SPOILERS AHEAD
Well, Shadowhunters was certainly interesting this week. In last week’s episode we were shocked by the death of Jocelyn Fray, which was quite unexpected for fans of the book series. With that, we knew this episode would heavily focus on the passing of Jocelyn and how Clary would cope with the loss of her mother.
The episode opens with Alec firing aimlessly with his bow and arrow, and you can easily see he isn’t handling it well. Since Jocelyn’s blood is now somewhat on his hands, as he was possessed by the demon which resulted in her death, he isn’t sure exactly how to feel. He runs from Jace and the Institute and turns up at Magnus’ place, which was sweet as it show their relationship is developing.
Then there’s Clary. With Simon by her side, he tries to help but it’s not working. Another upsetting problem is the two can’t get on to Luke, who needs to know, especially after that kiss last week! Whilst chatting to Simon, Clary comes up with the idea to bring her mother back from the dead, and we all know, that never ends well. She runs to Magnus, since he is the only warlock she knows, but Magnus doesn’t dabble in this dark magic. Since he can’t giver her what she wants, he instead gives Clary a memory of his in the form of a photo from the first time he met Clary with Jocelyn.
Naturally she’s not happy. She turns to the Institute’s files and discovers a local warlock named Iris, who of course emits a creepy vibe from the second she opens the door. Iris tells Clary she can do it, in exchange for a favour she will collect one day—has Clary never read a single fairytale? Favours never end well. Plus there’s also a creepy child in the window, where are the alarm bells?
Meanwhile, Izzy and Jace traing together since Aldertree has benched Jace. The scene was pleasant and fun, as the two don’t get much one-on-one time. Unfortunately Izzy’s wound isn’t healing well, and with a trip to the Iron Sisters coming up, she wants in.
Izzy goes to Aldertree to ask to join the Iron Sisters mission, but Aldertree sees her wound and denies the request. However, Izzy is desperate to go and so, Aldertree offers her a medicine to help heal it, which turns out to be yin fen. What is yin fen, you may ask? The drug originates from The Infernal Devices series and is a highly addictive warlock drug and demonic poison, which gives the users an energetic high. It’s interesting that Shadowhunters keeps introducing more elements from the TID series, could this all be leading to a much bigger plot? With the casting announcement of Sebastian last week, the show also announced he would be from the London Institute instead and would come into play via a character we already know. Perhaps Aldertree is in fact Sebastian? Surely not, it feels too obvious. Or perhaps the two are friends and he calls Sebastian to the Institute? However, giving Izzy the yin fen feels like something book-Sebastian would do….
Alec runs into Clary and he decides to join her on the mission to bring Jocelyn back, which felt slightly out of character, but at the warlock’s house he increasingly becomes suspicious and much more Alec-like. Clary decides to stop the spell after finally realising something is amiss, but Iris still wants her favour. Iris decrees she will impregnate Clary with a demon she has to create hybrid Shadowhunter-warlocks, as Valentine is killing their race.
She traps Clary in the basement with the demon, and this episode just took a serious turn. A black-writhing figure comes out and while it looks visually cool, this feels a bit too extreme. At least when warlock babies are usually made, the demons are in the form of a male and it’s usually somewhat consensual?
Luckily Jace realises what Clary and Alec are up to, so himself and Izzy race to help them. But have no fear, Clary and her stele are here! While attempting to fight back with no weapons, a rune appears on the wall, so she copies it down on the palm of her hand and out pours a burst of light, which instantly kills the demon. Jace catches the end of the display, and tells her to keep it a secret.
The Shadowhunters return to the Institute for the funeral of Jocelyn and the Silent Brothers (Cool band name, Simon?). It was strange the dead Silent Brothers were there, shouldn’t they do something different for their kind? The way they distributed their essence into the sky was sweet, and the emotions were definitely felt again at the end of this episode so at least the acting is gradually becoming better. While Jocelyn hasn’t been the most important, or greatest, character, let’s hope she returns somehow.
Oh, how could we forget. Whilst all this was happening, Simon returned home and we saw lots of him and his family. Simon tells his mother he is a vamp, which of course means she’s going to call a doctor, but when she finds him draining a bag of blood, maybe he was telling the truth. It feels strange Simon would return to his home as he will endanger his family, surely someone can find him a suitable place to live?
At the end of the episode, we find Luke lying butt-naked on the ground staring at the sky, maybe a full moon or did something happen? Hopefully we find out next week when Izzy and Clary make a trip to the Iron Sisters to meet his mother and sister.
Shadowhunters returns next week with ‘Iron Sisters’.
