SHADOWHUNTERS Gears Up to Pit Downworlders Against Downworlders

Season 2, Episode 9 “Bound by Blood”
Written by Peter Binswanger
Directed by Matt Hastings

[All images courtesy of Freeform]

On last week’s episode of Shadowhunters, Raphael (David Castro) agreed to bite Izzy (Emeraude Toubia) in order to help with her withdrawals from Yin Fen, which is made with vampire venom. Alec (Matthew Daddario) threw a party for his brother Max (Jack Fulton) with the help of Magnus (Harry Shum Jr.). Simon (Alberto Rosende) finally confessed his feelings for Clary (Katherine McNamara) so they ended up getting together. Iris (Stephanie Belding) crashed the party and caused everyone to hallucinate before stealing Magnus’s spellbook and telling Clary her blood oath was now to find Madzie (Ariana Williams), who was kidnapped by Valentine (Alan Van Sprang). For a full recap and review of last week’s episode, you can go here. This week’s recap and review are below.

We start out this week with Clary and Simon making out in the canoe he sleeps in at the Jade Wolf. Clary’s afraid it’s going to fall off since it keeps rocking precariously, and so am I. With a vampire or not, I would be terrified to be up there. I thought it was hilarious that she throws Simon’s shirt and hits Jace (Dominic Sherwood) in the face, but his reactions to everything, especially when Simon is involved, are just awesome to me! I’m becoming more and more a fan of Sherwood with each episode. I also love how he and Simon bicker, which they do a lot.

The show touched on Alec’s issues while he was hallucinating in the last episode. They seem to make it a point that he would never actually hurt himself and that he’s not having that big of a problem to where anyone should be concerned. Based on how Alec was handling killing Jocelyn, and the very nature of that event itself, it really seems like a bigger issue than how they’re handling it. The situation feels dismissed and swept under the rug instead of actually addressed.

While they’re talking, Jace, Simon, and Clary all come in because Clary’s hand has turned black. It turns out that the blood oath Iris made her agree to is actually magically binding, and she’ll have to find Madzie before the spell reaches her heart or she’ll die. Talk about motivation!

I started out really liking Aldertree (Nick Sagar). Though he seemed very strict in his dedication to the rules, he still seemed to be a decent guy. He’s definitely changed a great deal over the course of the season, and especially within the Yin Fen and Izzy story. He just keeps acting creepy, but that may be the authority difference between the characters. He seems to have some hidden motive that I can’t figure out yet, and he even invites Izzy on a date then forcefully grabs her arm when she says no and turns to leave. I’m not sure where his development is going, but I don’t like the direction it’s headed in.

Maia (Alisha Wainwright) is definitely my favorite werewolf of the series. I love her character and her acting. Maia ends up attacking Clary in order to save all of the downworlders since Clary can be used to activate the Soul Sword now. The downside of vampires comes into play during the attack as Simon can’t help Clary since it’s daylight. This made me curious when Simon actually sleeps, though. He should be nocturnal since he can only go outside at night, and yet he’s up all day with Clary. He must have a lot of energy as an eternal teenager!

Dot (Vanessa Matsui) makes another appearance! The last time we saw her was when Valentine stole the Soul Sword and she portaled them out of the City of Bones. She’s definitely not handling the injections well as she looks to be deteriorating and she can’t use her magic much anymore. She’s now tasked with getting Madzie ready with her own magic. Valentine even says the girl is strong for her age, which makes me even more curious about Madzie’s background.

Alec has been going through a lot lately, so I think it’s fairly acceptable that he didn’t notice anything going on with Izzy. He’s noticing something’s up now, though, but Aldertree doesn’t admit to anything, of course. Adding to Aldertree’s shadiness, he lies and tries to intimidate Alec.

I personally really like Raphael and Izzy together, aside from the addiction they actually have to each other. I think they’d be an awesome couple if they cleaned up and actually got together for a reason other than addictive blood/venom.

We’ve gotten a background story of Luke (Isaiah Mustafa) and Maia together in a previous episode, and because of that it’s even more emotional that Luke ends up locking Maia in a storage room because of her attack on Clary. She obviously feels betrayed that Luke picks Clary over her, and she’s already been abandoned by everyone else she cared about, so it’s just that much more painful. Not to mention her claustrophobia!

I was really surprised Jace agreed to give his jacket to the homeless guy in exchange for Madzie’s scarf, but I guess he’d give up everything to save Clary. You can also see his and Simon’s differences when Clary asks them to promise to kill her before letting Valentine use her to activate the Soul Sword. Simon is caring and reassuring, but refuses to promise to kill her. Jace is more upfront with her and makes the promise, though he later tells Simon he was lying, because it’s what he knows she wants.

Meliorn (Jade Hassouné) also makes a reappearance! We haven’t seen him since season 1 when he opened a hole to the alternate dimension in order for Clary to find the portal there and get to Valentine. Where he used to have a leaf design on his face, he now has scars as his punishment for helping Clary. He looks more war hardened because of it, and the armor helps with that new image.

While Luke and Magnus want everyone to work together to help the Shadowhunters, the Seelies disagree. Meliorn proposes Clary should be killed on sight and suggests the reason they haven’t decided that yet is because they’re all too close to the Shadowhunters. Luke had Jocelyn (Maxim Roy), Magnus has Alec, and Raphael has Izzy. Of course, Raphael denies that, but Meliorn says he can smell her perfume on him. Seelies may not be able to lie, but it does seem they can get jealous.

In order to defend his judgement, Raphael agrees that he would kill Clary if it meant protecting their people. It seems to be the Seelies and vampires versus the warlocks, werewolves, and shadowhunters right now, and I wonder how a war between those groups would turn out.

After a tiff between Alec and Magnus, Alec finds out what’s really going on with Izzy. I feel bad for Magnus, as he really didn’t know the extent of what was going on until Meliorn said Raphael and Izzy were together. I’m surprised he believed Izzy, though.

While Clary and Simon have their emotional moment together on top of the van, Jace finds Valentine and Madzie in a café. Madzie is already doing her own magic for fun, as she turns her hot chocolate into a popsicle. When Jace shows up, Valentine contemplates pulling his knife, but stops after looking at Madzie. It seems he may care a little tiny bit about some people. Of course, he could also just be trying not to scare her so she still helps him out. I always love Sherwood and Van Sprang together. Their tension adds to their intensity and they work so well together!

The Yin Fen tension seems to reach its peak when Alec breaks into Raphael’s place while he and Izzy are together. Alec actually attacks Raphael, who ends up admitting his feelings for Izzy evolved past just a blood addiction. I was surprised that Raphael didn’t really fight back and just let Alec hit him, but maybe he felt he deserved it. Of course, Raphael is one of the downworlders Magnus took under his wing and saved, so he stops Alec.

I don’t like that Izzy is being manipulated and pulled on (literally) by so many different guys. She’s such a strong person that it really does her a disservice to be controlled by the men in her life. After Alec physically removes Izzy from Raphael’s place, Magnus tells Raphael to clean up and then see if he still feels the same about Izzy. Magnus obviously isn’t happy about the situation either.

Of course, Jace’s ultimatum to Valentine in order to save Clary pays off, and at the last minute he shows up with Madzie to save her. I was surprised that Madzie ends up kidnapping Clary after healing her, though! I knew there was probably a trap somewhere in there, I just didn’t expect it to actually be Madzie.

Amid all of the downworlder chaos and attacks, Alec ends up confronting Aldertree to take back some of the control of the Institute. It was really awesome to see Alec stand up against Aldertree, and it was probably fueled by the fight he had with Izzy and Raphael. Jace and Simon also stop some revolting vampires, which leads to Simon getting an idea for how to find Clary.

When they do eventually locate her, all of the Circle members have disappeared, and it’s obviously a trap. Jace frees Clary from the chain that’s holding her in place, but of course Valentine and Madzie show up and freeze Jace. Simon may be learning how to use some of his vampire strengths, but he’s still no match for Valentine, so when he attacks, Valentine easily fights him off and captures him before jumping through a portal with Simon in tow.

I’m not sure how much to expect from the mid-season finale next week, but I know I’m looking forward to our introduction of Sebastian in the second half of the season this summer!

What do you think will happen in the winter finale next week? What are you looking forward to from the second half of the season? Let me know below!

 

Catch the winter finale of Shadowhunters on Freeform on Monday, March 6 at 8/7c. You can also watch all of the past episodes on the Freeform app or website. And don’t forget to check back next week for another review!