Xtras: Arcane Ep 106 and 107

Our Xtras crew dives deep into the undercity as Cailyn helps Violet recover from her injuries (along with a touching connection to her past), while topside Jayce pulls the rug out from under his former teacher. Plus Viktor takes a risk in his study of Hextech, and the Firelights finally reveal themselves. Aaron and Abu break down their favorite scenes, from Jayce’s crossfit Forge workouts to the stunningly artistic face off on the bridge!

Arcane returns with Season 2 on November 9th on Netflix

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today's episode contains spoilers for episodes six and seven of
Arcane season one. Hi everyone, I'm a Boo and I'm Aaron,

(00:24):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
And we are back today with another episode of extras,
continuing our rewatch of Arcane season one with the lead
up to season two on November ninth. Today, we're jumping
forward in time and we're going to be covering episodes
six and seven.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
That's right, and by out y'all know the drone. Let's
just hop right in, starting with episode six, which is
titled When These Walls Come Tumbling Down?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
All right, we start off tell him if you've heard
this before. We start off with a flashback. Oh, okay,
this time it's Victor's childhood and young Victor is playing
in the under City and he spends his time. You know,
there are these pools in the under City and you
see a bunch of kids playing, but Victor is off
by himself, building boats basically, and he sends one of

(01:28):
the boats off and he goes chasing it and he
stumbles into a cave where he finds Singed and his
pet Rio, and Rio is this astonishing looking creature that
sing says is a rare mutation that he's cultivated. Unfortunately,
Rio is dying. Victor, sensing this camaraderie with this other

(01:48):
loner scientist character, offers to help, and Singed accepts, and
he tells him we can be loners together. Cut to
present sense and Victor is hanging out in the same
pool in the under City and Heimerdinger is there. He
finds him and he's attempting to console him because you know,
Heimerdinger knows about his prognosis, and he tells him that

(02:10):
he should be proud of all these achievements he's had.
It's incredible work. But Victor worries, easy for you to say,
you've lived hundreds of years, my contributions will be very
short lived.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, he's really struggling with his mortality at this point.
As we've seen throughout the season, we also learn in
this scene that Heimerdinger is one of the founders of
Piltover and that's significant because, as we'll see you later
in the episode, he is kicked off the council, and
that really makes that council scene even more emotionally impactful

(02:41):
for me to know that he's being kicked off the council.
He very likely started himself and was the founding member
of I.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Mean, up until this year, he's been the one given
the Piltover day speeches. Yeah, and you know he lets
Jase do it one time and then he's out of
a job. What is this gosh fall from grace my guy?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Totally.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
I also wanted to just briefly comment on the fact
that there's something to be said here about this century's
old being Heimerdinger not understanding the urgency that Jason Victor
have felt all season. You and I have talked in
the past couple episodes about this theme of the older
generation saying wait, patience, take it slow, think this through,

(03:25):
versus the younger, more hot headed generation of scientists like
Jason Victor or VI being like, no, we got to go,
go go. This is how we make progress, progress at
all costs. We're going to crack a couple of eggs,
and some people are going to get killed along the way,
But this is the path forward. It's interesting to me
that there's also now this age difference contrast as well. Yeah,

(03:46):
of course, somebody who has hundreds of years ahead of
them is going to be fine with taking ten years
to slowly work on their hex tech versus Victor, who
might not even have ten weeks. Yeah, all right, back
to our recap. Jace returns to Mel's chambers after he
uh dined in dash? Yeah, shall we say the previous night.
Mel is painting this absolutely gorgeous picture, but is understandably

(04:11):
perturbed annoyed by Jase's disappearance.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Right, why'd you ditch me? I thought we had a connection.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Here, aboo. Do you have any personal stories about when
you might have dined and dashed on a young woman
sometime in your life?

Speaker 1 (04:23):
I would ever, and I certainly would never admit a
gentleman does not dine and dash and tell. Right now,
Jase reveals that he has a lot on his mind,
namely that his best friend and partner, Victor, is dying,
and he speculates that Victor's dying because of the pollution

(04:47):
in the under City, which is exactly the kind of
problem that Victor and Jase have always wanted and hoped
to fix with hex tech. That's been their goal.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
And just to be clear, the power gloves they designed
were meant to what strangle the pollution, right, okay, yeah,
and the lasers were meant to cut the pollution. Is
that that's what their goal.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Was, right into smaller pollutions, so it's more manageable.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Right, okay, right, smaller pollutions.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely hilarious. Now, the scene I did find
quite touching because Jas shows some real vulnerability here with Mel.
He lays in her lap at one point. It's very touching,
and he admits how he hates feeling useless. He hates
this powerlessness in his ability to help Victor. Right, He's

(05:34):
at the peak of his fame. He's got all the
wealth and power he could imagine, but he can't save
the life of his best friend, and that's weighing on him.
The camera zooms out and we actually see the picture
that Mel has been painting. And you did some great
research here. This is apparently a photo of the nation
of Naxis, where Mel is actually from, where her family
is from. Recalls she is an exile from her family.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
She's been kicked out right.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Also, just as you're saying, she's painting, and it is
again with the great audio in this show. We get
really precise audio of her cracking eggs to make the
paint and then her using the paint knife on the
canvas and like scraping it.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
I love that scene. And a very nice quiet moment.
And a pair of episodes that are going to have
some very loud and bombastic scenes, we get this really
nice little moment here.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
And a really great bit of storytelling. It tells us,
without saying a word, the mental state of this character,
what headspace she's in. She's painting aggressively. We're getting cracks,
we're getting scrapes, she's annoyed. Really great storytelling there.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Okay, speaking of Victor, he has gone back up to
Piltover and he's staring hopelessly into the X core and
he reaches out again to touch it and it reacts
and his eyes kind of glaze over.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
Yikes.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, we're still unclear what's happening with this. I don't know,
parasitic relationship, you know, I don't know how we want
to describe it. But we're getting more and more hints
about this sinister situation that's building up with Victor's desire
to figure out the hex tech.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah, and we'll see a little bit more of that
in this episode in the next as well. Next week,
cut to the last drop, we get some lazy Luau
music and Jinx sneaks up on the bartender Theorem, who
she not so affectionately calls Chuck. I will also be
calling him Chuck moving forward, and Jinx is here asking

(07:28):
for gossip. What's up, Chuck? What's going on? Why aren't
I being invited to the parties? Why Silko and everyone
being so active and no one's telling me what's happening?
Chuck lets slip that Silko has basically ordered the crew
to grab a couple of girls who roughed up Sevika.
He doesn't reveal who those girls are exactly, but Jinks
is suspicious. She leaves him with a little tip, shall

(07:51):
we say, yeah, in the form of a bomb on
his back. But luckily for Chucks, just a glitter bomb.
All it does is freak him out. Now, speaking of
said girls on the run, we returned to Caitlin and Vy,
who are attempting to escape from the standoff with Sevika.
Despite by being incredibly injured and needing to be assisted

(08:12):
by Caitlin, she is still able to parkore slash fall
her way down this abandoned water tower that they arrive at.
It's not graceful by any means, but considering she has
just been stabbed in the gut, it's impressive.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Nonetheless, I just imagine Caitlin being like, I just dragged
you the last mile through this cave and they help. Really, yeah,
then you're just jumping down this water tower.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Okay, thanks absolutely, And you know, I think by proving
a point here, I'm fine, I'm tough. I don't need
and enforcer's.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Help to do anything. Right, stop helping me.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Certainly on brand for v Of course, the camera pans out,
and we also are shown that there is a member
of the Firelights watching all of this take place from
far above, watching the girls de send it down into
the water tower. Specifically, it's the Firelight character with the
owl mask, who we will see come back yes later
in this episode.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
In the next, Savika comes back to Soko's office to
let him know they lost the girls, but oops, turns
out the chair twirls around and it's not Soco in there,
it's Jinx and Savika lunges forward, activating a tripwire that
releases a bunch of knockout gas, and Jinks casually slips
on her gas mask and taunts her. Savika wakes up,

(09:25):
she's tied to the chair and Jinks continues to taunt her.
I love this line, and she's playing with her knife
and she says, I feel like you and I got
off on the wrong arm. Maybe we should try the other.
So Savika reveals She's like, no need, I'll tell you
what you want to know. It's your sister Violet, and
she's out there with an enforcer. That's who everyone's looking for.

(09:47):
And Savika's like, it's only a matter of time before
Silko sees you go overboard and is like, you are
not it. You are You're unhinged and we can't rely
on you, and Jinks starts to cry and then reveals
she he's making it. She's completely unphased, and you know,
we get a better view of her as this character
who I feel like we constantly teeter back and forth

(10:10):
on does she have anything under control or does she
have everything under control. She's like the joker. She's playing
chaos so well.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
We see her flip back and forth on a moment's notice,
and that's what makes her terrifying, because you never know
what's gonna happen. Next with Jinx, next we see Marcus
returning home. He goes to check in on his daughter
and uh uh oh is that Silco making a tower.

Speaker 3 (10:34):
Of cards with my daughter? Holy shit, what a.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Stomach drop moment. I certainly was terrified during this scene.
Silko is, of course, here to subtly and not so
subtly threatened Marcus. He is unhappy that Violet is still alive,
despite Marcus seemingly telling him all those years ago that
Violet had also died alongside Vander, and he is making
subtle threats to Ren to Marcus to get that point across.

(11:01):
For example, he says things like everyone makes mistakes, right,
What's important is that we.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Don't repeat them.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
He then, after sufficiently scaring the pants off Marcus, Soko
knocks over the Junga tower that he was building with
Wren and walks out of the room with Marcus's promise
to fix this shit.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
So just I don't know, kids are dumb sometimes, But
how dumb do you have to be as a small
child to be like, Oh, someone's at the door. It's
not my father or my mother. It's three people who
have like one of them's got an evil eye and
the other two don't look nice at all. Why don't
I invite them in? Gonna make them a pot of tea,

(11:41):
We're gonna go up to the playroom. Not great on you, Ren,
No stranger danger. And I feel like this is one
of those spots where maybe it would have been nice
if you didn't let the people into the house. But hey, yeah,
terrifying scene. He does such a good job with the
I'll tell you a story one time a daddy and
his daughter went on a trip but the daughter never
got there. Isn't that a sad thing? And like his

(12:02):
super villainry is on full power.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Here, definitely, And I think to your point about Ren
just letting them in. I have a feeling that this
is maybe Uncle Silko MM and Uncle Silko's friends like this,
maybe isn't the first time that they've interacted, and perhaps
Silko has come before, Ren has seen him before. Okay,
that's sort of my head cannon for why this child
would let Silko in and not try to home alone him.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Okay, yeah, no, I like that. I've seen enough mob
movies and mafia movies to know. Oh yeah, if dad
hangs out with you all the time you're here, you
conduct business like, of course, I'll let you in. Oh yeah,
so much more sinister. All right, I forgive you Red.
We cut back to Victor in the lab and he's
showing Jace that the hex tech reacts to organic matter somehow.
In his last hex seconduced coma, he's made this discovery. Yeah,

(12:50):
he uses the hex tech. It causes this plant to
grow unnaturally large and like outlandishly strong looking, and then
it withers and dies, and he's like they've all died
like this, Yeah, every single one of them. Jase reassures
Victor will solve this, and you know, we can figure
this out. We always do. But Victor is like, I'm
running out of time. I can fuel my body deteriorating, right,

(13:12):
and Jay suggests bringing in Heimerdinger.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Right, And Jase also grabs a piece of chalk and
acts like he's about to do some calculations. But my guy,
have you done any work in this lab since becoming
a council member.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
I feel like he's putting on a front.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Jase is creeping around a lot. You know, we'll find
out more about it. But yeah, he's got a lot going.
I mean, both of them, both of them, quite frankly,
are going all over.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
But yeah, sure.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Now Caitlin and VI takes shelter in a house at
the bottom of this water tower.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
That they've fallen down. The water tower that they have
fallen to the very bottom, right, and now they're at
a house.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
That's right, and VI is sort of slipping in and
out of consciousness. She is seeing these hallucinations of powder
all throughout this house. Caitlyn is trying to tend to
her wounds, but VI sort of bats her away. She
does trust an enforcer, and a frustrated Caitlyn asks, I
suppose top signers are to blame for all of your
misfortunes then, to which VI replies, no.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Not all of them.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
So there is some accountability here that I have put
myself in many rough positions. It's not all the enforcer's fault.
But we will get an answer to why she distrusts
Kaitlyn a little later.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Now.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
Part of this discussion also includes VI sort of hallucinating
Powder and talking somewhat to Powder and not all the
time to Caitlin. Very in like a jinx way right,
how jas is always talking to Clagger and my low.
We see like an injured and on the brink of
death VI doing the same thing, speaking to someone who's
not there, saying things like I shouldn't have left you,

(14:43):
you know. We get a sense that she really regrets
her actions back at the cannery and has spent the
last X number of years trying to reconcile that. Caitlyn
tells VI that she has a good heart, which then
transitions to Vander's voice. We hear the echoes of van
voice repeating that same line to young VI from earlier
in the season.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
As the camera fads to black.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
And we get another visit from a father figure. Heimerdinger
has come to the lab and he's there with Jason
Victor and they're showing him the hex Core, and the
hex Core, as they describe it, is hextech that evolves.
Heimerdinger is terrified and he has this vision of magic
destroying things and he begs them to destroy it. He's like, please,

(15:27):
if you've ever valued my advice, please destroy this and
he's seen nations destroyed by a single seed and it
looked exactly like this. Heimerdinger notices a change in Victor,
he says, and as soon as he sees that, he's like, Okay,
I'm not begging anymore. This has to be destroyed. You
need to get rid of this. But Jase stands up

(15:49):
for Victor, and he basically threatens Himerdinger and is like,
we'll take this to the council. You can't tell us
what to do anymore. We're doing this in the name
of progress. Don't and in our way. Heimerdinger leaves, and
Victor hints that there might be someone else he knows
that could help.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
I'm curious what you think of this scene and if
you had a take on it, Aaron, what do you
think Heimerdinger notices about Victor what change has taken place,
because from the outside, just looking at his character doesn't
seem like anything is different.

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Yeah, I'm assume it has to do with the fact
that his hands have all these hex Tex shaped hickeys
all over them where he's been, you know, constantly touching
the hex tech. Yeah, yeah, and he's like trying to
explain it and he's going in and out of consciousness.
Everyone is just going in and out of consciousness in
this TV show at all times, or speaking to someone

(16:41):
that's not really there.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, it's a rough showing for consciousness in this episode.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
Really, the whole cast is an unreliable narrator.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
No.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
I think Victor up until this point, I feel like
hasn't really shown a ton of rebellious nature. The most
rebellious thing. I mean, he started off rebellious in the show,
so maybe this is a wrong read, but he seemed
like he was a pretty good student, good citizen of Peltover.
His one thing was, oh, you know what, I kind

(17:11):
of am interested in what Jace is doing. I would
like to support him. But now we've reached a point
where if Jace is too busy, Jace is a member
of the council, Jace's you know, trying to be an
art critic with mel Victor is the one who's become
absorbed in this one part of research, and this has
consumed him to the point that he's dying. We know

(17:32):
he's dying, and he is so obsessed. Instead of what
am I going to do now? Is there some medical
thing that can help me? He's obsessed with trying to
solve his illness with hex Tech and it's consumed him entirely.
So whether or not that's like truly overt enough for
what Heymridinger sees, I think that's something that we as

(17:53):
the audience have seen this change in Victor where he's
obsessed in a way that we kind of only saw,
like Islet obsessed in the beginning, and now he is obsessed.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Yeah, I want to pose an alternate take on it
as well. I think this has something more directly to
do with the hex Core itself, because it's clear that
Heimerdinger has some sort of past, a tragic past with magic,
with not exactly hex Tech technology, but the harnessing of
magic in this way in a similar way that hex
Tech is doing. And obviously he's frightened by the hex Core.

(18:24):
He has seen this before, this growth and death that
the magic can cause, and when he looks at Victor,
I think he sees something in Victor that's akin to
the influence that the One Ring from Lord of the
Rings has on the people who wear it on a
seal door on Frod.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Did you intentionally drop an Aragon reference earlier to set
up the Lord, like get us in the mind of
Lord of the Rings, and then you did the one
ring that was good.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, but I think Lord of the Rings was on
the mind, you know, so I might be popping in
and out of that universal out in this.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Episode consciousness throughout this podcast.

Speaker 1 (18:59):
So yeah, I think, like that's my hypothesis here, is
that the hex Core is maybe exerting this like subtle
into Fairy's influence on anyone who gets too close. We
know Victor's blood has fused with it at this point
as well, he keeps touching it over and over again.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
Sapsapsapp.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
So perhaps Heimerdinger is recognizing this one ring Souron style
influence in Victor because again he hasn't passed with it.
He's seen it before and he has seen how destructive.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
It can be.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Also, let's remember two episodes ago or whatever, this was
an entire city that hated magic, and now all of
a sudden, we're like full in on magic. Yeah, Okay,
there was clearly some threat before, and we shouldn't just
ignore that sinister element at all.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
Definitely.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Okay, back to our recap, Caitlin walks out of the
house under this water tower and is surprised by one
of the vacrants that recognizes Violet and wants to check
in on her. Asks is she all right? Turns out
this is Hook, who we saw all the way back
in episode one. This is the merchant that Vander helped
out in the last drop. In that tiny little scene

(20:03):
back in episode one, Huck reveals that he's got these
like nasty purple veins and some sort of growth all
over his body because he has succumbed to shimmer addiction.
He also reveals to Caitlin that there's not going to
be much help down here for Violet. There's not exactly
doctors who can patch her up, but he does know

(20:24):
somebody that might be able to help, so he takes
Kitlin to a potion maker who helps the locals who
are addicted to shimmer. Caitlyn, in payment for a potion
that will help revive Violet, offers up her gun and
the potion maker adds a tiny drop of shimmer to
this bottle and hands it over to Kaitlyn to administer
to Violet. Huck doesn't want to go back to Violet.

(20:48):
He just wanted to help Caitlyn here because he's genuinely shaped.
He doesn't want Violet to see him in the state
he's in now, and he basically just wanted to check
in on her and help. He's too a shame to
actually face her. Caitlyn, as a form of thank you
and gratitude, embraces him, which we see affects Huck. Clearly

(21:08):
he hasn't been hugged in this way in a long
long time.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, Huck is full on breaking my heart in here.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
This is Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
I felt so bad for him, being ashamed of his
current state and still wanting to help Violet but being
too embarrassed to be seen by her. That just it
killed me.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
I love Huck.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Oh my god, such an endaring character and such a
tragic character. And actually he says something here. I wanted
to take a minute to dwell on together because I
think there's a lot of interesting thematic storytelling taking place
in this sequence, in particular in the Violet in Caitlin
at the water Tower, Huck tells Caitlyn that he started
using Shimmer because he wanted to feel what it was

(21:51):
like to be somebody, to feel what it was like
to not just be afraid all the time, to get
bullied all the time, like we saw back.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
In episode one.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
I loved that so much because I think this episode
in particular is really exploring the nuances of this downtrodden
community that we're seeing down here at the water Tower,
and it speaks to real world communities that are over
policed or marginalized and why they, for example, would distrust
law enforcement just like Violet distrust enforcers, or why violence

(22:23):
and drugs proliferate in a community like this, because again,
as we see throughout this story, you do what you
need to survive, or if you're like Huck, you have
been on the receiving end of so much violence and
bullying that you just want to feel what it's like
to give that back, And that, of course, is this
endless cycle. This cycle of conflict in war is another

(22:45):
big theme in this story, and this cycle of violence
begetting violence, Huck being bullied so wanting to take Shimmer
to bully back, and then feeling the repercussions of it.
I loved all of that so much because it's a
cycle that is not easy to break. In order to
break it, people in power have to understand where the
people who are trapped in the cycle are coming from,

(23:07):
and we're seeing some of that even here with Caitlin,
who is beginning to understand the under city in a
way that her rich, bougie lifestyle up to this point
has never revealed to her. And I thought all of
that really came together in a beautiful way to show
class divide and socioeconomic divide in a way that is
much more nuanced than these are the rich bad people,

(23:28):
and these are the sad poor people.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
And now an ad sponsored ad from Elon Musk super pac.
No now for a real word from our sponsors, but
thankfully it is not Elon Musk. All right, back to

(23:58):
our recap, Marcus is attempting to frame the firelights with
one of Jenks's grenades. He brings it to Jace and
he's like, I found this on the firelights. This is
clearly what was used in the attacks. And in order
to keep the city safe, Jace, I think, with all
good intentions, wants the enforcers to start searching everyone that

(24:20):
crosses the bridges. Yeah, and oh, by the way, Marcus
wants to know about a particular some certain prisoner who
was released by Caitlin under Jas's orders. I don't know
if you happen to know anything about that, right, which,
of course Jase is like, we're handling it, don't worry.
But I don't know. Maybe if you could just give
me a little influence in this situation, because I'm a

(24:43):
little interested in this prisoner.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
And Jase shuts it down.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yes, Jase, I think shows a level of trust and
camaraderie in Caitlin here, because seemingly those are the first
he's ever hearing of this, right, and then he doesn't.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Bat nye and he's got so much on his plate,
I'm sure he doesn't even give a second thought. Yeah,
and he just trusts Scalen.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
You gotta love that. You gotta love friends who will
have your back no matter what. All right, Sorry for
a council meeting, folks. You know I love a council meeting,
and this one's juicy. Heimerdinger is telling the council that.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
They have lost their way.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
They're cannibalizing themselves with their greed and their pride and
their hunger for power, and it's about damn time that
we hold each other accountable, folks. Jace, he's got a
rebuttal red tea. He hits Heimerdinger with a classic who
watches the Watchman.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Though, got the reverse card all lined up?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yes, the reverse you know card? Yeah, bam, you know
what draw for while you're at it.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
You have plenty of time to use all those cards
when you're out of a job.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
That's true, nothing to do in retirement. Bud Jace comes
at Heimerdinger here. He's got a plan of attack ready
to go. He blames Heimerdinger for the current state of affairs,
for the rampant use of Shimmer in the under City,
for the dangers that Hiltover is currently facing, and he
he asks Heimerdinger, what's your plan? What is your plan
for all of this? Because all I'm hearing from you

(26:05):
is what we shouldn't do? What should we do? He
has this really great line in this moment where Jay
says healing the city will take more than just speeches.
Humans don't live for centuries. We can't wait for progress.
Really great stuff and obviously speaks to what we've been
talking about earlier in our conversation. Heimerdinger, as we know,
is the father of Piltover, one of the founders. But

(26:28):
it's time for Daddy to go into retirement. Jase pushes
for a vote to basically ex communicado Heimerdinger from the council.
The vote has to be unanimous.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
And has to be unanimous, and shockingly it is.

Speaker 3 (26:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
The whole council votes for Heimerdinger to get kicked.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Off, and no scene with Jase bringing a children's toy
or some a pack of nuts or anything to the
other council members. This was he didn't bribe anyone. No,
this was a full on everyone agreed. Yeah, like slowly,
I mean mel agrees first, and then slowly everyone else
falls in line. But everyone else fell in line.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
And in this moment, Heimerdinger's breaking my heart. I know.
I said Huck was breaking my heart. Well, now Heimerdinger is.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
As much as I feel for Heimerdinger, I do want
to counterbalance that a little bit by just saying that
it's really telling that without any bribery, Jase is able
to put this vote forward and unanimously the council votes
to get rid of Heimerdinger.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
I think it really reveals to us how out of
touch Heimerdinger, the father of Piltover, has become. It makes
me think of that opera scene that we saw a
few episodes ago where Heimerdinger is enjoying the play. You know,
he's chomping on his popcorn, he's clapping, he's scheering, while
every other council member is scheming behind his back, and
he's totally unaware of it. It shows us, I think

(27:47):
that his idealism, his optimism, while admirable, has made him
blind to the truth of the actual politics that's happening
around him. And it's kind of a tough reality check, right, Yeah,
because like Heimerdinger here is asking everyone to take the
high road. We have to go back to operating with
honor and integrity. But in a messy world like this

(28:10):
one between Piltover and Zon like, the high road is
not always the most effective road to get things done,
and sometimes you do just have to get down in
the trenches with everyone to make changes.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
It's a nice little reversal because up until this point
we've seen the youth kind of as the idealists. Yeah,
they're the ones who are like, we need to fight back,
we need to you know, exert our independence from Piltover
and the adults, the father figures in this case, are
the ones saying, you don't understand how the world works.
There's a reason I have this agreement with the enforcers.

(28:44):
It's to keep things go paesetic between both sides. But
now we have this little switcheroo and it's kind of
a sad thing to see that happened to Himerdair.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yeah, great point.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
We're going to cut back to the water tower. Caitlin
heals Violet with the potion, and then she looks around
on the walls and she sees all these drawings and
realizes that this is not just any old building. This
is Violet's old house, and she sees Powder's name up
there as well. Violet reveals that her parents were killed
by you guessed it, enforcers, and that's what has led

(29:18):
to her distrust of Caitlin. Can't blame her. If you
watch your parents get killed by someone in an outfit
and then you see someone in that same outfit later, yeah,
probably not going to be a ton of trust. We
don't have any time to deal with them going through
these feelings because there's some noise outside and they open
the door. Boom, it's Soco and we see Huck cowering

(29:38):
behind him. Soco has paid Huck with some shimmer for
their location, and there are a couple other vagrants around there,
like zombies going for this shimmery, and he gives out
a couple of vials. They start hulking out and advancing
on Violet and Caitlin, and Violet and Silk are having
this tit a tit, and Violet asks about Powder and

(30:00):
Soko says, what are you talking about? I freed her,
and Soko says, you don't know your limits. This is
exactly what got Vander killed and it's what drove your
sister away, and it's why I'm here right now, and
you're in bad shape yea. And the shimmer zombies start
heading towards them, and then Violet's like, if it's the

(30:21):
last thing I do, I'm going to shut down your empire.
And then she and Caitlin knock the water tower over,
which conveniently separates them from the zombies the vagrants perfectly,
and we get this huge climactic montage. Yeah, we see
Jinks on top of the under city, lighting off the
flare that Violet gave her back in episode three using

(30:44):
the hex crystal. We get this beautiful animation of the smoke,
which also happens in the next episode. But we have
the memories of Milo and clagger around her as it's
like the camera circling her holding the torch. Soko is
furious that Violet has gotten way, sends his goons off,
and then he mercilessly beats huck huh.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
Painful to watch.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
And then we see Marcus setting up his enforcers with
floodlights on every bridge into Piltover, and we have just
a really moving, energetic, fast montage of all these things happening.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
A really great montage. I think the only thing that
would have made it better would have been an imagine
Dragon's song in.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
The backdrop always but nah and the animal.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
All right.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
From the montage, we go back to our flashback from
earlier in the episode. We join young Victor as he's
bringing this box of shimmer flowers to feed Rio, but
he walks in and finds Rio in agony, hooked up
to all of these tubes and Cinch's lab. Victor is furious,
but Cinched is condescending in his response. He says, I

(31:52):
thought you understood the mutation must survive. I don't care
about the animal. I care about the scientific experiment that's
taking place here. The camera then transitions, I love to
this transition to kind of pans over, and we transition
over to the same lab now in present day as
Victor walks in and we see Rio, all these years later,

(32:14):
still being kept alive in a giant test two bakta
tank thing, and Victor says, too singed, I understand now.
We then cut to Silko, who returns to his office
only to find that Jinx has strung up Savika from
the rafters big rafters energy here from Jinks in this office,

(32:35):
and she has scribbled the word liar on Sevika's.

Speaker 2 (32:38):
Arm all over. I mean it's on Sevika herself. Yeah,
right in this scene with the music and everything, Like
Jinx is a true horror movie villain. Yeah, you and
I famously do not watch horror movies, So maybe we're
the wrong people to be making that connection.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Right, But do Spooky.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
They really build her up in a way that every
time she's not on screen we sense an incredible amount
of dread from her, and every time she's introduced in
the scene, we get that same dread. But the longer
we sit with her in a scene, the more we
see the parts of her that are vulnerable and the
parts of her that we feel bad about but every

(33:15):
time she is introed in a scene, I just feel
like I'm terrified of her.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Oh totally.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
I think we're seeing Jinks become more and more unhinged
as the story goes on, as the season goes on,
and it's becoming truly horrifying and heartbreaking to watch because
this is still Powder, the adorable little girl we saw
in episode one, and here is the path her life
is taken. It's scary and tough to watch. I also
wanted to quickly comment on Victor and this flashback scene

(33:44):
because he walks up to Stinged and he says, I
understand now, And the way I read this is I
think both Jason Victor have actually come to the same
realization that you sometimes have to sacrifice the people and
things you love in the name of progress. Times that
is the only way to make progress. Jace has sacrificed
a father figure, a mentor in Heimerdingger, he has played politics.

(34:08):
Victor here, of course, returning to Singed is foreshadowing some
painful sacrifices that he will make in the next couple episodes.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
We cut back to Jinks, whose flare burns out again.
Beautiful animation on the smoke. I think earlier I said
we would talk about it in the next episode. I
was wrong. It's the same episode. This episode. That montage
just felt like the end of an episode. This is
like Lord of the Rings the third movie, where it's
just like we have fourteen different endings to it. Yeah,
this is the end of act two, and so they
really jammed a bunch in here. So that's I'm going

(34:38):
to blame that on why I mistakenly said it was
the next episode. But beautiful animation on the smoke, And
just as she's about to give up, Violet appears. Jinx
drops the hex crystal. We get a scene of the
hex crystal dropping definitely not a Chekhov's gun moment, and
Violet tries to explain to her why she was gone,
and Jinks is trying to explain why she's changed. She

(35:00):
had to change to survive, and Violet is like, it
doesn't matter, we're together. Caitlyn shows up and suddenly Jinks.
That sets Jinks off. She turns cold and she's suspicious. Meanwhile,
Kaitlyn realizes Violet's sister is Jinx. That's a problem. Violet's
in the middle trying to calm them both down. Then
Jinks starts to hear voices. Milo is talking to her,

(35:21):
and Violet tells Powder She's like, Powder, it's okay, and
Jink says it's Jinks. Now, Powder fell down a well,
stop talking to me like I'm a child, And she
now thinks Violet is trying to trick her in order
to get the crystal, but Violet says she's only here
for Powder, She's not going to abandon her again. Jinks's

(35:42):
head is filling with more and more voices, but actually
she might be hearing some real things too, because all
of a sudden, the firelights arrive full force, and we
get this incredible, incredible action scene with the firelights circling
the sisters and Caitlin like a true army of green goblins.

(36:02):
Jinx is just unloading the gatling gun all over. Violet
is literally bare knuckle brawling against people on gliders like
they're flying in at her and she's punching them all
the while Caitlyn is trying to keep the Heck's crystal
from falling and being lost. One of the firelights eventually
gets to drop on Kaitlyn and steals the crystal and

(36:24):
then sets off a smoke flare to escape, and then
a different firelight knocks out Violet and is about to
kill her when the owl mask firelight stops him and
tells them to take Violet. Jinks charges at them, but
they set off another cloud of smoke. They escape and
the fog dissipates and Jinks realizes once again, unfortunately she

(36:46):
is all alone, and that's where.

Speaker 3 (36:48):
We cut to credits.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
What a great ending to this episode, and what a
great ending to this act is coming together of the
sisters but then them being torn apart again by forces
outside their control. Really powerful scene. There's so many layers
to it. The one thing that really stood out to
me was the miscommunication taking place right Jinks is suspicious
of Caitlin, not believing that Violet is actually there to

(37:11):
help her, but maybe there for the Gemstone thing. Why
is an enforcer being involved, because remember their sisters their
parents are the same. Powder's parents were also killed by
an enforcer. She has every reason to not trust an
enforcer who just walks in on them.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
And another layer to it is kind of the way.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
That Violet is treating Powder here as well, because we
see throughout the fight Violet looking over and witnessing not
powder but Jinks, reveling in the destruction and firing her
gatling gun, not caring who gets shot, what gets shot,
who gets hurt, And that's horrifying. We can see in
Violet's reactions that she's like, thrown off? Is this my
little sister? Is this the kid's sister that I remember?

(37:50):
She's not recognizing how much they both have frankly grown
and changed in the years that they've been separated, and
their relationship has to evolve as well. It will not
be the same parentified, older sibling and innocent, little mumbling
young sibling relationship that it once was.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
I mean, we got her talking to Silko and him saying,
your sister, I've freed her. Your sister's different now, and
Violet not believing it. Yeah, Like Violet still is thinking
of her as the young little girl that she was
having visions of in the house. Yeah, and that's not
the case anymore.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Uh. Super powerful stuff.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
One of my favorite episodes in this season for sure.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
This is a great one.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
All right, Aaron, Before we get into episode seven, I'm
hearing some voices in my head, or it might just
be the Firelight's attacking. We need to take a break,
but don't go anywhere, dear listener.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
We will be right back in just a minute.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
And we're back.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Let's get into Arcane season one, episode seven, which is
titled The Boy Savior.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
I wonder who this one's going to be about.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
This episode starts.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
On a gorgeous grunge graffiti montage of the firelights, and
then we cut to a captured VI who quickly learns
that the leader of this pesky skateboarding group of punks
is none other than her old buddy Echo, Remember him,
m hmm. After a little bit of suspicious back and

(39:25):
forth between the two, they reconcile with a hug. They're
still old friends, and they clearly realize that they're on
the same side.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
Here elsewhere in the under City, Victor is in the
lab with Singed, seeking his advice about what to do
with his hex Tech ruin conundrum, and Singed offers him
a solution. There's not a lot of turning back with
this one, but he says, I can give you something
that will help you survive the hex Tech confusion, and

(39:54):
of course it's a modified version of Shimmer. We can
tell how desperate Victor is, and and we know this
is not going to end well. We've seen it being
used on people throughout yeah, the first six episodes, and
we also know that Victor is going to do it.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, we're witnessing this sad and tragic fall of Victor.
Here he takes the shimmer, seemingly with plants to use
it if things get dire enough. Cinched also says a
line here that struck a chord with me. He says
love and legacy are sacrifices.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
We make for progress.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
And I found that really interesting because that's a different
take on legacy, yeah, than we've gotten from people like Heimerdinger. Yeah,
and a different take on legacy than we've actually literally
witnessed over the course of this season, because we have
watched Jace rise to be the golden Boy, to be
the savior of this city. His star has risen, and
he has been showered with love and been given this

(40:50):
legacy for creating Hextech, for making progress in the field
of magic and science. And we see sort of the
flip side of it too. Here in the under City, Cinched,
with his experiments, has been ostracized from society. Clearly didn't
get into the university to work alongside Himerdinger, and we
see that he has a different take on it that
for him, making progress requires total sacrifice of any expectation

(41:15):
of love and connection with other people or to be
remembered in any way.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
I actually think Singed worked with Himerdinger. Supposedly in the lore.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
Oh yeah, there is a throwaway line. Yeah, they seemingly
like worked together, were partners, and then broke up.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
So I think the better mirror to Jason's meteoric rise
promoting progress being, like you said, given this shower of
affection from the masses as well as from mel he
has like this legacy piece locked up. Victor is the opposite.
His partner is the one who doesn't get love. He's
the one who ignored the lab tech that was trying

(41:49):
to flirt with him or legacy. He's the one who's
gonna die, and he's worried that his accomplishments will be
short lived because someone else is going to surpass him,
and he doesn't live long enough for him to make
enough of an impact that he will live on.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Yeah, we're seeing the two sides of progress and the
two pads that pushing progress forward can lead you down.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Next week.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Cut to what is maybe the best montage in this
entire show. Jase is in the Forge working through some
stress and anxiety, shirtless, pex and six pack on full display.
When Mel arrives to admire the view and seemingly like
talk to him about stuff, They discuss what's bothering Jace,

(42:34):
and Mel promises to stall the council so that Jays
can figure things out. Right, He's got a line on
his plate. He's worried about Victor, He's worried about the
under City, He's worried about hex Tech. He's worried about
where the fuck Caitlin is.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
He's got a lot to do.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Right, He's like, did I do twelve reps? Or am
I on fourteen reps of the trice at pulled down here?
And then when I'm doing all this, like have I
hit back today yet? Which, clearly if you see him,
he's hit back today. Jason, Jace, drop the piltover forge
workout plan. Let us see what you're working with there. Yeah,
I don't know. You know, we don't know much about

(43:08):
Jason's protein intake, but I assume it's pretty high based
off of how jacked he's become since episode six, when
I felt like he was just a normal dude, and
now he looks like Deve Batista, you know. So good
for you, Jason, Good for you, Bud.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Savika and Soco meet to discuss the situation with their
crime lord syndicate in the face of these lockdowns. They're
losing money and Soco is losing his grip and the
Kem Barons are breathing down his neck. Meanwhile, Jinks is
having a full on breakdown after her run in with
Viola and Caitlin, and she's sitting in her again. We

(43:46):
go back to her little home, her fort, whatever we
want to call it, and she is talking to herself.
Milo is talking to her. She's looking in the mirror.
She's like, oh, she's with a and Forrester. How could
she be doing that all in front of this beautifully
cracks mirror?

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Do you get it? Aaron cracked mirror, cracked psyche.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
Oh, like you see the multiple I just wanted to
make sure you got that, the multiple persons in Oh
my god, She's okay.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Just wanted to make sure.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
It's a very subtle bit of storytelling that has been
featured in.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Every Sorry I was thinking. I was trying to imagine,
like if Jay stood in front of that doing his
tricep pull downs. Yeah, how many different views of the
muscle would he get there? That would actually would be
a good way to isolate different groups.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
But right, I too, am still thinking about Jason Speck's.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Oh all right.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
We cut next to Echo, who takes Violet to this
absolutely gorgeous sanctuary that he has built for Shimmer addicts
and Shimmer victims to start fresh, to start a new life.
He shows Violet this stunning mural of all of his
lost friends, and he tries to convince her that Powder

(44:54):
is gone, only Jinx remains, and she's working for Silko
because she wants to. She's not trapped by anything. Jinks
wants to work with Silko. Your sister's not the sister
you remember anymore, But Violet is convinced that she can
still reach the heart of her little sister buried somewhere
deep inside.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Jinks and further emphasizing his point, We're looking at this
mirror that is the friends they've lost, and it features Violet,
who they thought was dead. I mean, when she wakes up,
the first thing he says to her is you look
pretty good for a dead girl. But it features Violet.
It features Powder right there in the middle, even though
they know she's alive. She's just Jinks now. It features

(45:35):
vander Benzo, Milo Clagger, and someone is up there adding
an addition of the pink haired girl from episode four
that Jinks saw thinking it was Violet and was not,
but we lost her. We head back to the bridges
heading it's Piltover and Jace is there reprimanding Victor for
breaking the containment. He's like, how can I have this

(45:59):
lockdown if my partner isn't following the rules. My partner
is breaking lockdown?

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Victor is clearly offended by Jason's elitism, and Jase attempts
to apologize, but in the midst of trying to have
this nice moment with his partner, someone chucks them all
atov cocktail over the barrier and we get into like
full on chaos.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
You know, it is a little unclear to me how
exactly things have escalated so much at the border. We've
been so focused on the characters and their journey, Violet
and Jinks and Silko, that we haven't spent a ton
of time on the circumstances of the under City, right,
and it feels like we got here really fast. Yeah,
it feels like people are throwing Molotov cocktails at enforcers.

(46:43):
I'm left wondering why. Yeah, you know, what exactly is happening?
Like are the lockdowns squeezing the Undercity economically? And like,
I don't know, red prices, egg prices are skyrocketing and
people are pissed. Or is this something else that's been
brewing for a long time that's now finally been pushed
over the edge by the lockdown.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
I do feel like we got a better sense of
the under City and their relationship to Piltover in the
first act in episodes one through three. Since then, it's
been so story focused on the individual characters. Our main
look into the world of Piltover since episode four has
been council meetings, which is not the best way to

(47:21):
see what the heart of the people are like. If
our view is of a government organization, that looks like
we're missing out on a lot. We know that the
crime families are losing money because of their smuggling operations
have lost some steam, but I would hope that the
under City's base economy does not rely entirely on smugglers.

(47:43):
I mean, that's entirely possible, But it does seem like
we got to this place pretty quickly out of nowhere,
I agree, all right.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Moving on back to our recap, Silko barges in on
the assembly of frustrated Kenberans. They want to compromise with
the topsiders. They're losing money and they just want to
do whatever it takes to get back to their life
of comfort and luxury and money still coming in.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
Yeah, Silko, you fucked up. You lost the handle on.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
It exactly, And of course they're blaming Silko for losing
control of the situation. Silko very quickly reasserts why he's
the top dog.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
He reminds everyone.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Assembled with some deadly fumes from the minds who exactly
it was that saved them from the depths of their
pitiful lives. They were nothing before Silico came in and
helped them rise to the stations they're at now. Let's
not forget that, folks. It's a really great scene.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
I do want to talk about Finn, who is the
main member of the ken Baron Council who's standing up
to Selco. I think he has the absolute best outfit,
hands down, of anyone in this show. He has the
coat slung over the shoulders, he's the half shaved head,
he has the pinstripe skinny pants, gold trim vest with

(49:01):
the bare chest. He's all tatted up, and I obviously
want to see more of this character because his outfit
is so good, his style is incredible. But also I
don't know this character. I don't know any of these
Kem Barons, and I wish we had a little more context.
I know that this is the beginning of the act,
and so there's things we missed, but we've spent a
ton of time with Soko lounging in his chair, being frustrated,

(49:25):
being annoyed, and we haven't had much Soco crime Lord totally.
I want more scenes of him with this group. And
Finn does come back, but the rest of the Kem
Barons who are listed as Finn, Smeech, Cross, Rennie and Margo,
and Smeech is the Ordol like chimer Dinger, but like
a skin a hairless one, and Rennie is supposedly most

(49:49):
likely Renata glask who's a Legal Legends character, which very funny.
All of Renata's moves are named after financial terms like
bailout style, take over. So I like that for a
crime syndicate character, but I really wish we had seen
more crime syndicate scenes. Yeah, give me more of Silko
actually bringing these people up and empowering them and we

(50:12):
suddenly see, oh yeah, this person is in charge of
imports and exports, this person is in charge of extortion.
You know, give me more of that. I want to
see him being a crime lord more and not just
like a dude worried about Sevika and Jinx.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
I agree.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
I think this scene was just so good. It's one
of the best scenes in this episode that you can't
help but want more of it. And it's such a
short lived scene, but it's so powerful it really stays
with you.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
I think.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
Also one thing that makes this scene so powerful is
this very subtle, understated bit of storytelling where we see
the gas released by Sevika, and then Soka walks around
the table still talking to everyone as people are like choking,
and at the very end he like, I almost get
the sense that he didn't even need to take that
like final swig from the mask. He just did it

(50:59):
to taunt.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
I feel like it was very much here take my
sloppy seconds.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
That's exactly the vibe I got too. And I think
that's such great storytelling because it shows us the viewer
that these Ken Barons have gone soft in their more
luxurious lifestyle, so that.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
Silko has now given them.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Silko, on the other hand, clearly hasn't. The guess isn't
affecting him as much, and he's still quite resistant to
it or more used to it. I think it's just
like a really lovely little touch here that tells us
so much about the relationship.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Yeah, I would say Silko put on an effective scene
to show them he's still in power.

Speaker 3 (51:34):
He's a good showman. Yeah, gotta give him that.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
We head back to Piltover and Mel is standing overlooking
the city and she receives a mysterious letter which has
her family crest on it. Oh, so this is a
new twist. Someone who's been excommunicated from Naxis and from
her family, they're reaching out. We cut back to the firelights,
Caitlin is released by Echo, and then Jinx confront Soko

(51:59):
about why he lied about her sister, and he's like,
I was doing this to protect you. Violet is here
with an enforcer and they're only here because they want
the Gemstone. They're not here for you. And we can
see Jinks struggling with this. At first, it's this brutal
scene with her. Soko's trying to administer the eye poke
thing on his own. He can't do it, so Jink's

(52:22):
in a rare moment of not hiding in the rafters,
is hiding behind the chair and comes out and she
is poking him in the cheek with it, and it's brutal.
She's again, this is full on horror movie Jinx, and
you see her start to unravel as he's like, your
sister is not here for you. I was trying to
protect you from that. She's the one that left you.

(52:45):
I'm the one that brought you in. I'm the one
that took care of you. And he's like, I need you,
I need you to complete my weapon and she's still torn.
She administers the eye drop to him and she bolts
it and oh, I just feel like every time I
see Jinx, I am terrified of her. Yeah, and I

(53:05):
feel bad for her.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
And sad stuff.

Speaker 6 (53:07):
We need to take a break, but we will be
right back in just a minute, and.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
We're back back at the sanctuary. Kate, who's been released
by the firelights, convinces Echo to work together and to
return the Gemstone to Jace. This is how we're gonna
break this cycle of violence. This is how we're gonna
bring peace to the Upper and Lower Cities. Meanwhile, Victor, Jace,
and mel are in the lab trying to figure out

(53:45):
the true danger posed by the lost Gemstone in the
under City. They're trying to unpack the grenade that Marcus
had given to j one grenade, one grenade from Look
at this grenade.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
Do you think that they could harness XSEC based off
this one grenade?

Speaker 1 (54:00):
They're making a lot of leaps of logic here. Yes, yes,
mel in fact wants to preemptively prepare for war against
the under City by creating hex tech weaponry. The one
thing that Heimerdinger has been warning us about this whole
damn season, and the energy in this room, for me
at least very much was giving like there's WMDs in

(54:21):
the under City that aren't actually there, and we need
to over retaliate to a danger that we aren't actually
sure is even there.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (54:28):
Yeah, there's a lot.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Of it's not there are WMD's in the under City.
It's there might be. Maybe it's impossible they have the
tech right that they could potentially make it. So we
got to put a stop to it. Now, we have
to end it.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Right, Lockdown's weapons, crush the under city. You know, it's
obviously in an inappropriate scale of response to the danger
that's actually posed. But it shows us what people in
Piltover think of the under city, right right, It shows
us that class device.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
And both Victor and jas are like, no, we didn't
come here do all this research. We didn't harness hextech
to make weapons. What Yeah, I kind of remember you
guys making Hulk hans ulcans. Yeah right, you like showed
it off as one of the first things, and Heybridingo

(55:15):
was like, nah, no, this is a weapon, right, guys,
come on.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
A doc doc laser beam.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
Yeah yeah, what No, it's not a weapon. It's just
so that I can mow the lawn really easily.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Calm down, start start with a hexstack alarm clock.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
Guys, what are we doing?

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Make an Apple watch that runs off hexstach so I
don't have to charge it every fucking night.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Or some lamps for the council building.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yes, oh my gosh, anything except hulk hands and a
doc doc laser beam.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
This is wild to me.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
This really stood out because I'm maybe now here in
episode seven, kind of realizing like, maybe these dudes are
dumber than I thought. Maybe they actually don't know how
the real world operates, and they might just be young
and idealistic enough to be kind of ignorant to the
realities of how societies and cultures and people actually work.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Justice for Heimerdinger exactly.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
I'm starting to think I'm on Heimerdinger's side here, honestly,
But I do love that this scene shows us in
Jase and Victor, this young, hot headed idealism being confronted
by what is often a very messy and complicated reality.
We saw that with Vander and Vai, we saw that
with Jas and Heimerdinger, and for me, it kind of
makes me think, Okay, maybe our elders aren't all just

(56:31):
the cowards and hypocrites that we accuse them of being.
Perhaps they do know a little bit of what they're
talking about. Maybe they do know that real life is
very complicated and very messy, regardless of how idealistic you might.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
Be or maybe there's just jealous that we have Hulkhans.
That's right in the laser guns.

Speaker 3 (56:47):
So smash smash baby.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah. We cut to Victor who is preparing himself. He's
put his brace on. He's going to inject himself with
the shimmer. He does and he activates the Heck's tech runs.
We see Heimerdinger now in this you know Cloak sneaking
across the blockade by boat on the river. Violet and
Caitlin and Echo are heading into Piltover, trying to sneak

(57:11):
through the blockade themselves, and Violet stops and is like,
I have to go back for Powder. I can't leave
her again, and jinks lo and Behold is like up
perched on the top of the bridge like Batman and
has a telescope and like looking down and sees Violet
embracing Caitlin and hug her goodbye. She's overcome with jealousy.

(57:34):
And then we cut to Marcus who catches Caitlin at
an Echo as they're trying to come across. He opens
the floodlights and he has the gun to Caitlin. He's
getting ready to shoot her. He's torn a little himself,
but he has already shot Echo and then oh, this
huge swarm of firelights shows up right the animal and

(57:58):
they start landing on the n They land on Marcus's gun,
click into place, and they explode. Wow wow, and Marcus,
of course, you know, the explosions go off. Marcus has
the gall to be like, hey, Caitlyn, oh my god,
I know I just had you had gunpoint. I know
I just shot your buddy you were traveling with, but

(58:18):
would you please tell my daughter?

Speaker 3 (58:21):
And he dies. Huh.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
I mean I feel for him, but I also I
don't view for him. This was inevitably going to be
the end for Marcus. Yeah, the choices he made in
life were going to end in this way, in one
shape or another.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
He was in two deep.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
He was Okay, let's finish off this episode, because my goodness.
Jinx arrives on the bridge after the explosions and she
takes the gempstone.

Speaker 3 (58:44):
She looks up.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
She sees Vi helping Caitlyn get up after that explosion. Again,
that feeling of jealousy. She's overcome with it, and she
begins firing on them with her gatling gun and anger
at that very moment, Echo on his cool ass hoverboard,
jumps in to the fray. He's fine, he survived the
bullet earlier from Marcus and begins to battle Jinks as

(59:06):
Uy and Caitlin make a run for it. This is simply,
in my opinion, simply one of the most iconic fight
sequences ever animated.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
Like it's just so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
The esthetic, the music, the pacing, the emotional thrust of
it all is just so so good. Echo and Jinks
face off. Echo is actually able to overcome Jinks, but
she then sets off one of her grenades, seemingly blowing
both of them up, and that's where.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
The episode ends. Yeah, really brilliant stuff.

Speaker 1 (59:39):
I mean, this final sequence has so many layers to it,
Like we see these flashbacks to their childhoods in that
grunge spray paint style that we saw at the top
of the episode, and we see how this confrontation these
two kids have played out time and time again when
they were kids, when they were just playing with paintball
guns and fa armor, and we see how Echo knows

(01:00:03):
how Jinx is going to react and knows how to
overcome her in this moment because of those childhood memories
and the playing that they did. Now becoming a life
and death situation. The layers of like emotional storytelling at
play here, just pointing us back towards their childhood and
then making it clear what the stakes are. These two
people are no longer playing and the emotional and physical stakes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
Going to be higher.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
I loved it. I could watch this scene over and
over again. Sometimes I do like just YouTube this scene
just to watch it again.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
I think it's a great scene. I disagree a little
because I don't think we got any scenes with these
to his kids in the first three episodes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
No, we did it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Yeah, why did we spend time? I mean, I know
it was important for Powder to stand up to Milo
and do the shooting gallery scene against him, But what
if we had a scene of her playing with Echo,
recreating this that we then revisit here I in that
moment when Echo has defeated her and he looks down
at her and she seems a little vulnerable. We got

(01:01:02):
scenes with Echo and Violet. We got scenes with Echo
and Clagger and like them showing their friendship. We did
not get Echo interacting with Powder, and so it was.
I loved what it was trying to do, and it
is a beautifully animated thing, and I really like this
dangerous switching between them as a young adults and them

(01:01:23):
as children, and like, you see her as an adult
shooting a real gun at this kid, which switches into
Echo as the adult, and it's a really beautifully done.
But I wanted them to have had this scene in
the first three episodes, or at worst give me a
flashback of them playing at the beginning of the episode
and then get into it, because I really felt like

(01:01:46):
you told me that they had a relationship, yeah, but
you didn't show it to me at all.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
I think that's an absolutely fair point. We get very
little of Echo in those early episodes when they're all kids,
so to have them come back here there is less
emotional resonance with Echo because we don't have history with
him like we do with all the other characters.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Also, to Violet real quick, yeah, at first, she's like, hey, Echo, Caitlin,
I'm going to stay in the under city because I
can't leave my sister behind again. And then suddenly she's like, oh,
here is my sister. Hey, Echo, you go handle her.
I'm going to take Caitlin. I'm going to leave my
sister behind. Actually, after all, it felt like she had
a quick turn around there she saw Kaitlyn was in

(01:02:27):
danger and was like, all right, yeah, you carried me,
now I'll carry you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
That's another great point.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Yeah, you would imagine that Violet would be the one
telling Echo, go help you get out here exactly. I
need to face my sister here on this bridge right now,
rather than rushing to Caitlin and running off with her.
But I think that is something that is going to
uh not help Jinx's feelings about Caitlin and Violet, that
Violet has chosen Caitlin over her in this situation. All right, Wow,

(01:02:58):
a long one today, Yes, two really great episodes though, Yes,
and bridging the end of Act two and the start
of Act three.

Speaker 3 (01:03:04):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Stick around next week we're going to get to the
finale of season one and on tomorrow's episode, Jason Rosie
will be back to celebrate Halloween with you, and then
on Friday we will be having our Agatha season one
reactions with the final two episodes releasing. Right, that's our episode.
Thank you everyone for listening.

Speaker 3 (01:03:24):
To see you next week, Justice rhimerdgger.

Speaker 4 (01:03:31):
X. Ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kisumsion and Rosie
Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
Our supervising producer is.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
A Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor.
Our theme song is by Brian Basquez. Special thanks to
Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi A
disco moderata