Shadowhunters season 2 episode 14 review: Clary’s kiss — problematic, no?
The entire main event of the episode took place when the Queen forced Clary to plant “the kiss she most desired” in order to save her two male companions from certain death. This was a game, but also one of the cruelest games known to mankind. Clary first tried to kiss Simon, hoping that it would work. Alas, it didn’t. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until she kissed Jace that things turned around and the vines went away.
We don’t blame Simon for walking away the moment that he was able to actually walk. Clary gave him nary a peck, but then she went in significantly more for her kiss with Jace. The Queen (who appeared to the characters in child form) didn’t say that the length of the kiss mattered all that much at all in her little game.
The unfortunate thing is that nobody really got anything that they wanted out of the visit. The Queen wanted to forge an alliance with Simon, but he was not interested; meanwhile, Clary spent the end of the episode pounding on Simon’s door to apologize … only to realize soon after that he wasn’t having it. Meanwhile, she wasn’t all that interested in listening to Luke, either.
Back at the Institute
There were certainly some highlights, including Izzy’s attempt to try and get Raphael back with her. His concern, meanwhile, was that they were mostly drawn together by their history of using and there was nothing that the two would gain from being back together. That was just his view, but it was the only view that mattered. (There wasn’t really enough of these two in this episode to develop any sort of substantial opinion.)
The story that was of far greater substance was getting to see Luke drawn into the Institute thanks to a plan, kicked off via a burner phone, for him to be able to take out Valentine once and for all. He jumped at the opportunity, thought it was ultimately a rather short-lived one as he didn’t end up getting much in the way of fruits for his labor. Instead, he found himself taken away, and were it not for Alec being surprisingly forgiving and afraid of a war with the Downworlders, he would be currently arrested.
The big surprise of all was learning in the closing seconds who was the person seemingly behind it all: Sebastian. This reveal was done rather beautifully, with us seeing him at the piano nonchalantly playing, even though he had a body of a shadowhunter locked away with a burner phone nearby. All though it was easy to assume that Sebastian is bad news, this is still one of the cooler teasers to end an episode that we’ve seen to date. It was another reminder of just how dangerous and threatening a character he could be.
Final Verdict
Given its budget and the number of episodes it has (i.e. not a lot of time for post-production), kudos to production for creating a fairly authentic and imaginative Seelie Court. Those scenes were interesting, as was the Seelie Queen casting. (There was a serious part of us that thought they would age her up and cast Sarah Hyland for the role.) The whole love-triangle stuff was laid on a little thick, but the whole Jace / Clary of it all does need to be dealt with.
The best part of the episode was clearly the tail end, mostly because it shows you precisely what Sebastian is capable of. In turn, this should have you very concerned for what he may decide to do next. Episode Grade: B.
What is coming up next on Shadowhunters?
If you head over to this link, you can get a preview for the next episode and so much more. Also, if you haven’t had a chance to check out our recent interview with Jade Hassouné (Meliorn) you can do that at the link here. (Photo: Freeform.)