What happened to Isha in Arcane Season 2?

Arcane Season 2 is full of surprises, but few are as wholesome as the introduction of Isha. This scrappy orphan becomes the ray of sunlight Jinx desperately needs in her dark, turbulent life. Unfortunately, happiness has never been something Jinx could hold on to for very long.

The third and final episode of Arcane Season 2, Act II, “The Message Hidden Within the Pattern,” turns a reunion Jinx and Vi have spent the entire act fighting for into a bloodbath. Amidst the Shimmer-coated chaos, Isha makes a heroic decision that brings her time on Runetera to a tragic end. Here’s what happened to Isha in Arcane Season 2.

Who is Isha?

Since her introduction in Arcane Season 2, Act II’s second episode, “Watch It All Burn,” Isha has been a defining member of the season’s cast. One of many orphaned children who call Zaun home, Isha encountered Jinx when she fell onto the disillusioned rebel’s lap while trying to escape some metal-jawed gangsters.

Following in the footsteps of her father figure, Silco, Jinx takes Isha under her wing, shielding her from the chaos Zaun has fallen into after Jinx assassinated half of Piltover’s City Council at the end of Arcane‘s first season. Soon enough, Jinx’s bond with Isha becomes the crux of her character arc throughout Season 2.

Forced into the protector role her older sister Vi once filled for her, Jinx slowly but surely embraces the compassionate, vulnerable side of herself buried beneath her trauma. Isha’s influence eventually inspires Jinx to reconcile with Vi, leading them to search for their shared adoptive father, Vander, who mutated into the lycanthropic League of Legends champion Warwick by the Shimmer-cooking scientist Singed.

Isha’s death is the consequence of good intentions

After finding Warwick and bringing him back to his senses, Jinx, Isha, and Vi flee to a hidden community formed by Viktor, who’s developed into a Hextech-based cyborg messiah who can heal peoples’ bodies and minds. Surprisingly, Viktor restores Vander’s humanity. Unsurprisingly, Jinx and Vi’s reunion with their father doesn’t last long.

As Vander’s treatment nears completion, Ambessa and her Noxian soldiers finally track the family back to the community. While Vi, Jinx, and a remorseful Caitlyn hold Ambessa back, the distraction gives a mentally scared and Hextech-phobic Jayce an opening to assassinate Viktor. Viktor’s death causes a psychic chain reaction, transforming Vander into a magma-bleeding monster that kills Ambessa’s second-in-command Rictus.

Warwick knocks Jinx to the ground in the following battle and reels back for a killing blow. Desperate to protect her guardian, Isha picks up Jinx’s Hextech pistol, overloads it, and slides beneath Warwick’s exposed underside. With pastel-painted flashbacks of her time with Jinx overlapping the action, Isha fires a supercharged round into Warwick’s chest, triggering an explosion that kills them both.

Isha’s sacrifice is heartbreaking, but necessary to Arcane Season 2’s story

The last minutes of “The Message Hidden Within the Pattern” are heartbreaking for many reasons, but Isla’s death is hitting Arcane fans the hardest. Tributes to Jinx’s surrogate sister are popping up all over social media, and many Arcane fans are tearing themselves apart, wondering what her death will do to Jinx.

Throughout Season 2, Jinx has refused to become the symbol of rebellion the people of Zaun want her to be, bottling up her psychosis and standing idly by while her home burns. Even Isha wanted Jinx to step up and stand up to Piltover, but Jinx repeatedly shot her down. As the fifth surrogate sibling in her life, it was a reminder that Jinx’s actions have consequences. She was willing to let Silco’s legacy go up in smoke if it meant keeping Isha out of the crossfire a rebellion would cause.

With Isha dead, Jinx no longer has any reason to hold back. Piltover has destroyed her family for the third time, and Zaun has had it clear they’ll stand by Jinx if she leads them to war against Piltover, and she might finally be ready to do that.