Shadowhunters Review: Morning Star (Season 1 Episode 13)

Well… That’s that. The first season of Shadowhunters comes to a close with this week’s “Morning Star,” and it’s an alright episode, distinctly neither the best or worst of the season. It resolves one major facet of this season (Jocelyn’s kidnapping/coma) and sets up next season and an altered group dynamic quite nicely, despite the fact that the central “twist” feels extremely derivative.

This episode takes place immediately following Lydia and Alec’s aborted wedding (literally, Clary is still walking around in her wedding attire for far longer than made rational sense to me). Lydia’s just been attacked by traitorous Hodge, who’s suddenly (or not so suddenly?) in league with Valentine, and the mortal cup is gone.

Remember last week when I was thinking that Lydia was dead because what kind of idiot would attack someone and then purposely leave them alive to ID them? Yeah, Hodge is that idiot. But it’s even worse than I thought–turns out the Institute has a comprehensive security camera system, and he’s caught red handed. Seriously? That reveal is so goofy, too. Izzy says “Hodge would never!–oh dang, he did it” as she plays the security footage, basically.

Perhaps the note of betrayal would’ve landed better had we gotten to know Hodge in any substantial way this season, or seen him interact with the Lightwoods and Jace more often. As it stands, Jace’s claim that Hodge has been “like family” feels strange and dissonant.

Also strange and dissonant? Jace’s sudden turn to the dark side. All season long, Jace has been a fairly consistent character, very moral, fighting for truth, justice, to save the world, etc. There’s not even a glimpse of this apparent penchant for evil in him. Had there been, his struggle with whether he’s like daddy Valentine would have gone over more smoothly. I’m not sure why suddenly discovering that Michael Wayland = Valentine changes the core of Jace’s personality. At some point during “Morning Star,” Jace claims that his father trained him to be a killer. But he’s shown not even an inkling of that all season. This internal struggle is obviously derivative of much better narratives, like Star Wars. Just call Jace Luke Skywalker and Valentine Darth Vader. Really, really lame. And kind of embarrassing, given that this exact plot is taken from one of the most well-known narratives in pop culture. Jace literally cuts off Hodge’s hand, which is yet another extremely Star Wars-y reference.

Despite the shoddy circumstances, I do enjoy the fact that next season is set up to have Jace and the team separated, with Jace on the wrong side of things. I’m also really curious about why Valentine’s taken his horde of newly-turned Shadowhunters onto a ship and where exactly they’re going. Valentine’s got the cup, and his son–now he’s just missing his wife and daughter. What are his plans, exactly? From his perspective, he’s saving the world from demons, which makes him an interesting villain (villain as the hero of his own story, in the purest sense). But what are his specific goals with his new Shadowhunters?

Also a good thing: Jocelyn is recovered, at the Institute and awake. Her kidnapping was the catalyst for the entire series, and her recovery has arguably been Clary’s primary goal all season (with finding the Mortal Cup being objectively more important to, you know, the whole world, but for Clary, secondary to her mother’s safety). Getting the elusive Book of the White in this episode is just a little bit too much of a goose chase for my liking, but it does bring Camille back into the story, so I’m okay with it in the end.

As we discovered in the closing moments of last week’s “Malec,” Camille is the owner of the Book (aka, the only thing that can awaken Jocelyn from her self-induced slumber). Clary, Simon, and Izzy work together to recover Camille from Hotel DuMort when Raphael refuses to allow them to wake her. I can’t really blame Raphael; his refusal is rooted in his attempt to be a good leader and protect his people. Of course, after several episodes of Simon palling around with Raphael and the vampires (inexplicably becoming a trusted member of their group for really no reason at all in a very short time), that’s pretty much torpedoed with the events of “Morning Star.”

Not only do Simon and Clary directly disobey Raphael’s orders, Izzy also knocks a hole right in the wall, pouring sunlight in, in order to allow them to escape. The whole Camille recovery mission is kind of a crapshoot, actually, and it’s weakly laid out to position Izzy as the “hero” of the whole thing. But recall, her initial job is to distract Raphael–which she fails miserably at. I’m honestly not sure why Clary is all “It’s cool, Izzy’s got this” to Simon, when, in fact, Izzy does not “got this” at all. Raphael almost immediately realizes that Izzy is distracting him. She gives two lame flicks of the whip in his general direction, and Raphael whooshes off, with Izzy just watching him go with no facial expression whatsoever. That whole scene is bizarre.

Unsurprisingly, Camille and her machinations are the best parts of this episode. She’s sassy, kind of evil, and funny. Her dig at Alec about male pattern baldness is delivered perfectly. Such a great line.

She’s also much smarter than everyone else. She uses the Book of the White’s location as leverage to force Simon to absolve her of blame for turning him into a vampire, which is clever, effectively ensuring she can remain free of the coffin she’d been trapped in at Hotel duMort. It doesn’t seem like she’s poised to make a grab for power, stealing her position back from Raphael–seems like she enjoys debauchery and hanging out in her awesome Upper East Side apartment more than actual leading–but we’ll see what season 2 brings.

Of course, bringing Camille back also causes problems in Malec-land. As Magnus’ ex (and the one person who, apparently, truly broke his heart), she brings up the counterpoints of what Ragnor-the-ghost claimed in the last episode. Namely, she echoes all of Magnus’ greatest fears and doubts about love when you’re an immortal being and your significant other is not. She also kisses Magnus, timing it so that Alec sees–purely a power move. I doubt that Camille has any feelings at all, let alone true residual love for Magnus.

Now that Magnus and Alec are in a relationship (or at least planning on going out on a first date soon), the “real problems” are starting to be forced to the surface. I hope that, next season, we have at least a few episodes of new-romance bliss before the two start reckoning with the issues in an immortal-mortal relationship.

Other thoughts:

• So, what’s going to happen to Lydia? She’s alive (barely), but is that it? Is she just going to be gone now?
• I’m not sure where Shadowhunters films but are we really supposed to believe that that exterior shot of Camille’s apartment is the Upper East Side? Have the writers/set designers/whomever ever seen a picture of the Upper East Side?! Weak.
• I still loathe Maryse Lightwood, but I do appreciate that they revised the parents’ anger–they aren’t angry because Alec is gay, per se, they’re angry because Magnus is a lothario. That’s sort of sweet, in a way–the implication is that they’re protective of Alec’s feelings. I’m sure that’s part of it, but that Maryse is more antsy about the whole debacle having unfolded in front of the Institute members.
• Jace sneaking off with Hodge, right under Luke’s and Alec’s noses, is just downright embarrassing. Luke is a damn werewolf! A werewolf alpha. He should be better at keeping track of people. Ditto Jace placing a collect call (via magic ring) to Valentine, while Luke and Alec are standing literally right there. How do they not notice?
• I had to pause the episode to get my laughter under control when Jace chopped off Hodge’s hand. It’s so melodramatic, but the hand is ridiculously fake-looking.

What did you think of the season finale of Shadowhunters? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Shadowhunters airs Tuesday at 9/8c on Freeform.

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