I’m starting to think that the Shadow and BF are the original two powers, one “light” and one “dark,” but maybe light and dark originally didn’t symbolize good and bad as we think of it, since in some ways the Shadow seems more benevolent than the Blue Fairy. But maybe having Malcolm become Peter Pan threw off the balance, making the dark power turn evil.
The Shadow really didn’t seem particularly evil in this ep, at least not on the surface. It just seemed like an entity that was hanging out in NL, minding its own business, letting kids visit in their dreams and then letting them leave again. Until Malcolm came along and upset the whole process.
The Shadow let him upset the process though. It seems it actually encouraged him to stay. Which makes me suspect that there’s some ulterior motive on the Shadow’s part. It wanted someone to stay. Which means it wanted all the consequences of him staying. Which likely means it was working with someone *cough*SneakyFairy*cough* who set up the Spinsters with the bean that set the whole thing in motion.