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00:00Arkane's perfect episode draws a distinct line between two very unique characters, two
00:07heroes with contrasting ideologies and backgrounds, instead of making them argue or fight to resolve
00:14their differences which were actually highlighted in the third episode of the season.
00:19Episode 7 does something a lot more cunning.
00:21It lets the fruit of their different approaches to life play out in alternate timelines, giving
00:28each character what most of the audience base would agree is their deserved reality
00:34considering their actions.
00:36While Echo gets a second chance of life with everyone he loved and lost, Jace has to swallow
00:41a bitter pill that tastes exactly like the aftermath of his own actions.
00:46All that's left of Piltover is a barren wasteland, a horror show, a cold, isolated world created
00:53by Victor and Jace's ambitions.
00:55Earlier in the series, you may notice Jace look in a mirror.
00:59Mirrors are often used in Arcane to reflect the mental state of a character to the audience.
01:04For example, Vi and Jinx both have scenes with broken mirrors, implying that their mental
01:09states at those moments are not solid.
01:11Jace, however, does not have a broken mirror.
01:15His is perfectly fine because he doesn't truly ever face adversity until he gets a
01:20look into this world.
01:23One more thing about this scene with the mirrors is notice how Jace's mirror is in the background.
01:27His political affairs are obviously important to him.
01:31But by placing this mirror so far in the background, it shows how little his man of progress title
01:38is to everyone else and how little it does for the series.
01:43There are more pressing issues than Jace being some sort of celebrity or politician.
01:48This apocalyptic world ends up being the mirror that Jace needed.
01:52It reflects all of his actions back to him.
01:55It forces him to introspect and look back on his decisions, which I'm sure we all realize
01:59were not optimal.
02:02Echo is also forced to reflect, but in a very different way.
02:06You see, he had already given up on any sort of vision for Zorn.
02:10His circumstances convinced him that nothing could change.
02:14Seeing Zorn's improvement and everyone he loves doing well, wakes him up to the fact
02:19that his reality also still has a chance.
02:22I used to dream the Undercity could be like this, but somewhere I got consumed by all
02:29the ways it wasn't.
02:30This world gives him an opportunity to let go of his anger and process his emotions in
02:35a healthy setting.
02:37What this episode does well is that it acts like an anchor for the rest of the series,
02:41the rest of Arcane, while also stepping away from everything that makes Arcane, Arcane.
02:47The huge tonal shifts in these two worlds shows us how controlled all of the other aspects
02:52of the series have been so far.
02:55We learn that the dark feel that the series gives off is highly intentional, because this
03:00episode shows how easily they could have gone the other way with the series by simply adding
03:04scenes that are more vibrant and well lit.
03:07The very first episode of Arcane was a great example of this.
03:11It gave us a precursor to this dark series with shades of Pixar sprinkled in.
03:17That Pixar Disney feel to Echo's half of the story was very, very important.
03:23It gives us a chance to breathe.
03:26Arcane gets extremely depressing after some time because of how the likable characters
03:31get tossed and turned by the situations that the story presents.
03:36There are so many close moments and things that could have been completely different
03:40if it weren't for small mistakes.
03:42This hurts us as the audience base.
03:45That's what episode 7 puts under the spotlight really well.
03:48It gives us these what if scenarios and it shows how well or how bad things could have
03:54been.
03:55It also sits as a huge callback to the first episode 7 that we see in season 1, where Echo
04:01again was the main focus of the episode.
04:03In fact, there's this short clip talking about how Echo would have had a even bigger role
04:09in this episode.
04:10However, the team at 4TH decided to can it because they felt that the fight scene was
04:15enough to complete this bridge of storytelling.
04:18Episode 7 used to open with a scene that showed you exactly what happened in Echo and Jinx's
04:24past when they were kids.
04:26We crafted this sequence of how Echo sort of started the fire lights.
04:30So in the wake of Vander's death, Silco took over the lanes.
04:35There was a lot more orphans and he sort of collected the orphans, took them under his
04:39wing and gave them a safe haven.
04:41But he was always, always, always looking for a way to get closer to Silco because he
04:46thought that Silco was keeping Powder prisoner.
04:50He finally, after all this work, finds Powder in Silco's lair and he says, I'm here to rescue
04:56you.
04:57And she says, I don't want to be rescued.
05:00I'm Jinx now.
05:01And then when he tries to pull her out of there physically, she slapped him the same way that
05:06Vi slapped her in episode 3.
05:08And it was such an emotional scene and we loved it so much.
05:13But what we realized is seeing that scene at the beginning of the episode didn't set
05:18up their fight at the end.
05:19It was the fight at the end of the episode.
05:22So by layering in some of those hints of the moment of the childhood in their fight at
05:26the end of the episode, you could get the whole story I just told you, you would feel
05:31it in that fight scene.
05:33Back to episode 7, Jace's isolation in this new world becomes a lot more obvious when
05:39you can see Piltover buzzing in Echo's world.
05:43But when you really think about it, this is who Jace is.
05:47He has about three people he can go to in his life in the entire series.
05:51One is now a cult leader.
05:53The other manipulated him for financial and political gain.
05:57And the other one is his mom.
05:59It's not even that I believe he needs anything more than that.
06:02Those three people are core and those are the type of people we need in our lives.
06:06However, it's easy to see why his decisions were so removed from the people on the ground.
06:12He doesn't talk to them.
06:14He doesn't spend his time in the lanes or the fissures.
06:17This detachment from the true reality in the lanes and the problems that these people face
06:22is why he creates tools like the hex claw and the atlas gauntlets to help the miners
06:27in the fissures work.
06:28But he doesn't even think about building something to improve their breathing situations.
06:33Instead, he builds this huge hex gate and he builds the fail safe for that hex gate
06:38in the lanes, very far away from the rich people in Piltover.
06:42What's interesting about him failing to build an application that would clean the air in
06:45the mines is that Klagor builds that exact device in this episode, showing that the writers
06:52did think through that this was a needed device.
06:56Jace doesn't build it because he doesn't understand it's needed.
06:59This isolation that Jace experiences throughout the series further highlights why Echo is
07:03special because Echo thinks about community and that's the reason why in this episode
07:08he has one.
07:09He has people he loves to communicate with.
07:12We primarily see Jace think about his hextech dream and think about cures for Victor's condition
07:17and that's why in his alternate reality, he gets stuck with both of those aspects.
07:23This episode manages to poetically highlight the differences between the two's thinking.
07:29Now the part that a lot of you have been waiting for and the best part of episode 7 has nothing
07:34to do with the Jace and Echo dynamic but happens to be the expansion of Jinx and Echo's relationship.
07:40Less out of necessity for any relationships in Arkane, I don't feel that they help the
07:44story that much, but more because of the fact that the writers were hinting towards Jinx
07:50and Echo's relationship for some time.
07:52And how it's done is very clever because it allows them to keep both characters intact
07:56in the main reality of Arkane while grouping them together in this alternate reality.
08:02An important characteristic of Powder's personality also gets opened up in this episode.
08:06That being that she always ends up helping the people closest to her.
08:10When Vi was crashing out doing break-ins, she wanted to be there helping Vi.
08:14She wanted to fight like Vi.
08:16When Soko took her in, she was willing to commit murder and war crimes to please him.
08:22When it was Isha, she turned into this big sister figure who was not only raising Isha
08:27but would also act as a play partner for the child.
08:29With Echo, in episode 7 we see the same pattern play out.
08:33She helps him with his submission into the contest and she plays the role of a lab assistant.
08:38A very intelligent lab assistant at that.
08:41Almost a hextech partner like Victor and Jace.
08:44This all proves that her wanting to help the people around her is a core part of her
08:49personality.
08:50She wants to feel included in their lives in a very practical way.
08:54Just in this reality, it ends up being very healthy for her to do this because Echo is
08:59actually a decent person to help out.
09:02He also leans really well into Powder's strong point as a young, genius, innovative
09:07mind.
09:08The heartbreaking part about episode 7 of season 2 of Arkane is that Echo decides to
09:14sacrifice paradise to return to his own problematic reality to save everyone.
09:20This selfless act not only makes him a hero but also hurts us as the audience because
09:25we can all see what this fixed world meant to him.
09:29The powerful part about this episode is that a matured Jace returns to do the same thing
09:35that Echo is doing.
09:37He wants to be a hero albeit in a very different way to Echo.
09:41We have these two heroes set out to fix their world and their reality after spending time
09:46in an alternate reality that somewhat changes their perspective on life.
09:51These two characters juxtapose each other in terms of everything they stand for and
09:54everything they believe in.
09:55But there's one thing that unites them and makes them functionally one hero.
10:00Both of them want the defense and the prosperity of their respective halves of Piltover and
10:06And they do it in the best way that they both know how to do it.
10:11This episode then ends with the heart-wrenching promise Echo made to never forget his moments
10:16with Powder captured in a flower pendant that he gifted her.
10:20If you look at it closely, the floral pattern on the pendant has both of their faces engraved
10:25onto it.
10:26And we can also see what is the most dark and gloomy part of Echo's half of this episode.
10:32That being that Powder still has those Hextech crystals in her possession.
10:37This is a warning to the audience, a reminder that this world can also go to shit very quickly.
10:43And that puts the end to a masterpiece of an episode that focused on the characterization
10:49of these characters and giving more depth to the world in general.
10:53I actually have another video that acts like a part 1 or a part 2 of this video and it
10:58goes into all of the amazing hidden details that you might have missed in Episode 7 of
11:04Arcane.
11:05And you can check this video out right here on screen.
11:07This is Lloyd signing off, peace.