Notice! This article contains spoilers for Arcane Season 2, Act II.Arcane Season 2, Act II had several questions to answer after the shocking Arcane Season 2, Act I finale, including whether Ekko and Heimerdinger disappeared or were dead. Now that the three most recent episodes have been released, Jayce Talis’ fate has been confirmed, returning to the physical world with the intention of destroying anything linked to the arcane. However, Ekko and Heimerdinger were absent from all three episodes, with no hint of their return or whether they are alive.
The series certainly has other episodes where some characters do not appear, but excluding Ekko and Heimerdinger from Arcane Season 2, Act II is surprising. Fortunately, there are ways to account for their absence, and the events of Act II reveal some options for how they could return in time for the series finale. Established League of Legends lore also has something to say about Ekko and Heimerdinger, so it will be interesting to see how closely the creative team adheres to continuity or if they take these characters in an unexpected direction.
Why Ekko and Heimerdinger don’t appear in Act 2 of Arcane Season 2
The only main characters with no screen time
The main reason why Ekko and Heimerdinger don’t appear in ArcaneThe second act is probably the same reason Jayce didn’t appear in episode 4… it makes the viewer wonder what happened to them. The writers allowed the mystery of where Jayce was to remain in episode 4, making his return at the end of episode 5 as a wounded man with a new mission more shocking. When Ekko and Heimerdinger finally return in Act III, they will have been gone longer than Jayce, giving them more time to change or be blindsided by what happened in their absence.
Another more practical reason for their absence is that they were not needed in Act II. Arcane it still has a season to wrap up its various storylines, so focusing on the characters with the most immediate plot relevance or the strongest emotional arcs makes sense. Ekko and Heimerdinger are fantastic characters with many memorable moments, but they always played more of a supporting role. They appear when they’re most relevant to the narrative and broader themes of the show, and the creative team should feel like that will happen in Act III.
Why Ekko and Heimerdinger are probably not dead
Some things are too crucial to ignore
While Arcane Season 2, Act II reinforces that this series is not afraid to kill off characters, it would be strange for Ekko and Heimerdinger to die off-screen. Maybe they died at the end of Act I, but the episode didn’t make that clear and wouldn’t explain why Jayce was the only survivor. At any time Arcane kills a character, it’s usually clear that they’ve died, and they often have a moment to shine before they die. Even though they sometimes serve in supporting roles, Ekko and Heimerdinger deserve a proper send-off if the writers go this route.
Vader’s death seemed final in Arcane season 1, but that didn’t stop Doctor Singed from resurrecting him as a monster for his own scientific research.
ArcaneThe second act is also a reminder that supposedly obvious deaths don’t guarantee that a character won’t return. Vader’s death seemed final in Arcane season 1, but that didn’t stop Doctor Singed from resurrecting him as a monster for his own scientific research. Just before Vader “died”, the Doctor himself appeared to die in the explosion caused by Powder’s monkey bomb, but it was later revealed that he survived with severe burns covering his body. So it would be no surprise that Ekko and Heimerdinger were alive, even if they had a proper death scene.
For now, the most convincing evidence of Ekko and Heimerdinger’s deaths is their disappearance, and there is no reason to assume they are dead. They may not have returned when Jayce did, but Hexcore’s connection to the arcane may have transported them to an entirely different world, the existence of which was implied in some scenes in Viktor’s Act II. Now that Viktor is (apparently) dead, the other characters will need someone with knowledge of the arcane and hextechnology to stop Jayce’s mission, and Ekko and Heimerdinger are the most qualified.
Arcane being a prequel means Ekko and Heimerdinger are probably alive
The show is part of the League of Legends franchise
Why Arcane intended to be a prequel to League of Legends game on which it is based, the final episodes have reasons to keep Ekko and Heimerdinger alive. Both characters are present as playable champions in League of LegendsSo it can be shocking if longtime players are told that some of their favorite characters actually died before they started playing. Ekko’s time travel abilities were also hinted at in Arcane season 1 and explained in its League of Legends website biography, which could help him and Heimerdinger temporarily cheat death.
Of course, Arcane does not always strictly follow this rule, as the characters’ stories sometimes differ from those League of Legends champion biographies. Viktor Originals League of Legends The backstory features much more animosity and conflict between him and Jayce that was never hinted at in Arcaneproving that the show’s writers had creative freedom. However, reconfiguring aspects of a character’s biography is not necessarily the same as changing whether that character is alive or dead later in the timeline. With only three episodes left, Ekko and Heimerdinger will almost certainly remain alive for the duration of Arcane end of the series.
Arcane Season 2 – Act II is now streaming on Netflix.