Today's episode contains spoilers for episodes six and seven of Arcane season one. Hi everyone, I'm a Boo and I'm Aaron, and welcome to x ray Vision Extras and x ray Vision Series, where we dive deep into even more of your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Every superhero team needs side quests, and our rotating panel of producers and guest hosts will be suiting up to help Jason and Rosie cover all of the amazing nerd content out there.
And we are back today with another episode of extras, continuing our rewatch of Arcane season one with the lead up to season two on November ninth. Today, we're jumping forward in time and we're going to be covering episodes six and seven.
That's right, and by out y'all know the drone. Let's just hop right in, starting with episode six, which is titled When These Walls Come Tumbling Down?
All right, we start off tell him if you've heard this before. We start off with a flashback. Oh, okay, this time it's Victor's childhood and young Victor is playing
in the under City and he spends his time. You know, there are these pools in the under City and you see a bunch of kids playing, but Victor is off by himself, building boats basically, and he sends one of the boats off and he goes chasing it and he stumbles into a cave where he finds Singed and his pet Rio, and Rio is this astonishing looking creature that sing says is a rare mutation that he's cultivated. Unfortunately,
Rio is dying. Victor, sensing this camaraderie with this other loner scientist character, offers to help, and Singed accepts, and he tells him we can be loners together. Cut to present sense and Victor is hanging out in the same pool in the under City and Heimerdinger is there. He finds him and he's attempting to console him because you know, Heimerdinger knows about his prognosis, and he tells him that he should be proud of all these achievements he's had.
It's incredible work. But Victor worries, easy for you to say, you've lived hundreds of years, my contributions will be very short lived.
Yeah, he's really struggling with his mortality at this point. As we've seen throughout the season, we also learn in this scene that Heimerdinger is one of the founders of Piltover and that's significant because, as we'll see you later in the episode, he is kicked off the council, and that really makes that council scene even more emotionally impactful for me to know that he's being kicked off the council. He very likely started himself and was the founding member of I.
Mean, up until this year, he's been the one given the Piltover day speeches. Yeah, and you know he lets Jase do it one time and then he's out of a job. What is this gosh fall from grace my guy?
Totally.
I also wanted to just briefly comment on the fact that there's something to be said here about this century's old being Heimerdinger not understanding the urgency that Jason Victor have felt all season. You and I have talked in the past couple episodes about this theme of the older generation saying wait, patience, take it slow, think this through, versus the younger, more hot headed generation of scientists like Jason Victor or VI being like, no, we got to go,
go go. This is how we make progress, progress at all costs. We're going to crack a couple of eggs, and some people are going to get killed along the way, But this is the path forward. It's interesting to me that there's also now this age difference contrast as well. Yeah, of course, somebody who has hundreds of years ahead of them is going to be fine with taking ten years to slowly work on their hex tech versus Victor, who might not even have ten weeks. Yeah, all right, back
to our recap. Jace returns to Mel's chambers after he uh dined in dash? Yeah, shall we say the previous night. Mel is painting this absolutely gorgeous picture, but is understandably perturbed annoyed by Jase's disappearance.
Right, why'd you ditch me? I thought we had a connection.
Here, aboo. Do you have any personal stories about when you might have dined and dashed on a young woman sometime in your life?
I would ever, and I certainly would never admit a gentleman does not dine and dash and tell. Right now, Jase reveals that he has a lot on his mind, namely that his best friend and partner, Victor, is dying, and he speculates that Victor's dying because of the pollution in the under City, which is exactly the kind of problem that Victor and Jase have always wanted and hoped to fix with hex tech. That's been their goal.
And just to be clear, the power gloves they designed were meant to what strangle the pollution, right, okay, yeah, and the lasers were meant to cut the pollution. Is that that's what their goal.
Was, right into smaller pollutions, so it's more manageable.
Right, okay, right, smaller pollutions.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely hilarious. Now, the scene I did find quite touching because Jas shows some real vulnerability here with Mel. He lays in her lap at one point. It's very touching, and he admits how he hates feeling useless. He hates this powerlessness in his ability to help Victor. Right, He's at the peak of his fame. He's got all the wealth and power he could imagine, but he can't save the life of his best friend, and that's weighing on him.
The camera zooms out and we actually see the picture that Mel has been painting. And you did some great research here. This is apparently a photo of the nation of Naxis, where Mel is actually from, where her family is from. Recalls she is an exile from her family.
She's been kicked out right.
Also, just as you're saying, she's painting, and it is again with the great audio in this show. We get really precise audio of her cracking eggs to make the paint and then her using the paint knife on the canvas and like scraping it.
Yep.
I love that scene. And a very nice quiet moment. And a pair of episodes that are going to have some very loud and bombastic scenes, we get this really nice little moment here.
And a really great bit of storytelling. It tells us, without saying a word, the mental state of this character, what headspace she's in. She's painting aggressively. We're getting cracks, we're getting scrapes, she's annoyed. Really great storytelling there.
Okay, speaking of Victor, he has gone back up to Piltover and he's staring hopelessly into the X core and he reaches out again to touch it and it reacts and his eyes kind of glaze over.
Yikes.
Yeah, we're still unclear what's happening with this. I don't know, parasitic relationship, you know, I don't know how we want to describe it. But we're getting more and more hints about this sinister situation that's building up with Victor's desire to figure out the hex tech.
Yeah, and we'll see a little bit more of that in this episode in the next as well. Next week, cut to the last drop, we get some lazy Luau music and Jinx sneaks up on the bartender Theorem, who she not so affectionately calls Chuck. I will also be calling him Chuck moving forward, and Jinx is here asking for gossip. What's up, Chuck? What's going on? Why aren't I being invited to the parties? Why Silko and everyone being so active and no one's telling me what's happening?
Chuck lets slip that Silko has basically ordered the crew to grab a couple of girls who roughed up Sevika. He doesn't reveal who those girls are exactly, but Jinks is suspicious. She leaves him with a little tip, shall we say, yeah, in the form of a bomb on his back. But luckily for Chucks, just a glitter bomb. All it does is freak him out. Now, speaking of said girls on the run, we returned to Caitlin and Vy, who are attempting to escape from the standoff with Sevika.
Despite by being incredibly injured and needing to be assisted by Caitlin, she is still able to parkore slash fall her way down this abandoned water tower that they arrive at. It's not graceful by any means, but considering she has just been stabbed in the gut, it's impressive.
Nonetheless, I just imagine Caitlin being like, I just dragged you the last mile through this cave and they help. Really, yeah, then you're just jumping down this water tower.
Okay, thanks absolutely, And you know, I think by proving a point here, I'm fine, I'm tough. I don't need and enforcer's.
Help to do anything. Right, stop helping me.
Certainly on brand for v Of course, the camera pans out, and we also are shown that there is a member of the Firelights watching all of this take place from far above, watching the girls de send it down into the water tower. Specifically, it's the Firelight character with the owl mask, who we will see come back yes later in this episode.
In the next, Savika comes back to Soko's office to let him know they lost the girls, but oops, turns out the chair twirls around and it's not Soco in there, it's Jinx and Savika lunges forward, activating a tripwire that releases a bunch of knockout gas, and Jinks casually slips on her gas mask and taunts her. Savika wakes up, she's tied to the chair and Jinks continues to taunt her. I love this line, and she's playing with her knife and she says, I feel like you and I got
off on the wrong arm. Maybe we should try the other. So Savika reveals She's like, no need, I'll tell you what you want to know. It's your sister Violet, and she's out there with an enforcer. That's who everyone's looking for. And Savika's like, it's only a matter of time before Silko sees you go overboard and is like, you are not it. You are You're unhinged and we can't rely on you, and Jinks starts to cry and then reveals
she he's making it. She's completely unphased, and you know, we get a better view of her as this character who I feel like we constantly teeter back and forth on does she have anything under control or does she have everything under control. She's like the joker. She's playing chaos so well.
Absolutely yeah.
We see her flip back and forth on a moment's notice, and that's what makes her terrifying, because you never know what's gonna happen. Next with Jinx, next we see Marcus returning home. He goes to check in on his daughter and uh uh oh is that Silco making a tower.
Of cards with my daughter? Holy shit, what a.
Stomach drop moment. I certainly was terrified during this scene. Silko is, of course, here to subtly and not so subtly threatened Marcus. He is unhappy that Violet is still alive, despite Marcus seemingly telling him all those years ago that Violet had also died alongside Vander, and he is making subtle threats to Ren to Marcus to get that point across. For example, he says things like everyone makes mistakes, right, What's important is that we.
Don't repeat them.
He then, after sufficiently scaring the pants off Marcus, Soko knocks over the Junga tower that he was building with Wren and walks out of the room with Marcus's promise to fix this shit.
So just I don't know, kids are dumb sometimes, But how dumb do you have to be as a small child to be like, Oh, someone's at the door. It's not my father or my mother. It's three people who have like one of them's got an evil eye and the other two don't look nice at all. Why don't I invite them in? Gonna make them a pot of tea, We're gonna go up to the playroom. Not great on you, Ren, No stranger danger. And I feel like this is one of those spots where maybe it would have been nice
if you didn't let the people into the house. But hey, yeah, terrifying scene. He does such a good job with the I'll tell you a story one time a daddy and his daughter went on a trip but the daughter never got there. Isn't that a sad thing? And like his super villainry is on full power.
Here, definitely, And I think to your point about Ren just letting them in. I have a feeling that this is maybe Uncle Silko MM and Uncle Silko's friends like this, maybe isn't the first time that they've interacted, and perhaps Silko has come before, Ren has seen him before. Okay, that's sort of my head cannon for why this child would let Silko in and not try to home alone him.
Okay, yeah, no, I like that. I've seen enough mob movies and mafia movies to know. Oh yeah, if dad hangs out with you all the time you're here, you conduct business like, of course, I'll let you in. Oh yeah, so much more sinister. All right, I forgive you Red. We cut back to Victor in the lab and he's showing Jace that the hex tech reacts to organic matter somehow. In his last hex seconduced coma, he's made this discovery. Yeah,
he uses the hex tech. It causes this plant to grow unnaturally large and like outlandishly strong looking, and then it withers and dies, and he's like they've all died like this, Yeah, every single one of them. Jase reassures Victor will solve this, and you know, we can figure this out. We always do. But Victor is like, I'm running out of time. I can fuel my body deteriorating, right, and Jay suggests bringing in Heimerdinger.
Right, And Jase also grabs a piece of chalk and acts like he's about to do some calculations. But my guy, have you done any work in this lab since becoming a council member.
I feel like he's putting on a front.
Jase is creeping around a lot. You know, we'll find out more about it. But yeah, he's got a lot going. I mean, both of them, both of them, quite frankly, are going all over.
But yeah, sure.
Now Caitlin and VI takes shelter in a house at the bottom of this water tower.
That they've fallen down. The water tower that they have fallen to the very bottom, right, and now they're at a house.
That's right, and VI is sort of slipping in and out of consciousness. She is seeing these hallucinations of powder all throughout this house. Caitlyn is trying to tend to her wounds, but VI sort of bats her away. She does trust an enforcer, and a frustrated Caitlyn asks, I suppose top signers are to blame for all of your misfortunes then, to which VI replies, no.
Not all of them.
So there is some accountability here that I have put myself in many rough positions. It's not all the enforcer's fault. But we will get an answer to why she distrusts Kaitlyn a little later.
Now.
Part of this discussion also includes VI sort of hallucinating Powder and talking somewhat to Powder and not all the time to Caitlin. Very in like a jinx way right, how jas is always talking to Clagger and my low. We see like an injured and on the brink of death VI doing the same thing, speaking to someone who's not there, saying things like I shouldn't have left you, you know. We get a sense that she really regrets her actions back at the cannery and has spent the
last X number of years trying to reconcile that. Caitlyn tells VI that she has a good heart, which then transitions to Vander's voice. We hear the echoes of van voice repeating that same line to young VI from earlier in the season.
As the camera fads to black.
And we get another visit from a father figure. Heimerdinger has come to the lab and he's there with Jason Victor and they're showing him the hex Core, and the hex Core, as they describe it, is hextech that evolves. Heimerdinger is terrified and he has this vision of magic destroying things and he begs them to destroy it. He's like, please, if you've ever valued my advice, please destroy this and he's seen nations destroyed by a single seed and it
looked exactly like this. Heimerdinger notices a change in Victor, he says, and as soon as he sees that, he's like, Okay, I'm not begging anymore. This has to be destroyed. You need to get rid of this. But Jase stands up for Victor, and he basically threatens Himerdinger and is like, we'll take this to the council. You can't tell us what to do anymore. We're doing this in the name
of progress. Don't and in our way. Heimerdinger leaves, and Victor hints that there might be someone else he knows that could help.
Interesting.
I'm curious what you think of this scene and if you had a take on it, Aaron, what do you think Heimerdinger notices about Victor what change has taken place, because from the outside, just looking at his character doesn't seem like anything is different.
Yeah, I'm assume it has to do with the fact that his hands have all these hex Tex shaped hickeys all over them where he's been, you know, constantly touching the hex tech. Yeah, yeah, and he's like trying to explain it and he's going in and out of consciousness. Everyone is just going in and out of consciousness in this TV show at all times, or speaking to someone that's not really there.
Yeah, it's a rough showing for consciousness in this episode.
Really, the whole cast is an unreliable narrator.
No.
I think Victor up until this point, I feel like hasn't really shown a ton of rebellious nature. The most rebellious thing. I mean, he started off rebellious in the show, so maybe this is a wrong read, but he seemed like he was a pretty good student, good citizen of Peltover. His one thing was, oh, you know what, I kind of am interested in what Jace is doing. I would
like to support him. But now we've reached a point where if Jace is too busy, Jace is a member of the council, Jace's you know, trying to be an art critic with mel Victor is the one who's become absorbed in this one part of research, and this has consumed him to the point that he's dying. We know he's dying, and he is so obsessed. Instead of what am I going to do now? Is there some medical
thing that can help me? He's obsessed with trying to solve his illness with hex Tech and it's consumed him entirely. So whether or not that's like truly overt enough for what Heymridinger sees, I think that's something that we as the audience have seen this change in Victor where he's obsessed in a way that we kind of only saw, like Islet obsessed in the beginning, and now he is obsessed.
Yeah, I want to pose an alternate take on it as well. I think this has something more directly to do with the hex Core itself, because it's clear that Heimerdinger has some sort of past, a tragic past with magic, with not exactly hex Tech technology, but the harnessing of magic in this way in a similar way that hex Tech is doing. And obviously he's frightened by the hex Core.
He has seen this before, this growth and death that the magic can cause, and when he looks at Victor, I think he sees something in Victor that's akin to the influence that the One Ring from Lord of the Rings has on the people who wear it on a seal door on Frod.
Did you intentionally drop an Aragon reference earlier to set up the Lord, like get us in the mind of Lord of the Rings, and then you did the one ring that was good.
No, but I think Lord of the Rings was on the mind, you know, so I might be popping in and out of that universal out in this.
Episode consciousness throughout this podcast.
So yeah, I think, like that's my hypothesis here, is that the hex Core is maybe exerting this like subtle into Fairy's influence on anyone who gets too close. We know Victor's blood has fused with it at this point as well, he keeps touching it over and over again.
Sapsapsapp.
So perhaps Heimerdinger is recognizing this one ring Souron style influence in Victor because again he hasn't passed with it. He's seen it before and he has seen how destructive.
It can be.
Also, let's remember two episodes ago or whatever, this was an entire city that hated magic, and now all of a sudden, we're like full in on magic. Yeah, Okay, there was clearly some threat before, and we shouldn't just ignore that sinister element at all.
Definitely.
Okay, back to our recap, Caitlin walks out of the house under this water tower and is surprised by one of the vacrants that recognizes Violet and wants to check in on her. Asks is she all right? Turns out this is Hook, who we saw all the way back in episode one. This is the merchant that Vander helped
out in the last drop. In that tiny little scene back in episode one, Huck reveals that he's got these like nasty purple veins and some sort of growth all over his body because he has succumbed to shimmer addiction. He also reveals to Caitlin that there's not going to be much help down here for Violet. There's not exactly doctors who can patch her up, but he does know somebody that might be able to help, so he takes Kitlin to a potion maker who helps the locals who
are addicted to shimmer. Caitlyn, in payment for a potion that will help revive Violet, offers up her gun and the potion maker adds a tiny drop of shimmer to this bottle and hands it over to Kaitlyn to administer to Violet. Huck doesn't want to go back to Violet. He just wanted to help Caitlyn here because he's genuinely shaped. He doesn't want Violet to see him in the state he's in now, and he basically just wanted to check in on her and help. He's too a shame to
actually face her. Caitlyn, as a form of thank you and gratitude, embraces him, which we see affects Huck. Clearly he hasn't been hugged in this way in a long long time.
Yeah, Huck is full on breaking my heart in here.
This is Yeah.
I felt so bad for him, being ashamed of his current state and still wanting to help Violet but being too embarrassed to be seen by her. That just it killed me.
Yeah.
I love Huck.
Oh my god, such an endaring character and such a
tragic character. And actually he says something here. I wanted to take a minute to dwell on together because I think there's a lot of interesting thematic storytelling taking place in this sequence, in particular in the Violet in Caitlin at the water Tower, Huck tells Caitlyn that he started using Shimmer because he wanted to feel what it was like to be somebody, to feel what it was like to not just be afraid all the time, to get bullied all the time, like we saw back.
In episode one.
I loved that so much because I think this episode in particular is really exploring the nuances of this downtrodden community that we're seeing down here at the water Tower, and it speaks to real world communities that are over policed or marginalized and why they, for example, would distrust law enforcement just like Violet distrust enforcers, or why violence and drugs proliferate in a community like this, because again, as we see throughout this story, you do what you
need to survive, or if you're like Huck, you have been on the receiving end of so much violence and bullying that you just want to feel what it's like to give that back, And that, of course, is this endless cycle. This cycle of conflict in war is another big theme in this story, and this cycle of violence begetting violence, Huck being bullied so wanting to take Shimmer to bully back, and then feeling the repercussions of it. I loved all of that so much because it's a
cycle that is not easy to break. In order to break it, people in power have to understand where the people who are trapped in the cycle are coming from, and we're seeing some of that even here with Caitlin, who is beginning to understand the under city in a way that her rich, bougie lifestyle up to this point
has never revealed to her. And I thought all of that really came together in a beautiful way to show class divide and socioeconomic divide in a way that is much more nuanced than these are the rich bad people, and these are the sad poor people.
And now an ad sponsored ad from Elon Musk super pac. No now for a real word from our sponsors, but thankfully it is not Elon Musk. All right, back to our recap, Marcus is attempting to frame the firelights with one of Jenks's grenades. He brings it to Jace and he's like, I found this on the firelights. This is clearly what was used in the attacks. And in order to keep the city safe, Jace, I think, with all good intentions, wants the enforcers to start searching everyone that
crosses the bridges. Yeah, and oh, by the way, Marcus wants to know about a particular some certain prisoner who was released by Caitlin under Jas's orders. I don't know if you happen to know anything about that, right, which, of course Jase is like, we're handling it, don't worry. But I don't know. Maybe if you could just give me a little influence in this situation, because I'm a little interested in this prisoner.
And Jase shuts it down.
Yes, Jase, I think shows a level of trust and camaraderie in Caitlin here, because seemingly those are the first he's ever hearing of this, right, and then he doesn't.
Bat nye and he's got so much on his plate, I'm sure he doesn't even give a second thought. Yeah, and he just trusts Scalen.
Yeah.
You gotta love that. You gotta love friends who will have your back no matter what. All right, Sorry for a council meeting, folks. You know I love a council meeting, and this one's juicy. Heimerdinger is telling the council that.
They have lost their way.
They're cannibalizing themselves with their greed and their pride and their hunger for power, and it's about damn time that we hold each other accountable, folks. Jace, he's got a rebuttal red tea. He hits Heimerdinger with a classic who watches the Watchman.
Though, got the reverse card all lined up?
Yes, the reverse you know card? Yeah, bam, you know what draw for while you're at it.
You have plenty of time to use all those cards when you're out of a job.
That's true, nothing to do in retirement. Bud Jace comes at Heimerdinger here. He's got a plan of attack ready to go. He blames Heimerdinger for the current state of affairs, for the rampant use of Shimmer in the under City, for the dangers that Hiltover is currently facing, and he he asks Heimerdinger, what's your plan? What is your plan for all of this? Because all I'm hearing from you
is what we shouldn't do? What should we do? He has this really great line in this moment where Jay says healing the city will take more than just speeches. Humans don't live for centuries. We can't wait for progress. Really great stuff and obviously speaks to what we've been talking about earlier in our conversation. Heimerdinger, as we know, is the father of Piltover, one of the founders. But
it's time for Daddy to go into retirement. Jase pushes for a vote to basically ex communicado Heimerdinger from the council. The vote has to be unanimous.
And has to be unanimous, and shockingly it is.
Yeah.
The whole council votes for Heimerdinger to get kicked.
Off, and no scene with Jase bringing a children's toy or some a pack of nuts or anything to the other council members. This was he didn't bribe anyone. No, this was a full on everyone agreed. Yeah, like slowly, I mean mel agrees first, and then slowly everyone else falls in line. But everyone else fell in line.
Yeah.
And in this moment, Heimerdinger's breaking my heart. I know. I said Huck was breaking my heart. Well, now Heimerdinger is.
Yeah.
As much as I feel for Heimerdinger, I do want to counterbalance that a little bit by just saying that it's really telling that without any bribery, Jase is able to put this vote forward and unanimously the council votes to get rid of Heimerdinger.
Yeah.
I think it really reveals to us how out of touch Heimerdinger, the father of Piltover, has become. It makes me think of that opera scene that we saw a few episodes ago where Heimerdinger is enjoying the play. You know, he's chomping on his popcorn, he's clapping, he's scheering, while every other council member is scheming behind his back, and
he's totally unaware of it. It shows us, I think that his idealism, his optimism, while admirable, has made him blind to the truth of the actual politics that's happening around him. And it's kind of a tough reality check, right, Yeah, because like Heimerdinger here is asking everyone to take the high road. We have to go back to operating with
honor and integrity. But in a messy world like this one between Piltover and Zon like, the high road is not always the most effective road to get things done, and sometimes you do just have to get down in the trenches with everyone to make changes.
It's a nice little reversal because up until this point we've seen the youth kind of as the idealists. Yeah, they're the ones who are like, we need to fight back, we need to you know, exert our independence from Piltover and the adults, the father figures in this case, are the ones saying, you don't understand how the world works. There's a reason I have this agreement with the enforcers.
It's to keep things go paesetic between both sides. But now we have this little switcheroo and it's kind of a sad thing to see that happened to Himerdair.
Yeah, great point.
We're going to cut back to the water tower. Caitlin heals Violet with the potion, and then she looks around on the walls and she sees all these drawings and realizes that this is not just any old building. This is Violet's old house, and she sees Powder's name up there as well. Violet reveals that her parents were killed by you guessed it, enforcers, and that's what has led
to her distrust of Caitlin. Can't blame her. If you watch your parents get killed by someone in an outfit and then you see someone in that same outfit later, yeah, probably not going to be a ton of trust. We don't have any time to deal with them going through these feelings because there's some noise outside and they open the door. Boom, it's Soco and we see Huck cowering
behind him. Soco has paid Huck with some shimmer for their location, and there are a couple other vagrants around there, like zombies going for this shimmery, and he gives out a couple of vials. They start hulking out and advancing on Violet and Caitlin, and Violet and Silk are having this tit a tit, and Violet asks about Powder and Soko says, what are you talking about? I freed her,
and Soko says, you don't know your limits. This is exactly what got Vander killed and it's what drove your sister away, and it's why I'm here right now, and you're in bad shape yea. And the shimmer zombies start heading towards them, and then Violet's like, if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to shut down your empire. And then she and Caitlin knock the water tower over, which conveniently separates them from the zombies the vagrants perfectly,
and we get this huge climactic montage. Yeah, we see Jinks on top of the under city, lighting off the flare that Violet gave her back in episode three using the hex crystal. We get this beautiful animation of the smoke, which also happens in the next episode. But we have the memories of Milo and clagger around her as it's like the camera circling her holding the torch. Soko is furious that Violet has gotten way, sends his goons off, and then he mercilessly beats huck huh.
Painful to watch.
And then we see Marcus setting up his enforcers with floodlights on every bridge into Piltover, and we have just a really moving, energetic, fast montage of all these things happening.
A really great montage. I think the only thing that would have made it better would have been an imagine Dragon's song in.
The backdrop always but nah and the animal.
All right.
From the montage, we go back to our flashback from earlier in the episode. We join young Victor as he's bringing this box of shimmer flowers to feed Rio, but he walks in and finds Rio in agony, hooked up to all of these tubes and Cinch's lab. Victor is furious, but Cinched is condescending in his response. He says, I thought you understood the mutation must survive. I don't care about the animal. I care about the scientific experiment that's
taking place here. The camera then transitions, I love to this transition to kind of pans over, and we transition over to the same lab now in present day as Victor walks in and we see Rio, all these years later, still being kept alive in a giant test two bakta tank thing, and Victor says, too singed, I understand now.
We then cut to Silko, who returns to his office only to find that Jinx has strung up Savika from the rafters big rafters energy here from Jinks in this office, and she has scribbled the word liar on Sevika's.
Arm all over. I mean it's on Sevika herself. Yeah, right in this scene with the music and everything, Like Jinx is a true horror movie villain. Yeah, you and I famously do not watch horror movies, So maybe we're the wrong people to be making that connection.
Right, But do Spooky.
They really build her up in a way that every time she's not on screen we sense an incredible amount of dread from her, and every time she's introduced in the scene, we get that same dread. But the longer we sit with her in a scene, the more we see the parts of her that are vulnerable and the parts of her that we feel bad about but every time she is introed in a scene, I just feel like I'm terrified of her.
Oh totally.
I think we're seeing Jinks become more and more unhinged as the story goes on, as the season goes on, and it's becoming truly horrifying and heartbreaking to watch because this is still Powder, the adorable little girl we saw in episode one, and here is the path her life
is taken. It's scary and tough to watch. I also wanted to quickly comment on Victor and this flashback scene because he walks up to Stinged and he says, I understand now, And the way I read this is I think both Jason Victor have actually come to the same realization that you sometimes have to sacrifice the people and things you love in the name of progress. Times that is the only way to make progress. Jace has sacrificed a father figure, a mentor in Heimerdingger, he has played politics.
Victor here, of course, returning to Singed is foreshadowing some painful sacrifices that he will make in the next couple episodes.
We cut back to Jinks, whose flare burns out again. Beautiful animation on the smoke. I think earlier I said we would talk about it in the next episode. I was wrong. It's the same episode. This episode. That montage just felt like the end of an episode. This is like Lord of the Rings the third movie, where it's just like we have fourteen different endings to it. Yeah, this is the end of act two, and so they
really jammed a bunch in here. So that's I'm going to blame that on why I mistakenly said it was the next episode. But beautiful animation on the smoke, And just as she's about to give up, Violet appears. Jinx drops the hex crystal. We get a scene of the hex crystal dropping definitely not a Chekhov's gun moment, and Violet tries to explain to her why she was gone, and Jinks is trying to explain why she's changed. She had to change to survive, and Violet is like, it
doesn't matter, we're together. Caitlyn shows up and suddenly Jinks. That sets Jinks off. She turns cold and she's suspicious. Meanwhile, Kaitlyn realizes Violet's sister is Jinx. That's a problem. Violet's in the middle trying to calm them both down. Then Jinks starts to hear voices. Milo is talking to her, and Violet tells Powder She's like, Powder, it's okay, and
Jink says it's Jinks. Now, Powder fell down a well, stop talking to me like I'm a child, And she now thinks Violet is trying to trick her in order to get the crystal, but Violet says she's only here
for Powder, She's not going to abandon her again. Jinks's head is filling with more and more voices, but actually she might be hearing some real things too, because all of a sudden, the firelights arrive full force, and we get this incredible, incredible action scene with the firelights circling the sisters and Caitlin like a true army of green goblins.
Jinx is just unloading the gatling gun all over. Violet is literally bare knuckle brawling against people on gliders like they're flying in at her and she's punching them all the while Caitlyn is trying to keep the Heck's crystal from falling and being lost. One of the firelights eventually gets to drop on Kaitlyn and steals the crystal and then sets off a smoke flare to escape, and then a different firelight knocks out Violet and is about to kill her when the owl mask firelight stops him and
tells them to take Violet. Jinks charges at them, but they set off another cloud of smoke. They escape and the fog dissipates and Jinks realizes once again, unfortunately she is all alone, and that's where.
We cut to credits.
What a great ending to this episode, and what a great ending to this act is coming together of the sisters but then them being torn apart again by forces outside their control. Really powerful scene. There's so many layers to it. The one thing that really stood out to me was the miscommunication taking place right Jinks is suspicious of Caitlin, not believing that Violet is actually there to
help her, but maybe there for the Gemstone thing. Why is an enforcer being involved, because remember their sisters their parents are the same. Powder's parents were also killed by an enforcer. She has every reason to not trust an enforcer who just walks in on them.
And another layer to it is kind of the way.
That Violet is treating Powder here as well, because we see throughout the fight Violet looking over and witnessing not powder but Jinks, reveling in the destruction and firing her gatling gun, not caring who gets shot, what gets shot, who gets hurt, And that's horrifying. We can see in Violet's reactions that she's like, thrown off? Is this my little sister? Is this the kid's sister that I remember?
She's not recognizing how much they both have frankly grown and changed in the years that they've been separated, and their relationship has to evolve as well. It will not be the same parentified, older sibling and innocent, little mumbling young sibling relationship that it once was.
I mean, we got her talking to Silko and him saying, your sister, I've freed her. Your sister's different now, and Violet not believing it. Yeah, Like Violet still is thinking of her as the young little girl that she was having visions of in the house. Yeah, and that's not the case anymore.
Uh. Super powerful stuff.
One of my favorite episodes in this season for sure.
This is a great one.
All right, Aaron, Before we get into episode seven, I'm hearing some voices in my head, or it might just be the Firelight's attacking. We need to take a break, but don't go anywhere, dear listener.
We will be right back in just a minute.
And we're back.
Let's get into Arcane season one, episode seven, which is titled The Boy Savior.
I wonder who this one's going to be about.
This episode starts.
On a gorgeous grunge graffiti montage of the firelights, and then we cut to a captured VI who quickly learns that the leader of this pesky skateboarding group of punks is none other than her old buddy Echo, Remember him, m hmm. After a little bit of suspicious back and forth between the two, they reconcile with a hug. They're still old friends, and they clearly realize that they're on the same side.
Here elsewhere in the under City, Victor is in the lab with Singed, seeking his advice about what to do with his hex Tech ruin conundrum, and Singed offers him a solution. There's not a lot of turning back with this one, but he says, I can give you something that will help you survive the hex Tech confusion, and of course it's a modified version of Shimmer. We can tell how desperate Victor is, and and we know this
is not going to end well. We've seen it being used on people throughout yeah, the first six episodes, and we also know that Victor is going to do it.
Yeah, we're witnessing this sad and tragic fall of Victor. Here he takes the shimmer, seemingly with plants to use it if things get dire enough. Cinched also says a line here that struck a chord with me. He says love and legacy are sacrifices.
We make for progress.
And I found that really interesting because that's a different take on legacy, yeah, than we've gotten from people like Heimerdinger. Yeah, and a different take on legacy than we've actually literally witnessed over the course of this season, because we have watched Jace rise to be the golden Boy, to be the savior of this city. His star has risen, and he has been showered with love and been given this legacy for creating Hextech, for making progress in the field
of magic and science. And we see sort of the flip side of it too. Here in the under City, Cinched, with his experiments, has been ostracized from society. Clearly didn't get into the university to work alongside Himerdinger, and we see that he has a different take on it that for him, making progress requires total sacrifice of any expectation of love and connection with other people or to be remembered in any way.
I actually think Singed worked with Himerdinger. Supposedly in the lore.
Oh yeah, there is a throwaway line. Yeah, they seemingly like worked together, were partners, and then broke up.
So I think the better mirror to Jason's meteoric rise promoting progress being, like you said, given this shower of affection from the masses as well as from mel he has like this legacy piece locked up. Victor is the opposite. His partner is the one who doesn't get love. He's the one who ignored the lab tech that was trying
to flirt with him or legacy. He's the one who's gonna die, and he's worried that his accomplishments will be short lived because someone else is going to surpass him, and he doesn't live long enough for him to make enough of an impact that he will live on.
Yeah, we're seeing the two sides of progress and the two pads that pushing progress forward can lead you down.
Yeah.
Next week.
Cut to what is maybe the best montage in this entire show. Jase is in the Forge working through some stress and anxiety, shirtless, pex and six pack on full display. When Mel arrives to admire the view and seemingly like talk to him about stuff, They discuss what's bothering Jace, and Mel promises to stall the council so that Jays can figure things out. Right, He's got a line on his plate. He's worried about Victor, He's worried about the
under City, He's worried about hex Tech. He's worried about where the fuck Caitlin is.
He's got a lot to do.
Right, He's like, did I do twelve reps? Or am I on fourteen reps of the trice at pulled down here? And then when I'm doing all this, like have I hit back today yet? Which, clearly if you see him, he's hit back today. Jason, Jace, drop the piltover forge workout plan. Let us see what you're working with there. Yeah,
I don't know. You know, we don't know much about Jason's protein intake, but I assume it's pretty high based off of how jacked he's become since episode six, when I felt like he was just a normal dude, and now he looks like Deve Batista, you know. So good for you, Jason, Good for you, Bud.
Yeah.
Savika and Soco meet to discuss the situation with their crime lord syndicate in the face of these lockdowns. They're losing money and Soco is losing his grip and the Kem Barons are breathing down his neck. Meanwhile, Jinks is having a full on breakdown after her run in with Viola and Caitlin, and she's sitting in her again. We go back to her little home, her fort, whatever we want to call it, and she is talking to herself. Milo is talking to her. She's looking in the mirror.
She's like, oh, she's with a and Forrester. How could she be doing that all in front of this beautifully cracks mirror?
Do you get it? Aaron cracked mirror, cracked psyche.
Oh, like you see the multiple I just wanted to make sure you got that, the multiple persons in Oh my god, She's okay.
Just wanted to make sure.
Wow.
It's a very subtle bit of storytelling that has been featured in.
Every Sorry I was thinking. I was trying to imagine, like if Jay stood in front of that doing his tricep pull downs. Yeah, how many different views of the muscle would he get there? That would actually would be a good way to isolate different groups.
But right, I too, am still thinking about Jason Speck's.
Oh all right.
We cut next to Echo, who takes Violet to this absolutely gorgeous sanctuary that he has built for Shimmer addicts and Shimmer victims to start fresh, to start a new life. He shows Violet this stunning mural of all of his lost friends, and he tries to convince her that Powder is gone, only Jinx remains, and she's working for Silko because she wants to. She's not trapped by anything. Jinks
wants to work with Silko. Your sister's not the sister you remember anymore, But Violet is convinced that she can still reach the heart of her little sister buried somewhere deep inside.
Jinks and further emphasizing his point, We're looking at this mirror that is the friends they've lost, and it features Violet, who they thought was dead. I mean, when she wakes up, the first thing he says to her is you look pretty good for a dead girl. But it features Violet. It features Powder right there in the middle, even though
they know she's alive. She's just Jinks now. It features vander Benzo, Milo Clagger, and someone is up there adding an addition of the pink haired girl from episode four that Jinks saw thinking it was Violet and was not, but we lost her. We head back to the bridges heading it's Piltover and Jace is there reprimanding Victor for breaking the containment. He's like, how can I have this lockdown if my partner isn't following the rules. My partner is breaking lockdown?
Yeah.
Victor is clearly offended by Jason's elitism, and Jase attempts to apologize, but in the midst of trying to have this nice moment with his partner, someone chucks them all atov cocktail over the barrier and we get into like full on chaos.
You know, it is a little unclear to me how exactly things have escalated so much at the border. We've been so focused on the characters and their journey, Violet and Jinks and Silko, that we haven't spent a ton of time on the circumstances of the under City, right, and it feels like we got here really fast. Yeah, it feels like people are throwing Molotov cocktails at enforcers. I'm left wondering why. Yeah, you know, what exactly is happening?
Like are the lockdowns squeezing the Undercity economically? And like, I don't know, red prices, egg prices are skyrocketing and people are pissed. Or is this something else that's been brewing for a long time that's now finally been pushed over the edge by the lockdown.
Yeah.
I do feel like we got a better sense of the under City and their relationship to Piltover in the first act in episodes one through three. Since then, it's been so story focused on the individual characters. Our main look into the world of Piltover since episode four has been council meetings, which is not the best way to see what the heart of the people are like. If our view is of a government organization, that looks like
we're missing out on a lot. We know that the crime families are losing money because of their smuggling operations have lost some steam, but I would hope that the under City's base economy does not rely entirely on smugglers. I mean, that's entirely possible, But it does seem like we got to this place pretty quickly out of nowhere, I agree, all right.
Moving on back to our recap, Silko barges in on the assembly of frustrated Kenberans. They want to compromise with the topsiders. They're losing money and they just want to do whatever it takes to get back to their life of comfort and luxury and money still coming in.
Yeah, Silko, you fucked up. You lost the handle on.
It exactly, And of course they're blaming Silko for losing control of the situation. Silko very quickly reasserts why he's the top dog.
He reminds everyone.
Assembled with some deadly fumes from the minds who exactly it was that saved them from the depths of their pitiful lives. They were nothing before Silico came in and helped them rise to the stations they're at now. Let's not forget that, folks. It's a really great scene.
I do want to talk about Finn, who is the main member of the ken Baron Council who's standing up to Selco. I think he has the absolute best outfit, hands down, of anyone in this show. He has the coat slung over the shoulders, he's the half shaved head, he has the pinstripe skinny pants, gold trim vest with the bare chest. He's all tatted up, and I obviously want to see more of this character because his outfit is so good, his style is incredible. But also I
don't know this character. I don't know any of these Kem Barons, and I wish we had a little more context. I know that this is the beginning of the act, and so there's things we missed, but we've spent a ton of time with Soko lounging in his chair, being frustrated, being annoyed, and we haven't had much Soco crime Lord totally.
I want more scenes of him with this group. And Finn does come back, but the rest of the Kem Barons who are listed as Finn, Smeech, Cross, Rennie and Margo, and Smeech is the Ordol like chimer Dinger, but like a skin a hairless one, and Rennie is supposedly most likely Renata glask who's a Legal Legends character, which very funny. All of Renata's moves are named after financial terms like bailout style, take over. So I like that for a crime syndicate character, but I really wish we had seen
more crime syndicate scenes. Yeah, give me more of Silko actually bringing these people up and empowering them and we suddenly see, oh yeah, this person is in charge of imports and exports, this person is in charge of extortion. You know, give me more of that. I want to see him being a crime lord more and not just like a dude worried about Sevika and Jinx.
I agree.
I think this scene was just so good. It's one of the best scenes in this episode that you can't help but want more of it. And it's such a short lived scene, but it's so powerful it really stays with you.
I think.
Also one thing that makes this scene so powerful is this very subtle, understated bit of storytelling where we see the gas released by Sevika, and then Soka walks around the table still talking to everyone as people are like choking, and at the very end he like, I almost get the sense that he didn't even need to take that like final swig from the mask. He just did it to taunt.
I feel like it was very much here take my sloppy seconds.
That's exactly the vibe I got too. And I think that's such great storytelling because it shows us the viewer that these Ken Barons have gone soft in their more luxurious lifestyle, so that.
Silko has now given them.
Silko, on the other hand, clearly hasn't. The guess isn't affecting him as much, and he's still quite resistant to it or more used to it. I think it's just like a really lovely little touch here that tells us so much about the relationship.
Yeah, I would say Silko put on an effective scene to show them he's still in power.
He's a good showman. Yeah, gotta give him that.
We head back to Piltover and Mel is standing overlooking the city and she receives a mysterious letter which has her family crest on it. Oh, so this is a new twist. Someone who's been excommunicated from Naxis and from her family, they're reaching out. We cut back to the firelights, Caitlin is released by Echo, and then Jinx confront Soko about why he lied about her sister, and he's like, I was doing this to protect you. Violet is here with an enforcer and they're only here because they want
the Gemstone. They're not here for you. And we can see Jinks struggling with this. At first, it's this brutal scene with her. Soko's trying to administer the eye poke thing on his own. He can't do it, so Jink's in a rare moment of not hiding in the rafters, is hiding behind the chair and comes out and she is poking him in the cheek with it, and it's brutal. She's again, this is full on horror movie Jinx, and you see her start to unravel as he's like, your
sister is not here for you. I was trying to protect you from that. She's the one that left you. I'm the one that brought you in. I'm the one that took care of you. And he's like, I need you, I need you to complete my weapon and she's still torn. She administers the eye drop to him and she bolts it and oh, I just feel like every time I see Jinx, I am terrified of her. Yeah, and I feel bad for her.
And sad stuff.
We need to take a break, but we will be right back in just a minute, and.
We're back back at the sanctuary. Kate, who's been released by the firelights, convinces Echo to work together and to return the Gemstone to Jace. This is how we're gonna break this cycle of violence. This is how we're gonna bring peace to the Upper and Lower Cities. Meanwhile, Victor, Jace, and mel are in the lab trying to figure out the true danger posed by the lost Gemstone in the
under City. They're trying to unpack the grenade that Marcus had given to j one grenade, one grenade from Look at this grenade.
Do you think that they could harness XSEC based off this one grenade?
They're making a lot of leaps of logic here. Yes, yes, mel in fact wants to preemptively prepare for war against the under City by creating hex tech weaponry. The one thing that Heimerdinger has been warning us about this whole damn season, and the energy in this room, for me at least very much was giving like there's WMDs in the under City that aren't actually there, and we need to over retaliate to a danger that we aren't actually sure is even there.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's a lot.
Of it's not there are WMD's in the under City. It's there might be. Maybe it's impossible they have the tech right that they could potentially make it. So we got to put a stop to it. Now, we have to end it.
Right, Lockdown's weapons, crush the under city. You know, it's obviously in an inappropriate scale of response to the danger that's actually posed. But it shows us what people in Piltover think of the under city, right right, It shows us that class device.
And both Victor and jas are like, no, we didn't come here do all this research. We didn't harness hextech to make weapons. What Yeah, I kind of remember you guys making Hulk hans ulcans. Yeah right, you like showed it off as one of the first things, and Heybridingo was like, nah, no, this is a weapon, right, guys, come on.
A doc doc laser beam.
Yeah yeah, what No, it's not a weapon. It's just so that I can mow the lawn really easily.
Calm down, start start with a hexstack alarm clock.
Guys, what are we doing?
Make an Apple watch that runs off hexstach so I don't have to charge it every fucking night.
Or some lamps for the council building.
Yes, oh my gosh, anything except hulk hands and a doc doc laser beam.
This is wild to me.
This really stood out because I'm maybe now here in episode seven, kind of realizing like, maybe these dudes are dumber than I thought. Maybe they actually don't know how the real world operates, and they might just be young and idealistic enough to be kind of ignorant to the realities of how societies and cultures and people actually work.
Justice for Heimerdinger exactly.
I'm starting to think I'm on Heimerdinger's side here, honestly, But I do love that this scene shows us in Jase and Victor, this young, hot headed idealism being confronted by what is often a very messy and complicated reality. We saw that with Vander and Vai, we saw that with Jas and Heimerdinger, and for me, it kind of makes me think, Okay, maybe our elders aren't all just the cowards and hypocrites that we accuse them of being. Perhaps they do know a little bit of what they're
talking about. Maybe they do know that real life is very complicated and very messy, regardless of how idealistic you might.
Be or maybe there's just jealous that we have Hulkhans. That's right in the laser guns.
So smash smash baby.
Yeah. We cut to Victor who is preparing himself. He's put his brace on. He's going to inject himself with the shimmer. He does and he activates the Heck's tech runs. We see Heimerdinger now in this you know Cloak sneaking across the blockade by boat on the river. Violet and Caitlin and Echo are heading into Piltover, trying to sneak through the blockade themselves, and Violet stops and is like,
I have to go back for Powder. I can't leave her again, and jinks lo and Behold is like up perched on the top of the bridge like Batman and has a telescope and like looking down and sees Violet embracing Caitlin and hug her goodbye. She's overcome with jealousy. And then we cut to Marcus who catches Caitlin at an Echo as they're trying to come across. He opens the floodlights and he has the gun to Caitlin. He's
getting ready to shoot her. He's torn a little himself, but he has already shot Echo and then oh, this huge swarm of firelights shows up right the animal and they start landing on the n They land on Marcus's gun, click into place, and they explode. Wow wow, and Marcus, of course, you know, the explosions go off. Marcus has the gall to be like, hey, Caitlyn, oh my god, I know I just had you had gunpoint. I know I just shot your buddy you were traveling with, but would you please tell my daughter?
And he dies. Huh.
I mean I feel for him, but I also I don't view for him. This was inevitably going to be the end for Marcus. Yeah, the choices he made in life were going to end in this way, in one shape or another.
He was in two deep.
He was Okay, let's finish off this episode, because my goodness. Jinx arrives on the bridge after the explosions and she takes the gempstone.
She looks up.
She sees Vi helping Caitlyn get up after that explosion. Again, that feeling of jealousy. She's overcome with it, and she begins firing on them with her gatling gun and anger at that very moment, Echo on his cool ass hoverboard, jumps in to the fray. He's fine, he survived the bullet earlier from Marcus and begins to battle Jinks as Uy and Caitlin make a run for it. This is simply, in my opinion, simply one of the most iconic fight sequences ever animated.
Like it's just so beautiful.
The esthetic, the music, the pacing, the emotional thrust of it all is just so so good. Echo and Jinks face off. Echo is actually able to overcome Jinks, but she then sets off one of her grenades, seemingly blowing both of them up, and that's where.
The episode ends. Yeah, really brilliant stuff.
I mean, this final sequence has so many layers to it, Like we see these flashbacks to their childhoods in that grunge spray paint style that we saw at the top of the episode, and we see how this confrontation these two kids have played out time and time again when they were kids, when they were just playing with paintball guns and fa armor, and we see how Echo knows how Jinx is going to react and knows how to overcome her in this moment because of those childhood memories
and the playing that they did. Now becoming a life and death situation. The layers of like emotional storytelling at play here, just pointing us back towards their childhood and then making it clear what the stakes are. These two people are no longer playing and the emotional and physical stakes.
Going to be higher.
I loved it. I could watch this scene over and over again. Sometimes I do like just YouTube this scene just to watch it again.
I think it's a great scene. I disagree a little because I don't think we got any scenes with these to his kids in the first three episodes.
No, we did it.
Yeah, why did we spend time? I mean, I know it was important for Powder to stand up to Milo and do the shooting gallery scene against him, But what if we had a scene of her playing with Echo, recreating this that we then revisit here I in that moment when Echo has defeated her and he looks down at her and she seems a little vulnerable. We got scenes with Echo and Violet. We got scenes with Echo
and Clagger and like them showing their friendship. We did not get Echo interacting with Powder, and so it was. I loved what it was trying to do, and it is a beautifully animated thing, and I really like this dangerous switching between them as a young adults and them as children, and like, you see her as an adult shooting a real gun at this kid, which switches into Echo as the adult, and it's a really beautifully done.
But I wanted them to have had this scene in the first three episodes, or at worst give me a flashback of them playing at the beginning of the episode and then get into it, because I really felt like you told me that they had a relationship, yeah, but you didn't show it to me at all.
I think that's an absolutely fair point. We get very little of Echo in those early episodes when they're all kids, so to have them come back here there is less emotional resonance with Echo because we don't have history with him like we do with all the other characters.
Also, to Violet real quick, yeah, at first, she's like, hey, Echo, Caitlin, I'm going to stay in the under city because I can't leave my sister behind again. And then suddenly she's like, oh, here is my sister. Hey, Echo, you go handle her. I'm going to take Caitlin. I'm going to leave my sister behind. Actually, after all, it felt like she had a quick turn around there she saw Kaitlyn was in danger and was like, all right, yeah, you carried me, now I'll carry you.
That's another great point.
Yeah, you would imagine that Violet would be the one telling Echo, go help you get out here exactly. I need to face my sister here on this bridge right now, rather than rushing to Caitlin and running off with her. But I think that is something that is going to uh not help Jinx's feelings about Caitlin and Violet, that
Violet has chosen Caitlin over her in this situation. All right, Wow, a long one today, Yes, two really great episodes though, Yes, and bridging the end of Act two and the start of Act three.
That's right.
Stick around next week we're going to get to the finale of season one and on tomorrow's episode, Jason Rosie will be back to celebrate Halloween with you, and then on Friday we will be having our Agatha season one reactions with the final two episodes releasing. Right, that's our episode. Thank you everyone for listening.
To see you next week, Justice rhimerdgger.
X. Ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kisumsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman.
Our supervising producer is.
A Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez. Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi A disco moderata