‘Arcane’ Season 2 Ends With A Sweeping, Complex, Emotional Act 3

Well, blimey. It was virtually inevitable that Act 3 of Arcane Season 2 was going to stir some emotions, but as usual with this show, it goes above and beyond in Episodes 7, 8, and 9, confirming League of Legends fan theories here, setting up climactic finales there, and delivering in a major way on severe emotional trauma.

The whole thing’s glorious, operatic, and totally worth the wait, with each of the three final episodes standing alone and slotting neatly into the wider picture. It’s likely Arcane will never quite get the credit it deserves for quite how excellent it is, despite the legions of vocal fans in its corner. The negative connotations of an animated video game adaptation are difficult to shake, and it’s a shame that Arcane can’t throw them off entirely, but I, for one, will sing its praises any chance I get, despite some valid complaints that Act 3 suffers from rushing to the finish line in its final two episodes especially.

Ekko Invents the Z-Drive In Arcane Season 2, Episode 7

After Act 1 saw Ekko, Jayce, and Heimerdinger sucked into an anomaly, they weren’t see again in Act 2 with the exception of Jayce, who turned up out of nowhere to kill Viktor with his Hextech hammer, kickstarting a terrible chain of events that led to the deaths of Viktor’s followers, Vander, and Isha.

Episode 7, “Pretend Like It’s the First Time”, reveals that Ekko and Heimerdinger were in a parallel universe where Vi died during the Season 1 heist, leading to Zaun’s freedom and Vander and Jinx’s survival – the latter remaining as Powder in this timeline.

There’s also no HexTech here, and Ekko sets about creating it with Powder using remnants from the explosion. In the process he invents his time-manipulating Z-Drive, which powers his character’s abilities in League of Legends. In the most simplistic possible terms, the Z-Drive can rewind time, but only by a maximum of four seconds.

The emotional hook of this episode is that Ekko is confronted with the most compelling possible paradise – a world of peace where he and Powder are in love and everyone is doing well – and is then forced to abandon it to return to “our” timeline and save everyone. Heimerdinger makes his own sacrifice too – he gives his own life to recreate the anomaly so that Ekko, after being split in two, can return to his own dimension with the Z-Drive.

Reed Shannon as Ekko in Arcane Season 2. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024

Mel’s Mission

Episode 8, “Killing Is A Cycle”, probably suffers the most from the common complaints that this show is sacrificing characterization a little to race to the finish. You can tell it would like to spend more time lingering on the fallout from Act 2, especially Isha’s death and the guilt that Jinx is feeling over it, but it has too much to do.

A lot of the build-up here involves Mel, who grows into her magical purpose as an empath mage with a bit of understanding about her own importance and the threat she presents to Ambessa. There’s a bit of a “chosen one” quality to all this, with Mel positioned as Piltover’s salvation and Ambessa its ultimate threat whose machinations include killing Mel’s brother Kino and sequestering Mel away because of the threat she represents.

Ambessa, meanwhile, assumes control of Viktor’s followers, whom he is inhabiting and possessing through the Arcane, giving her an army of creepy-looking humanoids. Viktor theorizes that he can use the Hexgates to evolve his followers, all of whom would answer to Ambessa.

Mel returns to the council in her new status as a mage, with Jayce in support, though they do admittedly bicker over Mel’s use of the term “investment”. But the battle lines are pretty clear, especially when Viktor, through one of his doll-like automatons, attacks Jayce and has to be overpowered with the help of Mel’s new powers. It’s Ambessa and Viktor’s army versus a unified Piltover, Topsiders and Undercity, with everything to play for.

Toks Olagundoye as Mel in Arcane Season 2. Cr. COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2024

Breaking the Cycle

Amongst the battle lines being drawn in Arcane Season 2, Episode 8, we do get a little time with Vi and Jinx, though they’re kept separate for a while. Jinx has been hauled off to jail after pulling Vi to safety following the climax of Act 2, and she is not coping well. Caitlyn has no idea what to do with her, but is tired of the endless hatred that has defined their relationship thus far.

Of course, Vi believes that Jinx has been redeemed and wants to free her from her depressive spiral, so she swipes the keys to free her from her cell. However, Jinx turns the tables and locks Vi inside, determined to “break the cycle”, which is an ominous suggestion of impending self-sacrifice.

Eventually Caitlyn arrives and frees Vi, though they make time for a quick lovemaking session (now? Really?). But it’s clear we’re heading for all-out war and that not everyone will survive what’s coming, perhaps Jinx most of all.

The Netflix Series Is Over, But The Arcane Story Is Not

We already know that there will be not be a Season 3 of Arcane, but it’s obvious from Season 2’s ending that there is more to come from the universe, whatever form that might take. Episode 9, “The Dirt Under Your Nails”, unfolds in a flurry of all-out action as several characters adopt their classic, recognizable Champions of Runeterra form, but there’s enough left open and unresolved to suggest that there’s more come — somehow, and somewhere.

A lot of the show’s underlying themes come together here in the final episode, especially through Viktor’s plan to “save” humanity by collapsing it into an army of mindless husks who are all unified within his own mind. It’s this existential threat that finally ends the class war between Piltover and Zaun, since both are united in common purpose, and, of course, it’s Viktor’s connection to Jayce that ultimately thwarts his master plan.

The full-circle approach of Viktor and Jayce’s relationship across multiple timelines, the rune that unites them and signifies their connection, and their ultimate mutual banishment from Piltover closes off this story arc as it relates to the show, but there is evidently a lot more to come from these two elsewhere.

Jinx’s Sacrifice’s and Arcane’s Future

As implied above, Jinx’s sacrifice seemed inevitable, but it is nonetheless the most impactful moment of Arcane Season 2’s finale. In her depression and disillusionment, Jinx had resigned herself to death, but the fact she managed to get a noble ending, saving Vi from Warwick, was a perfect full stop for her character.

Many are speculating that Jinx isn’t dead, since the last we saw was her and Warwick tumbling off-screen, and nothing was confirmed. There’s a good chance that she did indeed survive and will crop up in one spin-off or another, but her sacrifice certainly denotes the end of this particular chapter of the story.

Now that we’ve concluded that chapter, where might we go next? Plenty is left unresolved. Mel has taken her mother’s place as a less psychotic ruler but still exists in opposition to the Black Rose. Vi and Caitlin are also together and committed to continuing the fight, presumably rooting out the dangerous Hextech that spread across Runeterra when Jayce used it for trade.

With this many storytelling avenues still open to explore, we haven’t seen the last of these characters or this world. But Arcane‘s version of them, at least, was a rousing (if imperfect) send-off, and it’s safe to say that the show stuck the landing.