Two years is a long time — and if you haven’t recently rewatched Season 1 of Netflix’s Arcane, you might wonder what happened in the show’s explosive finale. (See what we did there?) If you don’t have time to binge your way back through the previous nine episodes, here’s where the finale left every character, as well as a reminder of how they’re all connected.
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Jinx
When we leave her at the end of the first season, Jinx (voiced by Ella Purnell) has just fired a missile at the Piltover council chambers, and it breaks through the window just before the credits roll. Much of Season 1 was spent trying to avoid war between Piltover and its “lower city” of Zaun, but with Jinx likely having killed most of the council that had just voted for Zaun to become its own independent nation, that won’t be possible. In the final minutes of the episode, Jinx seems to have relinquished control of herself entirely to her darker, “Jinx” side; she’s no longer Vi’s (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) sister, or so she claims.
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Vi and Caitlyn
Vi spends most of Season 1 trying to track down her sister, from whom she’d been separated for years while she was imprisoned in Piltover. During the events of the finale, Jinx brings Vi to an eerie, staged “tea party” in Zaun. While she’s there, Vi tries to convince Jinx to return to her normal self and offers her the chance for them to run away together — at this point, Jinx is wanted in Piltover for crimes she committed earlier in the season — but Jinx, suffering a mental breakdown, ultimately refuses and instead falls to the darkness inside of her.
In Season 1, Vi also becomes close with Caitlyn (voiced by Katie Leung), a law enforcement officer in Piltover determined to take down the man at the center of Zaun’s major crime ring. Vi recognizes her sister’s art at some of the crime scenes Caitlyn shows her, and Vi then negotiates her freedom from prison in exchange for helping Caitlyn with her investigation. They grow to trust and care for each other… so much so that Jinx, who sees them together, takes their relationship as evidence that Vi has forgotten about her. Jinx abducts Caitlyn and brings her to the undercity, and then she brings in Vi and Silco (the aforementioned crime boss and Jinx’s adoptive father), too. While Jinx initially threatens to kill Caitlyn, she eventually relents (although she does knock Caitlyn unconscious). When Caitlyn wakes up, she and Vi watch in horror as Jinx fires her weapon at the Council chambers.
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Jayce
A scientist-turned-politician, Jayce’s (voiced by Kevin Alejandro) role in creating Hextech puts him at the center of the conflict between Zaun and Piltover. Officially becoming a member of the Council during the events of the first season, Jayce becomes embroiled in the burgeoning conflict between the upper and lower city and whether or not he should allow his technology to be used to make weapons. He’s opposed to the idea at first, and he still tries to secure peace, offering to strike a deal with Silco (voiced by Jason Spisak) for Zaun’s independence. After Jinx fires a missile at the council rooms, he’ll probably change his mind about Hextech weapons — especially if Mel (voiced by Toks Olagundoye), a fellow member of the council and his love interest, dies in the explosion.
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Viktor
Everyone suffers in Season 1 of Arcane, but Viktor (voiced by Harry Lloyd) really goes through it. For most of the first season, Viktor, Jayce’s partner in science and a Zaun transplant in the upper city, is trying to use the Hexcore to cure himself of a terminal disease. His experiments leave him with mechanical body parts (a hint toward his character trajectory, and his role in the games), but it isn’t a cure. Eventually he loses control of the core, and while his assistant manages to save him from being immediately killed, she dies in the process. Viktor, grieving, tells Jayce they need to destroy the Hexcore… but it’s not clear whether Jayce will actually do that, especially in the aftermath of Jinx’s attack.
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Heimerdinger and Ekko
Heimerdinger (voiced by Mick Wingert) is a scientist and council member, and it was he who originally brought Viktor to the upper city and helped him in his pursuit of science. Throughout the course of the show, as years pass, Heimerdinger finds himself opposed to fellow councilman Jayce’s determination to use the Hexcore; instead, Heimerdinger believes it should be destroyed. As a result, Jayce gets Heimerdinger dismissed from the Council. Heimerdinger then goes to Zaun in an attempt to help create peace, and there, he meets and allies with Ekko.
Ekko (voiced by Reed Lorenzo Shannon) leads a group called the Firelights, which stand in opposition to Silco and his manufacture of shimmer. He battles both with Vi and Jinx a few times, although he ultimately helps Vi and Caitlyn when they go to the lower city in search of shimmer and Jinx. Conflict arises between him and Jinx, and he ends up badly injured, but Heimerdinger helps him. They go back to Ekko’s headquarters as friends.
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Silco
It’s probably worth stating right off the bat: Silco doesn’t survive Season 1. With that said, his character provides important context for the second season, so it’s worth summarizing what he did, and who he is, and how Jinx’s story connects to his. Silco had been a revolutionary in his youth and even worked with Vi and Jinx’s adoptive father, Vander (voiced by Sean Bean), but their relationship soured (Vander tried to kill Silco, and then, years later, Silco succeeded in killing him). Throughout the first season, we see Silco create a criminal empire founded on a highly addictive drug called shimmer, which offers healing properties as well as superhuman strength. His ultimate goal is to secure the freedom of Zaun, which he almost achieves — but that comes to an end with the finale, when Jinx, whom he took in after Vander’s death, kills him in a mentally unstable fit of rage. Jinx seems to immediately regret killing Silco, who loved her as his own daughter, and it’s probable that his legacy will loom large over her in the show’s second season.
Arcane, Season 2 Premiere, Saturday, November 9, Netflix
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