The Truth About The Time Keepers In Loki

Contains spoilers for "Loki," Season 1, Episode 4: "The Nexus Event"

Disney+ dropped "Loki" Episode 4 June 30, and this one is a doozy. Even Tom Hiddleston himself, the star of the Marvel series, claimed that Episodes 4 and 5 are the ones that fans should "buckle up" for, and he wasn't kidding. In "The Nexus Event," fans finally get a peek behind the curtain of the Time Variance Authority, discovering that the mysterious organization may have a much more sinister agenda than first believed.

After being rescued by Mobius (Owen Wilson) and TVA agents from Lamentis, both Loki (Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) are taken into custody and separately interrogated. Loki tries to warn Mobius that the TVA has been lying to him, but Mobius appears to think this is just a desperate last-chance effort by the variant to trick him. Still, the seed of doubt is sown, and Mobius decides to do a little digging of his own.

At the episode's climax, Loki and Sylvie are finally taken before the Time-Keepers to receive their judgement. Three regal figures, all appearing to be of different alien species, sit high on their thrones looking down at the variants. As the Time Keepers order the "deletion" of Sylvie and Loki, a fight ensues. A shocking revelation comes when Sylvie decapitates one of the Time Keepers, only to discover that the supposed leaders of the TVA are actually androids.

Wait, what?

That's right. The ultimate protectors of the sacred timeline are just robots. If that's the case, then who is the true leader of the TVA? Who created the Time Keepers? To find the possible answers to those questions, let's dig into the history of the Time Keepers.

According to the Marvel Database, the Time-Keepers in the comics were created to maintain order after a cataclysmic event nearly ended all of reality. A being known as He Who Remains, the original leader of the TVA, created what became known as the Time-Twisters, who — instead of protecting the timeline — ended up making things worse. After the Time-Twisters were defeated by Thor, He Who Remains made the Time-Keepers to remedy his original failed creation.

One key difference between the "Loki" series and the comics is that the Time-Keepers in the comic books are not androids. However, the Minutemen — which we discover in "Loki" are actually variants who have had their memories erased — are androids in the comics. Yet making the Time Keepers into robots on the show establishes the fact that the true mind behind the TVA is one of deception and manipulation. 

Could the series later reveal that He Who Remains is actually the one pulling the strings of the TVA? If so, what is his motive for wanting to destroy Sylvie? He Who Remains isn't exactly an evil figure in the comics, so if the writers of "Loki" decided to put him into the show's narrative, it would probably be as a tie-in into Marvel's upcoming "Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness" — which is the likely course of action that fans have been predicting all along. With only two episodes of "Loki" left, fans are eager to find out the true purpose of the TVA, and how their favorite trickster's story ends.