Main cast: Megalyn Echikunwoke (Esme Rawls), Yonas Kibreab (Luna), Joshua Dov (Sam), Marco Rodriguez (Miguel), Gareth Williams (Barlow Townes), Jack Yang (Joseph), Brian Norris (Deputy Hammond), Jan Munroe (Dr Rainer), Patrick W Day (Julian), and Danielle Juliet Ma (Nurse)
Director: Emma Tammi
Well, that’s it for the second season of Into the Dark, and they can’t pick a more quintessential poster crap, er, episode for a season-ender. Blood Moon is basically everything this show embodies: good production values but oh my god, look how they drag things out to fill the entire run time.
In fact, I’m not sure if I can even call this one horror because it’s more about a pretty dim mother flailing around to keep her son’s werewolf nature from being found out.
Sure, Esme realizes that her husband is a werewolf after he knocked her up, and that kid Luna is going to be a howler too at each full moon. She can’t be blamed for not knowing that her man is like that. When the episode opens, she kills the husband and flees with baby Luna. Over the years, they travel all over the country, with her homeschooling the boy even as she does things like waiting tables and what not to make ends meet. Somehow she can still afford big houses with basements to keep Luna locked up during the full moon and all, so maybe she is very good at working overtime, I guess.
Much of this episode is mother-of-a-werewolf blues. The only mildly horror stuff is packed towards the end, like most episodes of this show. Therefore, the viewer will likely have to empathize with Esme to enjoy this episode.
Me, I don’t know. She has time to prepare for the full moon each time, and years to teach Luna how to take care of himself, and yet, I see the kid doing all kinds of stupid things like running wild and opening the door to strangers. For the most part, our mommy here spends more of her time moping and putting on a sad face, so it’s not too surprising that what seems like her negligence eventually leads to the deaths of many people while putting her own kid in danger.
In fact, why even move in to areas with people? Why not just get a farm house and, I don’t know, grow some crops, let the kid go hunt wildlife? Also, Esme slaughters a cow just to feed the kid a few parts—won’t it be easier and cheaper to just buy things like meat patties? All in all, I think this woman isn’t the brightest bulb in the shed. She’d probably have problems dressing up a doll, much less taking care of a werewolf kid.
Oh, and when I finally see Luna in werewolf form, I laugh, and not in a good way. More like a “Seriously? These cops can’t even shoot that cute little dog that is attacking them?” I’d tempted to make a joke about how this is because the fur of the dog is white, but I don’t want to receive angry emails, so let’s just move on.
Blood Moon is a boring, dragged out tale of a dim-witted woman and her poor kid that deserves better. The best thing about it is that it is the last episode of this season, and so far I don’t see any news that Into the Dark is renewed for a third season. Well, that’s what I call a happy ending! I’m now saying adios to this hollow, churned-out-by-committee show, and if there would be another season, please let’s not start until 2025 at the earliest.
