Was there more to that gut-wrenching death in ‘Arcane’ season 2, part 2?

Netflix’s original animation series, Arcane, is not letting up. The series pulls at every one of our heartstrings as it goes from tragedy to tragedy, and the last episode of season 2, part 2 might have been the most tragic of them all.

Major spoilers ahead for Arcane season 2, part 2.

Arcane is brutal and dark and every character we encounter has us questioning their motives. How far are they willing to go to accomplish their goals? What even are their goals? These are all questions fans may be asking themselves of the character Jayce right after he blew a hole through his former best friend, Viktor.

It’s fair to say Jayce has not been the best-loved character in the series so far. He is arrogant, impulsive, and often reckless. Jayce did have some redeeming features: he never wanted his tech to be used for harm, and he loved his best friend and partner in science, Viktor. So why did Jayce kill Viktor? Was it out of madness from his time trapped in the hex? Or is there something more to it that has yet to be revealed?

Why did Jayce kill Viktor? Was Jayce mad …

Why would Jayce, who risked everything to help his friend get better, just turn around and kill him? Both characters have undergone complete 180-degree shifts in the last three episodes. Viktor, who was so cautious of hextech, embraced it, using it to heal people by embuing them with the technology, making them reliant on it. Jayce, however, has started to see the error of his ways. After returning from wherever the hextech took him, he seems hellbent on destroying his creation, and, by extension, his friend.

When he re-emerged, months after he, Professor Heimerdinger, and Ekko vanished, Jayce was changed. He seemed unstable and broken somehow, like someone who had endured horrors. He cut down a reformed and hex-touched Salo and then made a beeline for his old best friend. Though he appeared to be suffering, whether from visions, delusions, or perhaps memories, he was fixed on his goal to end Viktor, thereby ending the utopia he had created. But how much of a utopia was it?

… or was Viktor bad?

Since the last episode, fans have questioned whether Viktor’s actions were as wonderful as they initially appeared. He healed the sick, but was that all he was doing? Those he saved were now touched by Hextech, and, though healed, they weren’t exactly … normal. We saw with Jayce and Salo’s interaction that Viktor could jump through his followers’ minds in a very “hive-mind” sort of way, and they didn’t appear particularly bothered by that. They came across as emotionless, not reacting with fear to imminent threats or sadness upon seeing death. They didn’t seem particularly human.

Fans have taken to forums to share disturbing facts about Viktor’s “healed” followers. One Reddit OP noticed that, in the Hextech chamber, due to the cold conditions, you could see everyone’s breath—everyone except Salo. In the comments, fans suggest that this is because they aren’t human anymore, more husks filled by hextech magic. This is further confirmed by the fact that their life force appears to be linked to Viktor. When he died, they all did (in a truly harrowing fashion). The tragedy also took the lives of a revived Vander and Jinx’s ward Isha.

The teaser for Arcane’s final three episodes shows Jayce working with Caitlyn and Vi. This can only mean that his reasoning for his actions was strong enough to win them over, especially since he caused the second death of Vi’s father, Vander. Fans of the game also have their theories. Some pointed out that Jayce’s nickname in the game is “Defender of Tomorrow,” hypothesizing that he had seen a future where Viktor’s actions cause a major calamity.

Given that the next three episodes are going to be the series’ last, we’ll hopefully find out exactly what Jayce was trying to stop. We may also see Viktor once more, as based on Caitlyn’s statement in the teaser, “Viktor’s at the center of all this.”