Doesn’t it feel like only yesterday that Clary Fray was blown to bits after stopping the Queen of Hell from resurrecting her evil brother? Goodness, how time flies.
Picking up where that insane midseason finale left off (nine months ago!), Shadowhunters returns tonight (Freeform, 8/7c) for the second half of its farewell season, which will find nearly every character hitting rock bottom. TVLine recently paid a visit to the show’s Toronto set, where the stars — Katherine McNamara, Dominic Sherwood, Alberto Rosende, Emeraude Toubia, Matthew Daddario and Harry Shum Jr. — previewed what’s to come in the final episodes…
CLARY | “She will never, ever be the same,” McNamara says. “What happened during the explosion and before the explosion changes Clary forever, and she can never get back to being the person she was.” A lot of that has to do with Jonathan, who reenters her life in one of the worst ways imaginable. “They go on an interesting journey,” McNamara says. “Not only are they forming a relationship with no outside interference for the first time, but she also finally understands the suffering he’s been through. This poor kid never had a chance to be normal or to feel loved.”
‘CLACE’ | Clary and Jace will eventually reunite, but as McNamara points out, “They really have terrible timing, and they’ve hit a real rough patch right now. The last time they interacted, he threw her off a roof and tried to kill her. She understands that he was being controlled, but it’s still going to weigh heavily on him.”
‘MALEC’ | As Magnus adjusts to life as a mortal, “he does his best to mask his anger and resentment towards everything that led up to this,” Shum says. “I wouldn’t say he regrets [giving up his powers], because he did it to save someone Alec couldn’t live without, but it’s still hard. It’s like learning how to walk again.” Meanwhile, Alec’s struggle comes from trying to help his boyfriend “without really understanding the nature of the problem,” Daddario explains. “He doesn’t get that the magic is more than just a side effect of being a warlock. It’s part of him.” Overall, he says the final episodes are a “whirlwind” for the couple.
SIMON | Jace may be riddled with guilt, but it’s Simon who’s hit the hardest by Clary’s apparent demise. “Entering the Shadow World was only possible because Simon had Clary and she had him,” Rosende says. “He said that as long as he had her, it would be OK. That was put to the test when he said goodbye to his mother, which pushed him even further from the world of the mundane. … With Clary gone, Simon feels that he’s lost his anchor to any world, not just the Shadow World of the world of the mundanes. We definitely see him at rock bottom.”
‘SIZZY’ | On the bright side, as we saw in the epic Season 3B trailer, Simon and Izzy will grow closer in the series’ final episodes. “They’re going to go on a lot of missions together, so they’ll be spending a lot of time together,” Toubia teases. “They’re going to be seeing things in one another that they didn’t see before. And the moment they [fall for each other], it’s going to be so heated. It’ll be so crazy and hot, you’ll see fire.” Rosende echoes that sentiment, adding, “They’ve always had this spark between them. And their relationship is built on such a strong foundation of friendship and trust, so I think it’s cool seeing it build.”
Which storyline are you most excited to see play out in the final episodes? Drop a comment with your hopes for the second half of Season 3 below.