“I thought you hated me?” “Call it an intense dislike.”

“Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but love.” – William Shakespeare.

Aside from the last few minutes, “Love is a Devil” actually did mostly focus on the characters’ relationships, love turmoil, and added bonus insecurities – so it’s okay that that’s all I talk about again!

The Power of the Vamp: Izzy is looking even more worse for the wear. She loves yin feng and needs some now! Raphael has something better: his vampire venom. By biting her, the pair create a bizarre connection and I am not here for it. Vampire venom may be ten times better than yin feng, but the rush goes away even faster. Could this mean that Isabelle’s drug storyline is going to be over soon? I sure hope so; all it’s done for her is just continuously knock her down and give her a potential romantic relationship we never wanted nor needed. There, I said it: no one likes Raphael/Isabelle. While it might play into the annoying student/teacher relationship, I’d prefer Aldertree any day. This is saying a lot – I loathe those kind of pairings. I just want Isabelle to come out of this stronger than ever.

“You know who’s looking fine tonight? Clary Fray.”
“She’s your sister.”

Puppy Love: Unlike what you’re probably thinking, I am not going to be talking about Simon and Maia…well, not completely. Climon fans got a real treat in this episode. Taking Maia’s advice, Simon confessed his love to Clary – and she reciprocated! They kissed and it was, “Weird? In the best way possible,” Clary states. I want to like them; in fact I do for the most part! Katherine and Alberto do have chemistry (everyone has chemistry with each other on this show), and the idea of them slowly falling for each other sounds wonderful. Keyword: slowly. Throughout the entire series, we’ve only ever seen Simon’s side of his infatuation with Clary. We knew he was in love with her in the first episode, and I would say that most of us were rooting for him to tell her how he felt. I just wish that we would have seen Clary’s side of realizing she liked Simon. Instead we’re given a very romantic kiss with no emotion in it. I’m not blaming the Shadowhunters writers for this; ‘Climon’ was introduced very rushed in the books as well. (Simon and Clary might have kissed in his kitchen, but she didn’t think anything of him romantically until Simon introduced her as “his girlfriend.”) Was anyone else disappointed?

To top it off, immediately after Simon and Clary become “official,” they act like they’ve been a couple for years at Magnus’ party for the littlest Lightwood, Max’s Rune Ceremony. Where’s the awkward hand holding? Telling Jace, Isabelle, even Alec, about her new boyfriend? Granted, there were many things occurring during the party that steered people’s attention away from the new couple, which I’ll touch on last.

Malec Matters, Mom!: Not only did we get a rushed Climon relationship, thanks to Jace’s parabatai bond, we find out that we got off-screen Malec sex. Not even a cute morning after scene of the pair in bed? I feel jipped. However, I did appreciate Magnus agreeing to Alec’s suggestion to host Max’s Rune Ceremony party. “That this, us, it isn’t going away,” Alec explains to Magnus. Magnus Bane isn’t going out of the Lightwoods’ lives anytime soon, Mama Lightwood! I wouldn’t say the party worked in Alec’s favor in regards to Malec that much. But it definitely helped mend things between Jace and Mama Lightwood.

Yay or Nay about Climon?

We Are Family. I Got All My Lightwoods and Jace: Ever since the second season opener, it’s fairly obvious where Maryse’s opinion on Jace lies. She thinks he’s evil because of his relation to Valentine. Thanks to the warlock, Iris, in disguise, a spell gets placed on each of our main party attendees. This causes hallucinations galore! Sure, it caused our favorite characters to see things, it made the episode so much fun to watch and figure out what was actually happening and what wasn’t. Was Simon actually making out with Maia right in front of Clary? Did Maryse actually threaten to kill Jace? Is Clary still pissed at Alec for killing Jocelyn? We don’t know for sure if all of this is actually happening or not until Alec (warning: this scene might be triggering for some), still feeling completely heartbroken over killing Jocelyn, almost ends his own life because of the guilt. Fortunately, Magnus saves him and everyone before anything majorly severe happens. Insecurities are a terrible thing, and I felt that this episode showed each of the character’s inner struggles perfectly.

What did you guys think of Shadowhunters, 2.08: “Love is a Devil”? Fans of Clary and Simon’s now very much official relationship?

For you Climon fans, Katherine McNamara and Alberto Rosende took part in a interview with Entertainment Weekly that’s worth a read.

2.09: “Bound By Blood” airs next week, Monday February 27th at 8/7c on Freeform. The trailer can be viewed below.

I think it’s safe to say that our Clary Fray (does anyone else still use her mundane last name instead of Fairchild or is that just me?) isn’t going to die. There’s a whole half of season 2 left!