"The Unsea"
With the penultimate episode of Shadow and Bone, the history of some prominent characters is explored, some hundreds of years old and others more recent, a mythical creature is found and the truth comes to light between friends. There are some very powerful emotionally charged scenes where the use of a cracking, shaking voice is so effective and perfectly used. This episode also works as a good build-up of moving through more character and plot-driven elements before the final episode which looks to be more action-driven.
Instead of continuing where the previous episode left off, this episode starts with Kirigan's past, a time when Grisha were hunted by Ravka before they became the most important people in the country's army. (The costume and hair choice reminded me a lot of a certain Prince of Narnia.) He loses a woman he loves - a Grisha Healer - to Ravkan soldiers hunting them, people who even then called him Darkling, something that seems to have happened before based on his conversation with Baghra. It is here that we find out that Baghra came up with the idea for Alexander to run and hide until Ravka needed a Grisha to solve a problem and to return with a nobleman's name. At this time, he does not want to run, he is hopeful but angry and only wants Grisha to be safe and to be able to protect themselves. This isn't the beginning of him turning into the person Alina knows, this is just a part of it a long way from the beginning.
Alexander's eagerness to help other Grisha grow stronger in their power to his and his mother's level reveals to us that the two of them are the child and grandchild of Ilya Morozova - the Grisha Saint the Apparat told Alina about in the library who created the Stag. He grew up on the stories of his grandfather and seeks to match his ambition using merzost, something that Baghra fears and forbids. People pray to Sankt Ilya but Baghra remembers how her family's life was destroyed by his experiments. Despite Baghra's warnings, he uses merzost to use his power against Ravkan soldiers ready to shoot him if he puts his hands together as that is the normal and natural way for Grisha to use their power. And it is through this use of power that takes over his actions that creates what this world comes to know as the Shadow Fold - a problem only Grisha could solve but something Alexander looks at proudly as something he created. I didn't expect to see the reveal of Baghra and Alexander being of Morozova's bloodline so soon nor did I expect to see an adaptation of the prequel short story The Demon in the Wood adapted in this season. I'm glad it did though because it showed how hopeless things were for Grisha and how it could turn Alexander's once righteous cause into a desire for absolute power.
In the present, Kirigan's hunt for Alina and the Stag continues as David begins to track the metal from the ring she was given by Genya. Alina and Mal find the Stag very early on in the episode right after she explains to him why she needs to be the one to kill it and it is clearly drawn to Alina. The light that comes from her when she touches it is so pure and clear, not anything like what she's done before but that hope she feels is momentary as Ivan and Zoya catch up to them and don't let them kill the Stag. Alina makes what is likely her most dangerous decision yet which is saving Mal's life instead of keeping the Stag out of Kirigan's reach allowing him to kill it, therefore handing over the amplifier's powers to him.
After this, she is manacled as David gets the Stag's bones ready to place around Alina's neck as only a Fabrikator would be able to do even though the power of the amplifier is no longer hers. Kirigan's cunning knows no bounds as he uses her own words against her from when they first met - her desperation to hand her power over to someone else and making himself that someone. Even with his manipulation, you can see that he still believes in his cause to free and protect Grisha but with all the time he has spent living, his means of achieving that end have become twisted. You can see after this exchange that David is beginning to doubt the orders he has been given by Kirigan as he binds the collar to her. I found it quite interesting what they did with the Stag's bones as her amplifier - in the book, it's clasped around her neck like a choker but instead, it's fused to her collar bone sticking upwards to the sides. I feel like this suits what comes in later Grishaverse books about how amplifiers bind themselves to a Grisha.
Daisy Head's Genya, I feel, was wildly underused in this entire season. She comes to Alina to comfort her and ready her for the next crossing but something is different this time - she is no longer wearing a white kefta marking her as a servant, she has a red kefta, at last, being accepted as Corporalnik. Alina realises that Genya had been a spy on the King, Queen and her the whole time for Kirigan. Though Alina almost vilifies her, Genya's reasons for poisoning the King and spying for Kirigan are with good reason - the repeated rape for years that she had given up fighting against until the time came for her to get some justice for herself. When she says she finally brought a fight the King could not fend off, the way she tries to stop her voice from shaking tugs at the heartstrings, she deserved to have her vengeance no matter what. But Genya still doesn't see how Kirigan manipulated her into this position, how he placed her in the King's view so that she would be loyal to the Grisha that gave her a chance to be something and break free. After that performance, I really hope that someday we'll get to see Genya's best scene from Ruin and Rising, that confrontation is one I have gone back and reread a few times.
Mal and Kirigan's personal confrontations are always quite tense but never competitive which I appreciate. They are quite revealing of how each of them views Alina - Mal still sees his best friend from Keramzin with a good heart that would never hurt anyone, even with her new power; Kirigan sees her as the only person who could ever become his equal in power and that with an extended lifespan she would eventually become just like him. After leaving him locked up, you'd never expect the unlikelihood of what would help get Mal out of his chains - the bullet Jesper left with Milo the goat. I didn't think the whole Milo gag could get any funnier or have anything else to offer but it most certainly did!
The morning of the Fold crossing gave us such a well-written scene between Alina and Kirigan. It is in this moment that you can see that Kirigan still has the old Alexander in him, the one who grieved the Healer he loved so long ago, the one who created a sanctuary for Grisha with his mother when they were being hunted. He still believes what he is doing is right because the core of his beliefs are still the same though much of how he would use newfound respect and fear for Grisha has changed and become more sinister. And though Alina sees his villainy, she still tries to show him how he was wrong to force her power under his control and his decision to place Genya with the royal household. Kirigan is so far gone that though he acknowledges what he has done but doesn't see it as wrong. I like that Ben Barnes thought more deeply about the "Make me your villain" line, rather than the book version where he doesn't care, on-screen he is visibly heartbroken and angry as he says it.
Coming back to the Crows, as she stitches herself up Inej hints towards some of the darker things that happened to her during her time at the Menagerie to Jesper and the reason she can't go back after Kaz tells them they need to return to Ketterdam. It seems to almost be a goodbye as Inej is not willing to go back to Ketterdam without her freedom secured. Though she is set on leaving and Kaz tries to act like he doesn't care, you can see from the conversation these two have by the fire that they have their hopes pinned on one another. It's one of Kaz's more open and raw moments, the rare times where he expresses just how important those closest to him are - and the reason he called the three of them "Crows". Though Jesper has told her so before this may be the first time she's had any indication from Kaz that he won't let her end up back at the Menagerie.
The day after, as they plan their way back the way they came their hopes are dashed quite soon as the train Arken used to take them across the Fold is first being investigated by Ravkan soldiers and then blows to pieces with one of the Conductor's traps right after Kaz surmises they think alike. And so the only way to cross the Fold to get back from Ketterdam would be to find their way onto the skiff that many people from the Winter Fete would be on. Their solution? Taking the place of a Zemeni emissary and his guards. The episode ends with everyone who was at the Little Palace at the Fete making their way onto the skiff to go into the Fold in order to destroy it from within. Alina is chained to her place on the skiff in a kefta befitting a Sun Summoner and the Crows say the most important 4 words of their series - "No mourners. No funerals".
Reasons to Recommend:
- Daisy Head's performance in one of Genya's most vulnerable moments
- Kirigan's connection to the Fold
- How immortality turned the actions of someone who wanted peace for his people towards heinous crimes to achieve the ends of a good cause
- No mourners. No funerals.
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