Theory: Sylvie Has Enchanted Loki

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Loki episode 3.

In Loki episode 3, "Lamentis," Sylvie tries and fails to use her powers of enchantment on Loki, who claims his mind is too powerful to be controlled. But with the two variants now facing an imminent apocalypse with seemingly no chance of escape, could Loki be under an enchantment by "Lady Loki" without realizing it?

After following Sylvie through a time door to the headquarters of the Time Variance Authority, Loki gets a chance to compare his powers with that of his female counterpart. After seeing some of his tricks, Sylvie scornfully dismisses him as a "magician." And while her own abilities seem to be more limited than his, the power to enchant people with a simple touch is one bit of magic that Loki has only ever been able to perform with the help of the Mind Stone.

"Lamentis" opens by revealing why Sylvie kidnapped Hunter C-20. By borrowing from the TVA soldier's memories, Sylvie was able to construct an illusion in which the two of them were old friends sharing cocktails in a bar, and then quizzed C-20 for details about the security surrounding the Time-Keepers. This opening scene seems like a strong hint that not everything that happens in "Lamentis" is real. Here are all the clues that Loki has been enchanted by Sylvie, and what she may be hoping to get from him.

The Apocalypse Cannot Kill Loki & Sylvie

The ending of "Lamentis" leaves Sylvie and Loki in a seemingly hopeless situation. The two variants are stuck on Lamentis-1, a moon orbiting the collapsing planet of Lamentis, which is raining down meteors and has just split completely in half. There's little time left before Lamentis-1 is destroyed in an apocalyptic event that has no survivors, and the last hope of escape - a spaceship called the Ark, which Loki had hoped to save from destruction - has just been destroyed. The TemPad was crushed when Loki fell from the train, and even if the TVA were able to find the two of them, the agency is probably too busy trying to get the newly-forming multiverse under control to try and save two criminals.

Loki and Sylvie seem doomed to die along with the other inhabitants of Lamentis-1, but with three episodes of Loki left they obviously cannot be killed off. And while "it was all a dream" might be a clichéd way of getting them out of their current predicament, Sylvie managing to trick the God of Mischief would certainly prove her worth as an opponent.

Episode 2 Hinted Sylvie Needs Loki

Though Sylvie might seem annoyed at having her plans ruined, Loki episode 2 strongly implied that she wanted Loki to follow her. She set a trap for the TVA at the Roxxcart apocalypse, and then isolated Loki and drew him to the area where she planned to make her exit. Though she told him "this isn't about you," it seems like Loki is a part of her plan. After setting the charges to scatter across time, Sylvie left a time door open behind her that remained open just long enough for Loki to follow her. In episode 3, it snaps shut as soon as he has finished passing through it, which could be an incredibly lucky coincidence or could be because it was programmed to close only after he'd passed through it.

Loki and Sylvie's goals are already roughly aligned. After being left in awe of the power of the TVA, Loki set his sights on overthrowing the Time-Keepers and taking control of the agency they created, giving him "the greatest power in the universe." Sylvie, meanwhile, seems to be more interested in killing the Time-Keepers and dismantling the TVA. Despite their differences, both of them have the same goal of getting past the TVA's security and reaching the Time-Keepers, and Sylvie may have decided that Loki is going to help her - whether he realizes it or not.

Loki's Power Claims Aren't True

Loki holding the Scepter in the opening scene of The Avengers

Time after time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Loki's arrogance has been his downfall. When Sylvie tried and apparently fails to enchant him on Lamentis-1, he brags that it won't work because "my mind is too strong." That certainly sounds like something that Loki would believe, but it's not necessarily true, as the trickster has previously been influenced without realizing it. In The Avengers, Loki was given a scepter containing the Mind Stone that he used to subject people to mind control and turn them into his drones. Fans theorized that Loki himself was under the thrall of Thanos and the Mind Stone, and Marvel later confirmed this in Loki's official character biography, which said: "Unbeknownst to him, the Scepter was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth."

While a powerful sorcerer like Loki no doubt has strong psychological barriers set up, he may be overestimating his mental defenses and underestimating Sylvie's powers of enchantment. Whether she's a true Loki variant or something else entirely, she has been able to evade the TVA for far longer than Loki has, killing dozens of Minutemen team and besting Loki himself in combat. Though there are several occasions in Loki episode 3 where she appears to be defeated or caught off-guard, she may simply be putting on a show of weakness for Loki, because an illusion where he's always the cleverest person in the room is an illusion that Loki will gladly fall for.

Why Sylvie Has Enchanted Loki

Loki Episode 3 Sylvie Tries To Enchant Loki

Sylvie's original reason for enchanting Loki was seemingly just to get the TemPad back, so that may be her only goal. Though Loki showed a crushed TemPad after falling from the train, it wouldn't be at all out of character for him to have created an illusion of a broken TemPad, so that Sylvie would give up trying to get it back. If all of this is happening inside of an enchantment illusion, then Sylvie may be pushing the illusory version of Lamentis-1 towards certain destruction in order to force Loki's hand and make him produce the real TemPad. And as a bonus, she has managed to dig up all sorts of details about this particular Loki variant and his powers.

On the other hand, enchanting Loki could be part of a bigger picture. Sylvie mocks Loki for calling his train guard disguise a "plan," telling him, "plans have multiple steps. Dressing as a guard and getting on a train is just doing a thing." If Sylvie is always thinking several steps ahead, then the events of Loki episode 3 may simply be one step in a plan that has yet to fully play itself out - and the endgoal surely has something to do with reaching the Time-Keepers.

More: Who Is Sylvie? Lady Loki Or Enchantress - Identity Explained