Spoilers follow for Loki season 2 episode 3.
One of Loki season 2's directors has revealed that Marvel fans were supposed to be deeply unsettled by one of episode 3's most noteworthy scenes. Speaking exclusively to TechRadar, Kasra Farahani confirmed that the writing team wanted viewers to feel uncomfortable when Miss Minutes attempted to woo Victor Timely midway through its latest entry.
There was plenty for audiences to unpack from the third episode of season 2, titled '1893', including the introduction of another Kang the Conqueror variant in Timely. However, one of the most talked-about scenes, once the episode aired on Disney Plus, was the one in which Miss Minutes, the sentient artificial intelligence (AI) created by another Kang variant – He Who Remains – comes onto Timely.
That's because Miss Minutes developed feelings for He Who Remains once the latter gave her full autonomy to do as she pleased. Considering Timely is a multiversal variant of He Who Remains, it's no surprise that Miss Minutes' infatuation carries over from He Who Remains to one of his alternate-reality iterations.
I remember being legitimately freaked out by the idea of an Ultron AI going rogue and ending the world. That fear was nothing compared to what I experienced while watching Loki last night. #Loki #MissMinutes pic.twitter.com/gDNFNad8paOctober 20, 2023
As episode 3's plot plays out, it's suggested that Miss Minutes is besotted with He Who Remains (and, by proxy, his variants), but it isn't until one scene involving the AI and Timely that viewers learned the full truth.
When the duo find themselves alone in Timely's laboratory/safe house, Miss Minutes attempts to court the 19th century inventor-cum-conman. First, the AI blushes, before asking Timely to build her a body so they can be together physically. When a clearly unsettled Timely suggests otherwise, Miss Minutes even goes as far as to profess her love for Timely in a last-ditch effort to stop him from locking her away in a TemPad.
In the hours and days that followed the Marvel Phase 5 TV show's latest episode fans took to social media platforms, including Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) to comment on how uncomfortable the scene made them feel. So, when the opportunity presented itself to ask Farahani – Loki's production designer, who directed and co-wrote '1893' – about the sequence in question, I couldn't help but wonder if that was the intent from the get-go.
"I can credit [head writer] Eric Martin with that idea," Farahani told me. "I remember very early in the writers room that he specifically wanted to do that. It was priority for him to humanize Miss Minutes and to give her those ambitions. It was one of those ideas that, at the very beginning, I'd say there was a lot of attrition in terms of ideas that actually make it into the show, but that was one that did because it was such a great idea. There was so much potential fun to be had with the awkwardness of their dynamic, and I'm glad that it had the desired effect of creeping you out."
I'm still shocked. It's not just what she did. It's how nuanced and believable it was coming from a cartoon clock that made it horrifying.Her behavior has always been odd and this episode was the definitive crescendo of it all. Complete psycho.#Loki #MissMinutes pic.twitter.com/u7ianNALGoOctober 20, 2023
Of course, Timely's spurning of Miss Minutes is sure to come back to bite him in one or more of Loki season 2's last three episodes. Indeed, with the introverted Timely traveling with Loki and Mobius to try and stop the TVA's Temporal Loom from imploding and destroying the multiverse, viewers think Miss Minutes and Ravonna Renslayer – another jilted potential love interest of Timely's – will be gunning for the group next time out.
The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV series returns to our screens this Friday (November 3) for its fourth installment. You'll want to check back in with TechRadar on that date, too, for an in-depth exclusive chat with executive producer Kevin Wright about what goes down plot-wise. For now, you can read more of my previous Loki exclusives below, including how Timely nearly debuted in the MCU earlier than anticipated.
