Loki, Season 2

[Regarding telling people at the TVA the truth about the Timekeepers.]

Mobius:
"Hey, everything you've been doing is wrong and all your gods are dead!" How are people gonna take that?

[B-15 and Mobius stand on trial against General Dox and X-5, with Judge Gamble presiding.]

Mobius:
Look, we get the concerns, 'cause we had 'em also, but let's also admit that the Timeline is branching, the sky hasn't fallen, that we—

X-5:
What sky are you looking at? Are you seeing this... robot head on the table? Oh, the sky has fallen, Mobius. This changes everything!

General Dox:
This changes nothing! We won't let the Timeline branch. I'm sorry, Hunter -- if we don't protect it, what on earth are you suggesting?

Hunter B-15:
"Protect"? Is that what you think we've been doing?

Loki:
Mobius... We got to the man at the end of time. And he made sense.

Mobius:
Don't do the "Coulda, woulda, shoulda", just focus on what we know.

Loki:
That. [He points to a mural depicting a bombardment.] That is what we know. War. And it's on its way.

Mobius:
You just disappeared.

Loki:
I know.

Mobius:
And I can't keep looking at it, 'cause it's horrible.

Loki:
What? I thought you said it didn't look that bad!

Mobius:
I was lying i-- it's terrible! It looks like you're being born, or dying, or both at the same time.

[Mobius is introducing Loki to Ouroboros]

Ouroboros:
Wow! How long has it been?

Mobius:
"How long has it been?" Uh... Could it be three or four--?

Ouroboros:
Four hundred years...

Loki:
What?

Mobius:
Feels like a thousand!

Ouroboros:
Remember? You got off on the wrong floor and I told you it was the wrong floor?

Mobius:
Wait, that's right! Yes, because then I stayed for a little bit! He took me over--

Ouroboros:
No! You left immediately.

Mobius:
...well, I'm back!

Ouroboros:
The work orders really pile up if I take a break, so I just keep at it! Forever. No sleep.

Ouroboros:
It's impossible to time-slip in the TVA!

Mobius:
I know, but we just saw it happen!

Ouroboros:
Yeah. I'm having trouble reconciling that!

Loki:
I've been time-slipping in the TVA--

Past Ouroboros:
It's impossible to time-slip in the TVA!

Loki:
But you just saw it happen.

Past Ouroboros:
Yeah. I'm having trouble reconciling that!

[In the present, O.B. and Mobius discuss the plan to stop Loki's time-slipping.]

Ouroboros:
But it could be dangerous!

Mobius:
How dangerous?

Ouroboros:
Oh, not too bad if you're quick about it.

Mobius:
Gotta be quick about it!

Ouroboros:
But if you spend too long in there, that kind of temporal energy will peel the skin right off you!

Mobius:
Wait, I thought you said "not too bad", and now you're talking about me getting my skin peeled off of me?

Ouroboros:
Oh! Not too bad compared to what Loki has to do.

Mobius:
Why? What's Loki gotta do?

[The Past]

Loki:
"Violently rip myself from every thread of time and space"... all at once?!

Ouroboros:
Well, have you heard about how, if you fall into a black hole, you turn into spaghetti?

Loki:
No.

Ouroboros:
Good. The less you know about that, the better.

Mobius:
Wait, now hold it! I mean, am-- am I ready to get my skin peeled off? I dunno...

Loki:
Yeah, am I ready to violently rip myself from every thread of time and space?

Mobius:
I would actually rather have that...

Loki:
What, you'd rather be atomically disassembled and then never reassembled again?

Mobius:
Yeah, than have your skin ripped off? Yes!

Loki:
What are you talking about? Then, at least, you get to live!

Mobius:
"Live"? What's the quality of life with no skin?!

Ouroboros:
Okay! You've got about an hour.

[A loose strand of Time crashes against the glass in the Time Loom chamber, cracking it.]

Ouroboros:
You've got about five minutes.

[Sylvie has traveled to a McDonald's in the 1980s and has come up to the counter.]

Sylvie:
How do I do this?

Jack:
What would you like?

Sylvie:
Not squirrel, not possum, not rats... something that's already dead, and nothing with a face. Please.

Sylvie:
I wanna try everything...

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5:
You quit with the magic and fight fair!

Loki:
It's not a fair fight.

[Brad has refused to respond to questioning and is now antagonizing Loki.]

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5:
See, I've read your file. It's you! You're the problem, every time we've ever found a you. Problem is, you think you're special but you're not. So it doesn't matter what outfit you put on, play dress-up or all the little lies you tell your friends or even the lies you tell yourself. At the end of the day, you just make everything worse. For Mobius, for B-15... For your mother. 'Cause that's what you do. You lose. You loser.

Mobius:
Loki...

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5:
Stop trying to be a hero, man! You're a villain. You're good at it. Do that.

[Loki chuckles.]

Loki:
Thank you, Brad. Very much. I really am touched. You know, you're right. I have done some terrible, awful things. Yeah, maybe that is who I am! I mean, he knows... It's the real me. A loser. Always have been, always will be. And perhaps I've been... Holding something back.

Mobius:
Loki--

Loki:
Perhaps I've just been... biding my time. Perhaps I've just been waiting for a moment like this, so I can do... terrible, awful things to you.

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5:
The TVA is not your real home. Mobius isn't even your real name.

Mobius:
Well, it's what I answer to.

Loki:
You've never wanted to visit your place on the timeline?

Mobius:
Look, that's the last thing I should be thinking about.

Loki:
Why? Aren't you curious? I mean, don't you want to see the life you were supposed to live before they kidnapped you and brought you into the TVA?

Mobius:
Not really!

Loki:
Why?

Mobius:
Because it's not my life!

Loki:
But it could've been.

Mobius:
It isn't. This is. I'd like to thank the guy who kidnapped me and brought me here! Got me this pie...

Loki:
If you never look, you'll never know.

Mobius:
The TVA is the only life I've ever known. I like it!

Loki:
Look, I understand. I, like, I-- I get it! Y'know, you might think twice in case it's... something bad, or--

Mobius:
Or something good! Something bad, I can handle. What if it's something good? You-- You think I wanna have that rattling around in here? Of course not!

Loki:
I'm not trying to be a hero, Brad. I'm a villain. Remember?

[Brad is trapped in an amber box that can shrink at Loki's command.]

Brad Wolfe / Hunter X-5:
Okay...! Look, I swear, okay?! I went down there and I went to get my life! Okay? Because-- none of this is real!

Loki:
Well, if none of this is real... I guess you aren't either.

O.B.:
We're all gonna die! Oh, hey! Nice to meet you! We're all gonna die!

Loki:
It's the future; it's going to happen.

Sylvie:
Is it? Really? Because that sounds a lot like the future's already been written. And we both know it hasn't, not anymore. I made sure of that.

Mobius:
There's a lot to unpack when you're basically in a relationship with yourself.

Loki:
Sylvie--

Sylvie:
[angrily] Is this the best you lot can do?

Loki:
There was nothing we could do.

Sylvie:
Some defense. The TVA is the problem. It's broken. It’s rotten! I’m going home, if it’s still there.

Loki:
Please don't. It’s harder...

[Sylvie leaves.]

Loki:
To stay.

Victor Timely:
Time is everything. It moves through each and every one of us. It shapes our lives. Our futures. But, perhaps, we can shape... it!

Loki:
It's him.

Mobius:
What? You made him sound like this terrifying figure!

Loki:
He is.

Robber Baron:
So you can light a few bulbs? Big deal. You'll need a lot more than that to light a whole city!

Victor:
Don't misunderstand me, sir. I do not want to light a... "city". I aim to light, to power, the entire planet! So, call it a dream. Fine. Sneer. Laugh it off as pure science fiction! But if it can be dreamed, it can be achieved! Because all science is fiction! Until! It's! Fact!

[Timely activates the loom, sending lighting coursing through the room.]

Victor:
WELCOME! WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, MY FRIENDS!

Sylvie:
Stopping that place from being destroyed and fixing it are two very, very different things. And working with one of his Variants is not gonna get you either.

Loki:
Well, your machete hasn't solved any problems thus far.

Miss Minutes:
Loki helped murder a Variant of you.

Renslayer:
It's true.

Victor:
But he... protected me!

Renslayer:
He switches sides. It's a well-documented behavioral trait.

Miss Minutes:
When you first created me, long before the TVA or Multiversal War, I was just a simple AI -- just something to play chess with. But you knew I could be more for you... So you gave me autonomy to write my own programming! I was allowed to have wants and follow whims and become who I am. And still, each night we played and talked.

Victor:
A loyal f-- friend.

Miss Minutes:
More than friends! The War, the TVA, the eons after, I alone was by your side. There was one whim you never allowed me... why didn't you allow me a real body?

Victor Timely:
That wasn't... me.

Miss Minutes:
If I had a body, we could truly be together!

Victor:
Yes, that's... that's something I-- I don't know how to do.

Miss Minutes:
You never even tried, with all your powers and all your "brilliance". You just kept me as your thing. Your computer. Your toy. Instead of what I could have been. Your... girl!

[Victor considers the TemPad.]

Miss Minutes:
Victor? What are you doing.

[He snatches it from the table. Minutes charges at him.]

Miss Minutes:
Put that down! Don't do this, you need me, we're a team! I love--!

Ravonna Renslayer:
After all those years of doing your dirty work... cleaning up your messes... making the hard decisions you never had the nerve to make... After all the times... I put the TVA above myself, even at the cost of my own happiness... my humanity... who are you to lecture me about losing my way?

Mobius:
We have all lost our way! But someone has to keep track of the big picture here!

Ravonna Renslayer:
You have no idea what it takes to lead! To act! To keep order! Did you happen to notice, the second I left, everything crumbled? I'm the only one who can bring stability to the TVA because that's what I've been doing, thanklessly, for eons. None of your words mean a thing. All that matters is order vs. chaos. I'm order.

Ravonna Renslayer:
If you're gonna kill me, just do it.

Sylvie:
I've killed you a thousand times in my mind, each time more brutal than the last. It's a crippling kind of obsession. I'm starting to realize that. It's power for you, isn't it? That's what you want. A seat at the end of time. Well... be careful what you wish for.

Renslayer:
So He [Who Remains] built this little tower... and while he sat on his throne... I continued to do all the work to keep him there?

Miss Minutes:
Well, something like that.

Renslayer:
So, what are you proposing?

Miss Minutes:
That we don't need him. Maybe we never did.

Mobius:
Here's the deal: You have to trust us, and we don't have time.

Victor:
I'm from Chicago, friend -- the schadeocracy capital of the world. I don't trust anyone.

Victor:
So, I built all of this? Or, I did-- Well-- Or, I will and I did?

Loki:
So, if your work is based on his work and his work is based on your work--

Mobius:
Exactly -- which came first?

Ouroboros:
It's like a snake eating its own tail!

Sylvie:
[to Mobius] Clocks don't tick at the TVA, do they? You found out you're a Variant, and you haven't even looked, have you? It's just another bad day at the office for you. Timelines are just lines on a monitor. It doesn't matter if a few disappear, because you've never bothered to look if one of them was yours. Who cares if a few just disappear? Enjoy your pie.

Sylvie:
What if you're wrong? What if you are wrong to believe this place can be any better? What if I was wrong to spare him? It would just be easier to burn this place down and start from scratch!

Loki:
Sure, burn it down, easy. Annihilating it, easy. Razing things to the ground is easy. Trying to fix what's broken is hard. Hope is hard.

Sylvie:
Sounds like, whatever we do, we're playing god.

Loki:
We are gods.

General Dox:
[To Renslayer] How does it feel, knowing that all of us here would rather die than follow you out that door, hm?

Miss Minutes:
[last words] They're taking me offline! I'm losing my cognitive facilities! I only have moments left! Victor, I need to tell you...! You'll never be him.

Victor:
I will be brave.

Brad / Hunter X-5:
[as Zaniac; audio only] You died! Insert your coin, loser!

[Loki has just encountered A.D. Doug, PhD -- O.B.'s original self.]

Loki:
Wait... You're a writer?

A.D. Doug, PhD:
Yes. Science fiction!

Loki:
I'm doomed.

A.D. Doug, PhD:
But -- and this is kinda embarrassing -- had to get a PhD to keep my day job teaching theoretical physics at CalTech.

A.D. Doug, PhD:
You time travel in a place that has no time, right?

Loki:
Right.

A.D. Doug, PhD:
That's not possible.

Loki:
I know...

A.D. Doug, PhD:
So you traveling to a place that doesn't exist anymore is equally impossible, and therefore, it's something you might be able to do!

Loki:
Sure. Excellent. Y'know, makes total sense. Doesn't sound like science.

A.D. Doug, PhD:
No. But it does sound like fiction!

A.D. Doug, PhD:
With science, it's all "what" and "how". But with fiction, it's "why".

Loki:
[regarding Don's Jetskis] "A beautiful union of form and function..."

Don (Mobius):
Oh, that's lovely, yeah.

Loki:
What?! How did you build a TemPad so fast?

A.D. Doug, PhD:
I don't know if I'd say eighteen months is fast. Well, nineteen months -- I had to take a break and move out when I lost my job and my wife left me.

Loki:
I can bring you back to any point in time. It'll be like you never left. Your boys won't even know you're gone.

Don:
Yeah, but I will.

Loki:
How many, if they had a choice, would have chosen to stay? Mobius always said the TVA was the only life he'd ever known and he liked it. It gave him... purpose.

Sylvie:
It was never his choice to begin with, Loki. He Who Remains did that.

Loki:
But Mobius should have a choice now, no? Shouldn't they all? To return to the TVA if they want?

Sylvie:
No. You would be ripping people from their lives, showing them something that they cannot unsee... what kinda choice is that?

Loki:
You don't care? I guess not. I guess it's all worked out just the way you want it to, and you're fine just walking away. So selfish!

Sylvie:
Of course I'm selfish! I want a life! I want to live. What's wrong with wanting something, Loki?

Loki:
I want my friends back. I don't wanna be alone.

Sylvie:
See? We're back to selfish. I know this is hard, but your friends are back where they belong.

Loki:
But without them... where do I belong?

Sylvie:
We're all writing our own stories now. Go write yours.

Lyle:
[handing Sylvie a record] This will either kill what's ailing you, or make it a whole lot worse.

A.D. Doug, PhD:
You controlled your time-slipping!

Loki:
Yes. It's not about where, when or why... It's about who. I can rewrite the story.

Loki:
[repeated line] Again.

Loki:
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me."

Loki:
O.B., how long will it take me to know everything that you know about mechanics, physics and engineering?

Ouroboros:
How much do you know?

Loki:
Let's assume I don't know much. But I'm a fast learner... and I'm a god.

Victor:
My Loom will never be able to accommodate for an infinitely growing multiverse. You can't scale for "infinite".

He Who Remains:
This... This isn't the first time we've had this conversation, is it?

Loki:
How did you know?

He Who Remains:
I know about the slipping? And who do you think paved that road? Any guesses? Survey says...

Loki:
He... Who Remains.

Loki:
"We die with the dying... We're born with the dead."

Loki:
[to He Who Remains, after freezing time] And what makes you think... this is the first time we've had this conversation?

He Who Remains:
I made the tough choices, that's why I get the big chair. I keep us safe. Can't you see what I'm offering here is mercy?

Loki:
For me, or for you?

Mobius:
You wanna hear a good story? Listen to this one. A couple Hunters went out on a mission somewhere near the Black Sea to find a Variant who's gonna be responsible for five thousand deaths -- five thousand deaths that were not in the proper flow of time. They get there, and there's a little hiccup; the Variant is an eight-year-old boy. He was just minding his own business! Swimming with his brother, jumping off the dock... And one of the Hunters, who had never had trouble pruning before, he had never hesitated but that day, he did! He paused. Timeline started to branch, more Variants appeared, happened so fast his partner had to step in and prune the kid. But by then, cat was out of the bag. Couple Hunters died, all because that one Hunter... he lost sight of the bigger picture. You gotta keep the big picture in mind.

Loki:
Hm.

Mobius:
Most purpose is more "burden" than "glory". And trust me, you never wanna be the guy who avoids it 'cause you can't live with the burden.

Loki:
How do you live with it?

Mobius:
...scar tissue.

Mobius:
She knew the hard thing to do was the thing that had to be done. And by "hard", I mean "impossible". No, there's no comfort. You just choose your burden.

Sylvie:
It's not enough to protect the Sacred Timeline, Loki. Even down there is full of death and destruction and injustice. Do you really wanna be the god who takes away everyone's free will so you can protect that?

Loki:
But what good is free will if everyone's dead?

Sylvie:
And who are you to say we can't die trying? Who are you to say we can't die fighting? You're replacing one nightmare with another. I grew up in apocalypses, Loki. I've lived through enough of them to know that sometimes, it's okay to destroy something.

Loki:
I know what I want. I know what kind of god I need to be. For you. For all of us.

Mobius:
You think the TVA is gonna miss a tired, washed up ol' analyst with a heart of gold?

B-15:
I think there's one or two who will.

Mobius:
Where you gonna go?

Sylvie:
[she shrugs] You?

Mobius:
I might just wait here for a little bit. Let time pass...