Shadowhunters: A Door Into the Dark

Season 2, Episode 2 

Promo 2×02 “A Door Into the Dark”

Rating:

This episode begins with Jace and Valentine returning to the ship after escaping a risky situation where Jocelyn tried to kill Jace.

This fuels anger between all of the characters especially Clary and Jocelyn, who reveals that Jace has demon blood in him and shows a scene where Jace is a baby and turns the flowers all black.

Everyone says that Valentine is the monster but you—you just tried to murder your own son! 

Victor Aldertree is continuing to stir things around at the Institute and I still feel something shady about him. We’ll see in the coming episodes.

Now, Valentine is beginning to build his army, going to fight clubs to find the best and strongest. I love how Alec and Izzy’s relationship are shown in these scenes. I enjoyed their fighting scene very much. So badass!

This episode is the time when Clary is beginning to question her role as a Shadowhunter. She feels unwanted, Alec fuels this feeling even more, and wants to return to the way things were before—when she was a mundane. This causes her to ignore everyone around her and try to become human again, returning to painting and blocking the world away. However, she gets sucked into Valentine’s trap by seeing that Dot is alive and trusting her!

At the same time, Simon is trying to find Camille after Raphael (yes!) talked to him. Simon enlists the help of Magnus and they travel all the way to India (how convenient is portal travel?) to find her. In this scene, I began to view how Harry Shum Jr plays the role of Magnus. Don’t get me wrong, Matthew Daddario and Harry Shum Jr are probably the best at depicting their characters, but in this part with Simon, I felt the acting to be a little forced. I love Harry Shum Jr and how he plays him, but I really didn’t connect with Magnus this time around. Maybe I’m a bit too harsh? I know it’ll definitely get better as the episodes go by and I’ll begin to loosen up!

Jocelyn and Luke are trying to find Clary after being taken, and after some deliberation, the only way they can track her down is to use Alec and his parabatai bond with Jace as they think Clary is with Jace. Luke uses an adamas stone made by the Iron Sisters (Lisa Berry will be playing Sister Cleophas in the show. Instead of taking the role of Luke’s mother, Sister Cleophas will now be Luke’s sister) with a parabatai rune marked on it and they gather Alec to start tracking Jace and Clary. They are aware of the consequences which can end badly for Alec, but begin despite some trepidation.

Alec is able to find Clary and Jace, but he suffers a lot and the adamas is beginning to hurt him. My heart was beating incredibly fast at this time! MY POOR ALEC! The pain transpires to Jace who is trying to escape off the ship with Clary. This slows them down and they are incredibly close to being killed. It’s now that Dot opens a portal for them to escape to, risking her life which results in her later being killed.

This episode was good and the tension was at an all time high! I’m so pumped for episode three when Maia makes her appearance.

Catch my next review tomorrow!

Shadowhunters: This Guilty Blood

Season 2 is finally upon us! If you’re new to the Shadowhunters fandom or you still haven’t caught a glimpse of season 2 catch the trailers down below:

Shadowhunters Season 1 Trailer

Shadowhunters Season 2 Trailer

Rating: 🎥🎥🎥🎥 (4 video cameras!)

Season two is definitely proving to be a step-up from the first season. The props are better, the makeup (in terms of the runes) are how we all wanted, the relationships are all developed, the drama and tension is rising, and the characters are more three-dimensional.

Of course, I was super stoked to finally watch This Guilty Blood. After a year of waiting, after the cliffhanger of Jace leaving with Valentine, I was eager to know more. I think the first episode definitely made the wait worth it.

To start off with, the new intro to the show is so much better. The original theme song “This is the Hunt” by Ruelle is the same, but everything else is different and I like it a lot more.

The episode picks up moments after the end of season one. We see Jace and Valentine on the infamous ship that will be a place for many more scenes to come throughout the season. Just as you think Clary has arrived to rescue Jace and they’re about to return to the Institute, we see Valentine who Jace later kills. Actually, Valentine has been using shape-shifters and isn’t really dead. And Clary, well she’s not really there. Valentine shape-shifted into her to test Jace’s loyalty. And Alec! he’s so heartbroken and confused about Jace’s departure and he’s pushing everyone away (especially Magnus) and I feel sorry for him.

The relationship between Jocelyn and Clary feels somewhat strained to me, and maybe it’s because I really want them to sit down and tell each other everything. Jocelyn, especially what with everything about Jonathan. Jace found out that he has demon blood, but is that really true? You’ll just have to wait and find out … I can’t stand not having Sebastian on screen yet!

Victor Aldertree. Nick Sagar plays this character really well! He is handsome but there is something about Aldertree that has us all suspicious. Also, #Climon. I never really used to ship Simon and Clary in the books, though I did feel sorry for him, but in the show it’s so cute how much Simon likes Clary and how he was so close to telling her how he felt about her! I can’t wait until #Sizzy.

The soundtrack for season two is already proving to be the best. I loved the music in season one and now it’s even better. Like everyone knows, music conveys emotions to the viewer so they definitely made the right choice with the music score.

Sometimes with adaptions from books, I can get really picky at how certain aspects of the show or movie are conveyed. This can sometimes make the cliffhangers hardly cliffs at all, more like pebbles because I’ve been expecting it from the show. While everyone else who has not read the books is freaking out about the whole Jace-is-my-brother-and-Valentine-is-my-father situation, I’m over here thinking about the whole They-think-Jace-is-Jonathan-and-they-have-it-all-wrong-and-I’m-desperately-waiting-for-Sebastian-to-arrive situation. (By the way, Sebastian has been cast according to Cassandra Clare, we’re just waiting to find out who it is!)

So, all in all, season two is already so much better! Having the characters now more developed and comfortable in their positions and roles stands out and makes this show much better than how it was before.

Catch my next review later!