- Warning: Spoilers for episode five of "
Loki " ahead. - At the end of episode four, Loki was pruned and transported to The Void.
- The Void is a purgatory-like place that is marshalled by a fierce beast known as Alioth.
After being pruned in episode four of "Loki," Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief wakes up in The Void in that episode's end-credits scene.
There, he encounters a host of variant Lokis, who warn him to go with them or he'll die. But exactly where Loki is and what the threat of death is remained a mystery until Wednesday's fifth episode.
Warning: Spoilers for episode five of "Loki" ahead.
What is The Void in 'Loki'?
The Void is a purgatory-like place where everyone who is pruned is transported. Judge Ravonna explains to Sylvie that it is impossible to destroy all of the matter when they prune a branched reality, so that matter is moved "to a place on the timeline where it won't continue growing."
In essence: "The branched timeline isn't reset, it's transferred" to a void at the end of the time, where "every instance of existence collides at the same point and simply stops." That's why we see various things from different time periods and timelines there, including a flying saucer, a Thanos helicopter, a navy vessel, and a pirate ship.
Speaking of pirate ships, The Void sounds similar to Davy Jones' Locker in "Pirates of the Caribbean." Those eaten by the Kraken aren't killed; they're transported to a purgatory like land similar to The Void where they aren't really alive or dead (Schrodinger's Loki?) and they can't escape.
And the reason they can't get out of The Void is because of Alioth, the angry cloud.
Who is Alioth in 'Loki'?
In the show, Alioth is a roaming and rumbling giant trans-temporal entity intent on devouring and killing everything that drops into The Void. As Boastful Loki explains, "It's a living tempest that consumes matter and energy" and is able to devour "entire branched realities in an instant."
It's Classic Loki, though, who sums it up the best: "We're in a shark tank, that's the shark."
Again, it's not too dissimilar to "Pirates of the Caribbean." Think of Alioth as the Kraken in this scenario.
Later in episode five, Sylvie, having pruned herself to end up in The Void, reasons that the person or being behind the TVA is beyond The Void at the end of the time. She works out that Alioth is just the "guard dog protecting the only way in" to the being's domain. This turns out to be true as after Loki and Sylvie enchant Alioth, the portal to the being's domain is revealed.
Exactly who this being is remains to be seen, but there is one comics connection that gives us a big hint.
Who is behind the TVA?
In
In the comics, however, Kang isn't actually that friendly with Alioth - he even created a barrier preventing Alioth from entering his own temporal domain.
It remains to be seen whether or not Kang (or whoever is inside that domain on "Loki") and Alioth are on the same side, or whether Alioth is simply being used for the being's own gain. Perhaps the Lokis will use Alioth to destroy the being's domain? This would make sense - in the comics, Alioth once threatened Kang's domain with destruction.
Kang will reportedly be played by Jonathan Majors in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," but we may well end up seeing him in advance of that in next week's finale of "Loki."