... Contend In Vain

Website - Tumblr - Twitter

Episode 41a of The Descent Is Easy is the first half of our Season 3a Roundup, in which we discuss the themes of this half season and spend a lot of time pondering theology and demonology, and wondering if our characters ever stop to think about any of this, and how high the chances are we’re gonna get Magnus and Alec sitting down and exploring this. We reckon low, by the way.

Episode 41b will be out Friday, 1st of June 2018. 

PSA: This episode is over 3 hours. Make sure you’re sitting comfortably! 

The Descent Is Easy - A Shadowhunters Podcast - Stronger Than Heaven

We discuss themes running through the episode, such as clothes sharing and what it says about intimacy, Jace and what being a soldier means for him, Alec showing his age and Magnus showing how much still remains of the walls he’s built around his heart, Luke’s farm and where was that when we needed it in the past? Then we re-invent the Clave before discussing the basket of onions that is Malec, with their never ending layers and their ability to make you cry… but also, if they’re cooked right, they turn real sweet…. What with the what now? Get out of our brain, Matthew!

I liked this SH episode more than the previous one. There were a lot of things going on, but I think they handled it pretty well. I prefer it when Jace and Clary are separated. When they are together they often become dramalamas and make iffy decisions. The Jace-Simon storyline was probably my favourite part of the episode, and boy was it needed. Between Magnus and Alec breaking our hearts and angels exploding all over the place we could use a little lightness.

The part I liked the least was the whole falling-out-of-love potion. You have already addressed how problematic it is that Magnus created the potion for her so easily. I was rather frustrated with him. But what bothers me even more is the actual concept of such a potion allowing Lilith to take control of Jace.

I generally hate how shows/books etc. elevate the concept of romantic love over any other kind of love. It’s especially jarring in this show because so far they haven’t really shown the Jace/Clary relationship to be the kind of epic, all-consuming love that comes with plot devices like that. When they thought the were siblings they both moved on. In fact, Clary started a happy relationship with Simon and she would probably still be with him if the Seelie Queen hadn’t interfered. She still had feelings for Jace, obviously, but they weren’t strong enough to cause her to break up with Simon. So now Jace and Clary are together, but their relationship doesn’t seem stable and strong enough to be so consequential. The fact that Magnus referenced the timeline in this episode made things worse. If Alec and Magnus have been together for under two months, how long have Jace and Clary been together. A couple of weeks? A month? How can his love for her be stronger than his love for Alec, his brother and parabatai, or even Izzy, his sister. It seems that Clary is more significant just by virtue of being his lover. 

The Descent Is Easy - A Shadowhunters Pocast - Thy Soul Instructed

First of all, apology for the sound quality of this episode. Failing to turn a mic on for the first 15 minutes as well as flu and a new episode of Shadowhunters landing on the same day is a bad, bad combination… We tried our best.

If you can get past that, in this episode we discuss mental health in regards to Jace and Alec, a conversation which we are so down for the show continuing and are keeping everything crossed that it will! We are also confused by Lilith, Izzy and Heidi, and find ourselves headcanon’ing all over the episode! Enjoy!

For starters, I agree with you that the episode 4 was a little underwhelming. It was good, but not nearly as good as the previous episodes. The pacing seemed off and I couldn't really get into it, but TBH, what bothered me the most was the vampire subplot.

Izzy and Clary's involvement reminded me of how much I hate 1x03. The first time it aired, it didn't bother me because we didn't yet know anything about vampires and the way the shadowhunters were acting, we could just assume they were inherently evil, like demons. However, on re-watch I found the whole thing sickening. The way they just casually invaded the vampires' home and massacred them. Alec's "this is fun" and Izzy's taunting comments. Everyone celebrating Clary's first kill… I know we are supposed to side with the shadowhunters because of Simon's kidnapping, but he wasn't in immediate danger. Instead of going on a killing spree they could have contacted the clave to  pressure the clan into releasing him. So now Izzy's "well done" comment in response to Leo's killing and Clary's nonchalance were off putting. Clary, especially, should have been more sympathetic towards Leo, because Simon (her best friend!) went through the same thing.

And if things weren't bad enough, we had Izzy kicking Raphael out of the city. The whole "how could you hurt someone else to help yourself" sounded so hypocritical and self-righteous. I mean, for most of the first season our favourite shadowhunters were running around messing things up for selfish reasons. Raphael, especially, suffered because of their actions. They released Camile which resulted in who knows how many mundane deaths and Raphael being tortured and almost killed. And let's not forget Izzy betraying Raphael's confidence and using Rosa to threaten him because Simon was feeling paranoid.

I really dislike how the narrative treats her compared to other shadowhunters. Alec, for example, started off as intolerant, but he gradually improved and when he occasionally backslides, he is called on it and suffers consequences. Izzy, OTOH, was billed as progressive and open-minded from day one but she keeps acting in problematic ways (1.03, 2.03, 3.04 etc.) and instead of being called out, those incidents are framed as bad-ass heroic moments.

The Descent Is Easy - A Shadowhunters Podcast -  03x03 What Lies Beneath

We’re going to keep this short and sweet. This episode is fantastic. Great writing, great directing, great acting. Everyone turned up to work this week and it really shows! Bring on the rest of Season 3!

Don’t forget to join our new Quote Guessing Game!

I have three things I want to discuss about this episode:

1) I completely agree with you about the owl naming. In fact, I was a little confused at the beginning of the episode when they started calling it an owl, I don't think it looks that much like an owl, but I went with it. Then Lilith did it too and it felt very heavy-handed, but when the reveal happened, I had a light-bulb moment. It just fits so well that Jace would name it an owl, because he subconsciously knows that's its actual name.

2) I completely disagree with you about Russel. I care about him! And I'm sure I'm not the only one! You said that you were surprised by how vunurable he was, since he was a pack leader in the past. The thing is, I don't think he ever wanted to be a pack leader. He isn't alpha material and he knows it. He felt he had to step up because Luke was letting them down. It seemed to him that Luke's priority was his shadowhunter daughter and her friends and was willing to abandon the pack in order to help her. Russel's viewpoint is simplistic, but it's not completely wrong.

When Luke actively challenged him and took back leadership, Russel was quite happy to fall in line. And I don't think he is faking his loyalty. In episode 2.19 (I think) when Maia told the wolves they had to look for Valentine, Russel (very earnestly) told her that he only listens to his alpha and then Simon bamboozled him with the whole beta wolf thing and Russel went with it. And now, even when he clashes with Maia, it's obvious he sees her as someone above him in the hierarchy. Like in the scene where they argued about her relationship with Simon. He was being passive-aggressive, but he didn't start the confrontation and he never felt threatening.

He is like the Raj of the werewolves (Raj, BTW, is another character I love and you hate). He is obviously intolerant and close-minded, but it doesn't come from a malicious place. His worldview is based on what he was taught and he doesn't deal well with change. But I have hopes for him. 

As you can see I have a lot of feelings about Russel.

3) I have a theory about Raphael's obsession with daylighters. I think he wanted to turn Rosa. I think he was so afraid of losing her, that he was seriously contemplating it, but he couldn't sentence her to eternal night. If Heidi was sired by Simon and turned out to be a daylighter, he could have her sire Rosa in turn. It would be awful, but he was desperate. That would explain why he was so pissed with Simon. If only Simon had told him how he did it, then he could still have his sister. I’m probably wrong, but we will see.

Oh, for what it’s worth, no less than John Lennon loved the song. I spent a long time talking to [photographer] Bob Gruen once, it was great as we talked about a lot of stuff that he doesn’t usually get grilled on. One of the things that came up was the times he spent with John listening to the radio. Bob singled this song out as one he and John would listen to and how much John loved the song. John took the song quite personally, and saw it as Paul sending a message to him: ‘Yeah, I know you think I only write silly love songs, but I love you.’ Bob said John specifically mentioned the ‘I love you’ refrain as being a message from Paul to him. We can speculate all we want, but I have no reason to doubt the word or memory of a guy who sat in the Dakota bedroom with John and listened to this song with him.

But now you recall!

Look! Look!

They loves to play!

Rawr!

Their head is just one giant ball of floof!

I can’t even

How do they live? Being so cuTE??

Ugh!!

This has been a PSA. Baby cheetahs are everything good and pure in this world. Please imagine petting the floof head. Please feel better.

I love that Kaitlyn is skating to Michael Jackson in fingerless gloves, first of all. I am not totally sold on the raccoon-eyes, but considering I love the nail polish and raccoon-eyes are a legitimate trend in make-up right now, this is possibly an unfair complaint (also maybe it’s a Michael Jackson thing I’m not getting? I am not deeply versed in Michael Jackson’s makeup choices). Though for the record I don’t like Gracie Gold’s eyeshadow in her short either.

I wasn’t initially sold on the illusion of a glittery necklace underneath Kaitlyn’s jacket, but it’s really grown on me. They could’ve just punted and left the illusion netting by itself or done white + fake tie, but the necklace illusion adds some sparkly intrigue. I can’t really explain why it works, but it does.

And look at Andrew’s waistcoat! I love waistcoats period, and I really love the detailing on this one. And I love that both of them have rolled up sleeves, with Kaitlyn seemingly wearing the dinner jacket that could’ve gone over Andrew’s waistcoat + shirt-sleeves. There’s a subtle sexiness to it.

Seriously, Kaitlyn’s mini tux is tailored so well, I love the way it moves and how it accentuates the line. And maybe this is cheating, because it’s not really part of their clothes, but I love them moonwalking off the ice, it’s super cute.

_Paul McCartney; Scotland/Escócia; 1969.