‘Loki’ Easter Eggs: 5 Things You May Have Missed in Episode 1

While Loki’s waiting impatiently in a somehow never-ending line of two, the TVs mounted to the wall play an explainer video skimming over the history of the TVA (which is itself the history of all existence). In the Jay Ward/Hanna-Barbera-style animated sequence, we hear a term we’ve already heard once before on Disney+: Nexus.

As the TVA explains, a nexus is a point in reality wherein an event occurs that causes the timeline to branch. For instance, Loki picking up the Tesseract in Avengers Tower in 2012. Or Loki crashing in the desert and talking to some locals, also in 2012. Two things that weren’t meant to happen, so those incidents are nexuses…nexii? If that word sounds familiar…

Remember that commercial in WandaVision, Episode 7? It was a parody of ’00s medication commercials, and Nexus was a “unique anti-depressant that works to anchor you back to your reality. Or the reality of your choice. Nexus: Because the world doesn’t revolve around you—or does it?” That pretty much describes a nexus point: when an individual deviates from the Sacred Timeline, they really are creating a reality that does revolve around themselves. The TVA is around to stop that.

It’s important to note that the term “nexus” doesn’t appear in WandaVision except in this commercial, so it’s incredibly likely that this was included as a connection to Loki. This lays the groundwork for central themes in both shows to collide in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which co-stars Scarlet Witch and, uh, the word multiverse is in the title.

While investigating a murder scene in 16th century France, Mobius questions a witness to the crimes—a kid with a sweet tooth (but not Sweet Tooth). He asks who’s responsible for all the death, and the kid points to a stained glass window that contains the likeness of Satan. Mephisto stans—which apparently exist??—are going to think this is a sign that, once again, Mephisto is the star of a show that’s not about Mephisto. First WandaVision and now Loki. Granted, yes, Mephisto (Marvel’s Satan-adjacent demon) does have strong comic book ties to both Wanda Maximoff and Loki. But still—!

This is not a Mephisto reference. The show is called Loki, and this is a Loki reference. Notice how both Loki and this stained-glass devil have horns? That’s what the kid is implying when he points to this window—and that’s exactly how we all would’ve taken it if people hadn’t gone so Mephisto crazy over WandaVision. Don’t believe me? Here’s what director Kate Herron told Entertainment Tonight about this exact moment:

“It’s honestly just a super weird coincidence. Like, it’s genuinely a reference to Loki — the horns, he was cast out of heaven, that’s what it’s a reference to. Because we filmed that a long time before—I think WandaVision must have been in post when we filmed that. I did see all the stuff about that online and I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be interesting.’ [Laughs] But no, it’s more relevant to the themes of our show and it’s not a nod to that character.”

People—stop trying to make Mephisto happen!

If you look closely on Loki’s TVA file, you’ll see that his sex is categorized as “fluid.” That is canon, not just in regards to Marvel Comics but to Norse mythology as well. In the comics, Loki spent a number of years scheming and getting up to no good after reincarnating on Earth in a female form (a form intended for Sif that he stole from her, but that’s a whole other explainer). Since then, Loki’s gender fluidity and pansexuality have been embraced by many of the character’s writers. This mention on Loki’s TVA file confirms that the same can be said of Hiddleston’s Loki. The next question is, will we get to see this play out on TV?

After rescuing him from execution, Mobius gives Loki a tour of a fraction of the infinite TVA headquarters, to which Loki has one reasonable response: “This place is a nightmare.” And Mobius responds with, “No, that’s another department.”

So, obviously this could be an example of Mobius’ dry humor—or it could be another teeny little nod to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. It’s long been rumored that Marvel villain Nightmare will be an antagonist (or the antagonist) in the Doctor Strange sequel. Nightmare as a character has long been associated with Doctor Strange and even Loki, so it’s not impossible that this is a bit of setup for that film. Remember, Marvel loves doing this kinda stuff! Remember how Stephen Strange was name-dropped in Captain America: The Winter Soldier two years before he debuted?

There’s also one other connection: Loki head writer Michael Waldron also wrote Multiverse of Madness. If anyone is going to setup next year’s Strange movie, it’s gonna be the guy that wrote it.

Once Mobius arrives at the interrogation room with Loki, we see that he has a drink waiting for him—specifically two cans of Josta.

Produced by Pepsi, ’90s kids will remember Josta as the first widely-available energy drink. The soft drink was only available from 1995 to 1999, so you know Mobius has to pop into mid-’90s convenience stores just to get his fix. I guess that doesn’t mess with the timeline?

Fun bit of trivia: Josta used the slogan “better do the good stuff now.” Of course Mobius’ fave drink would have a slogan with a reference to time.

Stream Loki on Disney+