Loki: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 3

At the halfway mark of the season, we learn a little bit more about Loki’s variant from the last episode, and clues that the TVA are up to no good.

If you saw the third episode of Disney Plus‘ Loki, entitled “Lamentis,” you might be thinking, just as other news outlets did, “Did we just wander into a Doctor Who episode by mistake?” Not only did Marvel’s god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) and his female doppelgänger from an alternate timeline (Sophia Di Martino) traverse through time and space to another world, they bickered over which was the better version. It’s as though we got a sneak peak at what would happen if David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor ever encountered Jodie Whitaker’s Thirteenth.

You might also be forgiven in believing that, as you watched these two wander across a strange desert moon, they moved a lot farther than the overall plot did. Nevertheless, if you looked close enough, there were a few interesting tidbits, and not just about the Loki who calls herself Sylvie. And as we go over them, keep in mind that, as always, we’ll be traversing through some potential SPOILERS.

Lamentis-1

As the majority of “Lamentis” takes place on the doomed habitable moon which bears its name, it only makes sense to talk a bit about it. It’s also a rather significant Marvel Comics-related Easter Egg. For one thing, Lamentis, the planet, is part of the Kree Empire, the same alien civilization as shown in Captain Marvel (2016). In addition, it’s also the setting which kicked off the sequel to one of the comic book publishers’ more influential storylines.

Back in 2006, Marvel kicked off a multi-title story arc called Annihilation around the same time as Civil War. Just as Civil War was an attempt to shake-up the Marvel superheroes, Annihilation was intended to shake-up and revitalize Marvel’s cosmic characters. The premise is that long time Fantastic Four villain, Annihilus, led a massive insectoid-like army from the “Negative Zone” to invade and destroy all of known space. As the heroes of Earth were busy fighting one another over the Superhero Registration Act, it was up to a ragtag group of space-based heroes and villains to stem back the tide of this “Annihilation Wave.” Among this group included the Richard Rider Nova, the Silver Surfer, Thanos, Super-Skrull, Ronan the Accuser, and, most significant of all, Star-Lord, Drax, and Gamora.

The sequel, Annihilation: Conquest, was published the following year, which not only explored the consequences of the first crossover, but continued to reintroduce and revamp Marvel’s line-up of cosmic characters. In addition to those from Annihilation, there was also Adam Warlock, Rocket Racoon, Groot, and Mantis. Together, both Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest modernized and rebooted the Guardians of the Galaxy as we know them today. It’s also likely that, if not for the popularity of these two crossovers, there may not have been Guardians of the Galaxy movies.