Everybody wanted to get their hands on Jace. His friends want to save him, and more importantly get him to Alec so that they can save his life. The Institute still sees him as a threat. Plus, the werewolves are after him for Gretel’s threat.
Jace’s adventure this episode was full of action. He woke up on a beach and immediately got blamed for murder. He then got in trouble with werewolves for the same crime that he didn’t commit. Let’s not forget that he got saved by mundanes which were the type of people he couldn’t stand season one. Not to mention while being on the run he ran into his mother which was a small, but great moment. He was able to confront the fact that his own mother tried to kill him, and was not trying to make up for that by saving his life and saying she was sorry. I’m glad that he didn’t simply give in and accept her apologize. He didn’t even want to accept the name Johnathon.
The problem with that scene was Jocelyn. Her actions didn’t make sense because there wasn’t a reveal to her changing her mind in any way. In fact, she had just told Clary in the last episode that Jace was pure evil, so her suddenly apology was jarring and didn’t seem right. Even as a viewer it was hard to believe that she might’ve been telling the truth. She came off more as her daughter from season one who would flip flop her emotions all the time. Jocelyn’s decisions need to be consistent and have valid reasons behind them.
Back to the werewolves, it was nice to see them in action. It shows that this is a world that pays attention to the actions that happens in it, and Gretel’s death wasn’t unnoticed. As nice as it was to be introduced to Maia which seems like a character that could be interesting down the road, she seemed too aggressive. I know that the pack has a “blood for blood” code, but everything that she did I expected from Taito who was related to Gretel and would’ve had more anger towards Jace. It also would’ve solidified the werewolf in the hospital seen because Maia changing in the opening like that didn’t make any sense. It felt forced and she didn’t have a reason to be angry enough to expose herself like that, but Taito would’ve had a valid reason.
All these things were centered around Alec who was stuck in his memories, and he was dying. Each flashback was short, but they all contained valuable information. For example, how insecure Alec used to be. From what the audience has scene last season and this season, Alec has always seemed to be confident. He’s stuck to his ways and sure of how he feels, but in these flashbacks we see a younger version of him that isn’t sure of his skills. He’s still trying to be good with a bow. Then he was unsure of getting a parabatai with Jace because of his feelings for him, which was a great scene because it revealed when Alec had opened up to his sister, and revealed that he had feelings for his brother. It also revealed that Izzy doesn’t ever want her own parabatai. In the end Alec did get saved and see his brother again, but Aldertree has him in custody.
Last but not least is the vampire that can never catch a break. It turned out that his mother had been looking for him because he wasn’t where he said he would be. Not to mention that Raphael still wants him to track down Camille. Naturally he goes after his mom with Clary’s help. What was interesting about his search is that the viewer now knows that his mom has had problems with alcohol. It shows that Simon’s life has always had it’s downs, but things got better, and hopefully they will in the future, but right now things are bad. Raphael stepped in and told his mom that Simon’s band has been on tour, but that caused his mom to get closer to Raphael. She even invented him to come over whenever he wanted, which only causes more trouble for Simon, but at least he can move home, and hopefully he can reveal his true self to his mom down the road.
Rating: 9/10
Shadowhunters airs Mondays @ 8/7c on Freeform
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