The Ringer-Verse - ‘Arcane’ Season Two (Part 1) | Mint Edition

Episode Date: November 9, 2024

Jomi and Steve are back for more Mint-vember! The boys are breaking down the first three episodes of Season 2 of ‘Arcane’ like only they know how. Stay till the end to hear the guys awards for the first three episodes. Hosts: Jomi Adeniran and Steve Ahlman Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional production support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? It's Austin Rivers here and we are back for another season of OffGar. Me and my guy, Pasha Giggy, are hitting your podcast feeds every Monday and Thursday talking everything hoops. Austin is bringing that 11-year NBA veteran perspective and of course keeping you guys entertained throughout the season. Make sure you tap into OffGard with Austin Rivers on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to follow everything we've got going on social media. The OffGar podcast, Ringer NBA, and of course check us out on Ringer NBA's YouTube channel. We're getting better. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimphia today. Call 1-800-526-7. 73736 to learn more or visit trimfire radio.com. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support.

Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. restrictions apply, services not available in all areas. Hello and welcome into the ringerverse. The ringer's nexus feed for all things fandom. I'm Steve Allman. I'm Jimmy Dinner on. And today's a very special day here on Mint's edition,

the once in a while podcast that you just can't live without with all of the fandom that you just can't live without. Jomi, it's a very special day. Dude. We had a long week, but we're going to push past it, and we're going to be talking about one of the great things that came out this week, Arcane. Bruh, it's been three years.

You know how long three years is, bro? Very long time. It's 1,095 days. Right. Right? It's 26,280 hours. Okay, but we're here. And for all 26,300, yep, that.

Yep. We've been waiting for RK season two, baby! The return. Bit of Mint Edition lore. This is probably the first thing that we ever wanted to talk about as a twosome. It's the reason the show exists. Yeah, it's pretty much that. We've wanted to talk about it for so long.

It took so long for the second season to come back. We had a wonderful chat last week with Ben about season one that we hope that you check out. And straight up, Arcane is probably one of our favorite things in the fandom space coming out right now. And we're here to bring you in Mint Vember All of the action They've decided to, in their infinite wisdom, Netflix, we'll be releasing this in three parts. Episodes 1 through 3 of Season 2 of Arcane

came out this weekend. Three more will come out next weekend and three will come out the following weekend and we're going to be here every weekend to talk about all three of those parts. We're going to be recapping season two episodes 1 through 3 of Arcane with you today. So,

Heavy on the spoilers. Super heavy. Heavy on talking about Heimerdinger's new fits. Do you like the name Heiberdinger? I think it's a lot. You know what I'm saying? Like Heimerdinger, you know. Especially looking the way that you look.

I mean, well, I mean... The way that Hemerdinger looks. He just like, it reminds me it's like Jacob, Jingley Schmidt, you know what I'm saying? Jacob Jengel Heimers Schmidt, you know what I'm saying? Well, that's what Sean called him in the episode of Syke. Yeah, jingley Schmidt. You're saying his name is John Jacob,

Jingleheimer Schmidt? Yeah. That was his name too, but they used to shout it. And then this other guy is going to be like, well, you're not going to believe this. You're not going to believe, you know what I'm saying? It's also his name. My name too.

Oh my God. That's what it reminds me of. Yeah, it's a solid name, but it's also like, all right, John Jacob, why don't you slow down there, champ? This really is the pluckiest pod on the ring of verse, isn't it? I mean, well, it's definitely the puckiest pod in the ring of verse. is it the pluckest pod in the ringer as a whole. Who's to say?

I'd imagine so. I would think so. I mean, look, we love what we do. We love what we cover. And we love arcane. We love arcane. And we're very excited to get into it. Before we do, some programming reminders, very quick, this Tuesday, button mash is going

to return to talk about and take a look back on Half Life 2's 20th anniversary. Jummy, have you ever played Half Life 2? No. But I did play a... Portal 2 and Black Mesa is in Portal 2. They're like, yo, don't work for Black Mesa. Okay. What would you, if you were to try to figure out what, like trying to guess what happens

in Half-Life 2, what would you say it happens? So I'd imagine that there is a nuclear thing that happens. And you got to go get the nuclear material because the half-life of the material is deteriorating. Right. That's what it's about. And there's a silent protagonist. uses a crowbar and doesn't talk. All right, you put Rosario Dawson in there and you're good.

You got it all. Nailed it. I killed it, yes. Also on Tuesday, House of ours is going to be giving you their penguin finale deep dive. But before all of that happens, the Midnight Boys are going to be bringing you their instant reactions to the season finale of the penguin coming right when that episode ends on Sunday night. So mark your calendars for that. Jomi. Are you ready to start the show?

I was going to start singing the show. For a second, just for the people that are listening, Joey looked like he was about to sneeze. I was going to go deep into the Imagine Dragons joint, tap in. They kept it this year. I thought they might change, you know, like anime season two, they like change it up, you know what I'm saying? It was so iconic that they locked it back in for a round two.

So you know you gotta do what it do. I'm not going to sing it. Y'all know this thing. That's fine. Well, spoiler warning for all of the, of Arcane and season two episodes 1 through 3 everybody wants to be my enemy

save the sympathy quick confession does that song slap now that you've heard it like five more times no shot um but I do think that it's it's kind of nah it didn't move me brother it gets me in the mood for Arcane it really does I mean it does set the table right when I'm like all right let me check my phone feeling the next time

under no other circumstance would I mess with Imagine Dragons but I I think I don't skip the intro. I don't skip the intro. You liked, you liked Radioactive. No, I don't. Everybody, like, your song was everywhere. Everybody liked radioactive.

That was, that song was doing a whole lot. Come on. All right. Well, we get our intro. That's right. For Arcade, season one. Let's break it down and start with episode one. We begin immediately after the attack the jinx makes on the council and the rest of the entire city of

Filthover. Jesus. Good God. she made a mess of the place. The council takes its ball and runs away, getting our hex tech out of there, and our beloved Victor is stricken. So let's see who survived.

Body count, right? Body count. Let's look at it. You got Jace alive. Madarda alive. Salo alive, but paralyzed, right? And Shula, Yes. Alive.

Dead. We have Balbock, Husko, and Cassandra Kiraman. Correct. Gone. Goneers. Lost them.

Tough. Four one out. Ring the bells. For them, it's tough. Is there any love lost for our fallen council members? Kenil's mom. Yeah, Caitlin's mom. Obviously, the rest of them,

you know, it's kind of tough. You hate to see it. But, you know, people die every day be. You know what I'm saying? Wow. All right. Moving on. No, you feel bad. You feel bad.

That's fair. Before we get our opening credits, though, we have a massive explosion of hex tech that affects Victor and puts him in a bit of a cocoon. That's right. Victor got cooked. In a hex coma.

I mean, it's interesting to look at it, right? Because he, so when I watch it and I'm like, huh, how did Jason Medard to get out there rather unscathed? But everybody else either dead or under rubble or, whatever and you look at Victor Victor is like fighting for his life right there

and Jake makes the call like hey that's my boy right and like what like kind of like cyborgs him right like literally for sure like Vic you know in in DC takes the mother box or the hex core and puts them in a cocoon

to I mean like it's kind of wild it's kind of nuts and then and then Victor ends up in what's what I call in my notes the Pop-Tart of eternity. Pop-Tart is... That's a bad feeling. I don't want a Victor-Philpaw.

No, we don't want any Victor-Fillic. Moving on. And then, after our credit sequence, we have an amazingly made black-and-white music video sequence that illustrates Caitlin bearing her mother and Vi kind of being on the outs with how the attack went,

and it's very melodramatic and good. What did you think about this music video sequence? What did you think about the tone that's set for Arcane. I remember when we saw this in our screening at Arcane, and I don't know if you weren't sat next to me, but we're on the opposite ends. We were opposite ends of the theater.

Yeah. They separated us. But this was the moment where I saw, when I was like, oh, Arcane's operating on different gear now. Now, the episode is always operating with gas. And so coming in, I knew we were in for a treat. But I think what this moment illustrated in this episode, was their connection because you're watching,

you're watching Kaelin go through this grief and go through this whole thing. But she's standing strong, right? She's standing tall in front of everybody, her dad, the people have pilt over the entire thing. And it's not until her and Vi are alone that we finally see her cry and break down. Right.

About everything that happened, you know? And that just speaks to their relationship and how much they trust each other in that moment. I do think it was kind of crazy of Caitlin. It's like, hey man,

your sister just blew up my mom's and I know that you know, y'all got that whole beef and stuff, but if you could be an enforcer real quick, that could be real cool. I was like, yo, Caitlin, it's a lot going on. Comes death row, put on the bad.

It's not come to death row. It would be like Katie, joining the Warriors times a billion. Okay. You know what I mean? Like, it's just the worst, like, yo. Bad luck. Those are my, like, we've been fighting enforcers down there for years.

You know what I'm saying? I can't then wear the badge of my oppressors. That's crazy, Caitlin. You know, and that drives a little wedge between them, which kind of sucks. But at the day, you got to make the call. And I think that, like, Caitlin kind of pushed it a little bit at that moment. Yeah, but again, she kind of ends up going with that, but we'll get to that in a little bit. after our

failed recruitment attempt Vi goes off and decides to get a little day drunk and we go back to the lab Victor is still held up in a coma we got to figure out what we can do with Hextech now Mal's kind of on the outs

trying to figure out what the next move is to think that like okay the council kind of wants blood here we need to find a way to make an example Marcus will likely like kind of go back to the drawing board here as to why he's back in this

what did you think about the kind of like the early table setting for what we're going to see when it comes to like finding this revelation that Hextech is this powerful I mean I think for what it means for Chase specifically is that

like so the season one Harmon Dinger is like, hey, brother, the nice thing, what you want. You don't want these problems. Right. And Chase is like, actually, old man, the time for your,

your time is over. It's my time now. Okay? And the Hextech has done wonderful both over. But we always knew that there'd be a, you know, when there's heads, there's tails. Yes.

You know? And so now the chicken's coming home to roost. And, I mean, we see it in the other episodes, but when it's all said and done, man, this might have cooked the entire, you know, Poltso-Vazahn, everything. Right. Might be fried because of their,

they're getting to the arcane. And so I'm really sure to see where that goes going forward in like the next six episodes because there's some stuff that happens in later episodes that like just incredible mind exploding, fantastic where I'm like, yo, this could really mean the end of everything. What do you think the public sentiment

around Hextec is now because I feel like the citizens of Piltover, maybe not so much the undercity, but Piltover for sure is like, this is, we got a attack and an explosion like every other week because of this stuff. Nah, man, I don't think it's that, no, it's not really Hextec, it's more

of the under the underlings, the Zon, people of Zon. Right? That's like Hextec has, I think maybe Hextec has exacerbated, you know, some of the problems. But the main thing is the weaponization of Hextech, right? Jace and Victor only want to use HECDIC to help people. People like Mel's mom and the council want to use Hextec to destroy folks for weapons and things of that nature. And that's the division that has become the problem.

You know, we see it with Mel's mom trying to get, oh boy, to help. Like when they show up to the council the first time and they're like, we want to use HextechTech to fight the war. two to one, right? They win that and then they're like, actually, we'll fight your war, but we won't use Hextech to do it. Yeah. That's the line, I think, that. It's kind of getting to be their nuclear option at the moment.

Yeah, well, because once you unleash Hextech weapons to the world. Then there's no going back. I mean, yeah, Malm wants to use it to make money and solve all her problems and all that nonsense. But at the end of the day, you're going to create a bunch of weapons that could, eradicate people who don't deserve it, right? The people who's on.

And so it just becomes, it's tough. You know what I'm saying? Because what do you do when you're putting in a corner, your back's the wall, you have this button you can press that could make, you know, make it all go away, but then at what cost? Exactly. And at what cost, I think, is a good transition to vise.

I want to call this like NBA equivalent of tampering because there's no way that all of these enforcers just come to divide and be like, hey, you're a hero. You're really good at doing the hero thing. I really like the way that you do that. I look up to you a lot. How about you enjoying the enforcers?

Like, we didn't just come here because your girlfriend told us to. Like, doesn't that feel like tampering a little bit? I mean, I don't want to say tampering, but it's definitely like pushing the needle, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Hey, we heard about chew.

Like, give them the softer touch. Well, because, I mean, I'm sure she was out there drinking for a couple of days, He's not doing much. And Kailen went back. And, you know, when you're in love, you talk about, you know, who you're in love with. Like, yeah, this girl Vi, man.

She showed up what was right. She was out there doing her thing, man. If y'all ever met her, man, y'all, y'all would see. Y'all not hearing me right now. She'd go. And then when she sees, when Maggie sees Vi in the street, she's like, oh, stay. Hey, what? Yo, the big homie was talking, you talking about you crazy.

You in the street. That's kind of nuts. You got to lock in. What you doing? And obviously you guys have seen episodes, one through three already and there's going to be a little bit of ups and downs in vi and katelyn's relationship as the episodes go on but in this moment do you think that vi and kailen are still like on the outs enough because we didn't have like so much of a consummation outside of like one moment

of their connection with each other are we going to talk about that are we going to wait to talk about we're going to wait to talk about that okay but from the last season to this we're like we still can't really, we can't really lock in with these two. But then she reluctantly will decide to join the enforcers near the end of this episode.

The job got to get done. Uh-huh. But before that, we've got to have another great action sequence. We've got an attack on the memorial for all of the counselors. Mal gets up,

gets a great speech, and we have this great sort of sequence where it's intercut between this slow motion of who this figure might be, are we waiting for Jinks to show up? And it turns out it's just another

gang member from the undercity. This is a presumed attack seemingly coordinated by Jinks, or at least to be thought to do so. And then we're going to get to who that's going to be revealed by later. But after this action sequence, it's kind of stunning about the amount of things that happen here, like the amount of like hex tech that's being perverted into like giant mecksuits.

and all these great things. What did you like most about this action sequence? I like that, obviously, that Vi and Caitlin stood up for each other, you know, had each other's back. I love that. I love that Vi's instinct when it was all going to hell. It's like, all right, you get this boy Hammer. Let me shout out my team.

Yeah, it was the hammer. Shout out to team Arm and Hammer. They was locked in. You know what I mean? I mean, obviously this scene, like, brought, brings the team together, right? Vi, Jinx, her big. homie that she was drinking with, Maggie and what we're calling him, Sal. Sal.

Sal Amanda. Sal Amanda. His name is Sal Amanda. Amanda. Right? Mr. Amanda. Mr. Amanda. The chainsaw was crazy, though.

Chainsaw was great. Chase saw was crazy. Frankly, yeah. Jay's got some crazy plod armor, brother. You survived the explosion. Then you get a chainsaw to the back and you good. Meanwhile, Victor in a Pop-Tar coma? He's wore nothing but a suit this entire series.

You know what I mean? And he's standing tall and I'm like, bro, okay. I see what's going on. He wears one t-shirt at the end of this, at the end of this episode, and then that's it. You know what I mean? Like, all right, bro. Like, you built different.

You build different. But, I mean, the show always delivers on the action scenes. I mean, we talked about last week. We'll continue to talk about it. You know, just watching everybody, like, fight those big giant neck suits was awesome. running away from the chainsaw was excellent. And yeah, and then they built their team. They got, you know, the Power Rangers going down as Kaelin Storms into the office.

The council gives them a license to kill. Basically, it's like, look, instead of an invasion, a small team. We're thinking about getting a team together. Getting a team together. Undercover. Yeah. You know, we're not really undercover because they got badges. They got badges and uniforms.

Full blues. Everybody's in full uniform. And man, seeing... By is so sad and reluctant to be wearing that shit. Man, she don't want to be there, but she got to be there. She does not want to be there at all. And this is, I don't want to say like the magic of the show, but this is like one of those things where,

if you really think about it, it's really genius. She spent her whole life fighting enforcers, right? And she spent her whole life protecting her sister, right? And now you got to pick a side, champ. Where do you want to be? You want to be with your sister finding enforcers? be on the forces finding sister. At this point in time,

your sister's done so much damage. You now have to wear the uniform of the people that oppressed you in order to kill your sister. Brother, that is the worst. She's having the worst kind of day. And the confliction that she has is actually very well illustrated

in the episode that's going to be coming up where she's just pulled in two different directions. And she's not really like fighting on her own side. It's more of like, okay, well, I got to be with Caitlin because not only does it feel like I might, lose her in this conflict because she's obviously wanting to avenge her mom, Caitlin is.

But also she wants to find jinks and see if there's even any way to... I don't think so. But it's like, it's point of no return at that point. Well, she's, I mean, she said it like, my sister's gone. She says it multiple times like, hey, ain't none there. Pouder

is gone, brother. Right. There's nothing there for me to go, to go get. Right. And so it's not about getting back her sister, or trying to find something in her sister. It's like, if anybody's going to put her down, it's got to be me. And then we're back to what I'm calling

mysterious pre-post credits. Brother out. Screen goes dark. You're like, all right. Hey, good episode. Oh, wait, no. Whoa, whoa. Something's going on.

Man in the Woods turns on a gas grenade in front of a pack of wolves. I don't really know what to say about that. Other than, Ooh, spooky. We'll have to find out more in the episodes to come. But episode two, titled Watch It All Burn. Jinks mourns in a very emo

underground sequence or underwater sequence. Silco. Rest in peace. Backwatch, nah. Yeah, man. That's more like it. Rest and piss. Tough to, you hate to see it.

No, no. Silco, we don't like him, right? Not the biggest fan. I don't know. He was a good heel. I mean, he was a great heel, but that's why you don't like him. That's fair. Music video time, though.

Yeah. The elimination and decimation of Silco's like table of gangs. The Cam Barrens. Yes, exactly. How do we like this sequence? Well, so what's interesting about this one is we don't know half the people. Like, the people we're left with. Right.

We have no idea who they are. We have what I'm calling the top hats. The top hats? Sexy Lucre Libre Goth girls. Top hats. It's sexy lucha livery goth girls. And then like a couple of gangs in between. Those are the main themes that I spotted.

You got the, we got Weasel boy. Yeah, Weasel boy. The big weasel. We're calling him Smeach. His name is Smeach. That's what they call him in the show. Yes, his name is Smeach.

And you know what? I really can't take any character seriously when they're looking at him dead and on in an alley and be like, times up, Smeach. That thing is so, because like my first thought, obviously when I see Smech's, uh, suicide squad and the weasel.

Oh, weasel guy. He's got the bug eyes. He's literally like, like, like, like. He's a bug-eyed, uh, Heimerdinger, basically. Nah, I will respect Heimerdinger. Jesus Christ. Maybe. No.

No, maybe. Okay, here, note for Heimerdinger, this entire series is a little preachy. Maybe. Little preaching. Maybe he's old. That's what old people do is preach. You ever been around an old man? All they want to do is pass down wisdom.

Yes. You students don't, don't age like 300 years for me. Exactly. I know, but a bit moreover. You ever met a man over 65? Yeah. Every single thing is, hey, son, let me tell you a story. It's the old ways.

Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly. I don't put it past Harmony to be like that. But Smeach kind of, like, he, only difference between him and the weasel from Suicide Squad is the robot arms and legs. I like, okay, again, love these designs. This shout out to the animation team again. Because Smeach has this great character design.

where not only his arm like articulates into like different like tools and things that are like used to make points. He also varies in height. Whenever he wants to like make a point, there's a moment when he's confronting jinks and like he just gets like five feet taller just to meet her at eye level. It's so cool. And then like it'll like they'll be he'll be having conversation when they were talking with the rest of the camp barons. And like when um, uh, Safika was like, yo, we got to stop. We got to stop the fighting.

and he's like talking about getting jinks and his arm is moving as he's talking. Yeah. With the words, with the syllables, I thought that was just excellent animation. Right. So at the end of our music video, Jinks kind of recruits a cute little kid.

No, I want to say recruit. But like, it's like a soft adoption. Hey, no, no. I don't even know it's a soft adoption. Or like the kid was following Jinks around. Sure. Because Jinks saves her life. Uh-huh.

Right? From the top hats. And she's like, hey, I saved you a little homie, have a good life. Kids like, actually, I really got nobody else. So we kind of stuck together type stuff, you know what I mean? So good for jinx, you know what I'm saying? You got a little daughter? That kid's too aggressively cute.

Yeah. It's like, it feels manipulative a lot. It is. I think it is, buddy. I think it is, buddy. I think it is, buddy. But turf wars ensue. have the top hats versus sexy goth lucia libraes uh skeva tries to suit for peace what do we think

about this negotiating skeva in over her head no i don't think she didn't overhead i would imagine that she is doing her best to keep together right remember she says we can't give up our own it's the same thing vander told her in the last drop in the uh in the first part of season one right Right. She's become the person who's trying to keep together, and she was given Vander all that nonsense. Yes. All that nonsense. Very long time.

The first part. Now she's in his spot, and it's tough, right? Especially without her arm. It's difficult. So she's, it's almost like Shardon Freud in the sense like, ah, now you're in that position. It was funny then. Not funny now. It's not so funny now.

I'm curious. it seems that like the only thing that these gangs need to do is unite against top side. And that's the only thing that's kind of keeping them back. But the only thing that they seem to want is Jinks. And that's things and they think that that might be selling all of her problems. So the bounty's out. People try to get that, get that thing going. But Jinks and Skeva probably lament the loss of Silco.

They're trying to figure out ways of like getting things right. after this attack, even though Jinks kind of screwed the kind of. Kind of. Kind of. Just a little bit.

It's actually incredible. It's like, it's got to be like super power levels of like how bad can you fuck up a job or like how bad can you break something? Is Jinks kind of like Oz and the Penguin

where you just be doing stuff and then you got to like deal with the aftermath? You don't think about like, man, if I do this, this might, this could affect some. Or you just do it and then you'd be like

Ah man that looks like a problem I must have to deal with that She's a very in the moment planner Hardly ever a You know Five steps ahead person Maybe one step It's only one step

I don't even think she's thinking about tomorrow It's yeah it's very true Which is crazy because She's got intricate plans And all that stuff She was living on like a jet engine Just throwing bombs into a chasm So she wasn't really thinking about tomorrow that much

I yeah but at the same time I don't want to say I want better for Jiggs at this point, and it's way past gone. Right. But to see that character from Powder becoming Jinks, then she's becoming an agent of chaos in a way that is irreparable. Yeah. It's kind of nuts.

I mean, we talk about like character arcs and shows. This is the kind of stuff. We always want people to get good and redeem themselves and all that. This is the opposite way. Or watching somebody go from Plykeyeed, and innocent to you've got to go. To monster.

Yes. To an absolute monster. There's still a lot of game left even after these first three episodes. And there's also not, but like redemption arc for jinx? Yes or no. It's over?

It's over. It's got to go. No, it's got to go. You got to. Fair enough. It's, I feel like it's a fair question because like we've seen shows

accomplish a lot less with a lot more time. We can't. It's hard. It's hard. Can't have it. Back top side. Victor emerges from his cosmic pop tart

looking like a shrivel little blueberry with superpowers not looking great but the tousled hair is a really good look for him I'm glad he did that and I'm glad like you know hey man sky he mentioned sky shout out to the home girl what I find interesting about this scene was

he he looks or Jason's like hey cold it's like I feel a lot of things. I wouldn't exactly call it cold. I wouldn't call it cold. Brother, you're not human name. Listen, he touched the other side.

Hey, man. Nah, he's something completely different. That's fair. And he says, hold on, let me give you some clothes. Gives you one single Jedi cloak. That's it. How many, what do you need? I don't know.

But it's more of just like, hey, you clearly look dark and mysterious. Let's give you something that makes you look even more dark and mysterious. We give him a cloak you hope and you go to your bedroom. I know. some more clothes, not go into to the, to the, to not going to Zon and like start looking like Hobo Jesus.

Well, we'll get to Hobo Jesus in a minute. But again, I'm just, the show operates on the rule of cool very well, I'll say. Where if a character design is informed even slightly by something that happens to them, yeah. This show leans in and makes it look the coolest

ever. Yeah. Oh, so he's like all like purple and shriveled and like scarred across his face. Why do we give him a cool cloak and make his cane like four feet taller and make it look like the staff of Moses? Metaphor writes itself, but like it looks great. Well, because he's standing up straight for the first time. Exactly.

Oh, we've ever seen him. It's a fascinating thing to see. Then cut to our good buddy Echo. I haven't seen him in a minute. Echo, Echo, Echo. How are we feeling about Echo right now? What's it like I feel like of the episodes that we've gotten so far I feel like Echo has been a bit shoehorned in right now

I don't think about a little bit no well I wouldn't say that I wouldn't say that that's insane to say he and Hemerdinger I mean Hamerdinger says it that's my newest pupil Right right he sees something in Echo that I think we will That was we will see manifest in the coming episodes For sure but not I mean he's the guy who is in charge of the firelights, right? All those people, they bring them to the tree.

Secret society, hidden away. Exactly. Like, he's in charge of that section of Zahn. And I think he plays an important role. I think he's, we saw him play an important role in these three episodes. I think we're going to see him playing a point role going forward because he kind of understands tech tech in a way that other folks understand. Remember, I guess we'll get to it later.

But he is smart and intelligent. I think there's a reason, Heimerdinger, bottom of board. Exactly. And not to say that he doesn't serve any use or utility in the story. I just think that he, at the moment,

in these three episodes, he's the one that's just most around. And more so that he's going to be coming into the four, I'm assuming in the latter episodes. More around than Maggie, Sal, and the other dude with the shield. Sure. You know,

you got to have people to feel, you know what I'm saying? I feel like Echo is like just on the cusp of our main ensemble. But I wouldn't even say he's a main ensemble. humble guy. You think so? I mean, maybe, but like, after like, Jinks and Vi, Caitlin, for sure. Jace, Madarda, you know, Heimerdinger, I feel like those people... She's got lots of plates to spin. I just want more for my guy. I want more for him. I don't know what more he could be doing other than being there, being the foil for Jace, right? Because

he and Victor had very much like the same ideals, even if it was for on, even though the eyes might have been on a different prize, they still had similar goals in my. whereas Echo is thinking about his people down there in Zon, in the fissures, right? And so it's going to be interesting to see how Jace and Echo get along going forward when it's like, hey, buddy, you're killing my tree for life. Exactly. I kind of need to stop the nonsense. Speaking of Jason Echo, they break into the lab, back top side.

That scene was so funny. It was so great. You're doing like, duh, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. And then I really like when he, like, uses. that thing to like unscrew the screws at the top of the sewer pipe and then just he's there. He's there. Well, because Chase is ready and willing. Hey!

Whoa, whoa, whoa. We just got blown up, bro. You cannot be sneaking up on people like this. Yeah. We are on high alert. We are on the high. The block is hot, brother, relax. We are cold orange right now. And then they, you know, echo comes out and I'm doing like, oh, hey, it's like being

his like new boyfriend. Yeah, yeah. With your ex, he's like, oh, yeah, this is my replacement. Yeah, this is the the homie, it's the homie, it's my new pupil. And they both echo and Jason look at each other and both go, hmm, like, size each other up. Yeah, you drink tea? You drink tea?

What you're trying to do? I'm trying to scrap. I feel like that was kind of cute. That was a little flirty. It was fun. You know, you just got to size them up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we find out that the hex is, it's poisoning the tree.

Mm-hmm. Poisoned in the tree. Uh-oh. So after that, Victor is seen around roaming the city, uh, looking, real sad. Everybody's having a bad time. We've been caught with hex leprosy. Well, no, that's shimmer stuff.

That's the side effects of the shimmer. Leprosy, excuse me. Yeah, you get addicted to the shimmer and you start, you know what I'm saying? It's kind of tough. You got the shimmer. You got bliss. You got drops.

The winters and the losers are all the same. Any fictional drug, which fictional drug you try? I feel like shimmer is sending you to the ninth dimension. I'm not taking, I'm not taking shimmer. I've seen what it did to them, but I'm not taking shimmer. Shimmer will get you out there. Nah, bro. I don't, I don't know.

It would be a great trip. I don't think I could do bliss, though, bro. I definitely can't do drops. I don't like, I don't like the idea of, like, mushrooms. It's not really a, really a thing. So you don't, let's talk about any, again, within the spans of any legal statute in California. You know? You're a cop.

Steve, you a cop. Why are you being police? I'm familiar with the rules. Why are you being the police right now? Ain't nobody stitched on nobody. No. We're talking hypothetical. You're not talking in the microphone?

Nobody's listening. We're talking about. You think the cop? You think this is the young thug trial? You think they listen? You think this is, you think they got YW. Melly people on this one?

Like, oh, you was in the podcast talking about talking about mushrooms. Come to jail, brother. It's not. I'll come on, I'll come on that pod like to Kachchi 6-9. Oh, my goodness.

You was. You a snitch. Mm-hmm. Oh, my God. Caitlin and Vi. In Fortress, searching Jinx's hideout, their former hideout in the undercity, with gas.

This was so cool. This was a great sequence. I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff that we see in these first three episodes. Guess what, Arcane? Good-looking show. Who would have thought? Who, you know what I'm saying? Who knew?

This scene in particular was pretty. impressive, not only because of how it looked, but also how it felt. It's a great high tension moment. Well, because, so we've seen them, like, so in the first part of season one, that's where they, that's where they get discovered by the enforcers. Exactly. When they were kids. We, like, we have history with this place.

They've been back there a couple of times, I'm pretty sure. But this is, this is different. History repeating itself. Kind of. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? Time is not, uh, it's not aligned. It's a flat circle.

It's not, it's not. Something I'd say. It's just, yeah, that's why clock's around. And for jinx and for Vi, it's kind of, I don't want to say like, it's not a coming to Jesus moment. It's not that serious. That comes later. But it's a, it's a full circle moment where you realize, oh, man, like. The struggle's just going to keep happening.

Well, no, it's like, it's really over. Like, it's really done. It's, like, it's big, like, you can say, you can say it as much as you want. You can say, how many times you hear somebody say, I'm done with him, I'm never going back. Right. And they come back. They say it all the time.

In order to, like, in that moment, they don't say it. They show it. Yeah. Right? And it's like, this part of their life, this moment in time is gone. There's such a great thing that this show does. And it happens in this moment where Jinks clearly sees Vi as an enforcer. and the empathy that you could have for formerly powder, now jinks,

you see all of these lines that led them on this path. And for a certain type of character, acting a certain type of way, with all of these like borderline Shakespearean levels of misunderstanding and sort of like cosmic mishap that happens from the people in the margins of their lives, that affect them directly, to see enforcers led by her sister. Like, storming where she used to, look, where she used to train and hang out. And, like, she would reminisce. Like, that was affecting to me.

We've only had a season of this show. And we see those cycles come back. And it's like, man, it's nuts. And it's in this cool green tone where everybody's got, like, goggles. Goggles, it's awesome. Rest in peace to Clagger, man. guy got him goggles he was gogged up well we're about to say rest in peace to smeech tough for smeech well no i mean i don't i can't be i don't want to gas the show up too crazy

but man like they gasped the like the hideout bro the we're watching jinx cry and it's not on some hey man bro like get that off my screen it's affecting nobody just cries in this show it's like the most animated cry and it like well no Well, they moat, like, if you watch, like, I'm talking like Eagle Eye, like tap in. They, like, they are humans, obviously, like, yeah, yeah. But they moat like humans. Like, there's a scene in season one where Jace and Silco are negotiating the deal, the terms. And you know how, like, when somebody kind of has you, you stick your tongue into your cheek and just go like, like, oh.

Like, Silco does that. It's, like, very human. They squinch their noses. It's very much like how people would, like, people's facial reactions act when they hear something, something gets said. You see there's, like, there's so many things that, and this is where I want to gas up just the animation of the show, because it's moments like that where you're like, how do they capture that? How do they think to capture a moment in a character's affect that makes them go, like, chew their tongue a little bit? Or squint their nose just so. Or, like, flick their lip in a way that, like, you know exactly what they're thinking just cut by the look on their face.

That's a masterclass in animation and emoting. And then you got to know, forget. And then it just looks incredible. Right. Right. And then it just looks incredible, you know, it's just a spectacular undertaking that they've done over there. And for this scene in particular, you feel the weight of, because we know that that, that, that. Vi has been like, yo, I'm done with powder.

Powder has like, like, become Jink. She's gone. She become Jinks like who the sister I knew is no longer there, right? Right. For Jinks, she hopes that maybe Vye is out there somewhere. Even with blowing it up, you're still like, oh, maybe my sister could still be there somewhere. Under the guise of her knowing that she's never going to be understood, even by-bye. But still, right?

and then you see she sees her sister with the blue on and it's like well that's that oh for like oh oh this is how you show up filled some type of way and again for all the stuff that jinx has done all the stuff that she's put the city of zon it built over we still like when she when she cries that tear they're like dang that is cinema that's how you make a freak a TV show they killed it It's great. We're about to cry some tears for Smeach. Not really. Well, it's one of the best action sequences that I've ever seen.

How about that? How about that? Oh, dude, it was awesome. It was incredible. Smeach and his goons jump jinks in the alley. Cute baby kid shows up. Our girl, Skeva shows up as well. Arms free, gunning them down, trying to get, collect that bounty.

Jinks makes a slot machine arm. So there's like a thousand things that I could say about this scene that worked excellently. One, when Savika shows up with the gun, he comes through the fog. It's like a shot out of a movie. And it's like, and the way the fog like dissipates as she, like as she moves through it. Special. It's phenomenal. Again, we could talk about the.

And like the music that happens is that happening? We could talk about the anime. and the stylistic stuff all day. But that was awesome. To, like, the machinations of Schmeach and his abilities. I kind of love this guy. I kind of like this guy. I like Schmeets in a way that, like, you know,

you kind of like the dirty rat that live outside your crib. Here's the thing. It's like, what's up, little, honey? You kind of, don't come to my crib. Exactly. But you kind of cool, man. You deal with the thing. Here's why I kind of like it.

You look at that character and you don't think that the voice that he has is what he's going to sound like. He kind of sounds like a slick talking, like, cool gangster guy, but he looks like a ugly rat man. Ugly rat man. With like, like, skinny robot arms that has like a plane propeller in his hand. Come on. He's got go-go gadget.

He's legitimately got go-go gadget arms. It's so great. It's fantastic. Like the inventiveness of a slot machine. That's the third thing, you know. Wakandan robot arm. but it's not even that like it's a slot machine it's that you legitimately press it

it's the luck of the draw you get the and the corresponding effects happen in that sequence it's like she playing Mario Kart yeah you know what I'm saying get a power up on there like it's just and it's so fun and again the way it's animated just like really silly just a fantastic scene when she tells when she tells Smeach like

she's like hey there's deal to be made she's like ah you you said you made your final offer i was like let's go let's go let's go come on come on that's our first and final it's really great all right all right still in the city victor's got some some some people to heal dog dog jesus h christ and the h stands for hex corps did you okay i think this was like the most projected thing ever with the cane and the the robe made it od when he came in to like these like lepers that were about to like rob him and he's like, oh no, my son. Such senseless pain.

Oh, man. No. Let me touch. And again, incredible, like, sequence that we see of him just, like, touching him and then, like, getting all of the shimmer out of him and leaving this, like, cool, like, milky white scar across his face. Yeah. It's beautiful.

And then the arm. Yeah. Yeah. I am interested to see where that goes. Because. I think it literally is, like, he became. he's, he's kind of Jesus. He's kind of like, he's healing all of the sick.

True, Victor Jesus. It's really, but like, the, like, the metaphors are actually insane, like, very overt and almost ludicrous because there's that, again, like, we'll talk about some of the best still images that I've seen, but, like, it's him kneeling with all of these people around him as this heavenly light is coming down. Yeah, no, it's very telegraphed. It's very, it's very, it's very Zach Snyder. Sure.

But in the very good way. No, no, no. I mean, like, we're just like, ah, we know what this is. Right, we see you. Yeah, we see what's going on with the Jesus. Perceived Holy figure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I want, I am so interested in sure where it goes because then does he be, like, does he start taking followers? Go, who needs to shimmer when you can have Hex Corps? You know what I'm saying? When you can have Victor, you know? And how do, how does that get weaponized, right? because that's ultimately what it comes down to.

Is Jace like, or do people in Piltover go, oh, look, they're coming, everybody's figuring out. Hey, that's good. We'll leave y'all alone. Or is it like, hey, Victor, remember we was homies, man? Hey, if he could tell your followers to not be, you know, do the thing, you know what I'm saying? I guarantee you there's going to be like some sort of like symbol around him or like a reverse wanted poster of like finding your faith or like finding a thing.

Again, I'm not, like, I'm not newly as creative of what the show's going to do. But seeing what the show is already doing, I'm like, mm-hmm. They're setting up a lot of things up that. Laying some groundwork for some stuff that I think is going to be very, very important to the show going forward. Speaking of laying groundwork, mysterious pre-post-credit scene yet again. Oh, my God. We're jeans splicing with a fucked up heart. Brother, so I assume this is a guy.

from season one that Victor ran into in the woods. Yeah. With the little sick salamander thing. It likely seems to be that way. You know? And I'm, I'm, not that I struggle to think, but I'm very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very. It's a lot of varies.

Trepidacious to see how this ties back into everything. I do, and here's the thing. I don't have many worries when it comes to, how this show is executed. There's so many things that this show has gotten right that I never thought it had any right to get

as well as it did. I'm sure they have a plan, but right now there's a lot up in the air. That's my thing, right? If I trust the show to do it right, it's going to be this show. It's just kind of like, you know, you're going,

oh, you're going all the way around. Okay, this is definitely not a straight line or taking a couple lefts. You're going like through the back, back, back, back, back streets. Yes. You know what I'm saying?

All right. My man. We'll see what it looks like. I trust that you'll get there, but I'm going to have to see it. I'm going to have to see it play out before I make it up judgment. All right.

All right. Finally got the name right. Caitlin weaponizes the gray in the undercity in hopes to flush out jinks and its music video time once again. Let me tell you something. Take some. It's kind of fire. It's kind of fire.

They changed up the art style. That's why. I mean, they do that like every so often. I know, but this one, like, with the black and white sequence from episode one, this is now, like, it's almost like things are in the negative. Like, when you, like, take a photograph and things are, like, like, hard blacks and, like, neon greens. Hard what? And hard neon greens. No, no, no, what did you say before that?

We don't need to worry about it. But, and there's this, like, over-the-top sequence of, like, utilizing the blueprints of the undercity, and you see all of them run around different, like, maze-like corridors that are, as, like, you know, as, you know. they're fishing out different parts of the inner city to look for jinx. It's an amazing sequence to imply the passage of time as to how hard it is to find her. So it's like, so there's like three things. One, you love a montage, right?

Love a montage. That's how they've passed the time. Well, that's how they've passed the time in the first two episodes. Like the first, after you get back from the, the Imagine Dragons, it's like a little, hey, this was what was going on in the time that it was happening, right?

Two, speaking of montage, just forget to do a montage. When a group gets together, you have to have an ass kick a montage. Yes. Right? And so we haven't seen them kick a lot of ass. There you see him kick some ass. Very very fun.

You see him kick some booty. Three, I think, important to me at least, to carry me. It's kind of a kind of fire, man. You don't want to carry me. You want an almond key for your family. You pass it down to your kids. They have all the secrets. I do kind of like that.

I like an intricate, like it's when you like flick a switch and then it like has some machinery in it. Yeah, man, it was I was like, okay, okay Cassandra, he was locked in, you had that. I'm sure it passed down. Somebody made that, that was not her. But it was cool. It was mad cool. And the gray, it's something that could. It's really fucked for them to do

that. Well, you kill my mom. Yeah, but it's okay, tear gas an entire city. I don't condone the behavior, but I understand. All right. Caitlin and Vibe, interrogated suspect. as to their whereabouts of jinx. Kalyn's shown a little bit of signs of bad cop here. Kalin was kind of doing a little bit, a little too much.

Well, because they get the information. And then she's like, no, that's, all right, you're going to jail. Yeah, you got to, yeah, this is not for you. That's tough. I mean, again, Kaylin's, it's not the right mindset for Kaylin right now. It's bad. No, it's bad. It's a tough time.

But Vi pulls her aside. She's like, I need a minute. We need to talk. You need to talk. Cut two. Ambisa takes an audience with a member of the merchant guild, but surprise, she's a hex witch. Brother, what was that? What the fuck was this?

What was that? You know, like, again, the show was doing this thing. And I'm like, this is a lot to introduce. And I was like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, okay. So yes and no, right? Okay. Because we know that Embesca has beef with somebody who killed her son. Correct.

We don't know who that person is Except we just found out Well, we found out that somebody made a deal with her Sort of and now they're coming to collect something And they use this awesome like galaxy rose void Like tree vine effect It looks really, really cool Look great

And she's got beef with witches, which kills the witch No, the witch is alive the body is dead. Very true. Inhabits the body. Because they have to go back and be like, hey, remember that merchant guild? Yeah.

We got to get rid of her. We need a good visual metaphor for knowing that your ghost is leaving this body. How about we have a rose come out from like the hole in your hand and then wither and die? No manches. That looks really, really, really good. It looked good. It was tough for old girl. But at the same time, I think, again,

The show introduces something, right, while giving us previous background to stuff that happened before. We're filling in gaps while learning new stuff. I think the writing is doing its thing this season. It's top, here's the thing. I think that the writing is top-notch, but sometimes the show operates in such a great way,

devoid of dialogue sometimes. I feel like, is dialogue almost a thing that hinders this show? See, you're doing too much. No, I know I'm not doing too. No, no, listen, listen. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Okay? The show, the dialogue is great.

But I'm like, you almost don't need it. It's the way that these characters interact in ways that are unspoken just as much as spoken. I mean, but they need to talk. They need to talk. I'm saying, I understand that. The show, but they are just as expressive, I'm saying. Yeah, I, I, yeah, 100%. I think what they don't say is as powerful as they do say.

But to say that, like, dialogue is hinders, it's kind of not small. Oh, boy, that's kind of crazy. I said almost. Almost. Almost. What happens next, man? What happens next? When we saw this in the screening,

I don't think I don't think I've heard a pop like this, probably since Steve took the hammer. Probably. The crowd went crazy when Vi and Kaylin kiss. Ladies and gentlemen, anybody under the sound of my voice, I have never been happy. The Dodgers won the World Series. that night. That night. And that actually

The Dodgers is the World Series The second best thing that happened. Actually, that's not true. That's a cat. Okay. All right. Let me not cat for the audience. But that was number two.

That was number two. That was number two. Right. Because I was hype. The Dodgers World Series and then I was hype. Let me tell you something, man. I want a lot of things in my life.

But that right there, that meant something to me, man. And what's more important is win this. happens. I think it's very important to know that they're having they're fighting right now. It's not really fighting. It starts with it's like, hey,

this is getting really intense and I need you to like promise me something. Yeah, it's not a fight. Literally it's like we got to let the others go. Right. Like we have to do this by ourselves. There's no jinks, powder's gone.

If it comes to it, we got to make it happen. Just promise me. You won't change. And look, because, and the, the kiss means a lot for a thousand reasons. For sure. But I think the thing that, like, makes it even more meaningful is they have been playing girlfriends for so long. Think about it.

It's very long will they want to. No, but it's kind of annoying. And it's been on ice for three years. No, well, it's not even that, bro, because obviously, like, we talked about last week with season one cupcake and all that flirted stuff. Brother, in this episode, or, you know, it was. in the first episode, they're running to each other's arms crying.

The end of episode one, she, like, has her hand. He's about to add you. No, no, Vy has her hand on her cheek and Caitlin caresses it. And I'm like,

yo, stop playing with me. Yeah. Why are y'all playing with me, bruh? And I finally see them, like, have that moment.

And then Vi drops the, drops the hammers and then just plants it. Drops the gaulets and, like, I'm like, yo, man, this, this is real real yearners, real lovers, that meant some to us.

Shout to the true yearnors, but I... Fantastic. Symbol. Perfect cinema. It's really, really great. And it's a perfect way to, like, have a bit of an emotional crescendo for them at the end of this first part.

Because next week, we're going to be... We don't know where we're going to be at with them. Because in the scenes to follow, we come back to Salo, councilman. Yeah, yeah. He's in a brothel, getting some painting done on his legs by a very sex cat person.

You a furry, Steve? No judgments. Yeah, so then we have Ambassador walk in, right? And Ambeza's kind of like, hey, man, you're out here playing, you're doing too much, my boy. You're not doing enough, actually. You're barely doing anything.

Bradley anything. I need you for a job. You got to ride at the houses and talk to the people about that fashion guild person. Yeah, because guess what? Got some news for him. Cut, doesn't say,

she doesn't say what. Doesn't say what? Doesn't say what? Just says round the support of the houses and bring them to the council. Ambessa's got her own little thing going on. And Bessa got an agenda. She got an agenda.

We find out. Then Lest goes to Madarda. It's kind of, hey, listen, I heard some stuff. Your mother, she kind of got ends with some, she got the end with.

Salo, she's making her move. What you're gonna do? This is a cool informant scene. I love a good, like, setting in the, like, finding a cool setting to have a talk about, like, some secret information, and it's in, like, the scaffolding of a theater. Yeah. And so you have, like, the red backdrop and this, like,

the sandbags that would hold the ropes and hoist things up. Salo might have, sorry, not Salo. Lest might have the fit of the of the part right now. Great fit, smoking, you know, puffing away a little, was it a puffer? Is she vaping? They're all slinky and, like,

sexy, just like putting the, like, cigarette underneath their elbow and just, like, pulling it like that. It's, it's classic noir stuff. I love it. I think the cool thing about Lest, too, was the fact that... They've Batman away. That was awesome. That was awesome. But, beginning of that,

scene or the scene before it, here's a Madarda's mom coming and like hides it. We don't know what you hear. I thought that was a person of no consequence. I didn't realize that that was anybody that meant anything. And then we find out like

the ears, me like staking here. Again, great animation. They just draw attention by a little twitch of the ears. Right. Because they're listening. The ears can go anywhere or hear anything. And so we're like, oh. Nice. That's again, the little magic that they do in this show. It's nice to have an informant.

The locks her in on the fact that the person from the Fashion Guild is gone. They've got that little shimmer pen that apparently is going to neutralize everything. It looks like an imaginary, like Mickey's Paintbrush type of thing. Yeah, it looks like it's something like a little Mouss-Katool-type thing. And that Ambessa is making her move. Yeah. And Mom's probably doing it a little bit too much. I mean, she's been doing it. too much. She'd been doing too much last season. She's doing too much this season. Like,

there's a lot going on. There is a lot going on. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows Winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need Weather Tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways. Catchup goes rogue ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer, you don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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oil in the garage, and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. head, crack open a can of Nass energy and get after it. All right, now, Echo Jason Heimerdinger, trying to figure out this new Rune behavior, going to a special place in the city. What did you think about this sequence just before

we get to our action set piece of the episode? It's going to tie into it a lot, but this is definitely where I think the show is going to have a lot of lifting to do when it comes to the titular arcane magic that happens here.

It's finally time, brother. We've been asking for three years. Hey, man. What does this shit do? What's the arcane? When you say arcane? What is that? What does that mean by that?

What do you mean by that? This is where we find it out. They go to the, again, the underground spot. By the way, looks like an Apple store in there. It's nice. It's pristine. Actually, no, it doesn't look like an Apple store because it's empty. I mean, it looks like just a few.

So it's just crowded over there, you know? I mean, genius bar is always booked. Nah, that's why you just got to show up. Fix it. It's broken. It's broken, my boy. Yeah. You know, I never, look, I, I never been to no Apple store. They ain't fixed my stuff or at least try to.

They didn't fix your stuff? It'll be $4,000 to fix it. That's the problem. I never say I paid for it. Right. Okay. I show up and I'm like, yeah, my stuff's broken. Can you fix it?

Like, yeah, we might be able to. They look at it and they be like, oh, yeah, we can fix it. That'll be $3 billion trillion. Yeah. Like, okay, thank you. I'm going to go somewhere cheaper to tell them. I'm going to go on YouTube and look up how to fix this myself. I'm going to tell them what's wrong with it, and then they will fix it for me.

Right. My MacBook is only two years old. Oh, I need a new MacBook, bro. I got to spend a grand on it. I've had the same month as 2017, where it's over. Anywhoom, it looks incredible in there, right? And Jace and Echo have this conversation about, like, oh, man, you built it down here. Of course you built it down here.

He's like, it's miles. It's away from the main fissures. The reason why we built it down here, we didn't know what it could do anywhere. Right. Right. Like if we have it up there, it could destroy a Piltover.

We built it away from the main fissure so it doesn't destroy y'all. Like, it's good. But then Heimerdinger notices the floor and it's got the same little effects that happened to the guy that Victor healed. And we saw on the leaf the hex, the magic is corrupting the place, Steve. It's wonderful. Is it wonderful? I think it might be bad.

I'll say. I think it might be bad. It might be very bad. It might be very bad. Again, Hybriddinger, shout out to my guy for making this known immediately. Oh, I mean, not just looking at the shit. Another cool thing the show does. I'm sorry, we're going to keep doing this.

Yeah. It's cold under there. And the like... And you see the ice breath. They don't tell you it's cold. You just see the ice breath. And that's... Again, it tells you so much by not just saying the shit.

Yeah. There's no like, brr, I'm cold. Dumber shows will... just be like, oh boy, it's, I don't know. It's, it's, it is, the show is a cacophony of amazing little things that add up to something massive and gorgeous. Yeah. Um, now, getting more info on mom looks to check in on Amara back at the office. Yeah. Uh, hey, let's take a look at this paintbrush. Maybe we, maybe we, maybe this is something very important. We should probably maybe just put, let's just put it down the table and we'll get back to it later.

Hey, let's Macuff and check this later. Put a pin in. that. Got to. And then soon after that, uh, Rose Galaxy opens up again. Dude. Bad things happening.

Every time that Rose show up is bad news bears. Yeah, it is. So do we think that this is, uh, the inhabiting of the witch spirit into Mal's assistant? I would hope, I'd hope it's mal assistant because it can't be

Madada because then we'd have to kill Madada and that's my wife and you can't have that. Can't have that. Can't have that. I, again, Clearly, this has something to do with her family, right? Right. The Madarda family is going to have,

it's got to all come together at some point. And so I think for Mel, this will be her learning the sins of her mother and her brother, and how can she help fix those? Right? Because it's always like, I've been exiled for my family,

this and this, which and which. now it's become how can I save my family and it seems it's interesting to me because Mel seems to be on the outs with her mom from the beginning of this season

like on fairly unspoken terms we don't exactly know why they're not really clicking yet she always wants to keep tabs on her obviously because she's a powerful general and in clearly can be

seen as dangerous, but we never really are let on for the exact reason as to why they're in a distrusting relationship. Well, remember in season, in season one, right? Mel is like, they have the person who like, I forget, they round the crown in some way, right? And Mel was like, yo, send them away, strip them in the possessions, don't worry about it, let them live, we show mercy. And Mel's mom was like, eh, that's. Not how we do things.

We don't do things like that around here, champ. Clearly. Right? And so they have firm philosophical differences, but I think are the main reason. And then, you know. But, Mal's mom,

very into family. We'll seemingly do anything with that. You have no idea what family means to me. Which is like a weird, you know, kind of real life thing, which is like, I don't really mess with you. Like, the weird vibe is off.

But we're blooded. So at the end of the day, I got to lock it in. Remember, she sent her off to this little, like, you know, to what she called, exile, right? To go to Piltoe, it's soft over there. That's where you, you know what I'm saying, forget you. Then Mel started making the money. Mel started, like, rising up the ranks.

Remember, she was the one who put Chase on with the Hextech stuff in the first place. Right. Right. And so she sees her do that. She's like, well, I can go use her now. Right. We're going to find out more about what Mel's brother, Mel's mom, all that stuff. But it starts with her getting enveloped in the blood rose.

That's the key. Again, hopefully Mel sticks around, but she's going to learn all about what happened to her brother and her mom, hopefully in these next, like, three episodes or so. So we'll see what looks like, but it's not looking good for our girl. No, it is not. You know what else is not looking good for? Kaelan and Vi We got to talk about it Okay, so

Kalin and Vi close in on Jenks Fight scene will ensue But it's more or less a stalemate Emotionally between them We can talk about like the standoff that happens But the amazing part of this sequence Is that it's intercut with Heimerdinger

Oh man And And ECHO and Jace interacting with the hex tech that is making everything malfunction. Brother man. And just glitch out.

Brother man. The scene of Jace, like Jace, the multiple Jases. And just like it like flying forward. As he's like extending his hand out. Oh my gosh. And then you go into the, the hex and you see a hammerdinger and they explode. Echo.

And they explode into like this like it's like if you cracked an egg on a pan. Yeah. And threw it on the ground. That that was incredible. And saying, how the hex the hex core messing up sold all the hex tech that they were fighting with especially kate and vye was was awesome uh this scene in particular like this fight scene yeah man it's not i wouldn't say it's as intimate as some of the other ones because you got like sure

by it's like you know three or four or five people involved but with the stakes as high as they are as the emotions running as high as high as they are tough it's it's probably one of the most technically impressive things I've seen the show do it's it's probably a something that rivals anything I've seen in Spider-verse all right well it's slow slow down

do you think you're gonna tell me that I'm wrong this scene this one? I don't know, Champ. I feel like there's some other stuff in seasons one and even like earlier in season two, like the scene with the slot arm, I think, is more... That's up there too.

For sure. This one is a cool scene. I love this. I love this because it's just two things that interact and, like, tadpole with each other that are... That's, like, astounding to me. But fight scene ensues.

Vye can't end up. up taking the final blow to Jinks because of her adopted little crony there. We got to talk about it. Our little kid. Caitlin gets pissed. Sever's Jinks's finger. Yeah. But doesn't quite seem to make. She's an excellent shot. Only gets the finger. I don't know about that, Caitlin. Could have taken it. I'm just saying. Here's the thing, right? How's that aim? I think the aim is fine, ultimately. The hex was glitching them, though. You can't kill the kid. I'm with

on that. Sure. You cannot kill the kid. You can push the kid. You can grab the kid buy the shirt. Yeah. Or get him out of there. And place them on the floor. Get down. You know, little

honey, hey, I know you got a gun in my head. Once you shoot the gun out of the little honey hand. Ah. You're telling me that people that have this level of fighting prowess can't just be like, okay, move you right over here. I just see you punch a hole through a wall.

You can pick up a child. You know what I'm saying? You ain't got, don't, you ain't got to shoot him. But he's holding her so tight. You can't pull him apart. What is it? Like, what are they?

Is it glue? Like, what are these going on? They stuck with duct tape? No. Also, you have a gigantic robot gauntlet. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm fine. Again, if I is right,

do not kill the kid. You can place him on the floor, though. You know what I mean? So, again, it's not an episode three of Arcane. if I don't sell the whole joint. Exactly. Jinks did not mess this one up, we'll say.

Well, she kind of did, remember? Because she was like, this is not supposed to happen like that. When they blew up, they paint the town tiltover. Right? That was not how that was supposed to go. Well, blessing in disguise for Jinks, actually, no, it's definitely not. No. But we have this massive explosion, a massive upheaval of wind, gas, and paint, or painted gas.

You didn't even kill nobody. You just do that for fun. It, like, blows everybody out of the sewers or out of the undercity. Massive, like, multi-colored- You think she's trying to blow the gray out of there? Possibly. I don't even know what she was trying to do, but what she ended up doing was just blowing the gray up into builtover.

And it's in this, again, gorgeous, like, multicolored cloud sequence of, like, 2D animated clouds, like, bursting on top of these 3D animated models. that's just gorgeous, leaving the city in massive disarray. Yeah. And then Vi and Kaelin pretty much effectively have it out and break up? I don't want to talk about it. Question mark?

I don't want to talk about it. We had this good thing for literally once seen. I don't want to talk about it, man. This is, you know when God gives you what you want. And then immediately takes it away? And then just snatches it away. Takes it away in 20 minutes? 20, brother.

I was on cloud nine. I was like, my. I see that every time I see it played a good Chinese food. My ship finally came to port, my guy, and they sold me. Now, let's be very clear. Yeah, Vi's right. Yeah, you can't. You can't shoot kids.

We are on that side. You can't shoot kids, Kate. I think the important thing to remember, and we mentioned it when we've talked about it, Vi looked at Caitlin in the eyes like, don't change. And Caitlin is changing. It's like, I'm not going to change. And as soon as you had the chance to change. change.

You know what I mean? It's quite unfortunate, but that was always what was going to do. Kate's got that bloodlust in her eye, man. Kill my mom. I need my leg back by no means necessarily. Like, by any means that's serious. I'm getting my leg back. She, she, Michael Jordan, that meme.

Fuck them kids. I took that person. No, fuck them kids. And I took that person? I guess both, but this, I guess Michael Jordan do got a lot of memes. He does have great crying Jordan. Bro, crying Jordan used to run the internet, bro. I miss crying.

There was a decade where if you lost any sporting event, anything, crying Jordan meme on your city. The last dance really kind of just reset the clock on Jordan meme currency. Well, I mean, well, it was a cultural reset for sure. I mean, we weren't doing nothing. No. Everybody was watching the last dance. So I took a personal.

You know, the one where he's like, y'all never, I never, y'all never won anything. Yeah. I go tell me y'all never won anything. Like the entire thing. I fit the criteria to be selected. I was not selected. I was in.

Yeah, so it was, it was locked in. But for Vying Kate, like, that's the moment that breaks him, right? It was always going to be about jinx, right? Whether Vye could pull the trigger figuratively or could Kate pull the trigger literally, right? And at the end of the day, it wasn't, it didn't get done. done. And so Kate and Vi kind of have to be like, yo, I feel like Vi would be like, hey, we didn't get the job done, but it's cool. You know, hey, we're going to be all right. Case like, nah, man, you stop me from killing my op. There is no coming back.

Fingers crossed at the risk of coming back because I need to. I don't know, man, because I don't know if this's coming back from the scene that happens right after this. Oh, boy, this was a, this actually, this might have been. You know when something like you know that bad is happening, but it also gets you hyped? No, this did not get me hype. I was not hype. This got me a little hype. I was not hype at all.

I was like, it's never been more over. Yeah, but this is like, but this is great filmmaking. It's great filmmaking, but you got to understand. So, let's set the scene for him, Steve, right? We were back in the capital. In the rubble, they should not be having meetings here anymore. This is not structurally sound. I bet it smell crazy.

in there. It's not that, no, well, they're high above the city. It doesn't really smell like anything, but it's just open air, breezes flowing everywhere. You can just fall off. It's not safe.

It's not safe. It isn't safe. So, Mbessa, declares martial law in front of all of the family's houses, makes her case to invade the undercity, to pretty much weed out

all of the gang members, downtrodden, like, basically, like, setting a bulldozer to everything in the understice. city.

Yeah. And she appoints Caitlin. Well, it's interesting. As her general. Salo thought he was going to call. Buddy. He was, I met the criteria to be selected.

But I was not selected. Do you know, brother? It's not, that's not your time, my boy. Yeah, it's not for you. So her, I mean, first of all,

her whole speech, she wiped in the kid's eyes. Oh, man, she had a great stump speech. Oh, brother. She was in her duff. First of all, talk about the motherfucking fit. I mean, she got that thing.

Incredible. She's got the makeup. Incredible. The shoulder pads. Tapped all the way in, right? The thing that is most interesting to me about that entire scene is that we get the flashback. We found out that she has set this thing up from day number one. It's incredible, actually.

Maybe not exactly how it went to plan, but the fact that, she had, but the fact that she had all of these things in place and to immediately pounce upon not only Caitlin's avenging of her mom, but the bad mood that she's currently in in breaking up with Vi, not getting the shot off from Jinks yet again. She's clearly mad. She's big mad. Yeah. And exactly what you need to see from a galvanized. like police force is to go in guns blazing with that that kind of leader behind them. It's chilling. But like it's also like, oh man, now shit really pops up.

Like again, it's cooked. It's fundamentally cooked because, again, a master's stroke by Ambessa to adoint Caitlin, not only because of her record and all the stuff she's been through, but just the fact that like she knows jinx the best. She knows like, oh, this is somebody I can manipulate. She's young.

She's emotional. Like, this is somebody who I can press the buttons with and get the results I need to get the hex tech weapons. Right. I feel for Caitlin because she doesn't know that. Yes. Right. That's exactly why we're like, oh, no. I'm watching it happen.

And I'm like, I see Maggie, she's doing the little chest dump thing. I'm like, y'all, y'all don't, y'all are getting played. like a fiddle. Amessa has you playing the hits like you wouldn't believe. Yeah, but there's like, there's still like 19 things that could go wrong here because there are so many other things up in the air. I mean, yeah, but again, I'm,

there's always a lot, but in the moment, like when I'm watching that scene for the first time, there isn't like a level of, again, I'm like, okay, Ambeza's been locked in from the jump. She gives the invitation to the people, right? because when she went to the council the first time, they said we're not using hex tech weapons.

She lets a whole bunch of folks die. Mm-hmm. Right? And then at the last second, makes the call to start saving lives with the spears and stuff. Like, she's been behind a lot of the nonsense that they'd have to go through in these first three episodes. And we're supposed to just be like,

oh, yeah, and now Kailen's in charge. Yay. That is a cow. No. Yeah. That is a calculated move by an op who's ready to put somebody into a position of power so they control her, they can immobulate her, and then get the things that they want. And she's ripe for it. Yeah, she's perfectly set up to be somebody who is going to be essentially ambestous puppet going forward.

And there's no mail, as far as we know, to curtail that, right? We don't even know what's going on with Jace, Hammerdinger, and Echo. right. Bye isn't a whole other galaxy right now. This is a recipe for disaster. It's really, really bad. And the only thing that you can like hold on to is that Caitlin comes to her senses or somebody gets out of their situation

is like, hey, pal, it's kind of looking like you got ops here. We need you. Because right now in this very moment, it's looking bad, gang. It's looking bad for our girl. Real bad. Tough. And that's that.

But until... Nope. The secret vague pre-post-credit scene. A lot more gross stuff. We got a green ogre werewolf man. Respect Shrek. All right.

What if that's Xander? Vander. You think that's Vander? No, I don't think of it. It can't be Vander. It can't be Vander. But it'd be funny if it was. But if Vander came back as a Wolfman. We're dealing with necromancy? Yeah. And, and, uh... Wolfman Vander.

That would be haunting. Do you imagine? That would be tough. I don't think they'll do it. I, like, guys, I'm very much just, like, throwing shit at the wall here. But could you imagine, like, Vi and Pout and Jinks having to, like, look, Vander in the eye one last time? Hey, man. As a wolf man? No. My fault, guys. That was, hey, I remember when I died in episode three?

I'm real sorry. That was my fault. should have done that because now look at what y'all did. Because I got the purple Hulk juice. It's not even the purple. It's kind of like, if I were to stay alive, this whole thing would have changed. Maybe. It's all me. But again, another raucous episode three from Arcane.

Dude, it was, it was, man. How back are we? We have literally in the history of time since the Big Bang forms and the gases all coales all correlated into stars and all that dust created planets. and then we had life on this planet and humans started creating television and movies and all this stuff in the history of all of that

this is the most back we've ever been since back to the future before back to the future since the dinosaurs came back to the back back to the back we're so back guys come on it's been great I love these first three episodes they were absolutely gorgeous loved them all

what's happening what's happening next week what's happening in next week You got three episodes. Now, I don't know if you saw the geek stuff, but they released the clip of Buff Vi being in the trenches. Love that. You know what I'm saying? So all I know is that next week we're going to see, I'm going to turn on my Netflix, and she going to look like, she going to like Miles Garrett. It's going to be Swalti 6 out here.

Come on. Miles Garrett. Miles is you. Boom. Just D-line. Just well, I mean, look. Look, look, think about it. You lost a girl.

You lost your sister. He ain't got nothing else to do except hit the gym and drink. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Why? And you know that's how she solves her problem. What's her macros? Shredded, too.

I know, but what is she eating? I don't know. She is drinking a lot. That can't be good. It can't be good. It cannot be good. Unless she's not eating. What if she's not eating?

But then where do you get the muscles from? I don't know. Maybe it's just pro- Maybe it's literally just high protein. High protein. High, high, high, high, high. Not a shred of carbs. Maybe throw some fiber in there.

But yeah. I mean, I guess that's where the carbs come from. Mm-hmm. The carbs and sugar just from alcohol. That's it. The fiber or the protein. Maybe it's just a weekend thing. Yeah.

Doesn't look like a weekend thing. Looks like it all day every day. All week. All week thing. It's a punch-cry drink. It's a Monday through Saturday. And Sunday is a week. Yeah.

It days a week, 25 hours a day. 368 days a year. She is locked in. You know what I mean? But that's all we know. That's all we know. You know, so going forward, I'm interested to see, like, what does, what is the future of?

Because remember, last time, the, after episode 3, there was a time skip. I'd imagine there'd be another one. Oh, God. Right? So what could the time skip look like for this? That's what I'm interested to see. Desolation of the undercity already? That's what I'm interested to see.

It's nothing, again. We're just, we're just in war? I don't know. What does Caitlin look like? We don't know. We genuinely don't know. We haven't seen anything ahead of you guys. So we're going to be coming back to you next week to talk about it.

But before we go, let's hand out some quick awards. Cool things. Cool things. All cool things. Most interesting characters so far. Here are my nominees. Victor. Caitlin.

Vi. Interesting character arc so far. I think it might be Caitlin. I think it's a hard fall. I will say a hard fall I don't look again It's like it's going through a lot Villain turn

Going through a lot I wouldn't say a villain turn man I think she's being manipulated And pull the ways That are unexpected But I do think yeah With where she is right now The next six episodes

Brother is going to be a movie I can't wait to see where it goes All right we have the It Belonged in the Museum Most Beautiful screenshot from the show Obviously it's harder In a visual medium But I have

Hex Jesus like anointing as apostles the all-purple explosion from the skeeve fight in the alleyway when Victor touches and heals the hex leper the shimmer leper Vi and Caitlin in the sewers

right before they're about to kiss it's a beautiful shot and the final shot of episode three Caitlin is pounding on her chest and she's just over the city looking diabolical. I think it's still the

HexTech underground layer for me. I think that's... When they're like... No, no, no, no, no. Like when it's just like that little half the little dome, like right before it explodes and it's just serene for a second, I was just like enraptured

by that little screenshot. I think it looked incredible. I would go Hex Jesus anointing his followers. Best action sequence so far. attack on the memorial, episode one, the gassing hideout from Jinx's lair. Yeah.

The Skiba alleyway fight, or Vi Jinks and Kate fight with the hex-tech malfunctioning. I think we're going to go with episode three, hex tech malfunctioning. Wrong answer. Wrong. It's Smeets and Sveka, man. Okay, okay. Cool with that. Just the inventiveness

and the fun of that scene, despite like all it means for the harm of those characters. Rest in peace, Skiy. Meet, no, Sivica's still alive. Or not Sveka. Miche. Smeach.

Smeach. Big Smeach. Big Smeach. Rest in peace, smeech. Rest in peace is smeeches. Best music video sequence. Episode one, the funeral, Caitlin's mom. Yeah.

Episode two, gang wars. Fighting for power. Or episode three, basically the invasion of the undercity with the gray. Which is green. by the way, it bugs me. So you know that that's called the gray and it's green. Look, the gray to green. Who cares what it means?

You know what I mean? I'm going to go with that scene as well, though. Okay. That is the one. They're all good. That one in a particular. I love me a team montage fight. I love it.

Yeah. All right. Final category. Best fit. Ambisa with her general garb, uh, Lest in her sexy glam, Ciglam.

Sexy glam. Sexy glam. Sexy glam. Victor is hex, Jesus. I just love this fit. Victor is hex, Jesus. Great sandals. Comfortable?

No, no. I think I'm going to go with Amessa. With the entire... Ambessa is decked out. Ambessa's decked out the final scene. Yeah. Locked in, completely and utterly locked in. Absolutely.

She got... Hey, man. She got that shit on. She does. She got that shit on. Absolutely. And you know what we've got to get on? What do we got to get on?

With our lives. That's it That's a rap for us My life is Arcane Arcane Guess what My life

My life is Arcane Okay My life be like Ooh Arcane Oooah My life be like O

You don't know that one Oh no I do Toby Keith Yeah Yeah That's not Toby Keith That's not Toby Keith at all It's not Toby Keith at all

What's his name It's Toby something It's not Toby Keith Definitely That would be so funny If Toby Keith Oh my gosh Good

Laura, well, while you look that up, that is a wrap for us. Don't forget, on Tuesday, Buttonmash is going to be taking a look back at HalfLife's 20th anniversary. Also Tuesday, House of Our is going to be giving you their penguin finale deep dive. We are produced by the intrepid producer Jonathan Kerman, with additional production support by Arjuna, Ram GoPow. Jomi. Guys, you are not my enemies.

I love you. We cannot wait. We'll be back this time next week to talk about episodes four, five, and six. I'm sure there will be a doozy. Gotta give a shout out to our intrepid producer, Mr. Number One himself. Luca Kermitchich. There you go. And we will see you guys next time.

It's Toby Mac, by the way. Toby Mac. The song is Grits featuring Toby Mac. Okay. So Toby Mac is where they're going. He does the chorus, yeah. Yeah, now he does the... The hook.

No, I think he's got the third verse. Because the hook is, my life be like, ooh, ah, ooh, my life be like, ooh, right. Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But real doesn't start on a label. It starts at the source. Like real California milk from California farm families,

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