What’s in the SHADOWHUNTERS’ Sangria?

Season 2, Episode 8 “Love is a Devil”
Written by Y. Shireen Razack
Directed by Catriona McKenzie

[All images courtesy of Freeform]

On last week’s episode of Shadowhunters, Simon (Alberto Rosende) got dating advice from Jace (Dominic Sherwood), but it led him astray with Maia (Alisha Wainwright). Clary (Katherine McNamara) teamed up with Sister Cleophas (Lisa Berry) to get the Soul Sword back from Valentine (Alan Van Sprang), and Jace teamed up with Luke (Isaiah Mustafa) to protect Clary. Valentine ended up kidnapping Cleophas while Jace and Clary freed the angel Ithuriel (Alec Stockwell), who was being held captive by Valentine. He also showed them a vision of a figure destroying the Soul Sword. For my full recap and review from last week, you can go here. This week’s recap and review and below!

We start off this week with Izzy (Emeraude Toubia) in the alley surrounded by vampires. She is still trying to get her fix of vampire venom, which is the addictive ingredient in the Yin Fen that Aldertree (Nick Sagar) got her hooked on. The whole situation doesn’t go well for her. Luckily, Raphael (David Castro) steps in and orders the other vampires away. He doesn’t get a whole lot of screen time, but it’s always nice when he does. Castro has a great presence and intensity that’s very fitting of his character.

The show seems to be leading Raphael and Izzy into a possible romantic relationship, which I would be totally fine with. I actually like them together! I know plenty of Sizzy (Simon + Izzy) fans aren’t excited about another roadblock in the development of that relationship, but I don’t think it would hurt anything to explore more bonds between additional characters.

Luke is not very happy with Clary and Jace for keeping what the Soul Sword can do from him. I don’t usually comment much on Mustafa, but I really do like him as Luke. He’s kind, but he can also be fierce, and he can switch between the two quickly.

We do find out here that the vision Jace and Clary received from Ithuriel is of a demon that can destroy the Soul Sword. It doesn’t look like an easy-to-defeat demon to me, so I’m sure that’s going to make for an interesting story line in the future! It’s also a demon Jace doesn’t recognize, so that adds some more mystery to the plot.

The adorable youngest Lightwood has also returned to the Institute! Max (Jack Fulton) has finished his training and is ready for his rune ceremony, which will give him his shadowhunter rune. Because Alec’s (Mathew Daddario) father is in Idris still, that leaves Alec in charge of planning Max’s party.

The tension in the scene flares when Maryse (Nicola Correia-Damude) mentions Jocelyn (Maxim Roy), and Izzy gets mad they didn’t hear from her during the Rite of Mourning. We also find out from Max that their parents have been fighting because of Alec’s warlock boyfriend, Magnus (Harry Shum Jr.).

Talk about Magnus, Alec ends up roping him in to plan the party. It’s been far too long since we’ve seen a fun warlock party, so I was very excited we’d get another one this episode!

Iris (Stephanie Belding) is back, as well, though I don’t know many people who are excited about that. The last time we saw her, she had made a blood oath with Clary in exchange for bringing Jocelyn back, but she ended up wanting Clary to have a demon baby, which was really creepy. She also escaped with her daughter, Madzie (Ariana Williams), who I would like to learn more about because of her gills.

So, Simon finally declares his love for Clary, and it goes way better than I expected, to be honest! She actually ends up kissing him, which I really didn’t see coming. Clary and Simon are fine together, but I like them with the partners they end up with later. They just seem to fit better with other characters.

I loved the scene with Jace reading on the roof! Not only do I love cats, but Jace being surrounded by them just seemed awesome and hilarious. The fact that Magnus feeds all of them just makes me wish he were my friend in real life! Jace is also back to his usual self, and he shows his protective side of Alec, which just portrays some of the layers Jace has to him.

The whole party part of this episode was fantastic! So much happened there, and it was so confusing and intriguing, that it kept me in suspense the whole time! We get a little Jace and Maia banter, which I love, before Simon and Clary show up together and deflate both of them.

The awkward dynamic between Jace, Clary, and Simon was practically palpable through the screen, but I always love Sherwood’s ability to convey so many emotions with the smallest expressions.

I also love Maryse’s tense interaction with Magnus when they arrive. She has made it clear she doesn’t really approve of the Malec relationship, and her gift of alcohol because he likes to drink was great! Magnus is such an amazing character, and Shum does such a great job portraying him!

Then the real drama starts! First off, Clary sees Maia and Simon kissing, which seems so far out of the range of normal Simon behavior that it’s hard to believe she would accept it so easily. Then again, she did see it herself, and she’s still young and emotional.

I love the way Magnus lovingly calls Clary “biscuit” and helps her through the drama in a kind but firm way. The night is for Max, after all, so relationship stuff has to be saved for later.

Back over to Izzy, and she’s obviously on the hunt for more venom. Raphael appears behind her, but he’s not interested in biting her again. Not only is straight venom stronger than Yin Fen, shadowhunter blood is stronger than mundane blood, so they both lose on the deal. I don’t like that Izzy forces him to bite her by cutting her arm and putting the blood directly on his lips, though.

We get to see Magnus’s cat eyes again, and we find out that’s actually his warlock mark, which just makes me even more jealous, but that’s beside the point. The drama escalates when Jace tells Max to apologize for asking probing questions, and Max tells Jace he doesn’t have to listen to him because Jace isn’t his brother or even part of his family, according to Maryse.

I was pretty surprised when Maryse went to “apologize” to Jace and ended up throwing an axe at him, though they did show that part in the preview, so it wasn’t a complete shock. What was surprising was how easily Jace knocked her out after about two hits, since she is a pretty strong fighter.

Raphael, the voice of reason, tells Izzy she needs to detox from vampire venom so she can just get past the withdrawals and be able to function again. We also learn that he, himself, was saved by Magnus when he was addicted to human blood. I always love backstory!

Clary goes off to continue the drama by confronting Maia and Simon, who are openly flirting by the bar, but Magnus steps in. When he looks back, he sees Simon actually talking to Raj (Raymond Ablack), and that’s when you realize something is definitely going on that’s causing them to see things.

Magnus realizes it, too, when he overhears Jace say Maryse tried to kill him and sees her lying on the floor of the other room. He tells Clary to stay put, but in true Clary form, she bolts as soon as he leaves, and that’s when it really escalates. I hate that Alec has already been having such a hard time coping with killing Jocelyn, and has finally started being comfortable around Clary again, when the hallucinations cause him to see her accusing him of being a murderer.

Daddario is my favorite actor in this series, and he does such a great job in every scene. He portrays the reaction and emotions from what he experiences really well, and it’s really heartbreaking to see his character go through it.

Because of Alec’s interaction with Clary, he ends up going to the roof to jump off. It was a really intense scene, and a lot of viewers had some serious concerns with it strictly because there was no trigger warning before the show/scene. It got especially intense when he actually does jump. Of course, Magnus arrives just in time to catch him, but the whole scene was very emotional.

When everyone gathers on the roof, they all are at each other’s throats, and Magnus realizes they’re under a spell. He gets his spellbook and fixes everything, cause he’s a warlock and he can. I loved how he threw his wards up around the building as soon as his book disappears, too.

After everyone leaves and he realizes the intruder is a cat, we get an epically awesome warlock battle between Magnus and Iris, who was hiding out in his place!! I loved when she froze everyone and he reflexively blocked her spell fast enough to not get frozen himself.

After she loses and unfreezes everyone, she changes her blood oath with Clary to require her to find Madzie, who’s being held by Valentine, before Magnus portals her to Idris. I wonder if the Clave gets tired of him just randomly portalling people there for them to take care of.

Afterwards, Clary and Jace end up telling everyone what happened with Ithuriel, the truth about the Soul Sword, and the runes Clary was shown. It turns out Clary probably has angel blood in her, and that’s why Ithuriel was able to show her the runes. That also means that Valentine wants her because she can actually activate the Soul Sword herself!

At Max’s rune ceremony, I loved the dresses Izzy and Clary were wearing! And the guys looked sharp in their suits, as well. Afterwards, we get an emotional scene with Maryse when she not only apologizes to Jace (she does care!), but also admits her husband is cheating on her.

I appreciate that this show at least mentions real world problems like drug addiction, depression, cheating, intolerance, etc. Because it’s a young adult show, it probably won’t address them as effectively as would be best, but I like that they at least try to bring some things to light.

I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how each relationship in this series evolves and changes. What are you hoping to see in the last two episodes for this half of the second season? Comment below and let me know!

 

Shadowhunters airs on Mondays at 8/7c on Freeform. You can watch all of the episodes on the Freeform app or website. And don’t forget to come back each week for a new recap and review here!