By 
Quick show of hands…
Who else thought Alec would wake up when Magnus kissed him?
(I did, too).
“Parabatai Lost” centered on the desperate search for Jace while a piece of Alec’s soul remained stuck in past memories leading to the Parabatai ceremony that bonded the two as brothers in arms.
While I’m not always a fan of flashbacks involving younger actors playing the characters we know and love, Shadowhunters made the right choice with this scene. Over the course of the first season, we’ve heard about the bond and the trust Jace and Alec have for one another, but given all the time they spent on different sides, we never saw much of it.
(Freeform/John Medland)
Through the flashbacks, we glimpsed all the important moments: the first meeting, the trials and bonding before the ceremony, Alec’s uncertainty in going through with it (even young Izzy is the best at solving everyone’s problems), and my favorite moment, witnessing Jace be the uncertain one for a change when it looked like Alec might have changed his mind.
Of course we all knew Alec wouldn’t die so the ending was a bit on the anticlimactic side, but that’s okay. Because we spent most of the episode watching Magnus do everything in his considerable power to keep his new love alive (you know you cheered when he attacked that annoying guy).
Again, I know we were supposed to be rooting for Jace to come through, and that’s what happened, but the growing bond between Magnus and Alec is electric. The actors spark with one another, even when one of them is pretending to be unconscious, so if your breath caught in your throat a little when Magnus kissed him, you’re not alone.
Another week, another shout out to Izzy for being the best at everything. She would do anything to save her brother, including make a deal with the devil. Okay, that’s probably not fair since Valentine is the devil on this show, but Aldertree doesn’t seem trustworthy. Look at the way he rushed into the loft with the Clave in tow—were they waiting out in the hall? I guess we can give them credit for at least letting Alec sit up before they arrested Jace.
Speaking of, we should probably circle back to the hell he went through over the hour. He washed up onshore along with Gretel’s body. Naturally, a passerby spotted him, and since he’d lost his stele in the river, he saw no option other than running like hell. Too bad this made him look guilty to the werewolves—other than Luke, who tried to project calm and wait for the whole story.
(Freeform/John Medland)
We met Maia this week (spoiler alert to non-book readers: she’s important). Jace just happened to walk into the wrong gin joint—one with a werewolf bartender—who turned on him as soon as another werewolf identified him as the Shadowhunter responsible for Gretel’s kidnapping. The werewolves preceded to hand Jace’s ass to him, but he managed to get away several times. One of those times, he received an assist from Jocelyn.
Color me surprised on this one. The worst mother ever arrived in the nick of time to save her (alleged) baby boy from an angry wolf. She wanted to get him to Alec and felt bad about that whole attempted arrow through the heart thing. Jace passed on the offer. I can’t say that I blame him (arrow through the heart!). And this does not absolve Jocelyn in my eyes either. All it does is prove that Magnus knows how to shame a bitch (because he called Jocelyn out for being selfish as he stood by Alec’s bedside).
(Freeform/John Medland)
Clary belatedly shared the information with Luke and the wolves. Izzy arrived to play hero at the right time (because she’s the best). Maia and the others did bow to Luke’s command eventually. However, it seems like there’s going to be tension there. I’m Team Luke in general, but it’s good to see cooler heads prevailing. It might not last, but for now, let’s not write off Maia or the other wolves for wanting to protect their own. Grief is powerful.
Finally, we have to talk about Simon. He headed home to check on his mother, despite Raphael ordering him to put his vampire family first, and discovered she’d started drinking again. He called Clary for backup and she used Shadowhunter tracking to find her. She also suggested Simon tell her the truth about what he is now. I don’t know about anyone else, but this doesn’t strike me as one of Clary’s better ideas.
It turned out to be a moot point because Raphael arrived first and claimed to be the new band manager. Mama Simon liked him enough to give him an open invitation to the house (pretty sure vampires don’t need one in this universe, but it’s hard to keep track of all my supernatural show rules, okay?).
I’m not sure if the show wants us to like Raphael or not. On the one hand, he’s always threatening Simon, and we like Simon. But on the other, he just wants Simon to be part of the family and to do right by his fellow vampires. Is that really so bad? I’ll just be over here enjoying any and all Simon and Raphael scenes for the foreseeable future.
The episode ended with Jace being taken into Clave custody. It’s a safe bet everything is just going to get worse for everyone from here.
Aw, thank you!
I love your recaps!