Shadowhunters Day of Wrath Recap/Review
This Shadowhunters Day of Wrath recap will discuss plot points in detail and refer to events in the books in The Mortal Instruments series. If you don’t want to be spoiled, if you haven’t watched the episode yet…walk away now.
*waits*
Are they gone? Okay, good.
The episode opens with Clary heading in to the City of Bones to visit Jace. She is determined, she wants to help him get free. Jace pushes her away though as he thinks it’s the only way to keep her safe from Valentine.
Magnus and Alec discuss the repercussions of Magnus’ actions in saving Alec. Aldertree has promised that Magnus will be punished but that punishment is yet to be decided. Alec stutters and stumbles and Magnus rescues him, they discuss that first date they STILL haven’t had and are about to go when they are interrupted by Raj (Shut up Raj). There’s a briefing Alec is needed at. Magnus tells Alec to go battle his demons and Magnus will battle his. Cryptic much Magnus?
Clary returns from seeing Jace and is on her way to the briefing when Jocelyn stops her. She’s been reassigned by the Clave and is moving to Idris. She wants Clary to go with her so that they can have a fresh start as mother and daughter. Clary isn’t sure about moving but before she says anything Alec and Izzy arrive. Since Jace is out of action they need Clary on their team. Need…don’t want. Alec is still very much giving Clary the cold shoulder.
While Luke deflects the mundie cops Izzy examines the corpse. She will take it back to the Institute while Alec and Clary continue to search for the demon that killed the victim. Alec asks Clary about Idris, says she’ll love it because it’s amazing. She thinks he is only saying that so she’ll leave and he won’t have to deal with her any more.
In one of the most shocking scenes of the show so far, Aldertree tortures Raphael using concentrated UV rays, in order to try and get information about Camille. Any pretense of Aldertree being an okay kinda guy who is just doing his job, the Law is Hard and all that, is gone. This is straight up breaking the Accords, and they both know it, even if he claims it’s just ‘motivation’.
At the Docks Simon is still trying to get into Camille’s puzzle box, mostly using brute force and throwing it against walls. Simon, come on, surely the gamer in you is better than this. His efforts are halted when his mother calls and bullies him into coming to dinner the next day as his sister is coming home. He agrees.
Back in the City of Bones Jace is tormented by a nightmare. Clary comes to see him and he stabs and kills her. When he awakens his next-door cell neighbour talks to him. It’s Hodge. Jace’s former mentor tells him that being in the City of Bones will sap the defiance from him, especially when it gets to his trial. Jace sits against the cell wall, back straight, refusing to give in to the torment.
Alec and Clary’s hunt for the demon brings them to a mundane girl in an alleyway. She has no memory of what she’s done or how she got there covered in blood. Alec tells Clary that it’s a classic possession hangover, when the demon leaves the body it leaves the formerly possessed with a wiped memory. On another note – hey show…that’s twice now this season you’ve given us Alec with a seraph blade that he then doesn’t use. Quit teasing.
Luke and Jocelyn talk about Idris. Luke wants to go with Jocelyn. After everything they have been through he has vowed not to let her go again. He’s even willing to give up the leadership of the Pack and his job to be with her.
It’s a really sweet moment between these two who have gone through a hell of a lot to be together at last.
Raphael shows up at Magnus’s door. His face is torn up from Aldertree’s ‘motivation’. It’s the first time we have seen Raphael so defeated and when he utters the words “I had nowhere else to go” my heart broke. One of my favourite parts of The Bane Chronicles is Magnus’s history with Raphael, and it’s so great to see that coming to life in the show.
At the Institute Izzy arrives with the corpse. She and Lydia talk about Jace and Alec for a moment before they are interrupted by everyone’s least favourite Shadowhunter…Raj. Raj makes some extremely crude comments about the heartless corpse before Lydia puts him in his place. Nicely distracted, no-one notices the demonic black cloud that exits the corpse and disappears into a vent on the wall. There’s a demon loose in the Institute and no-one realises. This is extremely bad right?!
Simon shows up at Magnus’s place and after a bit of a tense moment between him and Raphael Magnus manages to get them apart. Raphael tells Simon he’s doing nothing to find Camille and that’s why Aldertree tortured him. Simon denies that, saying he portalled to India and fought a snake but all he got was the damn puzzle box. Naturally Raphael knows exactly what the box is, what’s in it and how to open it. The box contains Camille’s grave dirt, which can be used to summon her. To open it you need Camille’s blood. Which just happens to flow in Simon’s veins given that Camille was his sire.
The demon in the Institute possesses one Shadowhunter and kills another. Given the evidence, that it has a way to cloak itself and hide from their detection the gang figure it must be one of Valentine’s demonic experiments. Lydia despatches Alec to the living quarters and the girls to the tunnels while Raj stays in the Op Centre with her. In the tunnels Clary and Izzy talk about Idris.
Izzy tells Clary that she should be happy she has a mother who wants to spend time with her. Clary asks if Izzy thinks she should go. “Of course not.” Izzy replies. “No-one in Idris is going to teach you to fight in 5 inch heels.” Isabelle Lightwood ladies and gentlemen. Badass Shadowhunter, forensic scientist and literally one of the most criminally under-used characters in this show.
Upstairs Lydia confronts Raj who turns out to be possessed. They fight and Lydia is well on her way to kicking his ass but the demon gets the upper hand and snaps her arm. Demon!Raj is subdued when Alec appears and shoots an arrow at him. The black smoke flees again while Alec tends to Lydia.
In the City of Bones Jace is led out to begin his trial by The Mortal Sword.
Magnus and Simon have a little chat about Camille. Simon is pretty much convinced she is evil incarnate since she did y’know, kill him. Magnus tells him that Camille saved him once, at one of his lowest, darkest moments. She found him on the ledge of Blackfriars Bridge in London (The Infernal Devices shout out which may or may not have made me squeal). He calls her his rock and says she is to him what Clary is to Simon. Giving her up to the Clave is going to be incredibly hard.
Clary meets with Jocelyn to tell her that she won’t be moving to Idris. She has a life, and people who need her in New York and she needs to stand on her own. Jocelyn is upset but seems like she understands. And all of a sudden I have a REALLY bad feeling about this.
Under the influence of the Mortal Sword Jace admits that he did not kill Gretel and that he isn’t entirely sure Valentine is wrong about the Downworlders. He also confesses that he still loves Clary as more than a sister and that he is not completely loyal to the Clave. Aldertree takes great delight in sentencing him to life in prison. Jace tries to use the Mortal sword to take his own life but Brother Jeremiah stops him.
Magnus sends Simon and Raphael to get some things from a friend of his, Caterina, that will help him trap Camille. But it’s all a ruse. As soon as they leave Magnus uses the grave dirt to summon Camille and then imprisons her.
At the Institute Clary finds a bloody Alec sitting in a hallway. He has the old possession hangover, no idea what’s going on. Clary follows the trail of blood from Alec into the room and finds Jocelyn’s body, minus her heart. Yep. You read that right. In a complete departure from the books, Shadowhunters has killed off Jocelyn Fairchild. Ave Atque Vale Jocelyn Fairchild. Alec and Clary watch the security footage together and see the possessed Alec kill Jocelyn. Alec tries to talk to Clary but she’s not interested. She has a demon to kill.
Camille and Magnus talk and, despite her attempts to persuade him otherwise, Magnus is devoted to his ‘children’. The Downworlders he takes under his wing are his children, and Raphael is like a son to him. Camille’s reckless behaviour got his son tortured by Aldertree and that Magnus can’t forgive. He summons a portal and sends her to Idris to face the punishment of the Clave.
In the City of Bones Valentine and his goons slaughter the Silent Brothers and steal the Mortal Sword. Valentine claims it’s a rescue for Jace, confirming he sent the demon to the Institute as a distraction. He wants Jace to come with him but Jace hasn’t had that defiance whipped out of him yet. He refuses. Hodge grabs Valentine through the bars as the goons force Aldertree to open Jace’s cell. Valentine stabs poor Hodge in the brain. Ave Atque Vale Hodge Starkweather. This is another change from the books, while Hodge does die in the books, it’s much later in Idris, and it’s Simon he is imprisoned beside, not Jace. I wonder if we will still get Simon imprisoned in Idris but with Camille in the cell beside his now that she is in the hands of the Clave.
Jace manages to take the Mortal Sword and uses it to kill Valentine’s men, he tries to kill Valentine but Dot blasts him back with her magic. Valentine holds the sword to Jace’s throat and Jace is ready to die. Valentine leaves him and heads to the portal to leave. Aldertree tells Jace to get the sword, but Jace chooses to save Aldertree and Valentine disappears.
In the Institute Clary and Alec find Izzy to help them look for the demon but it’s too late. The demon has possessed Izzy. The three of them fight and demon!Izzy is about to kill her brother when Clary leaps on her back and stabs her. The demon flees the injured body and Clary kills it. Having killed the demon that killed her mother Clary slumps onto a nearby couch. Alec tends to Izzy, activating her healing rune as she lies there dazed. Jace and Aldertree arrive and Jace is about to go to Clary when Simon shoves past him and rushes to his best friend. A heartbroken Jace goes to his brother and sister, casting one glance back at Clary in Simon’s arms before he follows them out.
Summary
This is a tough one for me. As an episode of television I adored it, twists and turns abound. The book fan in me can’t help but be a little angry though. The death of Jocelyn is a major departure. Show runners said they have done it to spur on Clary’s heroic journey but hell, there is SOOOO much other stuff in the books that does exactly that.
Highlights included; those touching moments between Magnus and his ‘son’ Raphael, Lydia kicking Raj’s ass (I don’t care if he was possessed) and Aldertree cementing his place as the number one guy I’d never tire of punching.
Performance wise, I think I’m giving this episode jointly to Harry Shum Jr. and David Castro. Their scenes together, showing a softer side of Raphael and the fatherly side of Magnus were pretty perfect. Magnus is being put through the wringer right now, I really hope he and Alec get a happy moment together some time real soon!
Taking this purely as an episode of the show, it was pretty perfect though.
All images credit: Freeform
