“Shadowhunters” kicked off the season with talk of Valentine’s experiments, and the fruits of some of his efforts cause trouble in the latest episode. While Jace is confined to the City of Bones to await questioning concerning his involvement with Valentine, Clary teams up with Alex and Isabelle to track down a very powerful demon. Meanwhile, Simon, Magnus, and Raphael search for Camille.
The Jace and Clary chemistry continues to be creepy
Before Jace and Clary found out they share parents, they were heading down the love interest road, and even though Clary pops into the City of Bones to check on him under the guise of wanting to make sure her “family” is okay, the chemistry continues to ride the creepy line.
The two of them just can’t turn it off. Book readers will know why that’s the case, but it makes their scenes a little less enjoyable in the meantime.
On the other hand, Clary is working with Alec, who has very little patience with her, looks like a lot of fun. The two of them are like oil and water, and (most of) their scenes have a lightness to them that makes watching the show a bit more fun than the darkness.
Raphael needs to find Camille
The Clave, in a nice show of hypocrisy, has been busy experimenting with ways to “motivate” vampires during questioning, despite torture of Downworlders going against the Accords. Raphael finds this out firsthand when Aldertree tortures him with concentrated UV rays and then goes to Magnus for a little healing help.
For Simon and Raphael, finding Camille is an effort of self preservation. For Magnus, who knows the softer side of Camille, it’s more complicated, and I’m glad we get to see that. So many of the characters on “Shadowhunters” are either good guys or bad guys, but it’s nice to see that Camille isn’t completely evil, allowing the audience to wonder who else falls in the grey area.
Idris is calling
There’s a lot of talk about Idris in this episode. The Clave wants Jocelyn to live there. Camille is sent there. With so many name drops, we have to be seeing it soon, right?
We have to remember that Alec and Izzy’s family is in Idris, Lydia came to the Institute from Idris, and it’s where the governing body for the Shadowhunters resides.
If we don’t see it by the end of the season, I’ll be surprised.
Jace makes a choice
Suffering from nightmares at the hands of the Silent Brothers and enduring an interrogation with the soul sword means that Jace is in no mood for Valentine when he’s confronted by him. He’s already admitted to Aldertree that he can’t pledge unconditional loyalty to the Clave, but Aldertree also witnesses just how much Jace is opposed to working with Valentine.
As Jace saves Aldertree from Valentine and his men, it means he gets to join Aldertree back at the Institute, which is great because it means we can all move on from the question of whether or not he can be trusted. Unfortunately for Jace, he comes back just after the results of the demon attack play out.
RIP Jocelyn
In a curveball for those of us familiar with the books, Alec kills Jocelyn when he’s possessed by the demon they’re trying to stop.
This is actually unfortunate for so many reasons. Jocelyn was finally in a position where she wanted to teach Clary about the new world she’d entered. She was also taking a step back and not standing in Clary’s way at every chance she got. She was also the best source of information for what Valentine was like. Losing her (and Hodge) in the same episode is a blow for the flow of information at the very least.
I would have liked to see Jocelyn grow to become more than just the character who was always in someone else’s way.
Then again, we might still get that chance.
The verdict and what’s next
With so much going on in this episode, spending more time with the demon than with Jace would have been more interesting, but this was still a big episode for story movement.
Next week, Clary decides she wants to find a way to get her mom back, no matter what the cost might be.
