"The Making at the Heart of the World"
This episode follows on from where the last ended for Alina but gives us a slight time jump for the Crows as the two stories have to eventually line up in time for the Sun Summoner kidnapping that is coming soon. Alina finds out what life at Os Kervo will look like, the comfort of grand feasts paired with the pressures on her training; the Crows manage to prepare themselves to cross the Fold almost without a hitch; and another significant Grisha is introduced alongside a Fjerdan she becomes tied to for a long time coming.
The episode opens in quiet place with a stillness that's calming and peaceful leading to a glimpse of a towering stag with incredibly intricate antlers before abruptly skipping back to Alina waking from a dream in the Little Palace. The opening begins with Alina narrating a letter to Mal as she is introduced to Genya Safin, the Grisha Tailor, the beginning of one of the more complicated yet wonderful friendships of this trilogy. However, we can see that despite her new position, Alina is still discriminated against for being part Shu. Seeing Genya's tailor skills at work, with subtle yet effective changes to Alina's appearance, is a work of art and looks entirely natural. Daisy Head suits the role of Genya quite well and I have no doubt this is just the beginning of the depth the character has.
You get a sense for what the King of Ravka, King Pyotr, is like, how he views the war his country is embroiled in and what he thinks of his soldiers. The way Alina is dressed up is familiar to her introductory scenes in her real First Army uniform but with changes that make it all the more impractical and just for show - clean and unstained by mud, blood or sweat, a skirt and impractical heels in place of the trousers and more reasonable army boots she wore before. And her entrance into the Grand Palace makes it look like the First and Second Army followed her all the way from Kribirsk. The display of Kirigan and Alina's power in contrast to one another was a thing of beauty. When two powers are the opposite of each other in a fantasy series, it can be easy to make the contrast too obvious but the effects of the shadows and the sun being summoned make them seem like two entities that are entirely separate but undeniably whole together.
Followed by this is all the Grisha that followed Alina in taking their turns to give her a welcoming hug and the first in is a cameo from the wonderful creator of this world, Leigh Bardugo herself, in a purple Fabrikator kefta made for her. I can't imagine how surreal that must have been as a writer, literally being at the heart of the world you created. I love that Zoya's cruelty with a smile is shown so quickly and their early rivalry is so well established - it isn't as simple as diminishing Alina's confidence or self-esteem, her words are viscous and brutal. Of these Grisha, Marie and Nadia are quick to become Alina's first friends, though status and the people you have ties to seems to have a lot of importance in the Second Army making their friendship more surface level at this point.
Interestingly, Alina's time training in physical combat is a lot briefer than in the books, in fact it's cut down quite a bit. There is just the one brief scene with the focus on Alina and Zoya's rivalry, which I enjoy seeing the development and change in but I believe one character was short-changed - Botkin. Botkin easily could have been an offensive stereotype of East Asian martial arts teachers, fortunately he wasn't. Considering the fact that he is a Shu defector and that Alina has been made half Shu for the show, I think they could have really developed something worthwhile here. Alina's first official introduction to the Apparat is disconcerting and uncomfortable. It's important in the long run with his introducing her to the Istorii Sankt'ya, also called The Lives of Saints, a book of stories about the saints of the Grishaverse, including the all important Sankt Ilya. He tells her about the amplifiers Grisha wear to strengthen and harness their power not without the fanatical embellishments that have happened to the tales of Grisha saints over many years.
We are at last introduced to Baghra, played by the inimitable Zoe Wanamaker, the sharpness to her and brutal edge of her words. But this harsh encounter just makes Alina's letters to Mal more and more frantic as she still feels she is without friends and is still quite unacquainted with her power. And it's followed by Ivan's general lack of empathy announcing recent Grisha deaths whilst also making Alina feel guilty for sitting down to eat instead of training constantly to take down the Fold.
Meanwhile, the Crows and the Conductor have made their way to West Ravka and are in the process of gathering the resources they need for their crossing of the Fold - with one very interesting addition in the form of a goat. Yet things go slightly awry when Jesper's weakness is tempted - the sound of a gambling table. I imagine this isn't the last time Jesper fails the team due to his gambling addiction. The posters all around West Ravka promoting independence from the East are chilling and have a Cold War-esque resemblance - the comparison I realised during the previous episode to the divided Germany in the later half of the 20th century still remains true. Core characteristics of Kaz and Inej are delved into a little deeper with her refusal to give up hope of finding her parents and him encouraging the repression of hope, believing it to be dangerous. There is a depth to these two characters that I hope is done justice in the series.
In their preparation aboard the abandoned train, you see just what kind of affect multiple crossings of the Fold have on people, how nightmarish it can be when you see that the Conductor has carved a tally into his arms of how many times he's crossed. It's a brutal visual and gives you an insight into just how terrible this part of Ravka is and it's not long before we see it again ourselves. And the goat at last makes sense - to calm Jesper down, the most panicky of this group. It follows on to the best scene showcasing why he is called the Sharpshooter and the effects used are so subtle that it's clear that they aren't regular gunshots but also not so obvious that it gives anything away about secrets his character has just yet.
In this episode, we are also introduced to Nina Zenik as the Heartrender who was meant to meet with the Conductor and the Crows to help them get access to the Little Palace. However, she is quickly sold out and captured by the Fjerdan druskelle, Grisha hunters. Nina doesn't stop fighting though, even being chained up in the druskelle ship coming face to face with the person who disarmed her, who we know to be Matthias Helvar, she still taunts and kicks as much as she has to knowing what the druskelle would do to her.
The episode ends much like the way it opened - with Alina's narration of a letter she's writing to Mal with everything she's thinking and feeling, the way she would if they were still together at that moment and each line is narrated over a relevant scene whether it's one of her own experiences or the position the Crows or Nina find themselves in. The comparison she writes in the letter of cardinal north and true north, with Mal being her true north is wonderful but I couldn't help but think that all the scenes there have been of the two together piled up with the letter narration and the music was a little bit over done and made it cringey. It was just a little bit too much making the pairing of Mal and Alina feel forced which they didn't need to do since they've already done so much to make their pairing better and make more sense than it did in the books.
Reasons to Recommend:
- Introductions of Genya Safin, Nina Zenik, Matthias Helvar
- Jesper and the Goat
- What crossing the Fold looks like without Grisha
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