Does anyone else have whiplash?

Shadowhunters Season 1 Episode 9 moved at such a fast and furious pace that I didn't understand half of what was going on.

Yes, as I've mentioned before, I have not read the books, and that may be part of the problem. But, if this show was meant only for book readers, then it should have come with a warning label.

This isn't the first instance where Shadowhunters has blown through the development of characters and storylines.

There was so much telling in those first few episodes that if you looked away for even a fraction of a second (out of boredom from all the talking), you missed half of whatever important information was being relayed.

That does not make for good television or cohesive storytelling. Eventually, Shadowhunters slowed down, giving us time to digest all that was going on in the shadow world, and it was a huge improvement when that happened.

Now, instead of just endless talking to move the story forward, we're bombarded with so much action that there's no time to comprehend barely any of it. Everything was so smooshed together this hour that I couldn't wait for it to end.

And, yes, there was incessant talking too. Mostly from Clary who proved she is the most annoying part of the shadow world.

And, yes, I wish that her worse-than-nails-on-a-chalkboard whining about why she chose vampirism for Simon would have pushed the newbie vamp to feast on her instead of calling on Raphael to bring him a meal.

When she said this to Simon, I thought I was going to fall over and die. Does this girl think about anyone other than herself?

Maybe what I did was wrong and selfish, but my heart was breaking.
Clary

Permalink: Maybe what I did was wrong and selfish, but my heart was breaking.

Her heart was breaking.

Simon had every right to be more than angry with her for what she did. Yet, by the end of the hour, they were best buddies again. Ugh.

How could he forgive her so soon? He almost killed his own mother because of what she did. Talk about emotional whiplash. But, hey, we had to get to the main focus of the hour, so allowing Simon (and us) more time to digest the gravity of his predicament was out of the question.

Because it's all about Clary.

How did she become the great leader of the shadowhunter/downworlder alliance, anyway?

Her "new generation of shadowhunters" mini-speech was pathetically uninspiring. And her attempts at taking charge of the I-don't-know-why-they're-rivals rivalry between Luke and Raphael before the big Meliorn rescue with her, "Tonight, we're all downworlders" mini-speech no. 2, was positively gag inducing.

While I loved the exchange between Luke and Raphael, the reasons for their hatred of each other was not clear. I guess this might be a book thing. Or maybe I just didn't pay close enough attention to the earlier episodes (or maybe this episode.)

Raphael: Stay. Good dog.
Luke: Bite me.
Raphael: Roll over.
Luke: Play dead.
Simon: Boom!

Permalink: Boom!

I also didn't get what the big deal was with Meliorn being taken to see the Silent Brothers. We met the Silent Brothers at the beginning of the season when they helped Clary retrieve parts of her memories via a dangerous sword ritual.

There was never any indication that they were to be feared, other than they live in a creepy mausoleum-like place. So, I had a hard time understanding why a rescue operation had to be planned to save him.

Wasn't the Clave's goal only to retrieve information about what else the Seelie knew about Valentine and his whereabouts?

And there're two entrances at the City of Bones? One for shadowhunters and one for downworlders? They're not equals, I understand that, but two separate entrances, really?!

And what was that rune Jace drew on Clary right before they saw Alec coming with Meliorn? Telescopic vision? Night vision? Being able to see the downworlders version of the City of Bones? All I saw was a blur, then it looked the same as it did before. Didn't get the purpose of that rune at all.

Alec went from ick to dick in regards to Magnus and everyone else. I get that he's angry about a lot of things, including his parents being former Circle members, but for him to turn against Jace the way he did just did not fit with everything we were told/shown in previous episodes. His personality change happened too fast.

Everything this hour happened too fast.

Other Thoughts:

Was Jace going to say he knows Alec is gay right before their fight?
The fight could have done without those weird slo-mo effects. It was pretty intense and actually believable. Jace's emotions were real.
So, Hodge is a bad guy?
Is Simon never going to go home to his mom now? Nice job, Clary.
Magnus' charm is wearing off. He was great in the beginning, but now he seems more like a wounded puppy dog than a great warlock.
Raphael is still awesome.

What did you think about "Rise Up"? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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