‘Loki’: Here’s Why Sylvie Is the Only One Who Remembers the TVA

Episode 5 of Season 2 of ‘Loki’ left viewers perplexed as Loki emerged as the sole survivor amidst the chaos unleashed in the TVA by the overloaded Temporal Loom. Although his time slipping resurfaced, Loki observed a puzzling phenomenon—his friends had returned to their respective timelines and seemingly forgotten about him. However, when Loki reunited with Sylvie, she retained her memories of him and everything that transpired in the TVA. The question arises: Why was Sylvie the only one who remembered these events?

Destruction of Temporal Loom reset everyone back to their original places in Universe

The conclusion of Episode 4 of ‘Loki’ carried a tragic undertone as the protagonists faced the harsh reality of their impending defeat. Their efforts to repair the Temporal Loom before its destruction proved futile, leading to the demise of Victor Timely due to the radiation emitted by the Loom. The intensifying radiation eventually reached the TVA, causing everyone but Loki to vanish. Loki, still present, noticed the disappearance of everyone else and the resurgence of his time slipping, a consequence of the Loom’s radiation.

As Loki traversed different timelines, slipping into various points within the Sacred Timeline, he encountered the variants of his TVA friends. However, a perplexing challenge arose—none of his TVA companions could recall him, reverting to their original lives before the TVA intervened as if they had never been variants.

During this tumultuous period, Loki found himself conversing most with AD Doug, the physicist and sci-fi author, who assumed the identity of Ouroboros before being taken to the TVA. AD Doug provided crucial insights into how Loki could control his time slipping and potentially return to the moment before the Temporal Loom’s destruction.

Loki also engaged in conversation with Mobius’ variant, leading a simple life as a jet ski salesman in 2022, juggling responsibilities to care for his two sons after their mother left them. Following the Temporal Loom’s explosion, Mobius and Loki’s other friends at the TVA returned to their original timelines, their memories wiped clean by He Who Remains after the multiversal war against other Kang variants. This explains their lack of recollection of their past lives and He Who Remains’ existence.

The Temporal Loom effectively “reset” them to their original timelines, allowing them to resume lives as intended before the TVA intervened. The reset included wiping their memories, and as a result, Mobius and the others had no knowledge of Loki, the Temporal Loom, or the events within the TVA.

An exception to this amnesia was Sylvie. When Loki gathered his friends and brought them to AD Doug’s laboratory, he sought Sylvie’s Temporal Aura, crucial for her presence before the TVA’s destruction. When Loki visited Sylvie in Oklahoma, where she worked at McDonald’s, she interrupted his explanation, asserting that she knew who he was. Sylvie, unlike the other TVA employees, retained full recollection of the events in the TVA right before their disappearance, leaving both Loki and the viewers puzzled by her unique ability to remember.

Sylvie has a special TemPad that belonged to He Who Remains

As previously mentioned, Sylvie retained memories of the events in the TVA during the Temporal Loom’s destruction, posing a puzzling contrast to the amnesia experienced by others. Two plausible explanations emerge.

Firstly, Sylvie may have narrowly escaped the explosion of the Temporal Loom, utilizing the master TemPad of He Who Remains to open a door just before the blast reached her. In Episode 5, Sylvie confesses to Loki that she is selfish, suggesting that she might have prioritized her own life when it became apparent that their attempts to fix the Loom had failed.

Alternatively, the connection between He Who Remains’ TemPad and Sylvie’s unaltered memories offers another perspective. Despite being caught in the Loom’s explosion and sent back to her original timeline, Sylvie’s memories remained untouched. This unique circumstance allowed her to retain her memories when “reset” to her original timeline. The question then arises: Why was she in Oklahoma instead of Asgard?

It’s plausible that Sylvie actively chose to resume her life in Oklahoma after the reset, armed with He Who Remains’ TemPad. Using this device, she likely navigated back to the life she desired in Oklahoma. This inclination was hinted at during her conversation with Loki in the bar, where she emphasized the newfound freedom to shape their own destinies. Sylvie encouraged Loki to write his own story, reinforcing the idea that individuals now had the choice to live the lives they desired and to author their narratives.

In light of this, it appears highly likely that Sylvie exercised her agency to script her own story after being reset to her timeline. Opting to return to the life she had chosen, Sylvie likely employed the TemPad to revisit this timeline after the tumultuous events in the TVA.

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