SPOILERS AHEAD
Shadowhunters stepped up last week with a decent episode, and this continued on with their latest episode, which was full of some surprising twists and turns.
Last week ended with Jace saving Alec from the effects of the Parabatai stone, but Jacec was quickly taken by the Clave. The show opens with Clary visiting the City of Bones to see Jace. The new showrunners talked about broadening the sets this season to make it feel more realistic and come across as more of a ‘larger world’, so we get to see the City on a much larger scale. However, the City seems much darker and full of screaming, which felt like a little too much and felt more like the pits of Hell.
Clary speaks to Jace who is held captive in a cell, and he tells her to leave. The chemistry between the two is still there, but unlike last season, it doesn’t feel as forced. Later on we also discover Hodge is next-door prisoner with Jace, and the two chat a little with Hodge admitting he did the wrong thing.
Magnus and Alec are attempting to plan their first date, which is something fans are very excited to see as this wasn’t included in the books until The Bane Chronicles. But alas, demons are getting in the way and they most postpone their date, but only until next week. It was great to see Alec not being as harsh towards Magnus since Jace isn’t at large anymore, hopefully their relationship will continue to blossom as lovely as it does in the book series.
With a demon attack in the city, the gang must go hunting, except their down one team member. Despite Alec’s reluctance, Clary will be joining them on her first official hunt. The scene is quite amusing with Alec taking point and training Clary how to see the heat signatures of demons, whilst she has to run after him because of Daddario’s long legs.
Somehow the demon makes its way into the Institute within the dead body they bring with them, and it moves on as a black smoke through an air vent, which is very reminiscent of Supernatural.
Apparently due to Valentine dabbling in demon business, demons now have an advanced cloaking ability making it impossible for their devices to detect them… The black smoke inhabits the body of Raj (the awfully awkward Shadowhunter from last week) and he tries to kill Lydia, but Alec saves the day with his faithful bow and arrow.
The next person to be taken over is Alec, and it doesn’t end well as Clary finds him covered in blood and very confused. She enters the room to discover her mother in a pool of blood. With Jocelyn dead, Clary holds some anger towards Alec, but it sets her on a mission to find the demon and kill it herself.
Meanwhile, why have one death when they can have multiple? Valentine enters the City of Bones with his minions in order to get the Mortal Sword and Jace. In his path of destruction, he kills at least one Silent Brother and Hodge!
Back at the Institute, Clary is on the hunt and discovers the demon now possesses Isabelle. Alec attempts to take Izzy down without hurting her too much. But Alec becomes pinned to the ground and Clary stabs her in the back, which releases the demon from her. With a slow swipe of her blade, she kills the demon.
The episode ends with Jace returning to the Institute and seeing the group bloody and sad. He goes to console Clary, but Simon pushes in front of him and gets to her first.
While the episode was better in most aspects, such as acting, dialogue and in visuals, the plot raised some questions. Since it’s very obvious the show has gone off on a tangent from the book series in order to keep it fresh and interesting for everyone, it felt wrong to kill off Jocelyn. While it will most likely play a key role in developing Clary’s character, it cancels out a few plots which occurred in later books. There’s also nothing more annoying than seeing two characters get together, only to be ripped apart from one another. Luke is going to be utterly heartbroken, which means there will eventually be a new love interest for him.
Next week’s episode is title ‘Dust and Shadows’, and Clary attempts to bring Jocelyn back from the dead, which never ends well in any TV series.
What did you think of the episode?
