What We Do in the Shadows Finale Recap: Did Guillermo Finally Achieve Full Vampire Status? (Grade It!)
Guillermo is on the run as What We Do in the Shadows wraps up its fifth season. Is his bromance with Nandor officially over?
Thursday’s season finale begins with Guillermo hiding out in a motel room after Nandor found out he was turned by another vampire. He’s been lying low (“I wish they had Bravo here”), but he invites Derek to come over and bring him some raw hamburger meat — which Guillermo promptly spits out for being insufficiently raw. Nadja drops by, too, in a Carmen Sandiego-looking disguise and reports that Nandor is still enraged by Guillermo’s betrayal. Guillermo offers to write him an apology letter… but Nadja thinks it would only work if it’s a suicide note. (Plus, she hears people having sex in the room next door and gamely goes over to join them.)
Nandor, meanwhile, is keeping watch for Guillermo at the one place he knows he’ll show up eventually: Panera Bread. (“He can run, but he cannot run far… because he has very short legs.”) He pounces on what he thinks is Guillermo — but it’s actually actor/comedian Patton Oswalt! The two get to talking, with Nandor pouring out all his Guillermo-related angst to him. Patton tries to chime in with his own problems, but Nandor quickly hypnotizes him to just listen. Back at Guillermo’s motel room, Colin shows up to conduct Guillermo’s “exit interview” from being a familiar… and, well, from being alive soon enough. He dutifully fills out a form and records the conversation, and even though Guillermo quits on it midway through, Colin still presents him with a crystal plaque (that he picked up cheap at an estate sale).
Next to pay Guillermo a visit is Laszlo, who tries to apologize to “Gizmo” and give him advice, but he keeps getting distracted by the pornography on the motel TV. Guillermo is left wishing he never asked Derek to turn him into a vampire; he thought it would bring him closer to the Staten Island crew, but it’s only driven them further apart. Nandor takes Patton Oswalt up to a rooftop to look out for Guillermo, and Patton asks why he can’t just repair his friendship with Guillermo instead of murdering him. “All that betray me must be destroyed,” Nandor bellows — and, as if to prove the point, he knocks Patton over the ledge to his death. Ah well, we did love Ratatouille.
The Guide also arrives at Guillermo’s motel room to offer her condolences in advance for his imminent demise — and she brings along his grotesque half-animal offspring to say a final goodbye, too. They’re interrupted, though, by a phone call from Nandor, who taunts Guillermo that he’s sitting in Guillermo’s mother’s apartment. Guillermo rushes over to find them giggling together over his childhood photos, and Nandor confesses that Patton Oswalt’s death made him realize: “It didn’t feel good losing a friend.” He gives Guillermo his word he will not kill him and brings him back to their Staten Island home to live with them as an equal and a vampire. Well, Guillermo is still not fully a vampire yet, so Nandor gives him human blood to drink — and that does the trick! Now that Guillermo is fully converted, the gang takes him to a local spaghetti restaurant to feast on the diners. But Guillermo hesitates when it comes time to kill a living human being… and he gets emotional and walks away.
Nandor realizes that Guillermo “is not cut out to be a vampire,” and after first trying to wish it away with his genie (he forgot he’s out of wishes), he sets up an ancient ceremony to welcome Guillermo to the vampire race, with Derek as one of the guests. Nandor asks Guillermo point-blank if he’d rather be a human or a vampire… and Guillermo admits he’d rather be a human. Nandor thought so, and he puts a hood over Derek’s head, ordering Guillermo to kill his friend to become human again. Guillermo can’t do it, though, so Nandor has to put a stake through Derek’s heart, which instantly turns Guillermo back into a human. “I think you made the right choice,” Nandor tells him… before ordering him to clean up the mess.
Laszlo offers to help, and he and Guillermo take Derek’s body to a necromancer, hoping to bring him back to life. The necromancer chants a nonsense spell, and Derek does spring back to life, but he’s a bit worse for wear. He has help, though: Topher the zombie pops out of a nearby coffin (hi, Haley Joel Osment!) and volunteers to show Derek the ins and outs of being undead. All’s well that ends well, we guess. Even life.
Now it’s your turn: Give the finale a grade in our poll, and hit the comments to tell us what you think — and what you’d like to see in Season 6.
Did y’all just post a full recap of an episode 4 hours before it becomes available to stream?
Fun fact. You don’t have to click on the link and read it. It did air on FX before the recap.
I don’t mind reading all about it before I can watch it. I have to wait for my late working teen to get home before we can watch together anyway, usually on Fridays. Can’t wait. It looks fun. LOVE this show!
Feel like this show has regressed over the last 2 seasons. Season 4 made the mistake of not having Colin Robinson. And this season was too focused on Guillermo and felt a bit repetitive overall.
It’s still a fun show but it peaked around the first 2 seasons. What do you guys think?
I have to disagree. I think the show gets better with every season. Every character has grown and has depth. I like the different focus in these later seasons….lots of ridiculous humor but also humanity, loss, and change. I wouldn’t want the show to be the same as seasons 1 & 2. Not every episode in every season is great but each season has been great & different from each other. Just my opinion though!
The ep this season where they were the news anchors is some of the best comedic work they’ve ever done. It was outstanding.
Episodes 1-6 of this season was the best run of episodes they’ve ever done.
I’d agree on some points, it seems odd to add Kristen Schaal to the main cast and then for most of the season give her less to do than when she was recurring for example. This season was (IMO) a bit too plot focused so was less funny.
The Guillermo plot twist at the end of S4 leading to 6 great episodes in S5 has been the highlight for me. But they squandered the comic potential in the last half of the season. At least they didn’t lazily return to the status quo.
This show is basically a bunch of comic vignettes and go-nowhere character arcs with Guillermo’s story as the backbone because Guillermo is the only character who doesn’t return to the status quo.
Loved this finale!!! (Both episodes). This show just gets better every season. I love seeing the characters grow and change and the insane situations the writers come up with! Can’t wait for season 6!!!
Since I didn’t get to see the last two episodes (thank you Spectrum/Disney for getting into a $ dispute – couldn’t you have waited one more day), thank you for the recap. Maybe by the time they air the next season I will be able to watch it.
I’m glad they didn’t lazily return to the status quo. Now that Guillermo’s quest to become a vampire has been ended, I suppose in S6 they will lean into his slayer plotline.
But they sure squandered a lot of comic potential in the Nandor vs Guillermo situation (no epic vampire battle? that could have taken up a whole episode on its own) and Full-Vampire Guillermo (that could have taken up a whole season on its own).
Don’t get me wrong. This is my favorite show of all time. I think it’s hilarious, but I really dislike about this last episode is that after all that in the end nothing really changed. I don’t understand why he is human again … seems like a weird choice to me and I would have loved to see my favorite character finally slay it as a vamp. It seemed for a second everything was resolved for him to do so and then suddenly he doesn’t have the guts? I don’t get it…