Shadowhunters season 2 episode 18 review: Magnus – Alec tears; Lake Lyn surprise
Over the course of this new episode, one of the biggest things that we saw repeatedly in flashbacks was that Magnus had some fears that came with his immortality, but also from trust. He also was afraid that he couldn’t live his life happy in the day and accomplish his missions at night. Alec’s latest actions with the Soul Sword caused there to be a major rift in their trust, and at the end of the episode Magnus decided that he couldn’t have both his duties and the love of someone who cared for him. Alec’s heart is now broken, and perhaps Magnus is more hardened and separate than ever from the world that exists around him. We do think that he still loves him, but is masking that for the time being. He doesn’t know how to process it.
All of this can be described properly using one word: Devastating. We don’t think that this is the end of the story by any means when it comes to Malec, but this is the biggest bump in the road that they’ve faced all season long. It doesn’t help that the Shadowhunters and the Downworlders are severing more of their ties, and that’s another factor that seems to be pushing Magnus away. (Consider that the Romeo & Juliet part of the equation.)
Here’s a little bit of good news when it comes to balancing everything out: Max is alive! Also, the Shadowhunters are more than a little bit aware now of who Jonathan truly is.
On the flip side of that, though, the bad news is that he’s still very much out there and none of the attempts to contain him actually worked. He’s as dangerous and ruthless as ever, but he doesn’t have access to all the Mortal Instruments just yet. Heck, Clary didn’t even realize until the closing seconds of the episode that Lake Lyn is actually the mirror! For the longest time, she assumed that it was something else entirely until she realized the meaning of her visions.
Did all of the story play out effectively?
As heartbreaking as the Malec stuff was, we do think that the producers of Shadowhunters have a good grasp on what many of their viewers want … though we will admit that the Simon/Maia scenes didn’t have as much of a place amidst the insanity elsewhere and felt like they could’ve and should’ve been earlier in the season. (The show maybe pushed the Simon/Clary relationship a little too far into the season, and then got him with Maia too soon.)
One of the things that we do wish that the show would consider down the road is doing something akin to this past season of Grey’s Anatomy, where they would occasionally isolate some characters and tell some of their stories on their own. Think about if this episode was almost entirely about Magnus and Alec, while next week had been more focused on Sebastian/Jonathan and the revelations that came out there. We think that isolating more of the characters rather than putting pressure to include all of them every week would be a valuable move for this show to make.
This critique aside, this was a very important episode when it comes to setting up the season 2 endgame. There were a number of important moments, and some reveals made it clear just how much of a sense of urgency there is. Grade: B.
What’s coming next?
Rest assured that if you head over to the link here right now, you can get a full preview for what lies ahead on Shadowhunters season 2 episode 19! (Photo: Freeform.)