The following contains spoilers for episode 5 of Loki on Disney Plus.
The latest episode of Loki takes the audience on a "Journey Into Mystery" as the story explores just what happens when a variant and their branched timeline are pruned by the TVA. Not only does this mean the audience gets to explore more variations of the titular character, but it also means the episode takes another big step toward unveiling just who is really behind the TVA.
Sylvie gets Ravonna Renslayer to admit that she wants to know the truth just as badly as the variants do. Unfortunately, Renslayer also wants to maintain order and uphold the rules of the TVA, leaving them at odds and forcing Sylvie to prune herself to get to Loki and into The Void. The Void, the land at the end of all time, is a dumping ground for variants. As a result, The Void also houses a ton of Easter eggs for fans carefully watching the show. It might contain more Easter eggs than any episode in the series has so far.
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The title of the episode itself acts as an Easter egg for comic book fans. Journey Into Mystery was an anthology series that launched many of Marvel's most popular characters before they got their own solo series. Amongst those popular characters are Thor and Loki.
The formative comic book series has been referenced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before as well. Most notably, it got a shout-out in the Agents Of SHIELD pilot episode as Jemma Simmons invited another character to join their "journey into mystery" in their mobile command center.
One Easter egg that many fans caught in Episode 4 was the ruins of Avengers tower in The Void. As it turns out, that wasn't exactly the Avengers tower fans know from the MCU. In this episode, the name "Qeng" is clearly visible on the building.
At one point in Avengers comics, Tony Stark sold his building to Qeng Enterprises. The CEO of that company happened to be Mr. Gryphon, one of the many versions of the villain Kang the Conqueror that exists in comic book timelines. Though Kang is expected to make his MCU debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania, Loki hasn't been shy about borrowing from his comic book storylines. Renslayer, the TVA, and this episode's Alioth are all connected to the villain in the comics.
The landscape in The Void is full of ruined buildings, old vehicles, and what might look like nothing more than junk. Of all the items that have been pruned from branched timelines, there are a lot of interesting vehicles for fans to take notice of.
One is a helicopter with Thanos' name on it. The Thanos-copter is right out of the comics - in the 1970s. Thanos used the helicopter while on his quest to gain a cosmic cube.
Another is the ruins of the Dark Aster in the distance when the Lokis gather to look out on Alioth. The Dark Aster is the ship used by Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy. Perhaps one timeline saw him win and use an infinity stone.
Yet another ruined vehicle is visible in the distance. One of SHIELD's helicarriers appears to have been pruned by the TVA. The back of the mobile command station can be seen sticking up out of the ground. Though a helicarrier hasn't been seen in the movies since Avengers: Age Of Ultron, one did appear in the series finale of Agents Of SHIELD.
As the camera pans through layers of dirt to reveal the Lokis' underground hideout, there are a few things of interest along the way. Buried in the dirt is a variant of Thor's hammer Mjolnir. It's possible it belonged to another Loki variant, or perhaps another Thor variant.
Also along the way are quite a few plastic lunch trays. Those same lunch trays can be seen when Loki tracks Mobius down on his break at the TVA. The implication is that TVA agents don't just throw their trash away - they prune it from the sacred timeline.
Finally, Throg, or the frog version of Thor, can also be seen trapped in a jar. Throg comes straight out of the comics, and his jar features another Easter egg to tell the audience just that. The jar label reads "T365." Throg made his comic debut in Thor #365.
The show has featured a lot of nods to future Ant-Man villain Kang, but this episode also features a nod to a villain the audience already knows. Yet another piece of debris in The Void is an Easter egg.
This time, it's the helmet that belongs to Yellowjacket. Last fans saw the character, he shrunk down so small he was lost in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man. Of course, the audience now knows that the Quantum Realm can be escaped thanks to the events of Avengers: Endgame and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Yellowjacket's helmet here, however, appears giant-sized, and the audience hasn't seen him go that route yet.
The Richard E. Grant variant of Loki is based on the character's classic design, and he gets quite a bit of the spotlight in this episode. Part of that spotlight involves his story of placing himself in a self-imposed exile after faking his death. Whether intentional or not, his story appears to be an Easter egg nodding to a very popular fan theory.
After the events of Avengers: Infinity War saw Thanos kill Loki, many fans speculated that wasn't the end of the character. The running theory involved Loki using his power of illusion to make Thanos believe he was dead, but that he had actually shapeshifted into someone else.
Loki continues the trend of bringing obscure beverages to the screen. The series premiere featured Josta while episode 2 featured Boku juice. This time, it's with a mismatched pair: one is fictional, while one existed in the real world in 1989.
The fictional beverage is Roxxiwine. Clearly something a variant could have picked up at Roxxcart in an early episode, it looks to be Roxxon's version of inexpensive boxed wine. The real-world beverage, however, is what Kid Loki drinks while everyone else has the wine. He sips from the Hi-C Ecto Cooler juice box. That particular drink was released as a tie-in product for The Real Ghostbusters.
The audience knows that Loki is inspired by the Norse god of mischief. The Classic Loki variant, however, has another idea about what they're actually the god of. He terms himself the god of outcasts, which is actually a nod to a line from a comic book.
In 2015, Marvel published a solo Loki series penned by Daniel Kibblesmith. It's in that series that Loki realized that outcasts see themselves in him and termed himself the god of outcasts.
In addition to all of the Marvel comic book nods, there are also a few nods to real-world mysteries in The Void. These are provided by a large ship and an arcade game.
While observing Alioth, the Loki variants witness the USS Eldridge drop from the sky, seemingly just plucked from the sacred timeline. In real life, a conspiracy theory exists that the USS Eldridge was actually turned invisible by government experimentation.
The arcade game is Polybius. Fans can see the upright console in the Loki bunker in the background as the variants discuss their Nexus events. An urban legend says the arcade game hypnotized players - before they were all mysteriously pulled from the market. Apparently, the TVA might be responsible for this real-life mystery.
When Sylvie gets an unexpected ride from Mobius in The Void, the car they're in drives past an old scene for a movie theater. One of the movies listed on the marquee is Oswald And The Martian. That's a reference from way back in the Disney vault.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is one of the earliest animated characters created by Walt Disney. In the 1920s and '30s, more than two dozen animated shorts hit theaters starring the character. One of those was Mars, which is what Oswald and the Martian alludes to. In it, Oswald ends up kicked so hard by a badger that he ends up in outer space.
The vehicle that Mobius finds in The Void and uses to escape Alioth might look a little familiar to Pixar fans. While it doesn't specify that the pizza in question on the truck comes from Pizza Planet, it might as well. Pixar has featured a nod to the fictional company in all of their projects since Toy Story. Typically, the company has a blue truck with a rocket ship on top of it as a delivery vehicle. Here, the rocket ship is replaced with a slice of pizza and the word on the side of the blue car is simply "pizza."
Within the vehicle itself is another, possibly unintentional, nod to other MCU properties. There's a dancing hula figure on the dashboard. Two other MCU properties have featured the same. Agents of SHIELD saw Daisy Johnson keep one in her van - and bring it with her when she made SHIELD her home. WandaVision saw Darcy and Vision commandeer an ice cream truck with one on the dash as well in episode 7. (That's the same episode that also teased Nexus events with its commercial.)
Because of how much time Sylvie spends shrouded in shadow when she's in her own clothing, it can be difficult to make out some of the details on her costume. As she sits in the car with Mobius, however, circular inlays on her sleeves are visible.
That will be gratifying for fans who theorized that she wasn't a Loki variant at all, but instead the comic book Enchantress. The original costume for Enchantress featured that same design of patterned circles.
One of the abandoned vehicles in The Void sits right in front of the camera. The audience is treated to a clear look at the license plate, which reads GRN W1D. Comic book fans might recognize that as a nod to Mark Gruenwald.
Gruenwald's fingerprints have been all over the series. Not only was his appearance the basis for Mobius in the comics, but he also created many of the pieces being used in the Disney Plus series. He's even credited with creating Alioth, the sentient temporal field trying to gobble everything in its path.
Fans might have caught a large statue on the battlefield in The Void, set apart from many of the other ruins. It's a nod to one very powerful character. A being with multiple faces, the Living Tribunal is an entity responsible for keeping balance in Marvel comics.
The Living Tribunal actually judges different civilizations, deciding whether or not they get to continue to exist. It also exists outside of any concrete timeline. It's entirely possible that it could have been the original force behind the Time Keepers in Loki - or a rival for the job.
This might be one of the most eagerly anticipated Easter eggs in the series. When Loki meets more of the variants that have been sent to The Void, he comes face to face with one who is designed based on the comic book story that saw the character running for president of the United States.
That particular variant appeared in trailers for the show, and fans expected that he depicted a time traveling bit of mischief. Instead, the variant only appears briefly to highlight the betrayal and lack of trust amongst Lokis.
Loki is currently available to stream on Disney Plus.