S01.E05: Show Me Who You Are

[paulvdb]

Quote

Alina's bond with Kirigan grows as royal guests gather for her unveiling. Mal carries news about the stag. Kaz's scheme hinges on a hidden door.

 

[Zonk]

These situations where characters just miss each other is a really really annoying trope that I wish would just die already. On top of that the thing where somebody intercepts their letters and both are too dumb to figure out that that is the problem and think that the other isn't writing them...

So general dude is the heritic. What a surprise... not.

But I would assumme mommy dearest hasn't told the whole truth either.

[absnow54]

49 minutes ago, Zonk said:

These situations where characters just miss each other is a really really annoying trope that I wish would just die already.

Alina hiding in the Crows’ carriage after their plan to capture her failed was a pretty hilarious scene though. 

[MissLucas]

Well, isn't Jasper the luckiest bastard east and west of the Fold?!? LOL! Did not see that coming but it was beautifully played. Also beautiful: the score, those nervous strings really added to the rising tension during the fete.

Also beautifully played: the moment Alina realized what else Genya's service to King and Queen entails. And I'm glad we finally got a glimpse of Kaz Brekker's mind at work in all its ruthlessness. Poor Marie, I had not realized her throw away line about getting to her fitting would have such horrific consequences.

Speaking of tropes: I'm glad the trope of two characters going down to business on a giant map display was interrupted by the trope of the inconvenient knocking. Once the Darkling had left I was rather hoping Alina would find the bloodied sketch of the stag and start to put two and two together. But then Bhraga came along with her massive revelation, though the Dorian Grey inspired painting made me laugh - out of that context it hardly proved anything. 

Note to Kaz: next time dealing with a Grisha remember to smash both hands. Inej will appreciate it. 

Edited April 25, 2021 by MissLucas

[Llywela]

The actress who plays Nina reminds me so much of a young Kate Winslet - anyone else see it?

[Philbert]

1 hour ago, Llywela said:

The actress who plays Nina reminds me so much of a young Kate Winslet - anyone else see it?

Yep.

Wow the powerful General/Wizard who always dresses in black and is played by Ben Barnes turns out to be evil. Who could have seen THAT one coming?

 

Don't all raise your hands at once....

[tennisgurl]

See, this is why being the chosen one is just such a pain, people are always trying to kidnap you or kill you or manipulate you for their own evil plans, everyone around you always dropping like flies, its just so much stress. 

Not exactly shocking that the General is up to some evil plan, but I admit I was a bit surprised that he is the actual guy who created the black seam and not just someone who wants to harness Alina's powers for some evil plan. I also didn't expect to find out that the monster dragon bats are actually the poor people who got caught up in the middle of his spell to create an army of darkness, which YIKES. 

Just when things are looking up for Alina, she's making friends, has taken her place as the savior, Mal is finally in the same place as her, then this happens. Poor Marie. 

The brief bit of Fredyor trying to feed some kind of confection to a very long suffering Ivan was funny, but the real comedic highlight was Jasper realizing that their target has literally just fallen into his lap. He did a full disbelieving double take like he could not even believe it himself, it was hilarious. Will be interesting to see where that goes, especially with Inej, who is a true believer and is now convinced that Alina is the real deal savior.  

[ZeeEnnui]

So despite being with riddled with machine gun bullets like a hapless victim in a gangster movie, Mal recovers with astonishing quickness. It helps to be shot by bullets of contrivance, I guess.

Alina: "OMG I totally just kissed my crush. I'm such an adult now! We're going to make small science and Goth babies together. Mal, who? Squee!

Kirigan: "Mwahaha. Teenage sun summoners are so easy."

I really enjoyed seeing Alina making friends, gaining confidence and just generally enjoying herself. What a difference it makes when you're not wearing a co-dependent albatross around your neck all the time. 

RIP Marie. Couldn't they have made Zoya do the Face / Off thing as punishment? I don't think any of us would be sad if she died. 

I would watch a spinoff of Jesper being awesome and flirty all over Ravka. 

Is Mal the Terminator? You can't kill this guy, let alone give him an owie that takes him out of commission for like an episode. 

Murder - the ultimate cockblock.

Black Heretic sounds like the name of a Scandinavian death metal band.

Okay I'll admit to being a bit surprised that Kirigan was centuries old, and created the fold. But massive EYE ROLL to the Dorian Grey portrait. Book readers can correct me, but did Kirigan have a painting of himself in the book series because otherwise this feels like a very obvious nod to the filmography of Ben Barnes. What next? A sand ship called the Dawn Treader?

So Baghra is Kirigan's mom. Interesting. I'm curious how she is still alive. Does their family have the immortal gene (he certainly got the sexy evil gene)? Kirigan isn't dumb so wouldn't he have known that his mother has been working against him the whole time? This can't have been a surprise. I feel like he'd have wanted her dead ages ago, but maybe he's a mama's boy. 

Go right, Alina! FFS.

Edited April 30, 2021 by ZeeEnnui
edit sentence

[Ohiopirate02]

6 hours ago, ZeeEnnui said:

 

So Baghra is Kirigan's mom. Interesting. I'm curious how she is still alive. Does their family have the immortal gene (he certainly got the sexy evil gene)? Kirigan isn't dumb so wouldn't he have known that his mother has been working against him the whole time? This can't have been a surprise. I feel like he'd have wanted her dead ages ago, but maybe he's a mama's boy. 

Go right, Alina! FFS.

Baghra is keeping things close to her chest with Alina.  She sees Alina as a lovestruck girl who is in way over her head, she isn't going to divulge everything just yet.  Kirigan is lonely after spending centuries lying to everyone around him.  Baghra is the only person who knows who he is, also the only person who is willing to speak to him as a real person and not the super scary Darkling.  Also, Baghra has not been working against her son the whole time.  Without a Sun Summoner, the Fold wasn't going anywhere.  Alina and her power changes everything.

[peachmangosteen]

Well fuck, I was hoping I could ship Alina/Ben Barnes. Mal/Alina does absolutely nothing for me.

I also still have absolutely no idea what is happening or really who anybody is tbh.

Not sure why but I feel compelled to keep watching this lol.

[festivus]

I think my face looked like Jesper's when Alina hopped in their carriage.

What's the importance with finding the stag? I think I zoned out for that part. I'm always just marking time till they get back to Kaz & Co. Even Ben Barnes is boring now.

[Black Knight]

1 hour ago, festivus said:

What's the importance with finding the stag?

The stag can serve as an amplifier for someone's power. Massive level up.

[Bill1978]

I have been technically lost in this world since the start. I have honestly felt like the writers of the show decided the only people who would watch it are those who read the book and decied they don't need to explain anything. But finally this episode was an absolute delight and now I want to finish the season. It probably helped that nearly all the separate storylines finally caught up. And The Fold has now been satisfactorily explained to me. Although I am utterly lost with where everything is taking place in relation to each other.

Was it meant to be a massive shock The Darkling is evil?? I mean the name gives it away, no good guy would have such a bad guy sounding name or power really. And so glad Alina knows because even though Mal & her are boring, the speed at which she ditched Mal and hooked up with Kirigan was ridiculous, even for a sotry based on a YA novel. I kept rolling my eyes all episode as Alina puppy dogged eye her way to table sex. So glad it was interrupted.

It says a lot about the story that I am more invested in the love story of the gay soldiers, Genya and the Fabrikator and the abducted Grisha and her boatman than I am with Mal & Alina.

Speaking of love, was this the episode where I was meant to learn Jesper was interested in men? Did I miss an off the cuff comment earlier cause honestly I thought he was jsut a lady's man. Not that I'm complaining about seeing PG steamy gay hookups in a stable. Especially if it means less time watching Alina do stupid things like walking into a ballroom before schedule or turning left because why not?

On 4/29/2021 at 12:59 AM, Llywela said:

The actress who plays Nina reminds me so much of a young Kate Winslet - anyone else see it?

I'm too distracted by Alina's actress sounding like Keira Knightley to notice who other people remind me of. But now that you've mentioned it I will focus on Nina next time she pops up.

On 4/25/2021 at 4:40 AM, absnow54 said:

Alina hiding in the Crows’ carriage after their plan to capture her failed was a pretty hilarious scene though. 

I loved that moment. Highlight of the show for me. And then Jesper begging the team to ask him where Alina is cause he can't believe their luck.

On 4/25/2021 at 10:37 AM, MissLucas said:

Poor Marie, I had not realized her throw away line about getting to her fitting would have such horrific consequences.

I swear this show is worse that Game of Thrones for killing off characters. I'm refusing to like and fully attach to any secondary characters because the show is determined to knock off anyone who isn't part of the Core 6. Or maybe that's why they are appealing cause my brain is thinking enjoy this character while you can.

[Asha124]

On 5/15/2021 at 2:39 PM, Bill1978 said:

Speaking of love, was this the episode where I was meant to learn Jesper was interested in men? Did I miss an off the cuff comment earlier cause honestly I thought he was jsut a lady's man. Not that I'm complaining about seeing PG steamy gay hookups in a stable. Especially if it means less time watching Alina do stupid things like walking into a ballroom before schedule or turning left because why not?

Jesper is canonically bisexual.

[angora]

On 4/28/2021 at 5:09 PM, tennisgurl said:

Not exactly shocking that the General is up to some evil plan, but I admit I was a bit surprised that he is the actual guy who created the black seam and not just someone who wants to harness Alina's powers for some evil plan. I also didn't expect to find out that the monster dragon bats are actually the poor people who got caught up in the middle of his spell to create an army of darkness, which YIKES.

Same here - god, those poor people.

On 4/24/2021 at 1:40 PM, absnow54 said:

Alina hiding in the Crows’ carriage after their plan to capture her failed was a pretty hilarious scene though. 

 

On 5/15/2021 at 7:39 AM, Bill1978 said:

I loved that moment. Highlight of the show for me. And then Jesper begging the team to ask him where Alina is cause he can't believe their luck.

ITA. I loved Jesper's stunned reaction to watching Alina hop into the trunk, and being so smug afterwards when Kaz and Inej show up in defeat.

In other Crow news, I enjoyed every minute of Kaz and Inej's part of the heist. Seeing their reactions to Alina's power was great - obviously, Inej was deeply affected by it, but it shook something in Kaz too. The scene of him trying to get the jump on that Grisha who was pursuing him was also really good. We know that the Crows associate and have worked with Grisha before, so it's not like their default setting is to fear Grisha like the Fjerdans do, but this scene showed what a disadvantage non-powered folks have going up against them in a combat situation. Kaz's only option was to hide, then strike as quickly/strategically as he could, and he still likely would've died if it hadn't been for Inej. Powerful moment between them when he realized what she did for him.

I liked seeing Alina and Genya sneaking off to the fete to have a little fun. I loved the bit of them watching the performance about the blonde-haired, blue-eyed "Sun Summoner" and Alina being all, "Oops, do you think I should let them know?", very cute. It was so nice to see Alina smiling and laughing for a little while - being the Savior can be so stressful, especially when the hot Goth general who's been helping you forget your codependent childhood sweetheart turns out to be the Evilest Manipulator to Ever Evil Manipulate.

I guess one good thing to come out of Alina and Mal being so wrapped up in each other was Mal's "let me see Alina, and then I'll tell you where I found the stag" thing. Mal recognized Kirigan's obsession and was able to use that leverage to get what he wanted, and it had the happy byproduct of not telling the Black Heretic EXACTLY where the magical power-amplifying stag is. Kirigan's an enterprising guy, so I'm sure he'll still have a means of going after it, but at least Mal didn't hand him everything he needed.

[dubbel zout]

On 4/24/2021 at 8:37 PM, MissLucas said:

the Dorian Grey inspired painting made me laugh

Ben Barnes played Dorian Grey in the 2009 movie, so I wonder if that was something of a wink to his fans.

On 5/8/2021 at 5:58 PM, peachmangosteen said:

Well fuck, I was hoping I could ship Alina/Ben Barnes. Mal/Alina does absolutely nothing for me.

I'll take the sexy evil eternal guy over the dull good mortal guy any day. Mal is a nice slab of meat, but Aleksander? Rowr.

 

[Quark]

This was easily the best episode so far.

And speaking of the actors in this show that look like other actors, I think the actress playing Inej is the splitting image of Archie Panjabi.

[WatchrTina]

Well, I'm enjoying this so far but I'm not gonna lie . . . it's confusing.  I actually went back and re-watched the first two episodes, thinking that doing so would help me set the stage and "lock in" this fantasy universe a bit better but, alas, it didn't really help.

On 4/24/2021 at 1:40 PM, absnow54 said:

Alina hiding in the Crows’ carriage after their plan to capture her failed was a pretty hilarious scene though. 

Yeah, that was awesome.

So . . . I guess have have to make peace with the fact that Ben Barnes' character is EEEEEvil.  Well darn.  I was enjoying the view.  Now I have to ignore the pretty and despise him.