Friday, April 13, 2018

Shadowhunters, Season 3, Episode 4: The Soul Instructed




We all need more Jace angst. Apparently. Let’s make this even more fun by having Lillith be one of those villains who feels the need to exposition her motives which are already pretty obvious

Did you know Lillith loved her son and is now sacrificing people to bring him back? Did this news shock you? Did you actually not need Lillith to tell an entranced Jace all about it? Do you actually have the cognitive function greater than a small terrapin?

So after this unnecessary exposition Lillith learns that Jace’s owl trance can be broken by the touch of Clary because everything must centre her

Clary frets over Jace but Jace won’t tell anyone what he’s going through on account of Clary using up the world’s one angel wish on his sorry arse and not on something more important like cheese that tastes awesome while also being zero calories or that any chef who makes “foam” fall into a volcano. Or for acting lessons. Clary missed so many opportunities

He continues in full denial. And when Alec asks after him both Jace and Clary refuse to answer questions. Alec is also concerned because Jace’s suicidal mother had mental health problems and he wants to offer support for Jace in case he has inherited some issues. Jace doesn’t react well to this news and continues to deny

But he does go to see Luke who confirms that, yes, his mother had some problems with hallucinations but refused all help. Which is pretty much what Jace is going to do. And I’m not even going to begin to talk about representation of mental illness here since we know he’s not mentally ill but I WILL give the nod that Luke and Alec both speak in terms of support and care rather than fear which is something

What Jace does, all Owly, is go into the basement and uses woo-woo to depossess the woman from last episode, turning her non-demon: because a demonic possession could be used to track Lillith.

This is going to keep on going for some time.

Heidi, the vampire Raphael captured who escaped last episode has now run amok, eating people and generally being a naughty vampire. Izzy and Clary are on the hunt and take the time hunting dangerous vampires to talk about Izzy’s love life. Basically she likes hot doctor but really he’s mundane and she’s still focused on Raphael


Raphael is also hunting Heidi and while Clary and Izzy are killing the new vampire she turned, Raphael fights Heidi. And loses - and gets chained up nearly naked on a rooftop. Time for people to exposition things they already know at each other!

So, Heidi was locked up by Raphael to experiment on, exposing her to sunlight to try and create a daylighter. This is a pretty unpleasant thing to do. So she’s chained him near naked just before dawn so he can die in daylight. Along the way we learn she has had some major issues with family and abandonment.

Izzy and Clary arrive in time to rescue him while he claims that he totally didn’t know the vampire.  Izzy doesn’t buy it - the revenge is too elaborate. Raphael confesses to her, talking about his family and how he wanted to be in the sunlight with his sister and she is utterly outraged that he decided it was acceptable to torture someone like this for his happiness. She is really mega pissed but agrees not to report him - but insists he leave the city

I am glad that she isn’t buying his justification but at the same time don’t really want Raphael to leave. Apart from anything else he was one of the few Downworlders who would not bow to the Shadowhunters’ every whim

Speaking of - Luke is getting a lot of anger from Maia over kicking Simon out and apparently accepting the inevitability of vampire/werewolf hatred. She also doesn’t buy protecting the pack since Simon’s rune only works in self-defence

Simone rambles around homeless (and looking extra sexy) when he’s nearly run over by a an Australian bike messenger who also happens to have an awesome apartment, a need for a room mate and shiny Simon kibble just designed to lure him in. Simon thinks he should say no because of the rune and vampire thing - but Maia insists this is far too great an opportunity to pass up

And it is - because this is all too perfect a lure for him. And we see why when Ryan gets a call from Luke looking like Luke contacted him to set it up. But Ryan isn’t subject to Luke - he says that Simon belongs to Praetorians. It’s clear Luke’s rank doesn’t command him

Lillith also visits Magnus

There’s no way this can end well.

I would say the greatest impediment to enjoying this show (beyond the writing) is that the main characters - Jace and Clary - are the least interesting people on this show. Alec, Simon, Magnus, Raphael, Izzy? All waaaay more interesting.