After last week’s emotional tumble dryer of an episode, “Day of Atonement” slowed things down to a crawl while dotting and crossing its i’s and t’s to ensure that everyone – both characters and audience – would be prepared for the chaos that is sure to come in the last four episodes of the season.
With Valentine having escaped on his watch, Alec and his position as the Head of the New York Institute is under greater scrutiny. The Clave’s envoy – Robert Lightwood – showed up to give Alec their orders, which resulted in a rather tense reunion, some understanding, and the dangerous secret knowledge that the Clave is lying about its possession of the Soul Sword.
Jace’s request for a portal was denied by the Clave, and with Magnus otherwise occupied in the Seelie Court, Clary used her rune creation powers to make her own and the two of them did what they seem to do most – ran off on an unsanctioned mission, this time to the Shadowhunter homeland of Idris to gather information on Valentine’s whereabouts. Without any real plan, or backup or steles – of which Shadowhunters are really, really dependent on – their carelessness put them in trouble when Clary swallowed water from Lake Lyn and began to lose her mind. Lucky thing then that Jace can activate his runes without a stele whenever Clary is suffering. Awww.
Meanwhile, Jonathan took Valentine down memory lane and replayed the horrors of his upbringing in the Hell dimension of Edom, and Simon attended his family’s Yom Kippur dinner with Maia as his Downworlder wing-woman.
This episode took last week’s Jonathan reveal and brought his story to the foreground. Alan Van Sprang and Will Tudor’s biting chemistry stole the show as we learned about Jonathan’s childhood, how he had an affinity early on for destroying and killing for curiosity’s sake, and that his murder of another boy had Valentine reeling enough to dispose of him in a Hell dimension where he endured years of torment. It’s a weighty villain origin story, warped in the way Jonathan is an absolute psychopath, yet he still seeks out an answer to why he wasn’t worthy of love.
Valentine spends a good portion of his time here looking for an opening to dismantle Jonathan emotionally. He’s no doubt terrified of him and what he’s capable of, especially of the hate Jonathan has for him. But he’s seeking to control that, and the way he danced around the Soul Sword – used and omitted certain words to sell Jonathan the answer he wanted – was telling. Also telling is the way their conversation returns to Jace. Jonathan was convinced that Valentine sent him away to protect his angel-blooded experiment, which gives us another interesting shard to the Jace/Valentine dynamic. Every time something like this comes up, it looks more and more like Jace was the son and heir he was seeking for his cause. The difference in the way Valentine connects with his two sons is intriguing – with Jace, he seems to offer words from the heart. With Jonathan, he offers words like meat on a hook.
By the end of the episode, any sympathy I had for Jonathan was gone as he and Valentine finally arrived at the same page. The impending doom of this partnership is finally here, and the catastrophic things it could mean for our other characters is terribly exciting. Jonathan has proven himself more clever, more angry, and exceedingly pro-active in his ability to do horrible things, and with he and Valentine now a team, the possibility of mayhem is imminent and scary. These are the big bads I’ve been waiting for.
The Seelie Queen’s secluded meetings with the Downworld leaders of New York had everyone on edge – most of all, Alec, who believes himself on thin ice after Valentine’s escape. It was wonderful to see Isabelle and Jace attempt to build his confidence back up, but it didn’t stop him from shouldering the responsibility or by being both stunned and angry to find the Clave envoy sent to assess his work was his own father.
As a child of imminent divorce, Alec isn’t only hurting for his mother, he’s hurting for himself. He’s been raised under the strict Lightwood code his entire life – “The honor isn’t in the name, it’s in the deed” – and so far, Robert’s deeds have made him a social pariah, a criminal, and now, a man who cheats on his wife. Being a good, respectable person has always carried a lot of weight with Alec, and to learn his first male role model in life has been preaching words he doesn’t live up to is damaging for him.
I enjoyed the way he pushed back on Robert, especially when it came to mentions of Magnus. He’s a man in the swells of a pure, honest love and watching him weigh his father’s actions against his own moral code feels true to character. That he emphatically rebuts the very concept of Magnus ever being anything but the one he chooses first, and his unyielding refusal to keep secrets from him is admirable. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop because shows thrive on relationship drama. The fact that Magnus and Alec’s relationship doesn’t fall into the usual trappings is a great comfort. Though with the news that the Soul Sword is missing, Isabelle’s, “Are you going to tell Magnus?” and Alec’s non-answer made it look like trouble is on the way.
For a girl who supposedly worshipped her father, Isabelle didn’t seem all that salty around him. How Robert’s infidelity has affected Alec felt true, but how it didn’t affect Isabelle this episode wasn’t. Perhaps this was an oversight, or the episode just didn’t have the time to get into it.
Still rattled by her break-up with Simon, Clary is actively avoiding being alone with Jace while Jace is all but demanding they talk it out – which includes getting Alec to assign the two of them to a mission. Clary totally sees it for the ploy that it is, but Jace wins her over in the end because Clary can never seem to say no to working outside the rulebook.
Setting Clary and Jace in Idris somehow made them more Shadowhunter than I’ve ever seen them be on this show. Like, it finally sunk in that these people are Shadowhunters, the characters I met and read about all those years ago. I’m ready to see how Idris affects Clary, and I’m hoping it means she takes a pause and really sits with the knowledge that she’s part of an ancient Nephilim race and feel it. Because ever since the pilot, she’s been chasing after a mold others have given her or pulling off impossible feats with little else besides a sassy shoulder shrug. She still feels like she operates from a place of limbo – a mundane in training instead of a Shadowhunter, despite being handed hero moments left, right, and center.
Jace and his continuous ability to activate his greater angelic rune powers whenever Clary needs him is a terribly romantic notion and says a lot about where his heart lies. He’s a bit of a dickhead even on his best days, but there’s no doubt he’s a big softie still looking for the chance to explore what Clary makes him feel. The show’s repeated granting of super important Clace moments over special musical cues, however, gets a bit old. We get it, show. They’re the main love story (even if a good chunk of your audience would disagree).
I’ve been wanting to see more “slice of life” moments where characters aren’t impacted or about to be impacted by the doom and gloom of the show’s overriding plot, so seeing Simon’s Yom Kippur family dinner was a nice change. The Lewis family are an entertaining bunch, and Simon’s Bubbie was a great addition to the scene because cheeky, old grandmothers are the cutest things in the world. However, the fact that we usually don’t get these moments meant that I was waiting for the writing to make sense of it by throwing in a main plot-related reason for why the dinner was happening – that it was just Simon having dinner with his family and reconnecting with Maia felt like I missed a punchline somewhere. Literally no other character on this show has been afforded the same luxury of just being, and I know I’d give anything to see Luke having his own family dinner with Clary, or Magnus and Alec having a lazy night in, or Isabelle and Jace spending a night on the town together. Maybe the rest of our main characters need to break up with Clary, too. Who knows?
I’m kinda back on the Simon/Maia ship. She reads him well, she surprises him, and he responds warmly to it in ways he didn’t with Clary. This is a girl who likes him for who he is, who doesn’t have years of comfy, worn-in history to justify it, which makes it mean more somehow. The episode spends a good deal of time showing us how well they work together and how easily she can read him and his family. Looks like Sizzy fans are going to have to wait a little longer. Personally, I don’t mind.
There were a lot of things I enjoyed about this episode – the rather deep character development happening all over the place, Alec feeling Jace’s cut in his hand, getting to see Isabelle and Jace on mission together, Maia being the coolest person ever, Alec understanding the line between resentment and responsibility, Jonathan and his emotional walkthrough. I particularly liked the scene of Clary discovering another new rune and then utilizing it with the show’s original score, the special effects, and the camera’s slow sweep of the room as the portal was created. It felt very cinematic and made me ponder what The Mortal Instruments film franchise could have looked like had this cast and staff been behind the wheel.
And yet, strangely, this was my least favorite episode of the entire season. It gave us a much-needed break from the fast pace of recent episodes, but the slowness of it felt less like a breather and more like the show was trying to patch up all of its holes in one go, which is probably the right thing to do with only four episodes remaining. It brought a couple of outstanding question marks to a close – that of the missing Soul Sword and Jonathan being alive – but their grand reveals didn’t have that much weight to them. The Inquisitor’s Soul Sword explanation back in 2×11 wasn’t all that believable to begin with, and we’ve known about Jonathan since last week (or much, much earlier if you’ve read the books). These were the episode’s main punches, and they lacked impact. I’m certain the intention was to surprise. Instead, I was left wondering, “Is that it?”
Luke and Magnus being off-screen at the Seelie Court left behind a big hole, much bigger than I’d anticipated, and I found myself wanting to see what they were up to. I understand that it probably would have squished everything else up, but it might have given this episode the oomph it was missing.
I have always said the same thing about Peter Binswanger – that whenever he’s behind the script of an episode, you don’t know what you’re going to get. This was a slow-paced, quiet filler episode in a show that usually races through its scenes and packs every square inch with multiple interweaving plots, something that Peter has always been able to balance well. So the fact that this episode didn’t have the same structure was quite a shock to the system. It’s a shame that took the majority of my attention because I’m pretty certain this was Peter’s best character writing to date. A lot of this episode came down to family interactions, and it gave us some lovely new character nuances. Jonathan’s disturbing monologuing in particular felt as if it were written with a giddy delightedness. Alec’s guarded back-and-forth with Robert struck home on a personal level, and Simon’s family dinner was warm and effortless in its charm.
Director Paul Wesley (of The Vampire Diaries fame, in case you didn’t get the hundreds of promotional reminders this week) constructed an episode with a solid understanding of the show’s core elements. His vast experience on a supernatural show worked entirely in his favor (even if I got Stefan/Elena emo vibes from Jace and Clary’s little Iratze moment), and the performances were all on point. Another seamless addition to the director roster.
Overall, “Day of Atonement” was a good episode that had all the right ingredients. I can only imagine the response non-book readers would have had, and in this case, I envy their naivety. Having said that, it’s done what it set out to do. It got its many plots and players in place for the final wave, and that alone leaves me excited for what comes next.
Shadowhunters airs Mondays 8/7c on Freeform and Tuesdays internationally on Netflix.