This week’s episode of Shadowhunters picked up right where we left off. Clary decided to stay with the Shadowhunters in order to find her mother. They find out from Hodge that Valentine is back and wants the Mortal cup. They try to find Dot, but Valentine gets to her first and kills her. Jace and Clary then visit the Silent City to get help from the Silent Brothers so that Clary can get her memory back. While she can’t retrieve much, she does remember that Valentine is her father. Meanwhile Simon gets kidnapped by some vampires. The grumpiest of them all: Oh Alec, he’s so cranky. Then again, I probably would be too if my crush only had eyes for someone else. Someone who popped up out of nowhere and has derailed their mission(s). He was kind of fifth wheeling it the entire episode. He just wants to do everything by the book (which totally reminds me of another favorite character of mine) which is basically impossible with Jace so desperate to help Clary.
Weak link: From the comments on my review last week I concluded that a lot of people were not quite happy with the acting performances by Kat and Dominic who play Clary and Jace. It’s not on point yet but I have to say that I found this week an improvement over last week’s episode. This is only episode 2 and the actors are still getting used to playing these characters. I’m hoping that it will get better each episode until we no longer know what we were worried about.
Improvement: I think we can all agree that TV-Hodge is a vast improvement over movie-Hodge. This version is a lot more accurate age-wise. He was in the Clave with Valentine (and others) so should be around the same age. The movie version was just too old. There seem to be a lot more people in the Institute than there usually were in the books but I hope Hodge will still play to same role to the Shadowhunter trio as he did then.
The unknown factor: Luke has kind of remained on the outside of everything these past two episodes. The writers are trying to confuse us in regards to who’s side he’s on. They haven’t explicitly mentioned what he is but I think at this point it’s pretty obvious. Nevertheless, I won’t mention it for those who haven’t yet figured it out. I don’t remember much from his storyline in the first book so it’s kind of a wait and see for me as well (I do remember the rough outline though).
The creepy factor: The Silent City looked good. And I mean that in an “accurate” kind of way, not a “I want to live there” way. For those of you who, like me, have read The Infernal Devices, the Silent Brothers have probably taken on a different meaning. I can’t help but wonder if Brother Zacharia was in that room. This is also where I believe the writers took a little detour. I mentioned last week that it’s been a while since I’ve read the books but I don’t believe she found out about Valentine being her father this early in the game. I’d love to know why they made this change.
Best quotes: Simon: “Buddy, what’s going on? I’m not your type, man.”
Simon: “So hot … the rune.”
Isabelle: “Oh and, Simon is kind of nerd-hot.”
Isabelle: “Fifty bucks says he doesn’t approve this mission.” Alec: “I don’t approve this mission.”
Simon: “You were kidding about the runes on the floor killing me, right?” Jace: “Possibly.”
Jace: “There is another option.” Alec: “Absolutely not.” Isabelle: “Don’t even.”
Isabelle: “Don’t tell me you’re afraid.” Simon: “Are you kidding, I was born afraid which sounded a lot better in my head.”
Jace: “Looking better in black than the widows of our enemies.”
That’s it for this week. Check in again next week for a new review and let me know in the comments what you thought of this week’s episode.
