Oh, where has Madzie gone in this week’s new episode of Shadowhunters? Now that Clary knows that Valentine took Madzie, it is her blood oath to go find her, but she’s on a time limit because apparently Iris put a blood curse on her that if Clary didn’t find Madzie in time she would die. One has to wonder if this was a precaution before or after Iris was captured by Valentine, because if it was after, then that makes Iris a partial genius. If Clary saved Madzie, then she would be safe like Iris intended, but if not, then at least Clary would die and the soul sword wouldn’t have someone to use it. It’s a shame that we don’t know and may never know Iris true intentions.
We do know the intentions of Valentine, at least for the most part. The show continues to push the envelope and reveal just how bad he actually is, but at the same time, it tries to subvert that. When he’s with Madzie, he always treats her nicely and acts like a good guardian, but then you remember that he kidnapped her, oh, and now he’s using her for his own gain. The only thing that makes it worse is that he plans to eliminate the Downworlders, so he’s using this poor little girl to eventually destroy herself. If that’s not pure evil, then I don’t know what is.
It was nice that even though Clary had the curse going on we at least got a chance to see her handle herself against Maia instead of her simply acting weak the entire episode. Her relationship with Simon is progressing well, and if you’ve never watched the show before you would’ve thought they’d been dating for a long time. It seems for the best that the two of them aren’t awkward around each other since they’ve known one another forever.
Simon got mainly better, but also slightly worse this episode. He’s being a good boyfriend. The fact that he helped Clary against Maia even though he couldn’t walk out into the sun was a nice touch. The issue came later in the episode when he said that he couldn’t protect Clary on his own. It made sense that he wanted more help, but he keeps forgetting the fact that he’s a vampire and has powers now. Simon needs to see more worth in himself, and he needs to learn to use his powers better. He needs to be more like he was towards the end when he talked to that vampire and started beating him, even though the aggression was a bit much. Maybe Simon has a darker side to him than he lets on. If he does, it might not come out next episode now that he’s been taken by Valentine and Clary has to save him.
A lot of this episode was talking about what to do with Clary. The Downworlders meeting was a good scene for several reasons. It displayed the heads of power, and it reminded the viewers that it was characters they already knew, especially Meliorn who hasn’t been seen since last season. His views have changed and instead of wanting to help Clary he thinks it’s best that she be killed on sight. Meliorn also brought up the bias that Luke and Magnus have towards Shadowhunters since they’re both involved with them. That could shift important decisions down the road. He also revealed that Raphael is with Izzy, which was a surprising twist because it could’ve been assumed that a main character would’ve find it out on their own, but I guess not.
Izzy doesn’t seem to be getting any better, and Raphael’s speel about getting clean last episode was clearly for nothing. Now the two of them are feeding each other’s addictions which is only making things worse. Their romance feels fake, and it’s why the conversation between Magnus and Raphael was needed. The two “love birds” probably don’t like one another and are simply using each other. The intervention of Alec felt right, but he left too quickly when Izzy told him to leave. Based on his character traits and patterns, he should’ve tried harder. Despite Izzy’s condition getting worse, it was interesting that she didn’t accept Aldertree’s dinner date. He put her on the drug in the first place.
That information was used to put Alec in power. Now that Alec knows about Aldertree, he has something on him, but how long will that last? Aldertree is not one for being played and will surely retaliate. Alec might be in real trouble.
Last but not least is Maia. Once again the show has put her in a position that doesn’t make sense. Her strong urge to kill Clary wasn’t justified in the way that the episode betrayed it. Her anger would’ve made sense if there was a small scene of her telling the pack about Clary being needed to use the sword, or if she was upset that Simon was now with her and wolfed out because she couldn’t control her emotions. Instead she showed up unannounced and attacked randomly. Shadowhunters also keeps trying to play up that Luke and her are close, but it’s not landing because they never have those moments. Luke locked her in a closet knowing that she was claustrophobic, which made no sense if they’re close. Also he should have known she’d wolf out and break free. The show is wasting her character and needs to give her more time and better writing.
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Episode rating: 6/10
Shadowhunters airs Mondays at 8/7c on Freeform.
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