Full spoilers follow for Arcane season 2 act 3.
After two critically-acclaimed seasons, multiple award wins, and millions of hours streamed, Arcane has ended – and what an ending it was. Following the release of season 2’s final trailer on Tuesday (November 19), the hugely popular Netflix series has bowed out with an emotionally stunning finale, and I’m certainly struggling to comprehend how Arcane season 2‘s third and final act could end in such bittersweet fashion.
As one of the best Netflix shows‘ final credits roll and the dust begins to settle on an animated masterpiece that’ll stand the test of time, I imagine you’ve got plenty of questions rattling around your head. Well, as I fight back tears, I’ll do my best to answer them. This is your final warning: full spoilers immediately follow for the entirerty of Arcane, including its final three episodes.
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: is Jinx dead?
Let’s start off with the big one: did Jinx die? It certainly seems that way, but I’m not buying she is.
In the final 15 minutes of season 2’s mind-bending and bloody ninth episode, titled ‘The Dirt Under Your Nails’, Vi, Jinx, and an apparently dead Warwick are left strewn across the dilapidated Hexgate tower, with Jinx marooned on a steel beam above another that Vi and Warwick are perched on.
As Jinx and Vi stagger to their feet, the latter looks down at the monster that used to be Vander, aka the siblings’ surrogate father. Intuitively knowing that Vi will try to save Vander once more, Jinx pleads with her older sister to leave it be and head for a safer metal beam. Ever the stubborn individual, Vi ignores her sister’s pleas and, as she reaches out to Vander/Warwick, the beast awakens and begins lashing out at Vi.
With every attack from Warwick further destabilizing the beam that it and Vi are on, Jinx – using her shimmer-based powers – leaps from her girder, ploughs into Warwick, and knocks them off Vi’s beam. Vi reaches out and grabs Jinx’s right hand with one of her Hextech gauntlets to try and haul her sibling to safety, but Warwick grabs Jinx’s waist; the pair’s combined weight meaning Vi must make a choice: save herself, or they’ll all perish in the inevitable fall.
Jinx, realizing that Vi needs to let her go but knowing full well she won’t, delivers a tear-jerking goodbye to her sister, saying “Always with you, sis”. Using her free hand, she removes the Hextech gemstone from Vi’s gauntlet, which causes it to power down, and release Jinx and Warwick. As the pair seemingly fall to their death, Jinx pulls out the Hextech gemstone bomb she’d originally made to kill herself at the start of episode 9, pulls the pin, and seemingly kills her and Warwick as a grief-stricken Vi watches on.
All of that would suggest Jinx is dead, right? Not quite. You see, during episode 9’s final scenic medley, Caitlyn is seen scrolling through the Kiramman family archives and stumbles upon the Hexgate’s construction plans. There, she spots a set of cooling tunnels (see the image above for more) that branch off from the building, which leads to a wry smile spreading across Caitlyn’s face.
To me, this implies that Caitlyn thinks Jinx used one of said tunnels to escape her own bomb blast. Additionally, as the screen cuts to black after the season 2 finale’s last scene, a Jinx-style smile and a graffiti-esque ‘The End’ quickly flashes on the screen. The revelation about the cooling tunnel, coupled with this obvious Jinx reference, lead me to believe that Zaun’s self-appointed “big, fat hero” lives to fight another day.
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: do Caitlyn and Vi end up together?
Yes! After almost two seasons’ worth of teases, the couple affectionately dubbed ‘CaitVi’ by Arcane‘s fanbase get their happy ending. They’re seen snuggling in one of the last scenes in ‘The Dirt Under Your Nails’.
It’s been a long road to get to this point. Indeed, season 1 was full of hints that Caitlyn and Vi had feelings for each other, but it wasn’t until season 2’s third episode that Arcane finally gave us a huge ‘CaitVi’ moment – that being their first kiss, which the show’s creators told me they “couldn’t have done in season one.”
Regardless, Caitlyn and Vi’s dynamic suffered some significant setbacks throughout this season, not least because Caitlyn’s mom was one of three Piltover councillors who died in Jinx’s attack in the season 1 finale. Given the diverging nature of their journeys from season 2 episode 3 onwards, there was no guarantee that ‘CaitVi’ would survive this season’s explosive storyline. Thankfully, they did – and it came after they finally consummated their relationship by having sex for the first time, too, albeit we only got a tasteful glimpse at that in episode 8 before that chapter moved onto other matters.
The duo have been impacted by some truly traumatic events before and since we’ve met them, including Caitlyn losing her left eye in her final showdown with Ambessa and Vi losing, well, everyone she’s loved (Jinx’s undetermined fate notwithstanding) apart from Caitlyn. Despite their personal losses, though, Netflix, Riot Games, and animation studio Fortiche Production didn’t incite a riot among fans by giving ‘CaitVi’ the happy ending they deserved.
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: is Heimerdinger dead? And who else lost their lives?
Before season 2 act 1 aired on Netflix, aka the world’s best streaming service, on November 9, co-creator Christian Linke warned fans (via the Black Girl Nerds podcast) that this nine-episode installment would be something of a bloodbath. Indeed, he suggested it would be something on the level of Games of Thrones – a comparison I’m not afraid to admit I rejected because I didn’t think Linke and co-creator Alex Yee would kill any of their darlings.
How wrong I was. There had already been numerous significant deaths this season – read my season 2 act 1 ending explained and season 2 act 2 ending explained articles for more on who shuffled off their mortal coil prior to act 3’s launch – but season 2’s final three episodes and, in particular, ‘The Dirt Under Your Nails’, though, were an absolute massacre.
Indeed, episode 7, aka ‘Pretend Like It’s the First Time’, got things off to a hot start with the demise of Heimerdinger – the centuries-old Yordle scientist appearing to sacrifice himself to allow Ekko to return to the pair’s original universe after the Anomaly sent them to a parallel dimension. This season’s penultimate entry, titled ‘Killing Is a Cycle’, saw the destruction of Sky’s consciousness when Viktor made the fateful decision to fully embrace his Glorious Revolution plan, too.
It was episode 9, though, where the most significant deaths happened. Loris, Vi’s friend, is killed in a hail of crossbow bolt fire during Ambessa’s assault on Piltover. Gert, one of Jinx’s followers, also dies in the initial wave of attacks.
Then there’s Maddie, the Piltover enforcer who idolized Vi (but not enough to stop her jumping into bed with Caitlyn in a rebound-style relationship in season 2 episode 4), also dies. After betraying Caitlyn to side with Ambessa, Maddie prepares to execute her former lover, but she’s killed when the bullet she fires towards Caitlyn bounces off a magic-based shield – one created by Mel, whose mage powers have fully activated by this point – and strikes and kills Maddie instead.
Ambessa is a casualty of her own invasion, too. Thanks for Caitlyn and Mel, she’s eventually captured by the Black Rose – it turns out they weren’t, as some of us believed, Arcane‘s main villain after all – whose leader starts using her dark magic to kill Ambessa. For what it’s worth: I still believe this individual, aka the so-called ‘Illusionary Sorceress’ voiced by Minnie Driver, is LeBlanc – for more details, read my Arcane season 2 cast and character guide.
But I digress. In a bait-and-switch move, Mel saves Ambessa (aka her mom) by not only interrupting this Black Rose member’s attack, but also by sending them away using her own magical abilities. Despite everything Ambessa has put her through, Mel still clearly loves her mother. Recognizing this, a grateful Ambessa says “now you are the wolf” – a reference to Noxian strength – before dying in Mel’s arms.
As I mentioned earlier, Jinx and Warwick appear to die in episode 9 as well, but this pair’s fates aren’t the only ones left up in the air…
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: is Jayce dead? And what happened to Viktor?
Of all of these questions, this is the one I’m least confident about answering. Like Jinx, it would appear Jayce and Viktor perish in season 2’s final chapter – the pair using their combined willpower and consciousnesses to halt Viktor’s Glorious Evolution plan that would’ve turned Runeterra into a dystopian nightmare.
They succeed in this endeavour, too, but the duo suddenly disappear as they prevent this Calamity – one bigger than the Rune Wars, a near-world-ending event that threatened Runeterra millennia ago, apparently – from happening.
So, what happened to them? Sure, we finally got answers about why Arcane season 2 was seemingly sending Jayce down a very dark path, but this query largely goes unanswered. So, it appears they died to not only save Piltover and Zaun, but also Runeterra as a whole.
Again, though, I’m unconvinced Jayce and Viktor are dead. In fact, I believe they were either whisked away by Jayce’s crystal shard to another realm or, because of Viktor’s celestial-like magical powers, have undergone the process known.
Without getting into the weeds of Riot’s hugely popular game franchise, which Arcane is based on, according to League of Legends (LoL) lore, Ascension is a process by which humans were altered by celestial magic. Originating in an area of Runeterra known as Mount Targon (they’re Ascended where known as Aspect Hosts), and later copied by the lost empire of Shurima (they’re Ascended were called God-Warriors), Ascension allowed blessed individuals to channel celestial magic through their connection to entities that are considered to be LoL‘s version of Gods. It’s my opinion, then, that Jayce and Viktor have temporarily disappeared and will return as Ascended in future LoL adaptations, which would continue to prove Arcane season 2 has rewritten large parts of established League lore.
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: is there a mid- or post-credits scene?
No. Once Arcane season 2’s end credits roll for the last time, there isn’t an end credits scene to stick around for. That didn’t come as a surprise to me, especially as Linke and Yee exclusively told me prior to this season’s release that “we’re not in production” on other LoL movie and/or TV adaptations.
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: what is the three-eyed raven? And who is Swain?
There may not be a post-credits sequence that teases what’s to come after Arcane, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t hints towards likely follow-up projects. Indeed episode 9’s final montage drops a big clue about one such story that may be told next.
First, though, we need to back things up a little. Throughout Arcane‘s 18-episode run, black ravens have been spotted by viewers and the series’ characters – indeed, the earliest appearance of one that I can recall is in season 1 episode 5, which sees Jinx return to her and Vi’s former hideout and shoot a raven when it spooks her.
At the time, I didn’t think much about it or subsequent raven appearances. But, as I’ve come to learn about Riot and Fortiche in particular, they’re very meticulous about the imagery and Easter eggs they’ve littered throughout Arcane. That is to say, a lot of things they include are added in for a reason.
So, as more ravens showed up, I did a little digging – and LoL diehards won’t need me to tell them what I discovered. For those less familiar with LoL lore, though: ravens are a bird most commonly associated with a very specific LoL champion called Swain. Even more explicitly, the six-eyed raven who appears in episode 9’s final sequence – the one seen pecking at Jayce’s corrupted Hextech hammer to unearth its Hextech gemstone – is directly tied to Swain.
Alright, so who is he? Again, I don’t want to turn this into a particularly lengthy explanation. But, for anyone curious to know something about him: Grand General Jericho Swain is Noxus’ visionary ruler who possesses demonic abilities. That makes him another dark magic wielder, with Swain acquiring such powers after losing his left arm in Noxus’ invasion of Ionia – another magic-infused region of Runeterra.
How does this potentially set up the next LoL adaptation? Per LoL lore, Swain is one of three individuals who currently rule Noxus (one of the others is LeBlanc, by the way) as a group known as the Trifarix. With Mel seen sailing to Noxus in episode 9’s final sequence, coupled with the wider mystery surrounding her abilities, the Black Rose, and how all of this ties to Ambessa, I’m convinced that the next League adaptation – or, at the very least, one of them – that lands on Netflix will expand on Noxus, its complicated history, and its impact on Ionia and other Runeterran regions and kingdoms.
Arcane season 2 act 3 ending explained: will there be a third season of Arcane?
Nope. In June, Netflix and Riot confirmed Arcane‘s second season would also be its last, so a third season isn’t on the way. Ahead of season 2’s arrival, there were reports that Arcane was originally going to run for five seasons. However, just 48 hours after those rumors emerged, Linke and Yee told me that it was “never the plan” for Arcane to last for five seasons.
While this is the end of Vi and Jinx’s story, Netflix, Riot, and Fortiche aren’t done adapting LoL in animated and/or live-action form. In a video accompanying the announcement that Arcane was ending, Linke revealed other projects were being developed. Unfortunately, per Linke and Yee, those ideas are still in their very early stages, so it sounds like it’ll be a long wait for future League projects to follow in Arcane‘s footsteps.
Arcane season 2 act ending explained: what other League of Legends stories could be told? Will Orianna star in one?
A movie or TV series centered on Noxus aside, there are other narratives that, based on how Arcane ends, are ripe for exploration.
For starters, one could star Orianna, aka the Lady of Clockwork. The final few minutes of episode 9 revealed that Singed – the man formerly known as Doctor Corin Reveck – successfully brought his daughter Orianna back to life. He did so via a combination of Apex Hexcore and the clockwork-inspired design of Viktor’s former followers, so it would be fascinating to see how her rebirth impacts Orianna and Singed individually, as well as their familial bond.
Another possible project could follow Ekko. Sure, it seems Netflix, Riot, and Fortiche are keen to explore other regions of Runeterra and the characters inhabiting them, but Linke told ScreenRant that there’s the potential to continue the stories of some characters from Arcane. We only got a glimpse of Ekko’s true potential in this show, and I’d certainly be keen to see him get more screen time, whether it’s in the alternate timeline that episode 7 was built around, or the reality that the main show is set in.
Orianna, Ekko, or any of the individuals who survived Arcane, however, are but a fraction of the near-170 LoL champions who exist in Riot’s massively successful videogame series. There’s no guarantee that we’ll see these individuals again, then, but it would be nice if we did, wouldn’t it?
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tom.power@futurenet.com (Tom Power)
