In the three years since the first season of Arcane, I’d forgotten a lot of the little plot details — what exactly was Shimmer? Why is hextech such a big deal? What’s up with Mel’s mom?
But the brilliance of Arcane is that you actually don’t need to remember all of the specific plot minutiae for it to work. Sure, there’s a whole wide world, vaster than even just Piltover and Zaun. And yet, all of the grander themes and questions come right back down to Jinx and Vi. Even when Arcane starts to posit loftier questions (like Viktor’s whole hextech Jesus arc) or gets into specific political machinations of Piltover, Zaun, and the lands beyond, the sisters anchor the entire show.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Arcane season 2.]
It’s especially evident in this last drop of episodes, which brings the sisters together — and working for a common cause for the first time in years. After Jinx learns what happened to their adoptive father, she searches for her sister. Even though the last time they saw each other, Vi almost killed her (and Jinx was about to let her), Jinx knows that Vi is the only person who will understand what’s going on and the only person that Vander might also recognize.
Now that they’re pulled back together, we’re thoroughly and devastatingly reminded of what they lost when they were ripped apart. They patch up their relationship (as best as they can), united in trying to recover Vander from the beast he’s been turned into. They’re still hurt and haunted by their past, but as they linger in the peace of Viktor’s commune, there’s a glimmer of hope for their future for the very first time. The gorgeous watercolor sequence through Vander’s memory also solidifies the norm that once was, the close relationship that this family once had — and maybe could have again.
Through Vi and Jinx, we see how the greater conflict between Piltover and Zaun divided one family. It’s a wound that goes deeper than the two sisters, going back to the fissure between Vander and Silco. But it’s Vi and Jinx who felt the aftereffects most concretely, having followed in the footsteps of their respective father figures for better and for worse. They represent two sides of the same blade, two different hands dealt, two different paths followed. Arcane deftly juggles a lot of plotlines, asking big questions about the show’s world and society. But the reason all those threads work, all those themes hit so hard, is because every vein leads back to Vi and Jinx, the beating heart of the show — the constant that holds hope and misfortune with equal opportunity .
Notably, though, it seems like both of those paths are leading to tragedy. They’re not alone: Jayce single-handedly ends Viktor’s hextech utopia here, and Mel is still stuck in Black Rose prison. But Vi and Jinx’s story is tinged with the most agony, because of all the love that’s still lingering between them. Vi has had the chance to kill Jinx and end it all, but she hesitated every time because that’s still her baby sister. That love doesn’t just go away. It’s still fueling them, urging them to try again and repair the burnt bridges in order to desperately grasp at what once was. But that just heightens the stakes of the entire show; what happens if that love isn’t enough?
Keeping the focus on Vi and Jinx not only anchors the world so that the show never stretches too far beyond Piltover and Zaun, but it also keeps the tone and message consistent. It doesn’t matter what exactly Shimmer is, why the Council is divided on hextech, or what exactly Piltover has against Zaun; what matters is that the decisions made by those in charge have devastating effects on the regular people. And Arcane illustrates this specifically with the two characters we’ve known since the beginning of the series, who share a special relationship, who were ripped apart and turned against each other by forces outside their reckoning. It’s their relationship that defines the show — even when it hurts.
The first six episodes of Arcane season 2 are now streaming on Netflix. The final three drop on Nov. 23.
