Arcane Season Two, Episode Eight, Killing Is a Cycle Review: In a Prison Cell?

The penultimate episode of Arcane, “Killing Is a Cycle” begins by continuing Mel’s storyline from the fantastic Episode Five.
After exposing the Black Rose’s disguise of her brother, she is chained up, only to escape using her mysterious power, which reveals her as a mage.
It turns out her captor referring to her as “sister” was meant in terms of a sisterhood, rather than a familial sense.
This captor, a sorceress in her own right, attempts to convince Mel to join her, tasking her with stopping her mother.
Kind of unnecessary, considering Mel was planning on doing that anyway, but her magical powers certainly make that task easier.
Unfortunately, this is all we really get in regards to the Black Rose.
The identity of the sorceress is never revealed, and neither is the overall goal of her and the Black Rose.
It feels like the storyline in Season Two was mainly buildup for another show set in the Arcane universe.
Don’t get me wrong, I would certainly watch such a show, given how great Arcane is, but I would have liked a little more answers.
My only other option is to either wait years for the explanation or look up the League lore.
Following the intro, we fittingly cut from Mel to Ambessa, who has given Singed the task of reviving Viktor.
He succeeds and, like Episode Six showed, Viktor’s mindset has changed to wanting to evolve others beyond humanity in what he calls, “the glorious evolution.”
Ambessa makes a deal to get him to the Hexgates if he will empower her own soldiers.
I have heard some argue that Ambessa’s decision to help Viktor does not make sense, what with how obviously shady and powerful he is, but I guess it just goes to show how desperate she is to find a way to defeat the Black Rose.
Meanwhile, Vi awakens in Piltover to learn that Jinx has been imprisoned.
She and Caitlyn get into an argument about it, with Vi stating, “You can’t trust her enough not to shove her in a box.”
Well, it’s kind of hard to trust someone when they kill your mother, Vi.
I’m surprised Caitlyn didn’t bring that up, to be honest.
She does reveal that Jinx surrendered on her own, though, and Vi’s pleas do convince her to talk to Jinx.
Traveling to the bunker cells below, Caitlyn meets with Jinx, who is understandably in a pretty bad state after Isha’s tragic death in Episode Six.
Her braids are undone, she is not eating, and she is self-harming.
She ends the conversation by admitting she did not know Caitlyn’s mother was there when she fired the rocket, not that it would have made a difference.
Seeing Jinx in this state ultimately convinces Caitlyn to give Vi the chance to free her.
Before that, however, Jinx hallucinates Silco, seeing his scarred eye as a Hex Crystal.
Silco talks about the cycle of killing stating, “Jinx, I think the cycle only ends when you find the will to walk away.”
This line has multiple implications, both disturbing and hopeful, as shown in the next episode.
For now, it is at this moment when Vi shows up to free Jinx, only for her to lock Vi in the cell to stop her from following.
Jinx tragically declares there is no good version of her, which we know is not true.
Not only did we see a good alternate version of her in the last episode but Jinx herself has also done plenty of good as well as bad.
She gave Isha a family and inspired countless Zaunites.
After Jinx’s departure, Caitlyn comes to free Vi and reveals her part in allowing Vi to free her sister.
Vi throws herself at Caitlyn and what follows is a pretty explicit sex scene, which I found kind of funny because of how much the shippers were demanding one.
The writers certainly knew how to play with their feelings.
First, they had the two kiss and then immediately break up in Episode Three.
Second, they had Caitlyn rebound with a barely established character, crushing the shippers’ spirits.
Now, they rebuild those spirits with this sex scene in a dank prison cell.
That being said, the scene has also received some criticism, as a few viewers have said Vi should be rushing to stop Jinx’s suicide attempt, not have sex with Caitlyn in the exact same prison cell.
However, to be fair to Vi, I think her statement of, “I really believed she’d help” makes it pretty clear she did not think her sister planned to kill herself.
If she did know this, she would have run to save her the moment Caitlyn freed her.
Vi and Caitlyn’s storyline this episode ends with their intimate moment, but they are not the only couple featured in “Killing Is a Cycle” because we earlier see Jayce and Mel reunite.
Both have been through a lot and their relationship is clearly strained, with Jayce realizing it was Mel’s mage powers which saved them from Jinx’s attack.
Any separation or reconciliation between them is halted with the arrival of Viktor, using a transformed Huck’s body as an avatar.
He tries to convince Jayce to let him reach the Hexgates peacefully, but Jayce has seen what will transpire if Viktor is allowed to do so.
A fight ensues, in which Viktor’s avatar is only defeated because he is distracted by something, which I think is Ekko returning from the alternate dimension.
Following their fight with Viktor, Jayce holds a meeting with the Piltovan and Zaunite leaders, including Sevika, to propose they join together to stop Viktor and Ambessa.
It is here where my big issue with Act Three comes into play.
While Sevika and some of the Piltovan elites do not agree to join Jayce, many others do, and I don’t really think there was enough justification for this.
For starters, not only did none of the Piltovans see the fight with Viktor, but why are so many of them okay with fighting Noxus?
They were allies just a few episodes ago.
Yes, Caitlyn betrayed them, but she did that on her own.
I feel like the Piltovans either should have learned about Ambessa orchestrating the attack on the memorial, or we should have seen them also suffering under the Noxian martial law, maybe both.
As for the Zaunites, their reasoning for joining the fight also does not make much sense.
Piltover has been oppressing them for years so why do they suddenly believe them when they announce the threat Viktor poses?
If I were them, I would assume this was a ploy to arrest more Zaunites and put them in Stillwater.
Again, this could have been explained away if the Zaunites saw the threat of Viktor’s glorious evolution.
His sanctuary was in Zaun so maybe a few residents could be attacked by his avatars, which proves to the Zaunites that they need to help.
I think Act Three really needed more scenes to help explain these things and, unfortunately, this issue does persist into the final episode.
Going back to Episode Eight, though, its final scene sees Mel visiting her mother in a final attempt to convince her to back off.
Ambessa’s resolve is firm, however, for Viktor has already created his army of metal avatars.
We see this process in a flashback, where Viktor doing so results in the sacrifice of Sky.
Was she real, a hallucination, or a facade created by the Hexcore to manipulate Viktor?
I still have no idea.
Whatever the answer is, Sky as a character felt pretty underdeveloped.
Using Warwick, Singed fully revives Viktor, resulting in the tragic erasure of all his memories, killing Vander forever.
The episode then ends with Viktor fully transforming inside his cocoon, his face splitting open to reveal an ominous, shadowed face, revealing the big threat for the final episode.
Overall, I would still say “Killing Is a Cycle” is a good episode, despite its issues.
It reconnects certain characters and sets up the main threat for the finale well.
I just wish there was more time to explore the wider Zaun and Piltover conflict, which was the main overall conflict for Season One.

Arcane Season Two, Episode Five, Blisters and Bedrock Review: Best Episode of Act Two?

Usually, the best episode of every Arcane Act is the last one.
Well, this trend changed with Episode Five “Blisters and Bedrock”, which is not only the best episode of Act Two but also the best episode of Season Two so far.
It begins with the same pit fighter Vi tease we got before Act One released.
In this scene, we see Vi at her lowest.
She has lost Caitlyn and now spends her nights fighting for money, wasting that money on getting blackout drunk, pushing away any friends she has, until she even starts losing fights.
It is at rock bottom where Jinx finds her, returning to tell her about Vander’s return.
Naturally, Vi does not take too kindly to seeing her sister after their last, violent interaction.
Still, seeing her start to strangle Jinx was pretty uncomfortable, and the following shot of Vi’s face in the cracked mirror shows just how far she has fallen.
It is a good thing that the episode works towards bringing the sisters together.
But, since this is the best storyline of the episode, I will save talking about it for later.
First, I will talk about Ambessa recruiting Singed.
I had a feeling she would, given how desperate she is for a weapon to combat the Black Rose.
Her recruiting him also lead to quite a few revelations about Singed.
We learn from Caitlyn that his name used to be Reveck, a once respected doctor in Piltover who was banished for a crime that was buried, most likely by Heimerdinger.
Singed tells Caitlyn he committed many unspeakable acts “for love” and then reveals his daughter to her and Ambessa.
Like Mr Freeze, he has sealed his loved one away, all in the hope of eventually curing death itself, only to become more of a monster with each passing day.
Because, as Silco said back in Season One, “Is there anything so undoing as a daughter?”
Singed is not the only character we receive a few revelations about this episode because we also see what has happened to Mel after being kidnapped by the Black Rose at the end of Episode Three.
She is locked up in an Oculorum, a chamber used to seal away false prophets.
Or, as Mel’s fellow prisoner calls it, “the fancy pits peacock princes like to toss their friends into.”
This line causes Mel to realize that the man is her brother, Kino, thought dead by their mother.
Sadly, it turns out that Kino most likely is dead because the brother Mel is seeing is later revealed to be a hallucination made by the Black Rose to try and get whatever power Mel has.
The Black Rose, disguised as Kino, tells Mel that what she inherited, “is of terrible interest to our captors.”
When the disguise is broken, whoever is holding Mel captive also calls her “sister”, but it is unclear if this person is her actual sibling or just referencing Mel as Kino’s sister.
Either way, there are a lot of mysteries to unpack her, and we will have to wait until Act Three to have them answered because this is the last time we see Mel in Act Two.
At least we have one answer, which is how she and Jayce survived Jinx’s rocket at the beginning of the season.
When she is held by the Black Rose’s chains, Mel’s eyes start to glow, and her golden armor shines before releasing a wave of power which frees her.
This pretty much confirms this power is what saved her and Jayce, and I am very interested to see what it is and why the Black Rose want it.
With Singed and Mel’s storylines out of the way, I can now get to discussing the main storyline of Jinx and Vi searching for Vander.
Traveling down into the mines below Zaun, the two sisters quickly begin to bicker.
In my opinion, Jinx easily wins the comeback duel, hilariously referring to Vi’s gauntlets as “bitch mittens” before proving she can last one second in a fight against her.
Isha quickly gets involved in the fight on the side of Jinx, and Vi hits her, resulting in a bloody nose.
I cannot help but wonder if that brought Vi back to the night when she slapped Powder.
Jinx references that night, saying she recruited Vi to help Vander so things would end differently this time.
“Besides,” she says. “He’s your father too.”
This was a great scene between the sisters, and the use of mushrooms which glow whenever someone claps or lands a punch was a nice touch.
Eventually, the trio find out why Vander fled into the mines.
This place used to be a hideout for him and Silco, and we see a letter Vander addressed to him, apologizing for his betrayal and telling Silco he knows where to find him, meaning the Last Drop.
The letter makes me think Vander attacked Silco after the Bridge fight which orphaned Vi and Powder.
Seeing the deaths his revolution had caused, Vander decided to live a peaceful life.
The only problem with that was Silco wanted to keep fighting, leading to Vander attempting to drown him so the peace he was attempting to forge could be maintained.
He only realized the enormity of what he had done after it was over and left the letter to Silco in the hopes of patching things up.
Unfortunately, Silco never went back to those mines so never read the letter.
If he had, as Jinx says, “everything might have been different.”
During this moment, we see the first sign of the bridging rift between the sisters when Vi almost puts a comforting hand on Jinx’s shoulder but stops herself.
They leave the hideout, but the three are quickly confronted by Vander, who was drawn in by Isha’s blood.
Vi understandably does not recognize Vander under the bloody visage of Warwick, and fights him off, only for Jinx’s pleading to convince her to reach out to him.
In an imposing shot, Vi faces off against Vander, shouting his name, which draws us into a flashback before Vi and Powder’s births.
We see that both Vander and Silco were close with the girls’ mother, Felicia.
As she dances to “Our Love” from Season One, she tells the two of her pregnancy, putting them on the hook to look out for her kids.
She tells them, “You two are gonna figure this Zaun thing out. I don’t care if you have to carve it out of the bedrock, covered in blisters. You’re not allowed to fail anymore. For her. For me.”
Along with delivering the title for this episode, Felicia’s lines also add another layer of tragedy because Vander and Silco did fail.
Their fallout led to the tragedy that separated Vi and Jinx, a separation which is only now just beginning to heal.
Although, the flashback does end on a hopeful note, by revealing that Vander was the one to name Vi.
The scene then cuts back to the present day with Jinx and Isha alone in the darkness, unsure of the fates of Vi and Vander.
They walk through the dark, until they find the two in an embrace.
Vi reaches a hand out to Jinx.
“What are you waiting for,” she says, paying off Jinx’s earlier statement. “He’s your dad too.”
And, with that, the water works officially started.
Yeah, I was a mess during this scene.
Seeing the sisters reunite and embrace their father after so much tragedy just broke me.
But this is Arcane so, of course, something bad is on the horizon.
We see Salo, who has been cured of his paralysis thanks to Viktor, attempting to take something from the Hexgate’s failsafe.
This coincides with the return of Jayce from whatever alternate dimension he, Ekko and Heimerdinger were trapped in at the end of Episode Three.
Jayce has clearly had it rough, what with his grizzled appearance, beard, and even his arcane crystal infused into his hand.
As for Salo, he is oddly upbeat, a complete turnaround from his prior personality.
You could say that he is just happy to have the use of his legs back but, as some Arcane fans have pointed out, Salo is not breathing.
We have seen the breath of every character in this room, whether it be Jayce, Ekko or Heimerdinger.
Salo is the only character whose breath we do not see, suggesting a much more sinister nature to Viktor’s cures.
Backing this up is Viktor’s creepy takeover of Salo’s body to talk with Jayce.
Through this, we can see how the two’s perspectives have flipped.
Viktor originally wanted the Hexcore destroyed, but now he uses it to help others, or at least that is how he sees it.
Jayce used the Hexcore to save Viktor but, through whatever traumatic experience he has had, now realizes the danger of all Hextech, wanting to destroy it.
The episode ends with him killing Salo, another showcase of his development.
Back in Season One, he told Vi he could not allow her to leave with the gauntlets but, in the end, relented.
Jayce does no such thing now, killing Salo without hesitation and, on that grim note, the episode ends.
Overall, I would say that “Blisters and Bedrock” is the best episode of the season so far.
Mel’s storyline deepens the mystery of the Black Rose.
Singed’s storyline perfectly falls into Arcane‘s theme about the lengths fathers will go to for their daughters.
Speaking of, Vi and Jinx reuniting with their adopted father got the tears flowing.
To top it all off, the episode ends on the dark return of Jayce, building to his and Viktor’s meeting in the next episode.
“Blisters and Bedrock” is not only a fantastic Arcane episode, but the first one that was the best of its Act without being the final episode.

Arcane Review: Watch. This. Show.

I remember when I first watched the trailer for Netflix’s Arcane and was instantly intrigued by the quality of the animation I was seeing.
However, then I noticed the show was based off League of Legends.
I have never played this game but I know of it because of its reputation as having one of the most toxic fandoms out there.
This was not what made me hesitant to watch it though because you can’t judge a product off the actions of its fans alone.
No, the reason for my hesitation was that, since I had never played League, I would have no idea what was happening in Arcane‘s story.
So, despite liking what I saw in the trailer, I decided to give it a skip.
But then, I kept hearing the nonstop praise about Arcane being a masterpiece and I finally caved, deciding to give it a chance.
After all, I watched Squid Game because of the acclaim it was receiving and I had no regrets about that.
Although, after finishing Arcane, I did have one regret… that I did not watch this absolute masterpiece of a show sooner.
All of the praise this series has received since it was released in three acts on Netflix is accurate.

*Arcane* was released in three acts, each with three episodes, over three weeks. I watched one act per day and each one is incredible.

Created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee, Arcane tells the story of many different characters in the city of Piltover and its undercity of Zaun.
Zaun is a gang ridden, posion aired place, where sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder (Ella Purnell) struggle to find their place in the world while under the guardianship of their father figure Vander (JB Blanc).
Meanwhile, in the rich and ever technologically progressing city of Piltover, scientist Jayce (Kevin Alejandro) and his newfound friend Viktor (Harry Loyd) begin to experiment with creating magic through science.
The story then follows these different groups of characters, their paths occasionally intersecting, as tragic events push Piltover and Zaun to the edge of outright war.
What makes the potential for this conflict so suspenseful is how amazingly well written each character in this show is.
The way the relationship between Vi and Powder plays out, and what they go on to become by the end of the season, is highly engaging.

Powder and Vi’s tragic journeys made for plenty of compelling development.

Another thing that really struck me was how even the minor characters felt like real people.
Take the corrupt enforcer Marcus (Remy Hill), for example.
It would have been incredibly easy for the writers to just make him a stereotypically evil corrupt cop but they didn’t.
They gave Marcus a lot of depth and characterization to the point that I actually sympathized with him, while knowing he was a terrible person.
Speaking of someone being a terrible person while also being a fantastic character, my favourite character in this entire show is definitely the main antagonist, Silco (Jason Spisak).
Much like Marcus, I thought he was going to turn out to be a stereotypical villain when we were first introduced to him but, as the show went on, he became incredibly complex.
I remember watching Episode Three, “The Base Violence Necessary for Change” and seeing him display some emotion and wondering if it was genuine.
The show then goes on to expand on this emotion for his character, making a part of himself so sympathetic that the way his storyline for the season concluded during the final episode “The Monster You Created” actually made me tear up.

I did not expect to cry for Silco when we met him, yet the final episode made me do just that.

Notice how I mentioned both Episodes Three and Nine there?
These two are the best episodes of Arcane, both being masterpieces in their own right, with so much tragedy in them.
The tragedy of this story is backed up by the fantastic voice acting, score and animation.
It was this animation that made me initially interested in the show in the first place, as I said when talking about the trailer, and seeing this animation actually play out in the series did not disappoint.
It reminded me a lot of the animation from Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, creating absolutely amazing action set pieces, the best of which comes in Episode Seven “The Boy Saviour.”

The action sequence in this scene between Jinx and another character was excellent, having me glued to the screen.

As for the score, I have already put multiple songs from this show on my Spotify, including the opening by Imagine Dragons and JID, “Enemy,” so that alone should tell you how much I loved Arcane’s music.
As for the voice acting, there was not a weak member of the cast.
I was especially impressed with the voice acting of Mia Sinclair Jenessa who plays the young Powder, showing off some excellent range in Episode Three.
All of this combines with the amazing writing from Linke and Yee, creating fascinating lines like “in the pursuit of great, we failed to do good,” and “is there anything so undoing as a daughter.”

There are plenty of amazing instances of dialogue in *Arcane.*

How certain lines and events from the beginning are paralleled right up to the final episode also quite impressed me, with the story of Arcane essentially boiling down to one tragic cycle.
This is a cycle that I look forward to seeing continue when we eventually get Season Two, which has been announced.
We do not know when this season will be released but it has been confirmed that we will not be getting it in 2022, to which I say, “good.”
Arcane is clearly a labour of love from its creators and they deserve to continue this labour with all the care and attention they used to craft the masterpiece that is this first season: one of the greatest opening seasons I have ever seen.
Season one of Arcane is a masterpiece and, if Season Two is at the very least just as good, then it may end up being one of my favourite shows of all time.
If you have not watched this show yet because of League of Legend’s reputation, or because you fear you won’t understand what’s happening like I feared, then take my advice and watch it.
You will understand what’s happening and it will most likely blow your mind.