What We Do in the Shadows Series-Finale Recap: Casket Closed

Which ending did you get when Nadja hypnotized us en masse? I got a parody of the final episode of Newhart, a reference that was a little outdated when I was a kid but not so outdated that nobody talked about it anymore. (It’d be the ’90s equivalent of, I don’t know, referencing the end of Seinfeld in 2024 — something that also happens in “The Finale.”) And yeah, I’m team Nandermo (team Guillerdor?), so I was satisfied to be pandered to at that moment and see the two of them in bed together with their PJ sets like a proper married couple, thank you very much.

But in Vulture’s writeup, Roxana Hadadi references a Usual Suspects parody with Colin and the Guide in that same portion of the episode. (Variety and Indiewire, too.) And if you click around on Hulu, a new tab for extra hypnosis “endings” — in quotation marks because there were still several endings to go at that point in the episode — appears on the special features for the series finale of What We Do in the Shadows. Along with the Usual Suspects and Newhart parodies mentioned above, there’s also a Rosemary’s Baby riff that brings the whole gang together to celebrate demonic new arrivals to the vampire family.

But beyond those three, there were plenty of other endings to choose from in the aptly named “The Finale.” The episode hit the brakes on “the documentary” early on, in the middle of multiple story lines — mid-sentence, even, which is hilarious — then spent the rest of its runtime reflecting on and making fun of the idea of closure. There wasn’t much room for sentimentality, and writers Paul Simms, Sarah Naftalis, and Sam Johnson — all of whom have been with the show for years — pulled the tear-stained rug out from under the audience at every turn, including at the end.

This allowed, in the show’s signature light and cheeky way, for some bittersweet final character moments. I particularly enjoyed Colin undercutting a speech about their chosen family (barf) by referencing, out of nowhere, the steamboat accident of 1906 that killed his. But Nandor’s subsequent confession that he finally knows what he really wants in his eternal life, and it’s an underground crime-fighting lair, spoke to the “will they or won’t they?” between him and Guillermo (grimacing off to one side, as he so often does) throughout the series. And that bear-fucking bit. Oh my God, was that funny.

This refusal to get mushy sounds frustrating when it’s described in text, but it was done with such winking affection that it did actually lift everyone’s (or at least my) spirits. In my recap of the season six’s “P.I. Undercover: New York,” I compared the episode’s vibe to a wrap party; that element was present in “The Finale” as well, with shout-outs to Frank the grip, who looks like Nandor (he really does), and a very specific actorly complaint from Kayvan Novak about how he always thinks his hair is on fire from the smell when the lights get too hot.

Having long-term writers pen the finale was a smart move, as it allowed What We Do in the Shadows to play the hits in “The Finale”: Not just in terms of bringing back Jackie Daytona (swoon), the witch-skin hat (ew), and Nandor giving an interview to a reporter about a sinkhole in front of the residence (classic), but also in different styles of joke writing. There were some very good classic setups and punchlines in this episode, batshit (no pun intended) metaphors, silly visual gags, lots of bullying of Guillermo, and sharp meta-humor — all things at which Shadows has excelled at various points in its run.

Specifically, one thing I’ve always enjoyed about this show is its faith in the audience’s intelligence. “The Finale” has a joke that relies on our ability to recognize snippets of Shakespeare (as delivered by oratory king Mr. Matt Berry, who doesn’t give a speech but does play us out with one last song) and a reference to Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens filmmakers the Maysles brothers. Plus, one of those art-history Photoshop montages that I love.

To cite a coffee-mug aphorism worthy of Colin Robinson, the basic message of “The Finale” seems to be “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Unlike Guillermo, who gets “a preview of the end of his own frail human life,” the vampires have no real sense of finality — a side effect of living forever, I suppose. They’ve been around long enough to understand that everything always comes back around in the end (although, in one of this week’s meta-moments, Guillermo hints not to get our hopes up by calling another “documentary” “extremely unlikely”). So why bother changing?

That being said, I’d argue that some of them have changed: Nadja, in particular, has matured from a wild party girl into a self-appointed beacon of compassion, which is remarkable given that she doesn’t even have Instagram to teach her all those therapy words. She also uses Guillermo’s real name now, which is huge. (Not Laszlo. He’ll never change.) The dynamics between the members of the household have evolved as well: Laszlo and Colin have entered into a sort of queer co-parenting arrangement with Cravensworth’s Monster, an echo of the father-son relationship they had when Laszlo devoted himself to parenting Baby Colin in season three.

I’d call it a platonic queer co-parenting arrangement, but “The Finale” made sure to remind us of all the fucking and sucking going on at the residence when the cameras aren’t around. That’s a throwback, too, to the bawdy times of season one, briefly glimpsed on the shabby screen in the vampires’ makeshift home theater at the end-end (as opposed to the parody end, or the end for the cameras) of the series. At the beginning of What We Do in the Shadows, the (largely British) members of the core cast were relatively unknown, at least in America. Things have changed for them — particularly for Harvey Guillén, whose fame grew alongside his role on this show.

I will miss them and follow their careers wherever they go next. On a personal note, this is the first and only TV series I have recapped from the beginning to the very end — first for another site, then here at Vulture. I’ll miss sitting down with a notebook and scribbling down jokes and references; I’ll miss pausing the episode every ten seconds to try to catch them all. (I didn’t always succeed, but I tried.) There were a couple of sideways references to this series starting to get repetitive in “The Finale,” and I agree that it’s best not to drag it out so long that it gets stale.

What We Do in the Shadows has kept the gothy sweethearts of the world well fed for the past six years and has earned a nice, long period of super-slumber in its coffin down in the sub-sub-basement. At its best — which includes this series finale — it represented the pinnacle of sitcom writing and performance, not to mention some killer costuming and sets. Which leaves me with one last question: Have you guys sold off all of the props from the residence yet, or … ? Because there are a few items I’d like to purchase.

Craven Mirth

• Part of me wants to see the image of Cravensworth’s Monster and the Doll With the Spirit of Deceased Human Nadja Inhabiting It getting to know each other in the Biblical sense, and part of me doesn’t.

• This is still pay television, so that probably wouldn’t fly — although I did notice an uptick in the number of FPE (fucks per episode) in the last couple of seasons. Which raises a question: Was the Monster’s severed penis blurred out because of Standards & Practices, or just as a bit?

• Speaking of acronyms, I would not wear a MAGAFV hat, but only because I don’t want to be confused with a bloodsucking monster.

• One last shout-out to the always-excellent costume department for the Batman ’66– and Sailor Moon–esque getups on the Cowboy Kid and Phantom Menace, respectively.

• “It’s like when you put a raincoat on a dog.”

• “You’re Irish, right?” “No.”

• I made reference to Laszlo’s gentlemanly constancy above, but it’s also worth mentioning that Nandor hasn’t learned anything in six years, either — perhaps because he’s the oldest of the vampires, or perhaps because he’s barely literate.

• “We’ve had lots of laughs, sucked lots of blood, and fucked each other senseless.” Thanks for reading, gang. Happy trails.