Exciting season 2 ending explained: Who lived, who died?

Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Arcane” Season 2, Episode 9.

“Arcane” Season 2 promised a war for Piltover, and the finale delivered in bloody spades.

The series chronicled the rise of a handful of Champions, later seen in Riot’s “League of Legends” game, and the finale saw a few of them rise to their station — while others died in battle. With Victor convinced that uniting humanity under a single hive mind will end all suffering, including death, Piltover and Zaun were forced to put aside their differences and join forces against the new Herald of Machines.

Here’s what you need to know about what happened in “Arcane” season 2, episode 9, titled “The Dirt Under Your Nails.”

How did “Arcane” season 2 end?

Act 3 began with a glimpse of where the anomaly sent Jayce – who appeared in Act 2, exhausted and almost manic to stop Victor – Ekko and Heimerdinger. The latter two were sent to a more idyllic universe where Hextech was never created, Zaun was established peacefully, and a number of people hadn’t died – although Vi was unfortunately a victim in this world. However, Jayce was sent into a post-apocalyptic future where he saw Viktor’s vision of ascending humanity into one hive mind to erase death, doubt and everything else. The few remaining lives were little more than machine-adjacent shells. Living in this reality explains why the already returned Jayce from Act 2 tried to destroy Viktor.

Heimerdinger sacrifices himself to send Ekko home, now equipped with a time-jump machine from the game, and Jayce is returned by a mysterious hooded figure.

The final episodes develop into an all-out war, with Piltover and Zaun teaming up to take on Viktor, his army of increasingly ascended mechanists, and Ambessa, who believes that an army of immortals machines will give her unmatched power. The battle rages through the city, but basically boils down to our main characters walking in three areas.

First up is Cait and Mel vs. Ambessa. Ambessa got the jump on Cait thanks to her short-term girlfriend Maddie, who is revealed to be working for the Noxians. She tries to put a bullet in the back of Cait’s head, but Mel’s shield magic ricochets it back into her own. Then the three go out, and it’s even until Cait manages to get close to Ambessa—sacrificing her eye in the process—to remove runes on the woman so the Black Rose witches can get to her. The coven kills Ambessa, but not before Mel, who was apparently on the side of the other mages, shows up and kills the Black Rose leader as well.

The other major conflict is Jayce vs. Victor the Machine Herald. As the war rages in the city, Jayce sneaks down and tries to shut down the Hextech gate. He was greeted by Viktor, who tried to explain his reasoning to his old friend, even though he knew Jayce couldn’t understand how he saw the world now. The two fight and end up at the top of the tower, where Jayce realizes that this is the same scene he saw in the future. As Viktor begins to ascend the remaining people in the city, Ekko is the lone person unaffected and he uses his time machine to get close to the Machine Herald and throw the device at his face.

This merges the past, present and future, and it is revealed that the hooded figure Jayce saw in the desolate future was an older Viktor who had realized his mistakes. He brought Jayce there to help him on his way to stop a past version of himself from ascending into humanity. This future Viktor placed Jayce on this path in the past, as it is revealed that the mage who saved Jayce from the blizzard as a boy in Season 1 was in fact Viktor. Jayce appeals to his friend and the pair join the astral plane Viktor resides in and are sucked into Jayce’s rune – disappearing and ending the near-ascension.

The final conflict is Vi and Jinx vs. a reborn Vander. The pair fight their werewolf, resurrected father as the ascension occurs, but when Jayce convinces Viktor to stop, the three fall halfway down the tower. We land with Vander – who isn’t Vander anymore – and are almost killed before Jinx intervenes and knocks them both the rest of the way down the tower to their apparent deaths.

The final moments reveal the aftermath of the war. Sevika is allowed to join the Piltover council as a representative of Zaun, Mel claims her mother’s Noxian army and sets sail away from the city, and Cait and Vi depart in an airship for parts unknown but apparently with a mission to destroy other Hexgates scattered throughout Runeterra.

Who died in Act 3?

Many people died in the last act of “Arcane”. First there was Heimerdinger in episode 7, who sacrificed himself to help Ekko get back to her own timeline. In the final battle, Loris is killed by arrows while fighting the Noxian army, and Maddie dies from her own bullet ricochet after trying to betray Cait.

It’s almost hard to count Vander as a death since it’s already happened twice. But by using his Shimmer-infused blood to heal Viktor, it erased the last bits of his personality. His corpse was also killed in the fall with Jinx. Ambessa is killed in her fight with Cait and Mel – who also manage to take out the leader of the Black Rose coven.

Jayce and Viktor sacrifice themselves to undo the machine ascension that had been going on in Piltover. When they did, they were both sucked into Jayce’s rune.

And then there’s Jinx. Although she also fell with Vander while saving Vi in the final moments, there are a few hints that something else may have happened. She used one of her grenades while falling into the Hexgate core with Vander, and the final moments showed Cait looking at the Hexgate blueprints next to a handful of shrapnel – suggesting that Jinx might not be dead, but sent elsewhere.

What is the black rose?

The Black Rose is a coven of witches based in the neighboring empire of Noxus. Mel embraces her mage abilities during Act 3 and uses the Black Rose to help take down her mother Ambessa – who had been blackmailed by the pact for Mel and her brother’s life. In the end, Mel decides that neither side is right for her, so she uses the Black Rose to help defeat Ambessa and then appears and kills the leader of the coven as well.

What possible spinoffs did the show tease?

“Arcane” was always planned to be a two-season show. But in its finale, it set up a number of possible spinoffs. The two biggest suspects for where a new show could go would be Vi and Cait’s travels via airship. Cait asks Vi, “Are you still in this fight, Violet?” in the closing moments, hinting that the two still have a mission at hand. Based on Cait studying Hexgate plans, it is likely that they are heading across Runeterra to deal with Hextech across the planet.

The other possible spinoff would be to follow Mel. Noxus played a big part in “Arcane’s” story, but the show never really left the city. With Mel on her way home and seemingly making an enemy of the Black Rose coven, it would be another ripe place for a spinoff to take place.