About:
Shadowhunter Downworlder of the Week: Maia
Previously: Clary summoned Ithuriel, who revealed that Owlface has a master before getting his heart got ripped out by Lilith in demon form; Ollie becomes the last disciple needed to revive Jonathan; and Clary discovers the truth about OWLJACE.
What Happened
After Jace evades Clary (and nearly killing her in the process), Lilith sends him to retrieve Valentine’s corpse in order to complete the ritual for resurrecting Jonathan. Before he does so, the rest of our Shadowhunters are able to cage him with the Malachai Configuration, but Clary portals everyone else to Magnus’ place, leaving herself alone to get caught by the Clave.
Luke and Simon find the empty of the Church of Talto, along with two disciples whom Simon inadvertently vanquishes with his Daylighter ability — which Lilith instantly feels and recognizes it as such.
Meanwhile, Praetor Kyle turns out to be Jordan Kyle, aka Maia’s shitty ex who turned her into a werewolf and then abandoned her. Realizing the conflict of interest, Kyle wants to remove himself from Simon’s case, but Maia isn’t allowing him to desert yet another person who needs his help.
Shadowhighlights
- Clary expecting the worst after she admits that she used up Raziel’s wish, and Alec hugging her instead. Friendship!
- ACK OLLIE KILLED HER OWN MOTHER. Even though we never saw her nor do I really care about Ollie anyway, but DAMN, that’s cold.
- GAHHHH Jace cutting off Imogen’s thumb!
- Look, I never expected this show to give me such strong positive feelings about purple velvet, BUT HERE WE ARE.
Shadowlowlights
- Figurative whiplash from how quickly the show zoomed through Clary recovering from life-threatening injuries and Ollie committing matricide offscreen.
- Simon asking Clary why she didn’t tell him about the Raziel wish. Because it’s about YOU right now, dude.
- I hate to say it, but the Malec drama is feeling a bit stale? They made up yet again, but yet again they don’t resolve any real problems — which was why they were fighting in the first place, because Alec was playing like he was fine with Magnus eventually outliving him.
- Magnus chastizing himself again for giving the elixir to Lilith. Yeah, WE’VE BEEN SAYING.
- Simon only finding Maia after trying to call her all night. Of course she’s at the Jade Wolf, because where else would she be other than one of two places? (The other being the Hunter’s Moon, obvs.)
- I only just noticed that the Jade Wolf booths have the Chinese character for ‘fortune’ printed on the upholstery. I swear, the Jade Wolf is always doing the absolute MOST.
- Speaking of sets, the Clave HQ in Alicante looks indistinguishable from the New York Institute. (I know; Freeform budget.)
- Omg yet another character with multiple aliases. At least both of them are actually in Jordan Kyle’s full name, though. But why did he change which one to go by? (We knew him first as Kyle, so I’m sticking with Kyle unless the show definitively changes to Jordan.)
- Are we supposed to find Kyle sympathetic? If we aren’t, it may have been a mistake for him to have become a werewolf after he met Maia. (I initially thought surfing in cold weather was an indication that he had already turned, since werewolves run hot.) Maia rightfully calls out him for abandoning her, but it seems like his transition was even lonelier than hers, and without finding a pack shortly afterwards. Then again, he was already exhibiting pushy behaviour when they first met, so maybe his true nature is douchey.
Shadowhunter Downworlder of the Week
Not only do we get to delve into her backstory, but we meet a subtly different Maia in terms of hair, clothes, demeanour — everything. As much as I love Present Day Maia, it stinks that much of her personality comes from tragedy hardening and galvanzing her to claim her own awesomeness.
Say What?
Kyle: That’s why the Praetor Lupus exists: to help problematic Downworlders like you.
Simon: So I’m problematic?
*Jim Halpert face at the camera*
Simon: You can talk and I can just listen. Believe it or not.
Not. (OK, I’ll stop being mean to Simon now.)
Lilith: You will bring me the flesh of [Jonathan’s] father.
Jace: Valentine.
Lilith: Smart boy.
Well… yeah. You said “flesh of his father”, doughnut; who else is Jace going to think you meant?
Ollie: I killed my mother, and now I’m going to kill you.
The line delivery here is just… OOF.
Maia: I don’t need your permission.
HECK YEAH, YOU DON’T.
Swimfan Says
Here’s Shadowhunter Chronicles expert and co-host of The Parabatai Podcast, Meredith (@legallyblonde), with her thoughts!
- The truth about Jordan Kyle is out! In the books, he wants to be assigned to Simon’s case because of Maia, and I like that the show changed it to him not knowing Maia was dating Simon until it was too late. Maia continues to be the best, and the flashbacks of their history were heartbreaking.
- In City of Glass, Izzy uses the same analogy of how Jace woke up when he met Clary. While the circumstances were different in the show, the sentiment remained the same and was a nice Clace moment while the actual couple is at odds (for now). Related: I’m very glad Magnus and Alec have apologized and moved on from their fight.
- The Malachi Configuration is also a book idea, as is Simon’s Mark turning two of Lilith’s attackers into pillars of salt. On a show-only note, Owl!Jace tossing Clary off a roof and also killing Inquisitor Herondale shows how ruthless Lilith’s possession of Jace is, as well as how much she wants revenge on Jace for killing Sebastian.
Burning Questions
- If Jace had to hack of Imogen’s thumb for access into the Cemetery of the Disgraced, then how the hell did the rest of our Shadowhunters also get in?
- There’s no way that Imogen is dead, right? The show’s done this far too many times for me to fall for it again.
- Is there a winky reason why Maia was reading A Tale of Two Cities when she met Kyle? I’ve never read it myself.
- Hypothesis: Is Shadowhunters this generation’s Buffy? A bold claim, I know, given its Harry Potter roots and the existence of other supernatural teen shows like The Vampire Diaries. (Not to mention the sharper writing and generally better acting on Buffy, although it’s been a while since I’ve revisited it.) But I would argue that the mechanics are similar enough to draw the comparison.
- Clary = Buffy
- Jace/OwlJace = Angel/Angelus
- Alec = Giles (personality)
- Izzy = Faith (skills) + mid to later seasons Cordelia (personality)
- Simon = Xander (personality) + Willow (role as BFF)
- Magnus = Willow (role as resident magic wielder)
- Luke = Giles (role as sage adult) + Oz/Joyce (personality)
- Maia = Anya (delightful female character added later in the run)
- Jonathan = Spike?!??! (charismatic anti-hero) (Yes, I know what I did.)
- Jocelyn = Joyce (role as, um, dead mom)
- Valentine = Mayor (hammy paternal figure villain)
- Heidi = Darla (possessive vampire chick)
- Charlie = Riley (boring human)
Of course, there aren’t perfect parallels for everything. But I’m sure a Buffy/Shadowhunters AU already exists somewhere, so I’m probably not as clever as I think.
