Shadow and Bone ending explained: How does season 1 end?

Shadow and Bone is now available to stream on Netflix as of April 23, 2021. If fans haven’t tuned in yet, they will be soon.

Shadow and Bone is going to be the biggest Netflix show of the year so far, and it’s well on its way to becoming one of the best Netflix shows ever.

Below, we shared what happens to General Kirigan/The Darkling (Ben Barnes), Alina (Jessie Mei Li), and Mal (Archie Renaux) at the end of Shadow and Bone season 1, along with Kaz (Freddy Carter), Inej (Amita Suman), Jesper (Kit Young), Zoya (Sujaya Dasgupta), Nina (Danielle Galligan), and Matthias (Calahan Skogman).

There are spoilers for Shadow and Bone season 1 below!

What happens at the end of Shadow and Bone season 1?

After spending most of the season wonder if General Kirigan, aka The Darkling, played by Ben Barnes is a good guy or a bad guy, the last two episodes of Shadow and Bone left no doubt.

After capturing Alina and using Morozova’s Stag to create an amplifier, The Darkling, Alina and the gang travel into the Shadow Fold. Alina believes she is there to destroy the Shadow Fold, but when they are on the skiff with ambassadors from other countries, she realizes this is not the case.

Instead, The Darkling uses Alina’s power to keep the skiff safe in the Fold, but uses his own power to move the Fold — and the Volcra with it — into Novokribirsk to destroy the city and everyone who lives there. It’s revealed that they had ordered Arken to take out Alina earlier in the season, and The Darkling gets his revenge.

The Darkling makes a few major mistakes, though. One, he doesn’t realize that Inej, Jesper, Mal, and Kaz are on the skiff, and he doesn’t realize that Zoya has family from the place he just destroyed.

The six of them (Alina, Mal, Kaz, Jesper, Inej, and Zoya) team up, basically, to take down The Darkling. In the chaos, Alina has the chance to get the rest of them out of the Shadow Fold after she removes The Darkling’s connection to her amplifier.

Does The Darkling die in Shadow and Bone?

After a fistfight with Mal, we learn The Darkling can’t be killed by traditional means. Mal shoots him, but nothing happens. Shortly after, The Darkling is attacked by a Volcra. We, I think, are meant to assume that he was killed by the Volcra, but obviously, that was never going to happen.

In the last scene, we see The Darkling walk out of the Shadow Fold with two Shadow Monsters (that’s what I’m calling them) with him. He’s got some serious wounds on his face, and he doesn’t look happy.

Yikes!

Where do Alina and Mal go at the end of Shadow and Bone?

After leaving the Shadow Fold, we see Alina and Mal with the survivors and their saviors, Inej, Kaz, Jesper, and Zoya.

In the last we see of Alina and Mal, they are on a ship from Os Kervo headed for Ketterdam. Will they stay there? Will they continue on somewhere else? We’ll have to find out.

But, as Zoya mentioned, they’ll need more than “bullets and bravado” to stay alive now. The Darkling will surely be after them, along with Ravka’s friends and enemies. Alina is the most important person in the world right now.

Hopefully, they’ll be able to stay hidden from the Darkling, who we know is now alive. We know he still needs Alina and her power to use the Shadow Fold to his ultimate advantage.

Do Kaz, Inej, and Jesper capture Alina?

Nope! They aren’t able to close the deal after seeing Alina’s power and understanding that the world needs her.

Inej, Kaz, and Jesper are also on the boat with Alina and Mal in the last scene. After helping save the day in the Shadow Fold, they are headed back to the Barrel in Ketterdam. They let Alina go, and they decided not to complete their job. How could they when Alina gave them the necklace, which is likely worth more than the price on her life?

Kaz promises that Inej will not have to go back to The Menagerie when they get back. He has a plan!

That’s one thing you’ll learn about Kaz. He always has a plan.

What happens to Nina and Matthias in Shadow and Bone?

Fedyor and the Grisha catch up to Nina and Matthias at an inn. They plan to kill Matthias, or at least take him back to the Little Palace, where he would likely be tortured and killed, so Nina hatches a plan to save him. It’s quite quick thinking on her part.

Nina tells a group of sailors that Matthias is a slaver, and they take him into custody, along with Nina, as a witness. They set sail for Ketterdam, where Matthias will go to trial. On the boat, Nina overhears Kaz, Inej and Jesper talk about needing a Heartrender, which she is! Interesting…

Unfortunately, Matthias doesn’t trust Nina. He thinks she tricked him with her witchy, witchy ways. He doesn’t understand that she saved his life. As another prisoner says, they are headed to prison well before the trial. That’s not good.

What happens to Zoya in Shadow and Bone?

After the battle in the Shadow Fold, Zoya sticks with Alina, Mal, Jesper, Kaz, and Inej for a while. When they all leave of Os Kervo to board a ship set for Ketterdam and beyond, Zoya goes back to Novokribirsk to see if her family are still alive following The Darkling’s attack.

And, that’s the last we see of Zoya in the season. We have to assume she’ll be back for season 2!

Stay tuned for more news about the Shadow and Bone season 2 release date and what will happen in the next season.