Season 4 of What We Do in the Shadows returns with a focus on the vampires of Staten Island a full year after the events at the end of the previous season. The episodes are now streaming on Hulu.
Episode 1 recap: Reunited
A cameraman returns to the very rundown, dilapidated mansion where Laszlo has been raising the child that crawled out of Colin Robinson’s chest. They have been bonding at the expense of the condition of the house.
He’s interrupted by a knock on the door and it turns out to be Nadja who has left her job at the Supreme Vampiric Council because she missed Laszlo. Nandor returns as well after his trip around the world.
In reality, he had only gotten as far as Fresno where he met a family from Wisconsin and travelled around with them for a while. This made him think of his own home so he visited Al Qolnidar before heading back to Staten Island.
While they’re all standing around discussing the ridiculous state of the house, they hear a knocking sound that Laszlo attributes to bad pipes. Nadja says she has a surprise for them and opens up a crate out of which Guillermo arises.
He’s frustrated because he was in that crate for a week. Nandor gets him to calm down before asking him to be his best man. He then tells Guillermo to help him find a wife because that’s what a best man does.
Guillermo considers leaving because he wants to look out for himself but is tempted to stay because he gets to be Nandor’s best man and because he doesn’t want to leave the childish Colin Robinson with such irresponsible people.
Guillermo tries to fix the house back up again and tells the others that they’re going to need a lot of professionals for which they need money. The three vampires discuss their financial situation as Laszlo says that Colin Robinson was the one in charge of those matters.
All he has now is Colin’s ATM card but he doesn’t have the password. Guillermo tries asking the young Colin for the password but it ends up being a dead end. While Nandor constantly suggests stealing the money, Nadja wants to open a vampire nightclub like the one in ‘Blade’.
She talks about how she suggested it at the Supreme Vampiric Council but was shot down and realized that badly wanted to open a vampire nightclub which is why she quit and came back. She uses her high-pitched voice to get everyone else to agree with her plan.
They head to the local Vampiric Council headquarters where the guide is just sitting there waiting for them. They tell her that they’re opening up a nightclub and they’ve chosen the headquarters as the ideal space.
Nadja is excited about this and warns anyone else not to get in the way of her dream.
Episode 2 recap: The Lamp
Nadja has gotten to work on making her nightclub happen but the guide is proving to be a roadblock. She wants things as they are and constantly has her wraiths undo any changes that the contracting crew have made.
The wraiths go as far as harming many of the crew working there. Nadja says that she’s done playing nice and is willing to try a different approach. She tells the guide a bogus story about how the people at the Supreme Council believe that the headquarters at Staten Island is stuck in time and would be better served as a CVS pharmacy.
This has the guide all ruffled and she changes her mind and agrees to help. She gathers her wraiths and tells them to stop killing the crew but they do it anyway and the guide says that even though she’s agreed to help, something deep inside her is against it.
Laszlo says that this is a psychological issue that he’d like to explore. He narrates a story of the time he spent with Sigmund Freud and how he inspired some of his theories.
Nandor is having a tough time finding a bride even though he’s brought back all his treasure from home. Guillermo finds a lamp amongst it and after Nandor rubs it a few times, a Djinn appears. The Djinn offers 52 wishes and Nandor decides to bring back his 37 wives to find the one that the truly loved.
What follows is a ‘The Bachelor’ situation where Nandor interviews his wives and uses up his wishes as the Djinn gets rid of the ones he doesn’t choose.
Lazslo tries to get into the guide’s head through therapy and hypnosis and eventually they find out that the guide was a naughty vampire who broke all the rules which is why her punishment was taking care of the council headquarters for eternity.
They also found out that she had had an affair with a vampire hunter from the Van Helsing family, so Laszlo and Nadja ask Guillermo to seduce her and convince to change her mind about the club.
Guillermo agrees to help as long he is made the accountant of the night club and Nadja agrees. He goes down to meet the guide who says she doesn’t care about the nightclub and is more focused on their relationship.
She’s caught between seducing him and pushing him away and finally asks if they can just be friends, an idea that Guillermo is more than happy about. She then proceeds to tear down the place for the nightclub and Laszlo celebrates another “cured” patient.
Nandor is down to the last of his wives, Marwa, and decides that she’s the one he is going to marry, a decision that most likely will not last for too long.
Review
- The mockumentary aspect of the series is just as funny as ever. Incorporating the blockage at the Suez Canal by the Evergreen into the story was a brilliant joke.
- The young Colin Robinson with a very prominent adult face is unsettling to look at but it’s these subtle use of special effects that have always been a feature of What We Do in the Shadows.
- The ambiguity of all the characters when it comes to their sexuality has always been a nice touch, especially since it’s portrayed so frankly without making it a defining characteristic.
Rating: 3/5
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