"Today, we redraw all the maps. With the power of the Sun Summoner at my command, I control the Fold and its monsters. I can move it to any border I like, engulf any harbor, consume any city. Take what you have seen back to your home countries. Tell the Fjerdans. Tell the Shu Han. There will be no more war with Ravka. All countries will answer to us. For who would oppose us now?"
— Kirigan
With Alina in his captivity, Kirigan turns on Ravka's neighbors to expand the Shadow Fold, while the Crows and Mal aim to stop him.
Tropes in this episode:
- Almost Kiss: In their hotel room Matthias and Nina are just about to kiss before Matthias's grumbling stomach interrupts them.
- Black Comedy: Kirigan gives his New Era Speech to the ambassadors only to kill them when they try to stop him.Kirigan: Shame. Now I have to give that speech again.
- Broken Pedestal: Zoya turns against Kirigan after seeing him use the Fold to annihilate everyone in the city where her family lives.
- Call-Back: Alina reminds Kirigan that the first question he asked her was "What are you?" Now she has the answer.
- Campfire Character Exploration: After the battle on the skiff the protagonists converge around a campfire just outside the Fold to wrap up their season arcs. The Crows affirm that they will not, in fact, be wanting to kidnap Alina any longer. However, Alina gives them a highly valuable necklace as hush money/thank-you (which also solves Kaz's money problem and pays off Inej's indenture). Zoya bids Alina farewell before setting off for Novokribirsk.
- Contrived Coincidence: Nina and Matthias are on the same Ketterdam-bound ship as the other main characters, and Nina overhears that the Crows are in need of a Heartrender.
- Defecting for Love: When Fedyor shows up with a squad of Grisha ready to take Nina back to Os Alta, Nina realizes that they'll surely kill Matthias, whom she has developed feelings for. She defects on the spot and brands Matthias a slaver to instead have him imprisoned and save his life. However, this leads to...
- Didn't Think This Through: Nina tells a betrayed and angered Matthias that she'll clear it all up at his trial that he's not a slaver and admit to lying. His cellmate begins to laugh and tells her that it'll take over a year for them to get a trial and they're going to one of the worst prisons in existence. This makes Nina realize too late that, despite saving him from death, she's handed Matthias over to an equally horrible situation. She walks off to sit by herself on the ship in shame.
- The End... Or Is It?: Alina says Kirigan is dead, so naturally he not only staggers out of the Fold scarred but still alive, he demonstrates the ability to bring the volcra with him.
- Enemy Mine: When Inej accosts Mal belowdecks, Kaz realizes that Mal is also out to stop Kirigan, and thus decides to ally with him.
- Faking the Dead: Dialogue on the ship at the end indicates that Alina has been presumed dead after the skiff battle. Of course, Alina is on that same ship, in hiding with Mal.
- Hoist by Their Own Petard: Kirigan's destruction of Novokribisk, where Zoya's family lives, leads her to turn against him utterly and join Alina, Mal and the Crows in taking him down.
- I Call It "Vera": Inej says she will name the dagger that Alina gives her, though we don't find out what name she chooses.
- I Can Rule Alone: Variation. After Kirigan and Alina spent most of the season plotting to destroy the Fold together and Kirigan eventually using the stag to take her power by force, Alina realizes she doesn't need his help and cuts the antler out of his hand to free herself.Alina: You needed me. But I never needed you.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Kirigan bragging "For who would oppose us now?" cues Mal to try and kill him.
- Ironic Echo: In an earlier episode Kirigan taunted Mal that he doesn't have to kill him, "time will do it for me". When the two fight in the Fold Kirigan derides the notion that Mal is capable of killing him, and Mal responds that he doesn't have to, "your past will do it for me" just before Kirigan is attacked by one of the volcra he created.
- Kill the God: General Zlatan orders his men to kill everyone on the skiff including the Sun Saint, to the noticeable disquiet of his aide. Instead Kirigan sends the Fold to kill them all first, and everyone else in the city.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Good version. In the previous episode Kaz, Jesper, and Inej were fretting about what to do upon returning to Ketterdam, as they were having money problemsnote . After they help Alina and Mal take Kirigan down, Alina gives Kaz the valuable necklace she had been wearing as hush money. However, it doesn't solve all their problems, as they still have to figure out how to dodge the consequences of their failed job.
- Logical Weakness: Alina breaks Kirigan's control by giving him an Impaled Palm, cutting out the antler bone he has implanted in his hand and severing their connection.
- Longing Look: Matthias and Nina are casting these at each other as soon as they reach civilization and realize they'll have to part ways.
- Long Last Look: Before following the unconscious Matthias in the custody of bounty hunters, Nina turns back to look sadly at Fedyor and the Grisha — the only family she's ever known.
- Machiavelli Was Wrong: While rejecting Kirigan's New Era Speech one of the ambassadors points out that using the Fold to destroy Novokribisk and threaten the world into subservience will only manage to turn all the nations of the world against Grisha and defeat the purpose of the general’s actions.
- Meaningful Echo: Way back in the first episode, Mal was grievously injured and tells Alina to "meet [him] in the meadow", alluding to the meadow that surrounded their orphanage (and narratively, to an important Meadow Run flashback). Now she is injured in his arms, and he tells her "don't you dare tell me to meet you in the meadow". She pulls through.
- Mexican Standoff: Between the Grisha hunting party and the Bounty Hunters. Given that the latter are from a country they're not at war with, the Grisha are forced to back down.
- My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Fedyor uses his Heartrender ability to hear Nina's heartbeat to determine that she has feelings for Matthias.
- New Era Speech: Aboard the skiff, Kirigan proclaims to the ambassadors of the various nations that he controls the Fold, and no one would dare oppose Ravka now. He kills them shortly after, lamenting that he'll have to give the speech again later on.
- "Not So Different" Remark: For all of Kaz's similarities and differences from Kirigan, he recognizes that Kirigan is out to get revenge on Zlatan. Jesper comments that Kaz probably relates to that feeling a little too much.Kaz: And I saw his face as he boarded. I know that look. He's a man consumed with vengeance.
Jesper: See it enough in the mirror, do you? - Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Whatever his claims about correcting his mistakes or protecting Grisha, Kirigan's New Era Speech makes it clear his lust for power has superseded them.
- Oh, Crap!: Inej manages to hit Kirigan dead center in his chest with one of her knives... only to watch in horror as he uses merzost to heal himself and pull the blade right back out, screaming "It will take more than this!!!"
- Please Wake Up: Aboard the skiff in darkness and volcra circling above them, Mal cradles his old friend Alina and begs her not to die.
- Spoof Aesop: Jesper's takeaway from the entire season is that people with trains are evil and you can't kidnap a human sunbeam.
- Title Drop: From the crows aboard the skiff.Kaz: No mourners.
Inej: No funerals. - Was It All a Lie?: Something of a variation considering Matthias immediately believes his relationship with Nina was a lie, despite her desperately trying to convince him otherwise. But having woken up in the hold of a ship, destined to stand trial for crimes he didn't commit, he comes to the conclusion that it was "all a cruel joke" designed by her to inflict Laser-Guided Karma on him. Nina's left in tears that he won't believe her when she insists she only did it to protect him from certain execution.
