SPOILER ALERT

Having been off our screens for such a period, short of Clary’s supposed demise, I must confess I have forgotten pretty much most of the plot points that have ever happened in Shadowhunters, and I am electing to rewatching the entire thing as soon as Season 3B has finished. I promise. But let’s face it, there’s a whole lot to remember. I mean, I was alright with the whole beginning with Valentine being the enemy, but then Jace was Clary’s brother but then he wasn’t, and then Valentine died, and then Jace died and then he came back from the dead? Like, there is a whole lot of middle in this series, it’s hard to keep up. And sometimes individual character’s storylines don’t really impact upon the main trajectory of the story arc and my brain always struggles to comprehend that. I seem to remember that Izzy struggled with addiction to yin fen, which comes from vampire venom, which then led to an affair with Raphael the vampire. I digress. This should be fun. Basically, the gist is that Lilith, the mistress of Hell – the first woman before Eve – sought to resurrect Clary’s (actual, this time) brother Jonathan Morgenstern, who Clary had killed at the end of Season 2. However, when Lilith turned on Simon to attack him, his protection mark placed upon him by the Seelie Queen activated and the apartment that he, Clary and Lilith in was destroyed, apparently destroying both Clary and Lilith.

That is the world that we step back into after 9 months away, which seems a trifle bizarre as the potential passing of Clary is hardly emotionally fresh in our minds. Nor, let’s face it, did any of us actually believe that Clary is dead. Therefore, it’s somewhat jarring to have to sit through an hour of television in which some characters are having quite dramatic reactions about Clary’s (non-existent) death. Indeed, we are even treated to a wonderful sentimental montage of character’s reactions, replete with stirring acoustic music and flashbacks to fun times that the characters had together, all the while being entirely aware that Clary is in no danger whatsoever. Because I find this so irritating, I am going to leave whatever Clary is up to until the very end, and instead focus upon the other characters in the episode.

Jace (Dominic Sherwood) starts the episode on some vendetta against enemies of the Clave, putting himself in mortal danger due to his feelings of guilt over Clary’s (Katherine McNamara) death. This isn’t even subtext, he literally admits this before the beginning credits have rolled. What is follows is Jace being suicidal, trashing his room and being comforted by Izzy (Esmeraude Toubio). Fortunately, however, Alec (Matthew Daddario) has had enough of his histrionics and tells Jace that he’s being selfish and not considering what he has got in his life, as opposed to what he’s lost. Which is needed, because the last thing the viewers need is some downward spiral at this stage. Jace meets up with Luke (Isaiah Mustafa) at a motel, where Luke seems especially manic. He is convinced that Clary is still alive, due to a drop in pressure at the apartment at the time that Clary died, consistent with the idea that the apartment was teleported instead of being destroyed…

Simon (Alberto Rosende) is similarly mourning Clary’s death and also blames himself because it was his protection rune that led to the apartment blowing up. His mourning conveniently coincides with Maia’s (Alisha Wainwright) return. Simon is determined to get rid of his protection mark as he believes that it is dangerous, even though Maia points out that it’s only dangerous to people who attack him. To be honest, to me it makes very little sense to get rid of the protection mark just because it hurt Clary. It seems fairly short sighted, and it’s a fairly good self defence mechanism for Simon. Still, Maia decides to help him and their search leads them to Raphael (David Castro) who tells them to find a vampire in the sewers who may or may not be real. Simon gets a map from Izzy and heads to the sewers to find a way to remove his mark…

Magnus (Harry Shum, Jr.) isn’t exactly mourning Clary, but he’s going through some pretty serious shit of his own, having given up his magic to depossess Jace in the previous episode. Being a centuries-old warlock, suddenly not having magic is an adjustment curve for him. This coincides with Madzie (Ariana Williams) and Catarina (Sophia Walker) coming to the apartment. These characters are apparently important enough for us to remember, yet not important enough to be featured on the “Previously” clips, so that leaves me at somewhat of a loss. Madzie has to stay with Alec and Magnus because Catarina is going to a medical convention of some sort. While staying over, Madzie’s previous guardian Iris (Stephanie Belding) appears and tries to take her. Alec manages to fight her off, and the Shadowhunters dedicate themselves to tracking Iris down, starting at a shop which is a front for warlock supplies. Magnus is then captured by Iris, where she begins trawling through his memories to find where Madzie is. Iris produces a letter supposedly written by Catarina claiming that the best place for Madzie is with her, so Magnus leads her to where Madzie is. Just as Iris embraces Madzie, she disappears and Izzy and Alec appear to arrest Iris and send her back to the Gard.

Izzy is concerned that the Clave aren’t treating Downworlders well, having heard rumours about them being tortured. She speaks to Consul Penhallow (Françoise Yip) about torturing Downworlders, which she staunchly denies, but we then see a werewolf destined for the Gard actually being tortured by guards, so looks like that’s a lie.

Right, I’m finally ready to talk about Clary. In what must have been hilarious for the editors involved, we cut straight from a dramatic montage of reactions to Clary’s death, to Clary herself waking up in the transported apartment. There, she sees Jonathan (Luke Baines), who she originally doesn’t recognise. She’s probably expecting to see Will Tudor, who I’m sure we all remember as the guy whose ass we saw fairly frequently in Game of Thrones. Clary is shocked to find that the apartment is no longer in New York, but instead in Siberia. Jonathan reveals that Lilith transported the apartment for their protection. After all (expository dialogue alert – except I really actually did need the reminder because I had totally forgotten), Clary is an escaped prisoner of the Clave, having brought Jace back to life at the end of Season 2 (which in my defence was a super long time ago. It also seems like a really mean punishment for somebody who brought life to somebody else. I’m just saying). Jonathan says that he just wants to be a happy family with Clary, and Clary smiles and asks him for breakfast. While he’s distracted, Clary plays her usual card of being rash and impulsive as opposed to strategising. I mean, honestly, how isn’t she dead yet? Grabbing a hooded cloak, she heads out into the wilderness of Siberia and expects to survive.

Unsurprisingly, she collapses in the snow, though this storyline is completely devoid of tension because we know she isn’t going to die because she is the main character and she only ‘died’ last episode, people. Predictably, she gets rescued by Jonathan and taken back to the apartment where she is openly hostile, failing to realise that the way through this safely is to just play along with whatever Jonathan is saying. Think it through, Clary. Jonathan goes to get firewood, which is highly illogical considering Clary is adamant that she doesn’t want to spend any time with him, and therefore is going to do something stupid. When Jonathan returns, Clary stabs him through the jaw. The moment would be triumphant, if it weren’t for the fact that Clary starts bleeding in exactly the same way. They both collapse on the floor until Jonathan heals himself and Clary’s wound heals too. Indicating the rune that they both share on their chest (Clary’s having been given to her by Lilith in the previous episode), he indicates that they are one. So, it appears that Jonathan can’t be killed or injured without hurting Clary, which seems to provide needless awkward storyline logistics, but there we go.

Fabulous, we survived! There’s the first episode out of the way. I realise that this recap comes across as disliking this show. To clarify, I think this show is great – I clearly have just forgotten most of what has happened in it and need to go back and rewatch it, which I intend to start doing starting tomorrow (because I don’t have enough TV to watch already, apparently). This episode is a good introduction into Season 3B, with some good signs of storyline potential. While some of them are hopefully not going to last long, such as the Shadowhunters being unaware that Clary is alive, some of them seem to have interesting potential, such as the indication of problems within the higher order of the Clave. I am also unsure as to the trajectory of the final episodes. Who is the Big Bad going to be? Jonathan doesn’t seem a compelling enough villain on his own; he seems more damaged and potentially redeemable. Only time will tell…

MUSINGS

• I think that I might find Clary annoying now. I hope that doesn’t last, but she really makes some dumb decisions in this episode. I mean, there’s being stubborn and fearless, and there’s just being stupid. Slow down, babe, take a breath and think things through. Please. I enjoy not being annoyed by you.
• I think Izzy might be my favourite character. She has been through such hardship during the course of the series, especially with her addiction storyline, and now she is the most grounded and emotionally stable of the group, able to see past her own problems and look at the bigger picture.
• While it’s tricky to see Magnus without magic, it’s great to imagine him and Alec having longevity in their relationship. It’s always been a barrier in their relationship that Magnus will outlive Alec, and now that won’t happen. Hopefully there’s a way for Magnus to regain his magic without being immortal.
• Maia is right to feel bad for not being there for Simon. Izzy was, certainly, and Izzy and Simon’s relationship is far more credible than Maia’s, regardless of how much she wants to be there now. Also I’ve totally forgotten why she left. Something to do with Praetor Lupus protecting Simon, I think?

I will see you next time, folks, when we journey back in time to refresh Mark’s memory of literally every episode up until now. I hope this was fun for you, because it was very confusing for me.

To view the other recaps of Shadowhunters Season 3, click here.
To view other recaps about Shadowhunters, click here.