Shadow and Bone season 2 recap guide: All 8 episodes explained

Shadow and Bone season 2 episode 8 recap: “No Funerals”

The episode is called “No Funerals” for a reason.

The previous episode ended with Mal dying, while Nina was taken into the darkness by the Darkling’s Shadow Monsters. Nikolai and the Crows are headed for the Fold to help Alina stop the Darkling and destroy the Fold, but they are attacked by Volcrand and Shadow Monsters.

In the Fold, Alina is given no choice. She must kill Mal to stop the Darkling, destroy the Fold, and save Ravka (and potentially the world) in the process. Mal says, “Let them redraw the maps,” right before Alina stabs him, killing him and becoming her third amplifier. She sees how much loved her, and BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE. Not real dynamite, obviously, but like a massive sun explosion wipes out the Fold.

Inej goes bonkers with Neshyenyer against the Darkling’s Shadow Monsters, while Nina tries to save Mal.

Alina and the Darkling have a quick chat about allowing him to live and be the dark to her light in the world. “Let me be your monster,” he says. He would be the villain, while she was would the savior. She turns him down, and for the first time, it’s revealed that he doesn’t have control of the Shadow Monsters. She seems to be thinking about letting the Darkling live, but instead, she stabs him with Neshyenyer, killing him.

As he dies, he says to Alina, “Without me, know they will come for you,” and she replies, “Let them come.” Alina has chosen her path, and she doesn’t want the Darkling anymore. Later, we see that maybe, she should have let the Darkling live, but for now, it’s all about Mal.

Nina can’t save Mal, but Alina uses some kind of merzost to save Mal and bring him back from the dead. We don’t know what the consequence of this decision will be or how she was even able to do it. Now, Mal and Alina can be together forever, right? Wrong.

Mal doesn’t understand his connection with Alina anymore. Was it real love? Was it fate? Was it destiny? And he needs to know for sure they are meant to be together, so he takes Nikolai’s offer to become the new Sturmhond and go on a new adventure. Tamar and Tolya join him, and so does Inej after Kaz turns down her offer to be together, but like really together, like “no gloves” together. In the final scenes, we see they are hunting slaver ships together.

The Darkling’s body is also burned at the site of his death, and he also made sure to tell Alina to “make sure there is nothing left of me, please, please” when he dies. That doesn’t seem good. A bee also lands on Zoya’s jacket. Could this be foreshadowing what we think it is?

At the end of the season, we get a few major reveals that spin this story in a few different directions. The big one is obviously at Nikolai’s coronation. After getting threatened by the Apparat, Nikolai becomes the King of Ravka, but there’s a Grisha with ties to Fjerda, who has learned the Fold is destroyed, which means the Darkling is dead, in attendance. They take what’s called “jurda parem,” a new drug that amplifies Grisha powers by 1,000 times. The Grisha kills a bunch of people in attendance, but Alina is able to thwart her attack by using the Cut. After, Alina looks happy with herself after using the Cut, which is not great for those who think Alina will be able to resist the temptation to follow the same path as the Darkling.

Kaz also reveals the Crows have been offered their biggest and most lucrative job yet. We don’t know the full details, but we’re hopeful that he’s hinting at the plot of Six of Crows and the heist at the Ice Court. It might take some time until we get there, though.

We also learn, before the coronation, that Nikolai is still injured and having visions of the Shadow Monsters. It appears they’ve latched on to him. Hopefully, they’ll let him go.

Other important things that happened: 

• There’s a great “Six of Crows” joke. Jesper asks if they can be known as the “Four Charming Rogues of Ketterdam,” and Kaz is like there’s five of us, and Jesper starts to say “Five of Crows” before he’s cut off. If we don’t get Six of Crows in Shadow and Bone season 3, I will riot.
• Pekka Rollins is running things at Hellgate prison, and he tries to make Matthias kill wolves, which is a crime against his god, Djel. We all know Nina wants Matthias out of prison, but will Kaz be able to make it happen with Pekka running the show?
• We also got to see Kaz’s famous “I want you” line to Inej, but it’s not good enough for her. She needs more, and that’s why they go their separate ways. I have a feeling they’ll be back together soon enough, though.
• Genya is now running the Ravkan palace, while Zoya has been promoted to General of the recently united First and Second Army.
• Poor David. Poor Genya. She finds the ring he was designing for her, and she’s devastated. It’s interesting, though, that they didn’t actually find his body.

Shadow and Bone is on the list of the best Netflix shows right now. Hopefully, the wait for season 3 isn’t long!