Shadowhunters, S1 E1- The Mortal Cup

In its second live action adaptation, Cassandra Clare’s best-selling book series, The Mortal Instruments, comes to life with the Shadowhunters TV series! After seeing trailer after trailer, the awesome Comic Con panels, and the ‘behind the scenes‘ special that aired in December, the series’ first season is finally underway!

Happy 18th, Clary! You’re legally an adult! Now here’s all this info on the demon world.

Meet Clary Fray (Katherine McNamara), our lead protagonist. A native New Yorker, newly admitted ‘Brooklyn Academy of Art’ student, and totally normal human being, right? Wrong. There’s nothing mundane about her. Her life is completely changed on her 18th birthday. What starts out as a night out with best friend Simon Lewis (Alberto Rosende), ends in the discovery of a world she didn’t even knew existed.

After hearing Simon and his band mate, Maureen, play a set during an open mic night (is it weird of me to already be hoping for a musical episode? A girl can dream), mysterious shadowhunter Jace (Dominic Sherwood) bumps into her. “Can you watch where you’re going?” Clary yells. Jace is more confused that she can see him, rather than apologetic. Well that, and he can’t exactly make small talk right now, he’s busy trying to kill a demon.

When Simon is questioned about seeing Jace run into Clary, he’s more concerned that his best friend/major crush just had a conversation with no one. Humans, known as mundanes, can only see shadowhunters if they want to be seen. Noticing Jace entered the club, Pandemonium, she hightails it in there, seeking an apology.

I can hear all the fangirl screams for everyone’s OTP, Clary/Jace, just by looking at this photo.

Jace tries to follow the demon(s), Clary follows Jace, and Simon follows Clary all into the demon populated nightclub. Speaking of demon, siblings Isabelle and Alec Lightwood (Emeraude Toubia and Matthew Daddario) are also on demon slaying duties. Thanks to Izzy’s seductive dancing, the demons are transfixed. But just as Jace is about to work his demon hunting magic with his seraph blade, Clary tries to step in and save the day. She certainly didn’t expect for the “innocent” woman to sprout tentacles! A demon versus shadowhunter fight quickly breaks out, with the shadowhunters dominating. While watching from the sidelines of the fight, Clary manages to kill a demon before she even fully understands how the incident happened in the first place.

“Yer a Shadowhunter, Clary!”

Freaked out beyond belief, Clary runs home. Aw, and Simon just managed to score them drinks! You’ll get her love and attention next time, fella. Once home, Clary is in hysterics over what just occurred. “I think I just killed a guy!” Clary hysterically tells her mother, Jocelyn. What’s really crazy is that Jocelyn is completely unfazed by her Clary’s demon ramblings. She’s more upset by the fact that she has to tell her daughter the truth about who she really is. Cue a novella’s worth of information that is making Clary and I bet a new viewer (that hasn’t read the book(s)) utterly confused.

Condensed version: Jocelyn is a shadowhunter, Clary is a shadowhunter. Since Clary was a child, Jocelyn has been having her daughter’s knowledge of all things demon erased by warlock Magnus Bane (Harry Shum Jr). In order for the spell to stay intact, Jocelyn had to bring Clary to Magnus every year or so. However, as time went on, these visits became less and less. Hence why Clary can see Jace even though he’s glamoured, etc. Unlike a Full House episode, there is no heartfelt music playing after this mother/daughter heart-to-heart talk. No, Clary has to leave her apartment immediately. The infamous bad guy demon gang, the Circle, will be after her. Using a portal that their downstairs neighbor, Dot, conjures, Clary is transported to Jocelyn’s kinda-boyfriend and our protagonist’s father figure, Luke’s (Isaiah Mustafa) police station.

Every show needs an antagonist, especially a supernatural fantasy one! Valentine’s our guy (played by Alan Van Sprang), or as I know him, King Henry from Reign. As bad guy, his evil plan is to capture the Mortal Cup. Jocelyn knows its whereabouts. Too bad she’ll never tell. After killing a mad number of demons, she takes a swig of a potion Dot gave her. She’s in a Sleeping Beauty type sleep, and that’s where she’ll be for the majority of the season, I reckon. At the police station, Clary witnesses Luke questioned by members of the Circle, which has her equally freaked. She decides to run back to her apartment in the pouring rain for safety. That, and because running in the rain is dramatic!

Simon and Clary. Best friends or more? We know what Simon’s answer is.

Clary is met by Dot when she arrives. Yeah, it’s not her lovable neighbor. It’s a demon in disguise, asking for the Mortal Cup! There’s no accidental slaying on Clary’s part this time. In fact, quite the opposite. The demon slashes her shoulder and poison is soon coursing through her veins. Our fiery redhead is lucky Jace was there to save the day this time. Clary collapses from the venom, and Jace cradles her in his arms and takes her to the Institute. Okay, I’m just going to say it. I’m not a Jace and Clary fan, but even I found this gesture heartwarming.

The Institute is where Jace and the Lightwood siblings reside; a shadowhunter’s safe haven that to a mundane is an abandoned church. A few days pass and Clary finally wakes up from her demon-venom-induced sleep. Sorry Clary, you did not dream it all. Your mother is now in Valentine’s possession and you’re a Shadowhunter. Happy Birthday!

The pilot episode to this supernatural new series ends with Simon getting in on the crazy world of demons and monsters galore, as he’s tracked Clary’s phone to said abandoned church. One thing’s for certain: life will never be the same for our girl, Clary Fray.

What did everyone think of the series premiere of Shadowhunters?

Fans of the book series, I’m curious to know your thoughts! Like all book-to-TV adaptions, they all aren’t 100% like the written original material. Books and TV shows/movies are two different mediums, so they’re bound to change things here and there. But having read the first book several times myself (I will read the rest of the series, I promise!), I personally was blown away by how much they kept in, etc.

The second episode, 1.02: “The Descent Into Hell Isn’t Easy”, airs tonight (Tuesday) at 9/8c on Freeform!
The trailer can be viewed below.

Silent Brothers, you are sure to give me nightmares.