REVIEW: Shadowhunters – 2.19: “Hail & Farewell”

It wouldn’t be a father/son trip without a little bit of mayhem and murder; also lots of chic black clothing and strutting.

Since this is the episode prior to the season two finale, you just know things are going to go haywire for our Shadowhunter faves, and that it does. It seems that both Jonathan and Valentine are preparing for the worst just as much as Clary, Jace, and co. Well, more like Valentine and Jonathan are causing the worst. I know Jonathan is supposed to be as much of a threat as Valentine, but I can’t help but feel just a tad sorry for him at times. All he wants is love and acceptance from his family members. He honestly could have had that with Clary if he didn’t desperately want the approval of his father. He’ll leave you in the dust, just like he did when you were younger, J.C. What are fathers for, right?

To gear up for the finale, the majority of the goings on of “Hail and Farewell” are that of getting the Mortal Mirror, stopping evil father and son, and somehow finding a way to dissolve an impending war between the downworlders and shadowhunters. Jonathan and Valentine have the upper hand until the bitter end of the episode (well that’s debatable in regards to Valentine, which I’ll mention in a bit).

It starts with Jace, Clary, Izzy, and Alec heading to “Sebastian’s” apartment to find him resting in a chair. As they turn around the chair to confront him, they find out he’s dead. The whole reveal was very Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and I am so here for it! It’s the real Sebastian Verlac, who we know’s been dead for days. Plot twist: a possessive demon was resting inside Sebastian’s body. Once vanquished, they can finally put to rest the real Sebastian’s body. I felt this scene alone was a great example of seeing how Jonathan and Valentine operate as opposed to Jace, Clary, Alec, and the rest of the shadowhunter population. Always one step ahead; or so they think. Given that both J.C.’s (Jace and Jonathan) face off into a final battle, ultimately resulting in Jonathan’s demise, I’d say this rings true.

“Don’t think about Magnus, or everyone else’s terrible decisions around me.”

Of course, Valentine could surprise us in the finale – seeing how he seems to have a strong relationship with the Seelie Queen.

Speaking of the Seelie Queen, the most highly anticipated moment in this episode was Sarah Hyland’s expected appearance as an older version of her. Even though we had already seen her first scene as the Queen, thanks to Comic Con, the rest of her performance packs quite the punch. She might not have the best intentions at heart, seeing how she’s last seen strolling along on a night walk with Valentine. But it’s evident that she has a soft spot for Simon. There’s a part of me that wishes we hadn’t already known about Sarah Hyland’s character; I would have loved to have been surprised and as shocked as Simon that she was the Seelie Queen!

“Hail and Farewell” wasn’t only about the impending doom of the downworld community; there were several key moments devoted to our favorite ships. My personal favorite? Simon and Maia! After a tense meeting with Luke and Maia’s pack (in which Simon comes to Maia’s aide by calling her the Beta of the pack), Maia casually mentions they’re dating. In the same sentence she says the word ‘college,’ which is the main thing Simon starts freaking out about. I appreciate this show is aware that no one actually attends classes or has the typical college life. Example: Clary has spent maybe one day at art school. Is everyone else ecstatic we are past the Climon romantic relationship and they’re back to being friends? The pair will forget they ever dated before we know it.

“I think I see all of our problems over there. Let’s run right towards them.”

It looks like Jace and Clary have finally learned to accept their feelings for one another. First, they use their similarly designed pure angel blood to track down Jonathan and Valentine’s whereabouts. Of course in order to do this, they needed to hug in a very sensual manner. It was honestly the hottest thing I’ve ever seen on this show and they were just hugging!

Later after almost losing Jace to her brother, the pair realize just how much they mean to each other. A makeout scene later and I’d say ‘Clace’ are finally official!

Lastly, since this particular finale has been heavily promoted as the episode where “one will die,” I thought I would provide my theories for who might no longer be with us by the end of the episode. (If you haven’t read book 2 of the series, steer clear of reading this!).

For every promo we’ve seen, Clary is seen crying her eyes out like we’ve never seen before. In my opinion, she’s crying harder than when she lost her mother. So, it’s obvious that this person must be someone very close to her. Those characters would be (in no particular order): Luke, Simon, and Jace. Each character holds a special place in Clary’s heart, and we would be devastated if we lost them, too. However, what I think is going to happen is that one of these mentioned characters will have a “close call,” only for a minor character to be the one that dies. Given the second Mortal Instruments book material, that person could very well be Imogen Herondale, the Inquisitor and Jace’s grandmother.

Who do you think will be the character that will meet an untimely death at the end of the second season finale?

Leave your theories and comments below!

The Shadowhunters season two finale airs this tonight, August 14th at 8/7c on Freeform! The trailer can be viewed below.