Arcane season 2 is finally here, but after the three-year break between seasons, we can’t blame you if you don’t quite remember what’s been happening in Piltover and Zaun. To help you get ready for the show’s new season, we’ve got reminders on exactly what went on in season 1, and more specifically, the exact spots characters were in the last time we saw them.
Where did Jinx and Vi (and Caitlyn) leave each other?
After a season-long dance between sisters and their loyalties — to each other, to the underworld, to peace in the kingdom — it all came to a head in the finale. The final moments of season 1 involved Jinx firing her makeshift Hextech rocket into the Piltover city council chamber, promising untold mayhem, death, and destruction.
Vi and Caitlyn were trying to stop her, and Caitlyn even had a shot before Jinx fired her rocket, but the pair failed. As for the relationship between Jinx and Vi, it seems safe to say that the rocket was Vi’s last straw for hoping she could still find her sister Powder inside Jinx.
What happened to Silco, and what’s the state of the Lanes?
The head of Zaun’s criminal underworld, Silco, was done in by adopted daughter Jinx. Near the end of the season, Jinx captured Vi, Caitlyn, and Silco in an effort to question them altogether (and thinking Silco was about to betray her). When Silco tries to kill Vi, Jinx shoots him and immediately starts to cry as he tells her he still loves her.
Silco had used violence, Shimmer-enhanced henchmen, and his right-hand woman, Sevika, to keep Zaun’s various criminal organizations more or less in check since Vander’s “disappearance” — along with the help of some bribes for Piltover’s corrupt sheriff. But with Silco dead and out of the way, the city beneath Piltover descended into an even more lawless wasteland, with each faction vying for control.
Wait, what is Shimmer again, exactly?
Image: Fortiche, Riot Games/Netflix
Shimmer is a kind of drug that Silco’s team — including and especially Singed — developed that gives users excessive, monstrous strength and uncontrollable rage, which makes them perfect for inflicting violence on whoever Silco needed. The drug is highly addictive, but it also alters the user’s body permanently after use.
Singed is Silco’s head scientist, and an old friend and mentor of Viktor’s. He’s a scientific genius from Zaun who isn’t really concerned with petty things like ethics or morality. In the first season we saw him help Viktor work the Hexcore to connect it to his body, and we know that he was in a cave keeping a strange creature alive in a giant tank.
Where are Viktor and Jayce at?
Viktor, Jayce, and Mel are all in the council chamber room that Jinx blew up, so we’ll just have to wait and see how they fare after the rocket blast. As for their own relationships, Jayce and Mel are still dating, while Viktor and Jayce are somewhat on the outs, since Jayce is considering the creation of Hextech weapons, something Viktor staunchly opposes.
What’s Ambessa’s whole deal?
Image: Fortiche, Riot Games/Netflix
Ambessa is Mel’s mother and a battle-tested Noxian commander. It’s not completely clear why she’s in Piltover, other than to keep an eye on her daughter. But it’s clear that she’s trying to advance her own interests within the City of Progress.
Is Heimerdinger in the council chamber too?
Heimerdinger was expelled from the council on the advice of Jayce, which means he’s not in the council chamber, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the story. Heimerdinger’s expulsion was due mostly to the fact that he was trying to stall the development of Hextech in hope of making it more safe. But, without the council keeping him in Piltover, Heimerdinger wandered down to Zaun and met up with Ekko.