Shadowhunters - Beside Still Water - Review + POLL

In the season finale of Shadowhunters, Jace and Clary follow Valentine to Lake Lynn where they are almost killed by the Consul who is a Circle member. They manage to kill him. Valentine succeeds in raising the angel Raziel after killing Jace but Clary overpowers and kills him. She then asks the angel to bring Jace back. Jonathan opens a rift that releases a lot of demons. Alec asks Magnus for help but they seem to be unable to find some of the demons. They reconcile. Jonathan is seen with a mystery woman at the end of the episode. Simon and Luke go to the Seelie Court to get Maia. The Queen lets her go but later Simon returns as a part of their deal. Jace experiences pain at the end of the episode. 

Favorite scene: If I remember correctly (let's be honest, details have become so hazy), we never really got to see Alec’s side to Jace’s “death” in the books. But anyone who has read The Infernal Devices knows how painful it is when you lose your parabatai. I’m really glad they decided to include that scene. The flashes of memories just made it that much more heart-wrenching. The relationship between Alec and Jace has always been one of my favorites and I hope we’ll get to see more of it next season. 

Finally: I’m not sure what was up with Magnus these past few episodes but I hope this is the end of it. His refusal to help Maia seemed so odd and he was rather hostile towards Alec. Sure, he has a right to be angry at Alec for lying to him but this seemed extreme. I’m glad they managed to work things out. I hope season 3 is a bit more drama free for them. 

Out with the old: I’m so glad Valentine is gone. He was seriously starting to get on my nerves. The dynamic between him, Clary and Jace was interesting in the first season but started to get repetitive very quickly. There just didn’t seem to be that much depth to him. I found him lacking in terms of the motivation behind his actions. I think it’s interesting that Clary is the one who killed him. I wonder if this will affect her later on. She’s killed demons before but killing her own father isn’t quite the same. At least she got to avenge her mother’s death (and Jace’s, I guess). 

In with the new: As predicted (duh!), Jonathan is still alive. I don’t quite understand how he managed to create a rift to summon those demons while he was in that state but he clearly has a plan. We saw a mystery woman with him at the end of the episode. I won’t get into who that is exactly (to avoid spoilers) but she definitely isn’t human. We can be relatively certain that she came from Edom, where Jonathan was for quite some time, and he referred to her as “Mother”. 

Needs to be said: So this isn’t really the fault of the show but more that of whoever is in charge of promotion. You can’t announce a “big death” and then have it be a character that is brought back five seconds later. Jocelyn was a “big death”, Jace (who was only dead for five minutes) was not. You got me all hyped up for nothing. 

What’s next: Since we won’t be getting any new episodes until January, there’s a lot of room for speculation on what’s next. Most of the characters seem to be in a good place. Valentine is gone, but Jonathan is still around with a new ally (pretty sure I know who it is, but I won’t mention any book spoilers). Simon seems to be in a precarious situation. Not sure if his deal with the queen is that he stays there instead of Maia or if it’s something else. If it is the former, I find it weird that he wouldn’t have said more of a goodbye to his friends and family. The writers do seem to be headed in a different direction with Simon than I had expected. Simon didn’t have a whole lot going on in the later books so perhaps they’re just trying to stretch things out. Luke is also in hot water with his colleague. I wonder what she’s planning to do with the information she found. Is she just curious or is there more going on. She seemed nice in the beginning. And then there’s Jace who doesn’t seem alright after being resurrected. But I’m sure that’ll be addressed almost immediately when the show returns. I do hope season 3 brings a better storyline for Izzy. I wasn’t all that happy with the direction the writers went for her character this season so I hope we get a better storyline in season 3. 

Best quotes: Magnus: “A wise man once told me: “Relationships take effort.”” Alec: “Yeah. Well, that was an understatement.” 
Luke: “Jace! Come on, bring it in.” Jace: “No! Wet dog, man.” Luke: “I’m sticky, I know.” Jace: “You are sticky.” Luke: “I am coming back for you.” 

That’s it for this season. Do not check in again next week for an all-new review because there won’t be one but do let me know in the comments what you thought of this week’s episode. 

Please be respectful in the comments, any unnecessary rudeness isn't welcome.