About:
Shadowwinner of the Week: Luke
Shadowloser of the Week: Isabelle
Previously: Clary retrieves a mysterious box from the Fray/Fairchild loft; the Shadowhunters get tangled up with werewolves, who now have a new alpha in Hot Luke, but not before he gets gravely injured; and the Seelies consider switching their allegiance from the Clave to the Circle.
What Happened
Clary, Jace, and Simon take Hot Luke to Magnus’ to heal him of the lethal alpha bite poison that he sustained, which also causes him to hallucinate and undergo random werewolf transformations. To cure him, Magnus needs some obscure Shadow World ingredients that UGH OF COURSE Simon insists on tagging along with Jace for. Which leads to them calling out the unrequited feelings that each are ignoring — Jace with Alec’s, Simon with his own for Clary — as well as someone FINALLY asking Simon what happened at the vampire hotel, even if he isn’t ‘fessing up. CLUE IN, DONUTS.
Back at the Institute, the rest of the Lightwood fam has arrived: precocious Max and patriarch Robert, both of whom are way less tough on Izzy than Maryse is. But, of course, Maryse is only that way with Izzy because of how similar they both were at that age. (Casting really did nail the familial resemblance between mother and daughter, though.) With all the recent unsanctioned missions on Clary’s behalf, the Lightwood name has been tarnished in the eyes of the Clave — and restoring it requires marrying off one of kids in a political alliance. Naturally, Alec is Maryse’s choice, much to his chagrin that following the rules has gotten him dick all (but, um, not literally), and to Izzy’s that she’s being overlooked yet again. In a sibling role reversal, Alec is the defiant one, eschewing duty to help out Clary and Magnus (and get his flirt on with the warlock), and Izzy is the responsible one, making herself over as Maryse’s Mini-Me and putting family first.
Magnus succeeds in saving Luke’s life, with an assist from Alec (swoooon, although they did look a little constipated). Between Magnus and Luke, Clary learns about her parents’ pasts. Valentine and Jocelyn were both well-respected Shadowhunters, until Valentine became obsessed with ensuring blood purity (oh, yuck): experimenting with Downworlder blood, killing warlocks, and using the Mortal Cup to create more Shadowhunters for killing warlocks. Valentine was also convinced that Jocelyn was having an affair with his parabatai, Luke, who he then trapped and left to die in a den of werewolves, DAAAAANG. It’s only when Jocelyn LITERALLY stabs Valentine in the back and runs off with the Mortal Cup that he and the Circle were defeated.
None of this is jogging Clary’s memory any, but she learns that 1) the “JC” engraved on the mystery box is actually Jonathan Christopher, her brother who had died in a fire that Valentine had set, 2) she inherited an Angelic Power from Jocelyn, of being able to put real objects into drawings and vice versa, and 3) she knows where Jocelyn hid the Mortal Cup!
Shadowwinner of the Week
Malec was beyond cute, both separately and together, but hooray for the most screentime Hot Luke has had so far! It’s about time that he was brought into the loop.
Shadowloser of the Week
I’m going to resist the temptation to give this to Simon always and pick poor Izzy instead. But, for once, it’s not because the show’s doing her a disservice! After constantly being undermined by her mother, Izzy has decided to prove to her that Alec isn’t the only Lightwood sib capable of handling responsibility… which means dressing more sensibly and cutting ties with Seelies, incl. her Fey With Benefits, Meliorn. So wishing Izzy didn’t have to sacrifice so much for the cause!
Say What?
Jace: “I don’t do mundane driving.”
Finally something that he isn’t good at! (… although motorcycles, he’s cool with.)
Alec: “Magnus? Why does Magnus need me?”
Throwing a morsel to the shippers.
Magnus: “We need to have [the potion] ready before your boy toys get back.”
Clary: “What if they don’t get back in time?”
Magnus: “You can’t think like that, biscuit.”
Please be friends forever.
Clary: “I’m an art student. All my adventures are supposed to be two-dimensional.”
GROAN.
Maryse: “I was so proud when you broke his nose.”
Maryse Lightwood values children’s accomplishments a little differently than we mundanes do.
Alec: “We’re Lightwoods. We break noses and accept the consequences.”
An interesting family motto.
Jace: “You don’t really need compassion when you can get by on charm and good looks.”
Trufax that also makes him sound like a sociopath.
Clary: “Are you my — ”
Luke: “No, no, we never — ”
Clary: “Slept together?”
Luke: “Yeah. I mean, no!”
What a fun exchange. LOL Clary asking if Luke is her father. I mean, genetics can do extraordinary things, but GIRL.
Magnus: “Drink break?”
He can even make cleaning fun.
Magnus: “I’m not being cryptic; I’m being coy.”
He gives vocabulary lessons, too!
Swimfan Says
Here’s Shadowhunter Chronicles expert, Meredith (@legallyblonde), with her take!
- I loved that we got more background with Alec. The whole arranged/forced marriage thing is definitely a non-book twist, though.
- Having Magnus give most of the backstory gave it a more objective perspective than what was in the books, with Hodge and Luke telling it. Magnus’ “Valentine is a crazy madman” view is definitely closer to the book than Luke’s “Valentine did this in the name of love!” view. I also liked that they included Valentine and Luke being parabatai before Valentine got him turned into a werewolf.
- The scene with Magnus and Alec (“I need your strength.” “Take what you need.”) was a well-done paraphrase of a Malec scene from the second book, and I want more moments of those two.
Burning Questions
- Wheeeeeere can I find a GIF of Magnus’ magic hands hovering over Luke’s body?
- Speaking of Hot Luke, are werewolves allowed to be Shadowhunters? I’m guessing since Jocelyn had been keeping herself and Clary hidden, Luke hadn’t been in touch with the Clave, either.
- Speaking of hot adults, where was Young Hot Hodge in the flashbacks? I know that might have been excessive exposition to squeeze him in as well, but he was conspicuously absent for being Jocelyn’s BFF and also someone who’s still being severely punished for associating with Valentine.
- UGHHHH the Lightwoods want to marry their kids off to restore family honour? WTF century is this?
- Does anyone miss Chernobyl? LOL JK.
- Does anyone want to stand up for Simon? He didn’t annoy me anywhere as much in the book or movie, but I find myself increasingly wishing those vampires would have just eaten TV Simon. Even if him licking his Luke-bloodied hands was delightfully unexpected and creepy.
