SHADOWHUNTERS Episode 1×04 – “Raising Hell” recap and review

We run through the events from Shadowhunters episode 1×04 in this “Raising Hell” recap and review, where we see Magnus meet Alec, Simon has a problem, and a few familiar names are mentioned

“Raising Hell” recap

Clary wakes from a nightmare and sees Jace at first, but then realizes it’s actually Simon. They are at the Institute, and obviously her subconscious is way ahead of the game. She explains her recurring dream of when Magnus took her memories. Jace is outside of her door, kind of looking annoyed at their closeness as she tells Simon that he’s all she has left. Simon questions whethey Clary should trust Jace and hints that maybe Jace is the cause for all these problems.

Clary is obviously frustrated that she can’t remember and mentions Magnus. Simon talks about the “shockingly hot” Camille mentioning his name. Clary leaves to tell Jace, and Simon is frustrated and as he’s about to leave, he passes by a mirror and notices blood on his chin and Camille standing behind him even though she’s not really there.

Clary barges into Jace’s room while Jace is working out on his Wing Chun dummy (without a shirt as Clary – and maybe some of us, too – is momentarily distracted) and she tells him about Magnus Bane, the high warlock of Brooklyn, and how Camille believes he’s the one who took her memories. She also mentions her dreams. Jace says that Magnus is very powerful, powerful enough to prevent the Silent Brothers from retrieving Clary’s memories.

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Isabelle interrupts their conversation, telling them that Simon wants to leave and Clary tries to stop him. Simon tries to start a fight with Jace, although Clary stops him.  Clary and Simon have an argument and he tries to convince her to come back home with him, but she believes in the Shadowhunters. Simon leaves.

The team (Jace, Alec, Isabelle, and Hodge) briefs Clary on Magnus and his partying ways. They surmise that Jocelyn probably paid Magnus to remove her memories. Alec mentions that the warlocks have gone into hiding, and they decide the best place to get Magnus is through a big Downworlder’s rave as he can’t resist going to one of the biggest parties of the year.

Hodge retrieves a Burmese ruby necklace they’ve kept in hiding to use as a lure to get Magnus to talk to them. He tells them that it was once a gift from Magnus to his lover at the time, Camille Belcourt. Hodge explains it’s been enchanted to alert the wearer of the presence of demons. Jace will send a fire message to Magnus to arrange a meeting before Valentine gets to him first.

In Valentine’s lair in Chernobyl, Valentine is followed by two of his men, one of them being a very altered Pangborn. When Valentine notices Seelie scouts from the Clave hiding in his lair, he has Pangborn breathe out some kind of green gas in their direction. The scouts immediately appear and fall unconscious with the green chemical on their face. Valentine proceeds to kill them with his seraph blade. Pangborn falls over dead from the poison he expelled.

Valentine wants his man to gather the Seelies, indicating he wants to test their blood. For what purpose, we don’t know.

At the police station, Luke arrives and Alaric questions him about his whereabouts, but Luke evades. Alaric warns Luke that people are keeping an eye on him and he to get his act together as they need him to keep his post on the force.

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Isabelle has Clary try on a rather sexy black little dress and Jace comes in complimenting her. Jace hints to Clary of maybe staying behind, but no go. Duh! So he gives Clary a seraph dagger instead, telling her the blade knows her and she knows how to handle herself.

At Magnus’s apartment, a fellow warlock named Elias is trying to discourage Magnus from meeting with the Shadowhunters, warning him that Valentine is getting close and it’s too dangerous to leave. But Magnus is not swayed. He does, however, advise Elias to go to the Spiral Labyrinth to tell Tessa they need more shields and to have every warlock maintain the protective wards, as he knows the other warlocks are not prepared to take on Valentine.

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Alec is still bent out of shape about the whole mission and and while Isabelle finds it more exciting, he knows the seriousness of the situation, and is still concerned about the fact they’re helping out Clary, who’s Valentine’s daughter and someone he doesn’t trust.

Simon goes to his house and closes the blinds and is about to go sleep, but Maureen enters, complaining about how he didn’t show up for their practice and she couldn’t get a hold of him. He tries to apologize as he says he was studying all night.

Then Simon’s mom comes in reprimanding Simon for not calling, even if he was with Clary all night. She then tells him dinner’s almost ready and leaves.

Maureen hears this and looking a little jealous. She reveals that she wants to date him. He doesn’t know what to say, and when Maureen accidentally breaks his picture frame trying to leave in embarrassment, she cuts herself on the broken glass when picking up frame. Simon has stopped listening to her because he’s now fixated on the blood on the glass. Maureen leaves angry and he takes a lick at the blood on the glass.

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They go back to the biker club Hardtail for the rave. Izzy has the necklace on and Alec urges her to give the necklace to Jace. When they meet with Magnus in the club, he admits to erasing Clary’s memories, but at her mother’s request. Before he can look at the ruby necklace, Jace says he has to give Clary back her memories first. But Magnus is given the necklace to look over first. He tells them that he fed her memories to a memory demon to protect her and the Mortal Cup. He knows Valentine could torture it out of him like he tried to do with Dot, and then was killed. Magnus tries to convince Clary to hide out in his lair. He opens a portal, but she refuses. He’s is interrupted by Alec killing a Circle member. Magnus is briefly intrigued by Alec, but then leaves through portal, but not before Clary tries to stop him. She inadvertently pulls a ring off his finger before he disappears into the portal.

Outside the club, Alec again complains about why they are doing this as nothing was accomplished and now Magnus has the ruby necklace, too. But both Jace and Clary argue with him. She’s about to throw the ring that she pulled off Magnus’ finger, but Jace grabs it from her hand. Jace and Alec use their tracking skills together to track him.

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As they arrive at Magnus’s lair, they realize that Circle members have invaded the lair. Clary saves a little girl after her father is killed by a Circle member. Magnus is facing another one when Alec saves his life. They formally introduce themselves and Alec can barely form a complete sentence.

Magnus knows that Clary is different since she saved the little warlock girl’s life. She tells him they need to work together and help her. Magnus agrees to help, but before they do he moves the lair to a different location.

Simon tries to call Clary and apologize as he’s been feeling differently after being with the vampires, but he can only do so in a voicemail.

Magnus gives Izzy the ruby necklace as payment for helping the warlocks, even stating that the Lightwoods have been wearing the necklace for years, and asks about Alec. Clary is impatient to summon the memory demon, so Magnus has “pretty boy” prepare them, but he’s referring to Alec, not Jace, mollifying Alec a little.

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Magnus leads her to another room to draw the pentagram needed to bring the memory demon there. Before she starts, Jace marks her to protect her from the memory demon, a Greater Demon, before they call it.

Magnus mentions Michelangelo being a gifted artist and also excellent in bed, then looks at Alec. Jace looks confused.  (Seriously, this is a pretty hilarious moment)

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Magnus says the demon’s name is Valak and will ask for payment in exchange for Clary’s memories, but they don’t know what kind of payment yet. Magnus has them all join hands, creating a bond to keep the demon in. Izzy’s ruby necklace is pulsing after Magnus says the chant. Valak asks for a beloved memory from each of them of the one they love the most. Alec’s memory is one of Jace, which surprises Jace. Alec is distressed, saying that it’s a lie, and breaks the bond. Magnus is trying to contain the demon, but when Alec tries to help, Jace pushes Alec out of the demon’s way. Jace is then grabbed by the demon and is being pulled in. Clary kills the demon with her seraph dagger, saving Jace’s life, but also sacrificing her lost memories.

Jace lays unconscious on the floor, but wakes up after a moment. Afterwards, Magnus tells Alec privately that there’s nothing to be ashamed of, but Alec denies anything.

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At the Institute, Jace talks to Clary and reassures her that they will find her mother. After Jace leaves, she then tries to call Simon back, but Simon purposefully doesn’t pick up. He’s standing outside the Hotel DuMort where Camille is standing there, seemingly waiting for him.

Clary’s necklace lights up and as she touches it, she sees her mother in the frozen/comatose state with Valentine looming over her. He knows she’s watching and speaks to her directly, telling her he wants the Mortal Cup in exchange for her mom.

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“Raising Hell” review

This episode gives us what many fans have been waiting anxiously for.  More Magnus.  Well, we got him, and his smooth and flirty ways.  I have to admit I wasn’t sure if I was funny into having Harry Shum, Jr. play the high warlock of Brooklyn, but this episode had me convinced he can really play Magnus Bane admirably.  It certainly helps that Harry moves with eloquent grace, something that gives him a otherworldly-like quality.  It works for Magnus.

Another anxious moment in the series is how the connection between Matthew Daddario’s Alec and Harry’s Magnus would actually look and feel in the series, and I have no complaints on that end.  They seemed to play off each other quite well, and in the drawn out way of a TV series, I can see this chemistry between the two continue to be something that which we can enjoy in future episodes.

We also get to see the relationship between Jace and Clary grow stronger with each episode.  It’s not as quick as it would be in the books, but really, I think this slow progress is much more interesting for a TV show.  We get to see Jace lowering his facade a little more each time and it suits the pacing of the show.

Simon’s not much in this episode, but the moments that he’s in there are still crucial, as we see him begin a new chapter in his life.  We also get to meet his mom for the first time, who plays an important figure in his life, of course.  Maureen also is shown and we haven’t seen her since the first episode, as she’s aged up in the series, I’m interested in seeing how this would play out as Simon changes.

Some major highlights for fans of the books were the Easter eggs in the series.  Simon’s mention of a bully named Kirk Duplesse may ring a bell to those who miss the original members of Simon’s band, as Kirk Duplesse was the lead singer of the group.  Elias is seen at Magnus’ lair, and we know that in the books Valentine hired an Elias to summon a greater demon in City of Ashes, but was killed in the process.  And then, the best egg of them all, at least for me, was when Magnus mentions someone named Tessa in the Spiral Labyrinth.  For those who do not know, Tessa is a main character is Cassie Clare’s The Infernal Devices trilogy, which happens to be one of my favorite trilogies ever, as I’m sure it is for many others.

Because of this, I’d say this is so far the best episode we’ve seen, but I don’t want it to stay that way.  It’s just worth noting that the writers of the series apparently do know the book series and the characters and how much they mean to the fans.  It’s not always possible to work them in as they are in the books, but these Easter eggs are a sign that they’re really trying.  I give kudos to them for such effort.

By Molly

Molly is a proud Canadian who is currently attending university in Scotland. She loves to read, write, watch films, and talk about Sarah J. Maas books. If not snuggled up with a book, Molly can usually be found tapping at the dance studio, or writing yet another essay.