The Heart is an Arrow
Episode 6 of Shadow and Bone begins with Yora and Kirigan in the basement, interrogating the Conductor, Arken. Unfortunately one of his guards, Ivan, happens to be a Grisha and he can sense that the man is lying. Interestingly, Nina too was lying – apparently she was a spy planted by Kirigan. Only, that plan went awry on account of her being taken by the Witchhunters. Now that she’s gone missing, Kirigan suspects that he’s involved. Eventually he loses his patience and Kirigan has the man killed. Kirigan then splits his forces in two directions. One set head off in search of Alina while Nina’s whereabouts prompt a search party to head out for them. Nina is still alive, having survived the shipwreck thanks to a floating wooden board. This certainly isn’t like Titanic though, and the pair share their board and make it to shore. Together they make it to a hut up in the mountains and get close together to keep warm. In the middle of the night, Matthias awakens and immediately pulls away. As the two verbally duel over the differences in their respective towns, Matthias laughs at the prospect of a woman besting him. It’s a clever conversation, one that sees the pair growing closer together while establishing the power dynamic. In fact, Matthias even admits that he likes Nina. Only, he’s not sure whether he should trust his feelings or not, especially given she’s a Grisha. When the ice falls away outside, Matthias makes a big decision and saves Nina from certain doom. Meanwhile, Alina awakens from her trunk to find Kaz, Inej and Jesper waiting for her. After a bit of a light show, she takes off. They’re in Ryevost, East Ravka and Alina finds herself evading both Kaz and the authorities. As she scrambles into the woods, she runs straight into Mal as the pair are reunited. Once together, Mal and Alina talk about their journey to this point. Mal admits he’s found the mythical stag out in the forest, to which Alina replies that Kirigan has stolen her journal. As they hug and finally catch up, the pair shyly pull away and decide to find some shelter. Back in town, Kirigan catches up with Kaz and the gang. Ivan heads into a room where numerous sheets are hanging up. Jesper is there already, and he uses his marksman skills to outsmart Ivan. At the same time, Inej fights against a Squaller (eventually stabbing her in the gut) while Zoya goes hunting for Kaz. Unfortunately Kirigan finds Kaz instead and immediately conjures forth his shadow powers. Thankfully Kaz manages to blind him with his trickery, taking off down the back alleys before being sliced to bits. In the morning, Alina and Mal decide to work together and find the mythical stag before Kirigan does.
The Episode Review
Episode 6 of Shadow and Bone quickens the pace slightly to inject more romance into the fold. There’s still action here too, of course, but the decision to include Mal and Alina’s reunion alongside Nina and Matthias’ budding romance is a good one. So far the series has done an excellent job with its story, weaving these different plot threads together in a consistent way. The blending of the two books does work quite well in the context of this story, but it’ll be interesting to see how book lovers react to this version. One of the more understated parts of this show comes from the soundtrack. The orchestral score is fantastic and really does an excellent job capturing the excitement and epic scale of this fantasy series. Shadow and Bone certainly leaves the door wide open for more, and that ending sets things up nicely for the rest of the season.
