Arcane (2021) s02e08 Episode Script

Killing Is a Cycle

1
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING]
[SCREAMS]
[GROANING]
[DRAMATIC CHORAL MUSIC PLAYING]
[SCREAMING]
[MUSIC STOPS]
[GRUNTING]
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING]
[SORCERESS] Drink the
moment, Mel Medarda.
There is no time like your first.
I'm one of you?
A mage?
[SORCERESS] We each
have our own expressions.
Yours is quite rare.
An empath.
Attuned to the ethereal.
Able to sense others' inner
selves and bend their magic.
A conduit and a mirror.
What does that make you?
Even now you hide your
true face behind illusions.
[IN LAYERED VOICE] Truth is the
greatest illusion of them all.
I think beneath that mask you're scared.
I can see through your tricks.
That makes me a threat.
[SORCERESS] For the gifted,
arrogance is the ultimate threat.
Your power has merit.
But should one want you dead,
a simple blade would do nicely.
Where is my brother?
Regrettably, his fate wasn't
among your mother's lies.
You killed him.
I gave Ambessa every opportunity
to atone for her transgressions.
She chose pride over progeny.
But you need not bear her crimes.
The test.
[SCOFFS] This whole charade.
You want to recruit me.
[SORCERESS] Your talents
developed quickly.
It's no coincidence.
The Arcane is waking up.
What has my mother done?
[SORCERESS] A calamity is approaching,
rivaling even the ancient Rune Wars.
Ambessa sits at the helm,
blinded by her thirst for legacy.
Our efforts to divert
her course have foundered.
We can't afford another failure.
This is what you see in me?
A silver bullet?
I see salvation of your city,
countless others beyond.
She's my mother.
For all her faults,
she has always done what she
thought was best for the family.
Your brother thought so too,
until he uncovered her secret.
Your birth,
the entire course of your life,
was no accident.
She hid you because you are
that which she covets most:
a weapon.
Today you've been
born into a new family,
from which you'll find
there is sadly no return.
Those untouched by the Arcane fear us.
What is this?
A welcome to your future.
[MUSIC TURNS DRAMATIC]
[SQUAWKS]
[SORCERESS] The world is a perilous
place for a solitary mage
sister.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
I wake up to the sounds ♪
Of the silence that allows ♪
For my mind to run around ♪
With my ear up to the ground ♪
I'm searching to behold ♪
The stories that are told ♪
When my back is to the world ♪
That was smiling when I turned ♪
Tell you you're the greatest ♪
But once you turn, they hate us ♪
Oh, the misery ♪
Everybody wants to be my enemy ♪
Oh, spare the sympathy ♪
Everybody wants to be my enemy ♪
Pray it away, I swear ♪
I'll never be a saint, no way ♪
My enemy ♪
Pray it away, I swear ♪
I'll never be a saint ♪
Look out for yourself ♪
[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]
[SINGED] I regret that
I couldn't save him.
His injuries were too severe.
[AMBESSA] We do not
lament a warrior's death.
We avenge it.
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
[AMBESSA] What of their Herald?
[SINGED] The blood should
sustain Viktor for a short while.
Beyond that, it is up to his own will.
You promised a cure to death.
An outcome dependent
on Viktor's survival.
[VIKTOR] Doctor.
Your ingenuity deserves praise.
Viktor.
[VIKTOR] I am
grateful.
The world I now see is more
lucid than ever.
You can inhabit your followers?
[ALL] We are one.
This is the Glorious Evolution.
Or it could have been.
I sense my twilight approaching.
An anomaly festers beneath the Hexgates.
I believe it has the capacity to
complete the doctor's transformation.
This will allow you to evolve others?
In theory.
But Jayce's attack has done its work.
I do not have the strength to overcome
the defense he will raise against me.
I will deliver you to this anomaly,
if you agree to empower
every soldier I bring you.
I will evolve all those willing.
[MUSIC TURNS EERIE]
- [OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING]
- [CAITLYN IN DISTORTED VOICE] Vi?
Vi?
Vi?
Come on.
We need to get out of here.
[ROARS]
No!
Isha!
[LORIS] Shh. Easy there.
Took all the three docs to patch you up.
Loris?
Wasn't sure you'd pull through.
Thank that thick noggin of yours.
[GROANS]
Where are the others?
Cait?
- Jinx?
- [SIGHS]
Jinx.
Caitlyn wanted to be
here to tell you herself.
Loris.
Spit it out.
Maybe we can negotiate.
Not with Ambessa.
I saw it in her eyes.
She will burn Piltover to
the ground for my betrayal.
[MADDIE] You can't blame yourself.
I don't need consolation.
I need a plan.
[DOOR OPENS]
Arrested?
[CAITLYN] I can handle this, Maddie.
Check on my father?
- Vi.
- She saved your life.
If you will calm down for one
Knowing you'd never have
done the same for her.
We'll never know, will we?
You didn't let me in on
that part of your plan.
Clearly the right call,
since you still can't trust her
enough not to shove her in a box.
Trust?
You believe I'm so daft I
can't recognize a contingency?
She wasn't there for my benefit. You
didn't trust me to follow through.
Can you blame me?
How long were you sidled up with
that shifty, self-serving war pig?
She oinked poison in your ear.
- You just ate it.
- I know.
The only thing Jinx cared
about was getting you to safety.
Then she just surrendered.
I didn't even have time to
think before they hauled her off.
She's being held in the bunker
while I decide what to do.
I was waiting for you to recover.
Cait, she's changed.
We can't erase our mistakes.
None of us.
Who decides who gets a second chance?
[SIGHS]
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
[SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING]
[JINX] If you're here to kill me,
make sure to finish the job.
Vi thinks you've changed.
[JINX] She can't accept
what you and I know.
There are no happy endings.
Is that all you have
to say for yourself?
There won't be a trial.
I'm giving you this one chance
to account for your actions,
all the pain you've caused.
No amount of good deeds
can undo our crimes.
[JINX] Do what you came here to do.
Hating you
I've hated myself.
I just don't have the
energy for it any longer.
[JINX] I didn't know your mom was there.
It probably wouldn't have
made a difference, but
I didn't know.
[FOOTSTEPS RETREATING]
[SQUAWKS]
[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING]
Jayce?
[EXHALES]
What happened to you?
Doesn't matter.
Something happened to me too.
You're the reason we
didn't die in the attack.
Apparently so.
How long have you known?
It started then.
Feelings I couldn't explain.
But this
I still don't fully understand.
Why just me? Why not save all of them?
It wasn't a decision. One moment
you're addressing the Council,
the next we're standing in rubble.
I didn't have any greater awareness.
How can I know you aren't lying to me?
Why would you think I am?
Because you used me,
and Viktor, for Hextech.
You called us "investments."
Two brilliant young inventors
who shared a penchant
for impossible surprises.
Carrying magic from myth to machine.
Rallying the hope and
hearts of a nation.
You were a wise investment.
Allow us a moment of civility, Jayce.
We must talk.
[JAYCE] Viktor.
How did you get in here?
You once benefitted from
my knowledge of this place.
That was a long time ago.
[VIKTOR] Had you given me the chance,
I would have shown you
the merits of my work.
Our work.
No, this is your obsession.
Everything you've done to
these people, you did alone.
[VIKTOR] Perhaps.
But I'm alone no longer.
I now speak with all their voices.
Say what you came here to say.
Somehow I think you already understand
what must transpire
to complete my mission.
I would prefer to do so in peace.
The Noxian has other intentions.
Mother?
The Arcane stirs within you.
[GRUNTING]
[GROANS]
[JAYCE] Viktor, for all our sakes,
stay away from the Hexgates.
[YELLS]
Your mind has become rigid, Jayce.
Fear clouds your judgment.
This chain of events started with you.
In my confusion, I was
unable to reconcile this.
But I now understand.
The Glorious Evolution is destined.
Let us instead do this
once again as partners.
My partner died in this room.
It was my sincere desire to avoid this.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]
[GRUNTING]
[YELLS]
[PANTING]
Doctor.
You may begin the process.
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING]
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
[JINX SCOFFS]
[JINX] Go away.
You're too late.
[SILCO] Oh, it's a hell of a place.
It says something about the late Marcus
that he found imprisoning your sister
to be a greater mercy than killing her.
[JINX] Killing isn't mercy.
[SILCO CHUCKLES] A spark of rebellion
still burns inside that husk, I see.
No.
Killing is a cycle.
One that started long
before Vander and me.
And it will continue
long after the two of you.
I'm done running in circles.
We build our own prisons.
Bars forged of oaths,
codes, commitments.
Walls of self-doubt
and accepted limitation.
We inhabit these
cells, these identities,
and call them "us."
I thought I could break free by
eliminating those I deemed my jailors.
But
Jinx
I think the cycle only ends when
you find the will to walk away.
[VI] Jinx?
[JINX] What are you doing?
I swiped these from the guard station.
If you come, help, use all that
explosive potential of yours for good,
maybe we could rewrite your
story, like you did with Zaun.
What do you think?
[JINX] Sure, Vi.
[SOBS]
[JINX] You're never gonna
give up on me, are you?
[GROANS]
Hey!
You don't have to
worry about me anymore.
You don't need to feel
guilty about being happy.
You deserve to be with her.
Wait.
[JINX] There's no good version of me.
What are you gonna do?
Break the cycle.
Jinx!
[YELLING]
[JAYCE] I'm sorry.
I've been an idiot.
And an ass.
You're hurting too.
For as long as I can recall,
I have chased the
archetype of a Medarda.
I believed it my calling to
merit the blood in my veins.
It was all a lie.
This blood is alien to me.
Yet it has dictated the
course of my entire life.
I'm no more than a passenger.
A life I spent in self-pity.
Now it's gone.
I can never return to it.
I've been confused about a lot lately.
But there's one thing
I know in my bones.
There is no force in this world
that can control you.
You will never be a passenger.
[CROWD MURMURING]
[JAYCE] Quiet.
Forgive me.
But we don't have much time.
A storm is coming,
the likes of which Piltover,
perhaps Runeterra
itself, has never faced.
[GASPS]
[SOLEMN PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
[JAYCE] This creature infiltrated
the very room you're standing in.
And we barely survived.
Hundreds more are on the way.
The Noxian general is leading them.
This isn't a fight for
ideals or territory.
It's a fight for humanity itself.
I'm asking
No, begging you, every one of you,
Topside and bottom,
to aid us in this coming war.
And it will be a war.
Now, this isn't a fair request,
but it is our only hope.
The forces against us are too great.
We need every hand we can get.
[SOLEMN MUSIC CONTINUES]
[ENFORCER] Bring them down!
[LOCK CLICKS]
We're abandoning the city's outskirts
to stage our defense at the Hexgates.
The final bastion of our salvation.
If you choose to flee,
don't stop running.
But I'm choosing to fight.
And I pray that you will join me.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
[MADDIE] Just a moment.
Here, ma'am.
[MUSIC TURNS STIRRING]
[MUSIC FADES]
[BREATHING RAGGEDLY]
[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING]
[KEYS JINGLE]
Had a feeling I might find you here.
[VI] I really believed she'd help.
Say it.
You told me so.
I was an idiot to trust
her. I went behind your back.
I choose wrong every time.
And because of it, I've lost everyone.
You really think I needed all
the guards at the Hexgates?
Sorry to say, you've
grown a bit predictable.
[PASSIONATE MUSIC PLAYING]
Uh, listen, while you
were gone, I saw someone
Cait.
I don't fucking care.
Feeling fantastic ♪
I wanna control you ♪
Watch American classics ♪
Drink champagne out of plastic ♪
Don't you want someone crazy ♪
Like me, babe? ♪
Crazy like me ♪
I'm feeling amazing ♪
Fucking amazing ♪
I'm high as a kite ♪
You said you're picturing me naked ♪
You just have to take it ♪
If you want someone crazy ♪
Like me, babe ♪
Crazy like me ♪
If you want someone crazy ♪
Like me, babe ♪
I'm thinking of you ♪
When I'm up here higher than God ♪
Take watch of the Herald.
[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING]
[GASPS]
You're alive.
I know about the Black Rose.
You know a facade.
They are nothing but lies.
You taught me the best
lies come wrapped in truth.
What really happened to Kino?
Your brother was struck with curiosity.
He got caught in their web
and, with every action,
grew more deeply entangled.
So you let him die?
I carried him in my belly,
nursed him from my bosom.
He was all the sweetness in my heart.
For that, they took him,
carved into me a wound
that will never close.
I pray you never suffer the agony
of being forced to forsake
one child to save another.
You should have come to me.
You'd have made the
impossible intolerable.
I did what you could not.
For you.
For the family.
Piltover has nothing
to do with your feud.
Board your boats, leave our shores.
I will join you.
We can avenge Kino together.
[AMBESSA] This is more
than vengeance, child.
These mages dangle
over our heads a sword
that impales us should we rise too high.
Their very nature violates the
most core of Noxian principles,
that every one of us is
equal on the battlefield.
That through cunning,
sweat,
and steel
we shape our destinies.
The fact you've come to parley
for your friends' lives prove
you still lack the wrath necessary
to defeat an enemy like the Rose.
I've found another way.
Imagine, child,
an army that need never fear death.
[GASPS]
[MUSIC TURNS SINISTER]
[MEL] What have you done, Mother?
Doctor.
You may begin the process.
Very well.
[MELANCHOLY MUSIC PLAYING]
[SKY] I guess this is goodbye.
Thank you very much for your
company in my solitude, Ms. Young.
I will miss our talks.
No.
You won't.
Take a seat ♪
But I'd rather you know ♪
You're here for ♪
What could be ♪
My final form ♪
Stay your pretty eyes on course ♪
[ROARING]
Keep them on the reasons ♪
Below our words before ♪
Reasons below our words before ♪
[ROARING]
Stay your pretty eyes on course ♪
Stay your pretty eyes on course ♪
My body's on the line now ♪
I can't fight this time now ♪
I can feel the light
shine on my face ♪
Did I disappoint you? ♪
Will they still let me over ♪
If I cross the line? ♪
Did I disappoint you? ♪
Will they still let me over ♪
If I cross the line? ♪
If I cross the line? ♪
If I cross the line? ♪
[SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING]
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