Amazing, flawless, no notes.
Cons:
No, seriously, no notes.
Pros:
This episode gave me everything I never knew to ask for. Let's take the two main stories in turn.
First, you've got Nandor, Lazlo, Young Colin, and Sean going out to a cabin in the Pine Barrens on a hunting trip. The emotional core of this story is that Nandor is jealous and resentful of Lazlo's friendship with Sean, and just feels in general that they've been spending less guy time together. Lazlo is insulting towards Nandor to start, and both of them fight back and forth, until the presence of the Jersey Devil (a creature they previously stated to be entirely made up), forces them to work together to defeat the evil in their midst.
As always, I'd like to avoid just listing out a million jokes that I thought were funny, but Young Colin playing "New Jersey music" from his phone in order to distract the Jersey Devil was pretty great, as was the gun battle ending in Lazlo accidentally shooting Nandor in the hand. I also just particularly loved Sean in this episode, he's just such a bro, such a guy, you know? His encouragement to Young Colin that he's not boring was really funny, as was his completely measured response to Colin's casual mention of his more violent tendencies. This was the funniest I've found Young Colin Robinson since the first episode of the season, so that's encouraging to see.
Predictably, given that Guillermo is my absolute favorite part of this show, I loved the other plot line even more.
Nadja and Guillermo, both inaccurately believing themselves to be alone in the house, celebrate in their own ways. Nadja has a girl's night with Marwa, the Doll Nadja, and the Guide, where they watch Mamma Mia! I just loved Nadja celebrating and enjoying her time with the girls, and the fascination and seriousness with which they all took the film was really charming.
Meanwhile, Guillermo decides to invite his family over to see the house. He's telling them all sorts of lies, about working for the railroad, and living in this house alone because he's rich, but then Nadja comes upstairs and catches the de la Cruz family at dinner, and Guillermo ropes her into pretending to be his girlfriend-slash-maid.
I don't know, something about the fact that Nadja continues to state her disdain for Guillermo while still playing along with this ruse is so charming to me. She gets into the role and seems to be having a good time, but Guillermo's family reveals something to him: his girlfriend is an evil vampire! How do they know? Well, they too are of course descended from a long line of famed vampire hunters, and they've now set Nadja in their sights as their prey!
The hunt is on, with Guillermo trying to keep his family from hurting Nadja. I was actually enormously touched by how hard he worked to defend her from them. And then there's his outburst, where he admits she's a vampire, that he lives with a family of vampires and hopes to someday become one, and also that Nadja isn't actually his girlfriend, because he's gay! I was so happy to hear this said out loud. Not that it's actually news or anything, but still. What a lovely moment of catharsis for Guillermo!
And also of course the comedy in all of these scenes, with Nadja playing the girlfriend, and Guillermo's family getting more and more aggro in the presence of a vampire, their horrified reaction to Guillermo's vampire-ish desires, and their total loving acceptance of his queerness, the mad chase through the house, the hypnotized family walking away and Guillermo just blissfully happy to have finally come out... all of it was golden, as the comedy in this show almost invariably is! (Best joke goes to Nadja saying she doesn't want Guillermo to call her "Mami", and sites his relationship with Nandor as the type of thing she's looking to avoid.)
And that's that! Another solid installment. I can't believe we only have three episodes left before the season is over, I feel like it just started!
9.5/10
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