What We Do In The Shadows Finale Thoughts

What We Do in the Shadows Finale Thoughts

Some people found the ending unsatisfying, but that was the whole point.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

I've been seeing some takes that express disappointment in the finale of WWDITS. Honestly, it ended exactly how I imagined it would. One day, the documentary crew just leaves and we are left with the impression that they're just going to keep on in the exact same pattern they've always been stuck in. And that's exactly what happened.

The point is they are stagnant. They don't grow, change, or move forward in any significant way. That is the tragedy of these characters. Eternal life at a standstill. Growth is for the living.

Anyone expecting them to make significant change didn't really get the central tragic irony at the heart of the show. They even made pointed jokes about how no ending they could have would satisfy everyone - mainly because it would not be true to these characters to have them grow in any significant way.

Guillermo also proves he's one of them, vampire or no, because he ultimately ends up sticking around despite being confronted with the reality of a stagnant existence. He can't break away from them, and they are incapable of real change. They are the people who he loves dearly, but they are an anchor around his neck that he can't remove no matter how hard he tries. Getting stuck at Canon Capital with a new asshole master just proved that Guillermo is as stuck in his pattern as the rest of them.

I see people who legitimately expected Guillermo and Nandor to get together as a couple. The show knew people wanted it as well, which is why there was the Newhart style false ending. It poked fun at the idea of them living in some kind of domestic bliss because honestly, that is not who they are and not who they are to each other.

With Nandermo, I do think people are projecting the inherent homoeroticism of a familiar/master relationship with a real core of romance between them. Personally, I have never understood why people were convinced their ship would be canon. I am an old school fandom type. I love shipping. I totally get why people would take it that way in fic. But canon? I honestly never believed the show was building toward romance.

So I think that shoehorning a romance arc into the last season would've been weird. I can understand why people would disagree with me on this but I don't think they ever promised romance between them in any significant way.

Besides, Nandor took what, 15 years to see Guillermo as an equal friend? Vampires learn and grow incredibly slowly. It'd probably take longer than Guillermo's lifetime for it to ever even occur to Nandor that Guillermo could be a romantic partner.

And frankly, I don't think Guillermo is secretly in love with Nandor. Devoted to an unhealthy, co-dependent degree? Absolutely. In romantic love? No, I don't believe so.

In the end, What We Do in the Shadows is like Seinfeld. They're all pretty bad people who are mired in their own shit and struggle to make even the most incremental of changes.

And that's why we love them.