“There’s a monster inside all of us. It’s time to let the monster out,” says undercity crime lord Silko in the trailer for Arcane season 2 — and from the trio of episodes I saw, it’s clear that everyone’s 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 few episodes for the second and final season of Arcane, its show set in the League of Legends universe. I got to see Act I ahead of its Nov. 9 release in a packed crowd of fans cheering on the next chapters of the story for Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce and others colliding for 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 groundwork, it also has plenty of fist-pumping character moments and intriguing developments that have me excited for the final six episodes. I’ll be sad to leave Piltover and all the vivid characters who make Arcane such a joyous, heartsick melodrama.
If you haven’t seen Arcane season 1, it’s worth watching to prepare for season 2 — but here’s a short summary to catch you up. Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for the first season.
Arcane takes cues from League of Legends lore, but has its own distinct history. It’s set in the wonder city of Piltover, broadly split between a genteel upper world of nobility and scientific advancements that’s ruled over by a council of privileged upper-crust — along with Heimerdinger, the spirited, long-lived Yordle scientist and de facto elder of the city. His prodigy, Jayce, develops magic-infused Hextech that furthers the city’s progress, but puts it at odds with the undercity of poorer residents clamoring for independence to form their own nation of Zaun.
Over the course of Arcane’s first season, crimelord Silco dominates the undercity, to the detriment of sisters Vi, a brawler, and the unstable Powder — who, after being abandoned, becomes the mad bomber Jinx at Silco’s right hand. Pressure boils between the self-declared Zaun and Piltover’s council and military, with noble city soldier Caitlyn attempting to bring Jinx to justice (falling for Vi 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 to come as the upper and lower factions of Piltover hurtle towards war.
Act I of Arcane season 2 picks up right where the first season left off — and if you thought the unlikely team-ups in the first season between upper and lower Piltover characters were surprising, you haven’t seen anything yet.
When does Arcane season 2 arrive on Netflix?
The first three episodes of Arcane season 2, named Act I, arrive on Nov. 9. The second trio of episodes, Act II, drops on Nov. 16, with the final three episodes of the show, Act III, arriving on Nov. 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 Arcane season 2’s first three episodes?
By and large, Act I is about dealing with the impact of Jinx’s attack on the council and the subsequent power vacuums that reshuffle the board. Spoilers for season 2 below — but only the first three episodes, which drop today on Netflix.
Act I starts immediately after Jinx’s attack, with three council members lying dead — including Caitlyn’s mother. Piltover’s elite are eager to clamp down on the undercity and invade with troops. Vi, from the undercity herself, dons a Piltover soldier badge in her plea with Caitlyn to bring Jinx to justice rather than punish innocent civilians. A small squad descends to take on whoever Vi’s younger sister has become, and her relationship with the noble soldier deepens. But after a vicious brawl where Caitlyn and Vi take on Jinx and undercity enforcer Sevika, the former pair of lovers part ways.
Caitlyn, noble and soldier, pausing before a fateful shot.
This is the main theme of the first three episodes: Character alliances are broken and others are formed, reflecting the shifting consciences of the cast as the war picks up steam. While surviving council member Mel tries to unravel conspiracies between the drug-swamped undercity and Piltover’s elite, her mother Ambessa — a noble from Noxus who arrived in the first season with mercenaries in tow — continues her political chess moves, quietly playing the city’s powerful against each other to elevate her own influence.
After Jinx unwittingly gunned down crime lord Silco at the end of season 1, the undercity’s crime lords swoop into the power vacuum. Some stage an attack on Piltover nobles during a ceremony lionizing fallen council members, but mostly they clash among themselves and make life worse for undercity denizens — including a young girl who Jinx saves from crime family thugs and becomes a minor sidekick. It’s a nice parallel and an opportunity for Jinx to do some reflection, but it’s not paying off in the early episodes.
More secrets get uncovered about Hextech — and the titular arcane magic itself.
What does change, in another heartbreaking sequence, is inventor Jayce’s friendship with his assistant Victor, who was injured in the council bombing and placed in 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 to the depths of the undercity among the wretched victims of Shimmer, the drug Silco flooded through the undercity. In a dim alley, Victor lays hands on an addict and reveals startling new powers to cure them of their affliction (albeit changing them, too) — and creating his own saintlike following.
Jayce, adrift and neglecting his council duties to focus on Hextech, finds his lab invaded by the unlikeliest of burglars: His old mentor, Heimerdinger, and Ekko, a young leader of the Fireflies, a vigilante undercity faction fighting against the crime lords and Jinx. When they return to the Firefly headquarters that’s built around a massive underground tree, the trio develop a startling new theory: New, wild magic is a reaction by the forces of magic itself, acting to counterbalance the increase in magic-harnessing Hextech. This seems like groundwork for the rest of the series, so we’ll wait until it pays off.
Ambessa, a noble from the city of Noxus, plays her own political game in Piltover.
As the last episode closes, a new order emerges. As hinted at in the first season, Ambessa had fled her home country of Noxus due to a factional feud that claimed the life of her son and which is coming for the rest of her family. A magical force kidnaps Mel, taking her off the board. In her absence, Ambessa uses another councilmember to rally Piltover’s nobility into military action once and for all — then supplants her pawn by nominating an embittered Caitlyn to take control of the city’s armed might.
As the curtain closes on Act I of Arcane’s second season, hearts are broken and new alliances are forged, but Piltover is poised to invade the undercity en masse, no matter the human cost — a powder keg (pun intended) waiting to explode between factions and champions. And lurking in the background, someone is slowly coming back from death as something completely different.
The first three episodes of Arcane season 2, as Act I, drop today on Netflix.
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