One of the most expensive and most successful animated shows ever made, Arcane, wrapped up its second season on Saturday. And, well, the ending was everything the fans did and didn't expect. It reached the final battle the season was building up towards, but also left some major cliffhangers.
So much stuff happened in the last episodes that's it's no surprise fans still have questions. Since the creators of the show and its studio Riot Games already confirmed that there isn't going to be a season 3, this is virtually the show's ending. So, we've decided to go over the most important events in the last episodes and do a little recap for you, Pandas!
WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Major plot points of the show are revealed below!
The season 2 finale of Arcane just aired and here's an explanation of the most important plot points
Ekko's epic return
In episode 7, Ekko traveled to an alternate timeline in which the Hextech was never created. This world is very different to what Ekko is used to. It's full of smiling people, bustling streets, and, most surprisingly, there is no division between Zaun and Piltover.
He’s shocked to see that his childhood friends are alive and well, and that he is very close to Powder, who in his own universe he knows as Jinx and has a very strained relationship with. He also meets the audience favorite Heimerdinger, who has been stuck here for 1128 days.
The rebellious character is faced with a really tough choice: to give up and stay in this cozy and serene world, or fight and go back to save his own universe, and, of course, the heroic character chooses the latter.
It takes some convincing, but Heimerdinger and Powder agree to help him get back to his own world. They spend a lot of time creating a device and finally succeed. And after a romantic evening with Powder and a heartbreaking sacrifice from Heimerdinger, Ekko finally comes back home.
That's when he gets his time-bending abilities we see in the League of Legends video game. Ekko appears next to Jinx and stops her from blowing herself up with a grenade in episode 9. He convinces her to save everyone they love and care about by saying that it's not too late to "build something new."
The Final Battle Between Vi, Jinx And Wander (Warwick)
Piltover and Zaun come together to battle Ambessa and Noxus in the last episode. They need to stop Victor from reaching the Hex Gate and destroying the cocoon he's being kept in. The battle is strained and many times it seems like our beloved characters will not succeed.
However, then we see Jinx and Ekko, who come to everyone's aid in the most epic way. Jinx then comes to Vi's aid in her battle against their father Vander, who had transformed into his beast form Warwick and seems to have no more sentiments over his daughters.
While Viktor and Jayce battle it out themselves, Viktor relinquishes control over his soldiers. Everyone has been taken over and is stunned. Vi and Warwick fall onto an unstable platform. While Jinx screams at her sister to jump away, Vi decides to try to snap her father out of it.
Sadly, Warwick attacks Vi, but Jinx jumps in the way to save her and pushes him and herself off the platform. Vi tries to save her sister and, in a sweet, heart-wrenching moment, Jinx tells her she'll always be with her. She proceeds to fall with Warwick and detonates one of her monkey grenades, leaving many viewers in tears.
Mel stands up to Ambessa and finally defeats her mother
Before everyone is taken over by Viktor, Cait and Mel are squaring up against Ambessa. In a shocking plot twist, Maddie betrays Caitlyn and prepares to shoot her at Ambessa's request. However, Mel saves Caitlyn by using her newfound powers and creates a barrier between her and Maddie so that the bullet pierces Maddie's head instead.
Mel, now much better at controlling her powers, battles her mother, pleading with her to stop this massacre and spare her friends. Caitlyn is trying her best to defeat the strong fighter, and at one moment she almost fails and even loses her eye.
However, tricking Ambessa, she takes away her magical protection charms and Mel has a chance to send her mother to the Black Rose. Ambessa is now in shackles, facing the sorcery she feared for almost her entire life.
However, Mel decides to take over the Black Rose, seeing its true evil face, and defeats LeBlanc. She saves her mother only for her to die in her arms, but not before giving her a long-awaited approval. Noxus soldiers then salute Mel as their new leader.
The heart-wrenching relationship between Victor and Jayce
Meanwhile, the final conflict is happening between Jayce and Viktor. The two are battling it out at the top of the tower, and Jayce realizes it's a scene he saw in the desolate future he was stuck in. Jayce is now in the place where Viktor sends everyone.
Floating in a vast universe before his best friend who now looks like a god, Jayce tries to talk Viktor out of destroying everything, pointing out that imperfections are what make people beautiful and that he too was once imperfect.
While Viktor starts ascending the rest of the city, Ekko is trying to battle his huge armies and keeps using his time machine to go back and redo any mistakes. Finally, he throws his machine at Viktor, damaging his face and prompting a flashback.
We see that Jayce has met future Viktor, the one who completed his final evolution. Yet he realized that there was "no prize in perfection" and that only Jayce could show it to him in all the different timelines. The two, now on the same page, decide to end this madness and get sucked into Jayce's rune and disappear, ending the ascension and setting everyone free.
Did Jinx actually die?
Perhaps the biggest twist in the finale was Jinx's fate, but many fans refuse to believe that her story has ended. In fact, there seem to be a few clues that point to her survival. Although the last we see of Jinx is her disappearing into a colorful explosion at the Hex Tower, the final moments of episode 9 show us Cait holding one of Jinx’s creations and looking at Hexgate blueprints that show a series of air vents. Fans believe that Jinx was able to avoid her end by escaping through one of them.
The very final frame of Arcane also suggests that Jinx made it out alive. It's a shot of a solo airship flying over the ocean. In the first episode of Arcane, Powder watches airships fly over her head and vows to one day fly an airship too. Fans speculate that she escaped in the airship we see in the final frame of the show, ending her arc full circle.
Will Vi and Caitlyn get their happily ever after?
Although we have to say goodbye to a lot of characters as the dust after the battle settles, Arcane fans' favorite couple Vi and Caitlyn do end up together! We see the pair together in an ornate house sharing a tender moment. Caitlyn recovers from her injury and wears her signature eye patch, and Vi hums her mother Felicia's lullaby by the fireplace. Caitlyn asks Vi if she's still in the fight and Vi comforts her by saying she's like "the dirt under hair nails" and will never leave her side.
The show's ending prompted many different reactions from fans: people had jokes, tears, and memes to share with each other
#1 No One's Sad
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#2 Arcane E7
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#3 Arcane Is The Best Show
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#4 Vi And Powder
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#5 Mere Shards
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#6 Hair Hold Memories
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#7 Heimerdinger
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#8 I Love You In Every Universe
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#9 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Basically All Of S2e7
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#10 [s2 Act 2 Spoilers] These Parallels… Arcane Does It Again!
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#11 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] I’m Sorry, This Is All I Could Think Of When They Flew Past Each Other
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#12 [s2 Spoilers] Peak Writing
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#13 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] The Fandom After That
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#14 Explaining Arcane
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#15 Jinx's Eyes
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#16 Arcane S2 E3 Spoilers
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#17 Arcane Fans
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#18 Maddie Smile
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#19 There Is A Mystery
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#20 Jayce And Viktor
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#21 How We Feeling?
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#22 Jinx
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#23 Find You A Girl
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#24 Can They Turn Arcane Into A Game
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#25 Three More Shows
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#26 It Makes Me Cry
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#27 In Another Life
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#28 Jayce:
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#29 [no Spoilers] Arcane Becomes The Only Show In Imdb History To Have 1 Entire Season Of Every Episode Rated As 9/10+
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#30 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] The True Winner In This Situation
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#31 [no Spoilers] He's Absolutely Goated???
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#32 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] "One Day, I'm Gonna Ride One Of Those Things"
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#33 [no Spoilers] Feelsbad For The Dude Who Only Got Name-Dropped Once
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#34 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Her Rightful Place
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#35 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] The Fundamental Flaw In Victor's Plan Explained In 2 Sentences. Hats Of To The Guy Who Wrote These Lines
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#36 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Her Reflection Is The Jinx He Knows
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#37 [no Spoilers] I Love This Show
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#38 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] True Equality
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#39 [s2 Spoilers] Jinx Was Betting On Vi At The Fighting Pit
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#40 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Can My Girl Please Get A Break?
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#41 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Now We Know Who Tweaked It ?
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#42 [no Spoilers] True
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#43 [s2 Spoilers] What We Learned From The Finale (Oc)
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#44 [s2 Spoilers] Maybe In Another Universe
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#45 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] I Think Regardless Of Ones Opinion Of This Act We Can All Agree This Scene Was Amazing In Concept And Execution
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#46 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] To Everyone Who Says It Was Too Rushed With Too Many Storylines Left Open
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#47 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Hardest Shot In The Whole Show
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#48 [s2 Spoilers] That Prison Scene Was Intense
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#49 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] To Whoever Did My Boy Like This, You Wrong For That Fr
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#50 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] This Scene Was Animated At 4 Frames Per Second, Same As Ekko's Z-Drive Capacity
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#51 [s2 Act 2 Spoilers] Oh No
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#52 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] I Guess
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#53 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Was Fun Seeing The Scientist Actually Do Science
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#54 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] You Don't Need A Crown To Be A King
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#55 [s2 Spoilers] Funniest Moment In The Show For Me So Far
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#56 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] What Did Riot Mean By This?
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#57 [s2 Spoilers] I Feel Like Arcane's Beautifully Written Male Friendship Deserves More Credit
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#58 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] The Blue Rose Necklace Is The Side Profiles Of Ekko And Powder (Appreciation Of Details, May Have Been Obvious To Others)
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#59 [s2 Spoilers] Jinx's Hideout Differences Throughout The Show
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#60 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] He Died For His Family
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#61 [s2 Act 3 Spoilers] Singed At The End Of Arcane Be Like:
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#62 [s2 Spoilers] Oh Hell Nah ???
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