‘Shadowhunters’ Season 2, Episode 2 Recap: “A Door Into The Dark”

One this week’s episode of Freeform’s ‘Shadowhunters’, “A Door Into The Dark,” Clary struggles to find where she belongs, while Simon seeks Magnus’ help.

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We start moments after we left Jace and Valentine last week, and we learn that Jocelyn’s arrow had no affect on Valentine. Once again, Valentine tries to convince Jace that Downworlders need to be taken care of before they take over the Shadow World. “Deep down inside, you know that I’m right,” he tells his son.

Jocelyn reveals to Clary that Jace is not who she thinks he is, but Clary is still more trusting of Simon than she is of her mother. This motivates Jocelyn to tell Clary about the demon blood experiments and how they made Jace evil. Jocelyn shows Clary a memory of baby Jace, who was able to kill and burn a flower with his mind. Jocelyn went to a warlock and found out that Jace would only cause death and destruction as he got older.

Simon plays devil’s advocate for Clary, but then he’s called for by Lydia to see Aldertree. Simon is told to go undercover to secure intel about the vamps, but he’s clearly nervous about having to seek information from “the top.” Meanwhile, Clary approaches Alec, who instead of sympathizing with Clary over “their” brother, blames Clary for everything that has gone wrong since Jace first met her.

At the Institute, Lydia announces that fighters have been kidnapped from dojos and fighting centers. They believe that Valentine is abducting talented mundanes to recruit them for his army. Aldertree doesn’t want Izzy or Alec to help on the mission, but Lydia convinces him otherwise. Clary tries to go with Izzy, but Alec tells her off, and she finds herself alone with her sketchbooks until… Izzy appears to apologize. Izzy reminds Clary that she does have a family and that she is wanted. “You have me and that’s not going to change.”

Luke reminds the other werewolves that Simon is allowed to stay, but the “mean girl” werewolf tells Simon to keep out of her sight. Simon retreats to his storage unit, but is cornered by Raphael. Raphael thinks Simon told Aldertree that he is the one who’s guilty, and Raphael tells Simon that he must find Camille, or he will burn Simon one body part at a time.

On the ship, Jace talks to new recruits, including Jeremy, who is eager to join Valentine’s team to get revenge on Downworlders. Jocelyn finds that Clary has escaped the Institute, and is heading for her old art studio.

Alec and Izzy arrive at a fighting center, where a giant-like bodybuilder approaches Izzy. Not expecting her to be able to fight, Izzy easily takes him down, earning applause from the crowd. One of Valentine’s Shadowhunters has come for the man Izzy fought. Before they can get answers out of him about Valentine’s ship, the man slits his own throat.

On the hunt for Camille, Simon seeks help from Magnus. Just like last week, Simon is still keeping the quirky comic-relict alive. “Can you take a break from your day job and help a vamp out?” In exchange for a piece of Simon’s hair, Magnus agrees to help.

Jocelyn tells Luke that Clary didn’t activate her anti-tracking rune, and that she needs Luke to convince Clary that the mundane world isn’t safe for her. Jocelyn is convinced that Clary will listen to Luke and take his advice. Luke agrees and they head out to find Clary.

Simon and Magnus have portaled to India, but Simon is still getting used to the portal-travel, asking if there are YouTube tutorials he can watch. Knowing that Camille likes to spend winters in India, they look throughout her home — except, Magnus is more interested in finding his unreturned possessions than helping Simon actually find Camille — and Simon is not too confident. “Why would you need a powerful warlock when you’ve got a scrappy nerd from Brooklyn?”

Magnus asks Simon what he’s so afraid of, and Simon answers him literally. “Elevators, snakes, clowns, Raphael trying to burn my junk off.” Magnus reminds him that he’s tougher than he thinks and that it’s time to man-up. Easier said than done.

Luke and Jocelyn find Clary drawing at the art studio. Upset that Luke is not taking sides with Jocelyn, Clary lashes out about her conflicted identity. “I’m not a mundane; I’m not a Shadowhunter; I’m not anything.” She storms out of the studio and runs into a zombie(?) version of Dot, who grabs Clary’s arm and portals her before Luke and Jocelyn can stop them.

Clary finds herself on Valentine’s ship. Dot places her hands on Clary’s head and fills her mind with visions of death and violence, telling Clary that this is what she’s capable of. We’re not completely sure what she means, but this can’t be good.

Luke and Jocelyn realize that the marks on Dot’s face are from Valentine’s injections, but Luke’s has a way to find Jace through his parabatai’s bond, and Jocelyn goes back to the Institute to find Alec and tell him. Except Alec isn’t keen on the idea, and rightfully so. “You want me to help you find my brother so you can try and kill him again?”

Jocelyn tells them that she doesn’t want to find Jace, but rather she wants to find Clary, who was taken to the ship by Dot. Izzy convinces Alec to do it. On the ship, Clary approaches Jace, who thinks it’s Valentine playing more tricks on him. He holds her in a headlock and Clary has to tell him stories to convince her brother that it’s really her. He believes her, and Clary tells him that Dot brought her there. Clary tells Jace that she can see the future. “I guess I’m not your ordinary Shadowhunter, and neither are you.”

In her visions, Clary saw the Downworlders slaughtering the mundanes. She tells Jace that he’s the only one who can stop them. Valentine finds the two of them together and invites them to go hunt a werewolf with Jeremy, one of the new Shadowhunter recruits. Jace refuses to allow Clary to go, and offers to take her place so that she doesn’t have to fight.

On his search for Camille, Simon encounters a snake and is locked in the room with it. His “encanto” spell still doesn’t work. Simon struggles to fend off the snake, and keeps trying to convince himself that he can be the one in control. “You’re a vampire, dammit!” But then the snake breathes fire and Simon immediately screams for Magnus to come to his rescue. Magnus can’t hear him, and Simon is forced to control the snake with his mind. With a little too much excitement, Simon is successful at encanto-ing the snake, who turns out to be Magnus’ lovable pet.

Izzy is hesitant to let Alec try to link to Jace because Jocelyn tells them Alec will be in danger and that the procedure will be taxing on his body. Alec is adamant about going through with it, saying that he cannot live without his brother.

Clary is back in the cage on the ship and realizes that she was put under a spell. She can’t actually see into the future and when she was talking with Jace and Valentine earlier, she wasn’t in control of what she was saying. Dot admits that she was forced to put Clary under a spell. Clary has to do whatever Dot says while she’s under the spell, but it wears off quickly. Clary reminds Dot that they used to be like sisters, and Clary tries to convince Dot to help them both escape.

In preparation to connect Alec to Jace, Jocelyn warns Alec to stay near the surface, and Izzy tells him that if he gets lost, she will kick his ass when he gets back. Alec takes the stone, and we see several visions of Jace and Alec together from when they were young. Before we see anything else, we’re back in Magnus’ NY apartment. Though they haven’t found Camille, Magnus tells Simon that they will continue to work together. Simon is elated, saying, “You’re going to be like my Downworlder sponsor. Cool!” Magnus doesn’t quite see it that way.

Jace is tasked by Valentine to kill a werewolf on the ship. Jeremy tells Jace that this wolf killed an innocent mundane, and Jace puts his blade to her throat, interrogating her. She repeats that she’s innocent and that she keeps to the accords. Meanwhile, Clary and Dot sneak behind them, but Clary can’t help herself and she approaches Jace. She tells him that she was under a spell before and that she hadn’t been in control of what she was saying. They bolt away from Valentine together, but there’s no way off the ship. Jace fights some of Valentine’s men, and Alec can see the fight. Shaking on the bed, Alec’s nose starts to bleed, which makes Jace’s nose bleed too. Alec’s gone too far and he loses consciousness, dropping the stone onto the floor. (Wait, why was Alec shirtless if all he needed to do was hold the stone between his palms…?)

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Valentine calls for Jace to come back to him, but Dot breaks apart of the forcefield around the ship (was this “a door into the dark?”), and Jace and Clary jump out into the water. Valentine kills the werewolf and tells his men to throw her overboard. He then commands for Dot to be returned to the prison under the ship.

What did you think of “A Door Into The Dark”? Let us know in the comments below and get ready for next week’s episode, “Parabatai Lost” on Freeform.