Picking up immediately after last week’s “Shadowhunters” left off, Jace and Valentine have more discussions about Downworlders vs. Shadowhunters, while Clary struggles to understand where she’s supposed to fit in now that her mother is back and still hiding things from her.
Demon blood raises all kinds of questions
Jocelyn reveals to Clary that Valentine experimented on their unborn baby with demon blood. Considering the tension between Clary and her mother so far, I fully expected Jocelyn to continue to hide things like this from Clary, so at least it’s out in the open.
Jocelyn shares a memory with Clary of Jonathan with black eyes as he took the life from an entire bush of flowers. While Jocelyn’s memory is mean to be disturbing, Clary does point out that not everyone with demon blood is evil. After all, warlocks like Magnus have demon blood, and he’s mostly neutral. It does raise the question, to start, as to whether the infant even knew what he was doing. Is he evil? Or is Valentine just hoping he can make him that way?
Izzy tries Shadowhunter fight club
Valentine has been kidnapping young fighters to experiment on for his army of Shadowhunters, so Alec and Izzy are tasked with finding a group of fighters before he hits them. When they do find a group that Valentine hasn’t scouted yet, it’s Izzy who gets to take on a man more than twice her size.
I know we’re only two episodes into the season, but it’s about time we get to see Izzy in action. She’s one of the most compelling characters on the show and it already seems like she’s getting much less of a focus this season compared to season one. She definitely didn’t have enough of a fight to satisfy fans who got to see her in the thick of the action last year.
Most of her presence on the show has been to serve as emotional support for either Clary or Alex this season without her being given her own storyline just yet.
Magnus gives Simon a pep talk
Simon, as everyone keeps reminding him, is not exactly the world’s deadliest vampire. He has no idea what he’s doing, and when he accidentally gets Raphael in trouble for something Camille did, he asks Magnus for a little help in finding her.
While this gives us Magnus having a little fun tracking down belongings his former flame never returned, it also features Magnus giving the young vampire a much needed pep talk.
Simon finally gets his faculties under control in the face of his fear and manages to control a fire-breathing snake. It looks like Clary isn’t the only newbie on the show who is starting to learn a thing or two.
Speaking of Clary…
She spends a lot of this episode feeling sorry for herself and trying to get everyone around her to see things her way. Unfortunately for Clary, Alec is angry, Izzy is preoccupied with Alec, and she doesn’t trust her own mother. Of course, it’s no surprise that she decides to strike out on her own and gets kidnapped.
I’m glad to see that Dot (her kidnapper) is still alive considering we haven’t seen her in forever, and I’m also glad to see that she overcomes her fear of Valentine to help Clary. I wasn’t too thrilled with how easily Clary was tricked or how quick she is to leave with Dot just because she’s mad at her mother. The question is: will Clary and Jace make it to safety, or will they be on the run from Valentine and the Institute now?
The Verdict
I'm not loving the character dynamics this season or the lack of a storyline for Isabelle to be involved in outside of Alec, but I do look forward to seeing where the story goes.
I'll give this episode three out of five stars.
What’s next
“Shadowhunters” returns next week with more drama in the search for Jace, followed by an all new episode of “Beyond.”
