Well Shadowhunters, you’ve certainly upped your game. This episode seemed to have it all from great dialogue to interesting plots which had you invested from the start, but will they be able to keep it going? It’s always been a bit hit-and-miss with the show, especially in the first season.
Last week Clary and Isabelle went to the Iron Citadel to get answers about Valentine’s plans; Alec and Magnus had their first date; Maia and Simon connected while searching for Luke; and Isabelle’s addiction to yin fen continued. At the end of the episode, Sister Cleophas killed another Sister and as she is leaving the Citadel, she revealed her Circle rune.
The episode opens with Cleophas finding Valentine, where he questions her loyalty. He asks why she ignited her Circle rune after all this time, which brings forth the question as to how a rune can be tracked? After Cleophas mentions that Clary can create new runes, we cut to a scene where Valentine has an old man in chains and tells him to leave his daughter alone. At first, it’s confusing because who the hell is this new character? But when we see Clary clutching her head due to hearing a high pitch noise, it should click for fans of the books and boy did the showrunners finally get me interested.
At Magnus’s, the lovebirds return from Tokyo, via portal of course. Unfortunately, Magnus’s new flatmate is killing the mood, and when Alec walks in to attempt to drag Jace to the Institute with him, we find him in a comprising position with a female Seelie. This scene was certainly new for the show and it feels as though they are attempting to draw Jace’s character more from the book. Alec is also considering taking the next step with Magnus and as per Izzy’s instructions, he’s told not to overthink it. But when he tries to take it further, Magnus won’t allow it because he hasn’t felt this way with someone before.
Izzy’s addiction continues with her being quite snappy and harsh towards Clary. She breaks into Aldertree’s office to get more yin fen, but there isn’t any left. One question about Izzy’s current arc is why hasn’t Clary mentioned what happened at the Iron Citadel to anyone? Nor checked in to see what’s going on with her? The two are meant to be friends, so surely she would?
Hunter’s Moon is the place to be, and quite a bit of action happens here in this episode. Magnus chats to Maia about Alec when he runs into Izzy chatting to a drug dealer. He questions her actions, but she says she’s on a mission for Aldertree to help bring down the yin fen trade. He tells her of a friend named Jem (!!) who had to use yin fen, and then tells her to go directly to the source.
Simon and Maia have a date planned, except Simon turns up two hours early. He runs into Izzy who suggests he bites her to help calm his nerves, which he gets freaked out by and she then claims she was joking. Simon then ends up hanging out with smart-mouthed Jace, who says something about Simon being the safe choice, which causes him to beg Jace to be his ‘Obi-Wan’ when it comes to dating. Naturally Jace tells Simon to be all suave, and this doesn’t go down well with Maia, who ends up leaving because he is being a jerk. Simon apologises to Maia, with the help of the special collector’s edition of Blade Runner.
Meanwhile, Cleophas has ulterior motives, and Luke doesn’t trust his sister. They attempt to lead her into a trap and hand her over to the Clave, but during their journey, Clary hears the sound again and Cleophas realises what it is. She tells Clary it’s an angel who is communicating with her, and it happens to be the same man we saw at the beginning of the episode. Those who have read the books will know him as Ithuriel, whom you meet in City of Glass. After realising what Valentine has done, Cleophas turns against Valentine and so, herself and Luke attempt to get the best of him and retrieve the Mortal Sword.
Clary and Jace then sneak onto the roof to rescue Ithuriel but must fight off over half a dozen men before they can. It makes sense that Jace can fight his way through them, however, surely Clary should have stumbled a little more when it comes to fighting a few men at a time? But of course, the Morgenstern siblings defeat them and reach Ithuriel who shares a new rune with Clary to free him from the spelled chains. He quickly shares a vision with the two and then flies back into the heavens.
Overall, it was quite the enjoyable episode and had just the right amount of everything. Let’s hope that all future episodes are as good as this one! Shadowhunters returns next week with ‘Love is a Devil’.
What did you think of the latest Shadowhunters episode? Let us know in the comments below!
