‘Shadowhunters’ 1×07 Recap: ‘Major Arcana’

Are you guys still with us or did you die of Clace fangirl feels after episode 7? 😉 “Major Arcana”, in my opinion season one’s best episode so far, took a huge step forward with the whole story so let’s dive right into this recap:

Retrieving the Cup

“I know where the Cup is!” It’s in one of the tarot cards. Woop, we finally have a lead so let’s go and get one of the three Mortal Instruments. Sounds too easy? Well, it is because it seems like the tarot cards were hidden by Dot who is unfortunately dead. But, fear not, because Luke, heavily bandaged, shows up and tells the Clary, Jace and Magnus that he actually took the tarot cards from the loft. He didn’t want the Circle members to be able to track Clary so the cards are at the precinct now. The catch? Valentine’s spies are everywhere so Luke has to be discreet retrieving them, which, frankly, is a problem because of aforementioned bandages.

The next day Luke is fully healed and takes Clary and Jace to the NYPD, but tells them to wait outside since it shouldn’t take long. He, of course, jinxed it with that statement because as soon as Luke is in his office he is taken into custody by Internal Affairs officers.

Meanwhile, Clary and Jace are still waiting outside with Jace getting impatient. Clary gets a phone call from Simon, but she doesn’t answer. Jace spots Luke and the IA guys who have taken him into custody. Clary wants to know if they are Circle members so Jace uses his vision rune to check Fisk’s badge (so useful). They aren’t so it’s time for them to get the cards without Luke’s help.

Clary’s surrogate dad is in an interrogation room with Fisk who shows him photos of some bodies. Luke obviously doesn’t answer any questions – who would without a lawyer? – so Fisk steps out to get one and a cup of coffee. While he’s opening the door, a glamoured Clary and Jace slip inside to check up on Luke. Jace is wearing this little smirk which I loved because it was just so Jace! I need more smirking.

He quickly disables the camera and Clary wants to know what’s going on. Luke’s calm answer, “I think I’m about to be the prime suspect in a murder investigation” is clearly not what she or the viewers expected to hear. Now it really is up to Clary and Jace to get the tarot cards that are in Luke’s desk, but they have to be sneaky since there are other Downworlders at the NYPD and not all of them are friendly, meaning they could work for Valentine. These spies could be led straight to the Cup so Clary and Jace need a plan B.

They hide in a closet to deglamour which isn’t that easy for Clary. Once that is done, the two only have to leave the closet to gets the cards, but this turns out to be a bit difficult since Clary’s runes are pretty noticeable. Don’t worry, Jace, Clary has a plan! 90% of this plan are a good idea, but Clary apologises for the other 10%. Viewers who’ve read the books obviously know that this is from the books, although the context isn’t the same. It’s too bad that they cut the slapping scene from the pilot.
What follows is, in my opinion, one of the funniest scenes. Clary and Jace enter Luke’s office and as soon as they have an audience Clary slaps Jace and calls him a SOB. Jace’s shocked face speaks volumes because he clearly didn’t see that coming 😀
Clary acts as if they are a couple that just broke up because Jace cheated on her. Luke’s boss, Captain Vargas, shows up and backs Clary up when Jace tries to apologise. Two cops also get in Jace’s way so that he can’t approach Clary. She searches Luke’s desk, claiming that she’s looking for Luke’s spare key, but cannot find the cards because IA took everything. Jace calls Clary ‘babe’, but Vargas interferes and tells the cops to take him away. Jace is led outside while exclaiming “I have rights!” I really enjoyed this scene because it showed us a completely different side of Jace and I liked his little goofy wave (pic above).
Clary and Vargas have a little chat about bad boys, but the Captain still cannot help her because Luke’s things are locked away in the evidence vault on another floor. Ding ding ding! Thank you for revealing that information, Captain Vargas! Clary quickly leaves and Vargas is telling a cop, whose eyes glow like a firefly, that she’s taking her lunch break because “this job is going to be the death of me”. Uh-oh, she shouldn’t have said that!

A couple of momenets later, she talks to Fisk, demanding to get a list of all of Luke’s things, but he isn’t very forthcoming. He leaves the office but not before a police dog seemingly barks at him… or not since the German sheep dog also barks at Captain Vargas who’s giving her – yep, the dog’s a girl – a very withering look.

Cut to Clary and Jace who leave the precinct without the Cup. Jace complains about the slap, mentioning that Alec has never done such a thing and Clary quickly apologises. The duo meets Isabelle and Alec for backup and sums up the events of the past hours. Alec is not happy and remarks “This is a disaster”, but Jace tries to pacify him by replying, “Hey, demon pox is a disaster, this is an inconvenience.” Hah! Love this nod to the books.
The foursome is trying to come up with a new plan when Simon calls again. It’s an emergency so Clary asks whether Simon is ok. “I’m not sure, I haven’t been kidnapped yet today.” 😀 I like how this runs through the episodes like a common thread. This is also another nod to the books.
Simon confesses that he thinks he’s sick, but before Clary can calm him down, Jace takes her phone and ends the call. Rude. He does have a good reason for it, though, since there’s a new plan that doesn’t involve slapping.

Inside, Luke is a free man again. The evidence against him doesn’t look good, but he’s still allowed to leave. He goes to his office where he smells that something is off. He finds Captain Vargas, who, you guessed it, is dead. Someone cut her throat, dumped her in a closet and left her there to die. Yuck again. So there’s another body, but this time Luke does have an alibi for the time of the murder: Fisk himself.
Alaric talks to Fisk about the murder and it doesn’t seem to be a demonic one because Vargas’s body hasn’t been drained of blood. The weird thing? Vargas has been dead for a couple of hours Fisk talked to her45 minutes ago. Something is clearly going on here. This whole conversation is overheard by Luke thanks to his awesome werewolf hearing, although I’m sure Alaric would have told his alpha anyway. Luke asks him to check the body for venom since he assumes that Captain Vargas was killed by a demon.

Alaric almost catches Clary and Jace, who are back at the precinct. Thanks to Jace’s superfast reflexes, the pair is able to hide from Alaric before they enter the elevator. Jace reveals the new plan: wait for Alec and Izzy’s signal and then climb up the elevator shaft to get to the vault unnoticed. He shows Clary his Nyx (night vision) rune and tells her to copy it without explaining it further. I’m not quite sure why she’s drawing the rune on her shoulder when her right arm is still bare, but I guess it’s because of Jace. He ‘kindly’ offers his help, gets really close to Clary and finishes the rune. Sparks are flying.

Isabelle and Alec are also inside the building and they have to somehow get an ID card so that they can fulfil their part of the plan. Alec ‘only’ needs to distract a policewoman, which, according to Izzy, is good practice for asking out Magnus. She clearly is Malec’s biggest shipper. 😉 She tries to enhance Alec’s attractiveness by unbuttoning a few of his shirt’s buttons, but he isn’t very comfortable with that. Alec’s following attempt at flirting with the policewoman is super awkward, but he does manage to pass the woman’s ID card to Izzy.

Isabelle quickly manages to cause a blackout which is Jace and Clary’s sign to leave the elevator through its roof. Clary is pretty impressed with the Nyx rune and so am I. It’s quite handy.

Cut to Luke and Alaric. The latter confirms that there was a lot of demon venom in Captain Vargas’s body. She was killed by a shapeshifter which Luke wants to kill asap because it’s after Clary.

Clary and Jace make it to the evidence vault, but get interrupted by a cop that checks the room. He passed right by them, but luckily, the duo is glamoured thanks to Clary’s quick thinking. She finds the box with Luke’s belongings and tada, there’s the tarot card with the Mortal Cup inside! Everything could be so simple now, but Clary doesn’t actually know how to get the Cup out of the card.
Jace and Clary leave the precinct and meet up with Isabelle and Alec. They immediately run into the next problem because Izzy’s ruby necklace is pulsing and glowing which can mean only one thing: demons. And yeah, there are a bunch of them, but Clary is having trouble seeing through the glamour. Jace tells her to “pay attention to the details.” The gang gets surrounded by a bunch demons/cops which Clary mentions and Alec agrees with her! Will wonders never cease! 😉

Clary, Isabelle, Jace and Alec decide to hide in an electrical room where Alec stays behind to hold the demons off. Jace should bring Clary to the Institute which he doesn’t like at all because he wants to stay with his parabatai. Aw, it looks like these two are okay again. THANK YOU! I didn’t like their fights in the previous episodes.

Izzy, Jace and Clary are hurrying to the Institute, but Clary wants to take a moment to thank Jace for all the things he’s done for her. He somewhat brushes her off by replying, “It’s my job” which isn’t the answer that Clary was expecting, but also he tells her that he wouldn’t have helped if it had been Simon.

Izzy’s necklace is still pulsing and we don’t have to wait long before Jace is attacked by a Shax demon. One stab with a seraph blade and it’s dead, though. Since Shax demons are trackers, they split up again. Izzy and Jace will draw the demons away while Clary has to get to the Institute. So she runs, but three demons still find her and have her cornered in a narrow corridor. Clary doesn’t have any weapons so she tries to get the Mortal Cup out of its card and this time she is successful! She holds up the Cup and the Shax demons actually retreat.

Clary runs into Jace and tells him about the Cup. Jace tells her that she is amazing, but also orders her to give him the Cup. She seems to agree, but then she rams a seraph blade straight into Jace’s gut. WHOA! Jace is shocked and so is Clary because it seems like Jace really is Jace and she just signed his death sentence. After a few awkward moments Jace finally turns into a shapeshifting demon and Clary kills it. As soon as fake Jace is on the floor in little demon pieces, Luke and Alec show up. Since she almost got fooled by a demon, Luke tells her something only the real Luke would know so everything is good. Alec seems to be a little impressed that Clary killed a demon all by herself and then they are off to the Institute.

There, a worried Jace talks to some of the many Shadowhunters at the Institute – FINALLY some interaction with them! – and orders them to do anything to make sure that Clary is okay; he’ll take full responsibility because “right now Clary is the only thing that matters”. Aw.
Speaking of the devil, as soon as Jace utters these words, Clary shows up and hugs him. She has the Cup, but Jace doesn’t care. She tells him about demon Jace and he wants to know how she knew. Clary reveals that she does listen to Jace and she “just paid attention to the details.” Jace wants to reply, but Clary grabs him and kisses him! ♥ A Clace kiss! Aw, the first of hopefully many more 😀 Who fangirled??

The Lightwoods

Isabelle is locking away her old life, her clothes and a framed photo of Meliorn, in a trunk before running into Robert outside. The patriarch of the Lightwood family is looking for his eldest child, but since Alec isn’t anywhere to be found, Isabelle offers to do the job that was meant for her brother (filling out some reports for the Clave). Izzy’s behaviour shows how eager she is to have her family’s, but also the Clave’s approval; she wants the Lightwoods to be honourable again.

Later on, Isabelle is being the responsible adult, working on one of the high-tech computers at the Institute, when Alec finally shows up. She immediately wants to know whether he slept at Magnus’s place and Alec’s answer probably caused a lot of Malec shippers to squeal: “Didn’t do much sleeping.” Alas, he was too busy treating Luke’s wounds therefore the only fun thing Alec and Magnus did was have a few cocktails. Isabelle wants Alec to open up to her by telling him that she’s always there for him if he wants to talk about his personal life, but he turns her down and mocks her for trying to change her ways. He’s also worried about Jace because his parabatai (and Clary) still haven’t returned to the Institute.

Simon

Our favourite mundane starts his day to a very interesting sight. He’s cuddled up to Maureen and yes, they had sex. Apparently Simon is a beast in bed which leads to a couple of funny lines about 50 Shades of Grey and Star Trek (if you didn’t get the Star Trek reference, read this). Simon is impressed that Maureen speaks Vulcan so he plants a kiss on her which has a surprising outcome. Suddenly Clary is in bed with him and Simon is a bit confused. His dreams almost become true when she downright asks him when he’s going to ask her to be his girlfriend. Simon is only able to utter her name when it’s Maureen again and she clearly isn’t happy to be called Clary. Simon jumps out of bed, puts on his glasses and realises that he made a huge mistake. His eyesight must be really bad when he’s less than a foot away from Maureen and doesn’t recognise her. The following conversation is obviously quite awkward and Simon only manages to assure Maureen that she hasn’t been a random hook-up before leaving abruptly; his excuse: the oven’s still on!

The next time we see Simon he’s outside the Java Jones truck, watching an old vampire movie (Nosferatu from 1922) on his tablet and writing two lists: “I am becoming a vampire” vs. “I am not becoming a vampire”. His con side is looking pretty bare, but this changes when a waitress brings him coffee and a garlic bagel with extra garlic. Simon loves garlic and seems rather relieved. This relief is quickly dampened, though, when he takes a sip of his coffee and there is blood at the corner of his mouth. The next shocker comes when the French press is suddenly bubbling with blood – yuck!

Since the aforementioned phone call with Clary didn’t help Simon at all, he’s now at home and checking symptoms on the Internet. His mum and sister Rebecca show up to have a serious talk with him. Becky got a call from Maureen telling her about Simon’s strange behaviour. Maureen thinks that Simon is on drugs so the Lewis women are obviously quite worried. Simon fesses up and tells them that he thinks has a disease. Mrs Lewis immediately thinks that it’s a STD, but Becky mediates. The conversation gets off course, though, and finally Simon is completely fed up and accidentally destroys his desk by punching it with his fists. WHOA!

While the Shadowhunters are trying to get the Cup to the Institute, Simon is still at home and tries to call Clary again. He only gets her voicemail, but finally admits that he thinks he’s becoming a vampire. Oh no! He begins to see Camille in his bedroom who talks to him about blood and how it’s stronger than desire or love. Simon turns around to his bedroom mirror and suddenly he does have fangs. He can’t stand the sight of him and slams his fist into the mirror. He is clearly losing it so he sinks to his knees, completely devastated. 😦

A little while later, Mrs Lewis and Becky want to check up on Simon, but when they enter his room, it’s a) trashed and b) empty. It looks like he left his room through his window.

In the last scene of “Major Arcana” we see where Simon ended up after leaving his home. He’s at the Dumort and this time there is no Raphael to hold him back so he breaks into the building. He wants to know what’s going on with him and he gets his answer when Camille shows up. Her blood is running through Simon’s veins which causes his symptoms. She tells him that they are harmless and would have gone away with time. ‘Would have’ being the keywords because he really shouldn’t have come to the Dumort. The episode ends with Camille attacking Simon.

Rants and Raves

Raves

• Simon’s pro and con list: It was freaking hilarious! Only Simon would make a pro and con list because he’s afraid that he’s becoming a vampire. Adding ‘love of garlic’ to the list made me laugh out loud because he looked so pleased. I adore Alberto’s Simon and he’s my favourite part of the whole show. I hope Simon will still be funny after next week’s episode because I think we need more laughs in this show. Which brings me to …
• The humour: Episode 7 was funny! All the previous episodes were trying to be funny, but I always felt that the jokes fell flat so I was pleasantly surprised and actually laughed several times (demon pox, Clace as a fake couple). Please, writers, give me more humour! You did really well in this episode. 😀
• Simon (again): Alberto freaking Rosende killed it when he was standing and later kneeling in the middle of Simon’s room and cried because Simon’s afraid of becoming a vampire. I just wanted to hug Simon and tell him that everything would be okay as long as he didn’t go back to the Dumort.
• Lightwood siblings: Whenever Isabelle and Alec have a scene together, it’s obvious how much Izzy loves her brother and I totally get that she wants to know about Alec’s personal life/his feelings because she wants to help her brother to be happy. I hope Alec will realise this very soon since I would like to see more Lightwood sibling love. 🙂
• Clace kiss: Yes, it wasn’t in the greenhouse and they weren’t alone (hello Alec, Izzy and several other nameless Shadowhunters), but I still got Clace feels. ♥ I also commend Clary for initiating the kiss. You go, girl! The kiss was sweet and I think/hope the Clary x Jace storyline is on the right track now.
  Let’s look at the kiss again:

Rants

• Another dead POC character: is it just me or do more POC than white characters die on Shadowhunters? Captain Vargas, Dot and the unnamed female Circle member were all POCs. Let’s also not forget Pangborn. Shadowhunters’ colour-blind/non-traditional casting was such a breath of fresh air so it irked me when the Captain was killed. Can we please focus on killing demons and fighting Valentine? RIP Captain Susanna Vargas.
• Clary is having trouble with runes: Why? Clary’s unique ability regarding runes is so important in the books, especially in City of Glass, but here she’s struggling with them? It doesn’t make any sense to me and I wish they hadn’t included that.

Shadowhunters airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Freeform.