every ep dot appears in and a look into how poorly she’s treated
1x01 - Jocelyn has Dot create a portal for Clary. Dot continues to help protect the mortal cup and Jocelyn, resulting in her being thrown out a window by a circle member, hitting a fire escape on the way down, finally landing on concrete. We’re left to assume that she’s dead.
1x02 - Continuing on her spree to help Jocelyn and Clary, she goes to Magnus, hoping he’ll help her protect them. He tells her “I’ve been a little busy protecting our people from certain death… Jocelyn’s brilliant plan is screwed. Valentine knows a warlock brewed the potion that put her to sleep. He’s hunting warlocks down one-by-one… It’s our only choice until we know what Valentine is up to. Let’s go.” Dot tells him that she can’t go with him, because she needs his help to find Clary. Thus the famous line “Are you really going to risk you life for a shadowhunter?” is stated. Dot refuses Magnus’s offer to leave again, and starts to leave Pandemonium. As she leaves she gets attacked by a circle member, again, resulting in her being captured by Valentine. The next time we see her she’s in a cell being spoken to by Valentine. He tells her he’ll let her go if she helps to wake up Jocelyn, and she calls him out for lying. After some more discussion of who created the potion for Jocelyn, Valentine injects Dot with a syringe that contains poison to torture her to get her to talk. After some time, she uses a little of the magic that she has left to unlock her restraints and cell, and exits to tell Jocelyn that Clary’s okay and “…won’t let Valentine win”, thus putting herself into even more danger. As she speaks to Jocelyn’s unconscious body a circle member attacks her, yet again. She grabs one of Valentine’s syringes and stabs it into the circle member’s neck, injecting the poison into his blood stream. Dot slowly attempts to crawl away, but Valentine tells her “You were right warlock. I was never going to let you go,” and grabs her by her hair and is shown to start to stab her with a seraph blade. At this point there’s a cut scene, and we don’t see what happened to her.
1x04 (mentioned) - Dot is only mentioned in passing when Magnus tells Clary and Jace that he believes her to be dead because he can no longer feel her magic. After this, Clary stops looking for her completely.
2x02 - Clary runs off to her art college, and after Jocelyn and Luke find her, she runs out of the building. There she runs into Dot, who is now covered in what looks like black veins and appears extremely tired. She grabs Clary, opens a portal, and takes them both through it to the ship Valentine and Jace are on. Dot, using a spell that Valentine makes her use so that her nor Clary would get hurt, tells Clary that Valentine is “misunderstood”. Still using the spell, she tells Clary that Clary can see the future, and shows her a fake vision that depicts downworlders revolting and murdering mundanes and shadowhunters, ending the world. After a while, Clary wakes up in a cell under the ship where other downworlders are held captive for experiments. Dot approaches her, apologizing, explaining she was forced to use the spell to make her do whatever she said. Dot says she has to use it again, and when Clary tries to stop her from doing it again, she says “If I don’t he’ll get angry with me. You don’t want that.” Clary stops her and reminds her of when she bought her gelato from Little Italy, and Dot tells her it wasn’t form Little Italy, it was from Rome. Clary says “You always had my back, no matter what.” Dot, after she considers this, asks Clary “Why did you stop looking for me?” The only excuse Clary provides is “Magnus couldn’t feel your magic anymore. We thought Valentine had killed you”. Dot shakes her head and responds with “No. He just experimented on me.” Clary, not apologizing, asks for Dot to help her anyway. After some attempts at convincing her, Dot walks away. The next time we see her she’s walking along side Clary, watching silently with her as Jace threatens Gretel. As Clary walks towards Jace and the others, Dot goes off to the side to prepare a portal. Dot opens the portal, and Clary tells Jace they have to leave now. They both run through, leaving not only Dot behind, but Gretel as well, both presumedly to die. Valentine orders for Dot to be taken back down to the holding area for the downworlders, and Gretel is killed.
2x04 - Dot appears in the episode towards the end, when Valentine has come to attempt to break Jace out of shadowhunter prison. When Jace tries to attack Valentine, Dot uses a spell to blast him away from him. It’s assumed she’s being threatened and experimented on again. The last we see of her is her entering a portal she created for Valentine to escape through.
2x09 - When Dot appears this episode she’s with Valentine and a few other circle members, some downworlders, and Madzie (it’s to be mentioned that the only reason that Clary starts searching for Madzie is because of her blood deal with Iris, and had no shown intent of finding her until her life was at risk). They’re in an abandoned theme park. Dot’s skin is now grey and almost looks like paper. She has dark circles under her eyes, her hair is a mess and the black veins on her face are now much more prominent. Valentine approaches her, questioning her as to why she can’t figure out how to do a specific spell. She tells him that the spell is very complex, and that the injections don’t help. He tells her to teach Madzie the spell then. Dot responds by telling him that Madzie is too young, but he retaliates with “But powerful beyond her years.” He continues on discussing how he’s raising Madzie to be a sort of perfect warlock for him. He threatens to inject Madzie with the injections if Dot doesn’t teach her the spell. Dot agrees to teach her, and Valentine leaves so that she can start teaching. Dot approaches her and says “Hi Madzie. I’m Dot. It’s nice to meet you.” Madzie responds with “You’re pretty.” Dot slightly smiles, but looks back up dejectedly, and then leans on a bar. That’s the last we see of her this episode.
2x10 - Clary, Jace, and Luke all go back to the theme park in search of Valentine, as he has Simon (there isn’t much if any mention of Dot or Madzie). Dot is there, locked in a cell, abandoned there. She shouts out to them saying “wait”. They all rush over. Dot tells them that there’s another way to destroy the soul sword. The scene cuts to Dot laying on Magnus’s couch, finally safe. He’s having her drink a potion, and she now looks much better. Her skin is back to its normal color, and she no longer has dark circles under her eyes, and her lips are no longer black. She still has some black veins on her face, but they appear to be fading. Clary instantly starts grilling her, and says in a cold tone “Dot, tell us everything you know.” Dot tells them that if Jace touches the sword, it’ll break. Luke says “Why should we believe a word she says. It’s probably just be another trap.” Dot responds saying “Luke, Clary! You know me.” She’s obviously taken aback. Clary turns to her and harshly states “You’ve lied to me before.” Dot, exasperated, tells her again, after telling her back on the boat, that it was because of the injections. She tells them that because Valentine now has a better warlock (Madzie), he’s casted her aside, so she’s back to her true self. Luke laughs, responding with “Good story, but I’ve heard better.” Clary and Jace bring up the vision they were shown from an angel, and Magnus looks at it. He tells them it refers to a demonic Morgenstern, which they all believe to be Jace. Dot is all but forgotten in the midst of this. That’s the last we see of her in 2a.
2x12 - This time Dot is called by “Magnus” (Valentine) for her help. Whe “Magnus” opens the door to her, he asks her what took her so long. She responds with “Sorry, but after all the abuse Valentine put me through I still can’t make portals”. “Magnus” responds by telling her to let go of her anger, as something bad could come of it. She looks at him and starts to tell him that he sounded just like Valentine. He interrupts her. “Magnus” tells her that he’d been attacked by a greater demon, and she says “No wonder you seem a bit off,” with a worried tone. He tells her that it seems to have affected his memory, and now he can’t access his magic. Dot tells him she’s never heard of such a situation. He responds with “Me neither. I need you to teach me.” She agrees. That’s the last we see of her during this episode.
2x13 - Dot enters Magnus’s loft, asking how he knew it was her. He tells her he saw her crossing the street. Magnus asks if she’s come to convince him to do the dna test for the clave, but she responds with “Are you kidding? I’m all for stopping those murderers but when the DNA brigade came knocking I portaled out. I had that shop in Salem. This isn’t my first witch hunt.” She then offers him dragonfly wings, as she remembers that he supposedly lost his magic last episode. She notices his drink after this, calling it his “heartache drink”. When Magnus tries to deflect her, she tells him it’s her, she’s known him for hundreds of years, and asks him to pour her one, continuing to say “Talk. Or not. Either way you should never drink alone.” After some time, the episode cuts back to her and Magnus both drinking, discussing prior love interests and such. A previous relationship between the two is then brought up. She tells him after this to find a warlock to fall in love with, so that “…your boyfriend won’t be on your doorstep asking for a cheek swab.” Magnus laughs and asks why she hasn’t gotten with a warlock for the past six decades, since warlocks are so magical. She tells him that it’s hard to “…find a warlock who’s super hot and lives in this realm. And, who’s also a good dancer.” Magnus asks her if that’s a challenge of sorts, and she looks off to the side, smiling. The next time we see her she’s dancing with Magnus. After dancing, Dot attempts to kiss Magnus. Magnus denies her, telling her he’s in love with Alec. She tells him she knows, and apologizes. They both blame it on the mood and the bottle of whiskey. After telling Magnus that Alec is lucky to have him, she leaves.
2x17 - In the most recent episode, a warlock named Elliot dies because he knew where the mirror was, and killed himself so that Valentine and Jonathan wouldn’t get to it. Because of this, a sigil appears on Dot’s arm, telling her where the mirror is at. She goes to Clary, asking for protection. As they walk her to Alec’s office, Clary says that Elliot was one of her best friends, and Dot responds telling Clary that he introduced her to Jocelyn. Dot explains that the sigil now on her arm is only transferred when something terrible has happened to the original owner. They tell Alec that Jocelyn had the mortal mirror, and Alec asks Dot if she now knows the location of the mirror. She explained that it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that she can figure it out. Jace explicitly tells Dot that “We can help protect you from Jonathan and Valentine”. Clary leaves with Jace to go to Elliot’s shop, leaving Dot at the institute. After a couple scenes Dot is shown to be with Alec in his office, her back to the door as she looks at a map, trying to find the correct ley lines. Alec tells her that once she gets the mirror it becomes property of the clave. She responds by saying “Do you think I want anything to do with this? The only thing i care about is stopping Valentine… I’m sorry but I’ve lost whatever faith in the Clave I had left. So when i retrieve the mirror, it becomes property of Clary Fairchild. She’s the only one that I trust. She can do what she wants with it.” After this Alec tells Dot that there have been too many security breaches and that she’ll only be having two escorts, Clary and Jace. At this point Clary rushes in telling Alec that Jonathan was at Elliot’s shop. Sebastian walks in and sees Dot’s sigil and map. After a few cut scenes, Dot is shown to be with Jace and Clary in the center of the institute looking at a map. Dot has narrowed down the location of the mirror to a couple points. Clary tells them both that one of the points is a park she used to go to when she was little, so they go there to look for the mirror. After a few more scenes, Dot, Jace and Clary portal to the park, and Dot starts to search for the mirror. While Jace and Clary are supposed to be protecting Dot and looking out for threats, they have a discussion about whether or not Jace will kill Jonathan on sight. Dot finds the mirror, but while she casts the spell to grab it, Jace and Clary don’t recognize Sebastian standing close, and fail to recognize the threat. Jonathan attacks Jace, and starts to walk over to Dot, gesturing for her to hand the mirror to him. She hands it to Clary instead, and blasts Jonathan away for a second. Jonathan retaliates by shoving Dot to the concrete. Clary talks to Jonathan for a while, and in that time frame Dot has enough time to get back up. She attacks Jonathan, blasting him again. She then creates a portal and insists for Clary to take the mirror and go. Jace grabs her and forces Clary through the portal. Dot has been left behind, again. She closes the portal and turns back to Jonathan, who has now approached her while holding a seraph blade. We don’t see Dot again, but we see Sebastian/Jonathan, who looks like he got away without so much as a scratch.
In a short summary: The first time we meet Dot she is used and casted aside for the gain of Jocelyn and Clary. The next time, she is offered an escape from Magnus, but refuses, and ends up captured and tortured by Valentine. By the end of the episode it is assumed that she is dead by the audience, and by 1x04, assumed by the characters. And thus for the rest of the episodes in season one, no one searches for Dot.
We see her again in 2a, and she’s been tortured and experimented on by Valentine. Clary does not apologize to her once, but rather asks her to sacrifice herself for her yet again. This results in her leaving Dot behind, as well as Gretel. Dot appears again as a tool for Valentine, and not much else. And when we see her again, she’s much worse. She looks like a walking corpse. She’s threatened, and is forced to help Valentine yet again. When she is finally safe, no one but Magnus appears to trust her, and are downright cruel towards her. After she’s considered useful to Clary and Jace, she’s forgotten.
In 2b, she appears to teach “Magnus” how to use magic again. In the next episode, she’s there to comfort Magnus, and is shown to try and kiss him, something that felt very out of character. Finally, we see her in the most recent episode (2x17). She’s in danger, and Clary, Jace, and the Clave all use her to get to the mortal mirror, resulting in Clarissa leaving her behind AGAIN.
The writers of this show don’t view Dot as anything more than a plot device. She’s not a character, she’s a tool. She’s used as Clary’s “get out of jail free” card in regards to downworlders supposedly liking her. She is used for Valentine countless times, even when he no longer has control over her. She is used by Jocelyn, even after she died. She is used by the writers so that Magnus can show that he would never cheat on Alec (a good thing, but something that could have been done with a different character, not Dot. That specific part of Magnus and Dot’s interaction felt unbelievably forced in my opinion). She is betrayed and left behind by Clary over and over, and it’s supposed to be seen as in character.
It is established that Dot is a survival character. With examples of Salem being brought up and proof in the show itself, and how she doesn’t trust anyone who has betrayed her, her trusting Clary makes no sense for her character. Clary hurts her and puts her in harms way 99% of the time that we see Dot. The one exception is 2x13. Something to bring to light is the fact that Dot goes to Clary of all people about the sigil on her arm in 2x17. Why on earth would she go to Clary first and not Magnus for a problem that is obviously a magic thing? I understand why she would need to go to her eventually, as she was kind of a part of the puzzle to the mirror, but to go directly to her? It feels out of character.
Another issue to be taken up which was brought up by @highwarlockkareena is that throughout 2x17, there is no one there to protect Dot. Sebastian walks in and openly sees the map because there was not a single guard at the door of Alec’s office. As Kareena mentioned, compare it to when they were arresting Meliorn back in season 1. The failure to protect Dot reaches all of the nephlim.
In a previous post I talked about how amazing the shadowhunter’s wlw rep is, and how I’m excited by the fact that Samantha is not a character trait for Ollie. But it would appear that Dot is a character trait for Clary. The writers are treating Dot like she’s another mortal instrument: a tool, one that everyone wants and eventually uses for themselves. She’s a character, a person. And I think it’s time that she’s treated like one (if she’s not already dead).
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