“Shadow And Bone” Season 2 Makes Big, Bold Changes

SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE SEASON TWO AHEAD!

Netflix’s Shadow And Bone has never been a straightforward adaptation of the book series by the same name, which has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow And Bone trilogy by itself is not particularly compelling source material and fans are generally in agreement that the author’s later books are significantly stronger due in large part to their more complex, multi-faceted characters, and a curse, because removing these characters from the context of Bardugo’s later books and creating a space for them amidst the events of her original trilogy, showrunner Eric Heisserer’s galaxy-brained solution to the problem he created for himself by refusing to adapt both stories separately, ultimately did a disservice to everybody in the first season. I am happy to report the second season has a “fix” for that too; less so to admit that – while it worked for me – it has only further enraged book purists, and without their support the show may not get another chance at this.

Archie Renaux as Mal and Jessie Mei Li as Alina in Shadow And Bone. They are standing in the dimly-lit cabin of a ship, but Alina illuminates the small room with balls of golden light hovering above her hands.
Mal and Alina | polygon.com

Let me be more clear (and if the message in bold lettering at the top of the page wasn’t enough, let this be your final warning that spoilers will follow). There are a total of seven novels set in author Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse – comprising the Shadow And Bone trilogy, Six Of Crows duology, and King Of Scars duology, published and intended to be read in that order, though many fans will tell you they started with Six Of Crows, a great entry-point to the Grishaverse, and gradually worked their way backwards and forwards from there. Netflix’s Shadow And Bone only properly adapted the trilogy’s first book in season one, with the Six Of Crows duology’s characters having relatively inconsequential original storylines written for them – set prior to the events of the book in which they first appeared – so they could be present without upstaging Shadow And Bone‘s actual protagonists.

Understandably, fans were left wanting a little more from the Crows, and I think the writers took this to mean that adapting more of their story was essential in season two. One thing about Shadow And Bone‘s writers, they clearly take every criticism into consideration, which is admirable, but they have a tendency to…over-correct, in response to criticisms both great and small. One fairly innocuous example of this that stood out to me, just because I remember how viewers complained of being unable to keep track of characters’ movements throughout the first season, is that every other scene transition is now accompanied by a map. But entire subplots have, for better or worse, been discarded because they were poorly-received.

Don’t get me wrong, the first season’s surface-level depiction of anti-Asian racism as a relentless barrage of microaggressions was not something that needed to make a comeback, but Ravkan discrimination against the Shu played an unexpectedly significant role in shaping the show’s half-Ravkan, half-Shu, biracial heroine, Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), and her barely-explored complex feelings towards her home-country made her a more interesting protagonist in my opinion. But with racism in the Grishaverse suddenly ended (along with homophobia!), Alina is no longer tormented by these feelings, which once stood in the way of her becoming Ravka’s Sun-Summoner while simultaneously giving her crucial insight into the plight of the oppressed Grisha – magic-users – and the Darkling (Ben Barnes).

Ben Barnes as The Darkling in Shadow And Bone, standing in a wasteland with a dark sky, wearing a black hooded kefta with faint gold embroidery. His hood is thrown back, and he is screaming.
The Darkling | netflix.com

Other characters in Bardugo’s Grishaverse are murderers and manipulators and former members of the fantasy Hitler Youth, but none are as divisive as the Darkling, the immortal Grisha tyrant responsible for creating the Shadow-Fold, a towering wall of darkness severing Ravka from its coastline and trapping it between hostile neighbors to the north and south. In both the books and the show, Alina falls in love with the Darkling because he’s the first person to see her as something more than a mapmaker, but only in the books do they continue to have genuine feelings for each other after it’s revealed that the Darkling planned to use Alina’s unique abilities to move the Shadow-Fold for his apparently nefarious purposes. Any hint of a real emotional connection between the two was scrubbed from the second season’s scripts, probably in response to accusations that Shadow And Bone romanticizes abusive relationships, but to the obvious detriment of the entire series. Alina’s refusal to even treat with the Darkling for eight whole episodes makes her satisfied expression after becoming a Shadow-Summoner in the final scene…confusing at best, while the Darkling comes across as a downright pitiable villain, practically groveling at Alina’s feet for attention he will never again receive and resorting to empty threats when she ignores him. Where once there was a mutual understanding that came with drawbacks and advantages for the both of them, now there is nothingness – nichevo’ya in Ravkan.

And yet, Shadow And Bone still places great emphasis on the singular nature of Alina’s very literal connection to the Darkling, a bonding in their bones (or rather, the bones of Morozova’s Stag now grafted onto their own) which allows the one to invade the other’s dreams, then their mind, the space behind their eyes, and at last even their physical location. The mechanics behind it are fairly simple, but the show takes its time explaining how the bond is supposed to work and how it can be weaponized, leading to some gripping sequences where the two characters train to do just that. Still, it’s weird that Shadow And Bone has time in its busy schedule to play around with the bond when nearly every other plot-beat in Alina’s story fails to register as she and her supporting characters speed-run through the events of Siege And Storm and Ruin And Rising.

Not for the first time, a big-budget fantasy show has cheated me out of a sea-monster battle I feel I was rightfully owed by reducing the epic confrontation with the fabled Sea-Whip to a mere five minutes of characters thrashing around in knee-high water, losing a fight to a monster the size of an iguana, and my disappointment is immeasurable, but I will begrudgingly acknowledge that the CGI budget was probably better spent elsewhere (not on Alina’s powers, though, that’s for sure). I can also, to a certain extent, understand why Siege And Storm was not adapted separately from its sequel, because the book badly wants to be a suspenseful political thriller when in actuality it’s just…slow-moving and bloated. But to try and adapt the chapters of intricate political intrigue, divorced from the context of the book, is a writing choice I can’t rationalize or forgive. Alina’s fake engagement to Prince Nikolai Lantsov (Patrick Gibson, miscast in a role that called for slightly more charisma than he could offer), the cause for Prince Vasily Lantsov (Edward Davis)’s consternation, is one particularly complex storyline the show has no need for, and is forced to heavily abridge anyway, yet insists on adapting as if it’s vital.

Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov in Shadow And Bone, standing in a dimly-lit tunnel with her arms outstretched to either side, staring down the camera. She wears a brown military uniform with gold stripes across the front and her dark hair is tied back.
Alina Starkov | discussingfilm.net

But it’s had to be crammed into the first half of the season, along with what was Siege And Storm‘s climactic battle (which took place at the Little Palace in the book, rather than the Spinning Wheel – perhaps Netflix couldn’t afford to shoot at the Festetics Palace in Hungary again, or it was unavailable, but the Budapest Stock Exchange Palace, a reused location from season one, instead stands in for the Spinning Wheel, which was actually where Nikolai escaped in the book after the Little Palace fell to the Darkling). Ruin And Rising, the trilogy’s final book, is briefly summarized in the last few episodes; Alina, instead of fleeing into the network of tunnels under Ravka and spending months in hiding, escapes with Baghra (ZoĆ« Wanamaker), the Darkling’s mother, immediately after the attack on the Spinning-Wheel and chases after the third of Morozova’s Amplifiers until Baghra quite casually reveals that the Amplifier is Alina’s boyfriend, Malyen Oretsev (Archie Renaux), and that to harness his powers Alina will have to kill him, before she – Baghra, that is, not Alina – sacrifices herself to break the bond between Alina and the Darkling (the last remaining interesting aspect of their relationship). None of these developments are dragged out for the sake of angst, which I suppose I should be grateful for, but fast-forwarding through the story isn’t a great alternative.

Not ten minutes into the finale, the Shadow-Fold is no more, and both Mal and the Darkling are dead – for now, at least; a bumblebee landing on Zoya (Sujaya Dasgupta)’s shoulder while she stands by the Darkling’s body foreshadows the arrival of Sankta Lizabeta, a character from the King Of Scars duology who helps resurrect the Darkling – and everyone is standing around awkwardly in what used to be the Shadow-Fold, saying their goodbyes. Alina refuses to part with Mal forever, though, and forces his soul back into his body using hastily explained dark magic, with one tragic side-effect: he no longer feels anything for her. In the books, this doesn’t happen, and Alina and Mal get the happily-ever-after ending that Mal always dreamed of, where Alina loses her Grisha powers and they retire to a farm and raise lots of children.

Needless to say, many readers felt cheated by that conclusion to Alina’s character arc, so the show has done away with it completely (another correction, but one that I think almost everyone can get behind). Mal decides to become a privateer like Nikolai, traveling the high seas, while Alina becomes Queen of the Grisha, all while still “engaged” to Nikolai. I love that this is the route we’re going with, because I’ve always been a proponent of platonic “Malina”, but again, this is something the show needed to establish earlier, and it just never carved out the time to do so (and on a side-note, everyone’s “ships” are breaking down the middle as a result of this change: Alina is with Nikolai but now reminiscing about the Darkling; Nikolai seems genuinely infatuated with her, and still hasn’t even glanced in Zoya’s direction; Mal is single and apparently ready to mingle).

It’s abundantly clear that the writers’ interest lies with the Crows, on the other side of the Shadow-Fold. No surprise there. The morally ambiguous, eccentrically-dressed (and for the time being at least, predominantly queer) Crows have a certain panache that Shadow And Bone‘s archetypal protagonists lack. Even outside of Ketterdam (the Crows’ home-turf, a precarious stack of casinos, nightclubs, and brothels clamoring over each other for tourists’ money), or separated from their veritable rainbow of a rogues gallery, the Crows are not only the more eye-catching characters but by far the more three-dimensional and real. Some of that can be attributed to the actors and their obvious delight in the roles they were practically born to play – Freddy Carter and Amita Suman, standouts among the ensemble cast, deliver equally phenomenal performances as the criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker and assassin Inej Ghafa, doing Bardugo proud in every scene; those where they act the part of Crows, indecipherable and unfeeling, and those where surprisingly eloquent confessions slip from their lips unbidden in each other’s presence, before they shamefully begin bricking up the gaps in their armor. Even though Inej boldly pushes Kaz to open up in the final episode and he rather hesitantly admits that he wants her to stay in Ketterdam with him, Inej realizes then and there that they still have a long way to go before they’ll ever be comfortable expressing how they feel through physical gestures of affection, and that she doesn’t have all the time in the world – so she chooses to leave the Crows and search for her family, giving Kaz time to consider whether he’s willing to begin healing and become the person she needs him to be.

(left to right) Jack Wolfe as Wylan Van Eck, Danielle Galligan as Nina Zenik, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, and Kit Young as Jesper Fahey in Shadow And Bone, seated around a table in a diner, all turning to look at the camera. Kaz wears a black bowler hat and overcoat, Jesper a maroon jacket, Nina a  dainty hat perched on the side of her head, and Wylan a waistcoat.
(left to right) Wylan Van Eck, Nina Zenik, Kaz Brekker and Jesper Fahey | elle.com

A less complicated love blossoms between Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) and Wylan Van Eck (Jack Wolfe), the Crows’ demolition man. In a change from the books that came as a shock to some, Jesper and Wylan are already…intimately acquainted in Shadow And Bone, which means they obviously don’t spend several episodes silently questioning whether the other is interested in them, and Jesper doesn’t ever deliver what is arguably his most iconic line, “Not just girls”, nor will there ever be a chance again. Instead, the conflict in their relationship comes from their inability to get on the same page about what they really want – they’re both looking for passion, but they have completely different definitions of the word. And this change actually worked for me, as did most of the changes to the Crows, because I can tell these changes were made by writers who really love the Crows and understand them, even if they don’t always have the time and means in what is still technically an adaptation of Shadow And Bone to prove it to cynical book purists.

The most controversial change, of course, is the decision to adapt large chunks of Crooked Kingdom – the second book in the Six Of Crows duology – prior to the events of Six Of Crows, and with Kaz’s arch-nemesis Pekka Rollins (Dean Lennox Kelly) taking the place of Jan Van Eck, a character we still haven’t seen in the show (which is fine by me, because that means it’s not too late to cast Richard E. Grant in that role). The raid on Van Eck’s lawyer’s office; the Crows dressing up as Komedie Brute characters to pull off one of their plans; the iconic scene in which Kaz usurps Per Haskell (Tim Plester) as head of the Dregs, and where he pretends to have buried Pekka’s son alive; Inej becoming a pirate…it’s all here. To do any of that again would be redundant. But Inej being kidnapped by Van Eck and fighting Dunyasha, Jesper’s father coming to Ketterdam, the smuggling of Grisha refugees onto the boats with help from Nikolai, the auction for Kuwei Yul-Bo and Kaz’s confrontation with the Council of Tides are all major sequences that have not yet been adapted, so it’s not like there’s nothing left. These scenes will just be very different when they happen onscreen.

I won’t say it’s not occasionally frustrating, because of course it is. I would have just as gladly accepted more original storylines for the Crows in place of a loose adaptation of Crooked Kingdom (and I enjoyed the one written to keep them occupied through the back-half of the season, during which they travel to Shu Han in search of a blade that can cut shadows to help Alina). But as a fan of the Crows, I look at what was done with their characters this season – and how they were set up for the future – and I can’t help but feel excited that the story could potentially veer off in so many different directions now. Because Pekka Rollins is already in Hellgate Prison by season’s end, he’s had the opportunity to befriend the sixth future member of the Crows, Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), while the Fjerdan still hasn’t even had the chance to meet Kaz. Because Inej is off traveling the world with Mal now, she can join the Crows at a different point during the Ice-Court heist and Mal can fill the small but significant role that Nikolai plays in Crooked Kingdom. Because Wylan is already with Jesper, the truth about his identity, when it inevitably comes out, could drive a wedge between them. And of course, Alina still being involved in the story introduces even more variables.

Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa in Shadow And Bone, holding onto the rigging of a ship with one arm. Her hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she wears a blue-green vest and leather pants.
Inej Ghafa | looper.com

Of course, it all depends on whether Shadow And Bone gets renewed for a third season, and at Netflix that is never a guarantee (another reason I think the writers snuck in so many great scenes from later books this season, because they knew better than to assume that Netflix would let the show run long enough to get to those scenes organically). I remain cautiously optimistic that it will be picked up, or rather that the story will continue under the title Six Of Crows. Whether Bardugo book purists will give the writers another chance after so many controversial changes to the source material is a different matter. For the answer to that question, we shall have to wait and see.

Series Rating: 8/10

Who Is Wylan Van Eck? Shadow And Bone Season 2’s New Star, Explained

Netflix missed a golden opportunity today. They could have announced the casting for the character of Wylan Van Eck in their adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow And Bone while Wylan’s name was one of the top five trends on Twitter; but they didn’t, which is really a shame. However, I intend to use this moment to my advantage, to churn out a breakdown of the character’s backstory for everyone who saw the name trending earlier and was left perplexed about who Wylan is, and why fans of Bardugo’s fantasy novels are so obsessed with him. I’m gonna try to do this without spoiling anything too major about Wylan for the general audience, because I don’t imagine many fans who have read the Six Of Crows duology will need a refresher on a character who ranks among other Grishaverse fan-favorites like Nikolai Lantsov and Genya Safin.

Wylan Van Eck
Wylan Van Eck, art by Kevin Wada | lgbtqia-characters.fandom.com

Wylan Van Eck is introduced in Six Of Crows, Bardugo’s fourth fantasy novel set in the fictional world of the Grishaverse, and the book which kicks off her widely-loved and critically-acclaimed Six Of Crows duology. But while Netflix’s Shadow And Bone pulls inspiration, elements, and characters, from the duology in its adaptation of Bardugo’s earlier Grisha trilogy, Wylan was conspicuously absent from the show’s first season. Luckily, he is “a hundred percent” going to appear in season two, according to Shadow And Bone‘s showrunner, and fans are eager to find out who will be playing him in live-action, completing the line-up of “crows” currently comprised of Freddy Carter, Amita Suman, Kit Young, Danielle Galligan, and Calahan Skogman.

Wylan is the only one of the book’s six protagonists who was presumably both born and raised in the city of Ketterdam, although his experiences with the city were pleasant enough at first: he was not hardened from an early age by the rough-and-tumble environment of Ketterdam’s notoriously seedy Barrel district, but was instead brought up amongst the stately mansions of the city’s Financial District, where he lived with his father and young stepmother, attending lavish parties in foreign lands and receiving a classical education until an…unfortunate incident, which takes place several months before the events of the book and leaves Wylan homeless and on the run in the midst of the Barrel, surrounded by people who want him dead.

To survive, Wylan assumes a false name and puts his skill with chemistry to good use, creating explosive devices for Ketterdam’s rival street gangs. He declares himself a “demolitions expert” because of this, although Kaz remarks that he is only “passable” at demo. He becomes involved in the plot of Six Of Crows unintentionally, when Kaz takes a dangerous but highly profitable job from Wylan’s father, the wealthy merchant Jan Van Eck, and decides to use Wylan as leverage over Van Eck to make sure he gets his money when all is said and done. Kaz, of course, was not long deterred by Wylan’s little business with the false name, and had come to the conclusion before any of his fellow gang-members that the young boy was none other than Van Eck’s son – and the heir to the old man’s vast trading empire.

Wylan initially comes across as a bit of a pampered character, no thanks to his angelic, even cherub-like appearance, and holier-than-thou indignation at the other Crows’ violent deeds. He shares very few details about his past, or about what drove him to seek a life of crime in the Barrel even though he comes from a background of such privilege and prestige, even though his father continues to send letters to the boarding house where Wylan went missing, asking him to come home. But he earns his keep on the crew, thanks to his resourceful attitude and first-hand knowledge of the Fjerdan Ice Court – the heavily-fortified palace and prison which the Crows must infiltrate to free a Shu scientist by the name of Bo Yul-Bayur, whose skills are coveted by Ketterdam’s Merchant Council.

Wylan Van Eck
Jesper Fahey | digitalspy.com

Along the way, the shy and introspective baby gay cinnamon-roll-who-could-actually-kill-you Wylan becomes close with the charismatic bisexual sharpshooter Jesper Fahey – and as their relationship grows more intimate with each trial they face, they open up to each other more. The dynamic between them is truly heartwarming, because of how Wylan’s desire to be accepted by the other Crows pushes him to become more violent, and how Jesper instinctively reacts by trying to protect Wylan from his darkest impulses. Jesper is capable of doing some pretty terrible things on his own, but he’s a good person at heart, and he genuinely wants to help Wylan become a better person than he believes he could ever be. I’m not crying, you’re crying. Just kidding, I am definitely crying. Their ship name is “Wesper”, and I can’t wait to see how Netflix builds this relationship from the ground up.

There’s been some doubt as to whether Shadow And Bone season two will adapt the events of Six Of Crows, since the first season left off roughly around the same point where the book begins, but this is one area where you can see the potential upside of holding off on that for another season or two: giving Wylan and Jesper a little more time to get to know each other, to start off as rivals but slowly begin to begrudgingly admire each other’s talents. The obvious drawback is that the mysteries regarding Wylan’s backstory might be much harder to maintain, even for general audiences. But seeing that backstory played out in real-time could be more compelling than trying to preserve surprises in the books which can easily be spoiled for anyone at this point, thanks to Google.

As for how Wylan will change from book to screen, I think there’s no doubt he’ll be aged up significantly – and for hardcore Wylan fans, that will probably be the biggest shock. In the books, he’s sixteen when we first meet him, but pretty much everyone else in the Grishaverse takes one look at him and mistakes him for a twelve-year old: like, to the point where I thought he was a twelve-year old the first time I read Six Of Crows. He’s memorably described by Kaz as resembling “a silk-eared puppy”, something that sticks with the reader. But in the show, he’ll likely be around the same age as the other Crows – i.e. in his early to mid-twenties – which might have interesting ramifications for his character arc. Book readers will know what I’m talking about, the rest of you will hopefully be sufficiently tantalized by the hints I’m dropping that you’ll go check out the books.

Wylan Van Eck
The Crows | variety.com

In Shadow And Bone‘s second season, the thing I’m most excited to see from Wylan are the nuances of his character that I can’t begin to explain here without entering major spoiler territory. There’s so much more going on beneath the surface than you realize at first, and he grows on you with each reread. I can’t wait for new fans to meet this amazing character and fall in love with him just as deeply as longtime Grishaverse geeks have, and I hope this post gets you a little more hyped for his inclusion in Shadow And Bone season two.

But what are your feelings on the character, and who’s your fan-cast? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 5 Review!

SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!

My Shadow And Bone coverage has always made one thing clear: first and foremost, I am here for the Crows. I am here to watch them plan out genius schemes to the most minute detail, mess everything up, and still somehow pull off a miraculous save in the end thanks to quick thinking and a little bit of luck. That’s why Shadow And Bone isn’t my favorite of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, but Six Of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are (Crooked Kingdom actually slightly more so, because it’s got heists but also intrigue) – and that’s why episode five of Netflix’s Shadow And Bone is where the series crosses over from “good” to “great” in my opinion.

Shadow And Bone
Jesper Fahey, Kaz Brekker, and Inej Ghafa | tvguide.com

Because this is the heist episode. I was surprised it happened so early, I’ll be honest: when Shadow And Bone‘s trailers revealed that the Crows would be plotting to abduct Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), I was convinced that a kidnapping attempt of that scale would have to wait until the finale. But weaving the heist story into one of the most iconic and dramatic chapters of Shadow And Bone, the one in which Alina herself is forced to flee from the Little Palace after discovering the truth about The Darkling (Ben Barnes), is so much more brilliant from a storytelling standpoint – and it means we don’t have to wait until season two for interactions between Shadow And Bone characters and Six Of Crows characters, which is a plus.

It also means the writers of Shadow And Bone had to craft an original heist worthy of criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter), and Grishaverse author Leigh Bardugo – no easy feat, I’m sure. There’s a balance that must be achieved in a perfect heist story between coherence and complexity, and it can be hard to find, but I’m firmly of the belief that a heist should never be too simple: especially not when Kaz Brekker is putting together the plan. Some of the best I’ve read, including Bardugo’s, are those that involve many intricate moving parts, which no amount of Fabrikator fine-tuning can prevent from inevitably getting stuck or jamming up the works – resulting in beautiful, uncontrollable, chaos.

That’s why it’s also important that a heist story have characters with distinct strengths, weaknesses, and personalities. That last bit is crucial, because even if a plan is seemingly foolproof, people always have the potential to be unpredictable: to make an error in their calculations because they overlooked something; to get distracted or overwhelmed in the heat of the moment; to feel cocky and think they can outwit the original plan; to make any number of decisions, each one coming with its own risks and consequences. To break the machine, you first have to give it a little push.

The heist in Shadow And Bone‘s fifth episode works precisely because it fails so spectacularly, because Kaz and his crew (and a host of other characters unaware of the Crows’ scheme) don’t, and in some cases can’t, stick to the plan. Multiple subplots converge, people start pushing from all sides, the machinery catches fire (figuratively, of course: though come to think of it, a Grisha Inferni does play a significant role in this episode), and it’s a joy to behold. Another important thing about heist stories: the chaos you cause when the plan goes wrong must be as carefully orchestrated and thrilling as the premise of the original plan.

But anyway, now that I’ve made myself look entirely pretentious with that little writing lecture, let’s break down the heist itself. The premise is at first glance simple: infiltrate the Ravkan winter fĆŖte in disguise, find Alina Starkov, and kidnap her. Alina unwittingly makes the Crows’ job easier when she sneaks out of the Little Palace to see the circus, attending an exaggerated theatrical performance of her own exploits in the Shadow-Fold (in which she is portrayed by a blonde white woman) and giving Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) a clear visual of her before she’s hurriedly escorted off by the Grisha Heartrender Fedyor (Julian Kostov).

The plan as relayed to the Crows’ guide, Arken (Howard Charles), is for Arken to sneak into Alina’s room using a lodestone to bypass the Fabrikator locking-device on the door, there to lie in wait for the Sun-Summoner after her own performance at the party. But when Alina does return to the room accompanied by the Tailor Genya Safin (Daisy Head), Arken doesn’t even hesitate before leaping on the Sun-Summoner and slitting her throat: one of the most horrifying and shocking moments in the season.

But like a Russian nesting-doll, it’s all part of a plan within a plan: and Kaz has been playing Arken since the very beginning of their partnership, having long suspected what soon becomes blindingly apparent – that Arken’s lucrative business of smuggling Grisha out of Ravka for a fee depends on the Shadow-Fold existing to keep them trapped and out of options in their homeland. He never wanted to capture Alina: he wanted her dead, and he foolishly believed he could manipulate the Crows into helping him kill her. But Kaz, ruthless mastermind that he is, sent Arken after Alina Starkov’s decoy, a part being played by the young Grisha Inferni Marie (Jasmine Blackborow) – who does die, sadly; but perhaps less horribly than in the books.

Shadow And Bone
The Darkling | inews.co.uk

Kaz and Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman), meanwhile, are more than happy to abandon the treacherous Conductor to the whims of the Grisha, and I love their casual use of the phrase “lynx flush” to describe the trap they set for him – they’re precious cinnamon rolls, yes, but they are also vicious and extraordinarily dangerous, and I love them for it. As they weave their way in and out of various disguises, keeping close to the real Alina, we also get to see more of Kaz’s cynicism (he’s convinced Alina’s lightshow is a trick using mirrors) and Inej’s faith (her reverent use of the term “Sankta Alina” foreshadowing the name she will later give to one of her fourteen knives).

I’m also a big fan of the immediate cut to Jesper whispering “Saints!” (a common Grishaverse exclamatory phrase) no less reverently, but for a very different reason – having just successfully seduced one of the Little Palace’s handsome stable-hands. I was worried Jesper’s canonical bisexuality wouldn’t be addressed in this season, but Shadow And Bone actually improves and increases diversity across the board, with several other supporting characters being either stated or implied as LGBTQ+ – most notably Fedyor and the Grisha Heartrender Ivan (Simon Sears), confirmed by Mei Li to be a couple in an interview where the actress also said Alina herself could be queer. Fingers crossed!

But as Mei Li noted in the interview, Alina’s strongest relationship is probably always going to be with Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), who also returns in this episode – throwing Kaz’s plans into disarray despite the two never even crossing paths. Mal is simply answering The Darkling’s call for information about Morozova’s Stag, word of which quickly reaches the ears of Baghra (ZoĆ« Wanamaker) on the other side of the palace grounds. Racing against Joseph Trapanese’s pounding score, Baghra unleashes her loyalists to find and kill Mal before he can speak to The Darkling. They reckon without Mal’s own ingenuity, as the tracker refuses to tell The Darkling where to find the Stag until he’s allowed to see Alina.

And then there’s Alina herself, the most unpredictable cog in the entire machine. She and The Darkling share their first kiss in this episode, and then another, and then one more improvised by Ben Barnes. The Darkling even gifts her a bouquet of blue irises, which he learns from Mal are Alina’s favorite flowers. It’s clear that things are about to get a lot more intimate when Ivan suddenly intrudes on the couple’s rendezvous in the map-room to warn The Darkling of Arken’s assassination attempt, throwing cold water on all the heat and passion. But all of it – the romance, the found family, the sense of belonging – is all part of The Darkling’s plan to keep Alina happily subservient.

Book readers know all too well the pain of first learning the truth about The Darkling – but when Baghra gives Alina the full rundown on his origins and agenda, I hope newcomers to Shadow And Bone will be as shocked as we were once upon a time. The Darkling created the Shadow-Fold centuries ago, and has lived countless lifetimes since, changing his name, faking his death, always returning to help the Grisha increase their power and social status until all of Ravka is reliant on them – but now, with technological progress changing the game, he needs to absorb Alina’s power to expand the Fold, not destroy it.

Shadow And Bone doesn’t force any unnecessary conflict into this revelation – yeah, Alina’s not too happy about discovering her new boyfriend is an ageless genocidal tyrant, but the facts are all laid out in front of her and there’s not much room for her to deny or deflect the accusations. She can’t stay in the Little Palace, so Baghra helps her escape through a system of tunnels built into the Palace walls that eventually lead her to the very same courtyard where, what do you know, Jesper Fahey is waiting with the Crows’ escape-ride.

Shadow And Bone
Alina Starkov | geekgirlauthority.com

Kit Young’s nervous laughter and expressions of relief and disbelief as he watches Alina literally climb into a luggage-trunk on the back of the carriage effortlessly sells the whole scene. As the trio drive off into the night, their heist completed and their mission this close to success, it feels good to be a Crows fan, I’ll tell you that. Could your comfort character have pulled all that off? No, I didn’t think so.

Episode Rating: 10/10

“Shadow And Bone” 2nd Trailer!

SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AND SIX OF CROWS AHEAD!

In all my coverage of Netflix’s upcoming Shadow And Bone adaptation, my one consistent concern has been how the series is going to juggle the various components of its sprawling story. While its title is borrowed from the fairly straightforward first book in the Grisha trilogy, Leigh Bardugo’s bestselling YA fantasy series, the Netflix adaptation is also drawing on material from Bardugo’s later (and, in my opinion, superior) Six Of Crows duology, set in the same fantasy world but in a different region, at a different time. To better link the two, Netflix is compressing the timeline and creating original storylines for the Six Of Crows characters that will bring them into contact with Grisha trilogy characters they never met in the books.

Shadow And Bone
Shadow And Bone | polygon.com

The task seems daunting. The Grisha trilogy takes place in the Russian-inspired country of Ravka, where an orphaned girl named Alina Starkov discovers that she’s the Sun-Summoner, a magical being capable of creating light – and thus powerful enough to save Ravka from the terrible Shadow Fold, an ocean of pure shadow that cuts an ugly rift through the country. The Six Of Crows duology, set years later in the Amsterdam-inspired city of Ketterdam, follows a ragtag band of criminals, nicknamed the Crows, who unite to kidnap a mage and score a hefty reward. Tonally, the two stories share little in common…and while a handful of characters overlap, they are both very much their own thing.

But the second full trailer for Netflix’s Shadow And Bone reveals the series’ solution to that problem…which, as far as solutions go, seems to me like one that comes with massive risks and the potential to completely derail the storyline of the books as time goes on. The Crows will simply unite to kidnap Alina Starkov herself.

We’ve known for a while now that we weren’t gonna get a literal adaptation of Six Of Crows in this first season of Shadow And Bone. The series is still focused on Alina and the events of her books. The Crows were always going to be playing secondary roles in this season, with the promise that their roles would be upgraded in season two, when their story could actually take off. But with this new development, I don’t understand the point in doing the actual Six Of Crows storyline anymore, even in season two…because they’re already basically using it as a season one subplot, heightening the stakes dramatically while recentering it around Alina.

I’d actually be very surprised if the story from Six Of Crows were to be adapted at this point, because I think I can begin to guess what Shadow And Bone is doing…and why, while I think it’s a gamble even Jesper Fahey would shy away from, it might just pay off.

Shadow And Bone
Mal and Alina (Malina) | syfy.com

Just as it feels like the Crows’ individual arcs are being reworked to fit into Alina’s story in season one, I believe the opposite might be true of season two…which, rather than following the events of Six Of Crows, may actually lift more heavily from the book’s sequel (and my favorite of Bardugo’s Grishaverse stories), Crooked Kingdom. In that book, the Crows return to Ketterdam with their kidnapped prize, only to be betrayed by their client and embroiled in a war of subterfuge and deceit in the city’s criminal underworld. If that’s the case, it’s unfair we wouldn’t see a more accurate adaptation of these stories – but it’s already unfair that Shadow And Bone still includes Mal, one of the worst love interests in literary history.

There’s evidence for this theory in the trailer. The Crows still receive their offer from a mustachioed older gentleman who appears to be Jan Van Eck, their backstabbing client from the books. Mal tells Alina at one point that he’ll find his way back to her if they’re ever separated, implying strongly that they will be (I see no issue with that, gotta be honest). And while the Crows don’t have much screentime in the trailer, it looks like they make it to Ravka: we see Inej Ghafa evading a jet of fire that could only have been cast by a Grisha magician, and moments later she appears to be in the Shadow-Fold itself, looking dashing while throwing knives at an unseen enemy – perhaps a Volcra demon?

We also know that Alina’s backstory in the series has been changed to make her biracial and half Shu Han (an East Asian-inspired region bordering Ravka), a change reflected in the decision to cast an actress of Chinese descent in the role. The showrunners have cited multiple reasons for this change, one of which being that it lends depth to her arc. But it could also make her taking over the role of Kuwei Yul-Bo – the Crows’ kidnapping victim, and the only prominent Shu Han character in the books – more plausible.

Obviously, the Crows kidnapping Alina and bringing her back to Ketterdam would have massive consequences…but if I’m being honest, I think Alina’s character would benefit a lot from the change. The Grisha trilogy gets kind of boring when it devolves into love-triangulations in book two, so it would be refreshing to see Alina separated from both her love interests for a minute and placed in a completely new scenario, before possibly returning to Ravka by way of the seafaring Prince Nikolai, who appears in the second books of both series’. And I won’t deny that the thought of her interacting with the Crows excites me greatly.

Shadow And Bone
Alina and Baghra | themarysue.com

The only question is how the Crows would benefit from this change, from having Alina and the Darkling (and Mal, I guess) constantly barging in on their storylines – and, as someone with a Crows bias, that’s the question that gives me pause and makes me wonder if it’s actually worth it. I also would like to know why the Crows still only have three members, and why Nina Zenik and Matthias Helvar don’t even seem to have real storylines in this season (Nina does at least have a cut hat).

Shadow And Bone still looks very promising and well-produced, however, and I’m excited to see if anything can make me interested in the events of the Grisha trilogy. I’m not totally sold on Six Of Crows being used as a subplot in Alina Starkov’s story, but if it means Crooked Kingdom (or some version of that story) might be the focus of season two, you better believe I’m gonna grin and bear it.

Trailer Rating: 8/10