‘Shadowhunters’ Midseason Finale: Love Triangles, Soul-Sword and Those Three Little Words
Spoiler Alert
[Spoiler Alert: Do not read ahead unless you’ve watched the midseason finale of Shadowhunters. You’ve been warned!]
If any other shows want to know how to craft a midseason finale, tonight’s Shadowhunters can be used as a teaching tool. Ther were big questions answered—which only brought about new questions; love triangles were ignited; and, of course, one of our favorite couples finally exchanged ‘I love you’s.’
Which part had you ooh-ing and ah-ing, gasping or maybe throwing something at the TV? Make sure to let us know in the comments section below.
For now, let’s check in with showrunners Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer to see what they had to say about everything that went down.
Let’s start at a big moment when we saw Valentine slash Simon’s throat! I feel like that’s something pretty intense even for Shadowhunters!
Todd Slavkin: We went to a dark place. We were very aware of the relation it has to the public world we live in so we were sensitive and when we talked about [showing] it, do we or don’t we? And at the end of the day it was like, ‘let’s go for it, let’s go dark.’ It doesn’t happen in the books but we just felt like we wanted to put our own spin and go as dark as possible. So the fate of Simon really feels like it hangs in the balance as opposed to, ‘oh you know, he’s gonna be okay!’
And Simon is clearly changed after he feeds on Jace…
Slavkin: It’s about the pure angelic blood. It’s this pure angelic blood that only Jace and Clary have and that is what made Simon a Daylighter.
It definitely seems like it’s changed him for the better but is there a downside to him being a daylighter?
Slavkin: There’s always a downside. If something feels too good, there’s always a downside and we definitely explore that in 2B.
Moving onto Jace, he finds out that Valentine is not his father but Valentine says he’s his greatest creation and loves him. Where is Valentine coming from?
Darren Swimmer: Valentine raised Jace like his son and even though he’s not his blood-child, he’s always going to see him as his progeny in a sense and those paternal feelings will never go away. And likewise, it’s going be difficult for Jace in the future to sort out his feelings for Valentine.
So there’s a big question as to who Jace’s parents are really because obviously it’s not Valentine or Jocelyn!
Slavkin: Yes indeed, we will find out in 2B and it really changes his path.
Safe to say it will be an exciting, shocking reveal when it happens?
Slavkin: Absolutely. Massive reveal.
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Outside of all that we also got the first Malac ‘I love you!’ Very exciting.
Slavkin: And the performances in that scene are so beautiful. They really did an amazing job.
I was worried Alec was about to break up with Magnus. Did you ever talk about that happening at this point?
Swimmer: No, not at this point.
Slavkin: We really wanted to show the love. When you think that your boyfriend is in danger, or could in fact be dead, and when you find out they’re not, it suddenly shines a whole new light on your relationship and how much you really care about that person. I think that’s what attracted us to that runner between them.
Dominic Sherwood, Harry Shum, Jr and Katherine McNamara
What will we see in 2B as far as their relationship? I talked to Harry recently and he told me Magnus will have some growing pains in being with Alec.
Slavkin: We really get into Magnus’ side of that relationship, as well as probing the depths of Magnus’ psyche, in ways beyond that relationship.
Izzy told Raphael (David Castro) that she was done with him but are we done with that potential coupling? I hope not!
Slavkin: We’re not done with them. From the book, we always knew Raphael was asexual, and that was something that we thought was really interesting that Izzy would meet a guy that she had feelings for, and then in the finale; he would say, I’m not interested in sex. We want to explore a little bit more of that moving forward. But they’re intertwined for a little bit longer. Not so much based on their addiction, but in real feelings for each other.
Valentine is now captured but can the Clave actually hold him? I can’t imagine that will be easy.
Swimmer: I think your instincts are correct about him. It’s a challenge and we’ll have to see what happens in 2B.
So let’s talk this big love triangle between Jace, Simon and Clary. Jace can really step up or back off since he’s well aware Climon is pretty happy at the moment. What will we see?
Swimmer: Jace is a very classy guy as we’ll see, but at the end of the day, he’s also Jace. But it’s juicy! It gets juicy between those three.
We see Luke healing after the battle but is Luke going to be okay?
Slavkin: No dagger can bring that wolf down! Luke is the strongest one of them all and he’s back but he’ll be dealing with the guilt over what happened in the finale. Physically he’s okay but there’s a certain anguish he’s got to deal with.
About that figure we saw with the Soul-Sword at the end. Will we we find out pretty quickly in 2B who that is or is that a question that goes on for some time?
Slavkin: You will find out in 2B. We definitely address it and I don’t want to give anything else away, but it’s cool. It’s really cool.
Shadowhunters, Season 2B Premieres, Monday, June 5, 8/7c, Freeform
Conversation16 Comments
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Comments are closed on this story.
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O
Actually, yes, Valentine does cut Simon's throat in the books. Todd, we know you haven't read the books, but maybe don't run your mouth about them them? It's not like the contents are in some secret vault no one can access.
""With a sharp flick of his wrist, Valentine brought the Sword level and slashed it with a single smooth gesture across Simon’s throat." — City of Ashes.
I can't wait for your next great masculine innovation improving these lady books! Let me guess, the Mortal Mirror is a lake?
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B
A romance between Izzy and Raphael can totally ruin her future romance with Simon. Slavkin must be very careful about that choice.
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G
This finale let me with my nerves alert!! It was amazing! As a book lover the scenes when Simon drinks Jace's blood and then Jace sais that he would have let Simon kill him, was too much for my feelings
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R
Glad to hear that there may be more mentions of Raphael's asexuality in 2B!
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B
I agree with you. Because they show little about asexuality.
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C
I feel like they are moving too fast into the series. Covering too much at once. I fear what will happen when they don't have anymore information from the book to go on.
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G
yeah. they are already somewhat on city of ashes in the 2nd season
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B
The series will be short, at most four seasons.
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O
The joy of not following the books is that they can go anywhere they've want with the stories they've built themselves. As long as they have the rights and the network and stars are under contract, they can have endless stories. The books are not the be all and end all of this universe.
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C
True. Plus they could always go into Emma and Julian's story too. I'm also glad they aren't following the books completely it adds so much more to the show, and new surprises.
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O
They can't go into Emma and Julian's story. They only own the rights to TMI and the author has made it politely clear she'd rather have her fingernails pulled out than sell them further rights to her books. So thank god, they will never touch Emma, Jules, Ty and the rest.
Can I ask you something? Are you genuinely glad the show runners have never read the books and that they've departed so much from them they're unrecognizable? I don't mind a few surprises and changes, as they did in adaptations like Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones, but now I try to think ahead to a single scene from the books I was looking forward to seeing on screen in Shadowhunters, and there's nothing. They've never done one. Worse, there are no scenes I can think of that happen later in the books that can now happen in the show because they've changed the backstory so much. No Simon in jail with Hodge, no Seelie Court scene in which they find out about Valentine "experiments", no moment where Clary rips apart Valentine's boat with her open rune. It's all just gone and it makes me incredibly sad, and I have a hard time believing that the Raphael/Izzy cooking scenes actually make up for it for anyone.
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O
That would be more comforting if the show runners had ever indicated they were capable of coming up with 1) a coherent, interesting story 2) an interesting original character. Even one.
They have, thank God, very limited rights to the books. They don't, for instance, have rights to the Bane Chronicles. And the books are, actually, the be all and end all of the Shadowhunter universe. The show is simply one adaptation; two already exist and over the years there will likely be more, erasing the memory of this one. But the books will always be the origin and the end point of these stories. You may not like them — you've made that clear — but there would be no show without the books. The books would exist just fine without the show.
In the meantime, I suppose, enjoy Magnus leaping off bridges and the vaguely emo soap opera story of a bunch of demon hunters who don't hunt any demons.
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B
Simon DOES almost die in the books. In order to activate the soul swords Valentine has to kill and steal the blood of a child warlock, warewolf, shadow hunter and vampire. He hates that his daughter is seeing a downworler and wants revenge on Luke so he takes Simon and Maia. Maia escapes with Clary's help but Simon almost dies bleeding out. Jace finds him and gives him his blood.
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O
I love the shadowhunters tv show. Is there anything i can do to help ensure it will be renewed for further seasons?
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B
If anything japed to malec, one of them got hurt or they broke up at this point, producers may just have a riot on their hands containing 90% of the fandom.
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R
Malec * not "malac"
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