Sample reconnections leading to escape of the arcade‐boundary–rooted upper flux rope. In both panels, the blue field lines exist at the earlier time and reconnect to form the orange field lines one time step later. (a) The central axial flux rope field line (dark blue) symmetrically reconnects with two arcade loops (light blue), forming an escaping flux rope line (dark orange) completely rooted in the arcade boundary and, also, two mixed‐topology (one foot in rope bipole, one in arcade boundary) loops (light orange). (b) Two initially dipped field lines (dark and light blue), having already undergone a rope‐arcade reconnection so that each has a footpoint in one of the arcade boundary poles, meet at the central current sheet and reconnect. They form an arcade‐boundary–rooted, escaping flux rope line (dark orange) bearing most of the combined helicity of the light and dark blue field lines, and a cusped but relatively unsheared loop (light orange) rooted in the rope bipole that lies above the surviving flux rope.