Matthias Helvar Archives - Page 2 Of 3

May 1, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Season 2 – What’s Next?

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AND THE GRISHAVERSE NOVELS AHEAD!**

One week since the premiere of Netflix’s Shadow And Bone, and my series of individual episode reviews is finally complete…but I’m the type of person who becomes hooked on a single show for a lot longer than just one week, and I know a lot of you out there are the same way. And I know – from personal experience, because this is how Netflix is – that there’s nothing more agonizing than binge-watching a show in a single day and then having to wait for another season, sometimes for years.

In the meantime, obviously we’re going to have to speculate about Shadow And Bone season two – which Netflix is waiting to officially confirm, although What’s On Netflix, a site with a very strong track record specializing in exclusive information about the streaming service, reports that a second season was renewed behind-the-scenes back in March. And with the first season trending very well in its first week and word-of-mouth strong, it doesn’t seem at all unlikely that season two is coming. It’s just a matter of when – and of course, where we’ll pick up with our beloved cast of characters.

Now, most of my big elaborate theories about things tend to miss the mark by a couple hundred miles (i.e. the Grim Reaper hint in WandaVision means that Ultron is returning!), so this post is going to take each main character in Shadow And Bone one-by-one and just sort of…sketch out their potential paths forward, drawing on information given in the books but taking into account the sorts of changes that Shadow And Bone has already made to the source material.

Alina Starkov

Last time we saw Alina in season one, she and her best friend Mal (platonic soulmates until proven otherwise; sorry, Malina shippers) were headed into the unknown on a ship, but their journeys promise to run parallel to the Crows for at least a little while, and I won’t be surprised if the duo take refuge in Ketterdam now that they need a place to lay low while Alina works on a plan for how to destroy the Shadow-Fold. In Siege And Storm, the second book in the original Grisha trilogy, Alina and Mal hide away in the town of Cofton in Noyvi Zem (where they actually meet a younger Jesper Fahey), but having them stay in Ketterdam declutters the story and requires one less set. In the book, she goes hunting for the second of Morozova’s legendary Amplifiers, a leviathan known as the Sea Whip, crossing paths with the buccaneer Sturmhond (more on him in a minute).

But if Alina and Mal do stay in Ketterdam rather than Cofton, and with Shadow And Bone now caught up to the main events of Six Of Crows, Alina might come into contact with a very different kind of Amplifier without even needing to take her adventure on the high seas. The plot of Six Of Crows revolves around the creation of a mysterious and addictive new drug known as jurda parem, which affects Grisha, enhancing their powers enormously, and often to a dangerous degree. Squallers who take it gain the ability of flight, Durasts turn lead to gold…just imagine what a Sun-Summoner could do. The drug circulates in secret around Ketterdam, but jurda is grown in Noyvi Zem around Cofton, so Alina could come in contact with it there too.

Mal Oretsev

In the books, you can usually expect Mal to simply tag along behind Alina wherever she goes, thereby robbing her and himself of much independence. His role as her protector quickly leads to him becoming obsessively overprotective, and it’s…a lot, honestly. Shadow And Bone‘s showrunner Eric Heisserer said he wanted “Malina” to share their first kiss in season one but that others on the creative team objected; and that he plans to get his way in season two (the only thing that could ruin this show for me). I’ve already made it clear that I’d prefer Mal and Alina to grow individually outside of their borderline constricting relationship with each other…but the fact that I can’t hazard a guess as to where Mal could go apart from her shows that they haven’t done enough even on the show to distinguish their arcs.

The Crows (As A Team)

Although some fans have been pushing for the Crows to spinoff into their own series (and I’d love for that to happen), I suspect their story and Alina’s will continue to run side-by-side in Shadow And Bone. And while I do think there’s a good chance we’ll see them embark on their infamous Ice Court heist in season two, their first order of business upon returning to Ketterdam will be taking care of their current client, Dreesen, and Pekka Rollins – so far, all we know of Kaz’s plan for that is that he needs a Heartrender neither man would recognize. Thankfully, I have a theory about how this might play out. We never learn what Dreesen wants with Alina Starkov, only that he’s a “wealthy merchant”…and Six Of Crows kicks off with the death of a wealthy merchant who’s been taking Grisha captive and testing jurda parem on them.

In the books, this merchant character is named Councilman Hoede, but it would be easy to switch the name to Dreesen. Hoede, it’s later revealed, was working on the jurda parem with a merchant named Jan Van Eck (who needs to be played by Richard E. Grant; this is not up for debate), who sends the Crows on the mission to the Ice Court. My theory is that when the Crows return to Ketterdam in season two, Jan Van Eck will end up taking care of Dreesen for them – not out of the kindness of his heart, but to cover his tracks and erase evidence of the link between the two merchants. Then he’ll track down the Crows with his own offer of five-million kruge to break into the Ice Court and kidnap jurda parem‘s creator, the Shu Han alchemist Bo Yul-Bayur.

Kaz Brekker

But if my theory is correct, that still doesn’t solve the problem of Pekka Rollins – whose agents will probably be waiting for Kaz Brekker and the Crows as soon as their ship docks in Ketterdam. Fighting Pekka gives Kaz a personal stake in season two, and provides an organic opportunity to peel back layers of his history with Pekka via flashbacks. In the books, this backstory is gradually revealed over the course of Six Of Crows, and I hope Shadow And Bone is similarly patient, rather than dumping it all at once. I also hope to see more of Kaz’s brilliance as a strategist: constructing bigger, more elaborate plans, and collecting information on everybody – including Jan Van Eck’s son, Wylan, whom in the books he lures into his gang as leverage over the merchant.

Inej Ghafa

While Inej will always be a major part of the Crows’ storyline, she also has her own character arc apart from the team – and the end of season one hints at that, with Inej suggesting to Kaz that she’s not committed to staying in Ketterdam. This is true to the books, where Inej has a lifelong dream to explore the world on her very own ship, but Shadow And Bone gives Inej an opportunity to pursue that dream much earlier than the books – especially since the buccaneer named Sturmhond might be rolling into town any day now. Another storyline worth exploring (and one that could tie into Sturmhond’s arc) is one from Crooked Kingdom, where Inej is hunted by an assassin named Dunyasha Lazareva, who claims to be an heiress to Ravka’s royal family – and whom Inej believes to be her “Shadow”.

Jesper Fahey

Shadow And Bone‘s first season dropped numerous hints to the fact that Jesper is a Grisha Fabrikator – specifically a Durast capable of manipulating metals and other solid materials, something that possibly contributes to his skills as a sharpshooter. Ivan the Heartrender senses his power during one of their duels, but Jesper later shoots him dead, thus protecting his secret; which he’s kept hidden since watching his mother – herself a Durast – die while using her power to absorb poison into her own body. This could be explored through flashbacks in season two, but a major element of Jesper’s story going forward will be his relationship with Wylan Van Eck; the Six Of Crows duology’s most prominent LGBTQ+ romance.

Nina Zenik

With Nina’s backstory having already been adequately explored in Shadow And Bone‘s first season, she can only go forward from here. As in the books, she’ll be entering Ketterdam on the same ship as Matthias Helvar, but whereas the Fjerdan will be shipped off to Hellgate prison, Nina will be in need of work to survive – and in the show, she’s just made the acquaintance of Kaz Brekker, who’s looking for a Heartrender. In the books, it’s mentioned that Nina was forced to choose between working for Kaz or Pekka Rollins when she arrived in Ketterdam, ultimately choosing Kaz after Inej hand-delivered his business-proposal by scaling a six-story building in the pouring rain (a scene I’d love to see reenacted). I think the same will hold true in Shadow And Bone, but Nina’s previous service for The Darkling might be a cause for conflict if it ever comes up again.

Matthias Helvar

While Nina gets deluged with opportunities, Matthias will be rotting in Hellgate next time we see him – and blaming the Heartrender for his troubles. In Six Of Crows, he spends months imprisoned, but the physical and emotional toll it takes on him is apparent thanks to two things that won’t work in the show: firstly, his long golden locks are shaved off (whereas in the show, he’s only had short hair); and secondly, he’s forced to kill wolves, sacred animals to the Fjerdans, in prison cage-fights. Shadow And Bone worked some wolf-imagery into the Fjerdan costume design, but never touched on the significance of that choice, unfortunately. Regardless, it won’t be long before Kaz has a reason to break Matthias out of Hellgate, whether for his first-hand knowledge of the Ice-Court or something else.

The Darkling

After staggering from the Shadow-Fold with Volcra scars lacing his beautiful face and his fabulous black kefta irreparably shredded, The Darkling is going to be on a war-path in season two – and in Shadow And Bone‘s closing moments, he displays the ability to command an army of shadow warriors called nichevo’ya, who will become his greatest weapon in the ongoing battle for Ravka. In the books, he hunts down Alina, and forces her to join him on a quest for the second Amplifier, employing the privateer named Sturmhond to guide them through the frigid northern seas. In the show, if Alina remains in Ketterdam, that means The Darkling may have another chance to match wits with Kaz Brekker when he comes for her…but directly tying him into the Ice Court heist will be difficult.

Honorable Mentions:

Nikolai Lantsov

There are few characters who pop up more frequently throughout the Grishaverse than Nikolai Lantsov, the illegitimate prince of Ravka who first appears while disguised as a privateer named Sturmhond and pretending to work with The Darkling. Nikolai’s charisma wins him many fans among the general population, but he suffers the constant disdain of his older brother Vasily – an incompetent elitist who gets exactly what he deserves in the end. In Shadow And Bone, the Ravkan royal family hasn’t been very well-established yet, nor has any mention been made of the young prince and his flying ship, but Nikolai is coming in season two; and we can expect his casting to be a big deal.

Wylan Van Eck

Although I’ve never loved Wylan’s character as much as I love some of the other Crows, I’m very interested to see how he’ll be adapted. His backstory certainly lends itself to dramatic adaptation, with his father Jan Van Eck disowning him on account of his dyslexia and attempting to have him murdered to protect the Van Eck family’s reputation in high society. Wylan goes into hiding and changes his name, setting himself up as a “passable” demolitions expert while retaining some of his aristocratic snobbery. Ironically, it’s his connection to Jan that lands him on the Ice Court heist, as Kaz is under the impression that he can be used as leverage over Jan; learning too late that the merchant would happily kill his own son. Eric Heisserer has promised that Wylan will “a hundred percent” be in Shadow And Bone‘s second season.

So which Grishaverse character is your favorite, and where do you want to see them end up in season two? Share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

April 30, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 8 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

Like calls to like.

Although surprisingly never used in the first season of Shadow And Bone, not even as an episode subtitle, that seemingly simple phrase is a guiding principle of the Grisha in Leigh Bardugo’s original novels. All Grisha are born with the ability to manipulate matter, but their own individual qualities, both good and bad (and in the Grishaverse, defined as “Etovost”, the “thatness” of a thing that makes it unique) help pull them in the direction of a specific type of matter: whether it be water, for Tidemakers; or wind, for Squallers; or blood, for Heartrenders. What determines this connection is sometimes pretty mysterious, so being a Grisha is like living a Buzzfeed personality quiz.

But what makes a Sun-Summoner?

That’s a big question, and the finale of Shadow And Bone‘s first season isn’t able to fully answer it in the amount of time it has to wrap up everybody’s current stories while starting a bunch of new ones. But if “like calls to like”, then what about Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) makes her and her alone naturally compelled towards light? Is it her ability to selflessly fight for a world that’s never fought for her, or the courage it takes to finally start fighting for and believing in herself? There’s several options, each in my opinion valid, but it would be nice to have a specific thing to point to during the climactic moment in the finale when Alina rises to her feet and rejects The Darkling (Ben Barnes) with a single line: “This is what I am.”

In that brief shining moment, Alina is answering to no one – not The Darkling, and not Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux). Some fans are angry that this scene didn’t play out as in the books, with Mal being thrown off The Darkling’s skiff in the Shadow-Fold, and Alina literally jumping overboard to follow him into the darkness, thereby abandoning everyone on the skiff to the Volcra. But apart from the fact that there are now several other major characters on the skiff in this version who kind of need to survive into season two, that scene in the books is exemplary of everything I dislike about the original Grisha Trilogy. It doesn’t empower Alina: it merely solidifies “apathy towards everyone except Mal” as her defining character trait.

That being said, there are other, better, ways to inject some internal darkness back into Alina’s character over the course of Shadow And Bone – and I hope showrunner Eric Heisserer (who made the right choice not to have her massacre a literal boatload of people for Mal) will do just that. It doesn’t ever have to be to that level of carnage and certainly not for the same reasons, but villainy can be pretty empowering too when it feels earned and organic.

Shadow And Bone‘s season finale spotlights several forms of empowerment, and the battle in the Shadow-Fold isn’t simply an epic and thrilling set-piece (though it is very much that too) but also a great way to bring the characters’ personalities into the forefront as they clash onscreen, their strengths and weaknesses playing off each other cleverly. Of course, being in the Fold means the resulting melee is a bit dark, but on a scale of one to Game Of Thrones’ The Long Night, this is a “dark-enough-for-monsters-to-jump-out-unexpectedly-but-not-so-dark-you-can’t-tell-who’s-who” kind of dark.

Alina’s big hero moment is more of an introspective epiphany than a feat of physical strength – although, upon receiving a vision of Morozova’s Stag and realizing that the animal rewarded her mercy in episode seven by bestowing its powers upon her, she does take one of Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman)’s knives and thrust it upwards into The Darkling’s palm, cutting the piece of the Stag’s antlers from his flesh and breaking his control over her. It’s a triumphant moment that finally frees up Alina to be more powerful than ever before – not that we get to see any of that power, mind you, since The Darkling’s loyal Heartrender Ivan (Simon Sears) defeats her a few moments later.

And despite no longer abandoning them all to chase after Mal, Alina is too late to save either the group of foreign dignitaries onboard the skiff (Ivan mows them down instead), or the West Ravkan city of Novokribirsk; which gets consumed by the Shadow-Fold as a warning from The Darkling to the rest of the world that he’s not afraid to kill hundreds of thousands of his own civilians to protect Ravkan interests. General Zlatan (Tom Weston-Jones) and the West Ravkan independence movement come to an untimely end, as does – presumably – Zoya Nazyalensky (Sujaya Dasgupta)’s aunt and extended family, whom she had just been talking about wanting to visit earlier in the episode.

Zoya, who happens to be standing on the skiff watching this all unfold in horror, wastes no time joining forces with Alina and the Crows to bring down The Darkling (and he has the audacity to act surprised). She and Inej share a few epic fight scenes, combining Inej’s skill for hand-to-hand combat and knife-throwing with Zoya’s ability to control the wind. That the two women are also Shadow And Bone‘s most prominent characters of South Asian descent (in-universe, their heritage is Suli) adds another layer to their awe-inspiring team up.

In a battle where some of the highlights include Inej stabbing The Darkling, Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) attacking a Volcra with his cane, and Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) shooting Ivan dead and scolding himself for being slightly attracted to the villainous Heartrender, I think the wrestling-match between Mal and The Darkling was supposed to stand out more than it did. But The Darkling can slice people in half with a blade of shadow, so stooping to Mal’s level is a choice that needed to be justified somehow…particularly since Mal – who admits earlier in the episode that he’s not the “smart one” of the team – ends up outwitting the Grisha, distracting him while a Volcra sneaks up on him from behind.

Viewers new to Shadow And Bone who have undoubtedly heard the phrase “Six Of Crows” tossed around a lot in coverage of the series might be quick to assume that the six characters who stumble out of the Shadow-Fold together are the titular “Six” – and I’d be interested to see how that alternate-universe version of the team would work – but Zoya soon departs on her own, explaining that she has a personal duty to her family to search for their remains, even if it means re-entering the Fold. You’ll want to read Six Of Crows if only to better understand Kaz Brekker’s warning to Zoya not to linger too long with the dead.

Everyone else ends up on a ship bound for Ketterdam, including Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) and Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), whose story finally catches up chronologically and geographically with that of the Crows in a sequence remarkably similar to the books – the only major difference being that it’s an established character, the no-longer-lovable Heartrender Fedyor (Julian Kostov), who confronts Nina and Matthias in a seaside tavern (interrupting a perfectly good meal of waffles) and forces Nina to make a choice that will haunt her for a long time. To save Matthias from the Grisha, she pretends he’s a slaver and turns him over to a group of Kerch bounty-hunters instead, hitching a ride with them as a “witness” and promising Matthias she’ll drop the charges in court once they reach Ketterdam.

The novelty of watching storylines from different corners of the Grishaverse converge is one that Shadow And Bone can sustain well into season two – depending on how long Alina and Mal stay in Ketterdam alongside our beloved Crows, and what kind of devious plan Kaz has concocted to deal with Pekka Rollins and their mysterious mustachioed client that apparently requires the services of a Grisha Heartrender (one of whom, Nina herself, just happens to be sitting within earshot). With Inej being noncommittal about staying with the Crows (and honestly, good for her; but the pain on Kaz’s face broke my heart) and Malina still being platonic for the moment, there’s a lot of directions Shadow And Bone could take to keep things fresh and exciting.

But one plot point that hasn’t been changed from the books (and why would it be?) is The Darkling’s return. I mean, you didn’t think the Volcra really ate him, did you? Alina may not be strong enough yet to tear down that Fold, even with an Amplifier, but The Darkling’s control of merzost has allowed him to stagger back from the brink of death covered in scars and stronger than before, with the power to create giant demonic warriors of pure shadow called Nichevo’ya that obey his every command.

If “like calls to like”, then it’s pretty clear what qualities The Darkling possesses.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

April 28, 2021April 29, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 6 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

“Malina” should be platonic soulmates. That’s it, that’s the review in a nutshell; you can go home now, folks. Glad you’ve enjoyed my Shadow And Bone coverage, but we’re done here (just kidding: please stick around for my final two episode reviews).

But I’m serious about Malina. Because this episode finally reunites Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux) and Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), who have been on separate paths since Alina blew up inside the Shadow-Fold: and while the writing is clearly working overtime to convince us that these two have strong romantic chemistry, I feel like Shadow And Bone would save itself a lot of trouble (not to mention backlash from “Darklina” stans, who are not to be messed with) if it diverged from the exact plot of the Grisha trilogy with as much boldness and confidence as when it devised an entirely original subplot for the characters from Six Of Crows. Because Malina doesn’t have to be romantic to work, and it might be a lot more interesting if it weren’t.

I’ve found that the word “platonic” usually only gets tossed around whenever fandoms are discussing two characters of the same gender, and trying to make a case for why they’re just really close friends, how their bond is too sacred to be sexual in any way (grossly equating queer sexuality with immorality), and why depicting them as LGBTQ+ is “forced”. I find the exact opposite to be true most of the time: LGBTQ+ characters often accidentally have more chemistry than the heteronormative couples Hollywood shoves down our throats. Yet the people who complain that same-sex pairings should remain strictly platonic rarely say the same about opposite-sex pairings (almost like they’re just homophobes or something…)

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with either platonic or romantic relationships: both simply require good writing that allows us to see for ourselves what type of chemistry the characters have when they interact. But in the process of boosting Mal and Alina’s personalities, Shadow And Bone has – unintentionally, I think – written the beginnings to a stronger platonic relationship between the two than a romantic one, one in which introducing romantic feelings threatens to roll back some of the progress that’s been made with them individually.

One of the biggest criticisms of Malina in the books (where Mal, to be fair, is also manipulative, possessive, and just a nasty, unlikeable, human being in general) is that Alina rarely has a chance to stand on her own apart from the men in her life, particularly with Mal acting as her “protector” – a role he starts to assume in this very episode, which concerns me greatly. Forcing a romance isn’t simply unfair to Alina: it enforces the fact that, in the books, Mal’s entire story revolves around Alina, and apart from her he barely has a personality, much less an entire subplot. There’s no room for them to be separate, because fate has plans for them.

And I don’t know about you, but characters bound by fate to be romantically linked to each other is a predictable and slightly problematic trope I wish we could put behind us in 2021. But characters whose shared experiences bring them closer together while not automatically ensuring they’ll fall madly in love with each other? Characters who are always there for each other because they value each other’s company and friendship more than a need for romantic affection, or worse, sexual gratification? Characters who are platonic soulmates? Those are tropes I can get behind. And those are all modern tropes that feel more in line with where Shadow And Bone wants to go anyway.

There’s still time. By the end of the season, Mal and Alina have not professed any feelings of romantic attraction for each other, something I actually suspected would happen in this episode, where they’re certainly offered plenty of chances to do so. But showrunner Eric Heisserer revealed in an interview today that the only reason Malina didn’t share a kiss in season one is because other members of the show’s creative team stopped him (whoever those people are: you are my platonic soulmates, all of you) from including one, and that he intends to get his way with season two…that he wants “a lot of kissing” for Malina. Excuse me while I go scream.

People are now going to think I’m a hardcore Darklina shipper, which to be clear, I’m not. But I’m also not behind this attempt to force a romance that was proven to be extremely unpopular in the books, for a number of the same reasons I don’t ship Darklina. And it annoys me especially because this attitude of extreme fidelity to the books is not being applied to the writing of the Crows, yet the single worst element of the Grisha Trilogy gets carried over into the adaptation unaltered?

Anyway, I’ve ranted longer about this than I would have liked, but apparently I’m not done: because episode six also features the first stirrings of romantic attraction between Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) and Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), another pairing I don’t personally ship for numerous reasons – starting with the fact that Matthias doesn’t view Nina as a human being when they first meet on the literal slave-ship where Matthias is employed to help transport Grisha to their deaths in his home country of Fjerda. When the ship is lost at sea, leaving Nina and Matthias as the only survivors, the two are forced to work together to survive in the frigid environment where they find themselves lost.

And unfortunately, every sequence they share feels like it’s robbing other characters of screentime while contributing little to nothing to the overall story – which is a shame, given how vividly Leigh Bardugo described this part of Nina’s backstory in Six Of Crows. It’s no fault of Galligan or Skogman (though Skogman’s exaggerated Scandinavian accent leaves much to be desired, and it hurts his performance), nor even the painfully obvious soundstage and green-screen used in the shipwreck itself. But the hardships they endure never feel quite harrowing enough to sell the bond of trust and reluctant love they’re supposed to be building in these crucial scenes.

Matthias’ casual misogyny and bigoted opinions towards Grisha are also never explored or deconstructed thoroughly, or at all really – he comes to begrudgingly like Nina for her sassy humor and sex-positive attitude, but Shadow And Bone seems to think he’s a “himbo” (an archetypal big, sweet, attractive, unintelligent, male character), and portrays him as such; forgetting that himbos are likeable because of their sweetness more so than their lack of intelligence. Also, respecting women (even being in awe of women) is kind of a big part of the himbo formula…and that’s, like, the opposite of Matthias. A himbo is what Mal could be, if all that kissing with Alina wasn’t apparently imminent.

You might say this episode is just too romantic for me…but I’m actually a big fan of romance, and when I ship characters, I ship them hard because I’m usually invested in both of them separately just as much as I am in seeing how they collide, and then try to awkwardly sort out their feelings for each other. This is why Kanej is the superior ship, and why, as a result, the Crows still save this episode of Shadow And Bone for me.

Kanej – the popular pairing of Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) and Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman), two of our beloved Crows – has always worked for me because Kaz and Inej help each other heal from a lifetime of trust issues and trauma while never requiring their partner to sacrifice any part of themselves. They’re allowed to be wholly different people with dissimilar outlooks on life. That comes into play in this episode: Kaz is still wary of all his Crows and fighting back against his feelings for Inej because he’s afraid of giving himself a weakness, but only because he doesn’t realize yet that she’s his strength, and…ugh, I adore them. Could you tell?

Inej’s faith in Alina Starkov is what drives Kaz to the end of his rope: for him, religious faith is as much a weakness of character as feelings of affection, and he only knows how to exploit it to his advantage – for instance, kidnapping a saint and collecting the reward. When that backfires, and Inej allows Alina to escape from Kaz’s clutches because she genuinely believes in her, he lashes out; accidentally opening up to Inej about the risky deal he struck with Tante Heleen in order to have her on his team in the first place. Trying to make his crush mad by unintentionally revealing that he’d do anything for her? Yep, sounds like Kaz.

Alina runs off into the woods and meets Mal, leaving the Crows to deal with her pursuer, The Darkling (Ben Barnes), and his small army of Grisha. But as anyone who’s read the books knows, the Crows do their best thinking when they’re ambushed and backed into a corner by much stronger opponents – so as Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) takes off in one direction followed by a Heartrender, Inej lures a vengeful Inferni into a location better suited to her unique skillset, and Kaz simply disappears into the night with a flourish, it’s pretty clear to Crows fans like myself who’s going to come out on top. None of the Crows fight fair, and that’s what makes them so fun.

Inej’s fight is the swiftest and the most brutal, and the only one that ends with a Grisha casualty – as she plunges one of her knives deep into the Inferni’s chest, and cautions her wounded opponent to abandon the fight and seek a Healer, warning her that removing the blade will cause her to bleed out in thirty seconds. The Inferni promises to haunt Inej for the rest of her days, and to kill everyone she loves: at which point, Inej delivers probably the most epic line of all time – “In that case, I’ll take back my knife” – and leaves the Inferni to die.

Jesper, meanwhile, faces off against Ivan (Simon Sears); using his sharpshooting skills to consistently hit the Heartrender in the same spot, eventually wearing down his bulletproof kefta and bringing the dangerous Grisha to his knees, wheezing for breath. Jesper’s impossibly accurate aim in the dark leads Ivan to a shocking revelation about the Crow, although Jesper cuts him off with a well-timed swipe of his pistol before he can say it aloud. I didn’t even catch this brief moment on my first watch, but it is indeed a hint that, as in the books, Jesper is a Grisha Fabrikator who’s been concealing his powers his entire life.

As for Kaz, he encounters The Darkling himself. This duel of great minds has proven a bit controversial in fandom: yes, it’s definitely a ridiculous amount of fan-service to pack into under two minutes, but it’s also so much fun. I think what saves the moment is that Kaz doesn’t defeat The Darkling by any means – he throws a grenade and gets the hell out of there, because he knows he’s overpowered and he doesn’t have any honor he needs to preserve, nor any shame over fleeing. It’s a classic move for the Bastard of the Barrel: he gives The Darkling some information to chew on (confirmation that Alina ran from the Little Palace on her own, rather than being kidnapped), and survives to fight another day.

So does Shadow And Bone‘s heavy-handed romantic meddling drag down the episode a bit? Yeah, not gonna lie, it does – and I’d encourage Eric Heisserer to think twice before trying to push forward with Malina in season two, because the show doesn’t need it. Shadow And Bone is better than the sum total of all its current romantic subplots combined, with the sole exception of Kanej, and that’s the tea, folks. Rant over.

Episode Rating: 9/10

April 26, 2021April 29, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 4 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

Although Shadow And Bone never pauses to translate the intimidating subtitle of its fourth episode, Otkazat’sya isn’t merely a full mouthful of syllables – it’s also the Ravkan term for any human not gifted with the Grisha ability to manipulate matter. And thus, it’s only fair that this episode shines the spotlight on the best and worst of regular human behavior: our endurance, our ingenuity, our capacity for heroic deeds and unforgivable cruelty (ahem, Matthias). Even though Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) is still the main character, her arc in this episode is masterfully counterbalanced by that of her best friend, Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), himself an otkazat’sya.

Yes, this is the episode where the earnestness and humility of Renaux’s performance, combined with some excellent screenwriting, actually forced me to like Mal…the same character I swore up and down I’d hate simply because of how awful he was in the books.

It’s not even that Mal shares equal screentime with Alina, because he doesn’t – but as The Darkling (Ben Barnes) bends his will and effort toward seducing Alina and wrapping her ever more tightly around his finger, who Mal is and what he represents takes clearer shape in both her mind and ours’. The episode does a good job of leading Alina to the reasonable conclusion that Mal has abandoned her, without losing her any audience sympathy in the process even though we can see for ourselves that Mal has been fighting to get back to her in any way he can, and that he would never have intended to hold back her power because he never feared her strength – an impactful deviation from the books.

Mal, in fact, spends the entire episode tracking down the legendary beast known as Morozova’s Stag – a living Amplifier, which can dramatically enhance and focus the power of any Grisha who kills it and possesses its impressive rack of antlers. Shadow And Bone could perhaps have done a better job of portraying Alina’s lifelong spiritual connection to the Stag (it pops up in her dreams and childhood drawings a few times), not to mention Mal’s awareness of that fact, but he only ends up on the Stag’s trail after The Darkling issues an order to find the creature and bring it to the Little Palace – where Alina needs all the help she can get to tap into her Sun-Summoner abilities.

The episode works genuinely hard to show the difficulty of Alina’s training – and, importantly, the ease with which she embraces her power any time she’s near The Darkling, himself a living Amplifier (a fact that was revealed to Alina on the previous episode, only increasing her confusion over what’s a result of her emerging feelings for The Darkling, and what’s entirely his doing). Her entire training with Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker) could easily have been summed up into a single montage, but is wisely spread out over the course of the episode, allowing it to play a more integral part in Alina’s character development as Baghra coaxes her power out of her wholly removed from the influence of either The Darkling or Mal, strengthening her confidence.

But as Baghra’s training intensifies, so too does the irresistible force of The Darkling – who strategically opens up to Alina about his own (mostly falsified) lived experience of oppression; even revealing his true name, Aleksander. The “Darklina” scenes in this episode are brilliantly written, though they wouldn’t work half as well as they do if it weren’t for Mei Li and Barnes’ chemistry, and the undercurrent of romantic – and to an even larger degree, purely sexual – tension that ripples beneath the surface of all their interactions.

By the end of the episode, when Alina sneaks from her room to speak with Aleksander in the map room, and the two come dangerously close to sharing a first passionate kiss, you’ll find yourself rooting for Alina to make her move even as you simultaneously acknowledge that Mal is probably a better option in the long run (something I’d never say of book Mal, who is every bit as possessive and emotionally manipulative as The Darkling). Ben Barnes had fascinating things to say about how much of The Darkling’s attraction to Alina was real, but handling the subject in future seasons of Shadow And Bone is sure to be a tricky tightrope act.

And speaking of tightropes (I promise this will make sense)…let’s turn our attention over to the Crows, who represent what I described earlier in this post as the best of human ingenuity. Without Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) around to help them infiltrate the Little Palace, Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) is forced to quickly devise a backup plan that involves breaking into the Ravkan Archives: a little warmup for the team’s future heists, the biggest and most daring of which are being reserved for later seasons. Kaz’s teammates Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) and Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman) both get to play a critical role in the heist, particularly Inej – who displays the quiet tenacity and flexibility (both literally and figuratively) that makes her so valuable to the team.

Fans of Six Of Crows know that the popular fan-pairing known as “Kanej” is destined for future seasons of Shadow And Bone, but there are unmistakable hints of the bond between Kaz and Inej in the way they share a deep understanding of the other’s exact movements and motions, acquired from a long partnership on the streets of Ketterdam. In Shadow And Bone, much is made out of their differences – particularly Inej’s reliance on her religious faith to help her cope with trauma and Kaz’s lack of faith because of his trauma – but that only helps to make their shared experiences a more powerful link between the two.

Inej isn’t defined by her pain, however, which is very important: and we see more aspects of her character emerge in this episode. When Kaz decides to infiltrate a traveling circus troupe to get into the Little Palace, Inej is called upon to play the part of a high-flying acrobatic dancer – a clever callback, which casual viewers might miss, to her backstory as a tightrope-walker (told you that reference would make sense) in the books. Jesper adds his sharpshooting precision to the mix, and two of the Crows have themselves an act worthy of Ravka’s upcoming winter fête. Kaz, the drama queen that he is, decides to make his own way to the Palace – brilliantly establishing his distaste for any theatrics but his own.

Beginning to edge towards the outskirts of the story and the limits of my interest, Nina Zenik reappears – only briefly, in the grand scheme of things, but the sequence in which she confronts her captor Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman) seems excruciatingly long. The worst of human behavior is on display here, as Matthias trots out the vicious (and these days, all too familiar) rhetoric of a bigoted ideology that’s been brainwashed into him. Shadow And Bone seems like it wants to depict Matthias as conflicted and sympathetic, but his and Nina’s subplot never has enough screentime to achieve that.

But if Shadow And Bone pulled off the impossible and made me like Mal Oretsev, I want to give the showrunners (and Skogman too, though I still don’t think his acting is on the same level as many of his costars) the chance to do the same with Matthias Helvar, as difficult as it may be. All the more reason to officially greenlight season two right about now, Netflix…

Episode Rating: 9/10