I binged-watched this series a week ago after finishing my final year exams and easily plowed through all the then available episodes (oops). I’ve been attracted to Judith Rumelt/Cassandra Clare‘s Shadow World ever since it was described in City of Bones, the first book of the author’s New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments. I’ve read through all six books in the series and raced to the cinema when the movie adaptation of the first book was released in 2013, so God only knows why it took me so long to discover the existence of this TV series!
That being said, at least I’ve found it now and I’m so excited to be following this ongoing series on Netflix. On that note, here are my highlights from yesterday’s newest episode The Fair Folk (yes, that means spoilers ahead):
“We’ve lost some of our own, but we can’t allow a single radical Seelie to define the entire Underworld anymore than we allow Valentine to define all Shadowhunters.” – Alec Lightwood (Mathew Daddario)
- Definitely one of my favourite quotes from the series and it made me respect Alec as a leader even more. The essence of this quote is well applicable to our society today, especially in the context of discriminating all Muslims due to the actions of extremists/terrorists who claim to be Muslims. Shadowhunters may be a show about a fictional world, but props to the scriptwriters for making sure that it still makes powerful statements about our very own world!
Malec (Magnus Bane (Harry Shum Jr.) x Alec Lightwood) making the distinction between being boyfriends and elite leaders of the Shadow World.
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Talk about relationship goals, right?! Prior to breaking off his tactical engagement with Lydia Branwell (Stephanie Bennett), Alec as a character had always struggled with choosing between becoming an Institute leader and finding true love; he thought that the two were mutually exclusive. This is why I couldn’t be happier that he’s now both a leader and a boyfriend, and that he’s managing himself in both roles like a boss.
“All Shadowhunters look the same to me.” – Meliorn (Jade Hassouné)
- Another important nod to a common real-life phenomenon called the other-race effect, which is when it’s considerably easier to recognise faces within a race that we’re most familiar with (often our own). Better face recognition has been linked to better appreciation of individuality and diversity amongst members of a race, causing the other-race effect to be consistently implicated in racial discrimination cases particularly in social and legal settings. The acknowledgement of this effect in yesterday’s episode is again a testament of the show’s commitment to drawing parallels between the Shadow World and mundane reality.
From Izzy (Emeraude Toubia) confessing to her mum Maryse (Nicola Correia Damude) about her infen addiction and Luke (Isaiah Mustafa) attempting to kill Valentine (Alan Van Sprang), to Clary (Katherine McNamara) kissing Jace (Dominic Sherwood) and Sebastian (Will Tudor) keeping someone hostage in his closet, there are definitely many more significant moments in The Fair Folk worthy of discussion (including the fact that Sia and Björk are revealed to be Seelies!), but they’re not necessarily surprising for those who have read the books. I mean, even the twist in Clary and Simon‘s (Alberto Rosende) relationship and subsequent development of the Jace-Clary-Simon love triangle is hardly surprising for anyone who’s been following the TV series.
This is undoubtedly an episode that’s instrumental for plot progression, but above are the top three moments that made me pause and think! How about you, what are your highlights from this Shadowhunters episode? What are you most eager to find out on the next episode (to be released on July 10th)?
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CHRISTY ZEE 