Shadowhunters - 'Major Arcana' and 'Bad Blood'

Luke's Captain has always seemed unusually competent and sympathetic for
an authority figure. It was really only a matter of time before something bad
happened to her.

Clary has worked out that her mother hid the Mortal Cup using the same special gift that she possesses, flattening it into the Ace of Cups in Dot's tarot deck (ironically, despite the title of the episode being 'Major Arcana', the Ace of Cups is a minor; also, Jocelyn is apparently able to flatten things into complex inked drawings while Clary is still on pencil sketches.) This presents a problem, since Dot was captured and murdered by Valentine, but fortunately her cards were left at the scene and are now in Luke's desk.

Luke goes in to get the deck, but before he can take the cards, IA swoop in and confiscate his stuff on account of those 'witnesses' he shredded when they tried to muscle him. Clary and Jace sneak in under a glamour, but although the IA investigator doesn't see them, Luke warns them that the precinct is basically crawling with downworlders who will see right through it. Thus, Clary plays on her friendship with the Captain, distracting attention by slapping Jace and having him thrown out for being her stalker. Nice.

It doesn't get access to Luke's stuff, but the Captain does explain where it's being kept, before whimsically noting that this job will be the death of her. It therefore comes as no surprise when she turns up murdered by a shapeshifting demon, after which Luke's investigation is basically dropped.

"It just looks like a wine glass."
Seriously, Clary? Where the fuck are you shopping for tablewear?

Alec and Isabelle cut the power to the precinct, allowing Jace and Clary to break into the evidence lockup and steal the tarot cards. They head for the Institute, pursued by critter demons. With everyone else watching her back, Clary is cornered, but musters up the power to pull the cup from the card and drive the demons back with its demon-commandy powers, then stabs fake-Jace through the heart. Back at the Institute, Jace and Clary like, totally make out in the command centre which Alec is a bit not-okay with, but no-one else bats an eyelid. In fact, the command room techs actually look more surprised when Jace asks them to do something, no doubt taken aback that they are expected to be more than silent furniture.

Elsewhere, after seeing Clary cuddling Jace, Simon rebounds onto bestie with a crush Maureen, waking up with her, sans clothes and sans any respect I might have had for him. In his defence, he is going through some stuff: Incipient blood lust, audio-visual hallucinations and a new-found revulsion for garlic. He has an argument with his mother and sister and puts a fist through his desk, keeps seeing Camille everywhere, and eventually breaks into Hotel du Mort to find out what's happening, where Camille straight-up murders him.

Lydia Branwell's standoffishness can perhaps be put down to
insecurity owing to her absence from the book canon.

In case there was any doubt, we open 'Bad Blood' with Raphael bringing Simon's corpse to the Institute and presenting Clary with a choice - a stake through the heart to give Simon a mortal death, or burial to allow him to rise as a vampire. Katherine McNamara goes full traum on this episode, as Clary tries to tell Simon's mother that he won't be coming back and seeks Luke's advice on what to do.

Luke says that whatever she decides, it has to be for Simon and not for her, explaining how Jocelyn kept him from destroying himself after he became a werewolf. He's got his own stuff to deal with however, as a zombie-looking demon called a Forsaken busts into the Chinese restaurant on some sort of steroids and tries to kill him. The pack take it down, but he allows the Institute to analyse the body to find out why it was so tough.

Punch, kick, it's all in the mind.

At this point, the Institute is being run by interim director Lydia Branwell, a nails-tough blonde bombshell who announces her arrival to audit the Institute by walking in disguised as Valentine, catching an arrow shot at her by Alec and criticising the other Shadowhunters' lack of response (unfairly, since I'm pretty sure SAG would close down the show if they did more than walk around.) It's lucky for her that Alec didn't keep shooting; eventually she'd have run out of hands. She determines that the Forsaken are targeting ex-Circle members and promises added security at the Institute to protect Hodge and the senior Lightwoods, which is a bit of a shocker for Alec.

Magnus Bane comes in to consult on the autopsy and flirts with Alec. He advises him to follow his heart, which somehow persuades Alec to head for Narnia and propose to Lydia so that they can run the Institute together. This can only end in hilarity.

Ultimately, Clary opts to bury Simon in his father's tallit (which, if you think about it, she must have stolen from his house.) Camille tries to claim him, but her back up turn on her when Raphael points out that she broke the accords, threatening an unwinnable war with the Shadowhunters. She is surrounded by other vampires and... killed? group hugged into submission? I don't know.

"I'm in blackface!?"

Simon bursts from the grave and consumes several bags of blood, before declaring himself repulsive and racing off into the night. He is especially disturbed to find that he can't say 'God', although 'damnit' is just fine.

As the drama ramps up and the action moves further from the books, Shadowhunters is starting to show a little strain at the seams. In particular, the absolute extraness of the command centre crew is more and more apparent each time anyone talks to them. 'Bad Blood' also suffers from a surfeit of tragic backstory, as Alec learns his parents were in the Circle, Luke recounts the story of his change, Jace tells Clary an Old Yeller of a story about taming a falcon and Lydia explains that she was in love with a guy and in line to run the Lisbon Institute (because apparently the Portugese don't have their own Shadowunters) before he died horribly. It's all a bit fatiguing.