Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like” advances the plot, deepens the characters, and showcases the relationships at the center of this show, all while taking a hard line on who the Darkling is, and what this show wants to portray through him. This might be a story of morally grey choices, but there are lines to even that, there have to be, and it’s clear the Darkling has crossed them all.
In that regard, the show clearly establishes its heroes and its villains, even while letting the Crows remain separate from the main storyline in a way that almost allows them their own little pocket of existence where they, at least for now, don’t have to get involved in the higher morality questions. But considering the Nikolai (I can use his name, at last!) connection, and the fact that the Crows storyline is following no real predetermined path, it’s clear that the show will bring all main players back together sooner rather than later – and when it does, it will be everyone against the Darkling.
There is no other choice. Not for the boy looking for revenge or for the girl looking for freedom, but also not for the boy looking for a place to belong, the one who already found it, much less the girl who will give anything and everything to save the boy she loves. Morally grey might cut it as they try to save themselves, but when we’re looking big picture, the choice is already made. It’s the one that allows them to see another day.
NO ONE’S EVER SMART ENOUGH TO LOOK FOR THE REAL ONE
Kaz and Inej’s moment in Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like” is such a clear callback to the bathroom scene in Crooked Kingdom that it’s hard to process not just the enormity of it, but how these two characters, who are the same people from the books, got here so quickly. And yet the show never jumps to a place that feels truly out of character, it just gives Kaz a lot more words than the books do. And when there are more words, there is more development. That’s the nature of communication.
To be clear, Kaz’s entire monologue about Inej during the Six of Crows duology can basically be summed up as “I love her, I will kill for her, and I will die for her.” So though, yes, you could say Book Kaz would never – or has never – shared with Inej what the Kaz in the show has, the feeling from the books isn’t that he didn’t want to. It’s that he couldn’t find a way. Here, circumstances, and Inej, force him to find some words, and it results in a relationship that is beautiful and fraught and complicated, but in different ways than in the books.
But the issues remain. It’s just that, now, Kaz can say it (or imply it). She’s his weakness, but also, in many ways, his strength. And she is the one person he can be honest with, the one he can share his pain with. Because he knows what her response will be. “Then we destroy him.” No questions asked. Inej needed no morality lessons from Kaz, she can make her own moral choices. All she needs from Kaz is honesty. If she has that, if he´s willing to go out on a limb with her, then Inej will jump into the abyss.
The rest, the coming closer together, Kaz trembling but still making the choice, Inej holding firm because that is the comfort she can give him, just as he offers her the advice she needs to take down her foe, well …that’s pretty in line with the people they end up being in the books. Not perfect. Not healed. Not ready to embrace everything they are or everything they can end up being. But also unwilling to back down from the possibility that, together, they can perhaps, one day, finally heal. Of course, Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like” focuses more on Kaz’s trauma, and there’s still Inej’s to explore if we ever want these two to truly be together. One more reason to hope we actually get that spinoff.
NIKOLAI LANTSOV
Ah, Nikolai Lanstov, my Prince. The reveal is both perfect, and entirely anticlimactic because even people unfamiliar with the source material had probably already deduced there was more to Sturmhond than met the eye. As a privateer, or as a prince, though, Nikolai’s very own brand of charisma, bravado and gentleness is perfectly played by a Patrick Gibson that seems to have inhabited a character who always felt like one of the hardest to play. It’s hard to root against Nikolai, even though, at times, it’s confusing to root for him.
Particularly as Nikolai is many things, and we’ve seen the brash, cocky, almost insufferable side of his personality already, but he’s also entirely earnest. He is doing this for his family, and for his country. He does want the best for his people, including Grisha. In that regard, it’s clear from the beginning Nikolai would make a far better King than anyone in his family, which is, of course, why he’s so far removed from being the King. The people most suited for a job are often the ones that are not slated to do it.
Putting country above self is why he proposes marriage to Alina. “May we never get to marriage,” he tells her, and unlike in the books, there’s hardly any romanticism to the proposal, no hint of possibility. It’s a business agreement, one that benefits both, and one that has the potential to save Ravka. That’s Nikolai’s number one priority. He might like Alina, but he’s got no time for actual feelings when there’s a country to save – from the Darkling, and from his family. That doesn’t mean he won’t catch feelings, but at least for now, that’s not his priority, and it shouldn’t be.
THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS
Baghra’s words pretty much encapsulate the Darkling’s storyline, because his problem is that he doesn’t believe in lessons. He takes nothing from them. Season 1 could have and maybe should have been a lesson. But he’s had many other possible ones before that and is still on the same path. At this point, it seems unlikely he can even change – at least in the show universe because the books actually craft an interesting path for him going forward, one that is infinitely more nuanced, if still mostly tragic and dark.
This is exemplified by his violent response to Baghra pointing out he’s the one who’s afraid. For the Darkling, there’s nothing worse than fear. Because fear is weakness, and weakness gets you (and your people killed). He’s been fighting against that for many, many years. Ironically, if he’d ever let himself feel that, and perhaps, other things, there might have been a path forward.
Mommy dearest points it out in Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like” when she says: “There was a moment where you might have earned her love, instead of claiming her power.” That moment feels like it’s long gone. There’s basically no romance to Darklina here, no possible spin that sees a future together for them, not as heroes, and perhaps not even as villains. Because, for that to ever come true, someone would have to learn their lesson, and there’s absolutely nothing to indicate the Darkling can, or ever will.
Ben Barnes tries, we’ll give him that. He plays the Darkling like a tortured anti-hero, but he was never truly that even in the books, and here, the writing just isn’t on his side. The Darkling is just the villain of this story, no more, no less.
YOU NEED ALLIANCES (I’M HERE TO OFFER YOU MINE)
Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like” gives us a much-needed moment with Zoya and Alina, one that not just sets them on the right path for the future, but one that does much more for Zoya’s character than the uneasy truce at the end of last season. Because the truth is, Zoya was wrong in Season 1. She knows it. It’s clear she knew it when she joined forces with Alina and the Crows at the end of the season, but this Zoya can admit it. She can look her mistakes in the face, and own them, instead of trying to justify them.
But Zoya is also, above all, a practical person. She can say the words because she understands Alina needs them, but she has no desire to dwell on them, or on her wrongs. Instead, she wants to focus on the future. On how to make up for what she did, and how to fix all of their mistakes. In this, Zoya resembles Nikolai more than anyone else. There’s only the goal, and the things that happen in the middle don’t matter – just as the things she might feel need to be pushed aside, to be dealt with later, if there’s a chance.
Then there’s Genya and David, who can hardly be counted as allies yet, but who are very clearly not on the Darkling’s side. It’s hard to say they ever were, David never really seemed to believe there was another choice, and Genya – well, she was blinded by rage, and it’s taken her this long to understand the person she should have always been mad at is the Darkling.
“You used me to satisfy a King,” Genya tells Kirigan during Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like,” and that’s not even the worst of what he did to her, and to everyone else. Genya is just a pawn, as is Alina – even if Alina might be one he wants to keep much closer. For the Darkling, the end justifies all the means – he’s willing to go through whoever, do whatever, to get what he wants, what he feels he is owed. Not Grisha, he. And that’s why, in the end, he will always end up alone.
Things I think I think:
- “No need to take on the world. Just everyone currently after us is enough.”/”So, the world.”
- I love the showoff version of Sturmhond.
- Jesper calling out Kaz is great to see, to be honest. It should have happened more. I get why it didn’t, in the books. But it works here.
- Yes, the flashbacks really, really work.
- “What you did tonight made you a Crow.” I got feelings, okay?
- The way Kaz’s voice breaks a little when he sees all the bandages.
- I love (hate) how they literally were like, what’s some rest, a good meal, nah, let’s just go destroy the fold now.
- LIKE A MAN.
- You kinda earned that punch, Nikolai.
- David in the hands of Luke Pasqualino is a delightful character. His relationship with Genya feels like it has a lot of room to grow, too.
- Look, the whole Nikolai being the one to hire the Crows in the first place works.
- Wylan and Jesper’s chemistry is literal perfection. Just what the other needed. It’s funny how that’s so different depending on the person. It’s not about being perfect but finding your perfect complement.
- This Kaz and Inej scene took years of my life. Gave me back more. Stopped my heart. Made my skin clear.
- I rewatched it like 30 times daily, every day for the past month or so.
- Nina’s moment is also pretty perfect, even if she interrupted them. But if she hadn’t, I might have spontaneously combusted.
- Kaz’s fight is impeccable. 10/10, no notes.
- “May Saints receive you and forgive what can be forgiven.”
- LOOK, I like this Alina and Nikolai vibe more than the one from the books, what can I say?
- Just as I like this Mal and Alina way more than in the books.
- Right, Wylan. And you thought Kaz didn’t know.
- Jesper folded FAST.
- Because this episode wasn’t already too much, it had to also include Matthias and the wolves.
- The way he looked at Nina.
- Done with Pekka, truly. Let’s get rid of him ASAP, please.
- I only have one word for the Darkling, and it’s creepy.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of Shadow and Bone 2×03 “Like Calls to Like”? Share with us in the comments below!
Shadow and Bone Season 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.
