Now that the premiere buzz has worn off, let’s see how the rest of Shadowhunters Season 2 will venture! Next up is “A Door Into The Dark.” The episode picks up right where the last one left off. Valentine is making his case to Jace, but Jace still has a conscience. Too bad Valentine is really good at messing with it!
Back at the Institute, we finally see some rage from Clary toward Jocelyn, with a dose of Simon humor. Jocelyn’s confession about Jonathan’s demon blood felt a little melodramatic, particularly the “it also made him… eeeevil.” Also, that black-eyed baby killing flowers? Maybe it would have been okay if Clary didn’t later refer to Jace as a “flower-killing monster.” If killing flowers are the ultimate evil, childhood me was pretty demonic.
Naturally, Alec is a little upset about Clary’s mom trying to kill his parabatai. That doesn’t necessarily mean he should be blaming Clary. We can’t blame him for having some issues with The Frays, but the guy is unduly HARSH. But why oh why does Clary buy into it?! Thankfully, Izzy’s there to defend her girl and try to talk some sense into her.
Valentine’s plan for new Shadowhunters is finally being revealed: He’s kidnapping prominent fighters from all over the city to turn into his new brand of Shadowhunters. That might explain all the dead bodies on the boat in Episode 1, because as the books and show have previously taught us, physical strength isn’t all you need to successfully become a Shadowhunter. But it’s worth it for the incredible scene in which Isabelle takes down a cat-calling muscle head in order to trick Valentine. Unfortunately, Valentine’s man is scary loyal and offs himself rather than reveal his master.
Victor Aldertree continues to be the absolute worst ever, giving Simon a blackmail mission to find out who was behind the Reggie’s Pizza vampire den. Simon points Victor to Raphael, the current head of the New York vampires. Buuuut Reggie’s den was Camille’s and in her absence, Raphael has to answer for her crimes. The Clave punishment involves shafts of sunlight on unfortunate body parts and Simon is mortified. He goes to Magnus for help and they find themselves in Camille’s home in India, where Magnus steals back his many possessions while Simon finds himself cornered by a fire-breathing snake. The scene is funny but a little hokey, and in the end, Simon finally finds his Encanto groove. Unfortunately, Camille remains totally unfound.
Clary escapes The Institute and promptly gets herself abducted by Dot, who is apparently on Valentine’s side now. She tells Clary she has special powers to see the future, after which Dot activates a futuristic flash of Downworlders destroying the world– it’s a pretty standard doom and terror montage. A few scenes later, Dot reveals that Clary can’t see the future. The whole thing was a ruse to get Clary to convince Jace of the Downworld threat.
Meanwhile, Jocelyn has a way to find Clary and Jace: A special stone from The Iron Sisters that allows Alec to track Jace, no matter what cloaking he’s under. It takes a bit to convince Alec that she won’t slaughter Jace. But like all tracking methods in this TV universe, there’s a chance of death involved. Izzy isn’t very happy, but Alec has a beautiful moment of vulnerability, talking about how he needs Jace. So all manscaped and resilient, Alec dives into the ether to find Jace.
Clary witnesses the horrors of Valentine’s ship firsthand as The Circle captures one of Luke’s pack and accuses her of false crimes. She tells Jace that her earlier admission was forced by a spell and immediately, he’s ride-or-die on her side once again. They fight, but there’s no real way to escape. Alec witnesses all this through the tracking, but gets too deep in the magic and begins to tweak. It also has a negative effect on Jace. All seems lost until, in a major act of rebellion against Valentine, Dot opens the portal and allows Clary and Jace to escape.
Once again we’re left with a major cliffhanger. Where are Jace and Clary going to go? What will happen to Dot now? The tension is real!
See you next week!
