"A living Saint is in your palace right now, and you scoff at a myth?"
— Mal
As the winter fete goes on, a shocking revelation changes everything that Alina thought she knew.
Tropes in this episode:
- Action Girl: Both Mal and Arken find themselves up against female Grisha.
- Actually a Doombot: When Arken barges into Alina's dressing-room and fatally wounds her, it is revealed that it was Marie acting as a Body Double who took the hit, with Genya's powers as a Tailor making her look identical to the real Sun Summoner.
- Adaptational Consent: In the books, the powerful Kirigan initiates a passionate kiss with Naïve Newcomer Alina that almost ends in sex. The show changes things so that it's less of a "powerful man taking advantage of an impressionable young woman" scenario, with Alina instead making the first move and Kirigan asking her if she's sure she wants it. While he is a Manipulative Bastard, it comes off as this being the only thing he's not manipulating her about (not intentionally, at least).
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Lampshaded by Mal when a palace guard disbelieves that he's found the Stag.Palace Guard: Is this supposed to be a joke? Morozova's stag is a myth.
Mal: A living Saint is in your palace right now, and you scoff at a myth? - Bait-and-Switch: When Alina goes into her dressing room, she looks up to see Arken behind her. He quickly slits her throat, and for a minute the show leads the viewer to think he's killed her. Then Genya comes and "Alina" tells her to let her "die with her own face", and it's revealed that it was Marie serving as a duplicate Alina.
- Black-Tie Infiltration: The Crows plan to kidnap Alina at the winter fete, an exclusive party for the highest of high class. To get in, Jesper and Inej pass themselves off as performers and Kaz dresses as a guard. Jesper and Inej then ditch the performer outfits for those of a footman and a guard for the getaway.
- Body Double: Marie is acting as a double for Alina for security purposes. She dies for it.
- Bookcase Passage:
- There's a hidden door in the corridor leading to a dressing room. Although it's opened by magic, Arken opens it using a lodestone to pull across the bolt.
- Played straight in Aleksander's office, from where Baghra spirits Alina away through a hidden passage in the wall.
- Contrived Clumsiness: Kaz is disguised as a guard and covertly spills a drink on himself so he'll be ordered to leave and get changed, enabling him to steal more uniforms from the guardroom for the others.
- Contrived Coincidence:
- Mal and his fellow soldier Tofin happen to arrive in Os Alta the very night of the Winter Fete.
- Played for Laughs. After spending the entire episode unaware that the Crows are trying and failing to kidnap her, Alina (who wants to flee the palace for her own reasons) climbs into an empty carriage right in Jesper's line of sight, allowing them to ride off with her after all. Jesper's expression as he watches her climb in is fairly priceless.
- Arken just happens to have a powerful lodestone to get through the secret door. Justified with The Reveal that he's been planning to assassinate the Sun-Summoner all along, so he likely knew about the door in advance, probably from the renegade general.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Inej accuses Jesper of this when he's checking out a handsome stableman. Turns out he's just setting the man up for when he steals a couple of fast horses.
- Dirty Business: When Inej kills one of the Inferni twins about to throw a fire blast at Kaz, she later stares at his body in horror. Kaz has to remind her not to worry about it since she saved his life.
- Evil Costume Switch: Alina is now wearing the black gown that matches Aleksander's.
- Foreshadowing:
- Jesper sees Alina when she sneaks out to see the theatre troupe performing, so he recognises her at the end of the episode when she sneaks into his carriage.
- Kaz spotting Arken meeting with the secessionist general made him realize that Arken was planning to assassinate Alina, as both men had a vested interest in maintaining the Fold. He also sees Marie in the dressing room with two identical gowns, and realises the Body Double trick being planned.
- Exact Eavesdropping: As Baghra and Kirigan's discuss the latter's evil plans, Mal is hiding behind a nearby tree, overhearing the intel he needs (Baghra even says: "I'd wager you'd need a skilled tracker to find [Alina] now").
- Flowers of Romance: Kirigan asks Mal what Alina's favorite flower is, then presents her with them later to charm her.
- Gambit Pileup: Aleksander is trying to seduce Alina to his purposes, the Crows are trying to kidnap her, Arken is planning to kill her, Mal just wants to see her, and Baghra is trying to stop Aleksander's Evil Plan. The Crows are the only ones that come out ahead, and that's purely by accident.
- Grey-and-Grey Morality: Although Kaz, Inej and Jesper are our protagonists, the Grisha who attack them are fully justified in their actions considering the Crows have broken into their home and are attempting to kidnap one of their own, the vitally important Sun Summoner; on top of that, Arken's already managed to kill Marie. Likewise, Baghra ordering the hit on Mal (and possibly Alina too) is Nothing Personal, and in service of trying to stop a much greater evil from occurring should Kirigan maintain control over the Sun Summoner.
- I Have Many Names: Baghra says this about Kirigan, regarding how many identities and personas he's adopted throughout the centuries.
- Logical Weakness: Subverted; Kaz breaks the Inferni's hand so he can't use his powers, which require both hands to generate a flame. However, the Inferni uses his undamaged hand to snatch fire from a nearby candle. Kaz would have been toast if Inej didn't pull a Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind.
- Loving Details: Mal knows exactly what kind of flower Alina likes, which Kirigan then uses to his advantage.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Baghra scoffs at Aleksander's display of vulnerability for Alina, saying he's had hundreds of years to perfect his act for impressionable young girls. The iris stunt shows she may be right.
- Baghra herself is no slouch, as she convinces Alina to hide in the cellars of the palace and sends her off to a quite likely appointment with an assassin's blade. Fortunately, Alina's suspicions have multiplied and she decides to escape from Os Alta on her own.
- Mythology Gag: A troupe of dancers performs a show where "Alina" fights off black-clad dancers representing the Fold. The dancer playing "Alina" is a white blonde woman, similar to how she's depicted in the books.
- Ninja Maid: Genya shows she's not just a pretty face, only going down when Arken shoots her.
- Noodle Incident: When Kaz provides Inej with her guard uniform, she asks him if he got one in her size. He seems slightly annoyed with the question, leading her to remind him that the last time he snatched a uniform for her, he accidentally grabbed a man's uniform. He remarks, "It worked, didn't it?"
- Performer Guise: To infiltrate the winter fete, the Conductor sabotages a performing troupe's rehearsal so Inej can take their acrobat's place. Jesper also joins as a sharpshooter while Kaz and the Conductor dress up as palace guards.
- Reaction Shot: Jesper gets a hilarious one, in which he incredulously watches Alina cross the courtyard to the carriage and conceal herself in the very trunk that the Crows had prepared for her kidnapping.
- The Reveal: Aleksander is the Black Heretic, and the volcra were once regular humans trapped within the Fold when Aleksander unleashed its power long ago.
- Schmuck Bait: Baghra tells Alina to take the right fork in the tunnel. Alina wisely takes the left fork, ending up in the stables where she makes her escape. Unfortunately, it also leads her to the Crows, but there's no doubt an assassin was waiting for Alina down the other fork.
- Secret Underground Passage: Baghra pops out of one of these in order to usher Alina away from General Kirigan and tell her the truth about her situation. (
Amusingly, this means she must have been hiding behind the door, waiting for the two of them to finish making out). - Sexy Discretion Shot: Jesper making out with the stablehand, then cut to Alina demonstrating her light-summoning powers, then cut to Post-Coital Collapse.
- Something Only They Would Say: Variation. When Mal demands to see Alina, Aleksander asks for proof that he knows her, such as what her favorite flowers are. When Mal replies, "Blue irises", it's no surprise we later see Aleksander presenting her with a bunch of blue irises as Flowers of Romance.
- Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying: Kaz's "lynx flush" strategy is named so because according to him, lynxes are pack hunters who will clear a path for the prey. In real life, while lynxes sometimes hunt in packs, they are usually solitary animals. It is a cool name, though.
- Spot the Imposter: Kaz is given away by his limp while disguised as a member of the Praetorian Guard, who naturally are at the peak of physical condition.
- Tempting Fate: Baghra says they'll need a pretty good tracker to find Alina (thinking she's dead by now). Mal as it happens is listening behind a nearby tree.
- Time for Plan B: Spoken nearly word for word by Kaz, as the Crows' scheme starts to go haywire. Unfortunately, they have to go straight to "Plan F" when Kaz realizes that an Inferni is suspicious of them and advancing rapidly.
- We Need a Distraction:
- The Palace guards rush out to grab a man who tried sneaking in to see the Sun-Summoner via an Underside Ride, only it's a ploy so Kaz (disguised as a guard) can slip inside with the other guards when the commotion is over.
- Kaz sends Arken to infiltrate the secret dressing room, knowing the real Alina will be elsewhere.
- Wham Line: This one upends everything Alina knew about why she was in the Little Palace, to begin with:Baghra: Child... Aleksander is the Black Heretic.
- Would Hit a Girl: In a fight for his life, Mal doesn't mind using fatal force against the female Grisha who's attacking him.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Jesper can only stare in disbelief when Alina, who the Crows were trying to kidnap, covertly exits the stables and conceals herself in the trunk she was supposed to be confined in.
- You Know Too Much: Baghra sends an assassin to deal with Tofin and Mal before they can reveal the location of the stag. Tofin is killed, but Mal fights the assassin off and escapes.
