Everything you need to remember from Arcane Season 1 before Season 2

Exciting Season 2 is finally here, but after a three-year break between seasons, we can’t blame you if you don’t quite remember what happened in Piltover and Zaun. To help you get ready for the show’s new season, we’ve got reminders of exactly what happened in Season 1, and more specifically, the exact spots the 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 the peace of the kingdom – it all came to a head in the finale. The final moments of season 1 involved Jinx launching her makeshift Hextech rocket into Piltover’s council chamber, promising untold chaos, death and destruction.

We and Caitlyn tried 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 to hope that she could still find her sister Powder inside Jinx.

What happened to Silco and how is Lane doing?

The leader of Zaun’s criminal underworld, Silco, was introduced by adopted daughter Jinx. Near the end of the season, Jinx captured Vi, Caitlyn, and Silco in an attempt to question them (believing that Silco was about to betray her). When Silco tries to kill Vi, Jinx shoots him and immediately starts crying as he tells her that he still loves her.

Silco had used violence, Shimmer-enhanced henchmen, and his right-hand man, Sevika, to keep Zaun’s various criminal organizations more or less in check since Vander’s “disappearance” – along with the help of some bribes to 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 fighting for control.

Wait, what is Shimmer again, exactly?

Shimmer is a drug of sorts that Silco’s team – including and especially Singed – developed that gives users excessive, monstrous strength and uncontrollable rage, making them perfect for inflicting violence on whomever Silco needed. The substance is highly addictive, but it also changes the user’s body permanently after use.

Singed is Silco’s principal researcher and an old friend and mentor to Viktor. He’s a scientific genius from Zaun who doesn’t really concern himself with little things like ethics or morality. In the first season, we saw him helping Viktor work with the Hexcore to connect it to his body, and we know he was in a cave keeping a strange creature alive in a giant tank.

Where are Viktor and Jayce?

Viktor, Jayce, and Mel are all in the council chamber 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 as Jayce considers creating Hextech weapons, something Viktor strongly opposes.

What is Ambessa’s whole deal?

Ambessa is Mel’s mother and a battle-tested Noxian commander. It is not entirely clear why she is in Piltover, other than to keep an eye on her daughter. But it is clear that she is trying to promote her own interests in the City of Progress.

Is Heimerdinger also in the council chamber?

Heimerdinger was kicked out of 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 mostly due to him trying to stop the development of Hextech in hopes of making it more secure. But without the council keeping him in Piltover, Heimerdinger wandered down to Zaun and met Ekko.