For those of you who need a refresher, Shadowhunters ended its second season with a lot of death (and resurrection). After Valentine killed Jace, Clary returned the favor, killing her father and then asking the Angel to return Jace to the land of the living. The Angel did just that, reuniting Clary with her love. But Jace wasn’t the only person who cheated death. After fans thought they’d seen the last of Jonathan, he opened a portal to hell and brought “mother” — a.k.a. Lilith — into things.

EW talked with star Katherine McNamara about what to expect when season 3 returns.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Does this show just keep getting darker?
KATHERINE MCNAMARA: It really does. But that’s one of the most exciting parts about it because we keep building on what we’ve done so far. We want to get better and darker and scarier and more intense, and somehow it just keeps happening, and it’s wonderful.

When season 3 picks up, are Clary and Jace in a real relationship?
I’m pretty sure from the moment that Jace said “I love you” and then died — that’s kind of the most twisted way to ask someone to be your girlfriend [laughs] — from that moment, they know how they feel about each other. It’s through that dire circumstance that they realize that they can’t be apart, and they literally cannot live without each other. This is the first moment we have to see them have a real relationship and to really love each other the way they’ve always wanted to and to really let that relationship grow, even though there’s this giant secret that’s weighing heavily on both of them. And the after-effects of Jace being resurrected are also coming into play.

How will Clary’s decision to resurrect Jace affect them?
Clary made a rash decision, a decision of passion and adrenaline in the moment. I don’t think Clary will ever regret the decision to bring Jace back to life, but she definitely understands that it might not have been the most responsible choice. That’s going to have a huge effect moving forward because it’s this big secret that she knows she can’t confide in anyone at the Institute because then that makes them culpable. So what it does is it spurs on this initiative in Clary to move forward and take responsibility for her actions and really atone for everything, as well as trust her instincts as a Shadowhunter and do everything she can to help Jace.

Jace and Clary are always busy saving the world, but do we get to see them be a normal couple at all, maybe go on a date?
It’s really lovely because you do see a few brief moments of that. They do find their little pockets of time when the world isn’t ending and someone’s not about to die and they don’t have to rush off to some mission, where you get to see them behave as a couple and you see those awkward moments and the sweet moments and the romantic moments. But ultimately, the Shadow World takes precedence over happy couple time.

Let’s not skip over the fact that Clary killed her father. Are there any emotional or mental side effects from that for her?
Absolutely. Clary’s fighting so hard against being a Morgenstern and against that darkness that she inherited from her father, but ultimately that was the key to defeating him. You saw her snap. You saw her go full Morgenstern, if you will, and take out her father. But moving forward, what that develops into is a maturity in Clary. It’s only been a couple months that she’s been a part of this world and she lost her mother, she found and lost a brother, she found the love of her life and had him die and come back to life, and ultimately she had to kill her father. That changes a person, so whereas once she was this little girl who came into this world with wide-eyed wonder, she’s now a woman who sees this world for what it is, which is a dark, deadly world that has no forgiveness.

On another note, how will Clary react to Simon’s deal with the Seelie Queen?
This is I think one of the biggest tragedies of this season is that Simon and Clary are stranded alone, away from each other, for quite a while. Because Simon has so much to deal with with the deal he made with the Seelie Queen and the effects of that. And Clary is so engrossed in dealing with Jace and trying to help him and figure out what’s wrong with him. They’re left without each other and without anyone to turn to for a long time.

Shadowhunters returns Tuesday, March 20 at 8 p.m. ET on Freeform.

SOURCE:EW.com