How It All Goes Down
Renwick's Ruin
- Now we're back in the third-person P.O.V. mode. No more Luke.
- Clary is shocked to learn that the Jonathan her mother was always mourning was not her father, but a brother she never knew.
- Not only that, but Valentine is her father. That's quite a Darth Vader moment.
- After a bit of critical thinking and a quick phone call to Simon to use his 'net-searching skills, Clary and Luke deduce that Valentine's hideout must be Renwick Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island, disused and in disrepair for decades.
- On their way to Valentine's hideout, Luke and Clary chow down and make up, bonding a bit more during the drive.
- They arrive at the hideout, which looks pretty much just how you would expect a century-old dilapidated hospital to look.
- With Clary's special Sight, she's able to see it as it really is—as an imposing Gothic castle.
- It's a good thing that Luke brought some lupine backup, because they have to fight their way through a mini-army of Forsaken to get inside.
- Inside the stronghold, they find Jocelyn, Clary's mother, chained to a bed with all sorts of weird medical-looking paraphernalia attached to her. Ick.
- Luke can't help because the chains are silver, and werewolves have that pesky aversion to silver.
- Clary wants to go find an ax, but she gets interrupted by Blackwell, Valentine's minion, who Jace said was half of the duo that killed his father.
- After a minute or so, Blackwell's partner, Pangborn, joins him.
- The two of them say some pretty nasty things about Clary's mother, and get some taunts from Luke in response.
- Before the conflict can get too heated, Luke throws a scalpel expertly into Blackwell's throat, killing him.
- This sudden kill creates enough of a diversion for Clary to escape. As she's running away, she hears Luke transform (which probably means that Pangborn is about to be lunch).
- Clary finds a weapons room, but all the weapons are magically glued to the wall. She observes that "there was magic in this room, and not runic magic either: something wild and strange, something dark" (22.233). We have no clue what that could be, and we kind of don't want to find out.
- After more searching through the castle, Clary finds the room where Jace is being held.
- Well, held isn't quite the right word, because it seems like Jace is staying there of his own free will.
- See, Jace has totally been drinking Valentine's Kool-Aid. Valentine told Jace that his father isn't dead; Valentine never killed him.
- To prove this point, Valentine walks into the room, and Jace introduces him as his father.
- Yipes. This isn't just a Darth Vader moment; this is a Luke-and-Leia-who-are-brother-and-sister-but-didn't-know-it-when-they-were-smooching moment. Um, awk-ward!