Arcane Season Two, Episode Seven, Pretend Like It’s the First Time Review: The Boy Saviour Who Leapt Through Time.

Although I have been enjoying Season Two of Arcane, I will admit that it is not without its issues.
One of the bigger issues I have had is the way some characters have been used, primarily Ekko.
Going into the season, he was one of the characters I was most excited to see.
Unfortunately, he was only in a couple of scenes in Act One, before disappearing for the entirety of Act Two.
I knew he would be back for Act Three, given that there was trailer footage of him we had not seen yet, but I was afraid he would not have enough time to shine.
Well, Episode Seven, “Pretend It’s Like the First Time” proves me wrong by gifting us with an entire episode focusing on him, Jayce and Heimerdinger, explaining what happened to them after they were abducted by the Wild Rune.
“Pretend Like It’s the First Time” begins as all Arcane episodes do, with a record that has “A Netflix Series” written on it being played.
However, this time, it is different.
Rather than showing Vi and Jinx on the record, it instead shows Ekko and Powder, foreshadowing the events of the episode.
It is revealed that, following his experience with the Wild Rune, Ekko was transported to an alternate universe where things have mostly turned out well for everyone.
This becomes apparent very quickly with the arrival of Powder who appears less pale and skinny than the one we know.
The contrast is immediately made apparent because, when Powder first speaks, we see Jinx’s reflection in the glass she is standing beside.
This is not only a wonderful piece of animation, but it also does a great job showing off Ekko’s mentality.
There was a lot of bad blood between him and his universe’s Powder, so it makes sense he would instantly see her as a threat, despite appearing different.
It is only the arrival of Benzo that snaps Ekko completely out of fight or flight mode, making for quite the emotional moment when he is reunited with his father figure.
He is even reunited with Vander, Mylo and Claggor.
Those last two I was especially surprised to see alive, and this episode makes their deaths even more tragic because it reveals that if they had survived, they could have helped purify Zaun’s air.
Ekko is clearly suffering from the effects of travelling dimensions but thankfully Heimerdinger appears to help him out, having arrived in the dimension much earlier.
Sadly for Ekko, Hextech was not created in this world, meaning there is no way home for them.
The reason for this become tragically apparent when Powder asks Ekko if he wants to visit Vi.
Instead of taking him to meet an alternate version of her sister, Powder takes Ekko to her memorial.
In this dimension, when Jayce’s workshop blew up, the explosion killed Vi, most likely convincing Piltover’s elites not to get involved with Hextech.
This also somehow appears to have led to peace between Piltover and Zaun, although I’m not quite sure how that happened.
Ekko’s knowledge about the workshop explosion does allow him to retrieve fragments of the Hex Crystals though, meaning that he can use them to potentially find a way home.
Heimerdinger agrees to help him, acknowledging he feels guilt for forsaking Jayce at the beginning of the story.
In the meantime, Ekko seeks to make amends with this universe’s Powder, creating a mural for Vi just like he did all of his fallen friends from his universe.
He paints Vi as he knew her, unknowingly gifting Powder with what her sister would have looked like today had she lived.
Through this, we can see how Vi’s death shaped Powder.
Rather than use her genius like Jinx does in Ekko’s universe, she instead focuses on living a normal life, no doubt feeling guilt for the explosion which killed Vi.
So, despite things being mostly better for everyone in this universe, there is still inescapable tragedy through Vi’s death and its effect on Powder.
Ekko strives to help Powder move forward, and the two of them work with Heimerdinger to eventually making their own miniature Wild Rune.
This results in Ekko creating a time loop, from which he can go four seconds back in time.
To go any further back could prove disastrous, as proved by Heimerdinger exploding, which Ekko quickly resets.
For a moment, I was afraid Powder would want to go back to save Vi, driving her down the path of Jinx in a different way, but the story thankfully did not go that direction.
Knowing that this will most likely be his last night in this reality, Ekko tells Benzo how much he means to him at the party.
He also sees that Silco made up with Vander in this universe, meaning he found the letter Vander left for him.
Ekko mentions Vander trying to kill Silco, but he responds, “Greatest thing we can do in life is find the power to forgive.”
While it is great to see Silco again, and his words do hold weight, this moment did make me wonder how exactly Ekko knew about Vander’s attempt to kill Silco?
As far as we know, he was never told this.
That is only a minor issue though.
It is not long before Powder arrives at the party, and the shot of her boots is exactly the same as Jinx’s entrance in Episode Four of Season One.
She and Ekko dance in a moving, four frames per second sequence that really hits you in the feels when you think about how easily things could have been different.
After their dance, they meet in the same place Vi and Powder used to as kids.
Ekko tells her he “used to dream the Undercity could be like this. But somewhere, I got consumed by all the ways it wasn’t. I gave up on it. Gave up on you.”
This shows the impact Ekko’s brief time with Powder in this universe has had on him.
Going back, he will no longer give up on Jinx, which results in something big in the final episode.
Getting back to this episode, the tender scene between Ekko and Powder leads to a kiss, confirming the Timebomb ship.
To be honest, going into the episode, I was not sure how to feel about the ship.
I had heard rumors about it becoming canon, but I thought it would be difficult to pull off since Ekko and Jinx had a lot of bad blood between them.
That being said, the writers found the perfect way to pull it off by having Ekko connect with an alternate version of Jinx, which convinces him not to give up on the one from his reality.
Whether Ekko and Jinx become a couple in his universe, or this remains a tragic what could have been, their scenes together are beautiful.
Returning to Heimerdinger, the two prepare to travel back using Ekko’s Z-Drive, only for Heimerdinger to sacrifice himself to accomplish this.
Or, at least, it seems like he sacrifices himself.
He was either blasted out of existence or transported elsewhere.
It’s kind of hard to tell.
If Heimerdinger really is dead, though, I would say his death is kind of abrupt.
Still, it is not enough to take away from the emotion of Powder appearing and realizing Ekko was from another universe before he disappears.
For a moment, I was scared the writers were going to have her get hurt or killed but, thankfully, they seemed to realize there was enough tragedy with Episode Six.
Following Ekko’s departure, we see Powder for the last time, placing a trinket Ekko gifted her inside a cabinet, which also holds the Hextech Crystals, items which hold meaning to her but will never be used in her universe.
With that, the episode comes to an end, but it is not the only storyline this episode.
I have yet to mention Jayce’s arc, which sees him transported to a universe the complete opposite of the one Ekko and Heimerdinger were taken to.
Whereas they landed in a universe where there was peace between Piltover and Zaun, Jayce landed in a universe where both were destroyed because of Hextech.
Traveling through the ruins, we see him sustain injuries, and be brought to the edge of madness, before encountering the hooded mage who saved him and his mother at the beginning of the series.
Realizing the danger his creation holds, Jayce tells the mage to send him back to save his universe, swearing that he will not fail.
This makes Jayce’s brutal actions upon his return a lot more understandable, since he is literally trying to prevent the apocalypse.
His story this episode was a grim one, but it is balanced nicely with the mostly happy Ekko storyline, which sees him reconnect with Powder.
Overall, I would say that “Pretend Like It’s the First Time” is another fantastic Arcane episode.
Yes, I did think some things about the peaceful timeline could have been better explained and Heimerdinger’s death(?) felt a little abrupt, but it was still an emotionally moving episode which gave Ekko the screen time he sorely needed and deserved.
It is for these reasons that “Pretend Like It’s the First Time” is my favorite episode of Act Three, and probably my third favorite episode of the season.