Shadowhunters| Parabati Lost | 2x03 | Review & Discussion | Faith

Already cut off from the Institute and his friends, Jace finds his situation worsen when he becomes a target for the New York wolf pack who believe Jace to be a killer. And don't forget about Aldertree and the Shadowhunters who continue their own hunt for Jace. With Jace becoming the most wanted man in New York, can his friends get to him before everyone else? Meanwhile, Simon is on a search of his own as Raphael puts pressure on him to find Camille.

This review will contain SPOILERS!

On Tuesday, episode three of Shadowhunters aired, and let me just say that this was by far the best episode of the entire series. Throughout the episodes, we have experienced both good and bad episodes, but in my opinion I have never really saw one that was great. That changed with episode 3, Parabati Lost.

As you may or may not know, we are getting a writers change episode 4. To me, this was a good salute or goodbye to the writers group that we had originally---although I did have many problems I applaud them for writing this episode as I felt it was very true to the spirit and feeling of the book, as well as the characters.

This episode contained a lot of the things that I had hoped Shadowhunters would have but didn't have in the first season. This was a solid episode where I saw the characters that I love from The Mortal Instruments series.

In this episode, we were introduced to a new character to the show fans but she is loved by us---the book readers. We got to see Maia! The moment I saw her casting, I was already so in love with her because she is pretty damn close to what I personally pictured in the books. I didn't have any problems with her portrayal of Maia in this particular episode, I thought she did a stellar job and is definitely a strong and great addition to the cast we have. You can already tell that Maia is a pretty developed character in the show, and we only saw her once. To me, I saw that she has a lot of baggage and backs story and that drives her.

One thing that stood out to me this episode was the werewolf transformation. Last season, they simply just flashed from human to animal, however in this episode we got to see the full transformation which was so incredibly creepy to watch. It came to a point where I was like "THIS IS COOL!" to, "THAT LOOKS SO PAINFUL." 

Unlike last week, the pacing of this episode was good. There were clean cuts, I didn't see any weird shots that I didn't like. Everything flowed together really, really well. The script, obviously not perfect was not as bad as it usually is which I hate to say, but it is the truth. As a book reader, you know that Alec won't die but despite all of the knowledge that we hold, the entire episode still enthralled me and it all led up to one beautiful short lived moment.

As of right now, I really love how grounded the show is getting. We're really getting into the souls of the characters and the relationships we loved to read about even though we aren't necessarily seeing the book being adapted. While they are straying off the original storyline, they still give us a small fragment of the books.

A relationship we got in the books was climon. And while I was never really a shipper of the two, I still wanted to see that relationship play out on screen. Unlike Clace, Simon and Clary's romantic relationship is developing really well in the show and I'm looking forward to seeing what the new writers group is going to do with that relationship. And you know, there is a small part of me that wants certain scenes from City of Ashes because there are some great ones and it would be wonderful to see those on screen. We are getting the seelie court which I hope is a scene that is close enough to the original.

We got some flashbacks in this episode which was really interesting to see. What really got me was young Jace, because young Jace is more book Jace than current Jace. Even in the first season, we barely got any sarcasm but for some reason young Jace was sarcastic. Anyway, it was really fun to see them as youngsters I thought that it played in really well with the storyline that we were seeing.

An aspect of this episode that I really loved watching was the whole parabati bond quest between Jace and Alec. Did that make sense? I don't know. Anyway, I felt as if they really captured how sacred and deep this bond really is with this episode. Last season, I couldn't really see it but in this episode I definitely did. And, they did it so well that by the end of the episode I was in tears because of how Dominic Sherwood played Jace, and that combined with the parabati oath was just incredibly touching. That was something I never really thought would happen with Shadowhunters, if I'm going to be honest.

Now let's get into the things I didn't like and thankfully there wasn't much. The first thing is Magnus. I know, what, Magnus? Now when I say this, I don't mean Harry Shum Jr, there was just one particular scene between him and Alec that was very unrealistic and cheesy. As Alec is slipping, everyone around him is scared for his life. And Magnus Bane, the high warlock of Brooklyn can't bring him back with his magic, and admits that his magic can't even go beyond the bond since it is so deep. However, despite all of this Magnus thinks he can bring Alec back with a single kiss...Like we're in a fairytale... Don't get me wrong, I love Malec but this scene to me was very unneeded and I personally felt that this was only put there for the sake of Malec if you know what I mean.

The next is Jocelyn... As some of you may know I'm already not a big fan of TV show Jocelyn and my problem with her wasn't with her acting it was something from the book. Last episode, we saw Jonathan/Sebastian and we clearly saw his black eyes and that in the books is a very significant factor that plays into Jocelyn knowing Jace is Jace and not Sebastian. I don't know where they're going with this, from my point of view this is a plot hole and I really want to know what's going to happen with the eyes.

Overall, this was the best episode of Shadowhunters so far. It brought me to tears, and this was the one episode where I believed that I saw the characters from the books. 

What did you think of the episode? 

I hope you enjoyed reading this review!

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