In a retrospective of the first season in "Entertainment Weekly", "Shadows" was rated a C+, with the episode being called "exceedingly awkward", while the political context was seen as a weak point. Keith Phipps, writing for "The A.V. Club", had mixed feeling about the episode, rating it a C+. He felt that the episode's plot worked well, though the supernatural elements seemed "a little corny". Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, was more positive about the episode, calling it "fun viewing" and feeling that "with characters we could care about and a far more rounded plot, this proved one of the better episodes so far. I still wouldn’t call it a particularly brilliant one, though, either".