Like thousands of other people, I am absolutely delighted by Esoteric Season 2. As a fan of the first season, I couldn’t wait to sit down and watch the first act to catch up on the misadventures of Jinx, Vi and co. I expected the series to hook me, but what I didn’t expect was that the majority of my anticipation came not from the main plot, but from the little prods that the writers had placed at the end of each episode.

(This article contains spoilers for Arcane season 2, act 1)

Cliffhangers are difficult to make, that’s no secret. The art of preparing breadcrumbs for fans to speculate and get excited about is difficult, a perilous balancing act between leaving things too vague and giving the game away. That said, I firmly believe that the showrunner and the rest of the show’s narrative team managed to navigate this tightrope excellently. For that, they deserve their roses.

It speaks volumes that despite the engaging main story arc present in Act 1, my mind remained fixed on these small moments. Forget Jinx, what the hell is Singed up to? Off on a wacky adventure into the snowy wilderness, throwing gas grenades at dark wolves and then arranging a blood transfusion on himself, apparently. It’s about as far from the main plot as you can get, a bizarre off-screen escapade. while Caitlyn and Vi get all romantic and his black ops strike team is gassing the place, but it portends unseen dangers.

It’s important that this doesn’t distract from the main plot, and it doesn’t. You could build walls around the first act and it would still remain compelling as a single story. A story about how loss leads people to do bad things, a story as old as time. It could be argued that posing issues beyond this arc distracts from the overall narrative of the arc – I couldn’t disagree more. If Act 2 started and Singed showed up for the first time, it would seem rushed. Not to mention it would raise questions about what the boy was doing throughout Act 1 and leave Singed’s lovers in ruins. This way Act 2 can start to work. The installation is complete. All that’s left now is the payoff, as this established and terribly enticing subplot crashes into the main narrative.

It’s just good planning and story structure. We League fans already know what Singed is up tobut for those who don’t know the context, it makes for a great mystery in a season that seems delighted in its ability to float them in front of us viewers. It’s just enough of a tease to lurk around the impending confrontation that The Act ends with. We know trouble is coming and we know who the main players are, but Singed’s position in all of this remains unclear. A generic story point, which throws a wrench into what many expect from the next act.

Overall, I’m sitting here counting down the days until Act 2. Yes, I can’t wait to see what happens with the main protagonists, the political pushes and pulls, and how the relationships go form and break between the actors. But I also feel an intense sense of anticipation about the new mysteries that will be presented to us. Arcane Season 2 established that there are still many layers to Piltover and Zaun that we don’t know about, and seeing the showrunners slowly peel back those layers ultimately adds to a deeper, richer world to explore. I’m locked up.

Season 2 of Arcane is scheduled to release on Netflix on November 16, with Act 3 following on November 23. Check it out if you haven’t already! It turned out to be a very expensive showso hopefully that will make up for the cost! Maybe the blue ray will help.