After the anticipation built previously, D-Day finally arrived and it lived up to the hype. “By the Light of Dawn” was an intense, thrilling hour that raised curiosity for the second part of the season, while successfully nudging a few bigger storylines into their next phase of life.
In a truly villainous, manipulative push, Valentine followed through on his plan to activate the Soul Sword by cornering our characters with the lies he’s been weaving all along. Valentine has been a little more active than he was last season, but he’s still very much pottering around in the shadows. As it turns out, that only helped to showcase Valentine’s genius this hour. I knew what was coming, but the way his careful contingencies all wove together for this moment still knocked me sideways.
Clary, Raphael, and Jace (John Medland/Freeform)
The Downworlders were out for themselves after failing to come together previously, and the one doing the heavy lifting in uniting them for the cause was our resident voice of reason, Luke Garroway. Having been notably absent in a few episodes this season, Isaiah Mustafa managed to snag a few key scenes but was promptly discarded with a knife wound once he’d saved the day. I still feel the show doesn’t quite know how to treat Luke like a main character, and with his biggest story catalyst – Jocelyn – dead and buried, the struggle has become increasingly prominent. He’s going to need something substantial in 2B to state his case because being Maia’s personal anger-wrangler isn’t quite cutting it. Though watching Luke give his pent-up rage some cathartic smackdown action was a lot of fun. Isaiah’s stunt work is some of the best on the show and I’d love to see it utilized centerstage more.
Luke and Jace managed to get the seelies and vampires – and Maia – temporarily onside, which may cost them in the long run. With all of those Downworlder deaths, and the seelies already playing their war song, there’s going to be a reckoning. The Clave is bad enough when it’s not being threatened, so the pushback is possibly going to make things worse. Blood is on the horizon, and it’s giving the show a palpable sense of doom.
Isabelle and Raphael continued to confuse. Watching him go for the vein when she wanted sexual intimacy instead felt less about his confessed asexual orientation – and more about how he views her as a blood supply. Their relationship, for lack of a more accurate term, hasn’t read remotely in the romantic way it was probably intended. Nothing has been fun about it, and the moment Isabelle finally called it quits, I was relieved. Raphael condemned their relationship the moment he tried to separate Isabelle from Alec’s concerned reaching out – that’s a bond you just don’t mess with. Luckily for us all, Isabelle came to her senses eventually when it mattered, as unrealistic and unnecessarily emasculating as it was to see her take down four Shadowhunters on withdrawal symptoms, while Alec and Aldertree stood there with their junk in their hands. I want to say David Castro and Emeraude Toubia have been great, but the characters they’re playing here have fallen so far off the beaten path that I haven’t quite known how to deal with them. This hasn’t been the Raphael and Isabelle I’m familiar with, and I’ve found myself at a real loss.
Aldertree’s sob story for his dead werewolf lover reflected the same opinion we’ve heard before, and will probably hear in the near future: Downworlders have a biology they can’t control, and getting emotionally involved with them has the potential to cripple a Shadowhunter’s ability to do their job. Maia and Luke have shown us what happens when werewolves are emotionally compromised, but they can be turned around with the right understanding. The Clave could do to instigate mandatory mediation classes for its Shadowhunters, but they’re an old society and a stubborn one at that. Will our squad rage against the machine and teach the Clave how to get with the times? We can only wait and see.
Saving Aldertree’s shady character with a sob story was left a little too late. He didn’t appear any warmer for it, and I wasn’t interested in hearing him out, though the loaded expression on Nick Sagar’s face as he saw Isabelle’s current state and appeared to feel responsible for the role he played began to draw me back in. Alec continued to spearhead the mission while putting a higher ranked Clave official in his place. His confidence and refusal to ignore his own instincts in favor of those the Clave would prefer he had is a stark contrast to the textbook obedient soldier he was in the first season. The change in him has been subtle but honest, and a delightful lot of character development to witness.
Magnus and Clary (John Medland/Freeform)
The cogs of the overall plot revolved around Clary’s need to rescue Simon, but both of them played minimal parts in the larger arc of Jace’s total odyssey this episode. Jace has spent a fair amount of time this season trying to piece together his shattered semblance of self and failing, and in the finale, he was ready to end himself with a touch of the Soul Sword. Instead, he got served an emotional walloping when he realized not only had he inadvertently killed numerous Downworlders but that the demon blood he’d hated all season-long was actually pure angel, and that he’d possibly killed his Parabatai’s love, all in one fell swoop. After half a season of hating the demon blood he believed he had, it was a trip to watch him wish the ruse had been the truth. On top of that, he learned the father he hates isn’t his father at all, which makes a good portion of his debilitating self-hatred all for naught. And as if he hasn’t had enough already, he learned the guilt he’s been carrying over his unbrotherly feelings for Clary has also been for no reason.
Jace realized in quick succession that he’s right back at square one – the golden boy orphan with the possibility of love – and while he should be elated, he’s ultimately left devastated. His love for Clary is now a double-edged sword; loving someone means you want them to be happy, and her current happiness is with Simon, who can now take Clary on dates in the sun because of Jace. What a way to twist one of the more awkward love triangles in this franchise into something deeply tragic! I am thoroughly impressed.
Dominic Sherwood has been an absolute star this season and his finale performance hit a new high, fluctuating from hollow and raw to grief-riddled. He’s made Jace’s heart beat in ways the character hasn’t before, and that’s proof right there that he was born for this role. Katherine McNamara and Alberto Rosende continue to delight, both separately and together. I want Jace to be happy as much as the next person, but Clary and Simon’s mutual happiness right now feels good. How this part of the story unravels is anybody’s guess, but I think it’s safe to assume it will hurt a great deal. I’m all for the angst. Gimme.
Alan Van Sprang managed to press what little humanity Valentine has right up beneath the surface and I believed, in his darkest moment, that he was actually capable of love. Valentine tends to treat Clary like a bug who will eventually see things his way, but when he’s not bending Jace to his will, he treats him like something precious. Like a child he has proudly raised and loved despite his use for him. Opposite Dom, he showed some wonderful cracks.
Having spent what looked like a long, terrifying night post-destruction searching for what he assumed was a dead body, Alec’s panic for Magnus was visceral. Matthew Daddario’s performance was so incredibly understated, but when it hit, it hit. The fright in his eyes and the unnerving tremor that ran through him until Magnus was safe in his arms scooped me right up and dumped me hard. Here was a man finally realizing why Magnus felt so important to him, and I believed every beautiful second of it. Damn, Daddario.
Magnus (John Medland/Freeform)
Harry Shum Jr.’s Magnus ran a tight, worried line throughout the hour, conveying a thousand words with his face for every line he spoke. Magnus’ heartbreak for Madzie and how she was being used as a weapon felt very much like it was coming from firsthand experience, and his willingness to walk into the danger of the Institute for Alec’s sake made it pretty clear that the guy was already head over heels. The look in his eyes when Alec confessed his love was devastating in its quiet surprise – a man so clearly unable to understand why he is worthy of it. I hope 2B makes a point of building his heart’s confidence the way 2A has built Alec’s. That’s story gold right there.
Then there was the scene. It wasn’t even the kiss or the mutual ‘I love you’ that got me. Magnus and Alec’s numerous kisses still haven’t surpassed the emotion and passion of Season 1’s wedding kiss, but their hug surpassed all of them combined. It was needy and desperate, and it portrayed an intimacy we haven’t yet seen between them. In that moment, they were two wildly beating hearts wrapped around each other, and it made it hard to remember why I’d been a little disappointed in their earlier interactions this season. Does this grand moment make up for some of the pieces we’ve missed so far? Not really. But I still can’t find it in myself to be anything but blissfully satisfied with where they are now. More, please. Seriously.
Director Joshua Butler’s work here was a seamless transition from Matt Hastings’ direction last episode, and it’s not hard to see why he was chosen to helm the finale. His action scenes were both sleek and savage at once, and his framing of the more emotional beats of the episode spoke of a deep understanding for the characters and the point they’ve come to. One particular shot that stood out was the beautiful pan-out of Simon in the Institute, standing with his eyes closed and basking in the sun like it were a dearly missed friend. It felt deeply personal. The episode’s pace was a consistent pulse all the way through, lulling and punching as necessary. There were so many things happening at once, and yet, Joshua’s translation of the script felt effortless. Matt Hastings’ directing style has a high-class elegance to it, but Joshua’s style is rich with heart and an earnestness that is, so far, unmatched. It makes him my new favorite director of the series.
For an episode packed to the gills with action, intrigue, and angst, it never felt rushed or overstuffed. Showrunners Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer handed in a script worthy of finale buzz, utilizing the show’s existing build-up to fuel the urgency. The character moments were fabulous, they succeeded in making a long-anticipated part of the story entirely new and believable, and they’ve also provided a fairly intense setup for 2B to pick up from. It wasn’t a flawless script, but it was pretty damn close, and it may have resulted in my favorite Shadowhunters episode to date.
Now that we’re at some of the story’s bigger checkpoints, it’s immensely satisfying to see how the show’s new paths have entwined into the overall canon we’re familiar with. Being familiar with the books, the fresh twists have been exciting and shocking, which is exactly what you’d want when over 50 percent of your audience already knows how it ends. I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish, and it left me utterly giddy for the next chapter. June 5th cannot come soon enough.
Shadowhunters returns Monday, June 5th 8/7c on Freeform, and Tuesday, June 6th internationally on Netflix.
