body so she could be with him and rule with him. In other words, Miss Minutes wants Victor Timely to become the new He Who Remains and her new lover. Timely is scared and uses Renslayer’s TemPad to lock Miss Minutes away.
Following this, Renslayer, Loki, and Mobius appear to capture Timely. Upset, Renslayer confides in Mobius about her frustration, having dedicated eons to the TVA with nothing to show but He Who Remains’ instructions. Sylvie appears and attempts to kill Timely, but he convinces her of his innocence, as he has not committed the crimes He Who Remains did. This realization leads Sylvie to allow Loki and Mobius to take Timely to the TVA to help fix the Temporal Loom. She also prunes Renslayer for her “power-hungry” motives and exiles her to the End of Time. At the End of Time, Renslayer and Miss Minutes come across the corpse of He Who Remains. Upset with Timely’s betrayal, Miss Minutes begins to reveal all of He Who Remains’ secrets to Renslayer, including one that will make her extremely angry and vengeful.
Timely Praising Ouroborus and the TVA Manual
In Season 2, Episode 3 of Loki, Director Kasra Farahani and Writers Eric Martin, Kasra Farahani, and Jason O’Leary crafted a remarkable episode that delves into the story of Victor Timely. This episode reveals Victor Timely as a genius similar to He Who Remains but forced to become a con man due to his lack of proper equipment and resources to bring his ideas and inventions to life. Surprisingly, many of his ideas and inventions are Ouroborus’ inventions because the latter wrote the TVA Manual, the manual Timely used to make his inventions.
Therefore, the connection between He Who Remains and Ouroborus suggests a dynamic, where Ouroborus, as the only TVA employee allowed to retain memories of the Past TVA and its formation, may be the true inventor and creator of the TVA’s devices and time technology. He Who Remains, in this scenario, appears to be a trickster who pilfered Ouroborus’ work. Nevertheless, He Who Remains credited Ouroborus for everything built within the TVA, even having Ouroborus’ picture in the TVA Manual. Because of that, Ouroborus became a TVA legend and celebrity among the TVA staff like Casey.
Rating: 9/10