Shadow and Bone is now a reality! As you already have two reviews, one from the point of view of a reader and another from that of a non-reader, I’m going to sit here to choose 5 scenes that you can’t miss from each episode, either because they are essential for the development of the episode or because they’re the ones I like the most because, after all, this is my list. It’s the turn of Shadow And Bone 1×02 “We’re All Someone’s Monster” 5 scenes you can’t miss.
“Then maybe you stay here”
This scene broke me into a thousand pieces? This scene broke me into a thousand pieces. Kanej always does it, one way or another. Their looks, just their looks say it all. Kaz regrets it the moment says it but doesn’t ask for forgiveness and Inej feels hurt, those words hurt more than she expected. That’s why this moment is in our 5 scenes you can’t miss list.
Inej is trying to convince Kaz to say no to work. It seems crazy to her, a suicide … and she can’t get out of Ketterdam. Kaz may own Inej’s contract but he is only paying for it in installments. He’s paying her in installments – yes, this situation disgusts me too. She may not wear handcuffs, but Ketterdam is still her prison.
And Inej … she knows what Kaz is like, she sees him. And she thinks that, even if he only wants her for her abilities, it’s somehow essential for him that she accompany him. Inej and Kaz are an indivisible symbiosis that would not exist without each other. If only because of her abilities, she thought Kaz was counting on her for the job. She tought that she was someone essential to him.
So, when Kaz treats her as something disposable, as someone who can be replaced, her heart aches and her pride suffers from it. Those words affect her and make a bleeding scar on her heart. Kaz regrets as soon as he says it but the damage has already been done. And Inej doesn’t show how much his words affect her. She doesn’t give him that pleasure.
What’s more, she hits him back, because she may no longer be there when he returns. She is not going to wait for him. Inej is not someone he can leave and then just come back to. Inej is not one of his partners from his gang, his subordinates, whom he leaves behind and when he returns they are waiting to lick his boots. Inej doesn’t belong to anyone, although life strives to contradict her. Inej says those words with the intention of doing the same damage that Kaz just did to her … but they’re also serious.
When Kaz dares to search for her … it will be too late. And neither of them are talking about that job at the time.
Kaz delivers the Crow Club
This scene seems really important to me. As with Inej and the tortured man in episode 1, this moment is small in the grand scheme of things but very revealing. The Crow Club is all that Kaz has. It’s what he earned with blood and in his own right by climbing the ranks to the Bastard of the Barrel and Dirtyhands. It’s his life. It’s his legacy. And he delivers it … for Inej.
What wouldn’t Kaz be able to do for her? Nothing. That’s the truth. Kaz would do anything for her. He would die but, most of all, he would kill for her. Without a second’s hesitation. So when Kaz finds himself at the crossroads of having to leave Ketterdam and take Inej with him – because he never contemplated doing the job without her, after all, no one is like her – he knows what to do.
Kaz gambles it all on one card for Inej. To ensure not only that she can leave Ketterdam for that job but that when he returns, she will do so as a free woman. Free … even from him. Even if it’s killing him inside, he would never hold her by his side by force. He loves her too much to do it.
“What are you?”
Darklina first scene! Yeah, we’re freaking out! When Ben Barnes speaks to us with that tone in his voice while he asks us what we are, we melt on the ground like ice cream exposed to the sun. It is a fact.
But besides our libido, this Darklina scene is really important. Alina is disoriented, she doesn’t know what is happening, everyone tells her that she invoked the sun and that she is powerful, that she is Grisha, but she feels a fraud, she feels that they are wrong.
Alina has never been anyone special, why would she be any different now? Then, she meets the feared and respected General Kirigan, The Darkling. And he treats her suspiciously but also demandingly. His commanding voice is clear. He thinks that she somehow hid her power on purpose from him or someone had a monumental failure and he thinks to make her/him pay for it.
What is this shy and seemingly fragile girl? What is that ferocity that he notices in her, that power? Is it true that she is the hope he has been waiting for? Does she know who she is? The truth is that Alina doesn’t know anything, but she’s about to find out.
The General joins his power to Alina’s and together they create magic, a unique and unrepeatable connection that leaves him speechless. Everyone is silent, including the two of them. He knows that she is just what he was looking for and Alina has just discovered that all her life she lived deceived and she must find out who she really is.
“You’re in danger, and that is why you ride with me”
After the intense presentation, an even more intense scene arrives. Alina has no idea what is happening but she now has many enemies and the General is not willing to take risks with her life. They were about to kill her … so he will take care of her safety himself.
It’s the first time that Alina really trusts Kirigan. Until then, she had looked at him with distrust, without fear, but not quite trusting him, as if there was an alarm inside her that warned her that this man was dangerous and potentially lethal. But now, she takes his hand, hugs his waist, and trusts that he will keep her safe, that if she is with him, nothing will happen to her because he will protect her until she is able to protect herself.
And yes, she accepts that he’s capable of inflicting a lot of damage, but thanks to that she is still alive. He doesn’t want to hurt her, so she trusts, takes that leap of faith and grabs his hand. And this is the beginning of something that will grow little by little.
Plus, what we wouldn’t give to cling to Kirigan, aka Ben Barnes, as we gallop past huge, lonely places. We can always dream.
Alina cries
A small moment … but that tells us everything we need to know. It’s the scene where Alina breaks down. Everything that she knew and what she loved has been taken from her. Mal is not only her friend, he is much more.
Mal is her home and, suddenly, he is gone and her quiet life are gone too. Alina knows that everything has changed. She knows that Mal is in a place where she cannot reach him … maybe she will never reach him and she also knows that his boring and uneventful life has come to an end.
Right now, Alina doesn’t even know who she is because she always thought she was a skinny, clumsy and normal girl. She always trying to go unnoticed and never succeeding because of who she was.
But now … she just found out that all of that wasn’t real and she doesn’t know herself. Mal, her home, is the only one that can give her that feeling of security, the only person that can make her feel safe and secure. That can make her feel as if nothing had changed. That can make her feel at home. But he’s gone. And everything has collapsed around her.
Bonus: Malina and their hands
This episode has perfect shots of Malina and their joined hands, even overlapping them as we travel between the present and the future. They could all be on our list of 5 scenes you can’t miss. I think those hands tell us everything we need to know. They have always been together.
They’re lovers who didn’t dare to tell each other what they felt until it was too late … until their paths were like crossed stars that grew further and further apart. They are the home of the other.
And these are the 5 scenes that you can’t miss from Shadow And Bone 1×02 “We’re All Someone’s Monster.” Stay tuned for the 5 scenes you can’t miss from episode 3 that we will publish tomorrow.
Would you add any scenes? Do you like the ones we chosen? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!
Shadow And Bone is available to watch on Netflix.
