Plot

Frayed nerves and paranoia infiltrate the TVA as Mobius and Hunter B-15 search for Loki and Sylvie.

The TVAs capture Loki and Sylvie, and Loki reveals what he's learned about the TVA agents' origins to Mobius. Meanwhile, Ravonna brings Sylvie and Loki before the Time Keepers, and one of them gets ahead of himself when the prisoners break free.—Gislef

The Past

A young Sylvie is playing in Asgard when Ravonna and three Minutemen portal in. Ravonna confirms that Sylvie is the variant they're looking for, and the Minutemen grab the girl while Ravonna says that they're arresting Sylvie for crimes against the Sacred Timeline. As they haul Sylvie away, the Minutemen activate a reset charge.

In the TVA, Ravonna takes Sylvie into the processing room. Another prisoner is hauled away, and Sylvie is processed and brought to the judge. Sylvie steals Ravonna's tempad, creates a portal, and escapes.

The Present

Ravonna meets with the three Time Keepers. Afterward, she leaves the chamber and Mobius asks Ravonna if she's okay. Ravonna says that she's not okay, and they blame her for the Lokis escaping. She says that the Time Keepers are all that stand between them and a temporal calamity, and Mobius says that if the Time Keepers want him to find the escapees, he needs access to C-20.

After Ravonna insists that it's impossible, Mobius says that he needs to find out what C-20 meant when she said repeatedly, "It's real," and what else she saw when she was with Sylvie. Ravonna tells him that Sylvie enchanted C-20 and scrambled her mind, and doesn't want people to panic. She warns that they're all in danger and tells Mobius to find the Lokis, and then leaves.

On Lamentis, meteors from the planet crash down on the moon. Loki finds Sylvie sitting alone outside the city and sits down with her. Loki apologizes, and Sylvie says that she remembers a little of her life in Asgard before she was taken, and she was born the Goddess of Mischief. As soon as that created a big enough detour from the Sacred Timeline, the TVA took her prisoner and erased her reality. Sylvie stole a tempad, escaped, and ran for a long time. Everywhere she went created a nexus event and drew the attention of the TVA, and she learned to hide in the ends of a thousand worlds. Sylvie figures that she'll die on Lamentis.

At the TVA, the analysts are unable to locate the Lokis. B-15 asks Mobius if there's news on C-20, and he says that there isn't. The Hunter insists that they to find the Lokis, and Mobius tells her that they will.

Meteors continue raining down on Lamentis, and Loki and Sylvie watch. Loki figures that what makes a Loki a Loki is that they survive no matter what, and points out that Sylvie survived and almost took down the TVA. He says that she's amazing and takes Sylvie's hand.

The Analysts get a temporal lock.

A meteor crashes on the horizon, and the blast wave heads toward the Lokis. Loki and Sylvie brace themselves and smile at each other.

The TVA determine that the new nexus they locked onto is a major upheaval.

Minutemen arrive via portal and take Loki and Sylvie to the TVA, putting collars on them. The Minutemen take Sylvie away, and Mobius and Loki argue about who betrayed who. They take Loki to Mobius' theater and Mobius tells Loki that he's an asshole and a bad friend. A portal opens, and Loki tells Mobius that the TVA is lying to him. Mobius ignores Loki's accusation and has the Minutemen shove Loki through the portal

Loki finds himself in a plaza in Asgard. Sif comes out with part of her hair cut off from one of Loki's pranks, says that Loki did what happened, and slaps him. She tells him that he deserved to be alone and always will be, and beats Loki, and then walks away. Loki figures that he's in a "bad memory prison", and he was just having fun. The sequence repeats itself and Sif beats Loki again. Irritated, Loki figures that he's in a time loop. The sequence repeats itself, and Loki tells Sif that she's a recreation of a past event created by the TVA. He asks her to help him escape, and Sif beats him again.

Mobius visits Ravonna in her office and says that he wanted to meet with Sylvie while Loki is in the time cell. Ravonna refuses and tells Mobius to stick with Loki. He says that he thinks he can figure out what caused the spike if he works them against each other, but Ravonna refuses, saying that Sylvie is too dangerous.

Mobius leaves and goes to the theater where B-15 and her men are standing guard over Sylvie. B-15 asks Mobius if Loki said anything to him, and Mobius repeats Loki's accusation that the TVA is lying to him. He wonders why B-15 asked, and she claims that she's just doing her job.

When the sequence repeats itself again, Loki asks Sif to stop and says that he's a horrible person. Sif hesitates, and Loki tells her that he craves attention because he's a narcissist. Loki admits that he's scared of being alone, and Sif repeats her phrase of how he's alone and always will be. She walks off, and Mobius comes in and asks Loki if he's ready to talk.

Mobius portals Loki back to the theater, and tells him to expand on what Loki said earlier. Loki asks for his freedom before saying anything further, and Mobius figures that Loki was lying to him to barter for his freedom. Mobius asks how long Loki has been working for Sylvie, and Loki says that Sylvie is irritating and difficult and tries to hit him all the time.

Loki insists that he and Sylvie aren't partners, and Mobius continues questioning Loki about what caused the nexus event. When Loki refuses to talk, Mobius figures that they've reached a dead-end and prepares to send Loki back into the time loop. To avoid that, Loki lies and says that he was masterminding the entire operation. Loki says that Sylvie came to him on Asgard a long time ago, took her to one of her apocalypses, and they hatched their plan together.

When Mobius wonders what the plan is, Loki says that it's coming along nicely and Sylvie is a pawn. Loki tells Mobius that something big is going to happen and he'll dispose of Sylvie when it does, and Mobius tells him that Sylvie has already been pruned. When Loki asks what happened, Mobius says that Sylvie broke free, tried to escape, and B-15 had to prune her to stop her.

Loki says, "Good riddance", and Mobius chuckles and then points out that Loki likes Sylvie. He figures that Loki forming a romantic entanglement to a variant of himself is pure chaos, and Loki is an incredible narcissist. Loki angrily asks if Sylvie is alive, and Mobius says that she is... for now. The god says that his interests and Sylvie's are aligned, and finally tells Mobius that all of the TVA Hunters and Analysts are variants, and the Time Keepers erased their memories.

Explaining, Loki says that the variants can access their memories through enchantment. Mobius doesn't believe Loki, and tells Loki that he's closing the case because he doesn't need Loki anymore. As Minutemen come in and take Loki away, Loki tells Mobius that the latter is the biggest liar because he lies to himself. The Minutemen shove Loki through the portal into the time loop.

B-15 looks at a TVA poster on the wall. It says "Verify Through Deletion", and B-15 preps her pruning rod and then goes into Theater 47 where Sylvie is imprisoned. The Hunter puts away her rod and takes out a tempad, and creates a portal, and tells Sylvie to come with her. They go through the portal, Sylvie following B-15.

In Ravonna's office, Ravonna has Mobius sign paperwork and asks if he's good. Mobius says that he is and signs, closing the Loki case. They toast to the end of the case and Ravonna asks Mobius where he would go if he could go anywhere in any time. Mobius asks why she wouldn't let him interrogate Sylvie, and Ravonna points out that Loki got away during Mobius' first interrogation. Ravonna repeats her question, and Mobius dodges answering.

Ravonna tells Mobius that the Time Keepers want to oversee Sylvie's pruning, and want Mobius there. He asks her when she first noticed that C-20 died, and Ravonna insists that it's over and the Time Keepers are happy. Mobius points out that C-20 was fine when he saw her last, and Ravonna wonders what Mobius is getting at.

Mobius says that something seems off, and Ravonna tells him that she's trying to protect him. She didn't want to see Sylvie do anything to him, and she couldn't deal with the same thing happening to Mobius that happened to C-20. Ravonna says that Mobius has been spending too much time with Lokis, and insists that what they're doing matters because they're fighting for their friendship. She tells Mobius that friendship like theirs is uncommon, and they're fighting for it.

Her friend jokingly tells her she gave a good speech. As he asks where Ravonna is going to put her newest trophy, he swaps her tempad for another when she isn't looking. Mobius then excuses himself, saying that he's exhausted from dealing with all the Lokis. He says that he'll see Ravonna later up in the Time Keeper's chamber, and leaves.

B-15 and Sylvie arrive at the Roxxgate Superstore during the hurricane, and B-15 asks what Sylvie showed her when she was in her head earlier. Sylvie says that B-15's life is a lie created by TVA, and that she can only use memories already there. She tells B-15 that the Time Keepers took the Hunter's life from her and the others, and they're variants. Sylvie says that she and B-15 are the same, and B-15 tells Sylvie to show her and holds out her hand.

Sylvie takes B-15's hand and uses her powers. B-15 smiles as she remembers her original life, and remembers that she looked happy. When Sylvie stops, B-15 breaks into tears and asks what now.

Mobius goes to the library stacks for privacy, takes out Ravonna's tempad, and finds a file on C-20. There's also a video of her last interrogation, talking about her memories that Sylvie tapped into of the bar from C-20's previous life and how she had a whole life on the Sacred Timeline, and that she and Ravonna are both variants, and everyone in the TVA. Mobius confirms that Ravonna is there, and pockets the tempad.

Mobius enters Loki's time loop cell and tells Loki that the next nexus event that Loki and Sylvie cause will bring the TVA down. Loki swears that he believes Sylvie didn't put the memories in C-20, and asks if Mobius will trust the word of a friend. Mobius tells Loki that he was right about the TVA from the beginning, and he wants to save Sylvie then he has to trust Mobius. Loki agrees, and Mobius tells Loki that he can be good if he wants to be.

The two men leave the cell via portal into Mobius' theater, and find Ravonna and four Minutemen waiting for them. Ravonna asks for her tempad back from Mobius, and he claims he accidentally picked it up. He asks what the problem is, and then says that if could go to wherever he had a life before the TVA came along, he'd ride on his jet ski. Ravonna tells one of the Minutemen to prune Mobius, and the Minuteman does so.

The Minutemen take Loki to the gold elevator, while Ravonna goes to Sylvie's theater and confirms that B-15 was with the prisoner. B-15 has gone, and Ravonna tells the Minutemen to put an alert out on the Hunter because she's been compromised by Sylvie.

Minutemen take Sylvie to the gold elevator, and Ravonna joins them and Loki. Ravonna tells Loki and Sylvie up in the elevator to the Time Keepers' chamber, and Sylvie asks Ravonna if she remembers her. Ravonna says that she did, and Sylvie asks her why the arrested her. The judge asks why it matters, and Sylvie tells her that it was enough to take her life from her, and figures it was important. Ravonna tells Sylvie that she doesn't remember.

The trio emerge into the chamber where the seated Time Keepers are waiting. Loki dares them to kill him, and Sylvie says that the Keepers are scared of them. As Ravonna uses her rewind device and the collar on Sylvie to keep Sylvie from going forward, B-15 arrives, uses her remote to open the collars, and tosses Sylvie her sword.

The Minutemen on guard knock down B-15 and surround Loki and Sylvie. They fight, and Sylvie tosses Loki her sword to defend himself. She kills one Minuteman with his own rod and then fights Ravonna, who uses her own rod. Sylvie knocks out Ravonna, while Loki kills his opponents. He gives Sylvie her sword back, and she throws it and decapitates one of the Time Keepers. His head comes off, revealing that he's an android.

The remaining two Keepers shut down, and Loki wonders who created the TVA. Loki starts to tell Sylvie something, and says that they'll figure it out. She wonders why, and he says that it's new for him. Before Loki can say anything else, Ravonna recovers and prunes him with her rod. Ravonna lunges at Sylvie, who disarms Ravonna, takes her rod and threatens her with it. Ravonna tells Sylvie to do it, and Sylvie says that she isn't and that Ravonna is going to tell her everything.

Loki wakes up in the ruins of New York City, Avengers Tower in the background. He wonders if he's in Hel and if he's dead, and four Lokis--Boastful, Classic, Kid, and Alligator--are there. Boastful says that Loki will be dead if he doesn't come with them.