Easter Eggs You Missed In Loki Season 1

"Loki" is the third Marvel series to premiere on Disney+, following the very successful "WandaVision" and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier." The show's story picks up in 2012, after Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steals the Tesseract during the time heist in "Avengers: Endgame." It was revealed by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige at SDCC 2019 that "Loki" would see the fallout of that theft, which immediately results in his capture by the TVA (Time Variance Authority). We learn very quickly in "Loki" that the TVA has been around for quite some time (ahem) and was created and perfectly crafted to protect its proper flow.

Run by people who are born and bred to work for the TVA, the bureaucracy routinely tracks and captures variants — beings who have strayed off their proper path. Straying can lead to catastrophic events, which creates the need for intervention. Loki is one of these variants, and he proves helpful in aiding Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) in his efforts to track another dangerous variant.

There is much to unpack along the way, and "Loki" is just as strange, if not more, than the frequently mind-bending "WandaVision." The story is complex, and as we watch the characters travel through time, things only get all the more confusing. The series is full of Easter eggs — something not uncommon for an MCU property. These hidden Marvel gems are abundant, especially in the introduction of new characters, agencies, and alternate timelines. Read on to see some of the big Easter eggs you might have missed in "Loki."

After Loki is captured by the TVA, he's taken to their headquarters. He signs some paperwork, walks through a temporal aura detector, and then takes a number as he waits to see a judge for his crimes against the timeline. While waiting, he's treated to an educational video produced by the TVA to explain to variants why they've been captured. Hosted by TVA mascot Miss Minutes, the video goes into detail about the creation of the TVA and how the Time Keepers monitor the timestream.

Miss Minutes then explains that when variants veer off their predetermined course, they create a "nexus event," which, if "left unchecked, could branch off into madness, leading to another multiversal war." This isn't the first time we've heard the word "nexus" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and the last time wasn't long before "Loki": One of the six "WandaVision" commercials seen during the series' show-within-a-show is an advertisement for Nexus antidepressants. Nexus will be a significant word and concept moving forward in the MCU, as evidenced by the title of the "Doctor Strange" sequel, "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."

In "WandaVision," the Nexus drug was being advertised as a medicine for Wanda Maximoff's (Elizabeth Olsen) grief and anger — and also a reference to her role as a nexus being. "Loki" is poised to further explore what the term means in the MCU.

Although she isn't mentioned by name in the first episode of "Loki," we know Gugu Mbatha-Raw's character is Marvel comics character Ravonna Renslayer. She's never been a judge or otherwise associated with the TVA in the comics, but she does have a lengthy history nonetheless. First appearing in "Avengers" #63 in 1965, Ravonna gives the MCU plenty of content to pull from.

An important thing to notice surrounding the character's history in the comics is her involvement with Kang the Conquerer. We know Kang will be a villain in the upcoming "Ant-Man: Quantumania," so it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect some sort of involvement from Ravonna there as well. In the comics, she's the daughter of King Carelius, the ruler of the last kingdom on Earth-6311 that Kang overtook. The conqueror spared their empire due to his adoration for Ravonna, but she was not so smitten with him.

The relationship between Kang and Ravonna is a long and complicated one, leaving the door open for many storylines for the MCU. The Avengers also play a large part in Kang and Ravonna's back and forth, further opening possible storylines for the latter.

In Episode 1, when Mobius plays scenes from Loki's past in a TVA interrogation room, the highlight reel includes an airplane hijacking that leaves Mobius howling. "I can't believe you were D.B. Cooper! Come on!" he tells Loki. The trickster then admits that he pulled it off because he lost a bet to Thor. Loki is seen being brought back to Asgard when Heimdall summons the Bifrost after he jumps out of the plane. Having Loki literally pulled out of thin air offers an excellent explanation for D.B. Cooper's real-life disappearance.

To this day, the explanation for Cooper's vanishing remains a mystery. According to the FBI, the mystery man hijacked an airplane on November 24, 1971. After telling a flight attendant that he had a bomb, he demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes. After the plane landed in Seattle, all the passengers left, and the plane took off again with the Cooper, the pilot, and some crew members. The hijacker was given his requests, and he jumped out of the back of the plane somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada. The mystery man, whose name probably wasn't D.B. Cooper, was never found, and the case was never closed.

At the beginning of Episode 2, several Minutemen travel to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1985, and arrive at a Renaissance Faire where they believe the Loki variant is hiding out. At first, it might appear like Oshkosh is a totally random place for the writers and producers of "Loki" to select for a scene like this, but as we're all well aware by now, nothing is ever random with the MCU.

Earlier we discussed Mark Gruenwald, the Marvel Comics legend who created many famous characters and served as an artist from time to time. Mobius' appearance isn't the only homage "Loki" pays to the late comic book writer, as it turns out he was also born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, according to his New York Times obituary. The location of the Renaissance Faire is just another way for the MCU to honor Gruenwald, who played such a significant role in the comic book publisher's history.

Loki can only access his own files at the TVA, and after he obtains them he skims through documents and gets caught on a particularly devastating one. We get to witness Loki read about the events of Ragnarok, which he hasn't lived through at this point in time. While he's looking through the documents, we see some new tidbits of information about the event that we witnessed in "Thor: Ragnarok."

The paperwork shows that there were 9,719 casualties in what's described as a Class 7 Apocolypse. This means that Asgard was a relatively small planet with a population that only consisted of thousands. Mobius confirms that Ragnarok wiped out "most" of Asgard's people, and we know the survivors later end up living on Earth in New Asgard.

One of the more fun Easter eggs hidden in the Ragnarok paperwork is the mention of the Revengers, the makeshift superhero group assembled by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) that includes Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and Loki. The foursome bond together to escape Sakaar and are instrumental in the takedown of Hela (Cate Blanchett). Thor jokes about their group name in the film, but there's no joking about the fact that they helped save hundreds of Asgardians from death — justifying their mention in the document.

There's been a long-standing rumor that Lady Loki would make an appearance in Loki, so when a female antagonist popped up toward the end of Episode 2, a casual fan and rumor-follower might just assume that we've got ourselves a Lady Loki! Well ... not so fast.

In the English credits at the end of the episode, actress Sophia Di Martino is listed as playing "The Variant." However, if you look at the Spanish credits, Elisa Beuter is credited as playing Sylvie. It's the same character, only the Spanish credit seems to be pretty name-specific. That name might ring a bell to longtime Marvel fans. It seems likely this Variant is actually Enchantress — a character who first battled Thor way back in 1964 in "Journey Into Mystery" #103. Enchantress' real name is indeed Sylvie.

Now, we've seen the MCU get cute before with cameos and such — looking at you, "WandaVision" — so we can't guarantee that this is Enchantress. Lady Loki still might pop up eventually in the series, or this is another of those silly MCU twists and Enchantress is the new Lady Loki.

Much of "Loki" Episode 3 is spent on Lamentis-1, a rocky, purple-skied moon facing imminent destruction. The episode is even named after Lamentis, which has briefly appeared in Marvel Comics. Debuting in 2007's "Annihilation: Conquest Prologue" #1, it lies on the outskirts of Kree space. That appearance is basically just a mention, which means that for all intents and purposes, Lamentis-1 is basically a blank slate for the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a perfect spot for "Loki" to continue delving into its narrative mysteries, in other words.

Loki and Sylvie arrive on Lamentis-1 after escaping from Ravonna and her Minutemen following a skirmish outside the elevator doors leading to the Time Keepers. They land on the moon in 2077, 12 hours before it's set to collide with its planet — an inconvenient apocalypse for them to hide in, but with their TemPad low on juice, one that forces them to make the best of a bad situation.

We're treated to some fun callbacks to earlier MCU chapters in "Loki," and Episode 3 is no exception. Once Loki and Sylvie work their way onto the Lamentis shuttle, they sit and converse in one of its upper-scale lounges. As they talk, Loki helps himself to two glasses of champagne, and Sylvie ends up falling asleep. When she wakes, her new travel companion has treated himself to more beverages, and he's putting on a show for the other travelers in the lounge.

After singing and giving cheers to Sylvie, Loki smashes a martini glass and yells "Another!" Loyal MCU fans will notice this nod to the first "Thor" film — the line and gesture are uttered by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) when he visits a diner with his new Earth pals Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). After finishing a cup of coffee, Thor says, "This drink... I like it. Another!" and smashes his coffee mug on the ground, surprising all those around him. The line is one of the most quoted from "Thor" and has been immortalized in a popular GIF — something we now hope to see from this "Loki" callback.

We finally get a look at the Time-Keepers in Episode 4 after their appearances were teased with TVA sculptures throughout earlier episodes of the series. When Loki and Sylvie are brought before them to be pruned, the Time-Keepers give them a chance to speak. We don't get much out of these mysterious beings, although their disdain for the Loki variants is obvious. With the help of Hunter B-15, who's had her memories of her pre-TVA life restored by Sylvie, the Lokis are able to battle and defeat their captors, and Sylvie severs the head of a Time-Keeper — only to discover that they're just androids. Beyond disappointed, Loki and Sylvie are left wondering who created the TVA. Marvel Comics might have some answers.

The Time-Keepers first appeared in 1979's "Thor" #282 and were created by He Who Remains — someone unmentioned during Episode 4. Also known as Him Who Remains — or more simply Him — this mystery being was the last director of the TVA, who put the Time-Keepers in place to oversee the organization. Originally, Him created the Time-Twisters in 1976's "Thor" #243, another trio of beings who strayed from their directive and began destroying Earth every 3000 years. While we don't know who specifically created the TVA, Him — or the Time-Twisters — might have some insight.

Different versions of Loki are teased in Episode 2 during a briefing Mobius gives to a group of Minutemen and other TVA workers before they take off to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. These variants are displayed on a hologram, which depicts five different versions of the character. None of these match the four new Lokis we meet in the Episode 4 post-credits scene. Thanks to the credits, we know these variants are Boastful Loki (DeObia Oparei), Classic Loki (Richard Grant), and Kid Loki (Jack Veal). There's also a creature we'll call Alligator Loki for now.

Grant's Classic Loki sports the traditional garb the character wore when he first appeared in 1962's "Journey Into Mystery" #85. Kid Loki has a much shorter history in the comics, first appearing in 2010's "Thor" #617. This incarnation came about after the original Loki died, but he was reborn as a child who eventually joins the Young Avengers. The backgrounds on our other two variants are vague, but Boastful Loki's possession of a hammer could be a nod to 2020's "Thor" #4. In this comic, Thor's brother is able to lift Mjolnir while on Jotunheim. This is at least some sort of confirmation that a Loki variant is worthy. As far as the alligator, there seems to be no history of this character in the comics. We've seen a frog version of Thor before, aka Throg the Frog of Thunder, in "Thor" #364, so why not an Alligator Loki?

During Episode 5, one of the first things we see in the Void is a menacing purple-black cloud with a monstrous face within it. Known as a trans-temporal entity, Alioth doesn't exist in any reality but what the comics describe as Temporal Limbo. The being is the biggest enemy of Kang the Conqueror, and its empire is bigger than his foe's. Alioth first appeared in 1993's "Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective" #1 and is known for its absorption powers, which we saw play a huge role in Episode 5. Alioth is drawn to living beings more than anything and has the power to disintegrate them as soon as it encompasses them.

In the MCU, it appears as if Alioth lives within the Void at the end of time, unlike its location in the comics. It's also being used to protect the person or entity behind the Time Keepers, who many now suspect to be Kang. If this is the case in the MCU, the two would be on the same side, a massive shift from their comic book origins.

We knew we'd be getting a version of the trickster god from the classic "Vote Loki" comic after he appeared in several trailers for the series. And he finally arrived in Episode 5 but only for a brief scene where a scuffle breaks out between a gaggle of Lokis. As for the variant's origin story, the four-part comic series debuted in June 2016 and was a satire on the United States presidential election of the same year. In the fourth and final issue, Loki concedes the race.

In the comics, Loki's campaign is based on his honesty about how he's going to lie to the American public. The citizens eat it up, except for Nisa Contreras, a reporter from the Daily Bugle, who's trying her best to take him down. It's definitely one of the weirdest Loki stories of all time, complete with "Political Action Cults" sacrificing goats to earn Loki the win and staged attacks involving HYDRA agents. And we're incredibly glad this dapper and politically ambitious Loki got to show up on the screen, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Just as with D.B. Cooper in Episode 1, Episode 5 of "Loki" further explained some great American mysteries. The first to appear in "Journey Into Mystery" was "Polybius" — an arcade game long considered an urban legend. The legend of "Polybius" suggests this fictitious '80s game was real and run by the government as a psychological experiment. It was supposedly created to test mind control on users, but the arcade game was never found. It looks like it was swooped up by the TVA and sent to the place where urban legends go to die.

Toward the end of "Episode 5," we also see the USS Eldridge fall out of the sky and into the Void. Unlike "Polybius," the famous naval ship was an actual thing. In 1943, it was alleged that the ship was made invisible, according to Naval History and Heritage Command, as part of the famous Philadelphia Experiment. As some claim, it was also apparently teleported from Philadelphia and Norfolk, Virginia, and back again. Crew members who were on board reportedly went insane, and the story was so bizarre it was adapted into a time-travel movie — "The Philadelphia Experiment" — in 1984.

While the Marvel Studios animated logo rolls at the beginning of Episode 6, we hear Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter's song "It's Been a Long, Long Time" play. As the tune begins, several famous lines uttered throughout the MCU can be heard, including:

• "Way to go, Tic-Tac!" — Sam Wilson in "Captain America: Civil War"
• "That's how you punch." — Hope Van Dyne in "Ant-Man"
• "Wakanda forever!" — King T'Challa in "Avengers: Infinity War"
• "You wouldn't have heard of me." — Scott Lang in "Ant-Man"
• "Let me put you on hold." — Natasha Romanoff in "The Avengers"
• "Dance-off, bro." — Peter Quill in "Guardians of the Galaxy"
• "He's a friend from work!" — Thor in "Thor: Ragnarok"
• "I can do this all day." / "Yeah, I know." — Steve Rogers in "Avengers: Endgame"
• "I'll show you ferocity." — Hank Pym in "Ant-Man"
• "Higher, further, faster, baby." — Carol Danvers in "Captain Marvel"
• "We have a Hulk." — Loki in "Avengers: Infinity War"
• "We're gonna jump on that spaceship and get out of here. Wanna come?" — Korg in "Thor: Ragnarok"
• "Who the hell is Bucky?" — Bucky Barnes in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
• "Puny God." — Hulk in "The Avengers"
• "You are an Avenger." — Clint Barton in "Avengers: Age of Ultron"
• "That's my secret, Captain. I'm always angry." — Hulk in "The Avengers"
• "What is grief if not love persevering?" — Vision in "WandaVision"

There's a lot to unpack in the first two minutes of Episode 6. After "It's Been a Long, Long Time" fades out, Tchaikovsky's main score from "Swan Lake" fades in. The famous ballet centers around Odette and Odile, two versions of the same character. Odette is a cursed queen who is forced to live her life as a swan during the day and a human at night. Odile is the opposite in all respects, a bewitching presence who disguises herself as Odette in order to trick Prince Siegfried into falling for her. In the ballet, the two parts are often played by the same dancer.

The thought put into this parallel deserves all the applause in the world. Loki and Sylvie's story is much like that of "Swan Lake," as it's essentially two versions of the same character battling one another. While the ballet ends on a rather happy note, with Odette and Prince Siegfried coming together and living happily ever after, we don't go into Episode 6 expecting happy endings for Loki or Sylvie anytime soon.