Warning! SPOILERS for Shadow and Bone season 2!
While Shadow and Bone season 2 has been full of gripping, magical drama, it has also depicted some of the best scenes between its star-crossed lovers Mal (Archie Renaux) and Alina (Jessie Mei Li). Balancing a complex, believable world, an interesting and applicable magic system, and an unforced love story is a tall ask for any series, but Shadow and Bone has managed to achieve each of these in spades. The story of Mal and Alina has been tragic, joyful, and fraught at turns, but the series has always managed to keep the relationship between Mal and Alina as complex and deep as ever while also upholding its relevance to the plot.
Alina, the Sun Summoner, and Mal, her best friend since childhood and a renowned tracker, battle the Darkling, General Kirigan (Ben Barnes) in season 2. Mal and Alina have been close for years, and season 2 reveals that the pair have been drawn together by fate. Due to Alina’s unique summoning abilities and Mal’s role as the last of an ancient Grisha bloodline, he can amplify Alina’s powers enough to bring down the Shadow Fold, a curtain of darkness full of monsters. However, the relationship between Mal and Alina is more complex and intimate than that, as shown in several of the couple’s best scenes in Shadow and Bone season 2.
7 Mal And Alina Arrive In Ketterdam
After Mal and Alina escape General Kirigan in the Shadow Fold at the end of Shadow and Bone season 1, they flee Ravka to plan their next move. Their arrival in Ketterdam also gives the couple one of their first moments of peace and hope together. In a small hotel room, both Mal and Alina experience security and luxury the likes of which they’ve rarely felt, let alone together, with Shadow and Bone's Mal as a member of the First Army and with Alina constantly under pressure to perfect her abilities in the Little Palace. Their peace and moments of respite in Ketterdam hint at the kind of life they could have had together if unburdened by purpose.
6 Mal And Alina On The Hummingbird
Once Alina and Mal charter a ship with Prince Nikolai Lantsov (Patrick Gibson), the two experience flight for the first time together. Despite her great power and station, Alina’s nerves at flight and Mal’s ability to coax her to the side of the ship so that they can experience something new together is endearing and sweet, especially since it allows Shadow and Bone to show how Alina and Mal each other with small kindnesses. This closeness and appreciation of the quotidian ways a relationship s those within it are especially telling in contrast with Alina’s previous time with Shadow and Bones' villain General Kirigan, which was often based on power.
5 Mal’s Dreams Of Wedding Vows
However, Shadow and Bone season 2 is not just made up of sweet Malina moments. It’s full of tragedy and heartbreak as well. In particular, when Mal reveals his role as the third Morozovan amplifier to Alina, he also reveals the depth of his commitment to a life with her. In a world full of monsters and magic which Alina and Mal have found themselves at the center of, it’s heartbreaking that all Mal wants is to consecrate how he feels about Alina with wedding vows. His earnestness in the face of his great sacrifice makes this one of the sweetest, yet saddest moments between the two as the doomed lovers consummate their relationship.
4 Alina And Mal Attempt To Take Down The Shadow Fold
But Mal’s bravery is only matched by Alina’s unwillingness to sacrifice him. Alina has already shown that she has a special relationship with Morozova’s amplifiers in Shadow and Bone, with her respect for the creatures leading to a stronger connection with them. It’s beautiful, and understandable, that she extends this dignity to Mal and refuses to access his power without attempting to resolve the situation peacefully first. Most strikingly, her efforts to take down the Shadow Fold with Mal at her side instead of dead at her feet seemed as though it could have worked, with their attempt only interrupted by General Kirigan’s arrival.
3 Mal’s Sacrifice
But in the end, despite Alina’s efforts to fend off the Darkling, Mal is critically injured. With Mal in a critical state, he and Alina share a desperate, final few moments where they appreciate the love that they share before they let a dagger reach Mal’s heart in a final, united act. Shadow and Bone‘s flashbacks to Mal and Alina’s long relationship since childhood and professions of love in these final moments make this scene perfect, epitomizing the bittersweetness of Mal and Alina’s time together and the cost of the miracle of bringing down the Shadow Fold.
2 Alina Resurrects Mal
Love stories are no stranger to desperate, and occasionally risky choices in the name of love. Shadow and Bone leans into this trope, too, and shows how Alina is willing to put herself at risk for her lover. She delves into merzost, a perversion of the Small Science, to resurrect Mal after his sacrifice. It’s a risky gamble and one that will likely have a deeper cost for Alina in season 3. But all the same, this scene is still a critical Shadow and Bone that depicts how Alina is willing to risk everything for her beloved, showing how they are both willing to make sacrifices for each other.
1 Mal and Alina Part Ways
A pitfall of some romance stories is that one partner, and often the point-of-view character, is given more agency than the other or the relationship is prized above the characterization of either of the participants. Either of these tactics can make a romance fall flat, but Shadow and Bone refuses to fall into the trap of either. Once Mal returns in Shadow and Bone season 2, he no longer has the connection to Alina and the other amplifiers that he did, as his sacrifice and role as Alina’s amplifier is complete. This leaves him wondering who he is and what his purpose is in a new world.
Ultimately, this crisis leads to Mal and Alina temporarily parting ways in Shadow and Bone, each to pursue their own goals and responsibilities. While it might not seem like it, this is a particularly good Malina moment because it emphasizes the pair’s need to grow and understand themselves individually. The fact that Alina is willing to let Mal do this is also another sign of strength in their relationship, as they both recognize the autonomy and individuality of the other and it despite the pain of separation. Now, once they reunite, their relationship will be all the stronger in future seasons of Shadow and Bone.