Season 2's ending was peak Arcane—a dense and explosive finale that'll take a while to properly pick out of your teeth

Movies & TVLeague of LegendsSeason 2’s ending was peak Arcane—a dense and explosive finale that’ll take a while to properly pick out of your teethWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Netflix / Fortiche / Riot)

Jinx brings a smoothed hexcore up to her tired, world-weary eyes in Arcane Season 2.

So! That’s a wrap on Arcane season two—and, well, the show as a whole, seeing as animation studio Fortichewants to go do some other stuff, and League of Legends has different spinoffs in the oven for its blooming TV universe. Having absolutely adored most of the season’s run, I went ahead and took a temperature check of the show’s fan reception and was shocked, at first, to find a lot of arguments happening. Okay, nottooshocked. Online fandoms tend to represent very loud minorities of a particular audience, who will get impassioned and run with narratives for a lark.

Arcane season two’s ending was never going to please everybody, that much is for certain. When you get (rightfully) lauded as some of the best prestige TV animation that’s graced the silver screen, the weight of expectation is going to rest heavily on your shoulders. However, I think Arcane ended in the only way it could’ve—loud, beautiful, and packed denser than a black hole.

Episode 7. That’s it, that’s the header

(Image credit: Netflix / Fortiche / Riot)

Ekko dances in a youthful, coming-of-age haze with Jinx in Arcane season 2 episode 7.

This episode has escaped the most criticism out of the season’s third act (Netflix releases them in three-episode batches). It balances Ekko’s heartbreaking journey through the ‘good’ timeline, where hextech was never invented, with Jayce’s hilariously no-good terrible bad day in the hell dimension—all with its usual finesse. There’s barely anything to critique here. The dialogue’s tight, the visuals are breathtaking, and the stakes are reaching their peak.

However, this episode has two great examples of the kind of bastard (affectionate) behaviour Fortiche is known for, and it’s why I think Arcane Season 2 is likely to improve in the eyes of its detractors over time, as long as they give it a second watch under a microscope.

In the reality we’re following, though, Jayce gets the acceleration rune, which leads to Ekko discovering time travel—letting him intervene in Episode 9, which buys Jayce enough time to convince his wayward Ultron boyfriend to not go all hivemind.

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This is a studio that’s meticulous about detail, and there are no accidental frames.

Secondly, Heimerdinger notes that the hexcore flung them all to different time periods—while he does theorise that Jayce might’ve ended up in a different timeline, there’s no real confirmation of that. At the end of the episode, alt-universe Powder puts a blue rose necklace next to a bag of hexcore crystals.

This is where I wade, fearlessly, into headcanon territory: I don’t think Jayce got sent to a different timeline at all, he just got sent way into the future. The crystals still exist, meaning Viktor can still eventually discover hextech and begin his glorious evolution. Moreover, blue roses often symbolise the unattainable. The necklace has both Powder and Ekko’s faces on it.

In other words, a symbol of unattainable love between two characters is (despite the fact they’re still alive and well in this timeline) placed right next to the very thing that eventually dooms all others. This is a studio that’s meticulous about detail, and there are no accidental frames. I am shaking my fist ruefully at the sky and cursing Fortiche’s name.

While I think episode 7 is definitely the strongest, it’s also my opinion that all three of the last act’s episodes are packed with little details that’ll start taking root on second, third, and fourth watches. Let’s start with the most obvious one.

She ain’t dead

(Image credit: Netflix)

Jinx, wearing a hood, stares down with abject malice at the camera in Arcane Season 2.

Jinx isn’t dead—this might seem like cope, but I am 900% certain that’s the case. While she gets her big sacrificial Disney death, we also see Caitlyn holding one of her bombs and smiling ruefully at a blueprint of the exact shaft she supposedly ‘died’ in, the camera even panning to a vent where she could’ve conceivably escaped.

And you know what? I think that’s exactly in keeping with what Arcane is. To me, this show has always kept the tradition of ‘show, don’t tell’ alive to an absurd degree—it’s like a stress test for how much you can strain that particular art before audiences get fed up. This is a show with secrets scribbled into the margins, one where, as evidenced with Ekko’s rune shenanigans, you literally won’t get the full story on the first run through.

Season one might’ve done a slightly better job of tying its threads together in a digestible fashion, but I think we all forget that it managed to cover a heaping helping of ground in nine episodes. Episodes which have all had time to age like fine wine in the minds of their fans as they scrub through microexpressions, symbolism, and foreshadowing. This is a show that gets stuck in your teeth. You gotta spend some time picking it out, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Episode 7. That’s it, that’s the header#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

She ain’t dead#

Episode 7. That’s it, that’s the header

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

She ain’t dead