It’s fair to say that the most recent episode of Loki was completely explosive, potentially resetting the entire MCU with its cliffhanger ending. But before that, Kate Dickie’s sinister General Dox met an absolutely brutal end at the hands of Renslayer, Miss Minutes, and that horrific shrinking box device.
Dox’s death immediately goes right up there with the most gruesome acts of violence in the MCU‘s history, but she had done something even worse earlier in the new Marvel series. Thanos wiped out half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War, but he has a murderous rival already in Marvel Phase 5. Dox oversaw the pruning of multiple branching universes in Loki season 2 episode 2 – ending billions of lives.
This has to put Dox up there with the most terrifying Marvel villains given how much carnage and destruction she has carried out. She believed it was a noble act to protect the TVA, but we were left in no doubt that she had murdered billions of people.
Dox met her match this week, though, with Renslayer and Miss Minutes waltzing right into her prison cell via a time door. The evil duo offered Dox and her team of hunters the chance to join their crusade but, when she refused, they broke out the Time Cube.
We’d seen the Time Cube – which gets smaller and smaller until it crushes whatever’s inside – used as a torture device in a previous episode, but Renslayer took its gruesome power all the way to its conclusion. We could barely sleep last night thinking about the malicious joy on the face of Miss Minutes throughout. That clock has very quickly become one of the most evil Marvel characters out there.
It was a vicious end for Dox, though, who has been played with vicious relish by the beloved Scottish actor Kate Dickie. She’s the woman you hire when you need someone weird and unsettling. We all remember her performance in The Witch.
Her time in the MCU has only been brief, but it takes quite a villain to be able to outdo Thanos when it comes to sheer body count. When you list the Marvel series and Marvel movies in order by number of deaths, we now have to put Loki right at the top.
So farewell Dox. At least her ending was suitably memorable, providing a moment more unsettling than many of the best horror movies we’ve ever seen. And on Halloween weekend too. As you’d expect from a TVA veteran, her timing was perfect.
Loki has already cemented itself as one of the best TV series in the MCU and we think that Loki cliffhanger could reset the whole Marvel multiverse. We’ve also explored the potential for a surprisingly deep connection between Ouroboros and Loki, so stick with us.
There are plenty of upcoming Marvel movies on the way too, with The Marvels next up. Alternatively, check out our guide to what’s new on Disney Plus this month.