Full spoilers follow for Loki season 2 episode 5.
The fifth episode of Loki season 2 has debuted on Disney Plus – and Marvel fans are tearing up over one particularly emotional scene in its third act.
Loki's latest entry, titled Science/Fiction, picks up right after its predecessor's cliffhanger ending – read our Loki season 2 episode 4 ending explained article for more – and sees the trickster god try to right the wrongs of what occurred last time out.
For much of episode 5, though, the odds are stacked against him. After previously thinking he'd been cured of his time-slipping ailment, Loki is randomly pulled across the multiverse once more. However, he soon realizes that he can use it to his advantage as he attempts to save the Time Variance Authority (TVA) and his friends, stop the Temporal Loom's destruction, and prevent all of existence from being snuffed out.
We're about to get into major spoiler territory for season 2 episode 5. If you haven't watched it yet, don't read past the image below.
With the aid of Ouroboros – or, rather, Doctor A.D. Doug as he's really known on his timeline – Loki concocts a plan to stop the multiverse's collapse. He needs to gather his friends together (from their own timelines, which they were sent back to after season 2 episode 4's shocking ending) in the same location, use their collective temporal aura to go back in time to the moment before the Temporal Loom was destroyed, and save the multiverse.
Unfortunately, things don't go well. Loki convinces everyone except Sylvie to help him and, without her, his plan won't work. However, when Sylvie's timeline evaporates into thin air due to the Temporal Loom's destruction, she uses He Who Remains' – one of Kang the Conqueror's variants – Tempad to time-travel to Loki and company's location and agree to help them.
The only problem is they're too late to do anything (or so we think, but more on that later). Moments after Sylvie arrives, the collapsing multiverse reaches the group, and we can only watch on in horror as each one of them – excluding Loki – is spaghettified before evaporating into thin air.
It's another stunning scene that, after episode 4's jaw-dropping ending, continues to emotionally punch Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans in the gut. Indeed, given the quiet and terrified resignation each character displays as they disappear right in front of Loki's and our eyes, viewers have likened the dread-inducing scene to the MCU's most shocking moment ever: the sequence in Avengers: Infinity War that sees most Marvel heroes turned to dust post-Thanos snap.
They just re-created INFINITY WAR ending😭, this is worst than snap#Loki #LokiS2 pic.twitter.com/saBFQbDHV8November 3, 2023
In the hours since Science/Fiction arrived on Disney Plus, Marvel fans took to social media in their droves to comment on the highly emotional scene.
On Reddit, user Zecrom189 summed up a lot of viewers' feelings when they said "I was legit [sic] tearing up seeing everyone and everything vanish into strings". Fellow Redditors agreed, with tatinthehat writing "anyone else get 'The Snap' vibes, except it was soooooo much cooler?", pekoedegallo called it "distressing" before adding "all of it felt so hopeless", and bogartolesan opined "it's like seeing my heroes being dusted again".
#loki spoilers HIM DESPERATELY TRYING TO GRAB EVERY FABRIC OF FALLING APART REALITY WHILE TRYING TO REACH HER GOD pic.twitter.com/evUGRp738MNovember 3, 2023
As you can see from the two X (formerly Twitter) posts in this article, similar sentiments were expressed on the Elon Musk-owned platform. Indeed, MCU fans across social media were equally heartbroken as Loki tried in vain to save his friends, and all of reality, from disappearing.
Thankfully, the god of mischief looks like he'll be able to save everything after all. Earlier in episode 5, Ouroboros/Doctor Doug suggested Loki could control his time-slipping ability, which would allow him to travel back in time and space. That means he'd be able to prevent the Temporal Loom from imploding and stop all of this in the first place.
Initially, Loki struggles to control his new ability but, when his friends are seemingly killed, his grief is so strong that he manages to manifest his time-slipping powers and bring them back to life. Now that he's able to control his supposed ailment, he can travel back in time to the point before the Temporal Loom's destruction, save his friends, and protect the multiverse.
Based on what's preceded it, expect Loki season 2's final episode, then, to not only cement this season as the best Marvel Phase 5 project to date, but confirm Loki's whole TV series as one of the best Disney Plus shows of all-time.
