Guillermo *accidentally* killed the Baron… right?
If vampires exist than so too must vampire-hunters, and this week’s season finale of FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows” explored that idea in a very interesting and highly amusing way. Much of the episode centered on Harvey Guillén‘s Guillermo, Nandor’s human familiar who embarked on a quest to find out the family histories of he and his vampire pals.
Guillermo learned that Nandor has a whole lot of living relatives, including one living nearby in Staten Island, but even more importantly he learned that he’s a… Van Helsing?!
Yes, the lovable human sidekick in “What We Do in the Shadows” is a born vampire hunter, bringing a whole new wrinkle to his recent killing of Baron Afanas. Was it really an accident, or is Guillermo destined to kill vampires? The very end of the finale, wherein Guillermo tosses a few wooden stakes across the room and they just so happen to stick directly into pictures of Nandor, Laszlo and Nadja, certainly suggests it’s a fate he cannot control.
Throughout the first season, Guillermo’s desire to be turned by Nandor has been the emotional center of “What We Do in the Shadows”; as a servant, he’s as loyal as they come, but it became pretty clear early on that Nandor had no plans of ever making him a vampire. But now we know that’s just not his fate. He’s not supposed to be a vampire. He’s a vampire slayer.
Thankfully, FX has already renewed “What We Do in the Shadows” for a second season, which co-executive producer and writer Stefani Robinson teased to Indiewire today.
“[Guillermo’s twist] is one of those delicious plot moments where you have someone who’s so subservient and low status, elevated to higher status and he’s grappling with that,” Robinson explained. “It was one of the things early on that we really sparked to and ended up feeling right for the end of the show. And then in the episode preceding that, it’s baked in — whether on purpose or not on purpose, we realize he’s maybe destined to kill everybody.”
Robinson continued, “Before all the vampire-killing stuff, I would like to explore Guillermo as a human being. He’s got a family, he has friends, and he went to school. He’s very much a person that lives in the present day with vampires and delving into his real world and how he balances the two, what lies he has to tell to his family. Does he go home for Thanksgiving?”
“Our options for him are actually pretty exciting.”
And so, a hilarious, pitch perfect continuation of the 2014 film comes to a close with exciting potential for the season to come. As a finale, “Ancestry” was a satisfying final meal… for now.
“What We Do in the Shadows” will return to FX in 2020.
