Shadowhunters continues with ‘The Beast Within’, and this week was all about beginnings and endings. Let’s talk about what happened.
Magic
Magnus started the episode in a better state than he ended the last one. The problem is, he genuinely is hurting, and the whole losing his magic twice has knocked him. A lot. One thing that I thought was really sweet was when he was speaking to Maryse and said that he didn’t want to burden Alec with it all. Even while he hurts, he’s still thinking about Alec’s well-being. Unfortunately for him, Alec is also thinking about Magnus’, but in a very literal way. He knows that Magnus sacrificed his magic to ensure that Alec could feel whole, and now he has the opportunity to do something similar. Alec contacts Magnus’ father Asmodeus via a warlock conduit, and the demon prince offers to return Magnus’ magic and immortality if Alec breaks up with him. He also cannot tell Magnus about the deal.
So, after talking it through with both Jace and Izzy, Alec does so. He tells Magnus that it can’t be fixed and breaks up with him. There was a lovely moment there where Magnus’ hands were shaking as his relationship slipped away. It was a subtle touch, but it worked really well in the moment. The sad thing is, Alec thinks that he’s doing Magnus a favour here and that he’ll move on like he always has, but Magnus has been clear that he wouldn’t know what to do without Alec. I really hope they can resolve this in the end, because they’re a lovely couple.
Light and Dark
Izzy managed to figure out a way to remove the rune that connects Clary and Jonathan, but as you may expect, it would cause pain to both of them. The plan fails though, interestingly just after Jonathan’s eyes go black. What happens next has been building for a little while now. Izzy describes Jonathan as a monster, and Clary snaps again, but calms. She still views him as a victim though, which I suspect is either his influence or simply makes her more susceptible to his control. It turns out that the Seelie have been baiting demons out to attack mundanes – there’s a lot of them on the streets as it’s Halloween – with the intent of getting the Institute empty enough to assassinate Jonathan, even if it means killing Clary too.
So, while fighting the demons, Clary is knocked unconscious and finds herself in a snowy place. She sees Jonathan, complete with black wings, calling to her. Meanwhile, Jace appears behind her with white wings and tries to convince her to stop. Having already said she feels a darkness growing inside, Clary accepts Jonathan’s hand and wakes up, her eyes briefly going dark like his did. She knocks Jace out and portals into the Institute just in time to stop the assassination attempt and tells her Jonathan that she won’t let anyone hurt her big brother.
This is going to be interesting in terms of resolution. She can’t just leave Jonathan there now because Jace is going to wake up and explain what happened. On top of that, Izzy and Simon are on their way down to the cells. My guess is they’ll run.
Sizzy
Simon’s sister Becky turns up to celebrate Halloween and gets to see some of the Shadow World, as well as learning that Simon and Maia split up. It was nice seeing Simon reconnect with her like he did, but the big story was that she made an opening to get Simon and Izzy alone. Why? Because she saw the same thing the rest of us did: the clear connection between them while they were chatting.
We actually got a clear indication of where things were going here. While Simon does seem to still think that he’s so far removed from Izzy’s type that she’d never like him like that, he makes a move. The pair almost kiss too but are interrupted by the Seelie assassination attempt. Still, I’m happy to see them having a moment.
Packs, Demons, and Other Things
Two other things came out of this episode too. First, Maia is now assuming the role of Alpha and rebuilding the Pack, and she wants Jordan as her beta. He still has some hang-ups about the two of them but seems to agree. There isn’t too long in the series left so we’ll see how they resolve this. Maia will be a good Alpha though.
Next, Asmodeus has entered the realm. While he was first seen via the warlock summoning, he actually ended the episode by forcing said warlock to summon him. He kills her and says he’s going to meet up with his son. I’ll be interested to see how Magnus reacts to all of this and whether Asmodeus tries to twist what Alec did to get him on side.
Finally, Lilith was absent. That means that right now, she’s working on whatever she’s working on, and her not being spotted by the Shadowhunters makes that dangerous. It also means that we now have Lilith and Asmodeus walking free, Jonathan potentially about to freed, and the Seelie making a move too. War could be coming for the final few episodes.
This episode definitely delivered though and having so many pieces in play potentially leaves us with an exciting ending. The only potential stumbling block will be whether there’s enough time left to satisfactorily resolve all the plot points.
But what about yourselves? What do you think of the series? How did you find this episode? Let me know in the comments below.
Matt Doyle Media 