‘Shadowhunters’ Review: Sebastian’s Cover is Blown

On this week’s Shadowhunters Sebastian’s cover is blown, Max undergoes magical surgery, Magnus has a difficult decision to make, and Luke gains a new pack member.

Sebastian’s Cover is Blown

Things hit a fever pitch this week after Clary (Katherine McNamara) and Jace (Dominic Sherwood) retrieved the Mortal Mirror. It’s being kept under tight security at the Institute and Sebastian/Jonathan (Will Tudor) is trying to figure out how to grab it for daddy. His first complication is Max (Jack Fulton) who tracked him using a single strand of hair to Alec’s office. The littlest Lightwood brave fights the demon-blooded Shadowhunter but being only twelve quickly gets injured when his head is bashed to the desk. Sebastian hides his unconscious body underneath the desk as Clary comes in looking for Alec (Matthew Daddario). She opens the door to find him sitting on the couch and he explains that he’s waiting for the Institute head himself. They both then get alerted that there’s an important meeting being held as the ops center. When they get there, Alec tells Jace, Clary, Izzy (Emeraude Toubia) and Sebastian that now that the mirror is with them Jonathan and Valentine are bound to come and so they need to come up with scenarios in order to beef up security.

Sebastian returns to Alec’s office to get Max but the boy has disappeared. Turns out he somehow made it back to his room where Izzy finds his unconscious body. She has medics come and her younger brother is taken to the infirmary. Unfortunately iratzes (healing rune) aren’t working and they must summon the Silent Brothers for help. Alec contacts their parents Maryse (Nicola Correia Damude) and Robert (Paulino Nunes) to come while Jace and Clary try to figure out who did this. Sebastian volunteers to stay with Max in case he regains consciousness and was able to identify his attacker. Really though it’s so he can finish the job in case the kid remembers what happened.

At Max’s room, Jace determines that the younger Lightwood wasn’t attacked there. He then finds Jonathan’s baby box underneath the bed and take it back to the ops center. There they tell Alec and Sebastian that Max must have found a way to use the box to track Jonathan and that he must have seen Clary’s brother’s real face. Jace thinks that he is likely still in the Institute if he’s come for the Mortal Mirror because he wouldn’t leave without it. Alec then decides to lockdown the place and sends Sebastian to arrange more guards to make sure that Jonathan doesn’t get out of there alive. As Maryse and Robert arrive to their unconscious son’s side, they tell Izzy and Sebastian (who just happened to be in the room) that the Silent Brothers are going to attempt a dangerous procedure that they do in extreme cases like this, but there’s a chance that Max won’t survive it (Brother Enoch also confirmed that warlock magic won’t be able to help). The devious demon-blooded Shadowhunter leaves the family to have their privacy though says that he will keep their son his in prayers before walking away with a smirk on his face. I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, Will Tudor does such an amazing job playing psychopath Jonathan/Sebastian (PLEASE COME BACK IN SEASON 3!!!).

Sebastian in the meantime goes in search of the Mortal Mirror. He accosts one of the sentry guards who tells him that it’s in the lower levels. On his way he runs into Jace who tells him that he’s going to protect the mirror himself, knowing that he’s the only one who can possibly defeat Jonathan. Cleverly though, he sends the other Shadowhunter a text from Alec’s phone saying that they lost Max in order to make him leave. Once Jace is gone, Sebastian heads downstairs and kills all the other guards posted there and takes the mirror. Afterwards as he is preparing to leave the Institute he sees some kind of detector set up.

He asks Clary what’s going on and she explains that after looking through Valentine’s (Alan Van Sprang) notes she read that her brother had an intolerance for a specific mineral so she then got some from Izzy’s whip and set up test. The mineral wasn’t harmful to normal Nephilim and so this way they could find out who Jonathan was impersonating. She hands him a small stone and says that if he wants to leave he could just hold it. He takes the stone and holds it for a good while without reacting then hands it back to her, saying that he’s passed then. He bids her adieu and begins to walk out when she looks at the stone and notices something strange. Clary runs after him saying that he forgot something and grabs his hand. His exposed palm shows that he’s bled and she stabs him with one of her knives. Sebastian then hits a button which cuts of the entrance from the ops center and grabs his sister’s throat while pulling the blade from his stomach. It’s an incredibly tense scene between the two siblings as Jonathan finally tells her that he just wanted her and mirror. Speaking of which, she sees the mirror in his pocket and uses another knife to slice it (causing the mirror to fall) and then stab him on his shoulder causing him to drop her. She then writes a rune using her stele that blasts the glass door so that she can get back inside the ops center while her brother leaves the Institute quickly disappearing. The cat is truly out of the bag now. Alec and Jace come to her side and she disables the mirror with the same rune that she used on the sword except it disintegrates, leaving the trio baffled.

Magnus Must Make a Difficult Choice

Meanwhile Magnus (Harry Shum Jr.) and Luke (Isaiah Mustafa) go to the Seelie Queen’s (Lola Flannery) court to inform her that Valentine is loose and that the Soul Sword is missing. She then asks if they have agreed to join her side and for Downworlders to search for the Circle leader themselves. Luke though is adamant that he doesn’t want a war with the Clave. Magnus says that he needs to time to think about her offer and she agrees to give him so time to decide but that he shouldn’t let his crush get in the way of deciding what’s best for his people. She gives him a small rose and explains that as soon as the petals all turn black he will need to give her an answer. He then spends time remembering important moments between Alec and himself since their relationship began and it’s the moment that Malec fans have been waiting for because we finally see intimate candid moments between the two and my heart is about to explode. Alec calls him while he’s at his loft, but Magnus ignores it (the Shadowhunter is calling because of an unconscious Max).

We are treated to a scene from season one the morning after Magnus healed Luke from severe injuries. Alec ended up falling asleep at the loft and even then the warlock knew that this Shadowhunter was different by lending him strength to help a werewolf (even though Alec claimed that Luke was Clary’s friend not his). Next we see Magnus remembering the first night that he and Alec spent together intimately where he got overwhelmed with his emotions and was not able to keep his glamor on, revealing his cat eyes. Alec tells him that he’s beautiful and the next morning the two are in bed together and the Shadowhunter asks him what he’s afraid off. The warlock says that the key to not having any fears is not having anything to lose.

Back in the present, Alec comes to the loft saying that he knows he has no right to be here but he’s desperate and needs Magnus’s help to save Max. He goes to the Institute to help but confirms that there is nothing he can do and it will be up to Brother Enoch. Magnus is in an awkward position because he obviously still loves Alec but also keenly feels the divide that he is a Downworlder inside an Institute. Alec ends up staying next to his family’s side as they all wait for the procedure to finish. Luckily Max survives and wakes up from his coma asking if they caught Sebastian. Magnus then excuses himself sensing that this should be a private family moment. Izzy then gives her older brother a look and Alec goes after him. He apologizes and tells the warlock that he loves him and knows that he made a mistake. Magnus though feels the weight of his responsibilities and the Seelie Queen’s words on his shoulders. He tells Alexander that he was afraid of this because he loves him too. He then says that the only thing keeping him from doing what’s best for his people is Alec and he can’t be selfish. Are we witnessing their break up? Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Luke’s Newest Pack Member – Meet Bat Velasquez

After their paddle boat date, Simon (Alberto Rosende) and Maia (Alisha Wainright) head back to the Hunter’s Moon when they both suddenly hear a man screaming. They rush to the alley to see a large wolf having just attacked a mundane. Maia recognizes the werewolf as Russell, a former pack member who left for Philadelphia because he was unhappy with Luke’s leadership. Russell runs off and the poor mundane is freaking out having just been mauled. He says that his name is Bartholemew Velasquez (Kevin Alves), but people call him Bat. I’m so excited because Bat is an important character in Maia’s life in the Mortal Instrument series. They take him back to the Jade Wolf boathouse where Maia explains to Luke what happened. The alpha of the New York pack then goes off to deal with Russel while Maia and Simon watch over Bat. She tells Simon that because it’s a full moon he either survives the bite and transforms or he’ll die from the injury. Sure enough though he begins to change and they lock him in so that he can’t harm anyone.

Maia though opens up to Simon and tells him how she herself became a werewolf. It had been her ex-boyfriend Jordan Kyle who had attacked her. She had fallen for him because he was the first one to ever make her feel beautiful but then he became too possessive and she broke it off. Then one night she was walking home from a date when an animal came at her. She had tried so hard to free herself but it was too strong. Then he transformed and she saw that it was Jordan. He then ran off and left her there to die. Except she survived and ever since then it’s always been on her mind that it was because of love that she became a werewolf. Geez talk about traumatic, no wonder she was so freaked out by her feelings for Simon. Simon is so understanding and obviously wants to be there to support her in any way that he can.

Luke in the meantime goes to find Russell and bring him to heel. The two fight it out old school to the death but he doesn’t want to kill the other wolf, they’ve lost too many already. The rest of Russell’s pups submit to their new alpha as they rejoin the New York pack. They all congregate at the Jade Wolf where Luke welcomes them while being watched through video by his police partner Ollie. Looks like the Raphael’s encanto powers didn’t quite work as she still remembered the shadow world enough to come to the Jade Wolf and bug it. You don’t know what you’re asking for though because now Luke is gonna have to take care of you.

SPOILER from The Mortal Instruments Series: if you’ve read the books you know that Bat and Maia dated, broke up, and eventually got back together again so I’m so excited to have him on the show. Also, how adorable is he?

The Real Mortal Mirror

At the end of the episode Alec, Jace, Izzy, and Clary are inside Alec’s office contemplating everything that just happened. Izzy is angry and upset that she had been the one to bring Sebastian into the Institute. They begin to discuss the Mortal Mirror disintegrating when Clary finds herself looking at a scenic painting of Lake Lyn. She then gets flashes of visions and realizes that what they thought was the mirror wasn’t the actual Mortal Instrument. She realizes that it must have been a decoy and that the real mirror is Lake Lyn.

So now that his cover is blown, Jonathan joins Valentine in his plans to call forth the angel Raziel without being able to keep tabs on his sister and the others. Max luckily survived and sadly it looks like Malec is on a break. Also with Bat in the picture and Maia looking out for the young wolf, how will this affect her relationship with Simon? Only two more episodes left until season 2 is over and the hiatus begins.

Catch Shadowhunters Mondays at 8 PM on Freeform.

For more on Shadowhunters click HERE.

Nicole C
Nicole Chttps://theworkprint.com
Nicole is the Features Editor for The Workprint. She may or may not be addicted to coffee, audiobooks, and sci-fi.

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