WARNING: Spoilers for Loki episode 6, "For All Time. Always."

The season 1 finale of Loki, “For All Time. Always,” revealed that time travelers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s multiverse will face the same problem as those in The Umbrella Academy. While similarities between two shows dealing with superheroes and time travel might be expected, the ending of Loki’s first season and The Umbrella Academy’s second season are remarkably parallel. This is because of similar in-universe issues with how time travel has been harnessed.

In the Disney+ Marvel show, time is kept to a single Sacred Timeline and any divergence from this timeline is quickly reset by agents of the TVA. Time travelers in the MCU use special devices called TemPads to move back and forth along the Sacred Timeline as well as through space (or, in the case of Avengers: Endgame, some slightly more complex technology is put to work). In The Umbrella Academy, based on the graphic novels by Gerard Way, the equivalent of the TVA, the Commission, works to maintain The Timeline through small acts that cause ripple effects, as well as more overtly violent means. Time travelers here use special briefcases to travel back and forth along The Timeline, with the exception of Five (Aidan Gallagher) whose superpower allows him to move through time and space under his own steam (with varying degrees of success).

Related: Umbrella Academy: Why The Team’s Biggest Weakness Is How Strong Their Powers Are

At the end of Loki season 1, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) destroy the Sacred Timeline creating a full multiverse of branching timelines. When Sylvie uses He Who Remains’ (Jonathan Majors) TemPad to send Loki back to the TVA, he arrives in a parallel timeline where, although Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) are still present and working on damage control, nobody recognizes him. Five and the rest of the Umbrella Academy face the same problem at the end of season 2 when they attempt to return to their own timeline. They instead arrive in an alternate timeline where the Umbrella Academy never existed, the Sparrow Academy was founded instead, and Ben (Justin H. Min) never died.

The cast of The Umbrella Academy assembles in season two poster.

In The Umbrella Academy, despite their actions in the past, their original future timeline still exists: they are able to open a portal to the future from the start of season 1 and send the older version of Five through to it. In The Umbrella Academy, the briefcases allow time travelers to ensure that they are traveling to exactly the right point in time and, importantly, not veering from The Timeline onto another divergent timeline. Five’s powers being less precise than the briefcases presents the potential of calculations being wrong, which can land him accidentally in the 1960s, the far-off future, or indeed, a different timeline altogether.

The problem faced by Loki is likely caused by almost exactly the same issue. While The Umbrella Academy’s briefcases are calibrated to The Timeline, the MCU’s TemPads were created with only the single Sacred Timeline in mind. When Sylvie pushes Loki through the doorway at the end of season 1 it is the first use of the TemPad we have seen since the branching Nexus Event timelines in Loki created a full multiverse where there are so many possible timelines to land on. So, just as with The Umbrella Academy’s briefcases, while the TemPads presumably have variable inputs for time and location, there was no way to choose which timeline to land on because that was never their function.

Next: Loki Caused The Multiverse Of Madness Theory Confirmed

Loki will return for season 2 on Disney+.

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