'Shadowhunters' | 'A Problem of Memory' S02E15
Season 2 Episode 15 of 'Shadowhunters' was a slow burn of feelings. Although the characters continue to be written and developed wonderfully, the plot seems to be going nowhere fast, with a reliance on murder mystery plots leaving a lot to be desired.
In this episode, 'A Problem of Memory', the aftermath of the Clary and Jace kiss in the Seelie Court is being felt. Simon is understandably devastated and goes on a vampire drinking rampage to deal with his feelings, leaving him with no memory the next day, a bloody shirt and a dead girl in an alley somewhere that everyone thinks he killed. Clary is chasing Simon around the whole city trying to talk to Simon, and besides teaming up with Luke to get to the bottom of the ‘mystery’, not much else happens with her.
Izzy has been put in charge of the transfer mission of Valentine to Idris and takes Jace as her second. Alec is dealing with the decision on whether to tell the Clave about Luke’s attempt on Valentine’s life or not as well as the fact Magnus has not been himself, leading to such a sweet Malec scene that quite frankly redeems the whole episode.
One exciting part of this week’s episode was the introduction of Aline Penhallow (Eileen Li). The tension this put on Sebastian - who is related to Aline - was a pleasure to watch and led to some nice dialogue between the two.
Disappointing though was the fact Aline didn’t have much else of a role in the episode, and just as quickly as she arrived, she talked about leaving. Reducing such a unique and important character in the books to a simple plot device in this episode was hard to watch and rather discouraging.
It was wonderful to watch the scenes revolving around Magnus and Alec because time, thought and effort were obviously put into these moments signalling how seriously the creators and writers are taking portraying this relationship.
The first of these scenes where Alec wakes up in their bed alone and Magnus is drinking tea in the living room and reliving bad memories, was not just sweet but visually beautiful to watch. The lighting and warm colours made the scene have a heavy but comforting vibe about it. The shots were extremely well executed too, especially the side shot of Magnus about to sip his tea before cutting to a front shot with Magnus’ face and teacup in the centre of the screen. There was raw energy and emotions in this scene that make it the standout of the whole episode.
One other fun aspect of 'A Problem of Memory' is the fact that all the Downworlders seem to be getting along or at least working together; this is seen when Raphael is willing to talk and (try to) reassure Simon, who is freaking out about the murdered girl from the night before. Despite Raphael trying to manipulate Simon into giving him information, we later see Raphael trying to resolve the situation; this then leads to Raphael assisting Luke in dealing with his meddling detective partner by wiping her memories. It is definitely fun to see these characters interact willingly and overall working together.
Unfortunately though, the episode left viewers feeling as though not much had happened; this was especially the case after the murder mystery was solved, because the killer was extremely obvious to the audience. It will be interesting to see if there are any consequences for the vampires in future episodes or if these string of murders hinting at Downworlder tension will lead anywhere.
Overall, Episode 15 was slow, with a few enjoyable aspects to it. Little action or plot development hindered to its enjoyability, but there were still plenty of moments for viewers to squeal over.
New episodes of 'Shadowhunters' airs weekly on Netflix.
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