‘Loki’ Episode 4: Is the Post-Credits Alternate Dimension Just for Lokis? Fans Have a Theory
Where did Loki end up at the end of Loki Episode 4? Fans are still reeling over the post-credits scene reveal. Before episode 5 comes out on July 7, let’s dive into the theories about the alternate dimension Loki woke up in after being pruned. Because what happens next in this new alternate reality will define the two episodes of the Disney+ series.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Loki Episode 4.]
Who were the Lokis at the end of episode 4?
After an intense battle against the TVA, Loki was pruned by Ravonna Renslayer. So far in the series, pruning looked like a terrifying death. Those who were pruned appeared to be wiped out of existence in a matter of seconds. But the end credits since revealed otherwise. (Honestly, we should have known better than to think Tom Hiddleston’s Loki would actually die. This is now the fourth time the God of Mischief has “died” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.)
As it turns out, pruning doesn’t kill you. Rather, it sends you to an alternate reality. And when Loki awoke in this new dimension, he was greeted by other Loki variants. Richard E. Grant’s Classic Loki, Deobia Oparei’s Boastful Loki, Jack Veal’s Kid Loki, and a crocodile Loki were peering over Hiddleston in the short clip. And behind them was what looked like a post-apocalyptic New York City, complete with a dilapidated Avengers tower.
What does the end of ‘Loki’ Episode 4 mean?
The scene could mean a lot of things, but the biggest question is does everyone and everything that’s pruned end up here? Or can the TVA send people to various “trash” dimensions? While Loki Episode 5 will likely explain it all, the apocalyptic setting the Lokis find themselves in could be a hint about this alternate dimension.
Could the scenery look like a far more damaged New York City because the TVA pruned it? Perhaps when Loki escaped with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame (the scene that allowed Loki to happen in the first place), TVA agents went to this point in time and set off a reset charge to close the branch timeline Loki created. And what viewers see in the post-credits scenery is what it looks like when a location gets pruned as opposed to people.
Fans on Reddit think the place Loki was sent to was like a computer’s trash bin. In a trailer for the last two episodes, fans noticed a massive ship going through what looked like “reverse pruning.”
“Maybe then it could reinforce the theory that where Loki is is the ‘trash’ reality where everything pruned gets thrown into,” one user commented. As another said:
“My theory is that it kinda works like a computer trash can. Pruning teleports things into this sort of dumpster dimension, where they’re killed from some sort of recurring natural disaster. Perhaps the Loki’s have found a way to survive which is why the say what they say to Loki.”
Is Mobius really dead in ‘Loki’?
Other users on this thread think there could be separate “trash bins” for the different categories of variants. If that theory holds true, that means Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius didn’t end up in the same alternate reality as Loki when he was pruned earlier in episode 4. As the Reddit user said:
“I only watched it once but I sorta got the feeling that there was a separate reality for each type of variant: Loki world of all the improper Lokis, same for Mobius when he got pruned (can we get an f in chat?), he gets sent to a realm that is likely significantly less populated than Loki’s (since it’s basically Loki’s MO to cause time-line branches even before he knew what the TVA was lol. So I’m still holding hope that we’ll get that mobius ‘… wow!'”
Fans on the thread are hopeful Loki will find Mobius in this “trash” dimension. Some also think this alternate reality is actually a trash planet that exists “outside of time,” similar to Sakaar from Thor: Ragnarok.
Based on trailers for the last two episodes, it seems Classic, Boastful, Kid, and Croc Loki aren’t the only gods of mischief in this realm. The clips hint Loki and countless other versions of him will escape this alternate dimension and battle the TVA.
Loki Episode 5 comes out on Disney+ at 3 a.m. EST on July 7.
