Loki Season 2: What Is the Fail-Safe Protocol in Episode 5?

The MCU got a major new threat in Loki Season 2.

By Jenna Anderson

We're nearly through with Loki's sophomore season, which has been taking the Marvel Cinematic Universe on quite a journey. The show has not only tried to expand upon the mythos of Loki (Tom Hiddleston), but of the Time Variance Authority. That included one major reveal about how the TVA itself works — the Fail-Safe Protocol, which made a deadly impact across the episode. So, what exactly is the TVA's Fail-Safe Protocol? Spoilers for Season 2, Episode 5 of Loki below! Only look if you want to know!

The major thread of the episode involved Loki dealing with the fallout of the Temporal Loom's explosion, which scattered his friends across time and space and made his timeslipping significantly worse. Early on in the episode, we saw one side-effect of that explosion — the Fail-Safe Protocol had been automatically activated by the TVA, causing everything in the facility to slowly spin out into nothingness. While this wasn't the first time we've seen this "spaghetting", as Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors) died in a similar fashion in Episode 4, we began to see its impact across the episode. Branched timelines, and the people within them, began to be erased — including the timeline where Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) had found a happy life at McDonald's, and later the timeline where O.B. (Ke Huy Quan) hosted the team at his base of operations. While Loki is not seemingly able to stop the spaghetting altogether, he can now better control his timeslipping and go back to before the protocol was initiated.

Will Loki Get a Season 3?

In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Loki producer Kevin Wright addressed the possibility of whether or not the show could end up getting a third season — and teased that either way, the narrative of the show will continue in the larger franchise.

"We are certainly thinking about how we can continue to tell TVA and Loki-based stories," Wright revealed. "What I would say is season one and season two were always conceived as two chapters of the same book. We want to close this book and I think there's a lot more books on the shelf, though."

What Is Loki Season 2 About?

Marvel Studios fan-favorite Tom Hiddleston stars in Loki Season 2, returning as the titular God of Mischief for another round of time-traveling hijinx on Disney+ on October 5th. Loki is once again joined by Mobius (Owen Wilson) as the two attempt to keep the timelines intact. After the events of Season 1 saw his variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) kill He Who Remains and unleash the wrath of Kang the Conqueror upon the Multiverse, Loki must once again embark on an adventure to keep reality from collapsing. Loki was last seen in the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where he and Mobius were keeping tabs on one of Kang's mysterious variants. Loki Season 2 will continue the story of the Multiverse Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

ComicBook.com's podcast Phase Zero will be recording live episodes every week following Loki season 2's new episodes on Disney+. Each week we will review, breakdown, and discuss the latest installment of the new Marvel series immediately after the episode's conclusion! The new episodes will be broadcast live on the Phase Zero channel on YouTube before being made available on all major podcast platforms. Phase Zero will begin its 5-minute timer to start the live show at 9:45pm ET on Thursday, October 5. You can subscribe to the Phase Zero channel now and turn on notifications to make sure you don't miss the Loki Season 2 bonus episodes!

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