Shadowhunters – Season 2, Episode 4: “Day of Wrath”
Grade: B+
The fourth episode of Shadowhunters season two was good! I genuinely enjoyed the episode—it was the best of the season thus far. Maybe of the whole show—actually, by giving it a B+ it’s the highest grade I’ve given to the show for both seasons, so it’s the best of the whole show. In the episode, while Jace is locked up in the City of Bones awaiting his trial, a possession demon makes its way into the Insititute and puts all the Shadowhunters there in danger. As it kills three—including one shocking death (SPOILERS—Clary’s mother)—Aldertree tortures Raphael in order to find Camille, leading him, Simon, and Magnus to retrieve her and hand her over to the Clave.
HIGHLIGHTS
Dialogue
was so much better in this episode it was evident that this is the episode where the change in writers happened—and it did, because “Day of Wrath” was written by someone who hasn’t yet been credited for an episode. The difference was what made most of this episode not just tolerable but actually enjoyable.
The overall
story of the episode worked really well. The demon that possesses people getting into the Institute was interesting, all the characters in immediate danger and several dying—with an actual shocking death! This episode had all the pieces and arcs and emotion of a well-developed show.
MIDTONE
Jocelyn bites the dust
and I have to say, I’m not that upset over it. Jocelyn is kidnapped in the first book and remains in a coma until midway through the third (I think, it’s been a while). And after that, after giving all the information she needs to Clary about her brother, she sort of becomes…just there. She marries Luke, fights in some battles. That’s all I remember from Jocelyn. And of course it would be great to have had Jocelyn there until the end, but now that she’s done her part, and because I wasn’t the biggest fan of the actress playing her, I’m cool. It was a shocking moment, which would make it a highlight—but it’s also a huge change from the books, which would make it a lowlight. And since my feelings about it are meh, here it stays.
LOWLIGHTS
Izzy playing forensic scientist
was fun in the first season, another one of those strange changes that I just went, “Sure, why not?” in season one. But now that it’s been so long without her blue gloves and science talk, I laughed out lout when she returned. Just completely unnecessary and weird. A lot of how the Shadowhunters work and the Institute are just completely opposite of how I imagined in the books and it’s bothersome.
Camille
is just—couldn’t we have recast the part for the second season? Or just get rid of her all together? And how lame was that actual cell as a trap for her? Couldn’t have been more magical? I get that connection to earlier in the episode, Aldertree using similar metal cuffs to hold Raphael, but…laaame.
Mauve Reviews 