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 1×08 “No Mourners”.
“I need you”
Saints, this scene. Can Kanej stop being so perfect? I love them so much. They break my heart, make me cry, make a lump form in my throat. While I smiled throughout the entire process. They’re a roller coaster. And there is nothing I love more than roller coasters.
I think this scene starts a little earlier. It begins when Inej is talking to Alina and Kaz, in the shadows, is watching her laugh and look at Alina with devotion. Saints, that laugh … if Kaz could bottle it up and get drunk on it, he would. Although that scares him. He memorizes that laugh to bring him into the present and into the light when he’s too lost to find his way out.
Kaz knows Inej and knows that she is thinking of leaving with Alina, that he may lose her. The way he looks at her … Inej is fading from his fingers. He can feel it. He has memorized all her expressions, all her looks, all her gestures. And he feels that he is losing her.
Inej confirms this when she confesses to Kaz that Alina needs her more than the Crows now. They, after all, will be able to win back the Crow Club and get benefits from the job. But Alina … she is about to face a war, they will hunt her down, put a price on her head and want to kill her.
Then Kaz shares another piece of himself with her, destroys another wall between them, puts his armor behind his again and shows himself to her just as Kaz Brekker, only him. Broken, wounded, destroyed … desperate. Desperate not to lose her, desperate to make her stay by his side.
He would never force Inej to stay with him, never clip her wings or prevent her from being free. But Kaz needs Inej to stay with him. To choose him. Because he just needs her to breathe, to live. She’s his heart. She’s his soul. Although he doesn’t know how to name what he feels, it’s what he feels.
The Crows need her, but most of all, he needs her. He is making it clear here. And he doesn’t need her for a job, or for her to be his spy, or for her to blend in with the shadows just … he just needs her. To breathe, to move on, so that his heart keeps beating, so that she saves him, so that she chooses him, so that she needs him too.
Inej, like she did in the previous episode, looks him in the eye and sees that truth in them. She sees him. She sees him more than ever. She sees how Kaz has returned to being open, sincere. Sees how Kaz re-exposed himself to her with all that he has, with all that he is. Sees how vulnerable Kaz is and how he doesn’t build walls with her. They are again united by an invisible thread, from heart to heart, from soul to soul. They don’t need words, they don’t need anything else.
Inej will stay. She knows it. Even if she has a million reasons to leave … she only needed one to stay. She needed nothing more than a reason to stay with him. And she already has it. Kaz showed his inner thoughts to her twice. Kaz was vulnerable only with her. It’s the most vulnerable that Kaz has shown to anyone. He’s the most vulnerable and exposed that he will ever show up to anyone.
Inej has already made a decision but … she wants to make sure. She doesn’t want Kaz to take her for granted. So she tells him that for the moment she stays and then, we will see … Inej will have Kaz without armor or she will not have him at all, and she wants to make it clear to Kaz, that showing his vulnerability twice and then pretending nothing has happened will not serve her. There should be no walls or trusses between them. Never.
“You betrayed me”
Helnik!!! FINALLY! I want you to know that I love them, I just hadn’t included them in my 5 scenes you can’t miss list before because there was too much to talk about and I could only choose 5 (sometimes 6 because, we all like cheating, right?) scenes but I love them with all my heart.
And this hurt, hurt like hell. Nina and Matthias met as mortal enemies and ended up meeting and falling in love in an adventure that put them to the test as people. That evolved Matthias in a way that he changed his mindset but also evolved Nina. They were the unexpected.
In the end, they decided, without saying anything, to continue their lives together in a place where they were not Grisha and Drüskelle, but just Nina and Matthias, two young warriors in love who are ready to start their lives together.
But in Shadow And Bone things rarely turn out well for young lovers. Fedyor finds Nina, as ordered by The Darkling, and knowing that she is with Matthias … that is treason. He will kill them both. But Nina can’t let that happen. She cannot allow Matthias to die.
Nina doesn’t care what happens to her, she would go to meet her death without resisting if it meant that Matthias would live. But she is in an impossible situation. So she decides to choose the least bad option: accuse Matthias of being a slave trader. They will take them away, to Ketterdam, he will be in a cage but at least they will be together. They will have escaped.
Just … Matthias is taken to a horrible place and she will not be able to do anything to prevent it. She tries to explain to Matthias why, she tries to tell him that she has a plan and that they will figure out how to get out of this. Together. But Matthias doesn’t want to hear her. She is a traitor, he fell in love with her but she … it was all a lie. She cheated him, wanted revenge, be cruel to him just like he was to her when he was just a brainwashed guy.
Matthias turned his back on everything he believed in, everything he knew, everything he was. For her. The oath he made to his country was silently made to her. And for him it was worth it.
Now, he’s changed his mind.
If Nina wanted him destroyed, he already is. They warned him that something like this could happen … and he regrets not listening. He hates her (although he really doesn’t)
A moment before he could have held her and protected her from all danger and now … now he would kill her with his own hands.
It’s hurts like fucking hell.
“The deer chose me” / “This is who I am”
Whoa! Just whoa! The whole scene on the ship is a work of art. You know what? Delete that. The whole episode is a work of art. At the beginning of this story, Alina was a shy girl who didn’t know who she was. She had always felt that she did not fit, she felt different … and when she knew why, she still did not fit for a while. She still didn’t know who she was.
Throughout this journey, she found herself, discovered who she was beyond Mal, all that she had known and loved. But until this moment, Alina didn’t understand what she was. That deer chose her. She is the one destined to have the power of the amp. Aleksander can’t take that away from her. Not even if he tries.
Until then, Alina and her power were controlled by him because there was something that kept her from accepting who she really is: his equal, the only one who can fight with him and win. The only one destined to do so. The only one destined to end him.
And now she knows. She is going to show it to the world. She is going to show it to him. Alina’s decision is reaffirmed here. She is his equal, yes … but she is also his enemy. And she’s not going to let him control her power, control her, no more. So she cuts the evil spell that binds them together.
And everything is out of control.
I love to see how each and everyone works together here, even if they tried to kill each other before. Seeing Inej in action, the way Kaz protects Jesper with his own body. The way Kaz can only breathe easy when he knows that Inej is safe and well, that she is alive. The way he fights with his cane against a fucking Volcra to save her, just like she saved him …
Alina completely accepting her destiny and trying to end Aleksander and that fight between him and Mal. A fight in which they put all their effort, all their anger, all their pain and all their hatred.
And everything, absolutely everything is as incredible as it sounds.
Just when it seems that everything is over, Ivan is in charge of almost killing Alina, when Inej kneels in front of her, Mal’s tears … I swear I felt a lump in my throat.
This scene made me love Zoya, adore Alina, Mal, and my Crows even more, and feel proud of everyone.
One of the best scenes ever and, of course, it had to be included in our 5 scenes list.
“She’s a saint”
Two Kanej scenes in our 5 scenes you can’t miss! Can anyone blame me? Yes, I know you can’t. Kaz believes in Inej, he always has, he always will. He listens to her and met Alina, he knows that she is real, he knows that Inej is real. And he knows that Inej considers her a Saint.
And if she thinks she is … so does he. Kaz still doesn’t believe in Saints but he believes in her. He will always take her into account, he will always listen to her opinions and he will always give in to her. He will always be willing to listen. He will always be willing to believe in something else, to … have hope. Although he believes that hope is for the weak, with her, he feels different. With her, he feels that, in fact, hope exists.
She is his hope.
That’s why Kaz’s eyes connect with Inej’s shocked eyes, that she can’t believe he’s showing himself vulnerable to her again, even in front of Jesper. And that half smile from Kaz … delighted to see the surprise in her. A new expression to memorize.
The way Inej looks at him, the way she smiles back at him. She gets it. She knows it. She feels it.
He is also her hope.
PS: Ant the first meeting of our Crows. I’M NOT FREAKING OUT OR ANYTHING.
“We will return” / “Follow me”
A scene with Crows and the best of Shadow And Bone? HELL YEAHH !!! It’s just what we dreamed of when we were reading the books. We wanted these characters to meet, to speak. To be friends. And it is here. Top 5 scenes of all time.
The way Inej looks at Alina, with an unrivaled devotion and respect in her gaze, and offers her hand, her body. The moment when Alina gives Inej her own knife, it seems small, insignificant but for Inej it is not. She just got her Sankta Alina.
Kaz and Jesper who are right there, watching everything and trying to help Alina and Mal in what they can, despite having tried to kidnap her before. The way Alina unknowingly just got them out of a lot of trouble by buying their silence. A deal is a deal.
Zoya who just witnessed how the man to whom she had given her trust, her loyalty, even a dark part of herself that she needed to be loved, just killed her family and an entire town. She just has to go, she has to see for herself, make sure they are gone.
I love how Kaz speaks from his own experience and he shares a part of himself when he advises her not to. What she sees will haunt her. Nothing remains of the old animosity that Zoya had felt for the Crows. Not for Alina. The Darkling betrayed her, betrayed them all. Alina will have her hand and her loyalty when she confronts him.
Alina and Mal defeated, exhausted … but more certain than ever of their destiny. More certain than ever that they will return.
Somehow, all the characters have just found their peace here, their destiny. It may be a flimsy peace, the calm before the storm, but here they find it. Together.
Shadow And Bone 1×08 “No mourners” did that.
And, while they regain strength together, The Darkling survives the Shadow Fold and emerges more powerful than ever, alongside monsters he created. An army of the shadows that will obey him … and with the advantage that everyone thinks that he is dead.
In this way they close the season and leave us biting our nails until season 2. A season that we need like YESTERDAY.
And these are the 5 scenes that you can’t miss from Shadow And Bone 1×08 “No Mourners”. The season finale and our last one but…don’t worry! We’ll publish a season review tomorrow and you will love it! Stay tuned!
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.
