'What We Do in the Shadows' Season 2 Episode 8: Things get emotional and wholesome as Guillermo leaves Nandor
Spoilers for ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Season 2 Episode 8 ‘Collaboration’
As far as ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ episodes go, the latest one was uncharacteristically emotional and wholesome. At the same time, it was an important one to the central plot of the vampire mockumentary.
It begins with Nandor (Kayvan Novak) getting a visit from his old familiar Benjy, who he hadn’t seen for more than four decades. Benjy returns to his former master with hopes of finally getting his promise fulfilled: to be turned into a vampire. Obviously, it irks Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), for he too had been promised the same thing eleven years ago.
Guillermo has been carrying this resentment for a long time, but Season 2 Episode 9 sees it exacerbate after he goes to a “Familiars mixer”, a party of sorts where familiars exchange notes on how to do their duties better, b**** about their masters, and indulge in “sad hookups”. At the mixer, Guillermo runs into an old friend and former familiar Celeste (Greta Lee). To his surprise and annoyance, he finds that Celeste has been turned into a vampire by her master (a 12-year-old vampire girl).
Celeste tells him and others around her that she plans to make a vampire group and that her intentions were not to keep familiars on the hook for too long — she would turn them in eight months at the most. Guillermo is tempted by the idea but decides to talk to Nandor first. When he brings up the topic of getting turned, Nandor gets annoyed. And when Guillermo cautiously mentions another opportunity he may have, Nandor tells him to take it.
An angry and heartbroken Guillermo packs his bags and leaves. But it’s clear that Nandor is sad to let him go as well. In fact, as the aged Benjy replaces Guillermo as his familiar, Nandor increasingly misses the chubby and timid servant. Guillermo on the other hand ends up having the time of his life as Celeste’s familiar. She makes all her familiars live in a spacious modern apartment. They all have the freedom to do as they please, and she encourages them to dance.
But nothing is meant to last, is it? When the familiars start to question Celeste about when she would turn them, she makes excuses. And in a moment, it’s revealed why. Celeste’s master (the 12-year-old) and her other prepubescent vampire friends return home, and it becomes clear that Celeste was only pretending to be a vampire.
Guillermo runs for his life from the bloodbath and outside, he runs into Nandor again. Nandor tells him how much he misses him and asks him what he could do to get him back. Guillermo asks to be given more respect, a day off every week, and the promise that one day, he would be turned into a vampire. Nandor reluctantly agrees, and the two fly away back home.
The post-credits scene is particularly adorable. We see that Nandor has turned Benjy into a vampire and the old man couldn’t have been happier.
Season 2 of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ has been far superior to Season 1. But this episode most definitely takes the cake. New episodes of the vampire mockumentary series drop on FX every Wednesday at 10 pm ET/PT.