All the stuff with this new sneak peek is bringing back frustrations over this repetitive behavior Jace has of betraying Alec’s trust.
Like, seriously. I touched upon it in my 1x09 recap/meta, but it bears repeating:
Honestly, Alec is totally in the right at this point [early in the episode] about the need to turn over the Mortal Cup. All Clary has is some vague notion that she can use the Cup to gain Jocelyn’s release. She has no plan for how that will happen, and she especially has no plan for how to prevent having to actually hand over the Cup to Valentine in order to get Jocelyn back. The Cup needs to be somewhere more secure, and Jace and Clary are 100% in the wrong on this point, and Jace is 100% betraying Alec by lying to him and scheming to keep him from handing over the Cup.
Where Alec is 100% in the wrong as well is going along with the Clave’s intention of sending Meliorn to the Silent Brothers. He should have offered to hand over the Cup then and there, rather than sitting on the knowledge that he knew where it was until he needed it to save Izzy.
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I’m pretty much disappointed in all of them here. I’m disappointed in Clary and Jace and Izzy for deciding it’s better to mount some harebrained rescue for Meliorn. Honestly, Izzy’s rationale that the Clave would be even harsher if they got the Cup is stupid. They’re going to extremes because of panic regarding the Cup and they’d back off if they had the Cup, ergo the most rational thing to do is to hand the damn thing over.
I’m disappointed in Alec for being willing to consider letting Meliorn be tortured when handing over the Cup would take the Clave pressure off sufficiently that they probably wouldn’t be willing to risk war with the Downworld at the mere possibility of eking out more information. I’m disappointed in Magnus for betraying Alec when honestly, Jace and Izzy’s proposal is just absurd, their reasoning totally faulty, and he should know better. That said, given his mistrust of the Clave, his motivations are probably the most blameless.
Here’s the timeline of how things went down in 1x09:
Meliorn is taken into custody for questioning
Meliorn spills the tea about Clary having the Cup
Raj & Co start searching Clary’s room for the Cup
Jace talks Alec into letting Clary turn the Cup over
Jace IMMEDIATELY then tells Clary how to hide from the Clave to prevent that from happening
Clary asks if the Cup is secure, Jace says “it will be”
Jace and Izzy find out about Meliorn being taken to the City of Bones
Jace and Izzy convince Magnus to help them steal the Cup and necklace and go to liberate Meliorn
So, basically, JACE WAS PLOTTING TO STEAL THE CUP BEFORE HE KNEW MELIORN WAS GOING TO BE TORTURED.
He used Meliorn’s impending imprisonment to convince Magnus to help him steal Alec’s stele.
And then he used Alec’s obedience of the Clave’s orders vis a vis Meliorn as justification when they confronted each other in 1x11:
Alec: “You betrayed me. You lied to me. You attacked me when I was doing what we should have been doing together.” Jace: “I didn’t betray you, Alec, I saved you from yourself! If you had taken Meliorn to be tortured, you would have that on your conscience for the rest of your life.”
Here, he’s conflating rescuing Meliorn with taking the cup/portal-shard necklace from the floor-safe and delivering them back to Clary (while keeping Clary out of reach of the Clave.)
They are completely separate issues, however.
Jace just, like, totally uses Meliorn as an excuse to skate on favoring Clary’s wish to use the Cup to get her mother back over Alec’s wish to turn to Cup over to the Clave, and in the process, makes it seem like this was all Alec’s fault.
Which is some really cynical gaslighting bullshit. I mean, really.
Yes, Alec was 100% in the wrong where Meliorn was concerned. As I said, the moment he found out the Clave was going to have Meliorn tortured, he should have handed over the Cup--before Jace even had a chance to steal it--because honoring Clary’s preference with regard to the Cup shouldn’t have been worth risking Meliorn’s life. The fact that Alec was willing to prioritize Clary’s preferences until it was IZZY’S life that was at risk is, indeed, highly problematic.
None of that, however, excuses the fact that Jace absolutely, beyond question, betrayed Alec, and that the Meliorn issue was merely conveniently coincidental for Jace’s purpose.
Don’t even get me going on Jace’s behavior from 2x05-2x08, when he wanted Clary to keep her runemaking ability secret. I can’t pin Clary keeping the Soul Sword’s ability secret on Jace, because that started with Cleophas, but in 2x08 Jace tries to discourage her from telling Alec, Izzy, and Magnus about it.
This behavior we’re seeing from Jace is not new, and the fact that Jace is telling Clary it’s for Alec’s own good now really doesn’t wash in light of the fact that he has lied and kept secrets from Alec before when it didn’t protect Alec at all.
I’ve commented before that Clary is much like Valentine--and, indeed, like Jocelyn--in that when she’s convinced she knows what’s best for everyone, nothing can deter her.
But Jace does the same thing as well. He learned it at Valentine’s knee. Maybe he should, you know, try UNlearning it, sometime.
