Today's episode contains spoilers for Arcane episodes eight and nine and the entirety of season one, because that's the entirety of season one. Hi, folks, 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, except we have a little bit of a reversal here. Instead, today we have Rosie here to help us cover at the end of Arcane Season one. Rosie, how are you doing?
I am so excited to be here. You guys have been killing it with these extras episodes, and I'm just so excited to be able to be a talk about the last couple of episodes and also tease a little bit about season two.
Oh yeah, because spoiler alert, you've seen the first.
I've seen the first episode.
I got to watch it at Netflix on a massive cinema screen and it was oh cool, unbelievable, so I'm very excited to talk a little.
About that too.
That would be exact a boo. How do you watch this? What screen are you watching on?
I watch it on a mid range fifty five inch Visio TV with a mid range Visio soundbar, and it's still incredible.
I to watch it on like a five years ago fifty five inch Visyo TV, but you know, it looks beautiful.
It does, and it sounds spectacular too. Well, before we get into today's recaps, Rosie, we wanted to ask you a couple of questions just so the listeners can also get caught up on what your relationship is with this show and with League of Legends and with everything around it. So tell us.
I am definitely a rke newby AKA. I didn't really have any connection or understanding to what League of Legends was other than the fact that I love video games and I followed video game news and I knew that it was like a very popular competitive video game. Also, one year, when I was at LA Comic Con, which they have at the Staples Center Akacrypto dot Com Arena next to it, they were doing a huge League of
Legends events. You know, it was actually unconnected to Comic Con incredibly, and I think it was actually they were screening the people playing it competitively. Yeah, it was esports basically, and I just I always thought that the designs were really cool and it looked great, but it's not the
kind of game I played. So then when the show came out, I was just blown away by the visuals in the trailer, and I remember we were having a lot of conversations like, oh, this feels like Spider Verse level choices.
That was a Booze first comment. It was like m the first time he watched was it the trailer? Was it the first episode?
I forget when I watched the first episode. Yeah, I had got the same feeling I did as watching Spider Verse for the first time.
Yeah, it feels that groundbreaking.
Yes, groundbreaking, the animation, the music, everything coming together in a way that I felt like I really hadn't seen in an animated TV show of this scale.
Yeah, it's pretty incredible to see American animation made for Netflix of this high caliber that doesn't ape what we know of manga and anime, which have been doing these complex, more adult storytelling on screen and off for a long time. But the way they use music in this show, I do think really makes it stand apart. I don't really know any other show that uses music that way. It almost feels like a musical to me, so that was really striking.
And also, once I started to watch the show, I just.
Love like a star crossed relationship. I love some kids that I can be like rooting for, like I want them to be friends, like I need them to join and come back together. And also like the lore of this show is incredible, so I'm definitely still learning the law, but every time I watch it, I just feel like it's such an unbelievably well built world, and I absolutely love that it's become one of Netflix's most popular shows with people who've never played the game, right right, I think that's huge.
Yeah, it's interesting you talk about like having star cross lovers, because I actually think of this show other than Viyan Caitlin, we don't have a ton of romance. I personally am on the Jace Erasure train, so don't I don't recognize.
I think the Discord agrees with you that jace Erasia is with pro jase Erasia.
But it's a lot of parent and child relationships and we get We really get into that in these final two episodes with Mel's mom coming, and we see like this entirely different. We've had a lot of strong fathers, I think, and strong being both a word for their power as well as like their and I think Mel's mother is strong, but not necessarily in a caring sense.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So I think this is like other than maybe like you know, Last of Us or some other There are definitely other TV shows that are focused on like a parent and child relationship, but there's a lot in this that I really see from that.
I think the familial aspect of this show is very interesting, and I think it's why people connected so much with the show, even though it's completely out there and it's set in this world you might not understand anything about. Yeah, but I think we all have fucked up relationships with our families, and I think this show is very appealing in that sense, especially because also you don't get a lot of strong, caring male relationships in TV or film
at all. And it actually it's funny you bring up The Last of Us because I think there is some of that complexity that that season left us with is in Kane. That idea of like, what would you do for your child, what would you allow them to do, would you support or be complicit in, or what would you do to protect them? And I think those are infinitely relatable questions. And I also just think the show
looks so good and I love the idea. For me, it makes me so excited to imagine that there's kids out there who like this will be like their first animated show, and that's going to make them just want to be an animation, want to make animation, want to watch animation, And I think that's amazing, especially in the face of AI and everything that we're dealing with right now.
Couldn't agree more.
And I know the show's second season's not out yet, but along the lines of like a beautifully animated show, it's well known I think that one of my favorite shows growing up was the X Men animated series. That's what got me into comics and everything, and that of course has a famous fall from Grace in its final season where the animation budget is cut, they have drastically different art styles for like the last six episodes or whatever. I mean, we haven't seen all of season two, but
hopefully this just stays hot. The whole time.
I also think that there's something very powerful and good about finishing a show on your own terms or a story.
I was just going to bring that up.
Yeah, it's obviously this has been such a huge success for Netflix. They could have said We're going to do six seasons, but actually they said, we're going to do two. There will be more stories in this world, but let's finish while we're on a high and hopefully my fingers are crossed. That also means that the animators were able to do it in like a more sustainable way, rather
than constantly being on crunch thinking about what's next. And obviously we need that space for animators to breathe and to be able to be creative to bring a show like this to life, Like, especially in the finale, I feel like, and we'll get into this, but like they really pushed the boundaries of different styles of animation that you can use together and that Spider verse element where you feel like, oh, I'm watching something that has never been done before.
Definitely, Okay, Rosie, one last question before we dive into these final two recaps of the final two episodes. Thoughts on Imagine Dragons.
Look, I'm not I'm just gonna be honest. I'm not a huge Imagine Dragons fan. But you know what, the reason my voice sounds like this, and it sounded like this on the podcast all week is I went to the When We Were Young fest in Vegas and I screamed my lungs out to like my Chemical Romance and take your Mac Sunday, and they use. So I'm not here to judge anyone's musical tastes, but I am a
little bit old for Imagine Dragons. But you know what, my mom loves Imagine Dragons, my nephew loves Imagine Dragons, and I do think that in the context of this show, I feel like it does bring those big emotional beats. And I love the way they use music in this show so much that it becomes like a part of.
The world, especially in these last two episodes too.
All right, should we jump into episode eight?
Let's do Let's do it all right.
We open on a flashback to Mel's childhood in an empty throne room with her mother. This is like the end of a conquest, and two Noxi and guards come in with a young female prisoner and Mel. This young girl suggests they show her mercy, but her mother says, you can't do that. You're being weak. This is the
time for you to show your strength. Here we are again with strength, and for anyone who's a fan of novelty T shirts, we almost get two wolves howling at the moon, but instead she says, if you want to last in this world, you must learn to be both the fox and the wolf.
Hmm. Now we cut back to the bridge that we left off in the last episode. Among the wreckage, Silko rushes forward when he finds Jinx's body. He's very obviously concerned for his daughter's life here. Caitlin meanwhile opens up the container that used to contain the gemstone, only to learn that it's missing. Jink still has it. Violet and Silko lockeyes from across the bridge as Violet watches Silko
carry her sister away in his arms. Later on, Jace sees the aftermath of the destruction on this bridge and loses his lunch and frankly, I can't blame him.
It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad, I think.
Also a poignant scene because of the context of this episode. In the next Jace, you don't know war is something that Mel tells him in this episode later on, and we see here he doesn't know war. This is perhaps like the first dead body he's ever seen in his life, and he loses his lunch over it, so we kind of see that he's very inexperienced with this type of violence. Later on, Violent at Caitlyn sneak into Caitlyn's house and
are caught by her parents. In a bit of a rom calm moment, Caitlyn, while she's getting patched up by her concerned father, convinces her mother, missus Kierman, who remember is a member of the Council of Piltover, to give her a chance to report to the council. She thinks she can sway them and convince them to work something out with the under City.
I think this is a really good moment and an example of why this show is so great because you mentioned it, but it's like a romcom moment. But it's also again, who hasn't snuck into someone else's house and.
Got on court by their parents.
Even in this why old steampunk world, the writers see these moments that add so much humanity, and I think that is why when it comes to the Gemstones and the outrageous steampunk weapons. The thing at the heart of it is that you care about these characters, and also there's moments when you remember kind of how young they are.
Yeah, from one concerned father to another. Soilco bringing Jinks to Singed just in agony, and he wants Sings to try to save her, and sins just like, I can do this, but this is going to be a very demanding process. And he says, sometimes death is a mercy. Are you prepared to lose her? And Singed comes up behind Soco gives them the old whatever knockout thing he has in a vile He's like, this is for your
own sake. Yeah, you don't want to see this, right, Yeah, And Singe once had a daughter of his own, he says, and he knows how difficult this is going to be. Ah little foreshadowing there.
I loved that so much because the show continues to do something that is so brilliant. The villains are also tragic characters that the show somehow makes you feel for. Silko during this entire scene is genuinely concerned for Jinks, and it's very endearing. We see the fatherly side of Silko and not just the under city mobster side of Silka that we've seen all season, and then on the flip side, Cinch saying I used to have a daughter.
I know how difficult a moment like this can be and you don't want to see what's going to happen next, speaks volumes to his character and it makes me wonder, like, what, Cinch, what is his backstory? In my head canon? It makes me think was there a world in which Singeed had a daughter that succumbed to some sort of disease that he was never able to cure and thus his obsession we see throughout this season with keeping things alive and pushing science forward at all costs.
That's a great read also as well.
It really reminds me of the conversation around the Penguin at the moment, which is this idea of like, the Penguin doesn't have a good hero for you to root for. The Penguin just has multiple different, complicated villains, but they.
Manage to make you care about them.
And I think that this is something that this show has done super well. And you kind of have to because obviously there is a Jinx fandom, and if there's always been a fandom for the darker side or the resistance, the rebellion, whichever way you see them. And I think they do such a good job of not just being like, this is why this person is, why they are how they are. It's like, you know, in Shrek, what do they say is like peeling an onion. You know, there's
different layers. I feel like they actually do a really good job.
I think the onion metaphor is actually originally from Shrek and only from Shrek.
I had a Shrek joke I was gonna put in later, like the other option.
Is like parfe, you're just like different layers, you know.
But I do think that is really well done in this show, where someone that you think you already know all of their motivations penultimate episode and suddenly it's like boom, you realize that actually everyone and you know it's that thing. Every single person is a universe. Every single person has
is the hero of their own story. Every single person has five hundred other people that have impacted their lives or that they will come into contact with, and we can forget that, but this show doesn't let us forget it. And I think that's part of why it's so well received because the story and the writing keeps peppering in these little surprises and bits of humanity that make the conflict at the center like way more complicated.
Yeah, I mean, one of the things I mentioned last episode when we were discussing the Ken bearons, I wished we had had more time spent with Silko's CD underworld connections and his role as this criminal mastermind, because instead most of Silko's scenes are with Jinks and his love and care for Jinks, to the point that one of my questions later on that I'll bring up is kind of about the villains and the show. And again we're basing the show off of video game, where the villains
are characters you could play us. So there's gonna be some people in the fandom who are like, Singed is my main character mostly so I want Singe to have good screen time and a good storyline, et cetera. So I could totally see why that might also have led them from a story perspective to want to include these characters in as favorable of a light as possible.
That's a good point. Returning to our recap. In the next scene, Finn, the incredibly well dressed Finn, stepping right out of Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven and into this universe, pays a visit to Sivika, and he is here to try and play to her dissatisfaction with Silko and the obvious dedication that Silko has towards Jinks. He has been very forgiving of many of Jinx's faults all season, and the starting to wear a thin on the rest of
his partners down here in the under City. Back at Piltover, Mel's mother and Bessa arrives and breaks the news to Melt that her brother had died. He crossed the wrong person and ended up on the wrong side of a sword, seemingly, and Invessa is here to check in about hex Tech weapons.
She's been hearing some rumors. She's here to figure out what's going on and why hex Tech is being used for weaponry and whether or not it might be useful to her personally, and also maybe to like say I to Mel or whatever.
Anyway, that's definitely secondary.
This is definitely a mom who shows up when she needs something.
She's like, so, yeah, she's there to taste the local cuisine. I think that's very like.
She's just like so your brother died, So now I guess I have to just put up with you.
You're the leftover.
I did want to bring up a bit of a confusing moment here in this exchange between Mel and her mother and Vessa clearly is like Hextech is going to be used for weapons. Weapons can't be unmade, They're always used, is a line that she says to Mel at some point, and Mel is seemingly pushing back. She's like, no, no, no, Hextech. I only backed Jas and Hextech to help Hiltover and
the citizens of the city. I'm not pro making weapons, but I feel like episode or two ago she was like, hey, Jase, maybe we should make weapons from x Tech.
There's a lot of maybe.
It's like maybe she just can't help but want to contradict her mom and have kind of argument with them. I think it's less to do with what she really believes, is more about what she wants to like reveal.
I think you're spot on. That was my sort of take on it too, because otherwise it's like a huge flip flop of the character motivations. But I think this is very much just a reaction to her mother to fight against it.
And I think mel was most concerned with making weapons because she could make money off it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know. She was necessarily like, oh, if my mom's here, do I have to give her the family discount? And then suddenly like, yeah, cuts into my profits a little bit. I don't know. Right, we get I apologize that Joelle is not here, but Caitlin and Violet share
a moment on the bed. Violet remembers her childhood with Powder, beautiful yin Yang imagery here with the two of them mirroring each other, and Violet does this great little monologue talking about when they were younger, and she was like, we would play monsters and we would each try to scare the other one, and we'd be bigger and bigger monsters to scare each other. And if my monsters got too scary for Powder, I would tell her that I'd
chase them away. I would protect her, and I'd say, no monster is going to get you as long as I'm here, And she says, but then a real monster showed up and I just ran away. And we do get a very intimate soft stroke on the cheek and that's it, and that's it, so so Jace and mel get like fireworks over cutting blood and hextech mixing when they get intimate, and Caylen and Violet get a single stroke on the cheek.
That gal pals Aaron, Yeah, you don't know.
After this, they went and played the girlfriend's board game.
Sleepover, Sleepover, hunk Phone or whatever. I think part of the reason that I am so affected by this show is like, I just love my sister so much, my sister Amber, and like, when I watch this show, I
find this so much more tragic than any romance. You know, those kind of stories have been done so many times, but I think seeing this story of someone that you're so connected to, that you have this bond with that you protected each other, and then having as a viewer to like imagine how it feels when that's torn away, that definitely gets me. I think they do such a good job with it. But also I'm like, no, be friends,
be friends. I know, I don't want to see this like you're okay with each other now, so your sisters be friends.
Don't do it, right.
I think that's what all of us are hoping for watching this show, and the entertaining part of the tragic part is watching that not happen.
I think that's another thing that's pretty amazing is when you have a show where you know what's going to happen because you understand even vague what the lore of the game is, or the story or the comic book or Romeo and Juliet, for example, Bas Lemon's Romeo and Juliet.
At the end of that movie.
I've seen it probably one hundred times, but there's a second where I always just wish, as hard as I can that they'll see each other wake up. I think that is the sign of a really fantastically told story. So like, we're watching this and we're all rooting for that, but we know that that's never going to be that simple for Ry and Jinks, you know. And I think that the fact that we can still root for it even knowing the outcome is just a really big compliment how good the show is.
Absolutely yeah.
I'm a huge musical theater person, and one of my favorite shows is Hades Town. Oh yeah, of course is Retelling of Orpheus and Youriticy And there was an interview where they're talking about Anias Mitchell, who wrote it, was talking about we know how this ends and there's still that moment when Orpheus is about to turn around that you think maybe he won't, won't this, Maybe he'll get and we'll do it, And then it starts over again, and it's just like, what a heartbreaking thing, because you
know it's going to happen, but you've convinced yourself that maybe it won't.
Yeah, maybe it won't.
Well, we move on from that very touching and heartfelt scene between Caitlin and v to Jinx having the worst night of her life. She's having shimmer pumped into her veins by Singed. Singed is injecting her over and over again, and throughout it all she is hallucinating images of Violet and Caitlyn taunting her. At one point she mistakes Singed for Caitlin. This is a horrible experience, clearly for Jinks. We then cut to a little bit later. Silko wakes up,
the drugs wear off. He rushes to the operating table and he sees blood everywhere, and he confronts Singed with a blade. What did you do to her? And Sin says, I saved your life. From there we join We joined our guy Heimerdinger. What is he doing? What's he doing this is the most confounding part of these last two episodes for me. Heimerdinger is wandering through the under City. He is shocked to find it lawless and the citizen's unhappy.
Really, I'm like, bro, just listen to any one person. Just just have a Conbob, all right.
This is a little able us here. Heimerdinger is incredibly short, his legs are very small. It takes him a lot longer to get to the under City, and we've seen how much Parkour went into getting down there, So I don't know, I'm going to give him a break because he's got that mustache.
I feel like maybe he could have had some other people going down there for him, bringing up, you know, information and kind of messengers. I don't think he's doing his due diligence.
If this is like a surprise to.
Him, Yes, absolutely agreed, especially considering you're the father of Peltover founded this city. I'm saying, you don't know what the how the other half is living. You've never crossed the bridge. It's absolutely wild to me. But he is shocked by this experience. He even meets this young girl who gives him some gears and spare parts that she found. He turns it into a cute little top for her before her mother rushes her away. Don't talk to strangers
in the under City, clearly. Heimer Dinger then stumbles upon a firelight board one of the hoverboards, and it turns out it's Echoes. Echo has been hiding underneath the bridge after the explosion. He's injured, he's sprained his ankle. He's having a tough time figuring out how he's going to get back home, and so heimer Dinger and Echo team up. Himerdinger's going to hope that go get home.
I have no good transition to this because we just went in this incredible scene in the under City, and now we go to am Bessa spread Eagle in the spa with her tasty tree behind her, very witcher of her, Yes, oh my god, yes, very. She's also she is the most Garald have all the characters in this show? Yeah, sure, definitely Garalt Gerald, Gerald, Gerald, Do.
We all three of us say it three different ways?
How do you say it?
Gerald? Of Rivia?
I thought it was Garl? Yeah, what did I say?
You said?
Garlt? Stay tuned for an extra's episode where we all just try to pronounce names incorrectly, clearly, and Bessa is sitting in the spa, enjoying the perks of the city, and she's lecturing to Jace, but she he's very uncomfortable. He understands who she is. He's trying to be polite, but she has absolutely no qualms about striding out of
the water, completely nude and threatening Jace. And I love this scene, in particular the backdrop it's set against, with this painting of an army all with their spears pointed in to this exact spot that Jace is standing.
From there, we cut to Caitlin and Vibe and the council. They're about to present to the council. Caitlyn makes her pitch. She says, look, I went to the under city. Violet showed me around. People are sick, they're starving, they're ravaged by Shimmer. They're under the thumb of warlords like Silko. And Silko is out here on a mission to make Zoon independent. He wants to split the city into Jace immediately wants to go down their guns blazing. He wants
to meet force with force. Stupid Mel trying to calm him down, urges him to reconsider again. She says Jace, you don't know war like I do. War should be our absolute last resort. So she proposes that we negotiate with Silko. We got to find a diplomatic solution here, which triggers Violet. She is not interested in negotiating with a man who killed her father and ruined her life and took her sister, and she explodes on the council
and storms out of the room. Caitlyn rushes after Violet and tries to console her in the rain.
In the rain, very romantic.
Very romantic. They're both soaking wet. But we tried. It wasn't enough. Top side and bottom oil and water. That is what Violet tells Caitlin. This isn't going to happen. We were foolish to even try. Why did we think anyone would listen to us? Where incompatible? The top side the under city are incompatible. It's never going to work out. Caitlin obviously heartbroken by this, but Violet says, just forget about me, go back to your giant home and your
rich parents. It was never meant to be between us.
Yeah.
I love this because it's such a great moment of well, there's no easy answers. Yeah, you know, I think everybody who watches this scene there's probably at least five or six different reactions of like, oh, well I would do this, and they should do that. I think something they do in these final two episodes it's really smart. Is they really zoom in and go on to like a micro level of this relationship between Caitlin and Vi, and that
is what your focus is on. And then when everything explodes, you realize that there's so much you know, you've been sucked into this relationship between these two characters that you care that you almost think about the fate of the city as like secondary. Yeah, but at the same time, Caitlin and VI's struggles are like representative of the city.
So I just think it's such a clever scene in a clever way to make us almost forget about the macro of the show, which and then when you get to the finale, in the final moments, you realize what everything's going to change. Yeah, there's no coming back.
And to your point, Rosie, their relationship also exists within the context of the city, within the critical context of the city. So as much as you want to forget and live in like a fairy tale world where people like Caitlin and Vi can be together. The show doesn't let you forget that oil and water, you and I come from different universes. This is very Romeo and Juliet.
This is just not going to happen because of the world we live in, and unless things dramatically change, people like us can never actually live happily ever after.
Yeah, it's a great storytell I do kind of wish that the show gave us one character that could vocalize a little more eloquently the desire to keep the two parts of the city separate, because right now we just have it as kind of the straw man, like we know segregation is bad, we should be helping the under city.
And so it almost seems like, okay, yeah, we have these cartoonish members of the council who you know, are eating the nuts, and then he gives the councilman for his birthday like an open bag of nuts that he's allergic to. These guys are all idiots. Yeah, they're the only ones that are like, no, we have to oppress the under city. There's no one that I care about who's of that mindset. And yet it still feels like
such this mood within Piltover. I mean, Heimerdinger's already down in the under city, Caitlin has been wanting to visit, and she's there fighting with Violet. Nobody is actively trying to prevent this from happening on that side that we care about, and so it just feels a little I do wish we had one person who was vocalizing that a little.
Yeah, but maybe the reason that they can't have a character like that is because there's just no good reason for it. Yeah, do you know what I mean, Like how it is in real life where it's like nobody can really explain why something should be segregated because they would sound like a cartoonish idiot villain because it shouldn't be.
I would say, as like, from a storytelling perspective, it could be pretty cool to have almost like some populist who is vocalizing that and trying to rally people around.
So I could definitely see a way it could fit in.
Yeah. I think it's also a combination of war, Like we won the war. These people were our enemies at one point, and we're not trying to get in another fight, so let's make sure that we keep them beneath us. But also I think it's also a bit of like we forgot about them, like we beat them up, and then they just kind of exist over there, and we can pretend they don't exist because we won and now they're not our problem, and all the economic and technological
prosperity that we have we don't have to share. We get to just ignore these people. And because of that, people like Silko and many of the under city residents we see singed suffer because they don't at the same sort of amenities and benefits that someone had Piltover might. Yeah, so I think it is a natural, just like result of a war progressing into stagnation, progressing into ignoring a certain group of people.
Someone who is definitely not stagnating. We cut to Victor, who has a brand new leg thanks to his hex Tech and shimmer combination, and he starts walking and then he ditches the cane and he's walking without the cane, and then he breaks into a full on forest gum sprint and he's going for it. Hot Lab assistant Sky is building up the courage to talk to Victor. Now
you know, she has her own little experiment. She wants to work on and he's inspired her, but she walks in on him performing new horrendous Hextech shimmer body modifications, and suddenly the hex Tech Corps is pulling him in and he can't escape it, and she goes to try to help him, and oh my gosh, why do the good die young? She winds up being vaporized and up to find her glasses.
Horror fur Ip to the Hot Lab assistance Rip. I do mean it, but I think that it's very complex to have a technology that essentially can be seen as like a cure to a disability. And I'm always slightly nervy when I'm like somebody who is using a cane and then suddenly they're running like magical disability cure.
But I think something they.
Do here that is really scary and necessary is they then show that actually this isn't some great thing that's completely safe, Like you're taking risks, you're making a choice, and that choice ends up with this like really horrible aftermath, which I found to be very sad and moving, but also like a really interesting side effect.
Yeah, that's a great point. Next we cut back to Jase. He's back in the Forge.
He just so you know, we've organized the recap so that a boot can do all the thirsty bits on Jase.
So yeah, that's that's why we're here, right, this is why we're here.
I'm proud of you.
I'm proud of you.
Fortunately he's got his shirt on this time around, now pull up. No pull ups. No female gaze in this scene for sure, just Jase angry in the forge, working on stuff, clearly crafting the hammer we will shortly see at the end of this episode. Violet shows up to offer him a way to fight back against Silkoe. You want to actually do something about this. You're the only one who is talking reasonable at that council meeting. Let's go you and me. We can take care of this.
Violet reaches for the apparently non weaponized the gloves that are not weaponized, gloves that are only meant for mining and crushing rocks and not human skulls.
And they don't look at all familiar or like this is an important moment for her character, right, she.
Puts that glove on. She comments how someone she once knew had similar power gloves like this that were meant for fighting, not for mining rocks, and she suggests Hey, Jace, you and me. We hit him fast, we hit him hard, we hit him wear it hurts. Let's go take out the Shimmer manufacturing facilities and that is how we take down Soilco. And she raises one gloved hand and says, we got a deal, pretty boy. And I love this scene.
Not only was it really gorgeous, just a lot of really beautiful shots and lighting in this scene, but I also just liked thematically that it took place in a forge because we're watching two of the most hot headed and most brash characters in this season teaming up and deciding to do something super hot headed and brash, and the temperature is heating up.
So Jase agrees and jas his hammer. An entire army of enforcers arrive at one of the manufacturing facilities. One kid breaks free to sound the alarm and we see the guards awaken and the guards are these shimmer infused people that are in hyper armor with Deadpool fist blades, and this is X Men origins Wolverine Deadpool, not the
New Deadpool. And then these really fast flying armored guards are coming in and then Violet shows up with her fists and she starts tag teaming these big daddies with Jace, and in the fight, Jace accidentally shoots the young boy who had hit the alarm and he falls a terrifyingly long way down to his death. The guards are all dead, the fight is over. Jace is one, Violet is one. But Jace realizes that he is. He looks around and
he's invaded a factory full of children. So I guess, on the one hand, it's not like he killed the only kid that was there.
He just.
Killed one of many kids.
Yes, one of many. So one of my big ripes again as someone who is not a Jace apologist. So he's just spent his time studying and then on the council. Every once in a while he goes and does some pull ups and he's suddenly like the best fighter.
You don't think there's been enough training montages.
Yeah, what if instead of them in the forge, what if Jace was at a punching bag and Violet comes and meets him there or something. It just it was also like in terms of a video game, both of these characters are full glass cannons. They have no armor, no protective things whatsoever. I guess like a hammer that also is a bazooka. Like, maybe you just deal with things at range, you don't need a ton of armor. But it was a little much for me to be like, here these.
Aaron was saying, this was very badly thought out.
Where was the strategy, right right?
Yes, well you know as well, maybe you don't really need armor. Maybe it was just a fluke because they were actually like attacking a place full of children. They didn't really need a arm off. Right, that's bleak, Right, it's bleak, but true, Right.
None of those baby punches were ever gonna get through.
Yeah, like, oh that is so so so bleak. They should have thought this through. But again, I think this is like one of the best things about this show is that complexity of like, hey, yeah, you're gonna root for them, They're gonna go take down on the Shim effactory?
Did it do?
But again, things are never that simple. Actually, the people who are working the Shimer factory are child enslaved children who are being forced to work, who are likely addicted to shimmer as well. And actually, war is not some simple thing where there's always bad guys that you can kill. Actually, you have to go into this with more insight and
more information. Obviously, we know that Jason is going to be haunted by what he has done, especially because, like you said that, he doesn't really know war, right, but now he's killing children, So it's been a bad day for him. I think this is going to be like a very hardcore change moment for him and a realization of these things are.
Just not that simple.
Yeah, and it shows what a lack of restraint can lead to.
Exactly.
He ran in there literally hammer and guns blazing, without all the information. He didn't ask who's in this facility, what's the game plan? He just decided, let's just take some enforcers and blow this thing up. Yeah, without knowing the full picture and realizing that these facilities are staffed by children.
Exactly.
He certainly wouldn't have done this if he hadn't taken the time to hit pause and think about it and learn before jumping in there.
So Jay's famous for hitting pause and thinking about it.
I think it just speaks to a lot of the older generation in this show that has warned these younger kids from running in without thinking first. Vander Heimerdinger, There have been a number of characters that have warned them. Silko have warned the children to not run in and think first because of their experience, their own mistakes they've made in the past, and we see that repetition that like infinite cycle of violence where they continue to repeat these mistakes.
The big takeaway from this episode is there needs to be a compromise. Yes, I am a pacifist.
I do not agree with a war, but I do agree with people being able to live well and needing to fight for that right. So like, yeah, I just think it's really complex, and I'm very excited to see what they do going into season two after this, because I think it's going to be way more complicated than even this first season.
Oh yeah, yeah, Okay, well let's wrap up episode eight one final scenes ago. Caitlin is in the shower and she's replaying that moment with Violet walking away from her in the rain, obviously still on her mind, and she turns the shower off, steps out, and the steam starts to dissipate and over her shoulder in a very horror movie moment.
Ah, yes, this is so I love this moment so much.
We see Jinks just a glowing Jinx eye in the mirror.
Got to credits scary, scary stuff.
Scary stuff. And that's episode eight. So before we continue on with our recap in our discussion today with episode nine, guys, let's take a quick breather, let's collect ourselves. This is the final episode of season one that we're about to get into. Right after a short break.
All right, we are back with episode nine. The monster you created.
Oh, get ready to cry? Get ready to cry, guys.
We open with mister Patience himself, Jace mourning the loss of the young boy.
I was so sick of him in this moment. I was like, oh my god, yeah, dah. You honestly, if you just turned this episode on because you wanted to recap the finale before you watch season two and you couldn't really remember, you would be mistaken to think that maybe Jace was just mourning a random kid who had died and not somebody he had killed.
Jace, what the fuckme? Man?
Truly, in his defense, the only time you'll ever hear me say that he wants out already. He's involved now, and he's like, we need to stop this. Violet reminds him that he's always been involved, he just was ignoring it before, which was his luxury that he got to do great line, thanks to Silko, and thanks to everyone who's ignored Silko and just let this occur. Hundreds of other kids are in this exact same position, and Violet's not giving up. She's like, I'm still doing this. You're
in this, come on, let's go finish this. And he's like, no, leave the gloves and she's like, well, obviously I'm not going to do that, and he's like, he's like, well, I'm not killing someone else today.
So it's like, have you played the game?
Yeah, yeah, you don't do equip things. As you get more and more close to the final boss fight, Jace doesn't want to kill anyone else, but he warns her. He's like, you're not going to make it on your own, and before she leaves, she turns and she punches the Shimmer tank, ruining the Shimmer production. At least they got that, I guess.
I'm like sure, I'm honestly, I I I'm not into you this war on drugs that you have going on, Like, I don't know if it's the most sensible or I understand that you have an issue with Silko, but I don't know if it's going to solve the greater socioeconomic issues that we are striving with here, I feel like they're ways that you could spend your energy. And I do feel like, as Aaron pointed out, rare to hear me say it, I do think Jason's right here. I
do think he has learned the lesson. It shouldn't have cost the life of a child, but he is seen in the most horrible way what war can do.
The problem here is.
By does not learn that lesson, like Viya is still really driven by revenge. Whatever version of the world that she is selling, This idea that she can stop Silko is really more about revenge than making the world better for anyone else.
Violet's mind on everything was made up the day she went to prison exactly. Has not changed since then, except that she is friends with Caitlin. Like she's let herself get that far. But it took her almost dying for that.
Yeah, and it also took her having a crush. Yeah, do you know what I mean?
Like you needed to, I've been in prison a long time.
We can all change our mind. When there's like a beautiful rich woman being like, Hi, would you like to how's it going?
And suddenly you're like.
To seek into my parents' house.
Yeah, maybe this seems a bit more feeling them present.
Yeah, Siko who I will say I loved this opening scene because of what it says about the socioeconomic divide between the Upper City and Lower City. Jase here has the privilege to say this is over. I don't want to I'm walking away. I don't want to be involved.
It's still happening.
Suh. Right, there's blood on his hands, but he gets to wipe them off and go back to the council chamber and his bougie apartment in the Upper City and forget about this.
Yeah.
I loved that. Violet in response was but this isn't over for me. It's never been over for me. I live here, this is my life. I don't get to wipe my hands and walk away and ignore it.
Jase doesn't have an issue with the fact that there are hundreds of kids working there. Jase has an issue with the fact that he killed one of them.
Yeah, exactly. I'm like, Jase, that you could do something to help these kids. Yeah, I mean, that's like help the kids escape. That seems like it would be a useful thing to do. I like that line of Booty you put it in the notes. Right, It's like you've always been a part of this, You've just never had to look at in the eye.
Right, It's like such a good line.
Like you can say, oh, I don't want to deal with homeless people, Well, you they're there every day, Like what do you mean, Like you could just help them out, like just but you get to choose to ignore them when you walk past. It's very much that mentality, which I do think honestly is one of Jase's biggest flaws.
Yeah, and to be fair, a lot of the Upper Cities flaws. You know, they get to pretend the under city doesn't exist.
That's basically their original sin.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, Okay. Continuing with the recap, we then cut to Sevika and Silka, who are in this manufacturing plant investigating what happened. It turns out that the boy that Jay's killed isn't just some rando kid. He's in fact the son of Rennie, who is one of the members of the Kem Barons that works closely with Silko. Rennie is understandably grieving the death of her Son's pissed, and she argues that none of this would have happened. The Upper City would never have been so bold if
Marcus were still alive. And Marcus is dead because of your daughter, who's out of control? Silko? Where is CHINX? What's going on? Have you reined her in? Are you gonna do anything about my dead boy here? She's understandably pissed about all of this.
Also, I'm like, babe, you are correct, but like, why was he working there? You are like the back I question, do just like don't have him working there?
Like sorry, but maybe just don't do that.
Maybe you know what, Maybe she was in some kind of debt, Maybe that was something a reason. But like I feel like one of the few pucks of being a Ken Baron is your son probably shouldn't have to do like indentured servitude the Shima factory.
That was my question.
Well you know what I will say, he does the kid who died RP to that boy like this is a legendary action movie position is to be the kid who is the spy who announces when somebody is coming in. It happens in dread, it happens in the rad, it happens in the night comes for us. So I think, you know, maybe he's just a lookout. Maybe he doesn't actually work in the Shima factory. Maybe he's got the higher ranking of the indentured children. But Rennie, I really
think this one is on you, honestly, Babe. It's obviously on Jason mostly, but you could have just let him have a day off, right.
Victor awakes, he finds Sky's notes and also a letter that she was writing to him. He now feels, you know, we see him looking stiff and metallic as opposed to this guy who is running, you know, like an olympian not too long ago. Last episode, and in anger, he decides he wants to try to destroy the hex Core.
But he lifts his stool up over his head and he can't do it, and he's dejected and he starts walking away, and then the hex Corps like reacts, oh sends a little pulse and it shocks him and he falls over, and like suddenly we realize maybe this is acting of its own accord.
Maybe I was gonna say, can we talk a little bit about that, because if you don't know the law of the Games, or really about Hexcore, I felt like this was a very shocking moment we've got hints of this connection of science and magic and what it means. But yeah, this implies some kind of sentience, yeah, or that it is even actually exerting its will over him. So this feels like a big deal going into season two.
So I don't know enough about the game or season two, but in my head, one of the great great shows of all time, Game of Thrones does an incredible job of making you care about every character but also hate every character because there's also some impending threat with the White Walkers that are coming. No matter what, everyone can dislike that, and so I do think you know is the hex core. In the trailer, there's a line cover yours real quickly if you don't want any spoilers from
the trailer. But in the trailer there's a line that the Arcane has awoken. Are we getting Is that gonna be our White Walkers coming? And if so, this is the first moment when I've cared about this storyline as much as I cared about the Inner City and violence storyline, and I up until now it's just been like the I know this is building to something, but what is it? This moment, this one little scene is when I feel it the most, all right.
Moving on to the next scene, mel confronts her mother and Bessa. She tells her to stay away from Jase.
She's like, stop being in the bath with Jase.
It's I heard you were naked around my boyfriend. She tells Abssa to just leave the city. Why are you even here and an Bessa finally reveals the truth of this visit. She says, uh, we are in trouble. The man who killed her brother thinks the score is not settled and is coming after me, coming after you, And in fact, we uh don't have the resources to fight him, and so I'm here basically for hex Tech. I want hex Tech. I want hex Tech weapons.
Besa, you suck, you a bad Truly, you're a bad a bad mom.
Mel Is, you know, understandably shocked and worried and angry at her mother about all of this, and tells her, you know, I wanted to protect this city from people like you. I can't believe you'd start a war, that you'd let this war take place just so you could get some weaponry for your own to save your own ass and am Bessa's response, I would set the world a blaze to protect our family, which.
Please, your son is already dead, so too late, babe, Like, this is not really about protecting your family. I feel like at this point it's about protecting you.
Yes, and your.
Interest absolutely a total cop out, but Invessa doubles down on this line of thinking and tries to convince Mel to come home with the hex Tech. Who cares about Piltover, who cares about Zoon? Who are these people to you? Let's just take the hex Tech, let this war play out. You come back be at my side where you belong.
Classic.
I will also say, as much as Ambassa sucks as like a person, she has such a badass character design. I just love it so much. She has got that classic energy actually of a Game of Thrones character who you're gonna hate right now. But then if you did a spin off and you went back and you saw where Ambassa's from, and you saw everything she's doing and the people she's protecting, you'd be like, oh, actually, she's pretty cool, Like she had a reason for doing this.
I feel like she has that potential.
But right now I'm on the Hatter side, But I do believe there's more to her than we have seen.
Agreed.
I just you know, mel I feel like and Bessa carried you for nine months, can't you carry her for one war?
Come on?
You know, Aaron said, she blessed you with the gift of life, So bless her with the gift of exta for the gift of death.
Yeah, all right. Victor goes back to his favorite little spot in the sewer in the under City, spreading Sky's ashes in the pools where he goes, thanks. Yeah, He's like, I don't know where he wanted to be buried or have your ashes. I'm going to put you in the sewer. Yeah,
I'm gonna put you in the super swear. Anyways, he's back to using his crutch and he standing there contemplating jumping, and Jason interrupts him in a nice little chase of their their very first scene together, and the two of them are there reminiscing about old times, you know, before you killed a kid and before I killed house. Yeah, what could have possibly been the issue here? And Victor asks Jace to destroy the hex core and he was like,
I can't do it. You have to please, And Jace is really hesitant because he's a company man, but he promises that he's going to do it, Like, is that logical? Is that logic?
You also have a really great quote in our notes here that I wanted to share it because it really resonated. We lost ourselves, we lost our dream in the pursuit of great, we failed to do good. We have to make it right.
I love that. I think this is very good comparative analogous to like nuclear weaponry is very much like why here where it's this, we need to do it first, we need to be the ones to achieve it, and then you do something that's so unbelievably horrific. Once you have done it and you lose control of it.
You know, Yeah, And it's a good reversal too. I mean, this scene here is reminiscent of the first time Victor and Jace meet in Jace's apartment, but also when Victor and Heimerdinger are here, when Victor first gets his diagnosis and Heimerdinger is like, You're gonna have a great legacy, and he's like, I didn't do anything monumental, and now here he is saying trying to do something monumental and legendary is not worth being horrible, and we lost our way along the right.
In our next scene, Finn, Rennie, and Sevika come to confront Silko, and Silka reminds them what kept the under City together before it was an enterprise, before he raised it up to what it is now. Loyalty, love.
Okay, all right, Kendrick lamar.
Right, all right.
Sevika, in a really great tense moment, takes out her sword, swipes right over the head of Silko and kills Finn, and then Finn tells Rennie to leave. It's a really great show of Sevika's loyalty and belief in Silko and really subvert sart expectations because we, you know, we expected her to betray him given the scenes we had watched thus far. Sevika actually even tells Silko that no, she wasn't ever tempted by Finn. She would never actually work
with a guy like him. His dress code, not my style. Horrible, horrible opinion. Yeah, best design character, hands down. But she does say Silko, buddy like Finn, was not the first and he certainly won't be the last. People are going to question a leadership if things continue to go the way they are. We see Silko then turn his attention back to this letter that he had been reading before, and uh, we learned that this letter is from Jase.
Shocking.
So Soko goes to meet Jase on the ramparts overlooking the coast, and Soko presents his list of demands. He wants free trade, he wants access to the hext gates, and most of all, he wants sovereignty.
Well, I love that he was like. He just went in and he was like, here's the five top five things I want to do, and absolutely none of them will ever be approved by the council, like, no compromise. He went in there and he was like, the job description says you will pay fifty thousand dollars a year, and I want a million.
What can you do?
He didn't even wait for the job description. He went into the interview and was like, this is what I need. Counter my offer exactly. He's setting the.
Price, throwing unlimited Popeye's Chicken sandwiches for a life while we're at it.
Yeah, universal income for everyone in the the city. Like it's not going to happen, babe. I love your ambition there.
Soko thinks that Jase is afraid, but Jay says he's afraid of the carnage that Piltover is going to inflict upon Zon if they don't I don't agree to terms. And he's trying to spare the under city. Come on, man, Jase is.
Trying to spare himself from having to kill more children than.
The semi factory.
Real for real.
They're almost at an agreement, but then Jace says he wants Jinks, and he's like, believe me, I'd happily throw you in jail, but I can't make a deal with a snake and then cut off its head.
We then cut to Echo and Heimerdinger, who are practically doing nothing. They're just chill in. They're going to the Firelights sanctuary. Heimerdinger once again is like shocked and surprised to find out this is happening in the under City. The most confused little Nordling I've ever seen in my life or whatever he has or forget what his yard ling, Yordling. That's right, and there was a line in here, I
will say. Echo says, the line in here very poignant stuff, and it speaks to his personal experiences here in the under City. He says, it's not enough to give people what they need to survive. You have to give them what they need to live.
And Heimerdinger is like, my dude, I've been to the opera, know what you're talking about.
He's like, yeah, like you gotta you gotta have those artistic, inspirational tiny opera glasses so you can really see what everyone's right. For us to be able to afford our own tiny opera glasses, we need you to listen to a message from our sponsors.
That's right, all right, and we are back. Silko is lamenting at the statue of Vander. He's talking to Vander through the statue itself, and he says, you know, he sees how logically he probably should take the deal, but he doesn't know that Jinx is listening. Done dun dumb, and so we cut to the last drop. Violet walks in. We get some Western showdown music on the jukebox. Savika tells everyone to get out and fightings and turns out Violet probably could have used a little bit of armor
after all. Imagine that as Savika has like this pulsing energy blade that comes out of her arm.
Mary Mega Man, Yeah, would.
Have been nice to have had something. Violet imagines Vander coaching her in the fight and pointing out that everyone still needs her. She still has a bigger role to play here. She's down one power glove because it's been stabbed by Savika's sword. Y shields herself and rips off Savika's modified arm, and she goes to get the broken arm. The fight's over. She goes to get the broken arm, and Jinks appears and knocks her out.
Jinks everywhere all at once, this one. I do want to shout out the Silko at the Vander Fountain scene. Never have I felt so much for a villain, for a heinous villain. Him just the I forget what the exact line was, but he said something like, is there
anything as so undoing as a daughter or something? Yeah, as a dog, and he sort of he finally seemingly understands where Vander was coming from and why Vander chose his family and his daughters over perhaps the dream that he and Silko had been fighting for ever since they were young, and now here Silko, on the verge of achieving that very dream, finally understands why Vander might have backed off too, because now he's toying with the idea of backing off for his daughter. It's beautiful stuff.
Yeah, you are a sucker for a Silco and Vandersen. I let me tell you, Oh yeah, you are.
I really feel for there if they ever do like a little prolog like backstory one off short episode about Vander and Silko's backstory, like it's gonna get me.
Well, I do think as well, Like it's one of those really bittersweet things in the show because you just can't help but think, what if Vander wasn't dead?
What if?
What if?
What would that have looked like if this had come sooner? Like what does it mean? And also it's always amazing when you have warring factions that end up coming to the same place but too late.
That's always like a moment.
Yeah, and you see echoes of Vander, even if we never get the true backstory of their relationship, we see echoes of it in every relationship in this show, Himer, Dinger and j Jason, Victor Van Jinks, Caitlin and Vi, every relationship in every conflict for me at least, seemingly stems back to Vander Silko and the divide between Upper City Lower City. It's beautiful stuff. Okay, back to our recap,
Jason Victor appear before the council. Jace, in the Boldest Move ever, just shits on everyone in the council and says, y'all are not fit to lead over zone. We've let them down. This is all our fault, and I've actually taken the step to do something about it. I spoke to Silko directly. We've broke her to piece, and I need everyone to raise their hands and vote yes on this right now. Understandably, the Council's like.
What the fucking we're talking about?
You're like twenty two years old?
Who are you you?
And also like where did this plan come from?
How long did you think it out? Did you figure out.
Longer than the last plan?
Whe you ended up killing a kid?
Because it doesn't seem like it right?
Why is the child killer brokery piece? What are we doing? Well?
We did?
I mean, I'm not gonna lie.
I do agree that making peace.
Is a good idea.
Yes, yes, should be the aim, But once again, I don't think Jake thought this through and I don't believe it's gonna go the way that he hopes.
Sadly, right bold Move, Violet wakes up in the cannery from episode three the end of act one, and she's tied to a chair with sparklers at her feet. Jinks proceeds to monologue to Violet and she says Silko wasn't the one that made her this way, Violet was violence is the only thing that kept her going in prison was the thought of getting back to Powder, and Jink says,
are we still sisters? And Violet's like, nothing's ever gonna change that, don't worry, And then Jinks pulls Violet on the chair to a dinner table where she has Soko tied up and gagged. At the other end.
She's sick of everyone.
Yes, yeah, she's She's got dolls all over at the seats, including her Milo and Clagger dolls. And she then is telling Violet she paid a little visit to Caitlyn and she reveals a platter with the top on it and Violet's like, oh my god, no, and she opens it and Violet screams and she's like, come on.
Because you think it's gonna be Caitlyn's head.
And she's like, even I'm not that crazy.
Don't be burying those gays yet, yea, nothing, we haven't gone.
It's it's very tame. It's just a cupcake with the Heck's crystal on top. And then she's so dramatic. Yes, yes. She then wheels Caitlyn to the table, who obviously is also bound and gagged. But wait a minute, where is Jink's gonna sit. She has one chair that says jinx and one chair that says powder on opposite ends of the table, and Jinks gives Violet an ultimatum, here's my gun, shoot Caitlin, get her out of the picture, and you can have powder back. Violet says, no, no, Look, you
and I can leave. We can never come back. And then Jinks is starting to voices and Soko is telling her that Violet's gonna betray her, and he's like, I could have had everything if I turned you in, but I didn't. I would never do that. You're my daughter.
Yeah, also as well, I love this scene because when we see how much Drinks is struggling, this is one of those moments where we really get the incredible like different styles of animation where it's like we're getting these like scratchy kids drawings, and yeah, this is such a sad scene. I'm like, I hate this scene. It's so good, but it's so sad and you want it to go one way, but you know it's gonna go the other.
Yeah, And there's so much pleading from all sides and you're just rooting for it all to work out, and you know it's literally all about to.
Blow up as soon as, like when watching this scene, I think this is the perfect way to end this season. And I think as soon as you see her drag Violet to the table and you see Soco at the other end, you know what's going to happen. But it's like, oh, yeah, this is incredible. Yes, this is going to.
Be Yeah, this is definitely like a Game of Thrones level shock finale.
And I see again by when I was rewatching this this morning before.
I came on the show, you really see how this became such a massive succession, how it became a water cooler show because it has all these elements that would capture you in live action, but here they're utilizing them in a way that engrossed a non animation watching audience in an animated story, which I just think is such a huge achievement and something that we really need if we want to keep animation alive.
Also, I mean, we haven't done enough of this, I think. But Ella Pernell's voice acting.
Oh oh my god, she's so in.
Particular with this scene. I think she does an incredible job.
Yeah, heartbreaking, amazing stuff. Okay, well, let's finish recapping this scene. There's a couple of more beats here to go. Caitlyn uses the broken wine bottle on the table to cut her restraints. She grabs Jinx's gatling gun. We get a show down. Caitlyn shoots off a couple of warning shots, but Jinks is seemingly unfazed. Violet, meanwhile, is pleading with Caitlin, pleading with Jinks. She's trying to diffuse this whole situation.
Jinks casually drops her pistol, Oh good, but then instantly shows off the enhancements she has received from her shimmer injections, and we get like just a flash of a monstrous looking Chinks as she comes up and knocks out Caitlin and steals the gun. The voices that she that are overwhelming her now are not only in her head. Is Silko and Violet are literally shouting over each other, trying to get through to Jinks, trying to get through to
Powder and diffuse this whole situation. Both of them are clearly like one of us is about to die here at this table. We the viewer also know that as well. Silko, in a panic, grabs the pistol that Jinks had dropped and points it at Y, but Jinks is faster and she fires off her gatling gun, killing Silko tragically.
Okay, look, can I just say I just have to say something, m HM as a sister, I need VI to take a strong look in the mirror. Yeah, because Jinks literally killed her own dad. To say, VI and VI couldn't just randomly shoot Caitlin. Like, I'm not saying she should have done it, but I feel like Jinks, I feel like she's really coming through as the as the more crazy, but also like she did what needed to be done to save VI's life.
But VI was like, Nah, I can't do it.
Man, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying.
I mean the Devil's Advocate, that was advocate.
Rosie hot rich girl from the Upper City.
She's promising everything to me. Dude, your sister is crazy. She needs to go home. You need to give her some loving care. You need to help her out. Man. This is gonna end badly for everyone as we're about to see.
Oh, such a good scene. A great point, Rosie.
I know I was crying. I was crying. I was crying.
Such a good scene again, make you care about Silko, which shouldn't be possible.
My goodness, shouldn't be possible. But poor Silko riddled with bullet holes. At this point, is telling Jinks with his dying breath that he actually made up his mind he was not going to ever give her up to the Upper City and he was going to turn down Jace's offer of peace let them all burn, and Jinks, of course, very touched by this, begins to cry. He wipes away a tear. Don't cry. You're perfect, something that her sister never told her. To be fair, you sister just called
her a jinx and walked away from her. Jinks then walks over, now confident in herself, to the chair labeled Jinks and sits down fully embodies her role and the name, and she tells her sister, I thought you could have loved me, but you've changed. I've changed too much has changed. We can no longer be the sisters and have the relationship that we once had, which I think is poignant.
Aaron and I had talked a couple episodes ago about the miscommunication that Violet and Jinks are having at this point in their life, and it's because Violet is not recognizing that this is no longer powdered. Things actually have changed, and you can't treat this person and like you did your four year old five year old sisters.
As well, Like I feel like Vie doesn't have a real understanding of what Jinks has been through, do you.
Know what I mean.
It's like she wants her to just be the same sister and act like she has always been in the wrong, but these traumatizing things have happened to Jinks. This was
so heartbreaking for me to watch. And I also think as well, it's really butterfly effect or Domino effect too, because I just I don't think what happens next would have happened if she hadn't killed Silko, Like if she hadn't made that split second decision, I don't think we would be in the situation where we are, which sets up this, you know, huge conflict in season two, And I just it's so heartbreaking, and I think she's doing it for him.
I mean, she did bring it, so she had it there.
I know.
There was at least consideration, but you know, she could have used ex crystal and not put it in a rocket launcher, put it in somewhere.
Fair, absolutely fair, But unfortunately that is exactly what happens. She takes the Hex crystal, she puts it in her rocket launchers, She walks up to the window, points it at the tallest tower in Piltover, which happens to be the council chamber, and fires off her rocket. We get this incredible final montage sequence of the show. Here of season one, the council, one by one is voting for Jason's proposal for peace. We get a quick shot of Heimerdinger, and Echo hanging out, just.
Hanging out, like, hey, Dore's important stuff going on here, guys, like what you up to?
Clearly setting up season two stuff. And Bessa is looking at Mel's painting, which has been scratched over. Mel has clearly made a decision she is not going to side with her mother. She's gonna stick by Piltover and her neo adopted home. And finally, Jinx's Hex powered rocket hits
the council building. We get this really striking bit of animation where at first we're looking through the window and we see the glint off of the chained the metal parts of Mel's dress reflecting the rocket, and then we see the rocket reflection in the glass, and then the glass shatters, cut to.
Credits, cut credits.
So good.
Yes, altogether a pretty successful dinner party, I think.
Yes, fantastic.
You know, nobody could say it was boring, that's for sure.
Yeah, exactly, there were things to talk about the entire time.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean I think this is such a good season finale. I think it's and I feel really lucky, and I feel like everyone else is really lucky that if you're listening to this podcast, you don't have very long to wait. Yes, because I think the weight was so painfully long, but also that's the nature of animation and that's how it gets made healthily.
But yeah, I mean what an ending.
Yeah, I think this is like in my Top three dinner table, well not dinner table, but Top three, like tension filled scenes at a table with people across reach.
Like it kind of showdown. Yeah, Okay, what are your other two?
My other two would be Karen Page and Wesley and Daredevil. Oh yeah, it's just incredible. And then and also I know, you know, not a huge Johnny Depth fan, but Black Mass Oh yeah, yeah, when he's talking about the family secret family recipe another one of my favorite scenes in like a crime mop movie Rosie.
To rep up. We wanted to touch a little bit on season two. We want to keep it spoiler free. We're gonna cover it on the show when it comes out, of course, But you have had the privilege of seeing season two. Anything you wanted to share with us, anything you want to tease.
I have seen season two episode one. Okay, I got to see it on a big cinema screen. I was feeling very lucky. What I will say is that it is unbelievably action packed.
It has fantastic music, as you expect.
It is honestly, like really got wrenching stuff, and I think interestingly, it does have a slightly different feel than season one, which I think is purposeful. You know, they've talked about how they always knew what the ending was going to be for season two and how the show was going to end interesting. But yeah, I mean it's fantastic.
I think you guys are going to probably love it, and I think for me, the thing that I was most relieved about was just like the importance of v and Jinx's relationship is still like at the center of the show, you know, even when we're going into this
more grand, explosive war show. And also I didn't get to see this, but there's a great interview on Netflix's website to them where they basically do kind of like trade style interviews where they were just saying, like, the biggest thing is how much the world is going to expand, which I'm like really excited for. And also as well, in the first episode you do get a lot of people's decisions and how they led us to where we got to in the finale and dealing with the ramifications
of the people who got us to this point. But yeah, I think the episode is going to blow people.
What a himerding or an echo up to? Any updates why they up to?
That's the stuff I really can't spoil. That's the really big stuff.
Is it a full season drop, No, it's three separate acts.
It's going to come out in Jake good Well, you know.
I think that's definitely the way they should do it. I think they know they have a massive hit on their hands. So yeah, November ninth, sixteenth, and twenty third, turn off all your lights, make your TV to the perfect you know parameters, and just really enjoy watching it.
And I'm so glad that you guys have covered the whole season.
I really hope this is going to make people check it out or rewatch it before season two comes out.
Yeah, me too, A boo, do you have two three minutes? What are you hoping for from season two? What would you like to see?
Honestly, what Rosie said makes me incredibly excited. I want to see the world get bigger. As much as I love Piltover, as much as I love the under City. We really stuck in one location, which played to its drength for season one, but we got hints right and Bessa coming in from across the ocean quote unquote whatever that means. Across the sea means there are other nations out there. There are nations that are dangerous to in Bessa, and she needs war weapons to fight them. So I'm
a bit of a lord junkie. I'm a world building junkie. I love that sort of thing in my storytelling, and it's exciting Rosie to hear that. It seems like I'm going to be getting a bit more of that zooming out.
I think that's definitely going to be happening.
Also, I'm excited that maybe we don't spend the entire time in Piltover solely in the council chambers. Now, oh baby, because they've been potentially blown up, I can.
Definitely say that I think you are going to see more of Piltova.
Nice.
Nice. Also, like I mentioned earlier, I really would like there to be some kind of big bad, you know, something that maybe brings some people together. And one of my favorite things again with Game of Thrones is like the switching up of character pairings and so you have different people with different people, and the Avengers movies do this too. I would like to see a little bit of Obviously we're going to get some Calin and Violet together, but let's see, you know, we got a little bit
with Violt and Jay's fighting together. Let's get Kaitlin with someone else. I'm all aboard the Echo and himer Dinger move.
So yeah, I need to see himer Dinger shred some rails on a hoverboard. I needed. I need to see him doing Olympic tricks.
Yeah, okay, So, of the three of us, if we're going to go play the game right now, which character would you play us? I would play as jinx Aboo Jace. He's like, where's the DLC shirtless skin? That's so strange? I don't have it.
I know. He's like, is this like bold can?
Like I was doing some research. They did add Arcane TV show skins to the game. You can play these characters in the outfits from the show.
That's I did.
I saw some tweet that was like, those of you who've never played Legal Legends, you don't know how lucky you are that you were first introduced to Caitlin through the arcade show design versus her design in the game.
Design in the game is so derayed.
She looks like a clown.
She looks like an evil clown from like a Halloween movie or something like really bad. Yes, okay, Aaron, who would you be inger? Oh?
I would want to? I would yet, Yeah, I want to see what he does. Thank you everyone for listening. Coming up on X ray, we're diving into the Penguin finale on Monday, and then Tuesday we're going to be talking about the first act of Arcane season two.
Wow, it's already happened.
And on future episodes of extras, Aboo is going to be leading us through an upcoming TV show, Doom Prophecy. Right, we'll be having Joel Carmen, Rosie Jason and if there are certain things you would like us to cover, please let us know in the discord. Yeah, if there's some topic that you feel like X ray hasn't had a chance to cover because there's literally too much content out there for us to do in two episodes a week, send us a message over in the discord.
Yes, my gut says, we will get lots of doctor who requests and I know that's summing me and Joe Well are excited to talk about so fingers crossed.
Maybe you hear something about that soon.
That's right, Okay, that's today's episode. Rosie, thank you so much for joining us. It was fun to have Mom at the dinner table today.
It was so great. I'm glad we could all have fun and we didn't kill anyone that's at the dinner table, so really success.
Yeah, all right, that's all for today, Thanks for listening.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Gisubsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a Booze Afar. 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 our discord moderator.