Shadowhunters: City Of Glass

Shadowhunters continues with ‘City of Glass’, and this week, things got super exciting. Let’s talk about what happened.

Family Ties

A couple of familial relationships were left severed this week. The most expected of these was undoubtedly that of Clary and Jonathan. Though their plan to reclaim the Morgenstern Sword by kidnapping the Seelie Queen did play out as they hoped, the Shadowhunters were able to break their link and bring Clary back to the fold. The downside to that is that it essentially left Jonathan in a murderous state. Him and Clary being split apart caused his full power to awaken – black wings and all – and he ended up opening a rift above the City of Glass. This meant that, every time a demon was vanquished, it would simply return again, and again, and again. He then proceeded to shatter the sword, meaning the rift could not be closed. While Clary remained adamant that she wanted to help Jonathan, the two are now well and truly divided.

Then there was Magnus and his father Asmodeus. Honestly, I expected this pairing to last a little longer than it did. This week though, it all came crashing down in quick order. Things looked good for the demon at first. He convinced Magnus to take his apartment back from Lorenzo, even going so far as transforming him into a lizard, but in the end, Maryse prompted Magnus into realizing what had happened with Alec. He confronted his father, and was told that their combined power was enough to keep Lilith in check. Together, they could rule the demon realm. Magnus doesn’t want this though and, once Asmodeus points out that banishing him will just leave him coming back to find him again, Magnus hatches a plan. He binds Asmodeus and knocks him unconscious, then throws him into a portal. Why? Because entering a portal unconscious leaves you trapped in limbo, forever.

War Comes At A Cost

War arrived twice this week. The first was the deeply personal war between the Shadowhunters and Clary and Jonathan. The plan was always to rescue Clary, of course, but they knew this one was going to get rough. This meant working with the Seelie to set up a battle, with Jace tackling Jonathan and Izzy taking on Clary. In the end, the good guys won the battle, but as mentioned earlier, the result was setting a full powered Jonathan loose. It also meant that Jace told Meliorn that he’d forever be in his debt if he helped. The Seelie do like to call in debts owed to them, so how that will play out in the long term will be interesting to see. One good thing that came from it was that, when the Heavenly Fire sword exploded, Izzy dove on Simon to save him. The significant thing here was that she refused to let anyone help her get the shrapnel out, until she was alone with Simon. She let him see that little bit of vulnerability, which showed a lot of trust. They stopped short of kissing again, but the little smile they shared was adorable.

The battle in the City of Glass meanwhile was far more destructive on a wider scale. The demons were essentially ensuring that the city went down in flames, and with their ever-returning nature, it was looking pretty grim until Magnus turned up. We got a lovely reconciliation between him and Alec, including a kiss and an exchange of ‘I-love-you’. Taking Asmodeus’ words to heart though, the reunion was short lived. After the two exchanged wedding rings and agreed to marry, Magnus opened a portal to Edom in order to grow his power. He dove in and saved the day, leaving Alec in tears, surrounding by Izzy, Jace and Clary, while the rift closes.

Other Notes

We got a quick fire resolution to the vial of Heavenly Fire arc too. Jordan showed it to Maia and told her that it was for her and would solve some of her problems. He then revealed that his silver poisoning was too great and that he was dying. Just as the two were looking set to have a happy ending, it all gets pulled out from under them. Maia later finds him dead and, along with a few others, gives him a werewolf funeral. She ends her part of the episode stating that she’ll be fine, because she has to be, she’s an alpha. This is a more closed down, resolute Maia. How will that serve her in the final episodes? We’ll see.

Speaking of the vial though, she gave it Luke, on the proviso that he doesn’t give it back to the Clave. This was lucky, as he’d been sent by the Praetor to retrieve it. The interesting thing here is that the Praetor believe it will change the Downworld. What have they got in mind? Hopefully we get to find out.

Aline and Helen hanging out were together this week, which Izzy noticed Their response makes it clear that they weren’t just ‘researching’ too. It’s nice to see another couple pop up.

In Summary

That was really well done. It built up quickly, had plenty of excitement, and tugged the heartstrings multiple times. I read that the final two episodes will be two hours long, which is a definite plus, as there are lots of loose ends to tie up now. For me, these include:

• How will they get Magnus back?
• Will Simon and Izzy finally get together?
• What can they do about Jonathan?
• Where is Lilith and what is she up to?
• What do the praetor want to do with the Heavenly Fire?
• What will Meliorn ask Jace to do?

That’s a lot to cover, right? I’m sure there’s plenty more too.

So, what about yourselves? What do you think of the series? How did you find this episode? What are you looking forward to in terms of what still needs to reach a conclusion? Let me know in the comments below.