Wednesday 4 April 2018

Shadowhunters 3x02 "The Powers That Be" Review


With corrupted ley lines, awkward dates, new rivals and a whole lot of Malec, ‘The Powers that Be’ – written by Peter Binswanger and directed by Peter DeLuise – was certainly awesome episode.

Ain’t No Party like a Warlock Party

Since the casting announcement was made at NYCC last year, we have been (not so) patiently waiting to see Lorenzo Rey, the new High Warlock of Brooklyn and rival to our beloved Magnus, come to life on our screens. Portrayed by Hamilton star Javier Muñoz, Lorenzo makes his debut hosting a party to celebrate his new status has High Warlock. Lorenzo has no problem bragging and throwing shade at Magnus as he greets Malec upon their arrival before going off to charm other guests.

Magnus begins to rant, clearly not impressed with Lorenzo, but is cut off by Alec as our favourite little warlock – Madzie – rounds the corner, excitedly running to Alec. While Alec entertains his ‘favourite little sorceress’ things start to go downhill as the warlocks start to lose control of their magic. During this unexpected event we see Alec quickly ready himself to protect Madzie and we get to see a few warlock marks such as Catarina’s bright blue skin, Magnus’ cat eyes and Lorenzo’s scales.

Magnus quickly finds a way to fix the problem before things get too bad but his actions clearly didn’t impress Lorenzo.

Clace and an Awkward Date

Between taking out demons in epic baseball-slide-sunbeam attacks, creating new runes and the rest of her crazy new life as a Shadowhunter, it’s good to see Clary still makes time for her art – I wonder if Jace will eventually take her up on the offer and pose as a model?

After what we can only assume was a desperate, do-it-or-die phone call to Simon for restaurant recommendations Jace settles on a place and takes Clary out to dinner – only to end up in the same place as Simon and Maia.

After being seated beside the Downworlder couple, the awkwardness begins. To start things off, Jace has no idea what Clary eats and ends up with Simon muttering the answers beside him. Cocktails are ordered and the girls try to make the best of an awkward situation with conversations about what happens to clothing when Maia ‘wolfs out’ and being covered in tattoos. Just when things seem to be getting a little less awkward though, Jace goes and mentions Maia’s butterfly tattoo and makes everything worse than it was to start with.

When the double date from hell finally ends both couples are quick to go their separate ways and we get a few sweet moments from both. Neither Simon nor Clary seem too bothered by the fact Jace and Maia hooked up, although Clary becomes confused as to why Jace doesn’t seem to want to sleep with her.

Jace proceeds to list all the things he loves about Clary and gives an adorable little speech about how he doesn’t want to take things too quickly and risk ruining what he has with Clary.

Malec

This episode was full of Malec moments. To start things off, we were barely a minute into the episode and they were holding hands. *Cue fangirl squeals*

Later in the episode we see Alec walk out of the bathroom with Magnus’ shampoo – which we find out is a home-brewed blend of Indian Sandalwood that Magnus has been making since the 18th century. Alec then asks Magnus, if he has the time, to brew a bottle of sandalwood shampoo for him as it ‘way better than what he has back at the institute.’

Besides being adorably domestic, Magnus and Alec work together to stealthily break into Lorenzo’s home without actually breaking in so Magnus can investigate the ley lines beneath Lorenzo’s home.
Magnus discovers there is some seriously powerful demonic magic corrupting the ley lines in the city and together Magnus and Alec return to the institute to try and clear things up by using the Angelic core to flood the ley lines with Angelic energy and wipe out the demonic corruption.

As per usual, Raj gets in the way and almost messes everything up but Alec has a Plan B and activates his strategically placed strength rune and pushes a lever to manually release the angelic power into the ley lines.

Finally, Malec shares a sweet moment towards the end of the episode. Magnus says to Alec that he hopes he doesn’t think less of him due to the fact that Asmodeus is his father and Alec’s response is the sweetest. “I don’t care who your dad is... I care who you are. You’re the furthest thing from a greater demon.”

What did you think of the episode?

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