SHADOWHUNTERS Review: “Salt in the Wound”

SHADOWHUNTERS – “Salt In The Wound” (Freeform/John Medland)
EMERAUDE TOUBIA, MATTHEW DADDARIO, HARRY SHUM JR., KATHERINE MCNAMARA, ALBERTO ROSENDE

SHADOWHUNTERS REVIEW: “SALT IN THE WOUND”

BY KATHERINE PFAHLER

Things are ramping up on this week’s Shadowhunters as we get closer and closer to the mid-season finale. Now that the gang knows Jace is the Owl demon, and Lilith is one step closer to resurrecting Jonathan it’s a race against the clock to stop their endgame.

Picking up right where we left off last week, Luke attempts to prevent a possessed Ollie from killing her girlfriend, Sam, with a warning call to her to get away. I’m glad they addressed this early on, since it was definitely a big worry I had last week. While it’s hard to hear an emotionless Ollie state that she’s killed her mother, I’m glad they didn’t fall back on the “bury your gays” trope. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep it up.

With Luke dealing with the Ollie situation, it’s up to Clary to follow Jace. She manages to catch up with him on a rooftop where they fight it out. Attempting to reach the real Jace, Clary says that she loves him—but with Lilith’s potion in effect it doesn’t work. Jace grabs Clary and tells her he doesn’t love her anymore, and then drops her off the roof. It’s a chilling scene (that’s honestly a bit hard to watch) that sets the tone for the violence occurring throughout the rest of the episode. After landing on top of a car (and receiving several broken bones), Clary makes a call to Simon, who is dealing with issues of his own as well. But best friends are best friends and he makes use of his vamp speed to rush to Clary’s aide.

Back at the Institute, the other Lightwood siblings get caught up to speed as well. Not only does Clary tell the group that Jace is the Owl demon, but she also confesses how it was possible in the first place. Because Jace died and was brought back to life by the angel Raziel, he became more vulnerable to demonic possession. Katherine McNamara does a great job in this particular scene when Clary reveals the truth (especially in regards to Alec), and you can see that it’s a big weight off her shoulders. Both Clary (and McNamara) have come a long way since season one. Clary is willing to admit she messed up, and own up to her mistakes. However, no matter how sorry she is, the biggest issue remains that Alec is the Head of the Institute, and Clary’s lie isn’t one the Clave will take lightly. Rather than reprimand her, Alec instead pulls her in for a hug, letting her know he would have done the same thing. I loved this scene because it shows how far they’ve come, and I would really like it if Clary would stop keeping these secrets from Alec to give the Fraywood brotp a true chance to rise.

With everyone in the know about Jace, they decide the best thing to do is trap him. Isabelle informs them of a greater-level demon cage, the Malachi Configuration, that’s being kept away in Idris. If they can get hold of that without the Clave’s knowledge, ridding Jace of Lilith’s influence will be much easier. While Izzy, Alec, and Clary head to Alicante, Magnus, still feeling guilty, offers to find a reversal for the spell he gave Lilith. He tells Alec that he’ll do whatever he can to help Jace, and they embrace. They both apologize for the things they said while arguing in the last episode and it’s an all-around sweet moment. While the subject of Magnus’ immortality is still important, and I definitely believe it’ll be something they deal with in 3B, the topic seems tabled for now.

With the Shadowhunters going to Alicante to deal with Jace, Luke and Simon team up to find Lilith’s lair and hopefully a way to break through Ollie’s possession. They’re overdue for some adoptive father/son bonding time, and Simon is helpful protection for Luke now that he has the Mark of Cain. Luke manages to track Ollie’s scent to Lilith’s lair, but then advises they should split up (which is clearly a terrible idea, nothing good ever happens in those situations!). While Luke investigates Lilith’s fancy altar, Simon goes searching for clues to help reverse the mundane possessions. Two of Lilith’s disciples manage to corner Simon, who wants to avoid using the Mark on people who are still technically human. When he calls out to Luke for help, Ollie suddenly appears in front of Luke (this is why we don’t split up, guys!). He tries to break through to her by reminding her of her love for Sam, but it’s no use. Before they go head to head, on Simon’s end the two disciples don’t heed Simon’s warnings and proceed to attack him. As they charge at him the Mark flares up and turns them to salt. Lilith, who must have a physical connection to the disciples, screams out, which sends Ollie running to her side.

In Alicante, Clary, Izzy, and Alec take their concerns about Jace to Imogen Herondale. If anyone has good reason to keep the situation quiet, it’s her. She agrees to help get them in to the armory to retrieve the Malachi Configuration. The plan is going rather well, which is a sure sign things are about to blow up in their faces. Things do go south when Jace shows up in Imogen’s office, as he was sent by Lilith to get flesh from Valentine (an ingredient in her resurrection plans). Despite her best efforts to not let Jace know she’s aware he’s the Owl, it’s no use. We get treated to another shocking scene where he kills his grandmother. Before dying Imogen does manage to get a fire message to Alec that Jace is there.

While it is hard to watch Jace kill Imogen, getting invested in her character wasn’t really possible, since she dies earlier in the books (and as much as I love the Herondale family, the later generations until Jace are definitely not my favorite). What’s more worrisome is what Jace’s mental state will be when he wakes up for real. He’s been through a lot already with Valentine and literally dying, to now being possessed to kill mundanes, hurt the love of his life and his siblings, kill the only living relative he knows—it’s too much for anyone to handle, so I hope it’s handled properly and not just glossed over.

Rushing to the cemetery in Alicante, Alec, Izzy, and Clary find Jace before he can get what he needs. Thinking quickly on their feet they fire up the trap right there and thankfully it works. Before they can get caught by the Shadowhunters on patrol, Clary portals them to Magnus’ loft while she stays behind to deal with the fallout.

While Luke and Simon dealt with Ollie and Alec, Clary, Izzy and Magnus worked on trying to fix Jace, the best scenes in the episode were courtesy of Alisha Wainwright, who finally gets to delve in to Maia’s backstory with Jordan. While it starts out cute and flirty (it doesn’t help that I am intensely charmed by Chai Hanson), things turn sour after Jordan receives a scratch from a “stray dog.” It’s unsettling when he tells Maia that he doesn’t want her to go to college because of “their dream,” and the next flashback scene reveals that they’ve broken up. Of course now Jordan is stalking her, so it’s not looking up. He gets jealous, turns into a werewolf, and ends up attacking Maia and abandoning her on the road. In present day (after his identity is revealed) Jordan tries to skip out on his Praetor assignment with Simon, but Maia isn’t having it. She lays into him about leaving her and never checking on her again—she doesn’t want any of his excuses and it’s all around a powerful scene and Wainwright absolutely kills it. She tells Jordan “You’re not abandoning Simon they way you abandoned me” and I almost stood up and cheered. There’s still some sketchy stuff from the book I’m hoping they completely get rid of regarding their relationship, but I’m so happy that this moment was handled so incredibly well.

I really enjoyed this episode (much more than last week) and next week looks to be even more intense with surprise confrontation between Lilith and the Seelie Queen, and what looks to be a conscious Jace asking Alec and Izzy to kill him before being possessed again (though I have my suspicions this might be Owl trickery).

Episode Highlights:

• I’m not sure if it was an intentional shout-out to the Infernal Devices, or if it just keeping up the trend of Maia being a woman after my own heart who enjoys Victorian classics. Either way, her having a copy of A Tale of Two Cities was a Moment.
• Any time Catarina and Magnus have scenes together I can’t help but want more. Their friendship is so great and supportive and I would really love to see/hear them talk about their past adventures together and with Ragnor Fell.
• As a general rule, I love all Malec scenes. I love them especially when they make up after an argument, which does wonders to relieve my stress from the good angst, and gives them a chance to be the ultimate battle power couple.
• I’m so happy they’ve introduced Jia Penhallow as the Consul. She’s a low key favorite character of mine from the books, and I’m also hoping that her introduction means we’ll get more Aline scenes soon.