Shadowhunters’ improved second season continues with this Monday’s episode, “A Door into the Dark.” Now that he has Jace at his side, Valentine has begun the next phase of his plan as he kidnaps the strongest fighters from local dojos and boxing clubs so that they have the highest chance of surviving the conversion from mundane to Shadowhunter. We also get to see an odd couple pairing in Simon and Magnus; and Jocelyn and Clary butt heads.
This episode is pretty on par with the premiere. It doesn’t have that season opener excitement vibe that the premiere had, but it’s still a solid episode that moves the story along at a good pace. The performances continue to improve, except Jocelyn, who is pretty obnoxious as a foil to Clary’s search for Jace. In the previous episode, I could kind of see where she was coming from: she had just woken up from a coma and was trying to figure out what was going on, only to discover that one of her biggest fears was coming true, but in this episode, she’s just too much.
The dojo kidnapping storyline is also interesting enough, though not spectacular. The main reason I enjoyed it is because we get to see some sibling chemistry as Alec and Izzy investigate and attempt to get a step ahead of Valentine. Speaking of Alec, he has some good material in this episode between the dojo kidnapping storyline and his other more magical attempts to connect with Jace. Matthew Daddario’s performance was a little too over the top for me last week when he was basically just yelling at everyone in The Institute, but this week he hits the right notes.
This episode, although not quite as exciting as the premiere, is a solid addition to
Shadowhunter’s second season. “A Door into the Dark” airs this Monday at 8:00 PM on Freeform - Let me know in the comments what part of the episode you’re most excited for!
Spoiler-y Tidbits:
-Demon Baby Eyes!
-We get a good look at what Valentine's followers are willing to do for him
-"Who am I kidding? I still suck at Incantos!"
-A season 1 character returns!
