Episode 48: Heavenly Fire
In which Simon goes undercover in the most ill advised plan ever; we learn more about Jonathan… sort of; and Magnus reaches the end of the line. This episode looks beautiful, the performances are top notch… but we have some questions.
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15th April 2019 @ 8:37 pm
I was listening to the podcast again and I was wondering about the bit where you discussed not understanding why Jonathan would think anyone would come to rescue him and where he would even get the idea from.
This is probably far fetched and the product of me overthinking stuff too much.
When Jace lived with his dad and they went to that cabin, Jonathan was there at times as well, right? Hiding and probably spying on Jace. What if, when he was very young, Valentine read to Jace? Or gave him the Shadowhunters equivalent of a fairy tale? And Jonathan either heard these stories or read them for himself? He strikes me as someone who never really out grew childhood. He probably survived Edom by creating his own world and in that world he was the innocent who needed to be saved just like in the books. And he clung onto that believe and the idea of Clary all this time…
Like I said, far fetched!
Also, I hereby claim the little charcoal demon. He shall be mine. I will pet him and keep him and I shall name him Steve. 😄
14th April 2019 @ 9:31 pm
I’m sorry that I don’t have much to say. I started The Walking Dead and that sort of messed up my plans for an ep 3-17 rewatch..
I loved this episode. I wished they didn’t resolve the whole Aldertree storyline so quickly, they foiled his plans very easily. Loved having him back though.
Never shipped Simon and Raphael but when they saw each other in the prison, I just wanted them to kiss already. ❤
Not sure if I like the idea of a human Raphael… someone please give him at least one more scene with Magnus!
Loved the Parabatai scene. Jonathan made me feel sorry for him, Luke is doing an amazing job! I knew the proposal wasn’t going to go well, it was still hard to watch though. I really thought that Magnus was going to hit Alec at one point. 3-18 is going to be brutal…
Also yes, that is one ugly ring! Is it the Lightwood women who give this to their men? No way did Robert ever give that ring to Maryse. I would have sent him to the jewelers straight away!
Also, I can’t wait for Alec to find out that Simon is dating his sister. I so want him to give Simon the shovel talk and scare the hell out of him! 🤣
14th April 2019 @ 11:52 am
Okay, this has nothing to do with the episode so im sorry about that but have you seen the sneak peak for 3.18? You were right!
14th April 2019 @ 2:58 pm
We’ve not watched it, no. Managed to stay spoiler free so far. 36 hours to go!!
Tough someone else has said something similar so I look forward to watching the episode haha
11th April 2019 @ 3:19 am
Ok, I am going to apologize in advance for this comment because I genuinely don’t know how I feel about 3×17 and this might just be me rambling about things that don’t make any sense for god knows how long so that I can try to come up with a coherent thought and opinion on this episode.
The reason I am having so much trouble with it is that when I watched on Monday night I absolutely loved every second of it. I was on the edge of my seat, trying not to scream at my TV, and enjoying every storyline in a way that I really haven’t since I think 3×11. I felt like the episode was about 15 minutes long and I couldn’t believe when there were only 5 minutes left because I didn’t want it to end! I live-tweeted and one of the things I said was how I wished this heavenly fire storyline had been the main one this season. I was so into it in a way that I haven’t been with any of the Jonathan and Clary stuff since again 3×11.
However, after rewatching the episode and listening to the podcast I don’t really know how I feel. I think that more than anything specific, though I do agree with a lot of the problems you had with this episode, it’s that this entire plot has been building steadily, maybe even a little too slow, throughout 3B and then suddenly everything happened really abruptly which is…sort of fine, there needs to be a climax I guess, but everything also ended really abruptly. It almost feels like this is what would have happened to this story if they had found out the show was canceled halfway through filming and decided to change things and wrap it up in 3B instead of carrying it through until season 4 like they originally planned, but that’s not what happened so it just seems weird that it ended this episode. And if they had dragged the events of this episode out over just one more episode a lot more could have been explained and a lot of the things that happened, Helen suddenly changing sides, the explosion button, etc…, could have become actual plot devices rather than a convenient thing that happened to move the story forward. At least if the writers did it right and added the right information on why things were happening.
About Helen, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed Helen, at least when I watched it the first time. Sydney really impressed me at the very least. Like I mentioned above Helen changed her mind so quickly on the whole heavenly fire thing and because of Sydney’s performance the change of heart felt genuine but the actual reasoning didn’t really make any sense to me. Like she was acting sketchy and all important the whole episode, but all of the sudden she had no idea what was actually going on? And her talking about how no one was going to take away her downworlder side I just…don’t get her reasoning on why she was involved in the first place. I really liked your guy’s idea about making the whole thing a volunteer kinda deal and then making Aldertree try to do the thing with the New York downworlders without consent, that would have made so much more sense. But I am suspecting that the next time we see Helen, her involvement in this whole thing is probably gonna be forgiven/forgotten anyways so…
Another thing that surprised me was how the writers seem to be setting up Helen and Aline. I mentioned this in another comment in one of the other episodes on here as well, but I kind of thought they would show them meeting and having an instant connection in this episode and then maybe in one other episode we would see that they had become a couple, but it seems to me like the show is, or probably was, setting them up to be, for one, more important characters, and two, an actual couple that we see develop over time. Maybe that’s just me? I was not someone who was overly excited about Helen or Aline like some fans seemed to be. I was excited to see Sydney because she is adorable and really sweet on Twitter but that was really it for me. However, I did enjoy the Heline scene more than I thought I would. I think the actresses had nice chemistry and got that instant connection across nicely seeing as they only had 30 seconds. We’ll see where they go with their characters I guess.
I am not even going to try and fill in or explain my way around all of the plot holes you guys mentioned about the Jonathan storyline because I actually felt for Jonathan this episode and therefore cared about his scenes. As you mentioned, that is probably just because of Luke Baines, but I have accepted that the Jonathan/Jace/Clary storyline is going to continue to be underwhelming so if there is an episode or scene that I enjoy despite the many many issues with it I am just gonna run with it and not think too hard. Going along with that, I really liked the scene with Clary, Jace, and the drawings. Kat was beautiful and I actually liked the fairy tale parallels this episode so I am just going to pretend that her getting visions makes sense and just enjoy Kat’s crying.
So the Malec of it all. First I want to talk about Alec because you guys mentioned how you thought he seemed kind of…oddly confident about the proposal and doing that Alec Lightwood thing he does when he decides something and I honestly didn’t see that this episode. During that scene before Magnus came in, he was fidgety and pacing. There was a quick shot of him messing with his hand again and even the way he lifted up the lid of the platter(which I didn’t love either) to check and see if the ring was still there? seemed like he was nervous. I don’t think he was unsure of the decision he was making, but he didn’t seem 100% confident like he did the first time he asked to move in or when he wanted to take the sex step. To me, he seemed sure of what he wanted to do and excited about it but was nervous about actually doing it. Which I think might explain the over the top lavishness of the dinner. He was kind of overthinking it because he wanted everything to be perfect for Magnus. Now Magnus. I do wish that he would have had more scenes this episode, but I honestly don’t really have any other complaints about him or his story in this episode. Harry was devastatingly beautiful throughout the episode, but especially in the last scene. My heart broke in that scene and Matt and Harry didn’t hold anything back. The fight/hug was so visceral and was extremely hard to watch. I don’t really know what else to say about it other than just…WOW. When Magnus said ‘I’m sorry’ it nearly broke me. Matt’s face when Magnus finally let himself go and be held. The way Alec was holding almost all of Magnus’ weight. Everything was gorgeous and devastating and I would really appreciate if we didn’t have to end every episode with Magnus in pain!!!
I started writing this comment at 6 pm and it is now 9:30 pm which goes to show how conflicted I am on this episode. I feel like I didn’t touch on half of the stuff this episode because I don’t know what to say about it or how to explain my thoughts. I think that if I don’t think too hard about anything in this episode I do really enjoy it, but when I dig deeper I just start asking questions and can’t stop. So, in conclusion, after rambling on and typing and retyping for 3 and a half hours, I still have no idea how I actually feel about this episode😂 I genuinely think that the whole heavenly fire storyline was/is interesting I just think it would have been so much better if it had lasted longer and more things were explained. Maybe an answer will come to me after I watch it a few more times lol.
Anyways, despite the fact that there was no goat this week😂, I really enjoyed hearing your guys’ thoughts and I did agree with most of the problems you had with this episode! I am scared and excited for next week! It’s Easterween!!!🐰👻
10th April 2019 @ 11:18 pm
ah okay, i was wondering why it randomly changed. the mlec was cute and made me a tiny but sad but it also kinda annoyed me(no offense) purely because it didnt match with the rest of the covers lol. i can be very nit picky at times i guess. but yh, its th same cover now.
14th April 2019 @ 2:55 pm
Yeah, that’s why it needed to change
10th April 2019 @ 8:44 pm
Okay this cover art is confusing cos its different here and on spotify and I’m confused and ishsibwnskdhs what is happening
Okay now I have to go listen to the episode haha
10th April 2019 @ 8:47 pm
changing the cover as the Malec one was a kind of emergency slap dash thing I didn’t like