Bad decisions, angst and over-emotional drama
This is how I sum up the Shadowhunters and, really, how does the Clave get anything done?
I mean, Alec, in their eyes just failed by letting Valentine escape (because they kept having Sebastian/Jonathan hanging around without any kind of background check) so they decide to send an envoy to check it out
That would be Richard. Alec and Izzy’s father. Because if I want to investigate someone I would totally send a close relative to do it. But then the Inquisitor made Jace the head of the Institute for the simple reason of being her grandson. I mean they’re not even subtle about their nepotism.
For additional problems not only do we have relatives constantly mixing family and business is that every single damn family is DROWNING in the drama
So, Izzy and Alec are facing investigation by the Clave (again) and the dominant story is ZOMG YOU CHEATED ON MUM!!!!
Also, this is like the fourth time someone has tried to justify their bullshit to Alec by saying “YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND BECAUSE YOU’RE GAY and this whole comparison is not only ridiculous but offensive as well!!!”. The next time it happen, I’m going to need Alec to impale them with a rainbow flag.
Valentine himself is being held by Jonathon/Sebastian his long lost son who has a plot that affects everyone, the world setting and and involved, complex motivation and.. Hah nah, this is Shadowhunters. He has daddy issues. So many daddy issues
Basically Valentine, deciding he didn’t really need any of those “world greatest dad” mugs, decided the best thing to do with his son was to inject him full of demon blood and experiment on him (as he injected Clary and Jace with Angel blood. He likes to present this as science, I think he has a peculiar habit of injecting babies). He was super proud when his evil son killed and skinned a werewolf as a small child but then deeply horrified when he turned out to be an evil serial killer who loved murdering
Raise a child to kill, inject them with demon blood and encourage pre-teen murder and torture and the kid doesn’t turn out all that great. Who knew?
So he decided the best thing to do with said son is banish him to Edom (hell). Because sending him to his room wasn’t dramatic enough. There Jonathon was both horrifically tortured (hence his scars) and learned all of his evil demon magic tricks. Really, Valentine, is a perfect Shadowhunter - his every decision is awful.
Jonathan is ready to throw his evil dad into Edom himself, along with the mortal sword, but Valentine confesses his eternal love for his tortured, evil serial killing son and lo all is forgiven
No. Really.
Oh yes, Jonathon also has the Mortal Sword - the Downworld genocide, lie detector tool, despite the Clave claiming they reclaimed it. Turns out they lied - and Richard knows this and is using it to blackmail them
And why is it blackmailable? Because after the massacre of downworlders they claimed the sword was safe - this lie is going to really piss off the downworlders (and reasonably so). And the leaders of the downworld are already meeting secretly in Seelie territory after Valentine was freed
This means pet warlock Magnus is not around for portalling. Which is a shame for Jace because he wants to jaunt to Idris to chase Valentine no. Of course he’s told no and, no, he doesn’t care. So we get a scene pulled right out of the books - a scene that lives in infamy on Fangs, a scene which defined an entire new trope:
A prize given to any character whose Spunky Agency causes them to make a decision that makes every sensible person despair of humanity
Using her ability to spawn super powers when narratively helpful, Clary creates a portal - she doesn’t know where it’s going, what the side effects ar or even if it is a portal - but she and Jace plunge through it. Even leaving their Stele behind in the rush. And she lands in a lake which is apparently poisonous and hallucinogenic
This is quite literally the worst decision we’ve seen any character in any series ever made. And we’ve had Elena look for werewolves in the woods on a full moon.
In Idris they run around doing very little until Izzy gets her own portal to get there and give Clary the cure for her poison lake swimming and eventually they find Jonathan/Valentine’s cabin - after they’ve already left. Well done guys. They do get Valentine’s journals detailing his love of experimenting on babies telling them Jonathon is alive.
Oh and an angel shows up to be cryptic and very much not useful.
Good part of the episode? When Richard demands Alec keep the whole sword-being-lost-thing a secret Alec says no - because he's a leader and promising to deception before he even knows what secret he's keeping is a bad idea
But there's more - Simon is super angsty because of the whole death last episode and Clary, and he decides to have a human moment. He's going to see his family for their traditional Yom Kippur dinner. Maia drops in to point out depression and downworlderness and mortals is a bad combination. When he insists on going, Maia insists on coming with him to stop the whole eating his family thing and to try and pull Simon out of his funk
And it's kind of awesome, Maia completely wins over the family, manages to help Simon dodge every awkward moment, establishes a real connection with Simon and reveals more about herself - like she's studying to be a marine biologist and is estranged from her family.
It's cute, it's fun and it ends with a kiss. But part of me asks why Maia is doing this? I mean Simon hasn't exactly been great to her and she's already established that she's second choice to Clary - she sees them break up and decides "I'm good with being the runner up"? Maia, I know his torso is amazing but you deserve better than that. I'm going to need to see this relationship develop a lot and see Maia be properly respected
