Mephisto isn't in 'Loki' and I have something to confess

Did you see it? I saw it too. The ominous, looming stained glass devil in the first episode of Loki on Disney+ has to be a reference to Mephisto, right? I know I've been wrong before, having kinda-sorta accused like, five other people and one very suspicious rabbit of being Mephisto in WandaVision but come on, it's the literal devil this time!

Actually, no. It's not. And this piece isn't about how Mephisto is secretly in Loki, it's about how I need to hop off the Mephisto train and refund all the tickets I sold you guys when I more than figuratively lost my mind about the Mephisto theory in January. Look, it had been more than a year since anything MCU-related had come out and I think my brain had been going overboard on "what's next" theories so long it had basically turned to scrambled eggs. Or deviled eggs, in this case. Like many forms of eggy madness, if was fun while it lasted.

Now I'm going to say something I've never said about a Disney+ show before in my life: Mephisto isn't in this. Let me repeat, as much as it pains me: Mephisto is not going to show up. I too felt a surge of sweet, sweet conspiracy juice flood my brain when I saw the devil in the stained glass window, but upon closer inspection and this Entertainment Tonight interview with Loki director Kate Herron it's very clear that the devil in the window is meant to represent Loki. You know, the star of the show. From the interview:

"It's honestly just a super weird coincidence. Like, it's genuinely a reference to Loki -- the horns, he was cast out of heaven, that's what it's a reference to. Because we filmed that a long time before-- I think WandaVision must have been in post when we filmed that. I did see all the stuff about that online and I was like, "Oh, this is going to be interesting." But no, it's more relevant to the themes of our show and it's not a nod to that character."

And really, at this point who would Mephisto even be in Loki? Mobius? I mean he did appear to be using his left hand to operate the time file machine and left-handedness is superstitious linked to the devil… Or what about Casey the desk guy, who doesn't know what a fish is but has a junk drawer full of infinity stones and doesn't think they're a big deal because his power is potentially uncontainable by the greatest forces in the universe? Or wait, wait, what if it's Hunter B-15 and no one noticed that her obsession with eliminating the Loki variant from all time is because game recognizes game and she knows he's a threat to her infernal dominance? That's it! It has to be her!

Just kidding. She is not Mephisto. No one is and it's probably going to stay that way forever or at least until Marvel runs out of ideas in the middle of MCU Phase 87, whenever that releases. And even if they did try to introduce him in the next decade or so, let's be real — absolutely no one would believe them. Least of all me. I'm not falling for that again.

Loki is now streaming on Disney+.