‘Shadowhunters’: Love Triangles, Evil Freaks and All the Malec Feels
Spoiler Alert
[Spoiler Alert: Do not read ahead unless you’ve watched “A Problem of Memory,” Monday’s episode of Shadowhunters. Major plot points and spoilers discussed ahead.]
Was that a doozy of an episode or what?
In Monday’s Shadowhunters episode, entitled “A Problem of Memory,” everyone’s story got amped up in a big way, with relationships getting more complicated, secrets being revealed, danger escalating and, excuse me, what the heck is going on with Sebastian…or should we now call him Faux-Sebastian?
To help us make sense of everything we saw play out in this gamechanger of an episode, Shadowhunters showrunners Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer clued us into that everything means and, more importantly, what we can expect moving forward into Season 2B.
Simon and Clary’s Future: Our favorite vamp is still hurting from seeing Clary (Katherine McNamara) kiss Jace (Dominic Sherwood) in last week’s episode. What’s next, since Simon (Alberto Rosende) told her that he needs some time to figure things out? “How much time, I don’t know,” said Slavkin. “For Clary and Simon, their friendship is too important to just toss it away. Having said that, once you’ve entered into an affair of the heart it becomes a romantic thing. You can’t just go back to the way it was. It takes time to get there.”
Will Jace make his move?: With Simon taking time, that kind of opens the door for Jace (Dominic Sherwood) to maybe try to get things started again with Clary, right? “It definitely does,” Swimmer said. “We’ve dealt with so much of the back-and-forth between Jace and Simon. It appears to be at the end of this episode that Simon’s done with that. He’s not going to continue. He’s pretty much going to lay off trying to compete with him for Clary.” That said, Slavkin added that it might not be so easy for Jace to just swoop back in. “What’s interesting with Clary is how well did she say to herself, ‘How well do I even know myself?’ So she’s not ready to leap into the deep end with Jace. She’s got to get her own self straight before she can commit to another relationship.”
“Clary will be your downfall”: Are those words from Valentine (Alan Van Sprang) to Jace just the dastardly one trying to get under Jace’s skin, or is there some truth there? “There’s definitely truth to it,” Swimmer explained. “He sees the way they are together, and he understands what it’s like when you have complicated feelings for people. Having said that, he’s also trying to get under Jace’s skin at the same time. It is a bit of possibly a prophetic thing to say, so I think book readers will clue into it.”
The Truth About Sebastian: The producers promise we won’t have to wait long to find out even more about faux-Sebastian, who we saw kill the real Sebastian (Will Tudor) in this week’s episode. “I guess at the end of this episode, kind of remember that you don’t know who exactly he is,” Swimmer said. “You will find out in the next episode, and we unravel the mystery of that third boy after the episode. That story illuminates the whole gory, juicy truth about who that third man really is.”
Hello, Aline: With the addition of Aline (Eileen Li), the show is clearly broadening their LGBT group of characters. “It’s an ever-growing base,” said Swimmer. “We’re thrilled with Aline, and I do think she represents not just the LGBT group but also an Asian woman from Alicante. It’s just a spin to Shadowhunters. We haven’t seen someone like that, and we think she’s terrific.
The Guilt of Izzy: With the whole Sebastian mess starting to blow up, Izzy (Emeraude Toubia) is going to feel more than a little guilt once everyone finds out about him. “Izzy made that decision to bring this monster into the institute,” Slavkin said. “Obviously she didn’t know what he was capable of, but once it comes out, she really beats herself up for it. And as you can see in [Monday’s episode], what I think is cool is Alec realizing that she needs strength and support, and the fact that she’s in charge of that mission of transferring Valentine. Unfortunately it didn’t go so well.” Swimmer added, “We’ll also see Izzy in a role that we haven’t seen her in too much, which is as a mentor.” [Mentor to whom, we will have to wait to find out!]
The Evil Freaks: We found out at the very end that Valentine and faux-Sebastian are working together. That won’t be a good thing for our team of heroes, will it? “No. Getting those two evil freaks together doesn’t really spell good things ahead,” Swimmer teased. “I will say it’s interesting because it’s so complex, because it’s a father and son, and it’s really interesting the dynamics between these two as we move on. It’s not just evil masterminds. I think your heart will be broken, and I think you’re going to feel things that you are surprised to feel. It only gets more complicated and weirder.”
All the Malec Feels: With Magnus (Harry Shum Jr) finally breaking down and telling Alec (Matthew Daddario) about this horrible memory he’s been dealing with, what’s next for the couple? “Getting to write these emotive, beautiful, sensitive moments where we’re getting character work and we’re understanding characters histories is really the juice for us,” Swimmer said. “Amazing stuff lies ahead with Malec. This is just, kind of, the beginning in terms of the depth that we’re trying to explore. And that’s not to say that there’s not joy ahead. That there’s not smiles and there’s not lots of beautiful, upbeat moments, but in order to get there, we explore the depth, and it’s pretty cool.”
But is the memory of his mother all in the past now? “Magnus’ past is much deeper than just this little tidbit, and it will be a continual [reveal]. He hasn’t come out and had a [moment] where he’s just told Alec everything, [but] it’s happening,” Slavkin said. “He’s parceling it out, and there’s definitely more stuff and things that he wants to keep hidden from Alec. But this particular story is closed-ended, in terms of the mother committing suicide and then his stepfather coming in and burning the stepfather. There’s not more to that particular story.”
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Alec The Leader: We all know that Alec is a born leader, but how will his new role go when the stakes just keep getting bigger and bigger? “It’s tricky for Alec, because it’s something new for him, and we wanted to show that he’s not necessarily just taking to it like a duck to water. But he, deep down, is born to be a leader, and what we’ll eventually see is him growing into those shoes that he was thrust into a little early.” Slavkin added, “As a leader, sometimes the best decision isn’t the right decision. Alec has to make so many difficult choices ahead, and there’s collateral damage to these decisions, that it might be for the greater good—but that doesn’t mean that everybody wins.”
Shadowhunters, Mondays, 8/7c, Freeform
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