Shadowhunters - 'Dead Man's Party', 'Raising Hell' and 'Moo Shu to Go'

Queen of the vampires, rockin' the stereotype.

Clary and her inordinately amenable posse of Shadowhunter hangers on set out to track down Simon through the tried and tested method of Isabelle getting nekkid with a Vulcan. Okay, actually he's a 'Seelie', or faerie as we might say if the series weren't desperately trying to avoid that word, but the ears man; oh the ears.

Meantime, Clary learns moe about her powers, and that Jace and Alec are parabatai: mystically bonded hunting partners, closer than brothers, although Jace in particular is definitely throwing that whole parabati before totty* doctrine to the winds and generally treating Alec like he's the asshole for occasionally suggesting that maybe there's something to their centuries old creed that could trump, say, doing whatever the hell Clary asks regardless of how incredibly stupid and wrong it is. But don't worry, because Alec will earn this later.

Chief vampire Camille and her number two Raphael play a little sexy vamp/thug vamp with Simon, partly to see if he knows where the all-important Mortal Cup is and partly because Camille is bored/for the fan service (as much as we need that with Isabelle going all out to, erm, pump her contact for information.)

Anyway, the Shadowhunters break in, which is apparently against the treaty which the vampires already broke in some way by scrobbling a mortal in their protection or... Look, I don't know. Camille rails at her minions as they get slaughtered, and Raphael unexpectedly turns (slightly) face, ensuring that Simon gets out alive.

Meanwhile, Valentine is probably monologuing at mercifully unconscious Jocelyn and other werewolf cop probably tells Luke to watch his back. It's been a while since I watched this episode, but both of these things happen more often than not.

My detective spin-off from this series would totally be Magnus Bane PI. He's
way more fun than any of the other characters, and an outrageous liar.

In 'Raising Hell', Clary dreams about someone named Magnus taking her memories. On waking she mentions this to Simon, who wonders if this is the 'Magnus Bane' that Camille mentioned when he told her Clary's memories had been taken. Do ya think?

Clary runs off to tell Jace (apparently the show has some sense of shame, now offering shirtless Jace as equal opportunity fanservice after the boob-heavy 'Dead Man's Party') and Simon decides fuck this noise and swans off out of the Institute like a magnificent and slightly suicidal bastard. With Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn (is that just Brooklyn and there's one for each of the five boroughs? Or is he just a high warlock who is 'of Brooklyn'?) in hiding because of Valentine, there is only one place to find him: At a Downworlder rave.

Baiting a trap, they set off to the same club where they ran into a bunch of vampires last episode. I guess they only have so many club sets, but they hang a lampshade on this by claiming that their last visit was on 'vampire night'. They lure Bane out by offering him a necklace that he once gave to Camille and which now belongs to Alec and Isabelle's family, but he explains that he can't return the memories because he fed them to a Greater Demon for safekeeping.

Just because none of the characters seem to note this, I want to be clear that I'm not missing something: He gave the memories which include the location of the Mortal Cup, the most powerful artefact in the Shadow World and arch-weapon against demonkind to a motherfucking demon to look after. Is that what we're saying? Not that I want to hold this against him. The flamboyantly hedonistic Bane is way more fun than anyone else in the series, with his flirty ways and outrageous bullshit name dropping (he is established as being 'over 300 years old' yet claims to have shagged Michelangelo and been around when the Dead Sea was 'just a lake with a bit of a cold.') I bet he knew Ichabod Crane.

Parabatai tracking: Just add 'the way you look tonight' and we're in fanfic
territory.

Anyway, a Circle assassin pops up. Alec kills him, and although impressed, Bane portals out like a proper magnificent bastard. Clary nabs his shirt button and Jace and Alec do parabatai tracking to find him, which involves holding hands and gazing intensely into each other's eyes. This allows them to turn up at Bane's lair just in time to save him and a warlock girl from more assassins. Bane moves the entire lair - because he fucking can, that's why - and then agrees to help summon the demon, in part because he's way into Alec. He gives Clary a set of chalks and tells her to draw an insanely complex summoning circle, which she does, perfectly, first time, of course. They all hold hands and summon the demon, which demands a memory of the person that they most love in payment for returning Clary's memories. Clary gives up a memory of her mother, Izzy one of Alec. We never learn who Jace or Bane would have recalled, because Alec's memory is of Jace, and when this is displayed to all present he freaks out, because apparently he is Narnia deep in the closet, to the point he would rather fuck up the summoning of an incredibly dangerous Greater Demon than face his feelings. Despite the fact that Izzy has already proven that sibling love is totally applicable.

Go Alec, you consummate professional.

The demon breaks loose and grabs Jace, so Clary has to stab a bitch, killing the demon and with it her memories. The focus of most of the last five episodes of a thirteen part series has been on getting those memories, but fuck that noise apparently.

And then Valentine speaks to Clary through her mother's necklace, because of course he can.

Mother of the year.

In 'Moo Shu to Go', Alec and Isabelle's mother arrives and is a complete bitch to her daughter (apparently schtupping the faeries is frowned upon.) She tasks Jace with making a diplomatic approach to the Seelie, who are pissed about something. They learn that what's got them riled is that Valentine killed the scouts the Clave asked the Seelie to send to locate him with a poisoned exploding Shadowhunter (no, really.)

Grounded for not grounding anyone else, Alec is persuaded to accompany Clary to her mother's apartment to retrieve a box which might contain something important and which hasn't been mentioned until now. Simon joins them, leading them via a secret shortcut and displaying wicked parkour skills and strength (and keeping mum about how last episode he got all cravey over his bandmate's blood while she was asking him out, then stared at the Hotel Du Mort until Raphael ran him off.) Alec then fails to prevent Clary and Simon being kidnapped by werewolves.

The werewolves - who are mostly biker types, plus Luke's colleague - take them to the pack den; a slightly grotty Chinese restaurant at the docks, where the alpha demands the Mortal Cup or Simon will be torn apart by one of his heavy hitters. Simon escapes his bonds thanks to vampire strength and contacts the Shadowhunters by dialing Clary's number, having left her bag behind. This is handy, as the either the presence of water, or the fact that Alec is finding it suddenly uncomfortable to stare into Jace's eyes, or possibly the fact that Jace is being a total dick to Alec, means that even parabatai tracking isn't working.

"He's now the leader of the pack."
Vrmm vrmm.

Luke shows up to rescue Clary, but the shadowhunters snatch her off him. When they are surrounded by werewolves, however, a wolf comes out of nowhere to take down the alpha and claim leadership. Surprise! It's Luke! (Are you surprised? Really?) What surprised me was the degree of glowy, ethereal light involved in the werewolf transformations. I guess it saves on the effect budget compared to popping bones and sprouting fur.

Luke is now alpha and can protect Clary from the pack, but royally fucked up from the fight. In fact, only a warlock's magic can heal an alpha's bite, apparently, so it's back to Magnus Bane.

Shadowhunters continues to deviate ever more from the plot of the novels, mostly for the sake of having shit happen every week, like the demon summoning or a big fight with werewolves. I'm really not convinced that a lot of the changes are for the better. I'm curious to see if the contents of the box ultimately move the plot forward or if we're going to stay hovering at ignorance and guesswork.

* I know; I'm reaching.