USS Eldridge and 2 more incredible Loki Episode 5 Easter eggs, explained
Well, that explains a lot.
Loki’s here to clear some things up.
Sure, first he’s going to help overthrow the Time Keepers and hide out in the end of time, but along the way his spinoff series has explained plenty of its intricate plot mechanics, from exposing how the Time Variance Authority works to disclosing the true identity of D.B. Cooper.
Even in the penultimate episode, when the story appears to be at its most chaotic, Loki is still finding playful ways to solve real-life mysteries all without a single line of dialogue. Here are the Easter eggs you may have missed in Episode 5.
3. The Lost Ghostbusters Merch
Kid Loki and his incredibly rare drink.
Loki Episode 5 was a regular smorgasbord of Loki variants, from the presidential to the reptilian. But their leader appears to be Kid Loki, who cradled Gator Loki like a beloved pet and claimed he “killed Thor.”
When this rag-tag gang of Lokis discuss what it means to be a “god of outcasts,” Kid Loki toasts his drink. But while Classic Loki and even Gator Loki are indulging in boxed red wine, Kid Loki respects responsible drinking protocol and limits himself to a juice box.
But it’s not just any juice box. Kid Loki brandishes an Ecto-Cooler, a Ghostbusters tie-in variety of Hi-C that was flavored orange then colored a sickly, toxic green. It was massively popular but was discontinued without much fanfare. Its appearance in the Void seems to imply this drink wasn’t discontinued but pruned by the TVA, just like everything else that ends up in this realm.
2. Polybius
A Polybius machine on the far left of President Loki.
Polybius is a rare example of a video-game urban legend. It’s a haunting tale of a rare German arcade game known only as Polybius that involved shooting polygonal 3D shapes. Apparently, it became addictive despite causing extreme, inexplicable symptoms in whoever played it.
Supposedly, these machines were all part of a massive, government-run psychological experiment; they disappeared after a month on the market. There’s no proof of these machines ever existing, but people swear they remember playing it. Was this all just a collective delusion, or were the Polybius machines reset and sent to the Void, leaving a few people with lingering memories?
1. The U.S.S. Eldridge
The U.S.S. Eldridge in Loki.
The U.S.S. Eldridge is shown dramatically falling from the sky in the Void. Why this ship in particular? The Eldridge was a World War II destroyer ship built to escort various naval convoys through the Mediterranean. What makes the ship notable is its place as the center of a UFO hoax known as the Philadelphia Experiment.
UFO writer Morris K. Jessup received letters in 1955 claiming the Eldridge was docked in Philadelphia and had been rendered completely invisible, and thus cloaked from enemies. But the letter claimed the ship wasn’t just invisible; in fact, the entire ship had been sent to another dimension. In real life, the letter was proven to be a hoax — the Eldridge wasn’t even in Philadelphia during the war — but in the world of Loki, it’s easily explained. The ship was just sent to the Void.
Loki is now streaming on Disney+.
