Loki just referenced a real true crime case, and it's given this character a perfect backstory

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Nice you meet you, Frank

Loki
(Image credit: Marvel/Disney Plus)

Loki season 2, episode 5 took viewers on a tour of its characters’ timeline counterparts, but it was Casey’s backstory that really made us smile. We’re getting into minor spoilers for the latest episode of Loki from here out, so make sure you’re up to date on the Disney Plus show before venturing further. 

One of the first locations that the God of Mischief timeslips to is San Francisco, 1962 where Casey is escaping with a group of inmates from Alcatraz. Well, not Casey actually as we soon learn, but Frank. We watch them slip out of the prison before Loki gets torn away to another timeline. Later on in the episode, the God of Mischief returns to pick up ‘Frank’ to help save the world, removing him from the timeline.

Making the TVA’s most amiable worker actually a brutal criminal is definitely a fun twist, but what you might not realize is that it’s actually based on a real-life crime case.

Frank Morris was a real inmate at Alcatraz who managed to escape thanks to an elaborate plot with his fellow prisoners. On June 12, 1962, they laid decoys in their beds as they slipped out under the cover of darkness, leaving the prison guards to figure out what happened. Their bodies were never found, and it remains one of the biggest true crime mysteries of the 20th century. 

Well, obviously, now we know: Frank was actually taken through a time door and brought to the TVA. Why didn’t the FBI think to follow that lead?

This isn’t the first time that Loki has referenced a true crime case either. Back in season one, it’s revealed that the God of Mischief was actually D. B. Cooper, a real plane hijacker whose real identity was a mystery for 50 years.

It’s a fun Easter egg for true crime buffs in an otherwise pretty heavy episode of the Marvel series. For more references you might have missed, check out what we spotted on OB’s sticky notes and what that post-credits Easter egg means. We’ve also got a bunch of Loki season 2 guides to:

Fay Watson
Fay Watson
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.