Loki Season 2 Episode 5's Surprising Post-Credits Easter Egg Explained

Contains spoilers for "Loki" Season 2, Episode 5 — "Science/Fiction"

Post-credit scenes are a staple of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They've made a generation of viewers watch the whole credits just in case there are any teasers of what's to come hidden at the end. They aren't as common in the Marvel Disney+ shows, but anyone who waited until the very end of "Loki" Season 2, Episode 5 — "Science/Fiction" — was treated to a potentially startling discovery.

At the tail-end of the credits, there's a voiceover from the "Zaniac" video game seen earlier in the episode, specifically Zaniac (Brad Wolfe) screaming, "You died! Insert your coin, loser!" The aggressive line caught many by surprise, including X, formerly known as Twitter, user @captaincupkicks, who wrote, "I was just trying to process the episode and then this line at the end of the credits jump scared me so bad."

While it seems like a nifty callback, it actually holds greater meaning than one might realize. After all, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) watched all of his friends die before he learned to harness time-slipping, making him a new powerful MCU god. We then see him continue to go back to when he's present at the Time Variance Authority standing next to O.B. (Ke Huy Quan). People died, and Loki metaphorically inserted another coin to get another chance at saving reality. But will it be "Game Over" for good in the "Loki" Season 2 finale?

Odds are most people weren't thinking of the deeper ramifications of the Zaniac moment at the end of "Loki" Season 2, Episode 5 because the line itself came out of nowhere and jostled so many viewers. X user @BryenMiller likely summed up a lot of people's thoughts by writing, "It was so quiet in my room, I nearly had a cardiac arrest. Scared the living crap out of me." It goes to show how you can't always trust skimming forward on the Disney+ preview to see if there are any extra scenes in an episode. 

An audial reference may seem a bit random, but Marvel has done this sort of thing before. "Avengers: Endgame" famously didn't have a post-credit scene, which made sense since it was supposed to serve as an ending of sorts rather than set more projects up. However, audience members who stayed toward the end would've heard the sound of a hammer clanging against metal. This is the sound from 2008's "Iron Man" where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) builds the Mark I armor in the cave. It's a fitting tribute to a recently fallen hero. 

Rather than pay tribute to anyone in particular, the "Loki" post-credit moment sets the stage for a thrilling conclusion in the "Loki" Season 2 finale. Will Loki and his crew save the TVA? Will the god of mischief ever see his brother, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), again? And most importantly, will Marvel capitalize on the idea of a Zaniac arcade game and release a version to the app store? We will have to wait and see (or hear).