Shadowhunters season 3 premiere review: Projections, problems, and Lilith

Shadowhunters season 3 cast

The Shadowhunters season 3 premiere on Freeform Tuesday night offered up much of what you could want — it was also especially freaky at a few moments courtesy of some of the demons that we had a chance to see.

At the top of the list when it comes to scariness was Lilith, the “Mother of All Demons” who has shown herself already to be formidable. She has herself a home base already in the Church of Talto, and with that she’s already found herself some followers — including a doctor who she has already figured out how to transform into something else entirely. Seeing the battle between the demonic figure the doctor transformed into with Clary was one of the night’s most-terrifying moments, especially when you consider how quickly the character such short work of Luke and Ollie. While Clary emerged victorious in the moment, we were reminded throughout this process that we are looking at a situation here that could still spiral and get worse for all of our heroes long before it gets better.

As for what else we had a chance to witness during the premiere, there was suffering that took place on an emotional level for Jace, who was struggling with nightmares that were starting to become so real that he could not separate truth from fiction. Many of these said nightmares featured at the center of them Clary and Jonathan, likely a sign of some of the pain that he still feels following precisely what happened with his resurrection. Clary is there for him, but he isn’t being necessarily forthcoming with some of that information. Given that she was willing to use her only wish she had in order to save him, that should tell him that he can trust her — we’d certainly like to see that used as some sort of jumping-off point!

There were some secrets elsewhere within the premiere, but these did come out over the course of the episode when it comes to Malec. Magnus tried to keep from Alec his disappointment at no longer being the High Warlock, mostly because he did not want to see him as distraught as he was. He tried to cover up some of his pain by taking on some new clients and keeping himself busy. Meanwhile, there were some other potential issues that could have arose over Alec looking to take on an exciting new opportunity elsewhere; Magnus didn’t want to put up too much of a fight at first, thinking that he would influence in a way that he did not want. Nonetheless, that is precisely what ended up happening in the end anyway.

Also, poor Simon

After all of that singing at the Seelie Court, it still doesn’t seem as though he’s getting anywhere when it comes to getting the trust or the favor after the deal that was made last season. Simon’s separate from Clary and much of the cast, which could prove difficult because of the close bonds that are there.

Related – Shadowhunters premiere honors Simon Jacques

CarterMatt Verdict

As a whole, the Shadowhunters season 3 premiere proved to be yet again what many viewers out there want — action-packed and romantic while also very creepy in moments. If there’s one major criticism we could give, it’s the same one we did at the end of last season: Why do these people call each other by name so much? Don’t they know each other’s name at this point? (That’s a similar critique we had of The Vampire Diaries.)

What do you think about the Shadowhunters season 3 premiere as a whole? Share some of your thoughts within the attached comments!

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