Shadowhunters focuses on friendships in the season’s third episode, “Parabatai Lost”! With part of Alec’s soul lost, the gang comes up with a plan to get him to Magnus' place in Brooklyn so that Jace, who is on the run from the Clave and a werewolf pack, can help save him. Aldertree has other plans for the unconscious Alec, however. Meanwhile, Raphael continues to pressure Simon, who is out with Clary looking for his missing and potentially relapsed mother. “Parabatai Lost” comes from the writer of the season one finale, Peter Binswanger, and recent Arrow director (among other things), Gregory Smith!
This episode is definitely the best episode of the series and takes a really big leap in quality from the previous two. The main reason it’s so successful for me is because of how layered it is - each character has a different agenda and alliances (believably) shift. It’s especially exciting to see the core group begin to form a resistance as well. Fighting an oppressive organization is usually a compelling story and now we are beginning to have two as our heroes are battling Valentine and beginning to become isolated from the Clave.
The stakes are also really high with Alec’s life hanging in the balance and Jace on the run trying to get back to him. It feels stressful, desperate, and sucks you right in. Flashbacks are also used correctly by the production team to make Jace and Alec’s relationship more multidimensional and help fuel the emotion of the situation Alec is in. Their friendship isn’t the only one featured as Clary and Simon have some fun scenes together as well. Their search for Simon’s mom isn’t particularly exciting, but Katherine McNamara and Alberto Rosende have pretty good chemistry so it was nice to see them in scenes together.
Plus, there’s a little less Jocelyn. And I may be in the minority, but to me, that’s a good thing. I liked her a lot in the books but I just can’t with TV Jocelyn.
Spoiler-y Tidbits:
-We see Alec and Jace at a few different ages
-Magnus tells Jocelyn off
-We get to meet a character who was introduced in the second book
-Jace gets into a bar fight
-We see how Alec came out to Izzy
You can catch “Parabatai Lost” on Monday, January 16 at 8:00 PM on Freeform! Let me know in the comments which storyline has you the most excited!
