Shadowhunters Review: Rise Up (Season 1 Episode 9)
I don’t want to jinx anything, but guys–I’m cautiously optimistic that Shadowhunters has (finally!) found its footing with “Rise Up.”
This episode is particularly strong because it did work towards furthering a few different plot lines. My favorite of the bunch (unsurprisingly) is Simon’s transition to vampdom. This is largely thanks to Alberto Rosende’s continuing strong performances.
He has a few different confrontations with Clary in this episode and they’re all pretty great. Which, to be honest, is mostly to do with Alberto Rosende and very little to do with Katherine McNamara or the quality of the dialogue.
The dialogue is still… off, somehow. It’s stilted and unnatural much of the time, though at this point not distractingly so–meaning I’ve either adjusted to it or it’s improved slightly.
Regardless, one of baby vamp Simon’s first scenes post-transition, when Clary confesses that it was her, not Raphael, who elected to turn him into a vampire rather than let him die, is a very strong scene. Simon’s shock and anger is palpable. Similarly, the entire sequence of scenes while Clary and Simon are on lockdown at Hotel DuMort is also great. I love Clary’s confession that she may have done what she did so that they would both be different. It’s actually a sort of disturbing comment, and what’s more disturbing is how charmed and moved Simon is by it, rather than disturbed and angry. What power this red-headed minx has over this guy. Yeesh, Simon.
It would have been interesting to see Simon stay angry at Clary for a bit longer and see how that would change their dynamic. But naturally, Simon is a pushover (and still quite obviously in love with Clary) so after a handful of hours he’s like, “Nah, it’s cool that you turned me into a vampire, no hard feelings.” This show doesn’t do nuance, alas.
Other things I like about Simon’s vampire storyline: Raphael and… yeah, just Raphael. He’s an interesting character, as a reluctant ally to Clary and the Shadowhunters, as well as the opposing Downworlder factions. His verbal sparring with Luke is easily in the top five best dialogue exchanges of the series so far.
Raphael: [whistles] Stay. Good dog.
Luke: Bite me.
Raphael: Roll over.
Luke: Play dead.
Simon: BOOM!
Raphael seems like a much better leader than Camille already. I’m still curious to find out what exactly has happened to her, but it’s a good thing she was deposed and replaced by Raphael because Clary’s plan to unite the wolves and the vampires in the Meliorn rescue mission would never have worked with Camille leading.
The Simon-is-a-vampire story dovetails with the Shadowhunters-vs.-Valentine story in the rescue of Izzy’s Seelie boo, Meliorn. Clary puts on her big-girl leader-pants and takes charge, commandeering a rescue mission and wrangling the werewolves and the vampires together in a scene that actually almost makes me sorta like Clary. Weird, I know!
Lydia is still a promising character and she’s one of the more complexly drawn ones so far. It seems clear that she’s not an evil or maniacal person, but rather believes that leading with her head instead of her feelings is the wise choice (made abundantly clear in her conversation with Alec). She’s also a stereotypical “good soldier,” blindly following her orders and not putting much thought into whether they’re the “right” thing to do, morality-wise.
Alec’s story is finally getting interesting as well. Last week, I was baffled by Alec’s sudden decision to propose to Lydia so that they could take over the Institute and fix things. For one, it immediately followed that “Follow Your Heart” Malec scene (and was a total 180 from that). For another, it was unclear how, exactly, this is benefitting Alec.
“Rise Up” explains that all pretty clearly, in a series of very good scenes (Alec and his father, Alec and Izzy, the Alec vs. Jace fight scene). Alec feels betrayed by his parents, who he now knows were former Circle members. He also feels (probably irrationally) that they could be Valentine spies, working for him again. On top of all that, he feels as though Jace has chosen Clary over him (which, yes, Jace totally has).
Alec is operating under a bad combination of paranoia, anger, and betrayal and making poor choices as a result. Poor Alec.
That Jace/Alec fight scene is fantastic. It is the most emotion we’ve seen out of Jace so far, bar none (yes, that includes both Clace kisses). Jace looks so destroyed when Alec tells him that he’s not going with him, my heart broke a bit for him. And the fact that the fight starts in earnest only when Jace nearly (finally) calls Alec out on his feelings for him… whoa. So good.
So now, all kinds of dividing lines are drawn. Alec is on one side, with the Clave and Lydia, while Jace, Clary, and Izzy are on the other (though, apparently, Izzy is intending to do some double-agent work by returning to the Institute–yeah, good luck with that, Iz).
On the other side of both of those sides is Valentine, though perhaps not for long–Meliorn, grateful for the rescue, offers Clary the chance to meet her father.
This is such an excellent episode-closer. It begs so many questions: was Meliorn actually working for Valentine the entire time? If not, how does he know where to find Valentine and how to arrange a meeting? To be honest, I wouldn’t be very surprised if Meliorn is in league with Valentine. He’s always kinda creeped me out and he and Izzy need to break up asap, please.
Other thoughts:
- Jace and Clary haven’t really had a chance to talk about their relationship but they did find time for another smooch. Their chemistry is still not doing it for me, but it’s improving at least.
- The actress playing Izzy delivers her lines in such a stilted and unnatural way; it’s distracting.
- The show is blatantly just finding reasons to feature shirtless Alec at this point. Which is fine by me. Not complaining, it’s just so obvious.
- Poor Simon’s mom! She seems like a nice lady and is super confused by everything that’s happening.
- Clary’s fake reason to get Simon out of his house is ridiculous. “Simon, help! My identity has been stolen! You have to leave in the middle of this very emotional conversation with your mom and come with me in the middle of the night to support me in my hour of need!” Seriously, Clary?
- That Malec scene, you guys. My heart breaks for Magnus. Harry Shum, Jr. is so good, confronting Alec about the engagement and showing the cracks in his too-cool armor with that impossible-to-cover disappointment.
What did you think of this episode of Shadowhunters? Will we be seeing a Clary-Valentine face-off soon? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Shadowhunters airs Tuesday at 9/8c on Freeform.
Caralynn Lippo
Caralynn is a freelance writer and editor, but most importantly, she is a diehard TV addict. A few of her current favorites are Mr. Robot, You're the Worst, iZombie, and The Vampire Diaries. She also writes about TV for Romper, The TV Junkies, and TV Fanatic.