Arcane’ Season 2 Episode 4 Review
Episode four of ‘Arcane’ jumps ahead as the rulers of Piltover begin a campaign of oppression against the residents of the Undercity.
Like in the first season, the show once again makes use of time jumps between arcs as a way to fit all the story into such a short show. It’s not clear exactly how much time has passed, but it’s certainly several months, and possibly even more than a year since episode three. Things have changed a great deal. Ambessa Medarda has become a military dictator, with Caitlyn as commander of the enforcers, oppressing the people of Zaun with a regime of brutality and fear, where people are arrested and jailed without trial.
In response to this, Jinx has become something of a heroic figure for the residents of Zaun, who dye their hair and spray blue graffiti as a sign of resistance against the authorities. Jinx isn’t taking advantage of this position, though, as she’s become reclusive, living with Isha as her adopted sister, in a kind of fantasy of what life might have been like with Vi if things had turned out differently. She doesn’t talk to Silco, and seems more stable than normal.
This doesn’t last long, though, as Isha is taken by the enforcers along with a group of protestors, leading Jinx to team up with Sevika and launch a rescue mission.
It’s interesting to see how much things have changed in this arc. In many ways, the former heroes are now the villains, while the bad guys have come good. While there have been several occasions where the Undercity had good reason to want to break free from Piltover’s influence, they’ve often been driven apart by selfish interests and conflicting ideals. Could Jinx be the one to finally unite all the various factions together against the authorities, and bring them their freedom?
It certainly feels like a shift in the series. There’s no clear path for where things will go, whether Caitlyn will have a change of heart and find the sense of justice she used to have, or whether it will be up to Zaun to take down Ambessa and her army. We’ll have to wait and see. But there are a couple of other questions hovering over this episode. For one, where is Vi, and what’s her response to all of this? Also, what (or who) is the creature that attacked the prison? We know it was created by Singed, but why did it call Jinx “Powder”? There are only a few people who ever knew her as that, and most of them are dead, aren’t they? Maybe not.