Arcane Episode 3 Recap: A Whirlwind of Relentless Violence
Netflix’s Arcane is finally here, and we are repeating every episode of it. Every Saturday before November 20th, Netflix will premiere a new three-episode series.You can read our Review Article 1, Or check our review episode 1 with Episode 2.
Until now, arcane has been about how a group of thief street urchins lit the fuse on the powder keg and threatened to destroy the cities of Piltworth and Zuan. In two episodes, as we flew from one place to another to better understand the political and interpersonal drama that unfolded after that deadly robbery, the fuse slowly burned. After all the anticipation, the explosive ending of episode 3 is both frightening and cathartic.
But before that, there is still a little fuse that needs to be burned. The third episode opens with the weird sound of a woman singing before the camera fades in. We see a man floating deep underwater. “Have you ever wondered what it feels like to drown?” Silko asked. The man is him-although he is much younger, he has no scars and dark circles on his face.
It was a calm and melancholic moment, interrupted by a flash of violence, because Silco was held underwater by a pair of strong hands, and blood poured out of his eyes. Someone tried to drown him, and once, as Silco’s monologue continued, it became clear who he was: Vander.
Bad blood
At the end of episode 2, Wei prepares to hand herself over to the law enforcers. But that last scene is deceiving us. As the door of the Benzo store opened, Vi was ready to meet her destiny. It was not Enforcers who greeted her, but Vander and Benzo. Van der will not let her sacrifice herself to save everyone. “Protect the family,” he said as he pushed her through a door, walked into the storage room, and locked her inside. Van der has decided whether anyone should take responsibility, it should be him.
Just then, Grayson, Marcus, and their law enforcement team arrived. Van der proclaimed himself the sacrificial lamb, but Grayson was hesitant-she knew only he could prevent the Undercity from falling into chaos. “This is the only way,” Van der explained. With no choice, the law enforcers arrested Van der and took him outside.
Wei tried to get out of the locked storage room, but stopped when he heard shouts outside. Climbing up the windshield, she happened to see a law enforcement officer turning into a bloody paste-blood splattered on the window, blocking her view. Something really bad happened. Outside, we saw Grayson covered in blood. Murdered with other law enforcement officers except Marcus.
Silco emerged from the fog, Benzo tried to attack him, but was immediately slaughtered by the monster. It’s Deckard, mutated from the serum he ingested in episode 2. Marcus said that this was not a deal between him and Silco. Silco replied: “The deal has changed” and handed him a bag of coins. Deckard knocked Vander down and took him and Silco away, leaving Vi alone in the locked storage room.
Magical chaos
Back on the upper level, Victor and Jace tried to complete his research, but he couldn’t live without more confiscated equipment. Victor persuaded Jace to break into Hemerdinger’s laboratory and explained that he was not content to be just an assistant to the dean. Like Jace, he wants to change the world.
Vi will not be trapped in that storage room for too long. She was rescued by Echo, Echo saw everything, and now the death of his adoptive father Benzo has brought her trauma. Fortunately, Echo saw the place where Silco and Deckard brought Vander-the fish market hiding Silco’s underwater laboratory.
Here, Silko revealed his ultimate goal: to transform the Undercity into a country comparable to Piltworth in terms of power and influence. A person who does not bow to parliament and law enforcement. In order to achieve this goal, he plans to use this mutant serum called Shimmer to “scare” Piltwolf’s pleading. This is a dream, and we discovered that Van der and Silco once shared it. Until Van der betrayed him and tried to drown him in a chemical-filled river in the Undercity. Silco had a wound on his face, and the toxins in the river scorched it and turned his eyes black. Silco managed to stab Vander with his knife and escaped. The two have been enemies ever since. Van der tried to persuade Silko to stay away from the war, but Silko only thought that Van der had lost his courage.
Jace and Victor arrived at Hemerdinger’s laboratory in the dead of night and tried to sneak in, but they were caught by Congressman Melmedada. She also wanted to participate in the project and offered to buy the time required for the two to complete the next phase of research and try to stabilize one of the mana gems. They succeeded, and the mana gem was activated without exploding-although almost everyone in Piltworth had seen the unmistakable blue energy it radiated. Hemerdinger arrived with the law enforcement officers and found that his laboratory was sealed off, and Jace and Victor had completed their experiment. As Hemerdinger opened the door, Jace successfully created a stable magic spell. “You actually did it,” Hemerdinger said, but before he could stop the experiment, Melmeda Dada and said that the decision was not made by him. The committee needs to decide whether Jace’s research, which he calls Hextech, is worth continuing research now.
Wei arrives at The Last Drop and finds that Milo, Cragg and Fan are preparing to fight the law enforcement. She told them what had happened, and the group decided to save Van der. All except the powder. Wei knew it was too dangerous, so she told her to hide. Wei also gave her a torch. Fans can light it if she is in trouble, so Wei knows where to find her. Distracted and left behind because she was too weak, Powder took one of the mana gems and loaded it into one of her makeshift grenade.
At the same time, Wei, Milo, and Cragg sneaked into Silco’s fish market and found Van der locked in a chair in the meat cabinet. Milo started picking the lock, but the trio soon discovered that it was a trap. Silco’s mob surrounded them. When the fan first arrived at the scene, Wei used Van der’s iron gloves to fight to protect the group. At the same time, Cragg began to tear down a broken wall to open up an escape route. After Vi demonstrated how bad she was by defeating a few thugs, Silco sic cast a mutated Deckard on her, and he quickly defeated her. Seeing this, Powder armed her new mana gem grenade, and the injured Wei crawled back to the meat chest. She slammed the door in time to prevent Dyke from leaving.
Dyke hit the door, Cragg cleared the escape route, and Milo unlocked Van der’s last lock. At this moment, the powdered magic gem grenade-strapped to a mechanically walking monkey-floated to Deckard, detonating several violent explosions. Gunpowder was thrown from the roof where she was hiding, while Silko and Dyke were involved in the explosion. The explosion also ignited Silco’s Shimmer manufacturing plant, causing a fire that quickly engulfed the entire fish market. In the subsequent explosion, both Cragg and Milo were killed. Marcus, who was still in the Undercity, saw the explosion from a distance.
However, not everyone died from the explosion. Vander and Vi are trapped under the rubble. Silco, Deckard and several mobs are still alive. Silco instructs them to kill Vander and Vi when they lose their ability to move, but Vander awakens his last bit of strength, frees himself, and confronts the mutated Deckard. Wei looked at the bodies of her dead family members Milo and Cragg in horror, but also saw a powdered grenade and realized that she was responsible for the explosion. When Van der continued his desperate fight with Dyke, Silco sneaked behind him and stabbed him. Van der fell from the springboard where they were fighting and landed on the shimmering cache. With his last ounce of life, he drank a small bottle of it. Just when Deckard was about to kill Wei, a grotesquely mutated Van der killed him. As the fire raged, Van der chose to save Wei, rather than splitting up with Silco. When the market collapsed into flames, he smashed through the wall.
Different paths
After Van Dee died, the last thing he said to Wei was to take care of her sister. When she mourned his death, fans appeared. She was so excited that her makeshift grenade really worked, so much so that she didn’t realize that she had murdered all her friends and adoptive father. “Did you do this?” Wei said in disgust, then hit the fan. “You are a Jinx,” Wei said, and her little sister cried. “Miro is right.”
Wei couldn’t cope with this situation and left the fan beside Van der’s body sobbing. At this moment, Silko arrived with the surviving members of his gang and found the fans. Wei saw this and tried to save her, but Marcus appeared from the shadows, knocked her out, and dragged her away. But what Vi didn’t realize was that Silco didn’t want to kill fans. Fan explained that after Wei seemed to abandon her, he comforted her like a father. “It’s okay,” he whispered. “We will show it to them. We will show it to all of them.”
This is the end of Episode 3. This is the explosive ending of Act 1, laying the foundation for the powder to turn into Jinx. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our review of episodes 1 and 2, or read our review of Arcane’s first act.