Shadowhunters 2x15

Shadowhunters 2x15

"A Problem of Memory"

Thoughts and Feels

I just checked and I have not written one of these since episode 7. I'm sorry!!!! I got really busy at the end of the school year and start of summer, but now I'm planning on finishing out the season with these Thoughts and Feels posts again, so I hope you enjoy reading them! For this post specifically, I will be making references to the other episodes. While I did not write about them, I did watch them so they may be coming up in conversation.

Right in the begining of the episode, we see Jace getting so hopeful about the kiss in the Seelie Court, and I loved it, because it just sort of reminded me of a sad little puppy looking happy for the first time in ages. For those of us who have read the books, I feel like we know more backstory about Jace and understand how important this is for his character to open up like this, but generally speaking for all fans, TV and book, I think this moment was really well done because everyone at this point knows that Jace has reservations about his feelings for Clary. It got slightly messed up with the whole sibling revelation before the Climon break up, but the sentiment is still the same. Jace doesn't think he can be with Clary, for a multitude of reasons (blame the Herondale gene); but in this moment we see the hope come through his eyes for the briefest of moments before it gets shuts down again, which is great development for the character of Jace.

One of the things that I've actually appreciated these past few episodes is how accurate they have been to the history of the Circle and how things went down with the different families and Valentine. Especially concerning Jace and the experiments I feel like they are sticking really close to the books, which is fantastic. In this episode specifically, I LOVE that they dropped one of the most iconic Jace quotes from his "lessons" from Valentine.  Granted, this quote is used differently in the show than the book, but I think it worked just as well in the show. It also had a really great effect of giving Valentine a chance to make barbs at Jace about his feelings for Clary, driving deeper those Herondale pessimistic moody thoughts.

Aline came!!! This was something that I have been looking forward to since the reveal of Will Tudor of Sebastien. Aline is a minor character in the books, but a catalyst for so many things, so of course I was waiting for her. I think they did a decent job with her role in the show, but there were a few things that I didn't really like and now have concerns about for the future. First, would it really have been so hard to say that she was seeing a girl named Helen? Maybe I'm missing something from the books, but if they are having her open in the show, then why not match her with Helen from the get-go? With this actually is my concern for the future episodes. If Aline is openly gay in the show now, what about the Jace-Aline thing in Alicante then that will lead to Jace breaking a window and such. It is a small thing in relation to everything else in the show and story, but it still is a bit of a moment for all three characters involved: Aline, Jace, and Clary. In that scene, Aline realizes that she really is only into girls, Jace realizes that there is no one else for him but Clary, and Clary realizes that she doesn't want Jace to be with anyone else. But now.... I can't really see how that will happen.

As far as Climon goes, I think that ship is done for the show, but I can't really be sure based on the final conversation that Clary and Simon have. Honestly, while watching it, all I could think of was Ross and Rachel from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and how they had confusion if "they were on a break" and what that actually meant. So yeah, I think it's done, but not closed, which means there's room for chaos and heartbreak at least on one end of the two. This is something that I really hope gets wrapped up quickly in the next episode. 

I think the show is doing a really good job with the roles of the minor characters in the books. For example, in this episode, Simon gets accused of murder and we follow him and Luke and Raphael interact more in that aspect of the Shadow World. In City of Glass (which is where I think the show is roughly at), Simon and Luke don't really have roles and appearances, so it's nice for them to have something to do in the show that doesn't interfere with the big picture and not just disappear.

Unfortunately, there were so many different parts of this episode, that I think Magnus got brushed off a bit. What I think is kinda funny though is that the title of the episode primarily applies to him and his history. It also applies to Sebastien, because he doesn't have the actual Sebastien Verlac's memories when Aline comes, but really the only plot Magnus has in this episode is overcoming his worst memories from when he was a child. And we didn't really get to see too much of that, which just makes me wonder about why they decided to title this episode what they did.

The biggest thing that I feel like I need to talk about is Sebastian. Because I haven't written one of these posts in ages, I haven't gotten the chance to talk about him yet!! While being one of my favorite secret villains on this show (lol I say this as if there's more than one), he is also simultaneously one of the biggest wrenches that the show has added. There are just some details that do not line up with the book at all and it does concern me because there are a few things from the book that I think REALLY need to happen, but cannot yet because there is absolutely no set up for them yet. I might write an entire post about his, and if I do I will link it here. But for this episode, my immediate concern was that Sebastien/Jonathan looked exactly like the real Sebastien. A million warning bells went off in my head at that moment because I had no freaking clue what the show was playing at. But then they resolved it at the very end by showing Seb/Jon as a super burned person demon thing with black eyes. Which, I guess works, even though I do think they could have easily just stuck to the book cannon. Unless they have something else in mind, but I really cannot see what that could possible be.


Coming off of that, I have to say that I think Will Tudor is doing a phenomenal job. Sebastien is such a twisted complicated character, and Will is doing a great job balancing the different faces that he puts on in the public of the other Shadowhunters and the privacy of his own apartment. Plus, some of the expressions he makes and lines he delivers are perfect, which is commendable to the screenwriters and directors as well. This character I think is being handled the most carefully out of all of them, which is spot-on considering the depth of Sebastien and the role that he plays, now and in the future. I think that Will Tudor was a fantastic choice and I cannot wait to see where the character of Sebastien goes. Do I wish his hair was dyed black like it was in the books? Yes. But I guess that was a really small detail and the show is fine without it. :)


Final question to think about: when and how is Valentine going to die? Because let's be honest, that needs to happen, and probably quickly now that Sebastien has revealed himself to Valentine. It is also just critical to the plot of the story, and I really really do not want to see the show mess it up. Based on the rest of season 2 so far, I don't think they will, but I'm still nervous.

Thanks for reading!