Woof.
Okay. Lot to unpack. I'm gonna go episode by episode, detailing my thoughts. Before that, I'll let you know what my expectations were. Going in, I knew that they had a lot of ground to cover. Things like Mel's escape, where Ekko, Heimerdinger, and Jayce went, and Isha and Vander's fates were things I knew were going to be answered. Trailers confirmed that Mel was going back to Piltover, Cait and Vi were going to hash things out, and Ekko was going to return. Personally, what I wanted was for some interaction between Jayce and Caitlyn, maybe a reunion for Vi and Ekko, but really, some clarification on that Act II cliffhanger.
Episode 7 is pretty rad. I predicted that, structurally, this was what was going to happen. An entire episode dedicated to where Ekko, Heimerdinger, and Jayce ended up felt necessary after the cliffhanger, as well as a way to make up for their absence in Act II. While it moves fast, and I'm still not totally sold on Ekko and Jinx's relationship, I appreciated the show going full tilt into sci-fi. Interestingly, it looks like Ekko went into another universe while Jayce went into the future of the main Arcane universe. I'm splitting hairs, but I think its an important distinction to make given later revelations.
Ekko as a POV character has been criminally wasted by both seasons. I know he has his fans, I'm one of them, I just wish it wasn't feast or famine with this guy. He's winning the stan wars on Twitter because the writers only use Ekko for a plot layup. Need a cool music video fight? He's your guy. A new time travel plot device? He's got you. Despite Jayce being the second half of the story, the entire episode really belongs to Ekko. Of course, its cool seeing the alternate versions of Claggor and Mylo and Powder, if a little fan service-y. Seeing good guy Silco was a bit much, but I'll let it slide.
Jayce, (my beloved), really has a bad time here. While Ekko and Heimerdinger get to see a paradise version of Zaun, Jayce spends an indeterminate amount of time in a post-apocalyse created by his very own ex-situationship. I'm glad they explained where his leg brace came from and how it later became a part of Jayce's core design. Its quite devastating seeing him slowly succumb madness in his isolation, but seeing him finally climb out of the trenches was a victory for him and the audience. I'm sure many fans were keen to see whether or not they could ethically stan him after his attempted murder of Viktor last episode, so getting clear confirmation of what exactly Jayce was up to was a relief.
Question: Is Heimerdinger dead?
We know that the furball didn't go back with Ekko to the main universe, but where exactly he went, I'm not sure. Reedit threads and other sources point to Heimerdinger being warped out of existence altogether. My hate for this character is well documented, but killing him is an odd choice. I would have much rather seen him get his comeuppance abandoning his pupils and being an overall shithead, and death is an easy way out of those consequences. Nevertheless, I find it kinda sweet that he sacrificed himself to get Ekko home.
The Ekko x Powder stuff genuinely got to me. Imagining a universe where Jinx turned out alright is a neat idea, but I feel that the show is operating on an audience understanding of Ekko and Jinx's relationship that it just didn't put the work into actually set up. In Act 1 of last season, they had the opportunity to establish young Ekko and Powder's relationship but didn't, leaving it to be characterized in a music video fight scene. Episode 7 here does a good job of selling their romance with in-scene characterization. They make it cleat that Ekko loves Powder, not Jinx, and while Ekko now sees good in her, the love he has is for someone who doesn't really exist.
Onto episode 8. It hits the ground running by following up with Mel. Her return to Piltover is a bittersweet homecoming, seeing as how shit everything become, and how Jayce is absolutely tweaking. One of my favorite scenes this season is the fight in the rebuilt council room since it follows up on Mel and Jayce after they've spent the majority of the show apart now. Jayce has become paranoid after everything he's seen, so it makes sense that he mistrusts Mel after realizing her role in making Hextech a reality. They have a believable fight and resolution. The action scene itself is cool. Viktor's robo-avatar is spooky, moving inhumanly being a threat with just a touch. I don't think Jayce even gets a hit in.
Meanwhile, Vi and Caitlyn reunite, but its fraught because of Jinx's imprisonment. Vi was one of my favorite characters last season, but she's been consistently weaker this time around. Her arc this season has her swinging wildly between wanting kill Jinx then wanting to save Jinx and by the end, I was pretty exhausted by it. Last season, they were two characters that could stand strongly shoulder to shoulder, but thanks to Jinx's substantial character development and Vi's lack thereof, I can't say the same here.
In Act III, Vi and Jinx just feel like cartoon versions of themselves. They've been reduced down to their core traits so that they can perform their functions in the plot. Vi saying Jinx could "rewrite her story" and effictively join the good guys speaks to how juvenile Vi's goals seem in the grander scale of this season's changing priorities. Jayce is trying to save the world and Vi is just trying to save her sister. The juxtaposition that worked so well in season 1 simply doesn't here.
I found it really odd how Caitlyn just forgives Jinx for killing her mother because she effectively "didn't mean to." For some reason, this season has rehabilitated Jinx when she was clearly on a more negative trajectory after last season. Her characterization here makes the season 1 finale make even less sense. I understand the show wants Jinx to be sympathetic, and she is, but this is accomplished not by resolving Jinx's past, but by simply ignoring it. Her escape does result in one of my favorite scenes: Ekko reversing time to stop her from blowing herself up. Vi and Cait get to fuck. Good for them, but I think its too clever that Cait facilitated Jinx's escape. I just don't buy that she would forgive Jinx for the death of her mother.
(Piltover/Zaun tangent:
I think there should have been way more consequences to Cait's new hobby of police brutality. Act III's near total neglect of the Zaun/Piltover conflict in the present hammers home how this 9 episode structure fails a story with this much ground to cover. Sevika doesn't even get to speak a line! But she does get to be a council member at the end, which effectively gives up on Zaun sovereignty. Jayce's call to war felt so hollow because of the knowledge that there was only one more episode, but also because the show uses the most stock, cliche way of resolving a class conflict: teaming up to fight a bigger foe. Mass Effect 3 did a similar plot by having the Salarians cure the Krogan Genophage, a disease they created and deployed on the Krogan species that damaged their ability to reproduce. The player needs Salarian and Krogan support against the Reapers, so instead of talking it out, they have the oppressor make actual reparations. Why the Arcane suddenly wanted the aesthetic of a war story at the finish line is beyond me. The Zaun/Piltover conflict was dropped in favor of a standard good vs evil story. I hate that, but I can accept it. What I dislike more is the second to last episode failing to convince me that it didn't.)
Ambessa's plan makes sense: Use Vander to heal Viktor then use Viktor to make a robo-army that can take on the Black Rose. Small problem: I think Viktor's whole arc this season has been flimsy and I don't get the Black Rose. Viktor's corruption arc confounds me only because he reached a healthier place last season. he had accepted himself, but I suppose turning purple had destroyed all of that character development. Until the finale, I was blaming this behavior on some kind of Arcane mind control but no, its all Viktor. On one hand, I'm glad this is him acting for himself, but on the other, I'm still not sold.
The Black Rose was a spooky enough threat but I don't understand why they're hunting Ambessa, which makes me not really understand anything Ambessa does in turn.
Okay, finale time:
Quickly, we're at war. Noxian troops are attacking the council building and our poor side characters Loris and Fish Man are caught in the crossfire. I found the sheer amount of NPC death here to be a little extreme for Arcane's violence standards. Also, does Caitlyn weaponize the Grey again? I thought that was a decision made in damn poor taste given what I thought were the internal politics of the show. I guess police brutality and homeland tyranny are good if its justified by the threat of a foreign power.
The revelation of Maddie being a spy is okay. Many saw it coming, and I wasn't surprised when it happened. I think I denied it for so long because it felt like a very obvious twist and it would've been more interesting to me if she was just a lesbian. Caitlyn and Mel vs Ambessa is a cool fight given all the subtext, but the fight isn't that special. Mel uses her powers and wins the day thanks to her Black Rose buffs. I'm glad that Ambessa doesn't go out like a chump, and her defeat comes at the hand of her daughter weaponizing her enemy, and then taking out that enemy. It shows that despite Mel's magical girl transformation, she's still got her keen strategic mind.
Ekko's return feels earned, especially with Jinx in tow. I can buy that he's softer on her after his alternate universe romance with Powder. Why Jinx enters this fight is lost on me, but I'm glad she's here. At this point, things get very chaotic since Viktor's robo-army joins the field. One of my biggest critiques of the last episode is the emphasis on robo-Vander/Warwick. I found him to be little more than a plot device this season, and with the previous episode confirming that Vander's psyche is truly gone, I don't see the point in Vi and Jinx fighting his corpse. We literally did all of this but with the actual drama in Act II.
The Jayce and Viktor stuff is where its at. I'm glad they don't have a traditional one-on-one fight. Their dialogue and performances really sell the drama of their relationship at this point, and the Hexgate activation referencing the floating scene in season 1 is just perfect. This season was truly built off of their relationship, so seeing them finally hash things out was immensely satisfying. The brief moment their chase intersects with Vi and Jinx fighting Vander felt like move ripped right out of the season 1 playbook.
Their conflict resolves in a way I was satisfied with. Ekko's intervention calls back to how this entire story began. If those two didn't cross paths, Jinx never would have blown up Jayce's apartment, leading to Viktor meeting Jayce and those two creating Hextech, so of course Ekko should be involved. Him using his Z-drive to do-over an action scene was a moment I was waiting for and I was not disappointed.
I'm glad that Jayce and Viktor seemingly have a happily-ever-after somewhere far from Piltover. The scenes inside Viktor's mind space are beautiful, and if we lived in a truly just world, we would have seen them kiss. Alas.
The revelation of Viktor being the hooded man from Jayce's backstory should annoy me, but honestly, its earned and makes sense. Jinx's "death" is the real point of contention for me. I never, for a second, believed she was going to die, so even one-eyed Caitlyn smirking at her potential survival fell flat for me. (She gets points for using her Shimmer augments, though.) Vi is dumb once again and decides that she should cry while standing on an unstable metal platform suspended inside a wind tunnel. I can forgive a moment of weakness, but even Jinx is telling her to stop here. I've never really felt Vi was a dumb character until this season.
The very end sees the aftermath of the conflict: Piltover is all goopy, Ekko misses Powder/Jinx, Sevika sells out, and both cities hold funerals for the fallen. Finally, we see Vi and Cait all domestic. I think Vi's witty one-liner speaks to a more bittersweet version of their relationship. Cait is Vi's only living loved one, making that line almost sinister.
Overall, Act III is a mixed bag, but mostly positive. What actually happens in these episodes is pretty good, and while its unfair to critique what doesn't happen, I do think there are some glaring omissions. I will say, I'm glad there was time to reunite Jayce and Mel, I only wish Jayce and Cait had something to say to one another. Additionally, more Jinx and Ekko would have gone a long way. These aren't major criticisms, but they speak to the larger pacing issue of the season. It doesn't have time to address logical eventualities that the characters would experience. Does Caitlyn even care that her childhood friend Jayce, a man that's like a brother to her, disappeared and is now back? What does Vi think about Ekko's return? Does Jayce care about where Heimerdinger is? Is Sevika mourning Isha?
We'll never know.
The biggest criticism I have of this season outside of the pace is how readily it gave of the Piltover/Zaun conflict in favor of magical nonsense. Its not like Arcane is the political art piece of our times, but seeing that component end like this was a huge disappointment.
I've very interested in how season 2 will age. After the dust settles, feels run their course, and spin-offs come out, we'll have a very different view. of it. I'm writing this the night after it came out, so I'm sure there's part of the show I simply can't appreciate at this time, but my overall view of season 2 is that it has some high highs in exchange for some very low lows. It lacks the focus that season 1 has, leading it to spill out the sides a bit, but in doing so, it allows itself to go further and faster than it ever has before.
Season 2 is an achievement. I talked mostly about the story, but the visuals are just as important. The season was beautiful and I count myself lucky to have been able to watch it as it came out.
There's no more Arcane. That makes me genuinely sad. Arcane is—was, rather—special to a lot of us, and its tough to say goodbye. I didn't love everything about this season, but I'll always love this show and being a part of it.
(Not enough to play League of Legends, though).
