In my last Shadowhunters review, I mentioned that my review of this episode would probably be a video review because I was more excited about it than any other episode and I wanted to rant about it. Clearly, that hasn't happened because you're reading this.
Why is that?
Frankly, I think any video review I filmed right now would be incoherent ranting with frequent breaks of just me squeeing. In other words, it would wind up being half an hour of nothing other than me massively freaking out. So I decided a post where I can edit myself and hopefully become a bit more coherent was the better option.
If you don't follow me on Twitter or Tumblr, then you managed to miss out on my massive freak out. Yeah... Going back and re-reading those posts honestly puts a huge smile on my face. Or just thinking about it puts a huge smile on my face, and I've done nothing but think about it since it happened.
Guys, it was such a good episode, and I'm so happy that other people think that as much as I do. I have honestly never had such a strong reaction to any television episode save the series finale of Legend of Korra (and, admittedly, the Last Airbender series finale is the other one that came close). I'm so happy I watched the show alone. At the beginning of the wedding scene, I had to stand up (and almost tripped over my laptop cord in the process) because I couldn't contain myself. When the kiss happened, I found myself clutching my dresser-wardrobe-thing (I really don't know what it would be called) because I felt like I was going to die. (Is that cliche and overly dramatic talk? Yes, but it gives you an accurate picture of how I was acting as it all happened.)
It's hard to describe why I had such a strong reaction. (Other than the scene just being amazing obviously.) I read the books, of course, so it's not like I didn't know that Magnus and Alec end up together. But the thing is that Alec and Magnus are so important to me both individually as characters and as a couple. For a number of reasons that are probably best saved for another post or video.
It's true that I've read their story before (and freaked out over it in book form as well), but there's something very different about seeing it play out on a television screen. Even though books are the greatest love of my life, I'll admit that. Neither way is better than the other, but they're two very different experiences, which I think accounts for me having such a strong reaction.
Also, I'm pretty sure there were other aspects of this episode that I wanted to discuss? Let me try to calm down and figure out what those were.
Oh, Alec's scenes with Clary and Jace. I loved both of those. It's so nice to see Clary and Alec warming up to each other, and I want that to continue forever. It's also wonderful to see such a wonderful parabatai bonding scene with Alec and Jace. We haven't really gotten that all season, and I'm glad they worked that in there. Especially before the wedding scene because it really needed to happen.
I hope we get more great scenes between Alec and both Clary and Jace in the future. I can't see how they would not if they continued to do a good job with the story, but still, fingers crossed.
We got to meet Ragnor Fell, and he immediately died. I'm so torn because it was heart-breaking, yet I loved the side of Magnus that it brought out in the episode. Magnus discussing his past with "Ragnor" was excellent and such a great way to get aspects of Magnus' personality across to viewers when he's typically so reluctant to share it with people. It also struck a cord when, not that much earlier, Alec had accused him of flirting without any real emotion. That scene really helped establish for the viewers that that wasn't the case. (Something that would have been clear to book readers, but I'm not sure about the perspective of those who have only seen the show. Had that come across so clearly before?)
Simon's fanboying over the Malec kiss was fantastic. Unsurprisingly, I was in an excellent mood at that point as it immediately followed my massive freak out over the kiss, and I was dying of laughter. (To be fair, anything would have had me dying of laughter at that point.) I love Simon so much. He's always been closely behind Alec and Magnus as far as my favorite Mortal Instruments/Shadowhunters characters go. Plus, I think Alec needed to see some over the top enthusiasm right then considering what he'd just done. He may not be enthusiastic about showing it, but I'll choose to believe that he was thankful that someone was so outright supportive (in the dorkiest way possible).
I do kind of wish we'd gotten just a bit more Lydia in this episode. I appreciate that she gave in so easily when Alec told her that he couldn't go through with the marriage. Still, like I mentioned in my last review, it would have been nice for her to have the same realization that they couldn't get married. I'm not too upset about that though because I didn't really like how it played out.
What I wasn't expecting was for her to get attacked. I was hoping she would stick around in the story, even if it was only through guest appearances every now and then. Now I'm worried that she's dead. I have my fingers crossed that he only knocked her out, but we'll have to wait and see.
As for Hodge being a traitor, I don't think that's a surprise for anyone who read the books. I was waiting for that shoe to drop, and I look forward to seeing them play out that aspect of the story.
I can't recall anything else I'd like to discuss right now except rambling more about the Malec kiss. (For one, I want to say how happy I am that Alec initiated the kiss and came to the realization after pretty minimal pushing from Magnus in this episode because that feels so important for his characterization.) But I should probably refrain myself. I both have and will continue to say all of those things on my Tumblr, I'm sure.
I'm just so excited for the season finale, but I'm also nervous because the finale means waiting an entire year for season two. That's going to be difficult. Here's hoping that kiss is able to satisfy the fandom until then. (I think it'll do as good a job of that as anything else could.)
As for what I want in the season finale (other than more Malec), I really want a big focus on Jace being Valentine's son. I want that to be dealt with a lot in the final episode. Since I don't want to go into book spoilers only at the tail end of this review, I won't specifically say what it is I want, but I did mention it in my last review. That's still the biggest thing I want from the finale, but we'll have to wait and see what they give us.
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