Warning: This article contains full spoilers for Loki Season 2 Episode 2, which is now streaming on Disney+.
Loki Season 2 director Dan Deleeuw has spoken about Sylvie's mysterious possession at the end of the second episode and her motives for potentially using it rather than discarding it.
The second episode of the season, titled "Breaking Brad", sees Loki and Mobius stop at nothing to find Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie. However, by the end of the episode, the group part ways again as Sylvie returns to her modest new life in Broxton, Oklahoma, working shifts at the small-town McDonald's restaurant.
At the end of the episode, Sylvie lies back on the hood of her pickup truck in the McDonald's parking lot with a glowing object in her hands before the scene cuts to black and the credits play out. The final moments with Sylvie left viewers with some very big questions: What is the device, and what does it mean?
what was Sylvie holding in her hand at the end of ep 2??? SOMEONE HELP #Loki
— cloweenies ??? (@cloclobeans) October 13, 2023
It turns out Sylvie has He Who Remains' talisman device, which she presumably took after killing him at the end of Loki's first season. The object combines the qualities of a TemPad (generating timeline-crossing Timedoors for its users) and a Time Twister (a teleportation device often used by the TVA).
Deleeuw, who helmed Episode 2, knew that this closing moment might raise a few questions among fans. He offered some insight into the scene by explaining to GamesRadar why Sylvie might decide to keep hold of such an item.
"She's still a Loki. If she's got the keys to the universe, the keys to the multiverse, she's not gonna give that up," he said. "I think she truly was happy on the timeline; I don't know how much manipulation has been going on behind the scenes...
"I think she always suspected this might come back, and I think that ties in with a lot of the reaction to Loki in the McDonald's as well," he continued. "She knew she was on borrowed time, I think, and kept it because she knew, eventually, Loki would show, or some other Loki would show up, some other variant of He Who Remains or something like that, that she'd have to ultimately deal with."
"It's meant to be a futuristic version of the TVA tech," Season 1 director Kate Herron previously told The Hollywood Reporter about He Who Remains' gadget. "When He Who Remains tells his story about his other variants meeting, you see bits of the TVA technology. So our idea was that it does both things.
"With the TVA technology, you see that the Time Twister hooks into the TemPad, but it's these two separate, clunky things," she added. "But whereas with He Who Remains, he has more advanced technology than the TVA. So it has both functions, basically, which we see him use. The difference is that he's in control of the twist; it's twisting him. Whereas when we see the TVA use the Time Twister, it's with a Time Collar as they're controlling a prisoner."
We're only two episodes into Loki Season 2, but Sylvie is already emerging as the true heart of the series, so it will be interesting to see her next move. However, IGN's review of Episodes 1-4 has a small warning for viewers: "Those expecting a new multiversally manic season of Loki should temper their expectations."
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X @AdeleAnkers.
