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SHADOWHUNTERS 2.03 Recap and Review – “Parabatai Lost”

SHADOWHUNTERS gave us some big backstory, character introductions, and a boatload of darling Malec tonight in episode three, “Parabatai Lost”!

We start this episode off on the highest of notes! BABY JACE AND ALEC! …Well, they’re 10-years-old, but they’re still little muffins! Jace is already a cocky bugger and we appreciate that but urgh, why is he has correcting Alec on arrow work? It’s Alec’s speciality!

The scene zooms out and we see Alec is remembering while in a coma, fighting for his life. So yeah, a quick reminder that your soul will be crushed in this episode! He needs Jace with him to fend off the curse of the Adamas stone and be whole again. Otherwise, he’ll die.

But Jace isn’t faring so well himself. He wakes up on the beach without his stele and next to Gretel’s dead body, only to be immediately found by a bystander who thinks HE killed her. Soon, Luke’s on the case and he’s giving Jace the benefit of a doubt, but juuuust barely.

At The Institute, Jocelyn checks up on Alec and finds herself face-to-face with a sassy, fierce Magnus! He’s dropping a giant truth bomb on her about her general selfishness and boatload of poor decisions that have made things worse for everyone. WE LOVED IT. We can defend Jocelyn and her good intentions sometimes, but we’ve been wearing thin on that lately. Magnus spoke our minds!

When Clary makes her way out of the water, she makes her way back to The Institute and straight into Victor Aldertree’s office. Though it could have terrible consequences, she lies, saying she doesn’t remember anything about her time on the ship. Together, she and Izzy work on a plan to reconnect Jace and Alec.

Jace walks into a random bar and MAIA FREAKIN’ ROBERTS IS THERE.

Clever, sassy, and tough, this werewolf has an added edge that makes her a little more abrasive than the book character. She and the others think Jace is responsible for Gretel’s death and they’re out for blood. They eff him up a bit, but ultimately let him go. Can’t say we blame them, given the circumstances!

Simon’s quest to find Camille and save Raphael from The Clave is interrupted by something more important to him– his mom. He’s been ignoring her for weeks and she’s been worried. He wants to check in on her, but Raphael isn’t very happy about the arrangement. Things get worse after Simon discovers booze in his mom’s empty apartment. He calls on Clary to help and in a kind of WTF moment, she decides helping Simon finding his maybe-drunk mom is more important than making sure her brother isn’t murdered by vengeful werewolves. During the journey, she convinces him that he should tell his mother he’s a vampire. There’s a bigger underlying meaning about accepting people who are different in Clary’s big speech, but it doesn’t work super when taken too seriously like it is here.

As Magnus works to keep Alec alive, the Shadowhunter has another flashback of his early days with Jace, It shows the two passing their final Parabatai test, after which its clear Alec has some big feelings for Jace. Another flashback shows that he almost backed out of the Parabatai ceremony due to his love and inner-turmoil, but Izzy convinces him otherwise. Good thing, because then Alec might not have been with Magnus, who is taking out Aldertree-aligned Shadowhunters to keep him alive.

Despite Luke’s orders to wait until there’s evidence, Maia and the others are hunting down Jace. Maia’s nearly got him pinned, but he stumbles on to a busy street and a bystander calls an ambulance to help with his significant injuries from the bar fight. Maia and Luke catch up to him just as he makes his escape from the hospital. Maia goes full-on wolf mode and yup, the wolves look better this season and the transition is creeeepy! WOOT! Jace escapes thanks to an unexpected helper: Jocelyn, trying to redeem herself. Unfortunately, Jace isn’t ready to kiss and make up. Once they make it to safety, Jace ditches Jocelyn and continues on his mission to get to Magnus’ and save Alec.

With the wolves closing in on Jace and Aldertree discovering Magnus’ big ruse, Izzy is faced with a tough decision. She agrees to find Jace and bring him to Alec with the help of Aldertree, then turn him over to The Clave for prosecution.

Simon and Clary find his mom, content in a coffee shop. It seems she already knows that Simon has been “on tour with his band” thanks to the man posing as his band manager: Raphael! The scene is a tense threat against Simon and his family under the false pretenses of concern. On top of it, Simon’s mom invites Raphael into her home, which isn’t established as a major deal in this world, but it’s a big no-no in common vampire mythology. It basically gives Raphael to right to come in a kill her whenever he’d like. Simon is now planning to move home in the midst of all this, which.. Oh yeah, that’ll work well. I’m sure his mom will have no problem with her son never going out during the day!

The episode culminates in a major confrontation between Jace and the wolves. Just before they kill him, Izzy whips the wolves into shape and Luke shows up to settle his deranged pack members. Izzy takes Jace to Magnus’ house, where our hearts proceed to break into a trillion pieces.

Alec is pretty much dead when Jace arrives. The latter tries to revive his friend with the Parabatai oath, interspersed with a flashback of their original Parabatai ceremony. It appears Alec is still fading, slowly wheezing his way out of existence. The whole room and everyone with a soul gets emotional as Jace pulls his apparently dead Parabatai close to his chest to finish the oath. He breaks down before the last line, but a whisper finishes it for him.

ALEC IS ALIIIIIVE!

In a heart-crushing moment, there’s no time to celebrate. The Clave storm in and arrest Jace for treason immediately after Alec wakes.

So for next time: Alec is recovering from the brink of death, Jace is in The Clave’s prison, and nobody trusts anyone. Again, the foreboding cliffhanger of doom hangs over us all!

See you next week!

By Nat, the Geek Girl

Southern California native who likes movies, books (Shadowhunter Chronicles, NA, YA fantasy, Red Rising series), TV shows (The Sandman), and San Diego Comic-Con. I also like to write, but don't get to do much of that aside from on here. I fell into the BTS rabbit hole, and I refuse to leave.