About:
Shadowhunter of the Week: Clary
Previously: Simon retrieves a mysterious locked box of Camille’s in order to find her for Raphael and the Clave, while Jace saves Alec from being trapped in the parabatai bond and gets apprehended by the Clave in order to do so.
What Happened
Victor’s quite literally turning up the heat on Raphael — torture motivation by concentrated UV rays, ouch — and Simon isn’t any closer to unlocking Camille’s box (not a euphemism), so both of them turn to Magnus for help. Raphael identifies the box as being able to open with Simon’s blood and its contents to be Camille’s grave dirt, which can be used to summon her. Magnus sends Simon and Raphael on a wild goose chase so that he can summon Camille alone. Preying on his fear of loneliness, Camille tries to talk her way out of being sent to Idris, but Magnus is unconvinced, choosing to protect his vampire protégés instead.
Izzy, Alec, and Clary investigate a suspicious mundane death that’s linked to a demon capable of possessing others. It also has a handy cloaking ability to get into the Institute undetected — an enhancement courtesy of Valentine, naturally — where it wreaks havoc upon our Shadowhunters. Under its possession, Alec unknowingly kills Jocelyn (!), which spurs Clary into vanquishing the demon herself.
So, why the distraction, Valentine? Well, Jace is in the City of Bones, with Victor presiding over his trial for treason and murder. Due to involuntary honesty prompted by the Soul Sword, Jace admits that his allegiance is with neither Valentine nor the Clave: misguided as Valentine might be, the Clave hasn’t been doing anything about the growing number of vampires. Unable to pledge his unconditional loyalty to the Clave, Jace is sentenced to life imprisonment. Not that it actually takes, since Valentine and his minions show up to break him out of his cell, but Jace refuses to go with them willingly. Fighting his way out of Valentine’s clutches and saving Victor’s life in the process, Jace falls short of stopping Valentine, who portals away with the Soul-Sword.
Shadowhighlights
- HEY A NEW RUNE FINALLY, for seeing the heat signature of demons. And not a word about tracking!
- Everyone hates Raj, for some reason. Maybe including me, since I’ve listed this as a highlight. But Raj might be the Garry/Jerry/Larry/Terry Gergich of the Institute.
- Hi, Hodge! Bye, Hodge! Hi, Dot! Bye, Dot! This show does have a long memory of its supporting characters.
- Congrats to Maxim Roy, for being freed from a pretty thankless role as Jocelyn.
Shadowlowlights
- … although. She may have gotten on my nerves, but I didn’t really care enough about Jocelyn to feel anything about losing her as a character.
- Wait a minute — based on the footage of Jocelyn’s death, there are CAMERAS in the Institute bedrooms?! Victor, you creep. How very Aaron Echolls of you.
- Omggggggg, the unintentional incest re-emerges in a big way, with Victor reaaaally grilling Jace on it. Not that it was ever truly forgotten, but it’s totally been pushed to the forefront here.
- It’s a little strange to see Magnus acting so paternal towards Raphael, since this might be the first time they’ve ever interacted onscreen and their relationship has never been mentioned before now.
- Valentine commends Dot for her loyalty, but she helped Clary and Jace escape from Valentine, quite unambiguously and out in the open. I get how her warlock magic might make her indispensable, but loyal she is not — unless that was part of some master plan. (Or, more likely, just a poorly thought-out line.)
Shadowhunter of the Week
I know this is rather low on her priorities right now, having just lost her mother and all, but Clary’s definitely getting the hang of being a Shadowhunter.
Say What?
Magnus: “You go battle your demons. I’ll go battle mine.”
GROOOOOAN.
Clary: “I bet it’d be pretty amazing to get me out of your hair.”
Clary and Alec, best friends forever.
Alec: “I didn’t say that. You did.”
Isabelle: “No one in Idris is going to teach you how to fight in five-inch heels.”
True enough, even if that sounds extremely impractical.
Swimfan Says
Here’s Shadowhunter Chronicles expert and co-host of The Parabatai Podcast, Meredith (@legallyblonde), with her thoughts!
- JACE. Jace and his dumb noble actions. In the books, Valentine steals the Mortal Sword before Jace’s trial, so it was very interesting to see it, even though Aldertree took advantage of that situation to ask inappropriate, unrelated questions. Also, Valentine trying to take Jace with him from the City of Bones was very concerning (he purposely leaves him jailed in the book scene).
- It was great to get more of Magnus and Raphael’s backstory, in addition to Magnus and Camille’s history. I appreciate the show continually rounding out characters, even minor ones who aren’t always around, and, in part, using the wealth of information from the books to do so.
- The Jocelyn storyline diverted from the books when she was revived from the magically induced coma in Season 1 (it didn’t happen until midway through the third book, City of Glass). Demon-possessed!Alec killing Jocelyn was not how I thought it would end up. This is going to have so many ramifications, particularly with Luke and Clary dealing with this loss, Alec’s sense of responsibility (even if he was possessed at the time because it’s Alec), and the tenuous relationship between Alec and Clary.
Burning Questions
- How does the Soul-Sword fit into Valentine’s plans? Who does he want to get the truth out of?
- Victor has got to ease up on Jace now, right? He saved your life, dude!
- It’s been name-dropped to death already, so when will the show finally go to Idris? Given the polarizing opinions of it from Shadowhunters and Downworlders, I’m interested in judging for myself.
