In this episode of Shadowhunters, “The Descent into Hell is Easy,” Clary, her newfound Shadowhunter friends and even Simon head to the City of Bones to recover her lost memories, which will hopefully help them find her mother. Meanwhile, Dot scrambles to find and protect Clary, and Luke continues his own deception.
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Introductions
Since Simon showed up to get Clary in the Shadowhunters series premiere, this episode opens with Clary facing a choice to either stick with her new Shadowhunter hunk Jace or go back with Simon. Sine this show would be over very quickly if she did anything else, she chooses to go with Jace but convinces Simon to come with her, only telling him to “trust” her.
He is then introduced to the Institute and to more of Clary’s new friends, Alec and Isabelle. Izzy takes an immediate interest in the “nerd hot” Simon, which he doesn’t seem to mind, and he gets a crash course in the Shadowhunter world. Clary learns a bit more too, and she’s more determined than ever to find and save her mother.
And despite some sort of ban in place to hear anything about the Circle and the rebellion they staged that apparently Jocelyn was involved in somehow, Jace and Clary go speak to a former member, Hodge, who is now the Institute’s weapons master, to get information. Apparently, Jocelyn was one of his best friends, and though his rune marks seem to burn and hurt him when he speaks of his involvement with the Circle, he gives them a bunch of info. How convenient!
That information includes the fact that Valentine was the leader of the Circle and that Jocelyn hid the mortal cup and that’s why she’s in danger. Or, you know, partly why she’s in danger, I guess. Anyway, Jace and Clary then come to the conclusion that Clary has some memories of her mother talking about the whole thing that have been erased, so her next mission is to go to a group that can help her retrieve her memories: the Silent Brothers.
Luke’s Secret
I’m not really sure what Luke’s deal is, but he kills someone in this episode (a warlock woman), and words are exchanged about someone named Konrad being killed and an allegiance to Valentine. I dunno, it’s all still a little unclear to me.
Later, Dot tells Luke she sent Clary to him at the police station the other night, but neither of them know how she ended up. Which is decidedly Not Good. Dot decides to go after her, and Luke doesn’t stop her. And later, the other officer who’d seen Clary at the station that night looking for Luke asks after her, and Luke blows it off.
Luke later tells another seemingly evil dude that he’s pretty sure Clary saw him talking to the Circle that night and tells the other guy to go looking for Simon. So I’m still unsure of what Luke’s role is in all of this, but he clearly wants to find Clary just like everyone else.
To Search or Not to Search for Dot
Isabelle and Simon flirt some more, and she gets real serious when he asks if the Circle is bad news for his best friend. She states that the Circle wouldn’t be good for any of them. So … okay. They think the Circle is bad, but apparently Jocelyn and Hodge were in it when it was good, and Valentine made it bad? Or something? I’m not entirely sure.
Izzy later gives Clary a pep talk about being able to do the whole Shadowhunter thing and also reassures her that she and Jace are not an item. Because if there’s one thing a girl looking for her kidnapped and possibly dead mother should worry about, it’s whether the cute guy is available, am I right?
When the whole gang is talking about whether they should go after Dot and hopefully figure out what happened to Jocelyn (mixed opinions all around), Clary conveniently has a vision that will lead them right to her supposed “big sister” figure (Dot, for the record). Dot, meanwhile, has a conversation with Magnus in which he explains that he’s getting out of dodge with the rest of his warlocks, and soon after, she’s attacked. So the dude clearly had good instincts.
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The City of Bones
Apparently, the only way to find Dot and for Clary to get her missing memories back is to go through a ritual with these guys called the Silent Brothers who will somehow help her recover the lost memories. They reside in a place called the City of Bones, which is not daunting at all, of course.
So the whole group goes, even though Simon is clearly freaked-out and not understanding why Clary isn’t. She explains to her friend that she always felt like something was “missing” in her life, and this whole crazy Shadowhunter thing apparently fits the bill. Simon accepts this, for some reason, though he is upset when he can’t actually go into the City of Bones with her because he’ll apparently die if he does so. Yikes.
So Jace and Clary go together, and Simon and Izzy go off to listen to his indie rock band music in the car together. Alec is … somewhere else, checking the boundaries or something. Clary and Jace have a heart-to-heart about their pasts, and Jace is very into the whole “Valentine must pay” thing since apparently it’s the evil dude’s fault his dad is dead. Since his mother died when he was a baby, he ended up being raised from then on with Alec and Isabelle.
Then they hold hands for some reason and make their way further into the creepy cave. Eventually, they come upon the Silent Brothers, and Clary is warned that she might not be able to handle the Soul Sword that will retrieve her memories and she may die in the process. She decides to do it anyway, which is good since she learns quite the bombshell while she’s going through the whole thing.
The Reveal
Clary remembers a conversation between her mother and Luke, in which they talk about this other world she “can’t” know about. During the course of the conversation, Jocelyn states that Valentine is Clary’s real father. Did no one else see that coming?
Clary wakes up distraught, with good reason, of course, since she just found out her real dad is basically this super evil guy who ruined tons of lives. That’d be tough for anyone to handle.
The man himself, Valentine, is off attacking Dot, who he now has in a cage in his weird Chernobyl lair along with Jocelyn. He wants her to reverse Jocelyn’s spell, but she claims she can’t, hence the attacking.
When Dot manages to get out while he’s gone, she tries to go over to Jocelyn in her weird suspended animation state, but she’s attacked by a lackey. Valentine kills the guy, and it looks like he’s about to do the same to Dot when the scene cuts away. I think this is supposed to be scary and/or sad, but two episodes in, I just don’t care about the character that much yet, to be honest.
Capturing Simon
At some point while Izzy and Simon are hanging out in the car, she hears a noise outside and goes to investigate. Instead of, you know, listening for what might be going on while he’s stuck inside the locked car, Simon starts listening to what is presumably his own band’s music and is attacked from within the vehicle. Am I supposed to like this guy?
When Jace and Clary leave the City of Bones, they inform Alec of what they learned (which is not the location of the mortal cup but is still a pretty big deal anyway), but the revelation is undercut by the fact that Isabelle returns and says she can’t find Simon. We quickly learn why: some dude from a group called the Night Children (I think?) and his friend have him, and they taunt the group by saying they can have him back if they bring the kidnappers the mortal cup. That shouldn’t be a problem, except for the fact that Clary and her group still don’t know where it is!
And that’s the end of the second episode of Shadowhunters! I’m still not entirely sure what is happening, and it’s all frankly happening a little too fast for me to have any real emotional attachment to the characters or reactions to what is going on. But we’re only two episodes in and hopefully things will only improve for this new drama series.
Shadowhunters airs Tuesday nights at 9pm on Freeform.
(Image courtesy of Freeform)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
