mistakenonline

This episode was clearly a buildup for the finale. And thats fine. It had multiple really great moments that make me wanna give it an 8, and compared to other shows it deserves an 8. But Arcane kinda stands on its own right now and within the confines of its own competition, a 7 seems enough to me.

This episode does feature the thing that has somewhat bothered me throughout this season: stuff moves fast. VERY fast. Allegiances switch, motivations change, etc in top-speed. Too fast for my taste.

Season 1 was calmer, slower, and allowed me to actually focus and 'imprint' the events in my brain. Its telling that, even less than 2 hours after watching it, i cannot reproduce the exact events in this episode anymore without looking it up.

That being said, some aspects of it, like the stuff with Jinx, is brilliant as always.

Ill keep it short. I really really enjoyed this episode because, arguably for the first time this season, the story of this episode is focused and relatively simple to follow.

That creates space to breath. And, importantly, space to focus on the characters themselves instead of the plot developments. This season has been hectic and chaotic and, while incredibly awesome, it has left me personally little space to really emotionally connect in new ways. I still got emotional, but mostly on emotional currency build in season 1.

This episode creates space for that and essentially creates new emotional currency to spend later on (or in this same episode).

I dont usually give 10s. And im sure this episode isnt perfect. Im sure if i wanted to i could do my best and find the smallest of flaws to not give it a 10 and id be able to defend that.

I was ready to do just that after episode 6 didnt really do much for me.

I dont want to do that anymore. What i wanted, and what i did, was call my mother at 1 in the morning and try (and fail) to explain to her why her 31 year old son was so emotional from a Japanese cartoon and why he had to call her in the middle of the night.

We all know what im talking about when i say this was devastating. This hit something very deep in me like barely any show has since ive become an adult. Im not joking when i said i contacted my mum (without telling her) afterwards immediately.

These days i have trouble watching an episode in one go, and i often click away countless times during. I did so at the start. But once that sequence had become i felt morally obligated to witness.