Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Shadowhunters Talk: 3x08 "A Walk in Darkness"

Unless I'm forgetting something, this episode marks the first time we see Lilith move the apartment she's using, something which will become important later on.

The demon inside Jace taunting everyone was hard to watch because you know he's hitting them where it really does hurt the most. Despite knowing it's not really Jace, I struggled not to feel angry with him in that scene.

Alec wants to use his parabatai bond to help Jace, saying that he's nothing without his parabatai. The parabatai bond is something that's tricky to convey well, I think, because parabatai are supposed to be closer than siblings or lovers. I'm not sure how often, if ever, Jace and Alec appear that way. They're close, yes, but I've never felt that they come across as close as they should be. Losing his parabatai really should be the ultimate loss in Alec's life, but based on what we see in the show, I don't think Alec would be more upset losing Jace than if he lost Izzy or Magnus or someone else, which kind of makes his lines in this episode feel melodramatic.

Seeing Jace vulnerable was one of the highlights of this episode for me. It's not a way we've seen him often. Even in other supposedly vulnerable moments, I've never felt we were going very deep, but I did feel that way in this episode. It was the most broken we've seen him, and I think that it was good to finally see his character like that.

Clary gets a nice burn in when she says that she's glad the wish is gone because she doesn't see the mass murder of Downworlders as something to celebrate. I like small reminders that the Clave isn't a friend to Downworlders and is downright cruel to them most of the time.

Another nice moment in the episode was Izzy singing Jace the lullaby to show she was his friend. One thing I think the show does well compared to the books is showing that Jace is Izzy and Alec's sibling after being raised by the Lightwoods. In the books, I always got the sense that Maryse and Robert were constantly gone, giving the Lightwood children free reign at the Institute and making them feel less like they were actually Jace's parents. Details like this in the show, though, help show us that Maryse really was a mother to Jace, and I appreciate that.

One of the biggest reasons I hate Jordan (both in the books and in the show) is how hard he tries to worm his way back into Maia's life and find redemption for himself by using her to make himself feel better. I hate watching it play out, and every time we see him, I hate him more.

He also prompts Maia to leave town for to clear her head. I'm mixed on how I feel about that. From a character standpoint, it makes complete sense that she'd want a break. From a story telling standpoint, it's odd to take one of your main characters out of the story for the time that Maia is gone. When I first watched this episode, I didn't think she would be gone for as long as she was, and I'm not a huge fan of that.

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