Shadowhunters‘ Matthew Daddario chats with Hypable about Alec’s season 3 arc and why it won’t be smooth sailing for long.

Shadowhunters season 3 has only grazed the surface of the storytelling yet to come. While most characters are already diving into what appears to be their major story arcs for the season, it appears that Alec has so much going on it’s hard to pin point where to focus.

Juggling his responsibilities at the New York Institute, his relationship with Magnus, his separation from Jace, and his mother’s recent banishment, it’s not hard to see why Alec might be a ticking time bomb. Just take it from Matthew Daddario, who ended our recent chat by saying, “That’s season 3. Alec has a tough time of it.”

The rest of our conversation worked its way through the core of Alec’s struggle this season — the cost of having to take on too much, too fast. As he shifts from soldier to leader, bystander to boyfriend, son to confidant, his emotional intelligence will be tested.

Take it from the man himself. Hypable has the inside look at Alec’s season 3 arc in our exclusive interview.

‘Shadowhunters’ season 3 Matthew Daddario interview

Through the first few episodes of season 3, it already feels as if there is more ‘breathing room’ for these characters. Their stories are playing out with a much deeper focus. Looking at season 3 as a whole, what sets it apart in your eyes?

I think the most noticeable thing will be, sort of what you said. Each of the characters will be paired up more in individual groupings and we’re going to hit on those storylines and those relationships more thoroughly. Rather than having everyone interacting with each other all the time.

Alec is removed from certain elements of the other characters’ storylines. We’re going to see that Simon is spending time with certain people and not others.

It also gives us time then to explore more in-depth exactly what’s going through people’s heads as they’re with certain other characters. That’s definitely, as a format change, something we’ll see more of.

But this season is also significantly scarier. [There are] more terror elements in general and I think that we deal with these slightly more adult subjects with a different paintbrush. It’s a different season overall, but I think that’s a direction season 2 was heading anyway.

As you mentioned, we’ll be spending more time with these characters in different settings, and already we have Alec facing quite a few problems. Especially after his family dinner [in “What Lies Beneath”]. What is one area of Alec’s life you’re exploring in season 3 that’s particularly interesting?

I think it’s watching the unintended consequences of Alec opening up, now that he is the head of the Institute, now that he has his relationship with Magnus that has really progressed quickly.

We start to see what these new responsibilities, this new relationship and these new elements of this relationship do to somebody. And we’re going to see that Alec is going to become something of a less, at times, seemingly less capable person.

He’s going to have to struggle with the emotional side of himself that he’s been able to avoid in the past. And work with that [emotional side] while he works with the logical side, the soldier side, the leader side. Watching Alec become this less efficient, less effective soldier is kind of interesting.

He’s constantly befuddled by emotional issues in general, he doesn’t know how to handle them. Alec makes some sort of awkward and poor decisions along the way. But I think in the end he learns from all of them, generally he makes the right decision. Watching that provides me with a lot to work with.

On top of everything else, I’d imagine that Jace remains front of mind. How is not knowing what is going on with his parabatai affecting his day to day?

There’s two things here.

First, Alec is going to be, and we’ll see this in episode 4 [“Thy Soul Instructed”], thrown for a loop because he’s not quite sure what’s going on with Jace. He knows something is off. And he probably believes that it is largely associated with whatever happened at the lake at the end of season 2.

[Alec] hasn’t really gotten to the bottom of that. It’s definitely bothering him, but he doesn’t have the time to properly deal with it. We’re going to see that Alec is largely ineffective when trying to help his parabatai. He gets some things wrong and he doesn’t take action when he should. And we’re going to see that play as we go forward.

The second part is that Alec is very much involved with his relationship with Magnus. That takes some time away from his relationships with some of the other characters. That will be a thing, but I don’t want to say that it’s a removal from the other relationships that Alec has, we’re just going to see a little bit less of that.

Obviously, Jace is a major concern. But I think Alec doesn’t do a really great job of handling it and as a result he’s going to feel really guilty about it going into the future.

More Shadowhunters season 3 interviews:
• Katherine McNamara previews a “cold, dark” season ahead
• Javier Muñoz invites you to “love to hate” Lorenzo Rey

If you could give Alec one piece of advice what would it be?

I would tell Alec to slow down with everything that he is doing in life. Think things through more clearly. Slow down elements of his relationships with all the people around him so that he spends more time really trying to think about them and not be so reactionary.

The problem is that Alec isn’t me. Alec is a slightly closed off person who has the emotional intelligence of someone slightly lower than his actual age and he really would need some time to grow.

And unfortunately, he is put into a position of power, he is put into a serious relationship, he’s got a lot of people who depend on him and he doesn’t have all the tools to deal with that.

But he does his best, so you can’t get mad at Alec for his failings because he is trying his hardest, thinks he is doing good, and in general he cares about other people more so than himself.

Alec is going to have a tough time of it. That’s season 3. Alec has a tough time of it.

Shadowhunters season 3 airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on Freeform.