‘Loki’ Season 2: Miss Minutes’ Big Reveal Was a Colossal Missed Opportunity

Loki season 2, episode 3, “1893,” ends on the first real cliffhanger of the season. Sylvie kicks Ravonna into the Citadel at the End of Time. Sylvie apparently thought Ravonna would be stranded there, but Ravonna has a TemPad on her, so she simply reactivates Miss Minutes. Miss Minutes, for her part, is angry that Victor Timely spurned her advances, and she decides to tell Ravonna a secret. “It’s gonna make you real angry,” she purrs.

Spoilers for Loki season 2, episode 4 ahead!

For the week between episodes 3 and 4, I watched people around me theorize about what Miss Minutes’ secret about Ravonna could be. Maybe Ravonna was a Kang variant! Maybe Ravonna was the original head of the Time Variance Authority! Each theory was juicier than the last. Wouldn’t it be great if any of them were true?

Because the secret that was finally revealed at the beginning of episode 4 was really, really boring. Why? Because we already knew it.

To back up, in episode 1, Loki travels back to the past TVA and hears a recording of He Who Remains, who calls Ravonna “quite a marvel” and says he’ll be proud to lead with her. We know that he’s wiped the memories of TVA employees at least a couple of times throughout the TVA’s history. That means we already know that Ravonna used to lead by He Who Remains’ side—and that’s exactly what Ravonna finds out in episode 4. Ravonna sees a past version of herself standing next to He Who Remains, who repeats the line Loki heard in episode 1. He Who Remains then sends Ravonna through a time door to the newly-formed TVA, and then tells Miss Minutes to wipe her memory. The real Miss Minutes tells Ravonna that she commanded the troops in the multiversal war, which is technically new information, but still not at all surprising.

To tease a massive revelation at the end of episode 3, and then rehash information the audience already has, isn’t just disappointing. It’s a bizarre choice to make in a season that already feels like it’s allergic to any forward movement at all.

Loki season 2 is going around in circles

There are so many exciting directions Loki season 2 could have gone in, but instead, the plot is resolutely going around in circles (and not in a cool timey-wimey way). Everything that’s happened so far feels tired, shallow, and repetitive. Mobius has now had three nearly-identical conversations about his past life, but nothing has changed. Loki and Sylvie have reunited, but only to rattle off clichés about free will and responsibility. Loki keeps throwing out callbacks to his former chaotic personality, but there’s no real trace of it remaining, and his story doesn’t seem to have an emotional arc at all. Instead, he now mainly exists to bestow wisdom on the other characters and wear snappy suits.

Episode 4 ends on another cliffhanger, with Victor getting spaghettified and the Temporal Loom finally—finally!—blowing up, but from the extensive trailer footage that’s been released, it’s not hard to predict what will happen next. It looks like Loki will survive the meltdown and hop through the timeline, collecting TVA personnel from their former lives and reassembling the team. Why? So that the season can spend its last two episodes doing everything it’s already done again, and again, and again.

I really hope Marvel proves me wrong here. After all, the series has a little time left to take a wild turn. There are a couple of amazing fan theories—one about the time keepers, and one about Loki’s time slipping—that have the potential to launch the series to a new level. After what we’ve seen so far, though, I’m running out of faith.

What’s especially tragic about Ravonna’s scene at the beginning of episode 4 is how beautifully it’s shot. We see miniature projections of Ravonna and He Who Remains replaying their final moments together, with the real Ravonna’s face hovering over them, just out of focus. It’s a wonderfully off-kilter way to convey what Ravonna is learning.

If only the content of that scene was as interesting for us as it is for her. Really, you could say the same of the whole season so far: visually arresting, with no substance to back it up.

(featured image: Disney+)