What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5), Episode 4: At the end of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ season 4, the biggest question was – ‘Is Guillermo a vampire now?’ While the answer still is not clear, the show is delving into other topics from the vampires’ lives. The previous episode showed their neighbours organising a pride parade to put up a good image for Sean. While Guillermo is someone from the LGBTQIA+ community, he was left out of the discussions. Nevertheless, he still embraced the fact that he now proudly claims his identity.
In the new episode, we see Nandor sensing his former familiar getting increasingly distant from him. It makes him look for other ways of finding a connection. Colin Robinson gets a big opportunity that is beyond his skills and capabilities. Meanwhile, Laszlo tries to make sense of Nadja’s newfound interest in her roots. Let us dive right into the episode.
*Spoilers ahead*
What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5) Episode 4 Recap
Episode 4: The Campaign
Colin’s Campaign
Earlier, we saw Sean Rinaldi (Anthony Atamanuik) running for elections for Staten Island Comptroller headquarters. However, because of a number of DUIs against him, he had to leave the race. So now, the beloved energy vampire, Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) replaces Sean for the candidacy. He brags about his ‘absolutely, completely clean’ record. But his competition, Barbara, argues that he has no government experience to be a good candidate for consideration. Colin does not care about being a comptroller. He just wants another opportunity to drain the life out of people during his debates.
For this purpose, Colin meets Evie Russell (Vanessa Bayer) again. She is the emotional vampire he met during his job – who also loved draining people by feeding on their emotions. When they dated, she used this opportunity to use her draining skills, also on Colin. Now, he tries to rekindle this romance for the sake of the elections. During the debate against Barbara, Colin interrupts her repeatedly and calls her proposed working approach, anarchic. He then uses Evie to emotionally manipulate people against the use of machines. Seeing that, he says he doubts he would even get a vote!
The Energy Vampire Council
Afterwards, Colin and Evie get kidnapped by a few masked people. They bring the couple to a council of energy vampires. The council members spend their time finding how to turn off a setting on one of their phones. One of them keeps speaking even though her mic does not work. Eventually, the chairman takes centre stage and shares a random quote to advocate the value of bureaucracy. The council expects Colin to beat Barbara and to take his election seriously. Since Colin does not care about winning, the council bores him to death to make him agree to this vision. As a result, he eventually bows down and decides to run for the elections.
Nandor’s Loneliness
Nandor (Kayvan Novak) starts noticing Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) slowly distancing from him. Guillermo does that for an obvious reason – his uncertainty about his vampiric identity. Plus, who would want to be killed, right? But, Nandor has no clue about his familiar’s anxieties. So, he decides to find a new companion to spend his time with. What he rather wants is a way to make Guillermo jealous – to make him realise what he is losing out on. Nandor attends a gym and meets Alexander. He helps this man lift weights and realises that he is Jewish. It gives him a reason to brag – ‘Look, I’ve got a Jewish friend’.
Nandor returns to the vampire residence and sings praises of his new friend’s great sense of humour and love for workouts. He says that he is proud of being a friend to a Jewish person. Turns out, he was living under a rock without the knowledge that the population in New York follow that faith. Anyhow, this gives him a reason to be giddy about something. Later on, he goes to watch a movie with Alexander, who joins largely because Nandor seemed harmless and lonely to him. But Nandor keeps loudly speaking, which embarrasses Alexander. So, after that, he cuts any sort of communication with Nandor. To be similar to Alexander, Nandor asks Guillermo to circumcise his penis. Simultaneously, he tells Guillermo is different from him.
Nadja’s New Family
Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) loves the fact that she now gets to embrace her roots. She often visits the neighbourhood of Little Antipaxons and finds a sense of family with them. Because of this, Laszlo (Matt Berry) decides to win over their hearts. Nadja worries her ‘family’ would kill him because she thinks Antipaxons are known to be hostile to outsiders. But Laszlo does not worry. He just shows up in an attire that he thinks an islander dresses up like. Nadja tries to make up by saying that Laszlo is mentally unstable. After his embarrassing first meeting, Laszlo dresses again in his regular attire and sings a battle hymn of their mortal enemies. So, they throw things at him to make him stop singing.
What We Do in the Shadows (Season 5), Episode 4 Ending Explained:
Nandor decides to show his circumcised penis to Alexander in the gym’s locker room. Instead, he creeps out this friend, since his skin grows up rapidly. Alexander decides to leave the city instead of bumping into this strange man ever again. On the other hand, Laszlo returns to the restaurant and brags about several things that he is proud of himself for. To Nadja’s surprise, her new family loves him. They think him being a reincarnation of a wide-bodied, pompous, perverted oaf, who is supposed to bring good luck to them. Despite the embarrassment, she considers it her victory.
Meanwhile, Colin takes up the stage to speak about the embarrassing situation of the public display of his genitalia to his voters. After giving his apology, Evie takes the mic and demeans Colin even more, to steer public opinion in her favour. As a result, she wins the position instead of him. After her victory, she breaks up with him, once again. This leaves the energy vampire broken-hearted, yet another time. While Guillermo gets a bit sidelined in this episode, we see two different fates of two relationships. Nadja and Laszlo find a way to get emotionally closer to each other, whereas Evie leaves Colin, once again, high and dry.
