Welcome to a very brief recap of episode 1 of the Netflix show Shadow and Bone.
If you are looking for details, you will find these recaps neither very helpful nor profound, I strive to be as brief as possible and only comment on the most critical occurrences.
SOME BACKGROUND INFO
Shadow and Bone takes place in a country called Ravka. Ravka is currently divided into East and West by a dark, smokey area with human-eating monsters called volcra inside.
Ravka’s enemies guard both the North and South, so the only way to keep the country connected and to exchange supplies is to have soldiers travel back and forth across this Shadow Fold. Due to this complication, Ravka operates a little differently from other countries. They have the First Army with regular soldiers like Mal and Alina. And then they have the Second Army that consists of magic casters called Grisha.
The Grisha practice what is known as Small Science: the manipulation of matter. For example: an Inferni can make big fires out of a small flame; Squallors can direct air to make ships float; Heartrenders can slow down or speed up someone’s pulse at will.
Legend says that only a Grisha with the power to summon light can destroy the Shadow Fold.
RECAP
Alina Starkov, a mapmaker for the army, arrives at a campsite along the Shadow Fold with her unit. Alina has a close friend: Mal. They both grew up in an orphanage and have been in the army together forever. They have great sibling chemistry.
Anyway, on that same day, a captain has them gathered for new assignments and this is where we find out that Mal has been picked to travel across the Shadow Fold.
So later that day, he and Alina have a little chat to lift each other’s morale, saying things like “I’ll find my way back to you” and “if it goes wrong…”.
The next day, deciding that she doesn’t want to be separated from Mal, Alina takes things into her own hands. She burns some of the critical maps they have drawn of the other side of the Fold, which forces her captain to put her AND HER WHOLE UNIT on this trip to redo the work. Now Alina’s comrades will have the chance to embrace this journey they might not come back from with her. Thanks, Alina.
Right when they’re about to enter the Fold on a ship, we get a glimpse of the back of the mysterious leader of the Grisha. He’s dressed in black, gazing at the ship as it moves. It’s an unspoken rule that no fantasy can operate without one of these brooding guys.
Into the Fold they go. The rule is to keep it quiet and use only blue light so the volcra won’t find them. Everything goes great at first, but then out of fear, some genius on the ship lights a lantern despite the immediate warning to put it out.
The volcra then flock to them, attacking and killing a large number of soldiers on the ship. Alina is extremely frightened as she watches the terror unfold, of course, possibly debating whether Mal’s abs were worth it, after all.
Eventually, one of the volcra gets Mal. Alina charges into the fight, seizes him back, but one volcra grabs her from the back. Amidst the chaos, blinding light explodes from Alina, chasing all the volcra away. There’s your Sun Summoner.
Far away from Ravka, in the city of Ketterdam, Kaz Brekker — everyone’s favorite gang boss (if he is not your favorite yet, I recommend reading Six of Crows) –– and his gang hear whispers of a job that pays a huge amount of money. They pull some strings and successfully secure a meeting with a man who is holding captive a survivor of the most recent trip across the Fold, someone who has information on Alina and the miracle she just performed.
MORE THOUGHT(S)
If anyone can make burning military maps look okay, it’s Jessie Mei Li.