Cinepals - ARCANE 2x9 "The Dirt Under Your Nails" Reaction & Discussion! | League of Legends | Netflix

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Michael couldn't join us on this one because he went and HAD A BABY! Congratulations Michael! He'll be back with his reaction to this episode a little later on once he's gotten more into the swing of fatherhood.  Arcane is back on Netflix after three years with it's second (and final Season). Join us as we cover the final chapter of this epic animation series.  Arcane season 2 stars Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Pitch Perfect 2, Hawkeye) as Vi, Ella Purnell (Fallout, Yellowjackets, Army of the Dead) as Jinx, Kevin Alejandro (Lucifer, Southland, True Blood) as Jayce, Katie Leung (Harry Potter series, The Foreigner, Locked Down) as Caitlyn, Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones, The Theory of Everything, Manhattan) as Viktor, Toks Olagundoye (Castle, The Neighbors, DuckTales) as Mel, Amirah Vann (Underground, Tracers, A Jazzman's Blues) as Sevika and Ellen Thomas (Eastenders, Johnny English Reborn, Mrs Harris Goes To Paris) as Ambessa. You can watch the cut down reaction to this movie (and many others) on our YouTube channel https://www.YouTube.com/@Cinepals and the full length reaction is available on our Patreon page https://www.cinejump.com SOCIAL MEDIA ~ACHARA KIRK~ Twitter & Instagram:  @Acharakirk  YouTube:  @Achara  ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals

Senna. Pals. Well, this is awkward. If you've been following along with us, you'd know that Michael was part of these reactions. He's going to have to miss out on the final episode because his wife has been having contractions and so he had to just skedaddle. And I offered him that we could hold off on shooting the last episode and he was like, no, you should just keep on going. Because baby might be here. Yeah.

She's coming when she's coming. You know, she doesn't care. Continuing forward with Arcane, season two, the finale. The Dirt Under Your Nails. Here we go. I am the dirt under your nails, Cupcake. Nothing's going to clean me out. That's cute.

Just like that. You serious? Just like that. There goes arcane. Oh, man. One of the things we're talking about in the end of the last episode is like, how do you wrap all this up? and they found a way to wrap it all up. They were skipping a few beats

to get forward into this story a little bit quicker. Like, they were just in the middle of the war. There's a lot of preamble to the war that was just taken out, which makes sense. They just put you right in the middle of it. Just gave you, I guess, the parts that you would probably want to see.

What you're really waiting for is like the battle between Mel and her mother. And so you got that. And you got Caitlin in there as well because that was unexpected. I didn't know that was going to be a battle. But it makes sense. Yeah.

She took her under her wing. And so both of the people that she was sort of looking at as, like, one is an actual daughter and one as a pseudo-daughter, so to speak, even though it was a manipulative thing, she fought both of them. I mean, it was really satisfying to get to see different characters really come into their own, get into the fight with their own special skills. Like, that was really awesome. It's really cool just to see all of the characters, like, really powered up and going at it. I guess with the episode seven, we get to see the eventuality of what will come. of Piltover.

Yeah. You know. The show is so beautiful because it shows you everything and it foreshadows so much. And yet when you see it, you're just like, oh, I get it now. I just can't believe it's over. I feel like they could have done at least one more season of this to wrap up. But whatever their reasons were, a two-season run, like, that's perfectly valid. And they did a really great job.

Maybe the showrunners, they have other stories they want to tell. And they're like, this is how we wanted to tell this and this is it. And there's nothing more without making it fluff. The reason why it's so great is because, you know, it does hit you in the fields because it's talking about things that are very human, right? Like, even though it is like a fantasy world, jinks sacrificing herself like that knowingly. And, you know, there was a bit of. foreshadowing there as well, right?

Because in episode seven, Powder says to him, like, you know, sometimes you have to let something go. Well, she echoed his, she echoed his own words back to him, which was like, sometimes you have to let something go. To move forward. She did exactly that. She knew Vi had

to let her go. She made the choice for her. God, if I was Vi, I would feel guilty for the rest of my life. Because Powder was like, yo, get off, get off. And she just stayed behind and started touching her you know the what was her father right it's like but that's but see that's the thing it's because vi why won't let go that's her that's her personality that's that's what makes her her she refuses to

give up she never gave up on jinx like she never gave up on her sister so of course she would never give up on her father yeah yeah like we've said before all of the characters are so well written and while it's frustrating when they do things that are completely in character you understand where they're coming from and it's a and it's a tragedy you know but it's also beautiful because you know she's like I'll always be with you and I think we we always want to believe that people that we've lost are always with us like the people that we love are always with us in in some way i think as well like the the message of the beauty in imperfection because like as human beings were all imperfectly perfect right and like what victor found out is in his

quest for perfection at the end of it all it's just loneliness like there's nothing there's nothing there's nothing interesting in a way jace was talking to himself you know Because it was like the Gojita version of Jays and Victor that was like... Oh, was it the Gojita version? I mean, that's what I... It didn't look like straight Victor. I just took it as that was Victor from like... Evolved?

Another universe or something. No, no, no. I don't think so. Oh, you think he's like, Victor evolved? I think it's the same timeline. I mean, it's like Victor was able to... or Victor Jace Victor was able to bounce around a little bit because he's like, I kept trying out different things.

Oh, maybe it was different dimensions and, you know, because he was trying out with different people and seeing them play out. I thought that the whole thing was supposed to be a closed loop. I didn't think it was getting like all these like different dimensions and stuff like that. But then they established with episode seven that there are alternate dimensions. Yeah. Things play out differently. Yeah. But like, why would he still be fighting?

No, it has to be the same timeline because it's like there's clearly a successful timeline out there where everything's peaceful. That's where Echo was. Yeah, you're right. I can't think about it too hard right now. It does kind of make my head want to explode. Exactly. So what makes sense to me, given that they already established that there's a beautiful timeline out there, like everything's chill.

The sensible thing is that Jace and Victor were trying to save their own timeline. Uh-huh. You know, I guess kind of like Avengers Endgame. It's like, yes, there's all these different, but our timeline is the one that matters. Where the people that we know in like our, you know what I mean? Yeah. Our connections exist. That's what I got out of that.

I could be way off the chart here and off the beaten path in a bad way. but that's how I interpreted that. He kept doing this experiment with a young Jays. It's like, obviously, if you just hunt the multiverse, you can find a different universe where everything's played out perfectly well, which is where Echo somehow ended up. Well, yeah, it was that universe where Hextech never happened.

Yeah, never came to fruition. I might be informed by Infamous too much because it was just effectively a closed loop as well. It's like you have this person from the future kind of informing event, you know, and it's all as this sort of weird preventative measure and also trying to fix things. But it ultimately has to culminate in a fix

in order for the Jace Victor person to exist and drop off the little seed in the first place. So it is kind of a close... I guess, yeah. Almost like to Renator, you know, it's like Kyle Reese always had to go back in time. That always had to happen in order for John Connor to be born.

Yeah. So it's a close to... Yeah, you can't have John Connor without Carl Reese. Exactly. A lot of thrilling stuff that went on in this season. They saved a lot of the, I guess, a lot of the best for the last episode. Oh, in terms of like the...

In terms of thrilling action, yeah. Yeah. I mean, they still used a lot of that, like, beautiful montage stuff that they were doing or, like, the tabloes where it was, like, the slow-mo on someone doing something really cool. And I like that. And I love how the show uses the different animation styles to... A lot of different animation styles. Yeah, to, like, really show us what the characters are going through.

Like, it was heartbreaking to watch the watercolor memories of Vander. Vander, like, just disappear. That was, yeah, that was, that really hurt. It did. Because it was like, it was so beautiful. And we, and like, we really gravitated towards that artwork in the previous episode. And it was like so beautiful. And then to just watch it kind of leach away into nothingness, it was just heartbreaking.

I don't know if it was you who told me. I somehow was informed that the. actress who played Jinks cried at the end of her. It was me. I wish you hadn't said that because that's what told me Jinks was probably going to die. I was waiting for that the entire time because like why would she be crying, you know? It could be any number of reasons, Jappy. It doesn't mean that she died.

As soon as you said that, my first suspicion was she died. Immediately, I was like she did. Why would she cry if she died? Maybe I died. I don't know. I just somehow suspected that it was her and it turned out. I'm sorry. I think you'd have to be pretty blind not to realize that it's her.

They were, like, dropping hints the whole time. Like, you could see, especially in this episode, like, just how done she was. She had like a whole arc where she came out of that. She came out of that arc just to have to sacrifice herself. I'm like, oh, damn it. And then Echo is all alone now. I feel bad for him. He went back to save his friends he grew up with.

and the city he grew up in, but it's like, you left paradise behind. Sometimes you have to. No. You have to make that sacrifice, Jabby, for the greater good. Stay on the Princess Cruise Line forever. Forever and ever and ever. This might be premature to ask, but I may as well since we're here.

Which season did you like better? My immediate feeling at season one was better. That was my immediate feeling too. There was a lot about season one that was really, really great. you know what it is i i just wish that like you said that they've took more like seasons with this at least one more yeah i feel like one more season would have been perfect yeah like if they really if they just wanted to close out this story and this story fine i i get it but i think they didn't do us like season eight of game of thrones so i'm happy about that no it's still it's still

an excellent season it's still an excellent piece of television i think The only reason we're saying we want more is because we love it so much. Well, no, it's not just that. I mean, yes, but I think that in watching it, it just felt like you're, you're compressing a lot of stuff that could be played out over, there are things in there that could be played out onto a season by itself. You could really, like, spend time and allow us to live in these a little bit longer, but they already set up the tone and the pacing with season one, to be fair, where from episode three to four, you made a huge jump. Right. And that already sort of set the stage for the kind of. pacing that we're working with, it just felt like even with that, we got to live with these

characters a little bit deeper in season one, whereas season two is like, now everything's sort of scattershot. And so we're jumping around a lot. It's fractured. And so like we're jumping from character to character. Yeah, there was a lot going on. And I mean, we did pick up on this very quickly. We talked about it in other episodes where all the characters are doing different things right now. And so we need to catch up and we need to have dedicated. did episodes with like certain characters and then we go back to the other characters when you know we just want all of them to be back together yeah i suppose the silver lining of episode seven is that if you look at it in a nonlinear way echo does have a happy outcome with with jinks

there's a universe out there where they get to be happy together in a way that also strangely foreshadowed what was going to happen here because in that universe vi was the one that died and Jinks Powder was the one that stayed. And then this one, it's like, it's the other way around. So there is a sort of like synchronicity to everything that they do in this show, you know, like with the fact that in the first season, it starts with the fighting on the bridge. And then this season is bookended with like everything that they're doing on the bridge there

and like honoring the people that gave up their lives. There was a lot of character arcs throughout. the show. I'm still wondering if Heimerdinger knew what went on when Echo was going beyond four seconds. He felt it. I don't know. It seemed like, because when they were doing that whole experiment, they were completely oblivious, but he was dealing with, like, the wrench kind of falling in front of him, and I couldn't tell if Heimerdinger had any sense of something else funky going on. My suspicion is that he knew it was going to do some damage to him, because he jumped out of the thing. He's like, thank you. And it's like, that kind of thank you says,

He knows what he's doing, and he knows what the outcome is about to be. He's not going to go back and play some more banjo. Like, he knows this is it. This is his moment. He's lived a really long time. Yeah. And he's ready to live his best life in the last like, three years. A thousand, yeah, a thousand days.

Yeah. That's my impression. It's like he was grateful. He had his best moments. He's ready to go. I'm like, oh, damn. Yeah. You know.

As much as I love Heimerdinger, that that's death, I guess, didn't really hurt me. Oh, as much. It got me. I don't know. It got me. It got me because he just, he's so, he has so much enthusiasm and hope. He just wants the best in people. He wants the best in everything.

And I don't know. No, the reason why is because I was happy for him. He had the opportunity to live his best life that he got to like come to this strange new reality and, you know, fashion a banjo and become a singer. maybe he hadn't realized that he had an artistic heart all along, you know, but there was no regrets. It was just love. And so I feel sad that he's gone.

I'm like, he lived a full life. Whereas like, Isha, I'm like, why did you hurt us like that show? Why? You did that in episode six. I feel like that death got me even more than Jinx's death. But the thing is you sort of knew that Jinx's death was coming as well. But like we all knew that Isha was going to give herself up. Like the moment she comes running into the battle, you know that this kid isn't going to make it.

Yeah. And it breaks your heart. There's a sense of like shit, something is going to happen with Jinx. But maybe it's just because it was a little kid. What is that thing called, sorry to pivot. What's that thing called behind angels? Is it a halo? A halo?

Okay. I thought the halo was above the head, not behind the head. I thought behind the head was a different thing. But I guess it's also a... I don't know what that's called if you want to be pedantic, but I would just... I was just trying to be accurate. I thought it was called a halo,

but then I was like, oh, I don't want to sound dumb. That was the look that it felt like they were going with for Victor. The dark Messiah look. Yeah, that was wild. That was like a weird hybrid of like an angel and like Matrix Code. It was pretty cool. I really dug all of that, the Mesianic messaging and stuff. Well, like the way they were playing with it and whatnot,

I thought that was just really neat. The idea that, like, they were partners all the way through and through in fixing this whole place. It's just a neat concept. Yeah. I mean, I think the show really is. It's about love and relationships and family. And there's the family that we're bound to by blood.

And the family that we make, you know, like our chosen family. Victor and Jace were very much like the chosen family type feeling. and then like we had vi and uh jinx who are related by blood but then also like mel and her mom and their whole family situation and like just how complicated that is i thought that was like beautifully portrayed when she kills her mom and then she's sad about it and it's like that's so real because you can know that someone you love hurt you or is toxic or abusive to you, but you can still love them, even fully well knowing all of that information, you know? And so, like, I really liked that scene where she's, like, just looking at her

mother's gold mask and you just kind of feel all of the, the storm of emotions that's going on within her. It's complex. It is complex. Yeah. I think they missed a trick with her, with her sister, though. Just play the song by Seal. I know, with all of the great music that they've had in the show. You know, like, they've made some really excellent music choices, always, like, from the first season to this season. And it's, like, it's very thoughtful how they use the music to help the story move forward. Why did the Vander robot come back to life, or whatever that was? Why did it come back to life?

Because none of the other, like, I-robots came back to life, just him. He wasn't a robot, though. But he was different. I don't understand. Right. But then even all of those people that, you know, were touched and kind of like were turning or whatever got to come back. So why wouldn't he be able to? He's extremely resilient.

I don't know. I'm trying to make up excuses. Well, it's just that they showed us that Vander's memories were wiped, right? So how is everyone else brought back if when you're assimilated by the victor? You know what I mean? There's like some kind of inconsistency. there it's weird i was like i was kind of half-heartedly hoping that either this dude this thing is dead move on or vander somehow comes back like you know those the opposing forces in my

right right right yeah but this monster came back i'm like what why what everyone else came back just fine i'm a little confused about that i don't have an answer no i well the answer is the showrunners wanted to kill jinx that's why that happened so there's really like you thought you had emotional damage in episode six, I'm sorry, I would like to give you more. Maybe I'm just mad that Jinks died. I don't know. It hurt. Maybe that's just the mark of a good show is like each of the deaths hit me, at least of

the characters that I, you know, I was invested in. All of the deaths were meaningful. Like even the guy, I don't know, his name, but the one who looked like Vander. It's like he barely said any lines at all, but you knew who he was. See, that's part of the issue with, like, not having another season. It's like, we could have gotten to know that guy. Yeah. We never got to know him.

We never got to know it, really. There was just no room for it. There was way too much to cover to care about him or to like to get to know him better. That's what frustrates me. You know, I did enjoy a lot of their reveals about characters and stuff. Like, I liked the stuff that we learned about Mel and seeing her come into her own with her powers was really, really cool, you know. And, like, getting to know. more about like her family and her mother and all of that was really interesting as well and yeah just

kind of getting more backstory and getting to spend more time with some of these characters like echo you know just really enjoyable yeah i could have had more that's all yeah i really uh dug the way they handled the time travel stuff with echo i thought that was cool like they built in the limitation of the power and what the consequences could be if you take it too far right like the damage it can unleash and so it's like you're really boxed into this little parameter here and I thought that was really neat how they used it it was like a really cool and slick and when in line with Echo and his ability to maneuver around and stuff like that all dope uh so much better than the time Turner thing in Harry Potter as far as I'm concerned

every time you introduce time travel it gets dicey quick and things can really fall apart fast and you think about it for more than 10 seconds you're like wait what why in my opinion they made it work pretty effectively if it's what they what I believe the intention was, if that's what played out, I feel like they did a nice job of closing the loop and making sense of it and playing within the parameters and it works very effectively. And I can't

question that. Because I've seen so much time travel stuff where I'm like, wow. I like the way they did the time travel shit is all I'm trying to say here. I thought that that was quite effective. It got me emotional and I thought the voice acting was phenomenal. The animation was phenomenal. The way it was edited together.

The choices for camera work was super creative. There's just achingly beautiful colors throughout the show. Even though I like season one better, this definitely took it to a new level in terms of just sheer effing beauty. It was just like, there are so many moments. I'm like, I want to capture that. I want to put that as my desktop wallpaper. I want to put that as my foam wallpaper over there.

I want to print that up and put it over here. Like, it was so much of that, you know? Really, really beautiful. Throughout the show. And so it's like, at the very least, you get that. You guys, thanks so much. Hopefully you enjoyed the show. let us know what you look better between season one and season two,

and will you be buying it in a 4K steel book Blu-ray? Hell yeah. Peace out.