Speaker 1: Today's episode contains spoilers for episodes six and seven of
Speaker 1: Arcane season one. Hi everyone, I'm a Boo and I'm Aaron,
Speaker 1: and welcome to x ray Vision Extras and x ray
Speaker 1: Vision Series, where we dive deep into even more of
Speaker 1: your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Every superhero
Speaker 1: team needs side quests, and our rotating panel of producers
Speaker 1: and guest hosts will be suiting up to help Jason
Speaker 1: and Rosie cover all of the amazing nerd content out there.
Speaker 2: And we are back today with another episode of extras,
Speaker 2: continuing our rewatch of Arcane season one with the lead
Speaker 2: up to season two on November ninth. Today, we're jumping
Speaker 2: forward in time and we're going to be covering episodes
Speaker 2: six and seven.
Speaker 1: That's right, and by out y'all know the drone. Let's
Speaker 1: just hop right in, starting with episode six, which is
Speaker 1: titled When These Walls Come Tumbling Down?
Speaker 2: All right, we start off tell him if you've heard
Speaker 2: this before. We start off with a flashback. Oh, okay,
Speaker 2: this time it's Victor's childhood and young Victor is playing
Speaker 2: in the under City and he spends his time. You know,
Speaker 2: there are these pools in the under City and you
Speaker 2: see a bunch of kids playing, but Victor is off
Speaker 2: by himself, building boats basically, and he sends one of
Speaker 2: the boats off and he goes chasing it and he
Speaker 2: stumbles into a cave where he finds Singed and his
Speaker 2: pet Rio, and Rio is this astonishing looking creature that
Speaker 2: sing says is a rare mutation that he's cultivated. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: Rio is dying. Victor, sensing this camaraderie with this other
Speaker 2: loner scientist character, offers to help, and Singed accepts, and
Speaker 2: he tells him we can be loners together. Cut to
Speaker 2: present sense and Victor is hanging out in the same
Speaker 2: pool in the under City and Heimerdinger is there. He
Speaker 2: finds him and he's attempting to console him because you know,
Speaker 2: Heimerdinger knows about his prognosis, and he tells him that
Speaker 2: he should be proud of all these achievements he's had.
Speaker 2: It's incredible work. But Victor worries, easy for you to say,
Speaker 2: you've lived hundreds of years, my contributions will be very
Speaker 2: short lived.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's really struggling with his mortality at this point.
Speaker 1: As we've seen throughout the season, we also learn in
Speaker 1: this scene that Heimerdinger is one of the founders of
Speaker 1: Piltover and that's significant because, as we'll see you later
Speaker 1: in the episode, he is kicked off the council, and
Speaker 1: that really makes that council scene even more emotionally impactful
Speaker 1: for me to know that he's being kicked off the council.
Speaker 1: He very likely started himself and was the founding member
Speaker 1: of I.
Speaker 2: Mean, up until this year, he's been the one given
Speaker 2: the Piltover day speeches. Yeah, and you know he lets
Speaker 2: Jase do it one time and then he's out of
Speaker 2: a job. What is this gosh fall from grace my guy?
Speaker 3: Totally.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to just briefly comment on the fact
Speaker 1: that there's something to be said here about this century's
Speaker 1: old being Heimerdinger not understanding the urgency that Jason Victor
Speaker 1: have felt all season. You and I have talked in
Speaker 1: the past couple episodes about this theme of the older
Speaker 1: generation saying wait, patience, take it slow, think this through,
Speaker 1: versus the younger, more hot headed generation of scientists like
Speaker 1: Jason Victor or VI being like, no, we got to go,
Speaker 1: go go. This is how we make progress, progress at
Speaker 1: all costs. We're going to crack a couple of eggs,
Speaker 1: and some people are going to get killed along the way,
Speaker 1: But this is the path forward. It's interesting to me
Speaker 1: that there's also now this age difference contrast as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, somebody who has hundreds of years ahead of
Speaker 1: them is going to be fine with taking ten years
Speaker 1: to slowly work on their hex tech versus Victor, who
Speaker 1: might not even have ten weeks. Yeah, all right, back
Speaker 1: to our recap. Jace returns to Mel's chambers after he
Speaker 1: uh dined in dash? Yeah, shall we say the previous night.
Speaker 1: Mel is painting this absolutely gorgeous picture, but is understandably
Speaker 1: perturbed annoyed by Jase's disappearance.
Speaker 3: Right, why'd you ditch me? I thought we had a connection.
Speaker 2: Here, aboo. Do you have any personal stories about when
Speaker 2: you might have dined and dashed on a young woman
Speaker 2: sometime in your life?
Speaker 1: I would ever, and I certainly would never admit a
Speaker 1: gentleman does not dine and dash and tell. Right now,
Speaker 1: Jase reveals that he has a lot on his mind,
Speaker 1: namely that his best friend and partner, Victor, is dying,
Speaker 1: and he speculates that Victor's dying because of the pollution
Speaker 1: in the under City, which is exactly the kind of
Speaker 1: problem that Victor and Jase have always wanted and hoped
Speaker 1: to fix with hex tech. That's been their goal.
Speaker 2: And just to be clear, the power gloves they designed
Speaker 2: were meant to what strangle the pollution, right, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: and the lasers were meant to cut the pollution. Is
Speaker 2: that that's what their goal.
Speaker 1: Was, right into smaller pollutions, so it's more manageable.
Speaker 2: Right, okay, right, smaller pollutions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely hilarious. Now, the scene I did find
Speaker 1: quite touching because Jas shows some real vulnerability here with Mel.
Speaker 1: He lays in her lap at one point. It's very touching,
Speaker 1: and he admits how he hates feeling useless. He hates
Speaker 1: this powerlessness in his ability to help Victor. Right, He's
Speaker 1: at the peak of his fame. He's got all the
Speaker 1: wealth and power he could imagine, but he can't save
Speaker 1: the life of his best friend, and that's weighing on him.
Speaker 1: The camera zooms out and we actually see the picture
Speaker 1: that Mel has been painting. And you did some great
Speaker 1: research here. This is apparently a photo of the nation
Speaker 1: of Naxis, where Mel is actually from, where her family
Speaker 1: is from. Recalls she is an exile from her family.
Speaker 3: She's been kicked out right.
Speaker 2: Also, just as you're saying, she's painting, and it is
Speaker 2: again with the great audio in this show. We get
Speaker 2: really precise audio of her cracking eggs to make the
Speaker 2: paint and then her using the paint knife on the
Speaker 2: canvas and like scraping it.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: I love that scene. And a very nice quiet moment.
Speaker 2: And a pair of episodes that are going to have
Speaker 2: some very loud and bombastic scenes, we get this really
Speaker 2: nice little moment here.
Speaker 1: And a really great bit of storytelling. It tells us,
Speaker 1: without saying a word, the mental state of this character,
Speaker 1: what headspace she's in. She's painting aggressively. We're getting cracks,
Speaker 1: we're getting scrapes, she's annoyed. Really great storytelling there.
Speaker 2: Okay, speaking of Victor, he has gone back up to
Speaker 2: Piltover and he's staring hopelessly into the X core and
Speaker 2: he reaches out again to touch it and it reacts
Speaker 2: and his eyes kind of glaze over.
Speaker 3: Yikes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're still unclear what's happening with this. I don't know,
Speaker 2: parasitic relationship, you know, I don't know how we want
Speaker 2: to describe it. But we're getting more and more hints
Speaker 2: about this sinister situation that's building up with Victor's desire
Speaker 2: to figure out the hex tech.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll see a little bit more of that
Speaker 1: in this episode in the next as well. Next week,
Speaker 1: cut to the last drop, we get some lazy Luau
Speaker 1: music and Jinx sneaks up on the bartender Theorem, who
Speaker 1: she not so affectionately calls Chuck. I will also be
Speaker 1: calling him Chuck moving forward, and Jinx is here asking
Speaker 1: for gossip. What's up, Chuck? What's going on? Why aren't
Speaker 1: I being invited to the parties? Why Silko and everyone
Speaker 1: being so active and no one's telling me what's happening?
Speaker 1: Chuck lets slip that Silko has basically ordered the crew
Speaker 1: to grab a couple of girls who roughed up Sevika.
Speaker 1: He doesn't reveal who those girls are exactly, but Jinks
Speaker 1: is suspicious. She leaves him with a little tip, shall
Speaker 1: we say, yeah, in the form of a bomb on
Speaker 1: his back. But luckily for Chucks, just a glitter bomb.
Speaker 1: All it does is freak him out. Now, speaking of
Speaker 1: said girls on the run, we returned to Caitlin and Vy,
Speaker 1: who are attempting to escape from the standoff with Sevika.
Speaker 1: Despite by being incredibly injured and needing to be assisted
Speaker 1: by Caitlin, she is still able to parkore slash fall
Speaker 1: her way down this abandoned water tower that they arrive at.
Speaker 1: It's not graceful by any means, but considering she has
Speaker 1: just been stabbed in the gut, it's impressive.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, I just imagine Caitlin being like, I just dragged
Speaker 2: you the last mile through this cave and they help. Really, yeah,
Speaker 2: then you're just jumping down this water tower.
Speaker 1: Okay, thanks absolutely, And you know, I think by proving
Speaker 1: a point here, I'm fine, I'm tough. I don't need
Speaker 1: and enforcer's.
Speaker 3: Help to do anything. Right, stop helping me.
Speaker 1: Certainly on brand for v Of course, the camera pans out,
Speaker 1: and we also are shown that there is a member
Speaker 1: of the Firelights watching all of this take place from
Speaker 1: far above, watching the girls de send it down into
Speaker 1: the water tower. Specifically, it's the Firelight character with the
Speaker 1: owl mask, who we will see come back yes later
Speaker 1: in this episode.
Speaker 2: In the next, Savika comes back to Soko's office to
Speaker 2: let him know they lost the girls, but oops, turns
Speaker 2: out the chair twirls around and it's not Soco in there,
Speaker 2: it's Jinx and Savika lunges forward, activating a tripwire that
Speaker 2: releases a bunch of knockout gas, and Jinks casually slips
Speaker 2: on her gas mask and taunts her. Savika wakes up,
Speaker 2: she's tied to the chair and Jinks continues to taunt her.
Speaker 2: I love this line, and she's playing with her knife
Speaker 2: and she says, I feel like you and I got
Speaker 2: off on the wrong arm. Maybe we should try the other.
Speaker 2: So Savika reveals She's like, no need, I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what you want to know. It's your sister Violet, and
Speaker 2: she's out there with an enforcer. That's who everyone's looking for.
Speaker 2: And Savika's like, it's only a matter of time before
Speaker 2: Silko sees you go overboard and is like, you are
Speaker 2: not it. You are You're unhinged and we can't rely
Speaker 2: on you, and Jinks starts to cry and then reveals
Speaker 2: she he's making it. She's completely unphased, and you know,
Speaker 2: we get a better view of her as this character
Speaker 2: who I feel like we constantly teeter back and forth
Speaker 2: on does she have anything under control or does she
Speaker 2: have everything under control. She's like the joker. She's playing
Speaker 2: chaos so well.
Speaker 3: Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1: We see her flip back and forth on a moment's notice,
Speaker 1: and that's what makes her terrifying, because you never know
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. Next with Jinx, next we see Marcus
Speaker 1: returning home. He goes to check in on his daughter
Speaker 1: and uh uh oh is that Silco making a tower.
Speaker 3: Of cards with my daughter? Holy shit, what a.
Speaker 1: Stomach drop moment. I certainly was terrified during this scene.
Speaker 1: Silko is, of course, here to subtly and not so
Speaker 1: subtly threatened Marcus. He is unhappy that Violet is still alive,
Speaker 1: despite Marcus seemingly telling him all those years ago that
Speaker 1: Violet had also died alongside Vander, and he is making
Speaker 1: subtle threats to Ren to Marcus to get that point across.
Speaker 1: For example, he says things like everyone makes mistakes, right,
Speaker 1: What's important is that we.
Speaker 3: Don't repeat them.
Speaker 1: He then, after sufficiently scaring the pants off Marcus, Soko
Speaker 1: knocks over the Junga tower that he was building with
Speaker 1: Wren and walks out of the room with Marcus's promise
Speaker 1: to fix this shit.
Speaker 2: So just I don't know, kids are dumb sometimes, But
Speaker 2: how dumb do you have to be as a small
Speaker 2: child to be like, Oh, someone's at the door. It's
Speaker 2: not my father or my mother. It's three people who
Speaker 2: have like one of them's got an evil eye and
Speaker 2: the other two don't look nice at all. Why don't
Speaker 2: I invite them in? Gonna make them a pot of tea,
Speaker 2: We're gonna go up to the playroom. Not great on you, Ren,
Speaker 2: No stranger danger. And I feel like this is one
Speaker 2: of those spots where maybe it would have been nice
Speaker 2: if you didn't let the people into the house. But hey, yeah,
Speaker 2: terrifying scene. He does such a good job with the
Speaker 2: I'll tell you a story one time a daddy and
Speaker 2: his daughter went on a trip but the daughter never
Speaker 2: got there. Isn't that a sad thing? And like his
Speaker 2: super villainry is on full power.
Speaker 1: Here, definitely, And I think to your point about Ren
Speaker 1: just letting them in. I have a feeling that this
Speaker 1: is maybe Uncle Silko MM and Uncle Silko's friends like this,
Speaker 1: maybe isn't the first time that they've interacted, and perhaps
Speaker 1: Silko has come before, Ren has seen him before. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's sort of my head cannon for why this child
Speaker 1: would let Silko in and not try to home alone him.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, no, I like that. I've seen enough mob
Speaker 2: movies and mafia movies to know. Oh yeah, if dad
Speaker 2: hangs out with you all the time you're here, you
Speaker 2: conduct business like, of course, I'll let you in. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: so much more sinister. All right, I forgive you Red.
Speaker 2: We cut back to Victor in the lab and he's
Speaker 2: showing Jace that the hex tech reacts to organic matter somehow.
Speaker 2: In his last hex seconduced coma, he's made this discovery. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he uses the hex tech. It causes this plant to
Speaker 2: grow unnaturally large and like outlandishly strong looking, and then
Speaker 2: it withers and dies, and he's like they've all died
Speaker 2: like this, Yeah, every single one of them. Jase reassures
Speaker 2: Victor will solve this, and you know, we can figure
Speaker 2: this out. We always do. But Victor is like, I'm
Speaker 2: running out of time. I can fuel my body deteriorating, right,
Speaker 2: and Jay suggests bringing in Heimerdinger.
Speaker 1: Right, And Jase also grabs a piece of chalk and
Speaker 1: acts like he's about to do some calculations. But my guy,
Speaker 1: have you done any work in this lab since becoming
Speaker 1: a council member.
Speaker 3: I feel like he's putting on a front.
Speaker 2: Jase is creeping around a lot. You know, we'll find
Speaker 2: out more about it. But yeah, he's got a lot going.
Speaker 2: I mean, both of them, both of them, quite frankly,
Speaker 2: are going all over.
Speaker 3: But yeah, sure.
Speaker 1: Now Caitlin and VI takes shelter in a house at
Speaker 1: the bottom of this water tower.
Speaker 2: That they've fallen down. The water tower that they have
Speaker 2: fallen to the very bottom, right, and now they're at
Speaker 2: a house.
Speaker 1: That's right, and VI is sort of slipping in and
Speaker 1: out of consciousness. She is seeing these hallucinations of powder
Speaker 1: all throughout this house. Caitlyn is trying to tend to
Speaker 1: her wounds, but VI sort of bats her away. She
Speaker 1: does trust an enforcer, and a frustrated Caitlyn asks, I
Speaker 1: suppose top signers are to blame for all of your
Speaker 1: misfortunes then, to which VI replies, no.
Speaker 3: Not all of them.
Speaker 1: So there is some accountability here that I have put
Speaker 1: myself in many rough positions. It's not all the enforcer's fault.
Speaker 1: But we will get an answer to why she distrusts
Speaker 1: Kaitlyn a little later.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Part of this discussion also includes VI sort of hallucinating
Speaker 1: Powder and talking somewhat to Powder and not all the
Speaker 1: time to Caitlin. Very in like a jinx way right,
Speaker 1: how jas is always talking to Clagger and my low.
Speaker 1: We see like an injured and on the brink of
Speaker 1: death VI doing the same thing, speaking to someone who's
Speaker 1: not there, saying things like I shouldn't have left you,
Speaker 1: you know. We get a sense that she really regrets
Speaker 1: her actions back at the cannery and has spent the
Speaker 1: last X number of years trying to reconcile that. Caitlyn
Speaker 1: tells VI that she has a good heart, which then
Speaker 1: transitions to Vander's voice. We hear the echoes of van
Speaker 1: voice repeating that same line to young VI from earlier
Speaker 1: in the season.
Speaker 3: As the camera fads to black.
Speaker 2: And we get another visit from a father figure. Heimerdinger
Speaker 2: has come to the lab and he's there with Jason
Speaker 2: Victor and they're showing him the hex Core, and the
Speaker 2: hex Core, as they describe it, is hextech that evolves.
Speaker 2: Heimerdinger is terrified and he has this vision of magic
Speaker 2: destroying things and he begs them to destroy it. He's like, please,
Speaker 2: if you've ever valued my advice, please destroy this and
Speaker 2: he's seen nations destroyed by a single seed and it
Speaker 2: looked exactly like this. Heimerdinger notices a change in Victor,
Speaker 2: he says, and as soon as he sees that, he's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm not begging anymore. This has to be destroyed. You
Speaker 2: need to get rid of this. But Jase stands up
Speaker 2: for Victor, and he basically threatens Himerdinger and is like,
Speaker 2: we'll take this to the council. You can't tell us
Speaker 2: what to do anymore. We're doing this in the name
Speaker 2: of progress. Don't and in our way. Heimerdinger leaves, and
Speaker 2: Victor hints that there might be someone else he knows
Speaker 2: that could help.
Speaker 3: Interesting.
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you think of this scene and if
Speaker 1: you had a take on it, Aaron, what do you
Speaker 1: think Heimerdinger notices about Victor what change has taken place,
Speaker 1: because from the outside, just looking at his character doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like anything is different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm assume it has to do with the fact
Speaker 2: that his hands have all these hex Tex shaped hickeys
Speaker 2: all over them where he's been, you know, constantly touching
Speaker 2: the hex tech. Yeah, yeah, and he's like trying to
Speaker 2: explain it and he's going in and out of consciousness.
Speaker 2: Everyone is just going in and out of consciousness in
Speaker 2: this TV show at all times, or speaking to someone
Speaker 2: that's not really there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a rough showing for consciousness in this episode.
Speaker 2: Really, the whole cast is an unreliable narrator.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I think Victor up until this point, I feel like
Speaker 2: hasn't really shown a ton of rebellious nature. The most
Speaker 2: rebellious thing. I mean, he started off rebellious in the show,
Speaker 2: so maybe this is a wrong read, but he seemed
Speaker 2: like he was a pretty good student, good citizen of Peltover.
Speaker 2: His one thing was, oh, you know what, I kind
Speaker 2: of am interested in what Jace is doing. I would
Speaker 2: like to support him. But now we've reached a point
Speaker 2: where if Jace is too busy, Jace is a member
Speaker 2: of the council, Jace's you know, trying to be an
Speaker 2: art critic with mel Victor is the one who's become
Speaker 2: absorbed in this one part of research, and this has
Speaker 2: consumed him to the point that he's dying. We know
Speaker 2: he's dying, and he is so obsessed. Instead of what
Speaker 2: am I going to do now? Is there some medical
Speaker 2: thing that can help me? He's obsessed with trying to
Speaker 2: solve his illness with hex Tech and it's consumed him entirely.
Speaker 2: So whether or not that's like truly overt enough for
Speaker 2: what Heymridinger sees, I think that's something that we as
Speaker 2: the audience have seen this change in Victor where he's
Speaker 2: obsessed in a way that we kind of only saw,
Speaker 2: like Islet obsessed in the beginning, and now he is obsessed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to pose an alternate take on it
Speaker 1: as well. I think this has something more directly to
Speaker 1: do with the hex Core itself, because it's clear that
Speaker 1: Heimerdinger has some sort of past, a tragic past with magic,
Speaker 1: with not exactly hex Tech technology, but the harnessing of
Speaker 1: magic in this way in a similar way that hex
Speaker 1: Tech is doing. And obviously he's frightened by the hex Core.
Speaker 1: He has seen this before, this growth and death that
Speaker 1: the magic can cause, and when he looks at Victor,
Speaker 1: I think he sees something in Victor that's akin to
Speaker 1: the influence that the One Ring from Lord of the
Speaker 1: Rings has on the people who wear it on a
Speaker 1: seal door on Frod.
Speaker 2: Did you intentionally drop an Aragon reference earlier to set
Speaker 2: up the Lord, like get us in the mind of
Speaker 2: Lord of the Rings, and then you did the one
Speaker 2: ring that was good.
Speaker 1: No, but I think Lord of the Rings was on
Speaker 1: the mind, you know, so I might be popping in
Speaker 1: and out of that universal out in this.
Speaker 2: Episode consciousness throughout this podcast.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think, like that's my hypothesis here, is
Speaker 1: that the hex Core is maybe exerting this like subtle
Speaker 1: into Fairy's influence on anyone who gets too close. We
Speaker 1: know Victor's blood has fused with it at this point
Speaker 1: as well, he keeps touching it over and over again.
Speaker 2: Sapsapsapp.
Speaker 1: So perhaps Heimerdinger is recognizing this one ring Souron style
Speaker 1: influence in Victor because again he hasn't passed with it.
Speaker 1: He's seen it before and he has seen how destructive.
Speaker 3: It can be.
Speaker 2: Also, let's remember two episodes ago or whatever, this was
Speaker 2: an entire city that hated magic, and now all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, we're like full in on magic. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 2: there was clearly some threat before, and we shouldn't just
Speaker 2: ignore that sinister element at all.
Speaker 3: Definitely.
Speaker 1: Okay, back to our recap, Caitlin walks out of the
Speaker 1: house under this water tower and is surprised by one
Speaker 1: of the vacrants that recognizes Violet and wants to check
Speaker 1: in on her. Asks is she all right? Turns out
Speaker 1: this is Hook, who we saw all the way back
Speaker 1: in episode one. This is the merchant that Vander helped
Speaker 1: out in the last drop. In that tiny little scene
Speaker 1: back in episode one, Huck reveals that he's got these
Speaker 1: like nasty purple veins and some sort of growth all
Speaker 1: over his body because he has succumbed to shimmer addiction.
Speaker 1: He also reveals to Caitlin that there's not going to
Speaker 1: be much help down here for Violet. There's not exactly
Speaker 1: doctors who can patch her up, but he does know
Speaker 1: somebody that might be able to help, so he takes
Speaker 1: Kitlin to a potion maker who helps the locals who
Speaker 1: are addicted to shimmer. Caitlyn, in payment for a potion
Speaker 1: that will help revive Violet, offers up her gun and
Speaker 1: the potion maker adds a tiny drop of shimmer to
Speaker 1: this bottle and hands it over to Kaitlyn to administer
Speaker 1: to Violet. Huck doesn't want to go back to Violet.
Speaker 1: He just wanted to help Caitlyn here because he's genuinely shaped.
Speaker 1: He doesn't want Violet to see him in the state
Speaker 1: he's in now, and he basically just wanted to check
Speaker 1: in on her and help. He's too a shame to
Speaker 1: actually face her. Caitlyn, as a form of thank you
Speaker 1: and gratitude, embraces him, which we see affects Huck. Clearly
Speaker 1: he hasn't been hugged in this way in a long
Speaker 1: long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Huck is full on breaking my heart in here.
Speaker 3: This is Yeah.
Speaker 2: I felt so bad for him, being ashamed of his
Speaker 2: current state and still wanting to help Violet but being
Speaker 2: too embarrassed to be seen by her. That just it
Speaker 2: killed me.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I love Huck.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, such an endaring character and such a
Speaker 1: tragic character. And actually he says something here. I wanted
Speaker 1: to take a minute to dwell on together because I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot of interesting thematic storytelling taking place
Speaker 1: in this sequence, in particular in the Violet in Caitlin
Speaker 1: at the water Tower, Huck tells Caitlyn that he started
Speaker 1: using Shimmer because he wanted to feel what it was
Speaker 1: like to be somebody, to feel what it was like
Speaker 1: to not just be afraid all the time, to get
Speaker 1: bullied all the time, like we saw back.
Speaker 3: In episode one.
Speaker 1: I loved that so much because I think this episode
Speaker 1: in particular is really exploring the nuances of this downtrodden
Speaker 1: community that we're seeing down here at the water Tower,
Speaker 1: and it speaks to real world communities that are over
Speaker 1: policed or marginalized and why they, for example, would distrust
Speaker 1: law enforcement just like Violet distrust enforcers, or why violence
Speaker 1: and drugs proliferate in a community like this, because again,
Speaker 1: as we see throughout this story, you do what you
Speaker 1: need to survive, or if you're like Huck, you have
Speaker 1: been on the receiving end of so much violence and
Speaker 1: bullying that you just want to feel what it's like
Speaker 1: to give that back, And that, of course, is this
Speaker 1: endless cycle. This cycle of conflict in war is another
Speaker 1: big theme in this story, and this cycle of violence
Speaker 1: begetting violence, Huck being bullied so wanting to take Shimmer
Speaker 1: to bully back, and then feeling the repercussions of it.
Speaker 1: I loved all of that so much because it's a
Speaker 1: cycle that is not easy to break. In order to
Speaker 1: break it, people in power have to understand where the
Speaker 1: people who are trapped in the cycle are coming from,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing some of that even here with Caitlin,
Speaker 1: who is beginning to understand the under city in a
Speaker 1: way that her rich, bougie lifestyle up to this point
Speaker 1: has never revealed to her. And I thought all of
Speaker 1: that really came together in a beautiful way to show
Speaker 1: class divide and socioeconomic divide in a way that is
Speaker 1: much more nuanced than these are the rich bad people,
Speaker 1: and these are the sad poor people.
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Speaker 2: No now for a real word from our sponsors, but
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Speaker 2: our recap, Marcus is attempting to frame the firelights with
Speaker 2: one of Jenks's grenades. He brings it to Jace and
Speaker 2: he's like, I found this on the firelights. This is
Speaker 2: clearly what was used in the attacks. And in order
Speaker 2: to keep the city safe, Jace, I think, with all
Speaker 2: good intentions, wants the enforcers to start searching everyone that
Speaker 2: crosses the bridges. Yeah, and oh, by the way, Marcus
Speaker 2: wants to know about a particular some certain prisoner who
Speaker 2: was released by Caitlin under Jas's orders. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you happen to know anything about that, right, which,
Speaker 2: of course Jase is like, we're handling it, don't worry.
Speaker 2: But I don't know. Maybe if you could just give
Speaker 2: me a little influence in this situation, because I'm a
Speaker 2: little interested in this prisoner.
Speaker 3: And Jase shuts it down.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jase, I think shows a level of trust and
Speaker 1: camaraderie in Caitlin here, because seemingly those are the first
Speaker 1: he's ever hearing of this, right, and then he doesn't.
Speaker 2: Bat nye and he's got so much on his plate,
Speaker 2: I'm sure he doesn't even give a second thought. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he just trusts Scalen.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You gotta love that. You gotta love friends who will
Speaker 1: have your back no matter what. All right, Sorry for
Speaker 1: a council meeting, folks. You know I love a council meeting,
Speaker 1: and this one's juicy. Heimerdinger is telling the council that.
Speaker 3: They have lost their way.
Speaker 1: They're cannibalizing themselves with their greed and their pride and
Speaker 1: their hunger for power, and it's about damn time that
Speaker 1: we hold each other accountable, folks. Jace, he's got a
Speaker 1: rebuttal red tea. He hits Heimerdinger with a classic who
Speaker 1: watches the Watchman.
Speaker 2: Though, got the reverse card all lined up?
Speaker 1: Yes, the reverse you know card? Yeah, bam, you know
Speaker 1: what draw for while you're at it.
Speaker 2: You have plenty of time to use all those cards
Speaker 2: when you're out of a job.
Speaker 1: That's true, nothing to do in retirement. Bud Jace comes
Speaker 1: at Heimerdinger here. He's got a plan of attack ready
Speaker 1: to go. He blames Heimerdinger for the current state of affairs,
Speaker 1: for the rampant use of Shimmer in the under City,
Speaker 1: for the dangers that Hiltover is currently facing, and he
Speaker 1: he asks Heimerdinger, what's your plan? What is your plan
Speaker 1: for all of this? Because all I'm hearing from you
Speaker 1: is what we shouldn't do? What should we do? He
Speaker 1: has this really great line in this moment where Jay
Speaker 1: says healing the city will take more than just speeches.
Speaker 1: Humans don't live for centuries. We can't wait for progress.
Speaker 1: Really great stuff and obviously speaks to what we've been
Speaker 1: talking about earlier in our conversation. Heimerdinger, as we know,
Speaker 1: is the father of Piltover, one of the founders. But
Speaker 1: it's time for Daddy to go into retirement. Jase pushes
Speaker 1: for a vote to basically ex communicado Heimerdinger from the council.
Speaker 1: The vote has to be unanimous.
Speaker 2: And has to be unanimous, and shockingly it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The whole council votes for Heimerdinger to get kicked.
Speaker 2: Off, and no scene with Jase bringing a children's toy
Speaker 2: or some a pack of nuts or anything to the
Speaker 2: other council members. This was he didn't bribe anyone. No,
Speaker 2: this was a full on everyone agreed. Yeah, like slowly,
Speaker 2: I mean mel agrees first, and then slowly everyone else
Speaker 2: falls in line. But everyone else fell in line.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And in this moment, Heimerdinger's breaking my heart. I know.
Speaker 2: I said Huck was breaking my heart. Well, now Heimerdinger is.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: As much as I feel for Heimerdinger, I do want
Speaker 1: to counterbalance that a little bit by just saying that
Speaker 1: it's really telling that without any bribery, Jase is able
Speaker 1: to put this vote forward and unanimously the council votes
Speaker 1: to get rid of Heimerdinger.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it really reveals to us how out of
Speaker 1: touch Heimerdinger, the father of Piltover, has become. It makes
Speaker 1: me think of that opera scene that we saw a
Speaker 1: few episodes ago where Heimerdinger is enjoying the play. You know,
Speaker 1: he's chomping on his popcorn, he's clapping, he's scheering, while
Speaker 1: every other council member is scheming behind his back, and
Speaker 1: he's totally unaware of it. It shows us, I think
Speaker 1: that his idealism, his optimism, while admirable, has made him
Speaker 1: blind to the truth of the actual politics that's happening
Speaker 1: around him. And it's kind of a tough reality check, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because like Heimerdinger here is asking everyone to take the
Speaker 1: high road. We have to go back to operating with
Speaker 1: honor and integrity. But in a messy world like this
Speaker 1: one between Piltover and Zon like, the high road is
Speaker 1: not always the most effective road to get things done,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you do just have to get down in
Speaker 1: the trenches with everyone to make changes.
Speaker 2: It's a nice little reversal because up until this point
Speaker 2: we've seen the youth kind of as the idealists. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they're the ones who are like, we need to fight back,
Speaker 2: we need to you know, exert our independence from Piltover
Speaker 2: and the adults, the father figures in this case, are
Speaker 2: the ones saying, you don't understand how the world works.
Speaker 2: There's a reason I have this agreement with the enforcers.
Speaker 2: It's to keep things go paesetic between both sides. But
Speaker 2: now we have this little switcheroo and it's kind of
Speaker 2: a sad thing to see that happened to Himerdair.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great point.
Speaker 2: We're going to cut back to the water tower. Caitlin
Speaker 2: heals Violet with the potion, and then she looks around
Speaker 2: on the walls and she sees all these drawings and
Speaker 2: realizes that this is not just any old building. This
Speaker 2: is Violet's old house, and she sees Powder's name up
Speaker 2: there as well. Violet reveals that her parents were killed
Speaker 2: by you guessed it, enforcers, and that's what has led
Speaker 2: to her distrust of Caitlin. Can't blame her. If you
Speaker 2: watch your parents get killed by someone in an outfit
Speaker 2: and then you see someone in that same outfit later, yeah,
Speaker 2: probably not going to be a ton of trust. We
Speaker 2: don't have any time to deal with them going through
Speaker 2: these feelings because there's some noise outside and they open
Speaker 2: the door. Boom, it's Soco and we see Huck cowering
Speaker 2: behind him. Soco has paid Huck with some shimmer for
Speaker 2: their location, and there are a couple other vagrants around there,
Speaker 2: like zombies going for this shimmery, and he gives out
Speaker 2: a couple of vials. They start hulking out and advancing
Speaker 2: on Violet and Caitlin, and Violet and Silk are having
Speaker 2: this tit a tit, and Violet asks about Powder and
Speaker 2: Soko says, what are you talking about? I freed her,
Speaker 2: and Soko says, you don't know your limits. This is
Speaker 2: exactly what got Vander killed and it's what drove your
Speaker 2: sister away, and it's why I'm here right now, and
Speaker 2: you're in bad shape yea. And the shimmer zombies start
Speaker 2: heading towards them, and then Violet's like, if it's the
Speaker 2: last thing I do, I'm going to shut down your empire.
Speaker 2: And then she and Caitlin knock the water tower over,
Speaker 2: which conveniently separates them from the zombies the vagrants perfectly,
Speaker 2: and we get this huge climactic montage. Yeah, we see
Speaker 2: Jinks on top of the under city, lighting off the
Speaker 2: flare that Violet gave her back in episode three using
Speaker 2: the hex crystal. We get this beautiful animation of the smoke,
Speaker 2: which also happens in the next episode. But we have
Speaker 2: the memories of Milo and clagger around her as it's
Speaker 2: like the camera circling her holding the torch. Soko is
Speaker 2: furious that Violet has gotten way, sends his goons off,
Speaker 2: and then he mercilessly beats huck huh.
Speaker 3: Painful to watch.
Speaker 2: And then we see Marcus setting up his enforcers with
Speaker 2: floodlights on every bridge into Piltover, and we have just
Speaker 2: a really moving, energetic, fast montage of all these things happening.
Speaker 1: A really great montage. I think the only thing that
Speaker 1: would have made it better would have been an imagine
Speaker 1: Dragon's song in.
Speaker 2: The backdrop always but nah and the animal.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 1: From the montage, we go back to our flashback from
Speaker 1: earlier in the episode. We join young Victor as he's
Speaker 1: bringing this box of shimmer flowers to feed Rio, but
Speaker 1: he walks in and finds Rio in agony, hooked up
Speaker 1: to all of these tubes and Cinch's lab. Victor is furious,
Speaker 1: but Cinched is condescending in his response. He says, I
Speaker 1: thought you understood the mutation must survive. I don't care
Speaker 1: about the animal. I care about the scientific experiment that's
Speaker 1: taking place here. The camera then transitions, I love to
Speaker 1: this transition to kind of pans over, and we transition
Speaker 1: over to the same lab now in present day as
Speaker 1: Victor walks in and we see Rio, all these years later,
Speaker 1: still being kept alive in a giant test two bakta
Speaker 1: tank thing, and Victor says, too singed, I understand now.
Speaker 1: We then cut to Silko, who returns to his office
Speaker 1: only to find that Jinx has strung up Savika from
Speaker 1: the rafters big rafters energy here from Jinks in this office,
Speaker 1: and she has scribbled the word liar on Sevika's.
Speaker 2: Arm all over. I mean it's on Sevika herself. Yeah,
Speaker 2: right in this scene with the music and everything, Like
Speaker 2: Jinx is a true horror movie villain. Yeah, you and
Speaker 2: I famously do not watch horror movies, So maybe we're
Speaker 2: the wrong people to be making that connection.
Speaker 3: Right, But do Spooky.
Speaker 2: They really build her up in a way that every
Speaker 2: time she's not on screen we sense an incredible amount
Speaker 2: of dread from her, and every time she's introduced in
Speaker 2: the scene, we get that same dread. But the longer
Speaker 2: we sit with her in a scene, the more we
Speaker 2: see the parts of her that are vulnerable and the
Speaker 2: parts of her that we feel bad about but every
Speaker 2: time she is introed in a scene, I just feel
Speaker 2: like I'm terrified of her.
Speaker 3: Oh totally.
Speaker 1: I think we're seeing Jinks become more and more unhinged
Speaker 1: as the story goes on, as the season goes on,
Speaker 1: and it's becoming truly horrifying and heartbreaking to watch because
Speaker 1: this is still Powder, the adorable little girl we saw
Speaker 1: in episode one, and here is the path her life
Speaker 1: is taken. It's scary and tough to watch. I also
Speaker 1: wanted to quickly comment on Victor and this flashback scene
Speaker 1: because he walks up to Stinged and he says, I
Speaker 1: understand now, And the way I read this is I
Speaker 1: think both Jason Victor have actually come to the same
Speaker 1: realization that you sometimes have to sacrifice the people and
Speaker 1: things you love in the name of progress. Times that
Speaker 1: is the only way to make progress. Jace has sacrificed
Speaker 1: a father figure, a mentor in Heimerdingger, he has played politics.
Speaker 1: Victor here, of course, returning to Singed is foreshadowing some
Speaker 1: painful sacrifices that he will make in the next couple episodes.
Speaker 2: We cut back to Jinks, whose flare burns out again.
Speaker 2: Beautiful animation on the smoke. I think earlier I said
Speaker 2: we would talk about it in the next episode. I
Speaker 2: was wrong. It's the same episode. This episode. That montage
Speaker 2: just felt like the end of an episode. This is
Speaker 2: like Lord of the Rings the third movie, where it's
Speaker 2: just like we have fourteen different endings to it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this is the end of act two, and so they
Speaker 2: really jammed a bunch in here. So that's I'm going
Speaker 2: to blame that on why I mistakenly said it was
Speaker 2: the next episode. But beautiful animation on the smoke, And
Speaker 2: just as she's about to give up, Violet appears. Jinx
Speaker 2: drops the hex crystal. We get a scene of the
Speaker 2: hex crystal dropping definitely not a Chekhov's gun moment, and
Speaker 2: Violet tries to explain to her why she was gone,
Speaker 2: and Jinks is trying to explain why she's changed. She
Speaker 2: had to change to survive, and Violet is like, it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter, we're together. Caitlyn shows up and suddenly Jinks.
Speaker 2: That sets Jinks off. She turns cold and she's suspicious. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Kaitlyn realizes Violet's sister is Jinx. That's a problem. Violet's
Speaker 2: in the middle trying to calm them both down. Then
Speaker 2: Jinks starts to hear voices. Milo is talking to her,
Speaker 2: and Violet tells Powder She's like, Powder, it's okay, and
Speaker 2: Jink says it's Jinks. Now, Powder fell down a well,
Speaker 2: stop talking to me like I'm a child, And she
Speaker 2: now thinks Violet is trying to trick her in order
Speaker 2: to get the crystal, but Violet says she's only here
Speaker 2: for Powder, She's not going to abandon her again. Jinks's
Speaker 2: head is filling with more and more voices, but actually
Speaker 2: she might be hearing some real things too, because all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, the firelights arrive full force, and we
Speaker 2: get this incredible, incredible action scene with the firelights circling
Speaker 2: the sisters and Caitlin like a true army of green goblins.
Speaker 2: Jinx is just unloading the gatling gun all over. Violet
Speaker 2: is literally bare knuckle brawling against people on gliders like
Speaker 2: they're flying in at her and she's punching them all
Speaker 2: the while Caitlyn is trying to keep the Heck's crystal
Speaker 2: from falling and being lost. One of the firelights eventually
Speaker 2: gets to drop on Kaitlyn and steals the crystal and
Speaker 2: then sets off a smoke flare to escape, and then
Speaker 2: a different firelight knocks out Violet and is about to
Speaker 2: kill her when the owl mask firelight stops him and
Speaker 2: tells them to take Violet. Jinks charges at them, but
Speaker 2: they set off another cloud of smoke. They escape and
Speaker 2: the fog dissipates and Jinks realizes once again, unfortunately she
Speaker 2: is all alone, and that's where.
Speaker 3: We cut to credits.
Speaker 1: What a great ending to this episode, and what a
Speaker 1: great ending to this act is coming together of the
Speaker 1: sisters but then them being torn apart again by forces
Speaker 1: outside their control. Really powerful scene. There's so many layers
Speaker 1: to it. The one thing that really stood out to
Speaker 1: me was the miscommunication taking place right Jinks is suspicious
Speaker 1: of Caitlin, not believing that Violet is actually there to
Speaker 1: help her, but maybe there for the Gemstone thing. Why
Speaker 1: is an enforcer being involved, because remember their sisters their
Speaker 1: parents are the same. Powder's parents were also killed by
Speaker 1: an enforcer. She has every reason to not trust an
Speaker 1: enforcer who just walks in on them.
Speaker 3: And another layer to it is kind of the way.
Speaker 1: That Violet is treating Powder here as well, because we
Speaker 1: see throughout the fight Violet looking over and witnessing not
Speaker 1: powder but Jinks, reveling in the destruction and firing her
Speaker 1: gatling gun, not caring who gets shot, what gets shot,
Speaker 1: who gets hurt, And that's horrifying. We can see in
Speaker 1: Violet's reactions that she's like, thrown off? Is this my
Speaker 1: little sister? Is this the kid's sister that I remember?
Speaker 1: She's not recognizing how much they both have frankly grown
Speaker 1: and changed in the years that they've been separated, and
Speaker 1: their relationship has to evolve as well. It will not
Speaker 1: be the same parentified, older sibling and innocent, little mumbling
Speaker 1: young sibling relationship that it once was.
Speaker 2: I mean, we got her talking to Silko and him saying,
Speaker 2: your sister, I've freed her. Your sister's different now, and
Speaker 2: Violet not believing it. Yeah, Like Violet still is thinking
Speaker 2: of her as the young little girl that she was
Speaker 2: having visions of in the house. Yeah, and that's not
Speaker 2: the case anymore.
Speaker 3: Uh. Super powerful stuff.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite episodes in this season for sure.
Speaker 2: This is a great one.
Speaker 1: All right, Aaron, Before we get into episode seven, I'm
Speaker 1: hearing some voices in my head, or it might just
Speaker 1: be the Firelight's attacking. We need to take a break,
Speaker 1: but don't go anywhere, dear listener.
Speaker 5: We will be right back in just a minute.
Speaker 3: And we're back.
Speaker 1: Let's get into Arcane season one, episode seven, which is
Speaker 1: titled The Boy Savior.
Speaker 2: I wonder who this one's going to be about.
Speaker 3: This episode starts.
Speaker 1: On a gorgeous grunge graffiti montage of the firelights, and
Speaker 1: then we cut to a captured VI who quickly learns
Speaker 1: that the leader of this pesky skateboarding group of punks
Speaker 1: is none other than her old buddy Echo, Remember him,
Speaker 1: m hmm. After a little bit of suspicious back and
Speaker 1: forth between the two, they reconcile with a hug. They're
Speaker 1: still old friends, and they clearly realize that they're on
Speaker 1: the same side.
Speaker 2: Here elsewhere in the under City, Victor is in the
Speaker 2: lab with Singed, seeking his advice about what to do
Speaker 2: with his hex Tech ruin conundrum, and Singed offers him
Speaker 2: a solution. There's not a lot of turning back with
Speaker 2: this one, but he says, I can give you something
Speaker 2: that will help you survive the hex Tech confusion, and
Speaker 2: of course it's a modified version of Shimmer. We can
Speaker 2: tell how desperate Victor is, and and we know this
Speaker 2: is not going to end well. We've seen it being
Speaker 2: used on people throughout yeah, the first six episodes, and
Speaker 2: we also know that Victor is going to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're witnessing this sad and tragic fall of Victor.
Speaker 1: Here he takes the shimmer, seemingly with plants to use
Speaker 1: it if things get dire enough. Cinched also says a
Speaker 1: line here that struck a chord with me. He says
Speaker 1: love and legacy are sacrifices.
Speaker 3: We make for progress.
Speaker 1: And I found that really interesting because that's a different
Speaker 1: take on legacy, yeah, than we've gotten from people like Heimerdinger. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a different take on legacy than we've actually literally
Speaker 1: witnessed over the course of this season, because we have
Speaker 1: watched Jace rise to be the golden Boy, to be
Speaker 1: the savior of this city. His star has risen, and
Speaker 1: he has been showered with love and been given this
Speaker 1: legacy for creating Hextech, for making progress in the field
Speaker 1: of magic and science. And we see sort of the
Speaker 1: flip side of it too. Here in the under City, Cinched,
Speaker 1: with his experiments, has been ostracized from society. Clearly didn't
Speaker 1: get into the university to work alongside Himerdinger, and we
Speaker 1: see that he has a different take on it that
Speaker 1: for him, making progress requires total sacrifice of any expectation
Speaker 1: of love and connection with other people or to be
Speaker 1: remembered in any way.
Speaker 2: I actually think Singed worked with Himerdinger. Supposedly in the lore.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there is a throwaway line. Yeah, they seemingly
Speaker 1: like worked together, were partners, and then broke up.
Speaker 2: So I think the better mirror to Jason's meteoric rise
Speaker 2: promoting progress being, like you said, given this shower of
Speaker 2: affection from the masses as well as from mel he
Speaker 2: has like this legacy piece locked up. Victor is the opposite.
Speaker 2: His partner is the one who doesn't get love. He's
Speaker 2: the one who ignored the lab tech that was trying
Speaker 2: to flirt with him or legacy. He's the one who's
Speaker 2: gonna die, and he's worried that his accomplishments will be
Speaker 2: short lived because someone else is going to surpass him,
Speaker 2: and he doesn't live long enough for him to make
Speaker 2: enough of an impact that he will live on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're seeing the two sides of progress and the
Speaker 1: two pads that pushing progress forward can lead you down.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Next week.
Speaker 1: Cut to what is maybe the best montage in this
Speaker 1: entire show. Jase is in the Forge working through some
Speaker 1: stress and anxiety, shirtless, pex and six pack on full display.
Speaker 1: When Mel arrives to admire the view and seemingly like
Speaker 1: talk to him about stuff, They discuss what's bothering Jace,
Speaker 1: and Mel promises to stall the council so that Jays
Speaker 1: can figure things out. Right, He's got a line on
Speaker 1: his plate. He's worried about Victor, He's worried about the
Speaker 1: under City, He's worried about hex Tech. He's worried about
Speaker 1: where the fuck Caitlin is.
Speaker 3: He's got a lot to do.
Speaker 2: Right, He's like, did I do twelve reps? Or am
Speaker 2: I on fourteen reps of the trice at pulled down here?
Speaker 2: And then when I'm doing all this, like have I
Speaker 2: hit back today yet? Which, clearly if you see him,
Speaker 2: he's hit back today. Jason, Jace, drop the piltover forge
Speaker 2: workout plan. Let us see what you're working with there. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. You know, we don't know much about
Speaker 2: Jason's protein intake, but I assume it's pretty high based
Speaker 2: off of how jacked he's become since episode six, when
Speaker 2: I felt like he was just a normal dude, and
Speaker 2: now he looks like Deve Batista, you know. So good
Speaker 2: for you, Jason, Good for you, Bud.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Savika and Soco meet to discuss the situation with their
Speaker 2: crime lord syndicate in the face of these lockdowns. They're
Speaker 2: losing money and Soco is losing his grip and the
Speaker 2: Kem Barons are breathing down his neck. Meanwhile, Jinks is
Speaker 2: having a full on breakdown after her run in with
Speaker 2: Viola and Caitlin, and she's sitting in her again. We
Speaker 2: go back to her little home, her fort, whatever we
Speaker 2: want to call it, and she is talking to herself.
Speaker 2: Milo is talking to her. She's looking in the mirror.
Speaker 2: She's like, oh, she's with a and Forrester. How could
Speaker 2: she be doing that all in front of this beautifully
Speaker 2: cracks mirror?
Speaker 3: Do you get it? Aaron cracked mirror, cracked psyche.
Speaker 2: Oh, like you see the multiple I just wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure you got that, the multiple persons in Oh
Speaker 2: my god, She's okay.
Speaker 3: Just wanted to make sure.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: It's a very subtle bit of storytelling that has been
Speaker 1: featured in.
Speaker 2: Every Sorry I was thinking. I was trying to imagine,
Speaker 2: like if Jay stood in front of that doing his
Speaker 2: tricep pull downs. Yeah, how many different views of the
Speaker 2: muscle would he get there? That would actually would be
Speaker 2: a good way to isolate different groups.
Speaker 1: But right, I too, am still thinking about Jason Speck's.
Speaker 2: Oh all right.
Speaker 1: We cut next to Echo, who takes Violet to this
Speaker 1: absolutely gorgeous sanctuary that he has built for Shimmer addicts
Speaker 1: and Shimmer victims to start fresh, to start a new life.
Speaker 1: He shows Violet this stunning mural of all of his
Speaker 1: lost friends, and he tries to convince her that Powder
Speaker 1: is gone, only Jinx remains, and she's working for Silko
Speaker 1: because she wants to. She's not trapped by anything. Jinks
Speaker 1: wants to work with Silko. Your sister's not the sister
Speaker 1: you remember anymore, But Violet is convinced that she can
Speaker 1: still reach the heart of her little sister buried somewhere
Speaker 1: deep inside.
Speaker 2: Jinks and further emphasizing his point, We're looking at this
Speaker 2: mirror that is the friends they've lost, and it features Violet,
Speaker 2: who they thought was dead. I mean, when she wakes up,
Speaker 2: the first thing he says to her is you look
Speaker 2: pretty good for a dead girl. But it features Violet.
Speaker 2: It features Powder right there in the middle, even though
Speaker 2: they know she's alive. She's just Jinks now. It features
Speaker 2: vander Benzo, Milo Clagger, and someone is up there adding
Speaker 2: an addition of the pink haired girl from episode four
Speaker 2: that Jinks saw thinking it was Violet and was not,
Speaker 2: but we lost her. We head back to the bridges
Speaker 2: heading it's Piltover and Jace is there reprimanding Victor for
Speaker 2: breaking the containment. He's like, how can I have this
Speaker 2: lockdown if my partner isn't following the rules. My partner
Speaker 2: is breaking lockdown?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Victor is clearly offended by Jason's elitism, and Jase attempts
Speaker 2: to apologize, but in the midst of trying to have
Speaker 2: this nice moment with his partner, someone chucks them all
Speaker 2: atov cocktail over the barrier and we get into like
Speaker 2: full on chaos.
Speaker 1: You know, it is a little unclear to me how
Speaker 1: exactly things have escalated so much at the border. We've
Speaker 1: been so focused on the characters and their journey, Violet
Speaker 1: and Jinks and Silko, that we haven't spent a ton
Speaker 1: of time on the circumstances of the under City, right,
Speaker 1: and it feels like we got here really fast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels like people are throwing Molotov cocktails at enforcers.
Speaker 1: I'm left wondering why. Yeah, you know, what exactly is happening?
Speaker 1: Like are the lockdowns squeezing the Undercity economically? And like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, red prices, egg prices are skyrocketing and
Speaker 1: people are pissed. Or is this something else that's been
Speaker 1: brewing for a long time that's now finally been pushed
Speaker 1: over the edge by the lockdown.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I do feel like we got a better sense of
Speaker 2: the under City and their relationship to Piltover in the
Speaker 2: first act in episodes one through three. Since then, it's
Speaker 2: been so story focused on the individual characters. Our main
Speaker 2: look into the world of Piltover since episode four has
Speaker 2: been council meetings, which is not the best way to
Speaker 2: see what the heart of the people are like. If
Speaker 2: our view is of a government organization, that looks like
Speaker 2: we're missing out on a lot. We know that the
Speaker 2: crime families are losing money because of their smuggling operations
Speaker 2: have lost some steam, but I would hope that the
Speaker 2: under City's base economy does not rely entirely on smugglers.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's entirely possible, But it does seem like
Speaker 2: we got to this place pretty quickly out of nowhere,
Speaker 2: I agree, all right.
Speaker 1: Moving on back to our recap, Silko barges in on
Speaker 1: the assembly of frustrated Kenberans. They want to compromise with
Speaker 1: the topsiders. They're losing money and they just want to
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to get back to their life
Speaker 1: of comfort and luxury and money still coming in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Silko, you fucked up. You lost the handle on.
Speaker 1: It exactly, And of course they're blaming Silko for losing
Speaker 1: control of the situation. Silko very quickly reasserts why he's
Speaker 1: the top dog.
Speaker 3: He reminds everyone.
Speaker 1: Assembled with some deadly fumes from the minds who exactly
Speaker 1: it was that saved them from the depths of their
Speaker 1: pitiful lives. They were nothing before Silico came in and
Speaker 1: helped them rise to the stations they're at now. Let's
Speaker 1: not forget that, folks. It's a really great scene.
Speaker 2: I do want to talk about Finn, who is the
Speaker 2: main member of the ken Baron Council who's standing up
Speaker 2: to Selco. I think he has the absolute best outfit,
Speaker 2: hands down, of anyone in this show. He has the
Speaker 2: coat slung over the shoulders, he's the half shaved head,
Speaker 2: he has the pinstripe skinny pants, gold trim vest with
Speaker 2: the bare chest. He's all tatted up, and I obviously
Speaker 2: want to see more of this character because his outfit
Speaker 2: is so good, his style is incredible. But also I
Speaker 2: don't know this character. I don't know any of these
Speaker 2: Kem Barons, and I wish we had a little more context.
Speaker 2: I know that this is the beginning of the act,
Speaker 2: and so there's things we missed, but we've spent a
Speaker 2: ton of time with Soko lounging in his chair, being frustrated,
Speaker 2: being annoyed, and we haven't had much Soco crime Lord totally.
Speaker 2: I want more scenes of him with this group. And
Speaker 2: Finn does come back, but the rest of the Kem
Speaker 2: Barons who are listed as Finn, Smeech, Cross, Rennie and Margo,
Speaker 2: and Smeech is the Ordol like chimer Dinger, but like
Speaker 2: a skin a hairless one, and Rennie is supposedly most
Speaker 2: likely Renata glask who's a Legal Legends character, which very funny.
Speaker 2: All of Renata's moves are named after financial terms like
Speaker 2: bailout style, take over. So I like that for a
Speaker 2: crime syndicate character, but I really wish we had seen
Speaker 2: more crime syndicate scenes. Yeah, give me more of Silko
Speaker 2: actually bringing these people up and empowering them and we
Speaker 2: suddenly see, oh yeah, this person is in charge of
Speaker 2: imports and exports, this person is in charge of extortion.
Speaker 2: You know, give me more of that. I want to
Speaker 2: see him being a crime lord more and not just
Speaker 2: like a dude worried about Sevika and Jinx.
Speaker 3: I agree.
Speaker 1: I think this scene was just so good. It's one
Speaker 1: of the best scenes in this episode that you can't
Speaker 1: help but want more of it. And it's such a
Speaker 1: short lived scene, but it's so powerful it really stays
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: Also one thing that makes this scene so powerful is
Speaker 1: this very subtle, understated bit of storytelling where we see
Speaker 1: the gas released by Sevika, and then Soka walks around
Speaker 1: the table still talking to everyone as people are like choking,
Speaker 1: and at the very end he like, I almost get
Speaker 1: the sense that he didn't even need to take that
Speaker 1: like final swig from the mask. He just did it
Speaker 1: to taunt.
Speaker 2: I feel like it was very much here take my
Speaker 2: sloppy seconds.
Speaker 1: That's exactly the vibe I got too. And I think
Speaker 1: that's such great storytelling because it shows us the viewer
Speaker 1: that these Ken Barons have gone soft in their more
Speaker 1: luxurious lifestyle, so that.
Speaker 3: Silko has now given them.
Speaker 1: Silko, on the other hand, clearly hasn't. The guess isn't
Speaker 1: affecting him as much, and he's still quite resistant to
Speaker 1: it or more used to it. I think it's just
Speaker 1: like a really lovely little touch here that tells us
Speaker 1: so much about the relationship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say Silko put on an effective scene
Speaker 2: to show them he's still in power.
Speaker 3: He's a good showman. Yeah, gotta give him that.
Speaker 2: We head back to Piltover and Mel is standing overlooking
Speaker 2: the city and she receives a mysterious letter which has
Speaker 2: her family crest on it. Oh, so this is a
Speaker 2: new twist. Someone who's been excommunicated from Naxis and from
Speaker 2: her family, they're reaching out. We cut back to the firelights,
Speaker 2: Caitlin is released by Echo, and then Jinx confront Soko
Speaker 2: about why he lied about her sister, and he's like,
Speaker 2: I was doing this to protect you. Violet is here
Speaker 2: with an enforcer and they're only here because they want
Speaker 2: the Gemstone. They're not here for you. And we can
Speaker 2: see Jinks struggling with this. At first, it's this brutal
Speaker 2: scene with her. Soko's trying to administer the eye poke
Speaker 2: thing on his own. He can't do it, so Jink's
Speaker 2: in a rare moment of not hiding in the rafters,
Speaker 2: is hiding behind the chair and comes out and she
Speaker 2: is poking him in the cheek with it, and it's brutal.
Speaker 2: She's again, this is full on horror movie Jinx, and
Speaker 2: you see her start to unravel as he's like, your
Speaker 2: sister is not here for you. I was trying to
Speaker 2: protect you from that. She's the one that left you.
Speaker 2: I'm the one that brought you in. I'm the one
Speaker 2: that took care of you. And he's like, I need you,
Speaker 2: I need you to complete my weapon and she's still torn.
Speaker 2: She administers the eye drop to him and she bolts
Speaker 2: it and oh, I just feel like every time I
Speaker 2: see Jinx, I am terrified of her. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: feel bad for her.
Speaker 3: And sad stuff.
Speaker 6: We need to take a break, but we will be
Speaker 6: right back in just a minute, and.
Speaker 1: We're back back at the sanctuary. Kate, who's been released
Speaker 1: by the firelights, convinces Echo to work together and to
Speaker 1: return the Gemstone to Jace. This is how we're gonna
Speaker 1: break this cycle of violence. This is how we're gonna
Speaker 1: bring peace to the Upper and Lower Cities. Meanwhile, Victor, Jace,
Speaker 1: and mel are in the lab trying to figure out
Speaker 1: the true danger posed by the lost Gemstone in the
Speaker 1: under City. They're trying to unpack the grenade that Marcus
Speaker 1: had given to j one grenade, one grenade from Look
Speaker 1: at this grenade.
Speaker 2: Do you think that they could harness XSEC based off
Speaker 2: this one grenade?
Speaker 1: They're making a lot of leaps of logic here. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: mel in fact wants to preemptively prepare for war against
Speaker 1: the under City by creating hex tech weaponry. The one
Speaker 1: thing that Heimerdinger has been warning us about this whole
Speaker 1: damn season, and the energy in this room, for me
Speaker 1: at least very much was giving like there's WMDs in
Speaker 1: the under City that aren't actually there, and we need
Speaker 1: to over retaliate to a danger that we aren't actually
Speaker 1: sure is even there.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot.
Speaker 2: Of it's not there are WMD's in the under City.
Speaker 2: It's there might be. Maybe it's impossible they have the
Speaker 2: tech right that they could potentially make it. So we
Speaker 2: got to put a stop to it. Now, we have
Speaker 2: to end it.
Speaker 1: Right, Lockdown's weapons, crush the under city. You know, it's
Speaker 1: obviously in an inappropriate scale of response to the danger
Speaker 1: that's actually posed. But it shows us what people in
Speaker 1: Piltover think of the under city, right right, It shows
Speaker 1: us that class device.
Speaker 2: And both Victor and jas are like, no, we didn't
Speaker 2: come here do all this research. We didn't harness hextech
Speaker 2: to make weapons. What Yeah, I kind of remember you
Speaker 2: guys making Hulk hans ulcans. Yeah right, you like showed
Speaker 2: it off as one of the first things, and Heybridingo
Speaker 2: was like, nah, no, this is a weapon, right, guys,
Speaker 2: come on.
Speaker 3: A doc doc laser beam.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, what No, it's not a weapon. It's just
Speaker 2: so that I can mow the lawn really easily.
Speaker 1: Calm down, start start with a hexstack alarm clock.
Speaker 3: Guys, what are we doing?
Speaker 1: Make an Apple watch that runs off hexstach so I
Speaker 1: don't have to charge it every fucking night.
Speaker 2: Or some lamps for the council building.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my gosh, anything except hulk hands and a
Speaker 1: doc doc laser beam.
Speaker 3: This is wild to me.
Speaker 1: This really stood out because I'm maybe now here in
Speaker 1: episode seven, kind of realizing like, maybe these dudes are
Speaker 1: dumber than I thought. Maybe they actually don't know how
Speaker 1: the real world operates, and they might just be young
Speaker 1: and idealistic enough to be kind of ignorant to the
Speaker 1: realities of how societies and cultures and people actually work.
Speaker 2: Justice for Heimerdinger exactly.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to think I'm on Heimerdinger's side here, honestly,
Speaker 1: But I do love that this scene shows us in
Speaker 1: Jase and Victor, this young, hot headed idealism being confronted
Speaker 1: by what is often a very messy and complicated reality.
Speaker 1: We saw that with Vander and Vai, we saw that
Speaker 1: with Jas and Heimerdinger, and for me, it kind of
Speaker 1: makes me think, Okay, maybe our elders aren't all just
Speaker 1: the cowards and hypocrites that we accuse them of being.
Speaker 1: Perhaps they do know a little bit of what they're
Speaker 1: talking about. Maybe they do know that real life is
Speaker 1: very complicated and very messy, regardless of how idealistic you might.
Speaker 2: Be or maybe there's just jealous that we have Hulkhans.
Speaker 2: That's right in the laser guns.
Speaker 3: So smash smash baby.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We cut to Victor who is preparing himself. He's
Speaker 2: put his brace on. He's going to inject himself with
Speaker 2: the shimmer. He does and he activates the Heck's tech runs.
Speaker 2: We see Heimerdinger now in this you know Cloak sneaking
Speaker 2: across the blockade by boat on the river. Violet and
Speaker 2: Caitlin and Echo are heading into Piltover, trying to sneak
Speaker 2: through the blockade themselves, and Violet stops and is like,
Speaker 2: I have to go back for Powder. I can't leave
Speaker 2: her again, and jinks lo and Behold is like up
Speaker 2: perched on the top of the bridge like Batman and
Speaker 2: has a telescope and like looking down and sees Violet
Speaker 2: embracing Caitlin and hug her goodbye. She's overcome with jealousy.
Speaker 2: And then we cut to Marcus who catches Caitlin at
Speaker 2: an Echo as they're trying to come across. He opens
Speaker 2: the floodlights and he has the gun to Caitlin. He's
Speaker 2: getting ready to shoot her. He's torn a little himself,
Speaker 2: but he has already shot Echo and then oh, this
Speaker 2: huge swarm of firelights shows up right the animal and
Speaker 2: they start landing on the n They land on Marcus's gun,
Speaker 2: click into place, and they explode. Wow wow, and Marcus,
Speaker 2: of course, you know, the explosions go off. Marcus has
Speaker 2: the gall to be like, hey, Caitlyn, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I know I just had you had gunpoint. I know
Speaker 2: I just shot your buddy you were traveling with, but
Speaker 2: would you please tell my daughter?
Speaker 3: And he dies. Huh.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel for him, but I also I
Speaker 1: don't view for him. This was inevitably going to be
Speaker 1: the end for Marcus. Yeah, the choices he made in
Speaker 1: life were going to end in this way, in one
Speaker 1: shape or another.
Speaker 2: He was in two deep.
Speaker 1: He was Okay, let's finish off this episode, because my goodness.
Speaker 1: Jinx arrives on the bridge after the explosions and she
Speaker 1: takes the gempstone.
Speaker 3: She looks up.
Speaker 1: She sees Vi helping Caitlyn get up after that explosion. Again,
Speaker 1: that feeling of jealousy. She's overcome with it, and she
Speaker 1: begins firing on them with her gatling gun and anger
Speaker 1: at that very moment, Echo on his cool ass hoverboard,
Speaker 1: jumps in to the fray. He's fine, he survived the
Speaker 1: bullet earlier from Marcus and begins to battle Jinks as
Speaker 1: Uy and Caitlin make a run for it. This is simply,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, simply one of the most iconic fight
Speaker 1: sequences ever animated.
Speaker 3: Like it's just so beautiful.
Speaker 1: The esthetic, the music, the pacing, the emotional thrust of
Speaker 1: it all is just so so good. Echo and Jinks
Speaker 1: face off. Echo is actually able to overcome Jinks, but
Speaker 1: she then sets off one of her grenades, seemingly blowing
Speaker 1: both of them up, and that's where.
Speaker 3: The episode ends. Yeah, really brilliant stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, this final sequence has so many layers to it,
Speaker 1: Like we see these flashbacks to their childhoods in that
Speaker 1: grunge spray paint style that we saw at the top
Speaker 1: of the episode, and we see how this confrontation these
Speaker 1: two kids have played out time and time again when
Speaker 1: they were kids, when they were just playing with paintball
Speaker 1: guns and fa armor, and we see how Echo knows
Speaker 1: how Jinx is going to react and knows how to
Speaker 1: overcome her in this moment because of those childhood memories
Speaker 1: and the playing that they did. Now becoming a life
Speaker 1: and death situation. The layers of like emotional storytelling at
Speaker 1: play here, just pointing us back towards their childhood and
Speaker 1: then making it clear what the stakes are. These two
Speaker 1: people are no longer playing and the emotional and physical stakes.
Speaker 3: Going to be higher.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I could watch this scene over and
Speaker 1: over again. Sometimes I do like just YouTube this scene
Speaker 1: just to watch it again.
Speaker 2: I think it's a great scene. I disagree a little
Speaker 2: because I don't think we got any scenes with these
Speaker 2: to his kids in the first three episodes.
Speaker 3: No, we did it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, why did we spend time? I mean, I know
Speaker 2: it was important for Powder to stand up to Milo
Speaker 2: and do the shooting gallery scene against him, But what
Speaker 2: if we had a scene of her playing with Echo,
Speaker 2: recreating this that we then revisit here I in that
Speaker 2: moment when Echo has defeated her and he looks down
Speaker 2: at her and she seems a little vulnerable. We got
Speaker 2: scenes with Echo and Violet. We got scenes with Echo
Speaker 2: and Clagger and like them showing their friendship. We did
Speaker 2: not get Echo interacting with Powder, and so it was.
Speaker 2: I loved what it was trying to do, and it
Speaker 2: is a beautifully animated thing, and I really like this
Speaker 2: dangerous switching between them as a young adults and them
Speaker 2: as children, and like, you see her as an adult
Speaker 2: shooting a real gun at this kid, which switches into
Speaker 2: Echo as the adult, and it's a really beautifully done.
Speaker 2: But I wanted them to have had this scene in
Speaker 2: the first three episodes, or at worst give me a
Speaker 2: flashback of them playing at the beginning of the episode
Speaker 2: and then get into it, because I really felt like
Speaker 2: you told me that they had a relationship, yeah, but
Speaker 2: you didn't show it to me at all.
Speaker 1: I think that's an absolutely fair point. We get very
Speaker 1: little of Echo in those early episodes when they're all kids,
Speaker 1: so to have them come back here there is less
Speaker 1: emotional resonance with Echo because we don't have history with
Speaker 1: him like we do with all the other characters.
Speaker 2: Also, to Violet real quick, yeah, at first, she's like, hey, Echo, Caitlin,
Speaker 2: I'm going to stay in the under city because I
Speaker 2: can't leave my sister behind again. And then suddenly she's like, oh,
Speaker 2: here is my sister. Hey, Echo, you go handle her.
Speaker 2: I'm going to take Caitlin. I'm going to leave my
Speaker 2: sister behind. Actually, after all, it felt like she had
Speaker 2: a quick turn around there she saw Kaitlyn was in
Speaker 2: danger and was like, all right, yeah, you carried me,
Speaker 2: now I'll carry you.
Speaker 3: That's another great point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would imagine that Violet would be the one
Speaker 1: telling Echo, go help you get out here exactly. I
Speaker 1: need to face my sister here on this bridge right now,
Speaker 1: rather than rushing to Caitlin and running off with her.
Speaker 1: But I think that is something that is going to
Speaker 1: uh not help Jinx's feelings about Caitlin and Violet, that
Speaker 1: Violet has chosen Caitlin over her in this situation. All right, Wow,
Speaker 1: a long one today, Yes, two really great episodes though, Yes,
Speaker 1: and bridging the end of Act two and the start
Speaker 1: of Act three.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 2: Stick around next week we're going to get to the
Speaker 2: finale of season one and on tomorrow's episode, Jason Rosie
Speaker 2: will be back to celebrate Halloween with you, and then
Speaker 2: on Friday we will be having our Agatha season one
Speaker 2: reactions with the final two episodes releasing. Right, that's our episode.
Speaker 2: Thank you everyone for listening.
Speaker 3: To see you next week, Justice rhimerdgger.
Speaker 4: X. Ray Vision is hosted by Jason Kisumsion and Rosie
Speaker 4: Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
Speaker 4: producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2: Our supervising producer is.
Speaker 4: A Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor.
Speaker 4: Our theme song is by Brian Basquez. Special thanks to
Speaker 4: Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi A
Speaker 4: disco moderata