Shadowhunters – Season 1, Episode 7: “Major Arcana”
Grade: B-
With the seventh episode of Shadowhunters, “Major Arcana,” there’s quite a lot going on. And fortunately because of it, I really liked this episode. To be honest, I feel like it’s the best so far.
In the last episode, Clary realized where her mother had hidden the Mortal Cup—just as she can turn objects to 2D drawings, her mother could, and she realizes that the tarot cards back at the loft had one with a cup on it that looked awfully like the Mortal Cup. Fortunately, Luke brought all their stuff from the loft over to the police precinct, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to get—except, when Luke goes to get it, he’s taken in for questioning about all the stuff that’s been happening, his car wrapped around a pole with blood everywhere, for instance±—nice one, Jace.
With Luke detained, while Izzy and Alec create a distraction, Clary and Jace do their best to get to the tarot cards, learning they’ve been taken in as evidence. A simple glamour and a climb up an elevator shaft is all they need to sneak in. They get the cards, but Clary is unable to take the cup out. Demons are near and they’re trapped below ground in an adjacent building, and fight their way out. And after Clary is finally able to get the Cup out of the card and their all safely back at the Institute, Jace and Clary share a kiss—an awkwardly shot kiss, that came at a strange time, but it wasn’t bad.
I enjoyed the plot of this episode a lot. All of them working together, nothing felt forced our strangely done. It all just seemed to work. And with the improving effects and acting, I think this episode had all the right parts and it actually worked well—by far, my favorite in the series since the start.
Meanwhile, Simon is starting to hallucinate and after sleeping with Maureen, thinking it was Clary—which I really like the introduction of Maureen early and changes with her character, to be honest, because it gives a little more to Simon’s story—and he’s starting to think he’s going insane. In reality, drinking vampire blood has caused these strange side effects. His mother and sister are worried about him—I enjoyed that scene a lot—and after a completed meltdown, Simon trashes his room and heads back to the Hotel Dumort to find Camille, who explains what’s happening to him, and attacks him—presumably finishing the job of turning him into a vampire. Overall, Alberto has consistently been an asset to the show, being the funniest and acting the best out of them all. A really great episode to show both sides of his acting skills, both comedically and dramatically.
HIGHLIGHTS
Effects and acting
are improving. I was less distracted by the effects not being the best and the acting not working quite right while I watched this episode. To be honest, this is the best episode thus far and that thrills me. It’s still not the best, but it’s working for now.
More action
and a quicker pace made this episode work best. I think the plot of the episode helped this episode’s improvement from the other. Everyone was a key piece in the plan to get in and get the tarot card and get out alive with all the demons around. It was a solid episode that had a great flow, with everyone having something to do and it all just worked.
LOWLIGHTS
Clary is cornered
by some demons and her first idea is to attempt to get the Cup out of the tarot card, which works, and uses it to shoo them away, which made no sense. Why did the Cup scare them off? This is made worse when, later, she finds Jace, but notices that he is acting strange. She pulls out a seraph blade and kills him—well, the shape-shifting demon that looked like him. Did she not have the seraph blade before? Why use the Cup when you HAD A SERAPH BLADE? WHO WROTE THAT SCENE?
Mauve Reviews 