What you need to remember from Shadow and Bone season 1
Like so many Netflix shows, Shadow and Bone had a long, healthy break between seasons — it’s been nearly two years since season 1, so… make that a really long healthy break. That means you might need a quick refresher on the happenings of the first season of the Grishaverse.
Season 1 mainly rested on the story of Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), the long-awaited Sun Summoner recruited by General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), also known as the Darkling, to tear down the Shadow Fold. But that’s not the sole storyline. Battling their way to Alina is Mal (Archie Renaux), Alina’s childhood best friend who’s a little bit in love with her, along with the Crows (Freddy Carter, Amita Suman, and Kit Young), a gang hired to kidnap her. There’s also Nina (Danielle Galligan) and Matthias (Calahan Skogman), a Heartrender and her captor who find themselves thrown together in the most unlikely of circumstances.
[Ed. note: This post discusses the end of season 1 of Shadow and Bone. Only read past here if you came here to be spoiled and/or remember what happened.]
After working with him all season to try to bring down the Fold, Alina finally realized Kirigan was using her not to destroy the Fold but to expand it. Turns out the Darkling is actually hundreds of years old, the very Shadow Summoner who created the Fold all those centuries ago. His plan was to use the Fold as a weapon, and Genya (Daisy Head) was unfortunately down to help him.
Ultimately Alina wins against the Darkling in the season finale — she regains control over the sun powers Kirigan sought to control in the final battle, and rescues everyone on the ship from the Fold and its monsters.
But also, before she figured out what he was up to they kissed, a romantic dynamic sure to
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