“There’s a monster inside all of us. It’s time to let the monster out,” says the underworld crime lord Silko in the Arcane season 2 trailer — and from the trio of episodes I’ve seen, it’s clear they’re all breaking the tenuous threads of love, hate and loyalty that once bound them together.
At Netflix’s Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles, the streaming service gave media a look at the first episodes for the second and final season of Arcane, its show set in the League of Legends universe. I watched Act I ahead of its November 9th release to a packed crowd of fans cheering on the next chapters of the story of Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce and others clashing over the future of the city of Piltover.
The first three episodes set the stakes for Season 2, and while it spends a lot of time laying the groundwork, it also has plenty of punch-pumping character moments and intriguing developments that have me excited for the last six episodes. I will be sad to leave Piltover and all the vivid characters that make Arcane such a joyous and sorrowful melodrama.
If you haven’t seen Season 1 of Arcane , it’s worth watching to prepare for Season 2 — but here’s a quick recap to catch you up. Warning: Spoilers ahead for the first season.
Arcane takes cues from League of Legends history, but has its own unique story. It’s set in the wonderful city of Piltover, torn widely between a noble upper world and scientific advances run by a council of privileged upper crust – along with Heimerdinger, the lively, long-lived Yordle scientist and de facto old man. of the city. His genius, Jayce, develops magic-filled Hextech that furthers the city’s progress, but puts him at odds with the sub-city’s poorer residents who clamor for independence to form their own nation of Zaun.
During the first season of Arcane, the criminal Silco dominates the undercity, to the detriment of the Vi sisters, a quarrelsome and volatile Powder — who, after being abandoned, becomes the mad bomber Jinx to the right of Silco. Pressure boils between the self-proclaimed Zaun and Piltover’s council and army, with the town’s noble soldier Caitlyn trying to bring Jinx to justice (falling for Vina in the process). In the Season 1 finale, this culminates in a brutal fight leaving Silco dead and Jinx bombing the council – ensuring a firestorm ensues as Piltover’s upper and lower factions race to war.
Act I of Arcane Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 left off — and if you thought Season 1’s unlikely team-ups between Upper and Lower Piltover characters were surprising, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
When is Arcane season 2 coming to Netflix?
The first three episodes of Arcane Season 2, dubbed Act I, arrive on November 9. The second trio of episodes, Act II, premieres on November 16, with the show’s final three episodes, Act III, arriving in November. 23. There are no current plans to make a season 3 of Arcane.
Caitlyn (left) recruits Vi (right) to hunt down her sister Jinx.
What happens in the first three episodes of Arcane Season 2?
In general, Act I is about the impact of Jinx’s attack on the council and the subsequent power vacuums that reorganize the board. Spoilers for season 2 below — but only the first three episodes, which premiere today on Netflix.
Act I begins immediately after Jinx’s attack, with three council members lying dead — including Caitlyn’s mother. Piltover’s elite are eager to crush the underground city and invade with troops. Vi, from the underground city itself, gives a Piltover soldier badge in her plea with Caitlyn to bring Jinx to justice instead of punishing innocent civilians. A small squad descends to retrieve whoever has become Vi’s younger sister, and her relationship with the noble soldier deepens. But after a wild fight where Caitlyn and Vi face off against Jinx and the underworld enforcer Sevika, the pair of ex-lovers part ways.
Caitlyn, noble and soldier, stopping before a fatal blow.
This is the main theme of the first three episodes: characters’ alliances are broken and others are formed, reflecting the shifting consciousness of the cast as the war gathers steam. As surviving council member Mel tries to uncover conspiracies between the drug-ridden undercity and Piltover’s elite, her mother Ambesa — a Noxian noble who arrived in season one with mercenaries in tow — continues her political moves in chess, quietly playing the chess of the powerful city against each other to raise its influence.
After Jinx accidentally kills crime lord Silco at the end of Season 1, the crime lords of the underground city step into a power vacuum. Some stage an attack on Piltover’s nobles during a ceremony starring fallen council members, but mostly they clash and make life worse for the townspeople — including a young girl Jinx rescues from her family’s thugs. crime and becomes a minor accessory. It’s a nice parallel and an opportunity for Jinx to reflect, but it’s not paying off in the early episodes.
More secrets are revealed about Hextech – and the titular arcane magic.
What changes, in another heartbreaking sequence, is inventor Jayce’s friendship with his sidekick Victor, who was injured in the council bombing and put into bio-stasis, thanks to the Hextech core. Emerging from his chrysalis in a newly transformed body, Victor shares bitter words with Jayce and poisons their friendship, choosing instead to descend into the depths of the undercity among the wretched victims of Shimmer, the Silco drug that flooded through city. In a dim alley, Victor lays hands on an addict and discovers startling new powers to cure them of their suffering (though he also changes them) — and creating his own saintly following.
Jayce, neglecting his council duties to focus on Hextech, finds his lab invaded by the most unlikely of thieves: his old mentor Heimerdinger and Ekko, a new leader of the Fireflies, a vigilante faction of the undercity that fights crime lords and Jinx. . When they return to Firefly’s headquarters, which is built around a massive underground tree, the trio develops a startling new theory: The new, wild magic is a reaction from the forces of magic itself, acting to counterbalance the growth of Hextech. that uses magic. This looks like the foundation for the rest of the series, so we’ll wait until it pays off.
Ambesa, a noble from the city of Noxus, plays her political game in Piltover.
As the last episode closes, a new order appears. As hinted at in the first season, Ambesa had fled her home country of Noxus due to a factional feud that claimed the life of her son and will come for the rest of her family. A magical force grabs Mel, pulling her off the board. In her absence, Ambesa uses another council member to rally Piltover’s nobility once and for all to military action — then replaces her hostage by appointing an embittered Caitlyn to take control of the city’s armed forces .
As the curtain closes on Act I of Arcane’s second season, hearts are broken and new alliances are formed, but Piltover is ready to conquer the underground city en masse, regardless of the human cost — a powder keg (pun intended ) waiting to erupt between factions and champions. And lurking in the background, someone is slowly coming back from the dead as something completely different.
The first three episodes of Arcane Season 2, as Act I, premiere today on Netflix.
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