Review: Arcane “Act Three”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Powder and Vi may have reunited at the end of last week’s act, but that doesn’t mean everything will suddenly be solved. Vi and Caitlyn are captured by a mysterious group of rebels who they find out are being run by Ekko. He and Vi have a reunification of their own and he shows the two newcomers that living in peace is possible.

Unfortunately, not everyone believes that to be the case. Back above ground, Caitlyn tries to get through to the sheriff and set things right between the two cities. Clearing the air gets a lot tougher though, when Jinx attacks the checkpoint and captures the crystal. After that, the warmongering begins in full force, as Silco pressures Jinx to weaponize the Hextech crystal as a means of taking over the topside and Jayce gives in to Vi’s forceful entreaties and goes into a mine with hammer swinging.

The season ends up with Jinx coming into her own, forced to choose between her past and her future. She winds up shooting Silco, but realizes she can’t be loved by Vi like she once was. As the season ends, she launches the new super weapon directly into the council chambers where Jayce and the other members are holding session.

Our Take:

Arcane’s first act began with two sisters and the ending of the final act serves as a finale of sorts for their relationship, severing the ties that once bound them and leaving the way open for an uncertain future. Act Three is a pretty jam-packed three episode outing, complete with previously teased threads coming to a head and all of the characters coming into conflict with each other in their efforts to chase what they’re after. It’s an exciting conclusion to the show’s first season, but it’s definitely not perfect.

The first episode picks up directly after Jinx and Vi’s reunion, with the two of them being separated again thanks to Ekko’s band of ex-addicts. It’s nice to see Ekko again, even though it’s not very surprising since he was pretty much the only unrevealed main character left alive from the first act. It is a little strange though, how much older he’s gotten and how different he looks when Vi basically looks the exact same. Guess they let her get haircuts in prison?

This meeting sets up a dynamic where Vi becomes closer to Caitlyn/The Enforcers/Piltover in an effort to stop Silco for good, while Jinx sees her sister’s efforts as another abandonment of her. It’s always frustrating seeing two characters who we know care for each other constantly being pushed apart by forces beyond their control, but Arcane keeps the screen filled with other characters and quests at a rapid pace. There’s Jayce and his struggle between leading and listening, Caitlyn’s battle against her parents and Piltover’s corruption, and Viktor’s ongoing experiments with the limits of science and magic. Then there’s this episode’s battle between Jinx and Ekko that sees them flashing back and forth between their younger selves might’ve been the highlight of this act.

As the storylines continue in the second episode of the act, things start to get a little bogged down. The storyline is ultimately pretty simple (Silco bad, Vi good), but there are many moving pieces that make things feel more complicated than they actually are. Silco’s internal conflict with his goons, Jayce and Vi’s attack on the mine, the fluffy scientist’s discovery of Ekko, and Caitlyn’s revelations about the true cause of the chaos feel a little crammed into the runtime, and aren’t really given much time to breath and develop on their own. By the end of the second episode, I definitely felt like things were being added on unnecessarily while the main plot was dragging on a bit too long.

The big showdown with Jinx kind of encapsulated my feelings for the show as a whole so far. It’s big and flashy and dramatic, but I wish more thought was given to developing the character’s inner thoughts. As it is, it’s a bit hard to identify with Jinx and know what she’s feeling since the show hasn’t given her older self much depth beyond crazed chaos. Since we don’t know her very well, it’s hard to interpret what happens in the end, as she chooses to shoot Silco but doesn’t choose to reunite with Vi afterwards. Was she planning to succeed her father figure as the city’s new criminal kingpin? Was it an accident? With the way the animation jumps around every few seconds every time we go into Jinx’s perspective, maybe she doesn’t even know herself.

This season’s final act doesn’t quite manage to capture the thrilling highs of the earlier episodes, but it’s definitely a confident finale for a show that managed to exceed most people’s expectations. I wasn’t sure what to expect going in never having played League of Legends, but the Arcane turned out to be a pretty fun watch for the most part. And with a season two already confirmed, it looks like we’ll be spending more time in this world eventually.