About:

Title: Shadowhunters S2.E20 “Beside Still Water”
Released: 2017
Series:  Shadowhunters

Shadowhunter of the Week: Clary

Previously: The entire Shadow World is on the hunt for Valentine and Jonathan; Valentine arranges a deal with the Seelie Queen to circumvent the city-wide wards; and Jonathan is critically wounded after his fight against Jace and Izzy.

What Happened

The Seelie Queen has abducted Maia, and Simon and Luke head to the Seelie Court to get her back. Our Downworlders are eventually permitted to leave, but at a price: Simon finally accepts the Seelie Queen’s offer to join her court.

Also making deals with the Seelie Queen was Valentine, who now has safe passage to Lake Lyn. Clary and Jace go after him, running into the Clave’s forces led by Consul Malachi, who have been corrupted by the Circle into believing that Downworlder deaths are acceptable collateral damage for the eradication of all demons. Clary and Jace evade execution and take down Malachi, but they don’t fare as well against Valentine, who kills Jace and begins the ceremony to raise Raziel. But Clary breaks it up by killing Valentine and using the wish to revive Jace, who doesn’t come back at 100%.

Meanwhile, Alec, Izzy, and Magnus try to contain the demons that have suddenly overrun New York City. They manage to seal the rift allowing the demons to enter our realm, but the damage might already be done; also arriving from Edom, i.e., the hell dimension where Jonathan grew up, is his ‘mother’, who’s here to nurse him back to health.

Shadowhighlights

  • Luke punching Meliorn, who never really made an impression with me before but definitely annoyed me as a Seelie Queen minion here.

  • The heartstring-pulling parabatai montage when Jace was dying.

  • OH. MY. GOD. GILES IS THE VOICE OF RAZIEL?!?!?

  • Luke is such a happy drunk!

  • Obvs I’m thrilled that Magnus and Alec made up, but I do also live for the Magnus sassiness whenever they’re on the outs.

  • Good riddance to Valentine, and bring on Jonathan and Demon Mom as the new villains! (And hooray for more Will Tudor!)

Shadowlowlights

  • As much as I love the increased frequency of outdoor daylight scenes, it’s v. difficult for me to pretend this is New York when OMG YOU GUYS THERE’S A BMO IN THE BACKGROUND AKA BANK OF MONTREAL. (Also, Alec looks even taller than usual with everybody else in crouched stances.)
  • I kind of wish we cared about Malachi at all so that we’d feel as betrayed as Jace when his true intentions surface. (Although I guess that already happened with Hot Hodge, and it wasn’t much of a betrayal back then, either.)

  • Raziel using Morgenstern as Clary’s last name, WTF PATRIARCHY. Simon gets a pass for calling her Clary Fray since he’s been doing so for his entire life, but she goes by Clary Fairchild now, RAZIEL.

  • OH GOOD, the Ollie storyline will carry over to next season.

  • Not gonna lie: I initially thought Jonathan was referring to the flying demon as his mother and am mildly disappointed that’s not the case.

Shadowhunter of the Week

Clary might still be learning how to use her angelic ability, but she’s well on her way to being an kickass Shadowhunter. (Apparently, her signature move is stabbing the shizz out of guys she’s related to.)

Say What?

Alec: “We need a warlock to seal [a rift] this severe.”

Magnus [rolling his eyes]: “Duh.”

OH MAGNUS, ILY.

Alec: “Magnus, you need to get to safety.”

Magnus: “We need to find Jace and Clary.”

And then there he goes, being a big damn hero in the face of annihilation </3

Jace: “You could have had anything else in the world. You chose me.”

Clary: “I don’t want anything else.”

The Shadowhunters take on the “Why Me?” speech.

Magnus: “My go-to home remedy after a major magic depletion: boiling hot bath, eight-ounce steak, medium rare, and a lot of these.”

Magnus, enjoying a well-earned martini.

Alec: “Magnus, I don’t think I can live without you.”

NEITHER CAN I.

Swimfan Says

Here’s Shadowhunter Chronicles expert and co-host of The Parabatai Podcast, Meredith (@legallyblonde), with her thoughts!

  • The Lake Lyn scene was, overall, very similar to the one in the book. The first difference was Clary killing Valentine instead of Raziel doing it (go Clary!), and the second was Izzy, Alec, and Magnus arriving at the end of it. I knew Jace was going to temporarily die for important plot reasons, but it was still very emotional. I loved the added perspective of Alec reacting to Jace’s (temporary) death, and I have so many feelings about Jace and Clary using book dialogue in the end of the Lake Lyn scene that they could take up this entire section (but nobody really wants that).

  • Simon’s deal with the Seelie Queen, whatever it is, is not a book plot, and that means I have no predictions on how that is going to play out.  I think it’s going to make for a very interesting story, though, given what we’ve seen of the Seelie Queen so far.

  • I would love more battle couples in Season 3. I loved the fight scenes with Clary/Jace fighting together and Magnus/Alec fighting together, though, next time, can it be in the same fight so that the parabatai are also together?

Burning Questions

  • Who else was yelling “JACE, ACTIVATE YOUR RUNES TELEPATHICALLY” before he actually did it?

  • Now that Raziel has been raised, are the Mortal Instruments gone forever? Are they scattered back across the world like Dragon Balls? Or something else entirely?

  • Uh oh, Buffy Jace is feeling the side effects of being revived. How bad is this going to get?

  • What was y’all’s favourite episode of Season 2B? I’ll have to think about mine, but looking back on earlier episodes reminded me of all the great training scenes at the start of this half-season.
Categories:
Tags:

Mandy (she/her) lives in Edmonton, AB. When she’s not raiding the library for YA books, she enjoys eating ice cream (esp. in cold weather), learning fancy pole dance tricks, and stanning BTS. Mandy has been writing for FYA since 2012, and she oversaw all things FYA Book Club from 2013 to 2023.