How the Shadow and Bone trilogy actually ended

polygon.com:

If you just finished season 2 of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, you might be thinking to yourself, Holy shitballs, that was a LOT.

And it was, indeed, a lot! Unlike the first season, which mainly covered events from the first book of Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy trilogy, the second season finishes up the trilogy and adds some extra plotlines for the other characters. In order to cover all that ground, some plot points have been dropped, others skimmed over, and some reconfigured for screen.

Any adaptation of a book won’t be entirely faithful to the page. But when it comes to Shadow and Bone, that ending was a wild departure from what happened in the books.

[Ed. note: This post contains major spoilers for the end of Shadow and Bone season 2, as well as the Grishaverse books — only read if you watched the finale, or just want to be spoiled!]

In the books, Alina and Mal go into the Fold, but the Darkling finds them and they don’t have a chance to execute their plan. Mal tells Alina to stab him. And she does, but unlike in the show, he’s not already dying when she does so. However, instead of the power surging into her, she loses her powers. Suddenly, everyone around her bursts into light, and Alina realizes that the final amplifier multiplies the Sun Summoner’s power by thousands — literally, it multiplies itself into thousands of people all around her. With thousands of people now shooting light like disco balls, the Fold crumbles and the Darkling is really upset. Not just because the Fold is gone, but because Alina no longer has the ability to summon light. That means he is the only Grisha in the world with such immense powers.

Because they are no longer bound by their psychic power link, Alina grabs the same blade she just used