Arcane Ep 4 Recap and Review, “Happy Progress Day”

“With Piltover prospering from their tech, Jayce and Viktor weigh their next move. A familiar face re-emerges from Zaun to wreck havoc.”

The episode opens with Jayce and Heimerdinger talking about Progress Day, a day that Piltover was founded. Heimerdinger seems to have changed his mind on Hextech, and passes along the invitation for Jayce to give a ceremonial speech. There are vast numbers of flying craft, and with Hexgates, people can now travel the world with ease. Then we're at a Progress Day Fair. While not apprarent, it becomes very clear that we've got several years into the future from the last episode, Cait is now an officer and guarding her family's pavilion during the fair. We catch up with Jayce and Viktor later in their lab where they show Heimerdinger the stabilized Hextech Gemstone. They also demonstrate a few of their new inventions meant to improve the lives of people. Heimerdinger is preaches caution, citing that a decade of research into safety measures to ensure Hextech can't get misused.

We get a break from Progress Day as an Airship is coming into dock. Familiar faces from the gang show up, including the mysterious woman who now has some cracks of blue energy running along a cheek. They are setting barrels on the airship which have marks on them. As business seems to be moving forward, a mysterious new group seems to enter the field. They are flying around on hoverboards and sporting masks, before being introduced as the Firelights. These seem to be working against Silco's interests, wanting to destroy the Shimmer. A pair of Firelights go into the hold to find and destroy Shimmer but set off a trap that locks them belowdeck. They are immediately concerned, saying “she's here.” After a suspenseful few minutes, an unseen member of Silco's gang plants grenades on the Firelights, and that blasts rocks the ship. When Powder comes out though, she is plainly older, and much more talented with her explosives, fighting, and firearms. But then its made clear that the trauama from the last episode, of Vi leaving, is still fresh in her mind. By the end of the fight, the ship is on fire and Powder is getting told off. We catch up with the gang in the much more neon Undercity and go into the new “The Last Drop.” The bar's now a club and Silco's headquarters. The woman gets told off by Silco since it was her job to ensure the operation went smoothly. Powder, now Jinx, drops down from the rafters. Silco and her talk, and he ultimately tells her to take some time to work on her gadgets. On her own though, she feels Silco thinks she's weak and decides to prove otherwise. She sets up a trap and steals the stabilized Hextech Gemstone. She presents it to an enraged Silco.

Cait gets some time on her own this episode. She goes down to investigate the remains of the burned-up Airship. She gets a photo of a Firelight's mask lost between crates, as well as the approved manifest, and finding the residue from the Shimmer. She also collects a sample of the crystal used to hold the others. Following a blood trail, she finds the tattooed man hidden under floor belowdecks. Marcus, now sporting a fine mustache, shows up about now, making it clear Cait regularly doesn't fall in line. After that, she's on the graveyard shift, guarding the hall with the speech when she notices a fire. She and the other Enforcers go to put it out only to find it was a trap. Caitlyn tells everyone to get out and run, but not everyone makes it. Caitlyn is knocked out back the blast. But before she passes out, she does see Jinx leaving the scene. While she's supposed to be recovering, she's in fact working on her theory about who has been doing the smuggling and such.

We also get a bit of time with Mel, who's hosting a fundraiser on Progress Day. Elora and Mel step aside from the hubbub to talk a moment. Mel knows only Jayce (and Viktor) have anything worth her while. It is then that Jayce comes in. He and Mel talk about Heimerdinger, and Mel reminds him that this is the best time to show off new technology and that its his speech. She, Elora, and Viktor are disappointed in Jayce for not making the promised unveiling this year. Enough so, after Jayce's speech, Elora and Mel leave the presentation, and Viktor is clearly unhappy about not revealing the stabilized gemstones.

After all the excitement around the end of the speech, things start close on the Council discussing the theft of the Stabilized Gemstone. Jayce takes responsibility for things, making sure Viktor is safe, and Heimerdinger is surprised at the offered sacrifice. Most of the Consulars aren't happy with the proposal to close the Hexgates, but Mel offers a surprising proposal: give Jayce a seat on the Council to oversee the security of Hextech.

The episode ended with Caitlyn chasing down her one lead with the gangster. The problem is he got a broken jaw from another inmate. Caitlyn heads off to meet with person, and we get to see a grown-up Vi. And the episode ends.

Called the time skip! Maybe 5-7 years have passed, but it's hard to know for sure. Enough that Jayce is very well known, Cait (Caitlyn) is all grown up, but so is Powder (Jinx), and Vi. The youths are now adults and (mostly) making their way in the world. Hextech has bloomed and begun to show its potential. The Hexgates allowing for rapid transit nearly across the globe is impressive. The world becomes a bit smaller with so much of it within people's reach.

With Jayce and Viktor, it is good to see the recognition that they've gotten. The problem does seem to be that Jayce is more the face of their progress, while Viktor is more in the lab. They are both actively working together at least. But it does seem like whatever is happening to Viktor is getting a bit worse. Jayce is trying to help him get recognition as well for his contributions to Hextech. Still, the shot with Jayce setting down his mug before going on stage and it covering Viktor is hard to miss. It's clear just how much he is overshadowing Viktor. The biggest problem the duo faces is now themselves. Jayce is adopting a bit more caution, which is contrary to their previous set up. Mix in the sudden rise in status with Jayce getting a seat on the Council, and things are getting more uneven between the pair. This lacking is likely going to lead to something a lot bigger. People do seem more overall disappointed or teasing, with this lack of a reveal.

Powder, now Jinx, has an amazing entrance for this episode. The lead in straight out of a horror movie, then undercut with her emerging from the smoke coughing before taking on a number of the Firelights. She's only gotten more unstable from what happened to her in the past. We get to see just how unstable quite a few ways. The visions of Mylo throughout, the scrawling overlapping people faces, and it seems voices of her dead family. It does seem like she's kept his dessicated corpse, or styled something to it. She has a brilliant mind though, with her somewhat thought out plan where she stole the stable Gemstone. The sharpness of her transitions does a good job of depicting what we need to understand about her when she's the focus of the scene. Mix in the scrawled marks she'll see over someone's face, and you can get a true sense of her break.

Caitlyn is easily the most changed of everyone we got to see this episode. She's working for the Enforcers now. She also seems to be more actively trying to solver crimes than a few others. She's showing a very keen mind at least. She doesn't want the life of privilege her family offers. Her goal is to help Piltover and solve the mysterious goings on with Shimmer smuggling. I like Cait and am grateful we're getting a better sense of who she is beyond what we initially saw. We only got a few scenes with her when she was a kid, but it did show a lot in that time. She's a lot more stubborn than we thought from our initial impressions.

For the first time, there was something that grated a bit with the visuals. During the scene with Jayce and Cait in her bedroom, the depiction of Cait seems, uneven. She appears to have well-toned muscles in the first few shots, but after that, not so. Was this an error? Was meant to be just a moment's look at her harder appearance? Just an odd thing to happen with a show that's impressed me a lot with the visuals from the start.

Jayce did mention that people with the right technology would be able to use the Hextech Gem. Silco is definitely a person who is in a position to unlock its potential. This power getting into the Undercity could be a game changer for Zaun and its factions. This could push forward some degree of independence for the Undercity. Exactly where this goes, we'll have to wait and see. I imagine it'll be developed over an episode or two.

Then there is the reintroduction of Vi. She plainly got into prison because of Marcus. She also didn't hesitate to claim some measure of vengeance on Silco's gang. While this set Cait back in her fledging investigation, it did give Cait a good source of Undercity information. Another thing we'll need to wait and see. This could be the focus of the next episode, getting us caught up with Vi. Time to wait and see where everything goes next week.