WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Loki Episode 3, “Lamentis,” streaming now on Disney+.
In the Loki TV series, as much as we’re learning a lot about the Asgardian trickster (Tom Hiddleston), fans have also been enthralled by the charismatic Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). Known by the Time Variance Authority as a Variant, the rogue — who’s more or less Lady Loki — is on a mission to eliminate the Time Keepers, which wraps the Laufeyson up as well. Interestingly, as they bond and she reveals more about her enchantment ability, we see that her power is basically that from Inception.
In the Christopher Nolan movie, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Dom Cobb used this talent to near-perfection to steal information from people’s minds while they’re sedated. Thanks to this art of dream sharing, the cerebral thief could also implant ideas, which involved his team creating constructs — mental mazes they could alter to lull the subject into disclosing intel that even they didn’t realize they held in the recesses of their brains.
And make no mistake, Sylvie has used the power pretty well so far. The third episode opens with her having drinks at a restaurant/bar with Hunter C-20, pretending to be her friend so she can extract how to get to her targets at the TVA. C-20 is hesitant, but Sylvie switches the setting from day to night, altering details just like Dom’s team would to assuage their subject.
This eventually works as Sylvie finds out she needs to get to the elevator at the TVA with the golden doors. She confirms all this to Loki when they board the train on Lamentis-1 in 2077 after time-hopping using the TemPad. Her enchantment powers require her to touch people’s minds to dive deep into their memories, plucking their favorite ones out, such as moments and places that’ll disarm them, then she recreates the illusion in their heads.
With this fake world built, she befriends them, creates conversation and harnesses a deep trust between them. Once this is set up, she can do stuff like pretend to be a bestie — which happens with C-20 — and draw the information out.
The stronger the mind, the tougher it is to crack, but Sylvie can improvise and reset on the fly, which causes C-20 in her entranced state to spill the beans. The difference is, sometimes the subjects know they’ve been mentally robbed as C-20 did admit to Mobius about being probed.
In Inception, most times, the subjects have no clue what happened and just chalk it up to bad dreams. Ultimately, Loki’s impressed but says it doesn’t matter how hard she tries, Sylvia can’t enchant him. That’s why, to him, it’s best that they team up to take down the TVA, but of course, there’s always a chance all this could be an enchantment in his mind.
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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