‘Loki’: Uncovering Miss Minutes’ Deeper Motivation for Season 2

She has feelings, y'all!

You never know what gears are turning inside someone’s (watch) head, and that also rings true for Miss Minutes in Marvel Studios’ Loki. Introduced in the first season as the chipper and cheerful all-knowing, all-seeing, sorta-recording, sorta-alive, sorta-both clock, she’s here to help…unless you cross her. Then, all bets are off.

By the end of Season 1, viewers knew something was amiss with Miss Minutes, voiced by Tara Strong, but honestly, what kind of deep, dark secrets could this clock be hiding? Those start spilling out in Episode 3, “1893.” Hiding out in the year 1893 with Ravonna Renslayer, the two have been working hard to get a He Who Remains Variant, Victor Timely, on track to help them on their quest to right the wrongs of the Time Variance Authority (in their opinion, of course…). However, long ago and unbeknownst to Renslayer, it was Miss Minutes who was closer to He Who Remains, and she was the one pulling a lot of the proverbial strings at the TVA.

Though viewers are clearly seeing a darker side of Miss Minutes in Season 2, Executive Producer Kevin Wright doesn’t believe she’s fully “bad,” but rather operating “in the gray area,” as many characters in Loki do — and more so when she’s pushed to extremes.

When Renslayer starts cozying up to Victor Timely, Miss Minutes can’t hide her true orange colors anymore and takes matters into her own hands by simply removing the TVA judge (smooth sailing, Renslayer!). Miss Minutes then corners Victor Timely and asks a question that’s been on her mind for a long time — why did his variant make her like this, a clock?

“At the end of Season 1, we know she's kind of duplicitous and she's got a bigger plan going on. But I think it was intriguing to play with, what is that plan? Why is she doing it? In Episode 3, when she speaks to Victor Timely about the past that they had, I think it's really kind of moving,” Wright explains. “It's weird, you get she's an artificial intelligence, but there is some kind of maybe consciousness there that she's had these experiences, and she kind of longs for this connection again.”

Wright points to this being another example of an ouroboros (but not that O.B.), or another “snake eating its tail moment.”

“Is her programming [written] to make that loyalty for him? Or, as she says, she was given the free will to write her own programming? Is this a naturally growing kind of emotion that she's having? I just think that's a cool space creatively to sit in. And of course, when she's rejected, she'll go off the rails. That's fun, too, because she's vindictive.”

The creative team discussed exploring parts of Miss Minutes' deeper backstory back in Season 1, which viewers see a glimmer of in Episode 6, “For All Time. Always.” The second they knew they were including Victor Timely in Season 2, they began trying to figure out how to work Miss Minutes’ feelings for him into the show. But even though they were working with a cartoon clock, “the trick was, and the thing that kept evolving was, to not do that as a joke.”

“There's a version where it's really silly,” Wright continues. “But it was always really playing it to her real, genuine emotions. It is unsettling, but also, it's kind of heartbreaking.” The team worked hard to find the balance of figuring out how to make it work, but not Making Miss Minutes come off as laughable in this situation — she still has feelings, y’all! “When you talk about it in a writers' room, it's very funny. But then going, all right, how do we actually pull this off — that was the trick.”

Unfortunately for Miss Minutes, Victor Timely can switch her off before she does any real damage (and before she can get out all the words professing her true feelings for him). However, unfortunately for everyone else, Miss Minutes ends up at the End of Time alongside Renslayer and you know what? She’s still mad and ready to divulge a big secret she’s been holding onto. Only time will tell if Miss Minutes gets the last laugh in the end.