So, I’m slightly late with this one, but Shadowhunters is finally back! Whoo! With the latest episode, ‘Lost Souls’, we have a lot to unpack too. So, let’s get straight into it!
- After that long break, the recap was useful.
- I’m going to say that Isabelle was the star of the episode for me. She was a character that I didn’t like in the early going, but that grew a lot as the seasons went on. This week, she was holing everyone together, comforting Jace, coming up with plans, confronting the upper echelons and so on. The only time her sensible streak seemed to slip was in her slightly cruel exchange with Maia.
- Speaking of which, I always like Maia and Simon as a couple. They seemed a little muted together this time though. And the final scenes with them? Maia was right that not bringing a werewolf to meet an old school vampire is a wiser move, but she always came across like she’d do anything for Simon before. Her leaving to sort her own issues last season was the right thing for her, but I feel like the end is coming for the pairing.
- Both Simon and Jace are suffering, and both are shouldering the blame for Clary’s death at the end of the last season. For Simon, this has meant looking for a way to remove his dangerous forehead mark. In Jace’s case, it’s left him reckless and way off his game. He does at least have a support network that he’s using though and takes a reasonable approach to Luke’s barmy sounding theory about Clary still being alive. It’s interesting seeing them all take different approaches to their loss; though I’m sure that Luke’s probably seems unhealthy to many.
- Of course though, Clary isn’t actually dead. The tethering between her and Jonathan is given enough screen time for sue to explore the key points of them being linked physically. That’s going to lead to issues moving forward, I suspect, as the death of one will mean the death of the other. Her demonic brother Jonathan says he wants to change too. We’ll see if that ends up being true.
- Magnus and Alec continue to shine together. I feel so bad for Magnus though. The loss of his magic, which he viewed as his defining characteristic, is hurting him, and he’s struggling to know how to live without it. Alec is both a help and a hindrance in his dealing with that. I mean, his worry about letting Magnus tackle Iris was justified, but definitely could knock Magnus. His supporting Magnus, reminding him of his strength, and agreeing to teach him how to fight were good things though, Magnus seemed to be doing okay with the sword regardless though, and the scene where Irish was delving into his memories was cool.
- Shadowhunters always does a great job with picking songs for the soundtrack, and this was no exception.
- It wasn’t perfect though. Did anyone else feel like Irish fell for the obvious trick far too easily? Oh, and while the opening action was good, the constant camera cuts were jarring and makes it seem like the cast don’t know how to fight (cutting to angles to avoid showing the actor’s face is a common trick to mask that).
So, all in all, I’m glad to see the show back. The thing is, I never finished the books. They were fine, but I just got on with the Netflix series better. So, this is all new to me. But what about yourselves? What do you think of the series? How did you find this return? Let me know in the comments below.
