Welcome back Angels. We hope you’re ready for this as we dive right in to our Shadowhunters How Are Thou Fallen recap/review.
After murdering Magdelena and leaving the Adamant Citadel at the end of the previous episode, Sister Cleophas walks the streets of New York, heading for Valentine. He doubts her loyalty, given her life as an Iron Sister, but she says she only joined them after the Circle fell to survive. She remained loyal to Valentine. As evidence she offers her knowledge of Clary’s rune ability and says she will prove it to him. Elsewhere in the prison Valentine is using as a hideout he has an “old friend” bound in chains…can this be…? Valentine tells the old man to leave Clary alone, that he already has the Soul Sword and that a storm is coming, so his efforts are futile.
At the Institute Clary hears a strange noise, almost like a scream, but no-one else does.
Alec and Magnus return from a date in Japan.
Alec has a gift for Magnus who moves to kiss Alec as a thank you but they are interrupted by the sounds of laughter – male and female – from somewhere else in the apartment. Magnus comments that he hasn’t had a roommate this brazen since he and Cassanova spent the night in the Doge’s palace… come on Mags, give your boy a break… how is he supposed to compete with fricking Cassanova being one of the 17,000??? Alec is about to go talk to Jace, for he seems to be the source of the giggles, but Magnus just flicks on some music to drown them out.
At the docks Simon is getting ready for a sort of, not quite, almost date with Maia. Clary is first of all stunned by his rocking new hot vamp bod and I mean for reals, Simon has got it going on. If you don’t believe me, remember our Alberto Hottie of the Week? After she finds out he’s getting dressed up for Maia she seems kinda jealous but plays it off. She mentions the weird experience at the Institute and Simon is all set to blow off meeting Maia but Clary tells him to go. Right as she gets the Shadowhunter Signal (seriously, giant Angelic rune on her phone) summoning her to action apparently.
Malec are busy making out when Alec also gets the Shadowhunter signal. He goes to get Jace… who is in bed with a seelie educating her on runes… The parabatai argue, Alec thinks Jace is shirking his responsibilities, Jace can’t tell Alec what is REALLY going on because he thinks he won’t understand. So instead he keeps up the distant, closed off, asshole act.
Alec and Clary arrive at the Institute. Alec explains top Clary that storms always increase demon activity so that’s probably what the alert was about. Then Izzy tells them about the attack on the Citadel, that Magdalene is dead and Cleophas is missing. The three of them assume Valentine is responsible which I guess is almost right. Izzy and Clary argue about what happened at the Citadel, Izzy is pissed that Clary didn’t tell her about her rune ability. Izzy basically dumps Clary as a friend and storms off. She goes straight to Aldertree’s office in search of more Yin Fen but comes up empty. She gets found by Lindsey (the girl from the deleted scene from last week’s ep) and is a total bitch to her too. Seriously Izzy needs to get herself straightened out cos she’s gonna lose the people who care about her.
At the Hunter’s Moon Magnus and Maia talk about Magnus’s gift from Alec, and Magnus seems genuinely touched by Alec’s gesture. Izzy shows up, asking some shady ass warlock about Yin Fen until Magnus busts him. Izzy invents some bull story about tracking the source of Yin Fen as demand has spiked, Magnus apologises, he knows how bad Yin Fen is, it almost cost his friend Jem his life. Yep, all the tentative references the last couple of weeks were great but Magnus just flat out name checked Jem Carstairs!! Magnus tells Izzy to check with the vampires – go straight to the source.
Clary and Luke discuss Cleophas and the new rune. Clary thinks Cleophas is a victim but Luke tells her that his sister was also a Circle member and was devoted to Valentine.
Simon shows up at the Hunters Moon. 2 hours early. He bumps into Izzy who half jokingly tells him that Shadowhunter blood is a good cure for anxiety. She is jonseing for a hit of vampire venom and trying anything she can to get it. Thankfully Simon doesn’t ‘bite’.
Cleophas shows up, bleeding from her self inflicted stomach wound, at the Jade Wolf. Luke is definitely not happy to be reunited with his little sister.
Simon and Maia share a moment over his blood mustache before she goes back to work and Jace appears. He’s there for book club with 3 more Seelies…but he offers Simon the benefit of his ‘experience’. Simon declines at first but then he asks Jace to be his Obi Wan…and Jace full on does the Jedi mind trick wave
SINCE WHEN does Jace ’emotionless GI Joe’ Wayland/Lightwood/Morgenstern get pop culture references?! Ahem. Where was I?
At the Jade Wolf, Cleophas spins a bunch of lies about the attack, says it was Valentine’s men and they took her but she managed to escape.
She offers to lead Luke and Clary to Valentine. In the kitchen, Luke tries to warn Clary that Cleophas could be lying but Clary already knows she is – she called her Clarissa and only Valentine does that. Clary wants to use Cleophas to lead them to Valentine so they can recover the sword. Luke on the other hand wants to give his traitorous sister over to the Clave.
Simon’s tutorial from Jace is probably the funniest thing Shadowhunters has ever done. It perfectly captures the funny, smart ass side of Jace from the books that has been missing until now. When Jace shapeshifts into Simon and proceeds to obtain a girl’s number in 5 seconds flat is hilarious. It’s a testament to Dom and Alberto Rosende and their off-screen friendship as seeing Simon channelling Jace’s attitude and mannerisms is spot on and rib-achingly funny!
At the Institute Izzy lies to Alec about what she is doing (searching rogue vamp dens on Aldertree’s orders) and claims she is tired when he asks if she is okay. Alec then asks his experienced little sister how you know it’s “the right time”. HOLD EVERYTHING. Alexander Gideon “Innocent” Lightwood is seriously thinking about having sex with his immortal and oh so extremely experienced boyfriend Magnus Bane. Izzy is pretty much equal parts shocked and delighted and tells her big brother not to do what he always does and overthink. Which he immediately proceeds to do. She tells him if it’s what he wants, and it makes him happy, then he should go for it.
Now, I get that Alec is all loved up but his little sister seriously looks like a strung out junkie right now and he buys her excuse that she is just ‘tired’? Come on Alec, your siblings need you right now!
In a shock(!) move, Clary tases Luke and bolts with Cleophas.
At the Hunter’s Moon, Maia finishes her shift and finds a newly aloof, some might say dickish, Simon waiting for her. He’s clearly taken Jace’s advice to heart and it backfires spectacularly. Maia bails.
At Magnus’s loft, Alec arrives and, after checking Jace is not home he pounces on Magnus, kissing him hard. He then tells him he wants to take the next step. Magnus is hesitant as he doesn’t want to rush and potentially ruin things with Alec. Alec hurriedly convinces him that it’s okay, that’s it is what he wants and they head for the bedroom.
I understand that Malec are a very popular couple, probably THE MOST popular pairing on the show, and that the fans want more, but this scene seemed rushed and heavy handed. There’s so much else going on right now, it feels like perhaps an extended (and more successful) date might have been more worthy of the screen time. SHOW US why Alec feels like the time is right instead of just telling us and hitting the fast forward (or perhaps more like skip) button on this sweet relationship.
Luke goes to the Hunter’s Moon to find Jace who is deeply engrossed in his “book club”. At least he is until Luke tells him Clary is in trouble and then the Jace that’s been missing for a couple of weeks re-appears and follows Luke out of the bar.
Clary and Cleophas are heading towards Valentine when Clary hears the same strange noise from before. She attacks Cleophas, demanding to know what Valentine is doing to make her hear it. Cleophas gets Clary to activate her hearing rune so she can hear what Clary is hearing and Cleophas is stunned. She tells her it’s not Valentine but an earthbound Angel crying out for help. We see the angel with Valentine and learn it’s not just any angel, it’s Ithuriel. I can’t lie, I squealed pretty hard when I heard his name!
Cleophas tells Clary that she must be blessed by the Angels to be able to communicate with one. When she realises Valentine must be torturing Ithuriel she confesses everything to Clary. Clary wants to hand her over to the Clave but Cleophas persuades her to keep going to Valentine. He has the sword, an Angel and a storm is on the way. Everything he needs to begin the Downworlder apocalypse. Luke and Jace arrive just in time and the four of them team up.
Izzy ends up in an alleyway, confronting a bunch of vampires for Yin Fen. This cannot be good! I hope she gets out of this okay, hopefully Magnus or maybe Simon can come to her rescue.
At the Jade Wolf, Simon presents Maia with a Blade Runner boxset by way of an apology for his behaviour.
She calls him out on his feelings for Clary and tells him maybe he should act on them.
Cleophas and Luke confront Valentine while Clary and Jace go to find Ithuriel. Clary and Jace work together to take out the Circle members on the roof that are surrounding Ithuriel. Inside Valentine has Cleophas at the point of a knife and has the nerve to accuse Luke of betrayal. That and the mention of Jocelyn seem to throw Luke off enough that when he fires at Valentine he misses and everyone’s favourite psycho disappears.
Clary and Jace try to break Ithuriel’s chains but Jace says they must have been bound by dark magic. Ithuriel cries and Clary hears him, she gets another rune vision and uses it to shatter the chains. Much to Jace’s astonishment. Freed, the angel unfurls his wings and offers his hands to both of them. They each take a hand and Ithuriel proceeds to show them a vision. A cloaked, scaled figure grasps the hilt of the Soul Sword and BOTH the figure and the sword disintegrate.
Clary and Jace watch in amazement and Ithuriel leaps for the heavens and the storm overhead breaks.
Summary
There is an awful lot crammed into this episode. Like I said previously it feels like certain aspects, especially the Malec sex stuff, are very rushed. I am not sure if Freeform’s current marketing strategy might not be to blame for this as well. They are putting such heavy emphasis on the Malec relationship in promotion and then the episodes themselves feature a couple of rushed, disjointed scenes.
My absolute highlight this week was the Jimon stuff in the Hunter’s Moon. While it might have resulted in a less loveable Simon, if only for a few minutes, the actual dating advice stuff from Jace to Simon was priceless. Funny, snarky, light hearted. Just what was needed after the relentless darkness of the previous episodes.
Another highlight for me was seeing Ithuriel, the source of Clary’s rune ability. I really hope we get to see more of him and expand on how communicating with him has affected Clary and Jace.
