WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 4, “The Nexus Event,” now streaming on Disney+.
Conceptions of the powers involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe change all the time, and Loki proves that more than any previous property. Beings who were once thought gods can be ineffectual prisoners, and the most coveted weapons in the universe are turned into little more than paper weights.
However, some of these shifts in how fans view the powers and mechanics of the MCU can make up for previous plot holes. Nowhere is that more true than when it comes to looking back on Wanda Maximoff’s powers in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Wanda’s powers, as they were established in Age of Ultron, were not necessarily a plot hole at first, but they were confusing. Explaining her abilities as basically telepathy and telekinesis, Wanda used her magic to influence the minds of the Avengers in different ways. Tony Stark and Thor both saw apocalyptic visions of the future, while Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers saw visions of the past. But WandaVision offered insight into how Wanda’s powers may be tied to reality itself, rather than just affecting the matter around her, and Loki offers a look at what the MCU’s multiverse really looks like.
Loki’s depiction of the timeline shows how Nexus events create branching alternate realities that the Time Variance Authority takes upon itself to prune. These branching realities deviate from the Sacred Timeline they seek to protect, but can have stubborn ways of sticking around. Loki and his counterpart Sylvie are both dubbed variants and both manage to escape the TVA’s pruning, and in the latest episode, Loki wakes up in a post-apocalyptic New York surrounded by four more Loki variants. This is not the first time that a version of the MCU’s world is seen so devastated in the franchise, however. After all, Tony’s vision included just that.
Where the possible plot hole came with Wanda’s illusions was their seeming basis in reality. If they were simply mental illusions conjured out of nowhere, there would be no problem, but they proved to have material bearing on the future that neither Wanda nor her victims could have known. Thor’s visions of leading the Asgardians to Hel stuck with him independent of Wanda, and as he explored them, they warned of the threat of the Infinity Gauntlet that later wiped out half of all life. This came as no twist, but rather a confusing feature of the film that became more confusing as time went on.
But the more it looks like Wanda could both break reality or access alternate worlds through her magic, the more it seems she may have been giving insights into the exact kinds of alternate timelines Loki depicts. The visions she gave Thor and Tony may not have been just horrors from the depths of their mind, but actual divergent timelines her magical prowess accessed without her even realizing their true potential. Loki and his counterparts prove how easy it is to hide out in the midst of a doomed apocalypse, it’s not even entirely out of the question that Wanda’s powers were giving Tony and Thor actual contact with these ill-fated worlds without any outside consequence.
Much of the fun in Loki comes with such implications. The MCU has never felt so big or so complicated as it does now, with its transformation into a multiverse about to change it altogether. WandaVision made its changes to that mythology as Loki makes its own, and how they may converge in the future is anyone’s guess.
Loki stars Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Sophia Di Martino, Richard E. Grant, Sasha Lane, and Eugene Cordero. New episodes air Wednesdays on Disney+.
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