Does The Darkling die in Shadow and Bone season 2? (Spoilers)

Shadow and Bone season 2 is finally here, and it’s time to see how things end for various characters. What happened to The Darkling?

Caution: This post contains major spoilers for Shadow and Bone season 2.

Shadow and Bone season 2 brought us the major plot points from both the second and third books in the Grishaverse trilogy. What happened to The Darkling by the end of the story?

Up to the season finale, The Darkling continued to be a major threat to Alina and her followers. He kept expanding The Fold, and it was clear Alina would need to do everything possible to take it down. That included using Mal, who turned out to be a great-great-whatever-times-nephew of The Darkling.

Mal was the Firebird, and The Darkling made it so Alina killed him to absorb his power. That gave Alina the upper hand she needed.

What happened to The Darkling in Shadow and Bone season 2?

After accidentally hitting Mal with the Cut, she killed him and absorbed his powers. That gave her the power she needed to use the Cut against The Darkling and take down The Fold. However, the Cut didn’t kill The Darkling.

In the end, she used Inej’s sword to kill The Darkling.

Of course, this doesn’t mean he was dead, right? Alina and the others feared that he could come back in some way. His followers could bring him back from the dead. So, they decided to burn his body.

His power may live on, and that could be a way to bring The Darkling back. Alina used merzost to bring Mal back from the dead, and it’s clear Nikolai isn’t doing too well after being stabbed in the shoulder by the nichevo’ya. But at least The Darkling is gone.

Shadow and Bone season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.