Beati Bellicosi was a bit of a filler episode. The kind Shadowhunters likes to throw in every once in a while even though their plot is already convoluted enough that even ten episodes doesn’t seem like nearly enough.
This episode was entertaining enough, I guess, but not much happened, and certainly not much of actual importance to the arc of the season.
Just living her life
Clary returns to the institute for the first time since being bound to Jonathan, and for some reason she seems to be the only person taking this bond seriously.
Changing the bond from the one in the books so that it’s purely physical and has no effect on Clary’s feelings toward Sebastian definitely complicates things, and I have a hunch our main characters will have a much easier time finding a solution to this little problem than they did in the books, which I guess makes since if they want to wrap up the series in ten episodes but definitely makes things less interesting.
I’m kind of surprised by how calm everyone is about this, though. We know what Jonathan is like. He’s dangerous. Who knows what he’s willing to do to get what he wants? Clary could be in serious danger right now. And I guess there isn’t much they can do except try to track him down without hurting him and do their best to break the bond, but why aren’t they more concerned? Are they that confident in their ability to find a solution? I guess this show has made such a habit of changing up its worldbuilding and finding convenient solutions to magical problems that the characters have gotten used to it just as I have.
I’m definitely surprised by how quickly Clary moved on, and by the extent to which Jace was willing to completely forget about it. I know it could be dangerous to try to get rid of the rune, but holy shit you don’t really want your girlfriend to spend her life bound to a supervillain, do you? And while there’s plenty to be said about enjoying the pleasures of life without constantly worrying about your situation, I feel like this is kind of an exceptional situation?
How much power is Alec supposed to have?
I know I keep coming back to this, but I’m just so confused about Alec’s standing with the Clave. He clearly doesn’t get along with the Clave and they clearly don’t trust him, which makes perfect sense given how often they’ve clashed, but they’ve still given him the position of head of the institute? Then he keeps saying that he can’t do things because the Clave doesn’t like or trust him enough, even though he holds this really influential position. And then you have this episode, where he’s apparently able to send out an order for everyone not to hurt the person who is currently arguably the biggest threat to shadowhunters.
Can this show please make up its mind about Alec’s position already?
What I’m curious to see is how many people in the Clave will want to kill Clary to get to Jonathan. I don’t know if anyone knows about the connection between the two of them, but people are bound to be suspicious about Alec’s order not to hurt Jonathan. If the Clave of the book series was willing to kill Clary, I have a very hard time believing the Clave of the TV series wouldn’t do the same.
Addiction, again
Why is this the only storyline this show can give Isabelle? I still don’t understand why it happened in the first place and I definitely don’t understand why it’s coming back. It’s not interesting. It’s not doing anything more for her character. Couldn’t we have given her something else to do?
Izzy is such a good character. Let her take a more active role in the overall plot of the season. Let her interact with Clary more. Even pair her up with Simon if you have to, as long as they both get something out of the relationship.
Just… give her something to do.
Pack Leader
I wasn’t expecting Maia to take over as leader of the pack so soon, but I’m thrilled this is happening! She’s perfect for this role, and I can’t wait to see her do well at it. Hopefully, it’ll also give her a nice storyline for this season.
Her reasoning for breaking up with Simon seems a little weak to me, honestly, especially considering how committed they’ve always been breaking traditional codes of conduct in regard to relationships between werewolves and vampires. That said, I completely 100% believe that this show would make it so that holding a position of leadership makes you completely incapable of having a life outside of that position, because that seems to be thing, even though I will point out that that definitely wasn’t a problem for Luke earlier. But apparently Maia just can’t handle having a love life AND leading a pack? Ok.
I’m also very much okay with Simon and Maia breaking up, because while I liked their relationship I think it’s run its course, and honestly, I liked the way that conversation went down. Maia didn’t just say that her job requires that she has no life. She made it clear that it was going to be very hard for her to keep up a relationship with Simon and that Simon deserves a lot better than that. Still, I wish there had been a bit more conversation about what wasn’t working? Like, they’re not being forced apart here. If they wanted to put in the effort to make things work, they could, but they don’t want to, and maybe they should have mentioned that?
Why is Heidi here?
I don’t think I have anything more to say about this storyline. Just that. Why is Heidi here? What purpose did she serve in this episode? All she did was take screen time away from characters we actually care about.
Can she just leave?
Odds and Ends
- Maryse and Luke weren’t a big enough part of this episode to warrant a full section, but let me say that I still don’t care about their relationship.
- Ugh why did Jace have to use the “I will love you until I die” line from the books? It did not work here.
- Once again, the show is taking this couple in a completely different direction from the way they went in the books, then randomly bringing in scenes or lines from the books that worked for book Clace but seem super weird and out of place for show Clace.
- Oh, so now that Simon doesn’t have the mark anymore, he doesn’t need the Praetor? Just because he lost the mark doesn’t mean he has his shit together all of a sudden.
- Like there were many factors that went into him needing a mentor/protector lol
- An off-the-books Clave program related to Heavenly Fire? Sure. Why not?
Shadowhunters airs Mondays at 8pm EST on Freeform.