Shadowhunters Review: Moo Shu to Go (Season 1 Episode 5)

The good news: this week’s Shadowhunters is much better than last week’s completely useless episode!

The bad news: that’s… still not saying much.

Last week, I mentioned that “Raising Hell” felt like a huge waste of time, largely because the entire quest to retrieve Clary’s all-important memories was rendered useless when Clary had to kill the memory demon in order to save Jace. They tried to move forward in their plan to rescue Jocelyn/retrieve the Mortal Cup and just made things worse.

With “Moo Shu to Go,” at least a lot happens and the plot chugs along.

The episode picks up squarely where we left off last: Clary’s just come out of a necklace-induced vision of her mother, unconscious, and gross Valentine spoke to Clary through the necklace. Naturally, Clary summons Jace to her room to be like, “Hi, hey, WTF is going on here?” Jace has no idea; nor does Alec, who at least has the wherewithal to grumpily snatch the necklace and sequester it in a rune-locked box in the Institute.

That whole bit is a little silly, because if you’re really going to take something supposedly dangerous away from someone, why would you hide it in the floor in the middle of a busy communal building and show them exactly where you put it? C’mon, Grumpy Cat Alec.

Several big developments occur in this episode. For one, the Lightwood family expands: we meet Alec and Isabelle’s mother, Maryse.

Maryse is, to put it bluntly, terrible. She is the anti-Jocelyn, in terms of moms. She conveniently shows up immediately after Clary has confided in Isabelle about what an awesome mom Jocelyn is to Clary. They essentially have a Gilmore-style mother-daughter bond.

Maryse is not Gilmore-esque in the slightest. She is 1) not a hugger, 2) unless you’re Jace. She’s a little bit frosty to Alec and downright cold to Isabelle. But she loves Jace, her adopted son. He’s clearly the golden child. The show spares no uncertainty there. Her affection for him is as clear as day. Mostly, though, she’s pretty awful and one-dimensional so far.

It’s strange that such a significant family dynamic is introduced and then not even remotely expanded on. We know that Maryse doesn’t particularly like her biological children, but why is that? Why is she so fond of Jace? The show has a consistent pacing problem, and a bad habit of throwing in plot points only to abandon them for episodes at a time. I wish Maryse’s introduction could have been saved for an episode with less plot action and more time to let it unravel. It could have gone a long way in contextualizing the Lightwood family, but alas.

Maryse also mentions a third (biological, I guess) Lightwood sibling, younger brother Max, who is in Mumbai. I’m sure we’ll meet him by season three or so, based on how this show’s pacing goes.

Maryse’s main purpose? Plot-driving. She forces Clary and Alec together for an extended period of time, on their own. When this forced team up became clear, I was hoping it would be fun, or at the very least, enlighten us on these terribly one-note characters.

Not so much. Their day out mainly consists of Clary getting kidnapped right after trying to force Alec out of the closet re: his Jace crush. Not a good look, Clary Fray.

Am I the only one who squealed with joy when Magnus called Alec to ask him on a date right before Clary pulled her very-childish running away from the Institute trick? This episode would have been ten times better if Alec had been like, “Sure, Magnus, I can come now!” and just left the Institute and Clary behind to hang with Magnus. Like, if that date had been the rest of the episode and we’d seen no more of the Shadowhunter crew for the remainder of “Moo Shu,” that would have been totally fine with me.

I said a little prayer of thanks when Simon insisted on meeting up with Clary and Alec. Simon shows up and all is well (in my headcanon, at least).

Let’s just go ahead and say it: Simon is totally a vampire now. Or about halfway there. He’s suddenly very strong and agile, and he can see the Shadowhunter runes that were left at Clary’s old apartment. Alec raises one surly eyebrow at this, and Clary appears to be mildly impressed by Simon’s improved physical prowess, but neither of them really question what the heck is going on with Simon at all. They both know he was just kidnapped by vampires, so it’s a little strange that Alec at least doesn’t put two and two together and realize what’s happened.

OK, to be fair, the group is theoretically distracted with the task of finding some box of stuff that Clary’s mom unscrupulously hid under the floorboards right beside Clary’s bed. Seriously, what is it with these Shadowhunters and “hiding” things right next to the people they’re hiding stuff from?

Meanwhile, the truth about Luke comes out: he’s a member of a werewolf pack but he actually is protecting Clary at Jocelyn’s request, against the wishes of his pack alpha. This isn’t much of a reveal because Luke’s werewolf nature has been glaringly obvious since he ripped apart that Circle member lady in a parking lot several episodes ago, but the whole killing the alpha and becoming the new alpha twist is something I didn’t see coming. It’s a bit rushed, but it definitely complicates things in an interesting way.

The CGI wolves are atrocious though. They can’t even afford to show them fighting! They have to fight behind various large objects. It’s so silly.

Right now, I’m far more interested in the politics and dynamics among the different supernatural species (yep, that’s right, even good ol’ Leaf-Face Meliorn). With this much complexity in the show’s “universe,” it really shouldn’t be difficult to flesh out the world and explore it. Instead, the show is wrapped up in the personal relationships of the core five characters, and unfortunately those relationships are not remotely scintillating enough to sustain interest. Broadening the scope would definitely improve the show by leaps and bounds.

But at least one of the pairings I do care about is set to see some movement next week: Jace, Clary, and Simon are whisking injured Luke off to Magnus for some healing. I predict a nice dose of Malec next week, and I’m looking forward to it.

Other thoughts:

• I sort of understand why Clary went to the art academy, but not really? That whole art school thing was shoe-horned into the pilot and then dropped completely. I get the idea behind it: she’s longing for her old life, the person she could have been pre-Shadowhunter discovery. I think it could have been handled a little bit more meaningfully, though. As it is, her going there was just strange and random. Especially because she was invisible for no reason…?
• OK, fine, one Sizzy moment got me: Izzy rescuing Simon from Jade Wolf is a pretty great moment. The relief on Simon’s face when Izzy finds him, her smile, the cute little exchange… I like it. It’s growing on me.
• Jace and Clary, on the other hand? Still doing nothing for me. Nada.
• Valentine is not scary. At all. He is perhaps the most boring “Big Bad” I’ve seen on a show in recent memory. I don’t care about his plan. He burns some guys on the neck and injects them with the blood of the Seelies he’s killed because reasons. I don’t care about the Seelies he killed. Sorry, not sorry.
• Why did middle school aged Simon need to take that crazy convoluted “short cut” to Clary’s house? Was he being chased by a swarm of bullies or something?
• I hate that blurry motion effect that they do, during some battle scenes and during training. I hate it. It’s so hokey.
• Alec tries to apologize to Jace for the memory demon/being in love with him debacle, but Jace is one of the following: profoundly dense and not aware of Alec’s romantic feelings; in super denial; or understanding completely what Alec is going through and being a bro about it by pretending to think Alec’s feelings are familial. I’m thinking it may be option 1 at this point. Ugh, Jace.

What did you think of this episode of Shadowhunters? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Shadowhunters airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Freeform.

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