Shadowhunters - The Guilty Blood - Review + POLL

In the season premiere of Shadowhunters, Alec, Izzy and Clary are doing everything they can to locate Jace. The new head of the New York Institute puts them on house arrest and declares Jace a wanted fugitive. Alec and Magnus argue but make up later in the episode. Valentine puts Jace through some tests which leads Jace to kill an entire nest of vampires. Jocelyn tries to kill Jace but ends up shooting Valentine instead. Jace helps him escape. 

Favorite relationship: For those of you who hope that I’ll go with Malec, sorry. Perhaps next week. They weren’t at their best this week. My favorite relationship this week, however, was the one of Alec and Jace. You could really see the parabatai bond shine through this week. As difficult as doing nothing was for Izzy and Clary, it was worse for Alec. Not being able to feel him through their bond drove him nuts. Which made him take out his frustrations at the nearest person, Magnus. While Marys seems to have completely forgotten about the years that she raised Jace; Alec and Izzy have not. At this point, I think Alec has a much bigger chance of getting through to Jace than anyone else. The parabatai bond is about as close as two people can get in the Shadow world. If Jocelyn had been successful in her attempts to kill Jace, Alec would felt an immense pain. It would feel like a part of him had died. 

Favorite character: Izzy seems to be the only one inside the institute who’s thinking clearly. She’s pissed as hell about being on house arrest but has the sense to be cautious instead of running off and getting into trouble. Izzy didn’t have a huge role in the second book, but I hope the writers give her a decent storyline this season. The focus doesn’t always have to be on Jace and Clary. 

Least favorite character: Jocelyn has been back for exactly one episode and I already want her to fall back into a coma. You can’t lie to your kid for her entire life and then expect her to listen to what you tell her to do. Thanks to her trying to take out Jace, he’s not likely to reach out to any of his friends. Her motives kind of confuse me, I’m assuming it has to do with knowing that Jace has demon blood in him, but there had to have been a better option than just shooting at him. 

Biggest psycho: Valentine was kind of all over the place. With his insane tests for Jace, first torturing him, then making him spaghetti. I still can’t figure out why Jace saved his life, especially after finding out Valentine experimented on him with demon blood. No wonder Jocelyn couldn’t get away fast enough. Who does that? 

Who’s this dude? Oh, I do not like the new guy. But seriously, who is he? Like Lydia, he’s a character that wasn’t featured in the books. The only Aldertree that ever appeared in the books was the Inquisitor in book 3. It’s possible that it’s the same character because his first name was never mentioned in the books. They appear to have the same sparkling personality. Book vs show: So book 2 was one of my least favorite books. I’m not a fan of the whole ‘accused/clearing my name’ storyline. I hope the writers don’t stay on that one too long. I want to see a lot of book 3 aspects this season. 

Best quotes: Magnus: “The clave being unhelpful? Who’s shocked? Show of hands.” 
Simon: “You’d think there’d be some kind of handbook for the Shadow world. Like ‘Shadowhunting for dummies’.” 
Simon: “First rule of shadowhunting: don’t give anyone your phone or Stele.” 

That’s it for this week. Check in again next week for an all-new review and let me know in the comments what you thought of this week’s episode.