Shadowhunters season 3 episode 18 review: A lot of tricks, not many treats

Halloween in the mundane world means a massive headache in the Shadow World. And this week, some pretty serious tricks were pulled off.

“Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me some mundanes to eat!” I imagine that’s what the drevak demons snarls roughly translated to on this week’s Shadowhunters.

The show brought us Halloween in April, and by the end of the night, it wasn’t just pumpkins that were getting smashed; it was Jace’s head. Fortunately, it wasn’t fatal. Clary may be demonic now, but she still loves him, she said it herself. She just needed him out of the way so she could save Jonathan.

It just so happens that drevak demons are great diversions for seelie infiltrators. The Seelie Queen is very determined to keep her ownership of the Morningstar Sword a secret, and this incarnation of her is particularly ruthless. Having already gotten a seelie to earn Jonathan’s trust, it was all too easy to send her in for the kill.

It’s not exactly the ideal turn of events for Jace, but I have to admit, seeing Clary glued to his side because he was literally the only thing keeping her from succumbing to the twin rune was getting a bit difficult to swallow.

Clary is strong, and has more than one strong relationship. Losing control on Aline was believable; turning on Isabelle was less so. Those women are tight. Making Jace the only tether for Clary was… odd.

There’s something exciting about demon Clary though. The back half of season 3 has easily been Katherine McNamara’s best work on the show. In “A Kiss From A Rose,” we got just a taste of McNamara’s darker take on Clary. Now she gets to unleash Clary’s dark side full on, and odds are, we aren’t ready for it.

Nor were we ready for the end of Malec this week. It’s impossible to say that this is their true end, but for the moment, it feels pretty final. Having channeled Asmodeus through a warlock conduit, Alec strikes a deal to get Magnus’s magic and immortality back.

After his drunken outburst last week, Magnus can’t hide his despair any longer. To him, life is nothing without magic. But if he wants magic, he can’t have Alec.

It’s a particularly cruel move by Asmodeus to forbid Alec from telling Magnus that, but he is a Prince of Hell. They aren’t exactly known for their mercy. Now that he’s loose in the real world once again, there’s no telling what his next move will be.

The question now is: are there two Greater Demons loose in New York City? Lilith managed to escape with Cain two weeks ago, and we haven’t seen her since. Given her history with Asmodeus, it’s unlikely they’re working together, but the possibility of a war between Greater Demons for the human world is just as bad.

So no, Becky, the Shadow World is not as shiny and safe as it appears on Halloween. It was a brilliant move pushing Simon and Izzy together though. Simon’s sister should come around more often; their relationship is far less complicated than the Morgenstern kids.

But after this week, Jonathan and Clary might just start seeing demon eye to demon eye.

Shadowhunters airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on Freeform.