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Shadowhunter of the Week: Valentine
Previously: Everyone discovers that Clary has angelic blood and therefore can activate the Soul Sword; Downworlders incl. vampires, Seelies, and Maia want Clary dead; Izzy and Raphael have been seeing each other and feeding their mutual addictions; and Valentine kidnaps Simon.
What Happened
With Madzie’s help, Valentine has infiltrated the Institute, and he’s using Simon to bait Clary into activating the Soul Sword. Jace tries to destroy it with his touch, since Ithuriel’s angelic vision foretold of the Soul Sword disintegrating at the hands of a Morgenstern, but ends up activating it instead — because he has angelic blood and isn’t a Morgenstern at all! Valentine eventually gets arrested by the Clave, but not before taking down a bunch of Downworlders. The Mortal Cup remains hidden and the Soul Sword has vanished… right into the hands of the shadowy figure who stole it.
In other news, Izzy and Raphael are dunzo because he used her to make an (unsuccessful) attempt on Clary’s life; Simon’s enjoying the happy side effect of being impervious to sunlight after drinking Jace’s angelic blood; and Malec reunites after a scare that Magnus had been caught in the crossfire of the Soul Sword Downworlder annihilation.
Shadowhighlights
- YESSSS, FINALLY — VALENTINE REVERSE-VADERS JACE. And LOLOLOL at the show twice repeating that Clary and Jace aren’t related to REALLY get the message across to the viewers.
- Bummer that Izzy and Raphael ended without ever really beginning, but WHOA — Raphael is asexual.
- Aww, Madzie getting Alec out of harm’s way. And then sucking the air out of the room to suffocate the rest of his team, so maybe not so aww.
- Jace’s hair looks so fluffy and touchable here. (This is the first of several shallow observations, btw.)
- Oh, no. Am I finding Aldertree super hot again? I mean, he’s always been hot, but his personality is usually more of a deterrent than it was.
- EYES EMOJI at Luke transforming back into (v. naked) human form. I know he’s wounded, BUT STILL.
- MALEC ILYs. They’re still noooot the best at smushing faces, but the emotions are definitely there.
Shadowlowlights
- Once again, Aldertree’s peddling the excuse of giving yin fen to Izzy to speed up her recovery for the Iron Sisters visit. BUT! 1) Yin fen has no healing properties, and 2) the demonic impurity from using it prevented her from going into the Citadel! So either he’s really foolish or playing another game altogether, because wtf.
- Poor Maia, y’all. Yes, she was willing to kill Clary to protect the Downworld, but Luke has now locked her up and tazed her in consecutive episodes.
Shadowhunter of the Week
Goodbye for now to Valentine, maybe? Earlier on, I attributed the show’s improvement to his reduced screentime, but in retrospect, that also coincided with Jocelyn’s demise (and the writers really did not know what to do with her). Valentine works best as a menacing threat in small doses, instead of constantly in the forefront (or in Chernobyl, ugh), so it’ll be interesting to see what happens now that he’s been apprehended by the Clave. I know Alan Van Sprang has it in him to be a fun villain, though, since he once played a character who quite literally fucked someone out of a window and to their death.
Say What?
Simon: “I would have killed you.”
Simon and Jace, serving up some real talk.
Jace: “I would have let you.”
Jace: “Hey, you know how you can thank me? Shut up.”
THANK YOU, JACE. And #sorrynotsorry, Simon.
Meliorn: “Though if you are mistaken, which I fear you might be, I will never forgive you.”
Even though Meliorn is kind of a nothingburger, the show’s clearly having fun with the Seelies’ inability to lie.
Swimfan Says
Here’s Shadowhunter Chronicles expert and co-host of The Parabatai Podcast, Meredith (@legallyblonde), with her thoughts!
- Revealed: Jace and Clary are not siblings! I unabashedly love this book plot line and also really want them to make out. (While those are usually opposing emotions, I make an exception in their case.) Using the Soul Sword to verify Valentine’s admission worked really well. However, Jace still has to tell Clary this news, so the plot line is still sort of in effect?
- We have Daylighter Simon! While the setting of this scene differs from the book, it was an otherwise stellar adaptation that even had most of the same dialogue.
- Between the Mortal Cup and the Soul Sword, the villains have two of the three Mortal Instruments, which tracks with the end of City of Ashes (Book 2). Though, the book version of the Soul Sword doesn’t have the secret purpose of eliminating Downworlders.
- The Malec moment at the end of the moment was very touching, as were Alec’s and Magnus’ individual concerns about each other during the big Institute showdown.
Burning Questions
- I’m not going to bother asking who the shadowy thief is, since book readers probably have a pretty good idea. However, I would like to know how many of y’all have read the books and how many are only watching the show. (I’m technically a TV viewer only, but I know a few vague book spoilers.)
- Between imprisoning Maia and leading half the pack to their deaths, are Luke’s days as alpha numbered? Because Alaric and a bunch of unnamed wolves only joined the battle because they trusted him, and now they’re all dead.
- What are y’all’s hopes for the rest of the season? How much longer will Clary and Simon stay together? Will Izzy be able to overcome her addiction? And when will Jace tells Clary that they’re not actually siblings?
