What We Do in the Shadows: Nandor's Army (6x05)

I really am loving all the Nandor and Guillermo stuff this season...

Cons:

Honestly, I can't really think of particular cons on this one, other than one punchline didn't quite hit in terms of the dialogue. When Nandor's real army turns up at the end, it was really funny and it totally made me smile! But then there's this immediate reaction shot from Guillermo and he has a line like "What? Nandor's army is real?" and then later an interview cut with Nandor where he says "of course the dummies were just for practice! What, did you think my army was really just a bunch of dummies?" Not exact quotes, but pretty close. And those two lines just felt like... telling instead of showing? Like it was the most uninteresting way to reinforce the obvious joke to the audience, and I found it odd that those lines didn't get a little more juice. Honestly, you didn't need dialogue from Guillermo at all, just an incredulous look. And Nandor's bit would have been funnier if he'd been talking to Lazlo and Nadja, who then would have to react in the moment and insist they hadn't thought he was crazy enough to have an army of mannequins, of course not... This is ultimately a small point, but it felt like the shell of the joke was there and they didn't fill it in well.

Pros:

But honestly, this episode was a solid win across the board! Colin had a funny recurring bit here of being the only one of the gang to be actually zealously interested in Nandor's army, taking to the training and his task as logistics coordinator with real zeal. In the end, Nandor has to knock him out and drag him back to the car to stop him from charging after the army that Nandor's sending away to wreak havoc elsewhere.

Nadja and Lazlo had a genuinely sweet subplot about the state of their relationship! She's frustrated that he's always making decisions and leaving her in the dark, and he expresses that she's so wonderful and perfect in every way that he wants to be the best for her. They then team up to break into a fireworks shop as part of their plan to help Nandor. I really liked this little moment where she stood up for herself and Lazlo made some typical blunders and then circled around to being oddly sweet in his own stupid way. I loved the bit where he calls out that he'd meant to say something "with the exact same meaning but that doesn't piss you off", which was hilariously honest of him.

What makes the Nadja and Lazlo relationship so great is that it's often ridiculous and silly and full of comedic overreaction, but there is an underpinning of real feeling there too. It heightens the comedy and gives it stakes. And that's how I feel about the Guillermo and Nandor relationship too. It's patently ridiculous when you drill down on the specifics, but the bigger themes of loyalty and betrayal and life's purpose are more universally applicable and have a real emotional core to them!

Guillermo's conclusion here that the two of them need to find different life purposes and that those purposes might take them away from each other, is really melancholy, and honestly I would have hoped for something else... we'll have to see where we land when we get to the end of the season, but I am bummed about it. Still, as an arc of actualization for Guillermo, I would love to see him escape from the master-servant relationship with his current boss and realize that he doesn't need to position himself in that servile role at all. Maybe some way, even if being a vampire isn't for him, he can take on the status of leadership implied by his Van Helsing blood, as a protector of humans against vampires, a guardian of the boundaries between these two different worlds living side by side.

I'm always going to love that it's Guillermo who can get through to Nandor in the end, when none of his fellow immortals can. Guillermo is the reason he's turned to such a drastic place, and Guillermo is the one who can pull him out of it. I have given up all hope that they'll take this story in a romantic direction, at least not explicitly stated, but I still have fun with the fucked up depth of emotion between the two!

9/10