Loki Episode 5: 11 Easter Eggs And References You Might Have Missed

Take a journey into mystery this week on Loki with all the time-traveling Easter eggs you've come to expect.


Welcome to the void at the end of time, home of--well, a whole bunch of stuff, including a gang of Loki variants you may or may not recognize and even some nods to real life history. In this episode of Loki, we get one step closer to solving the mystery of the TVA, but not without running into some potentially catastrophic dangers first.

Thankfully, Loki (that is, our Loki) isn't on his own--and not all of the Loki variants in the void are inherently evil. After teaming up with the little rag-tag crew that we saw in the post-credits of last week's episode, Loki quickly hatches a number of truly terrible plans. It's not until Sylvie finally arrives (and finds Mobius) that things really begin to get going. The scheme is simple--Sylvie is going to "enchant" the giant smoke-based creature that roves the Void like a shark and use that magic to escape to whatever exists beyond, where she assumes she'll find the person responsible for the TVA.

Of course, the void itself is littered with Easter eggs, references, and nods to both the MCU and Marvel comics, so we went on a little scavenger hunt to help you notice them all.


1. Journey into Mystery


This episode's title is a nod to the comics of the same name. First published in 1962, Journey into Mystery was a horror-fantasy anthology series that introduced characters like Thor, and of course, Loki. It eventually evolved to be a Loki-centric series.


2. Qeng Tower


The building we assumed was an Avengers Tower back in the post credits of Episode 4 actually has the word "QENG" written on the side--a nod to a story in All-New, All-Different Avengers where a company called Qeng Enterprises buys the tower from Tony Stark. Qeng Enterprises is eventually revealed to be a front for Kang the Conqueror.


3. Alioth


The giant smoke monster that prowls the Void is, probably unsurprisingly, a real character from Marvel comics. Kind of. In the books, Alioth is a much more sentient entity who was the first creature to break free of the constraints of time, with an empire greater than Kang's. Kang created a barrier to prevent Alioth from ever entering his domain--more hints that the person responsible for the TVA is Kang himself.


4. Polybius


The arcade cabinet Polybius isn't actually a real game, but it is a very real urban legend. Surfacing on the internet in the early 2000s, the story was all about a video game invented by the government as a psychoactive experiment that ran through the 1980s.


5. Thanos Copter


At long last, we arrive at one of the most important MCU Easter eggs to date: the actual Thanos Copter. This very real helicopter flown by Thanos appeared in the comics in 1979 and promptly became a beloved meme that, sadly, never got its day in the MCU--until now.


6. Frog Thor


During the pan under ground, we get a brief glimpse of our first Thor variant of the show--Frog Thor, or Throg, who is exactly what he sounds like: A frog with the powers of Thor. Originally introduced as a version of Thor who was literally turned into a frog, Throg eventually became his own character, and arguably one of the best versions of Thor to ever exist.


7. President Loki


The suit-clad Loki variant played by Tom Hiddleston is another comics nod--specifically to a limited series called Vote Loki wherein Loki nearly takes over the White House, published back in 2016.


8. USS Eldridge


The USS Eldridge is a real navy destroyer that operated in World War 2--but that's not why it makes a cameo in this show. In 1943, the Eldridge was the subject of the so-called "Philadelphia Experiment" a conspiracy theory that began circulating in the 1950s about a military experiment that supposedly rendered the destroyer invisible by cloaking device in 1943.


9. GRN-W1D


Mobius's car has a vanity plate that references Marvel writer and editor (and Mobius look-alike) Mark Gruenwald.


10. Helicarrier


The Void is littered with recognizable bits of debris, but maybe the easiest to spot is the wreckage of a giant SHIELD Helicarrier.


11. Chronopolis?


We only get a brief glimpse of the citadel beyond the void as Loki and Sylvie successfully enchant Alioth--but there's a real possibility that what we're seeing is the MCU's version of Chronopolis, the domain of the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror. We'll have to wait until next week to find out for sure.


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