Something tells me this is the calm before the storm that is to come in the last three episodes of What We Do in the Shadow‘s fourth season, as this week’s episode takes on a much slower pace after the chaos we saw in the last two episodes. In episode 7, “Pine Barrens,” the Staten Island crew is split into separate groups as the men set out on a hunting trip, Nadja executes the perfect girl’s night, and Guillermo tells his family the truth. If you’re worried you missed a detail or two, check out our recap of the episode below!
Separate Ways
Following Nandor and Marwa’s wedding night, Laszlo, Nandor, and the creature that crawled out of the chest cavity of Colin Robinson depart on a hunting trip with their neighbor, Sean. Sean is starting to notice the similarities between Colin Robinson and The Boy, but the vampires quickly shut any budding conversation on the topic down. At the mansion, Nadja prepares for a girls’ weekend, unaware that Guillermo is also home and planning to have his family over for the first time in 12 years.
Human Hunt
Nadja explains that Nandor and Laszlo have been fighting a lot recently (the past eight decades), so hopefully the hunting trip results in the pair setting aside their differences and coming back together. Sure enough, as soon as they arrive at Sean’s hunting cabin the pair start bickering over Polish men bowling. The first hunt of the weekend is Nandor and Laszlo taking The Boy into the woods to hunt for humans. The next morning, Sean takes The Boy hunting, which gives him a chance to share his insecurities about Laszlo thinking that he’s boring.
Penn Station
Meanwhile Nadja, Marwa, the Nadja Doll, and The Guide are having an amazing time back at the mansion — they’re listening to music, playing limbo, and drinking (including Nadja drinking out of an amazing “Team Edward” cup from Twilight). Marwa looks happier than we’ve seen her thus far. Guillermo’s family arrives for dinner and are very impressed by his large house and apparent wealth. The former-familiar’s explanation for his wealth is that he was promoted from Panera Bread to working at the Penn Station train station.
Neglected Nandor
In the Pine Barrens, Sean tells a ghost story about the Jersey Devil to scare The Boy, but Nandor and Laszlo can’t be fooled — they insist that the creature was made up by vampires to explain the dead bodies left in the woods. Nandor takes Sean to bed while Laszlo checks on The Boy. The tension between the two vampires reaches a breaking point and the pair begin arguing over old housing agreements, resulting in Laszlo repeatedly firing a gun at Nandor. Sean wakes up from the noise and reveals that The Boy is gone, causing the trio to head off into the woods to search for him. The search gives the pair the chance to talk about their feelings and talk things out, and it turns out Nandor has just been feeling neglected by his friend.
Mamma Mia!
At the mansion, the girls’ weekend is going incredibly well as the four watch Mamma Mia! and singalong. Nadja exits to refill her refreshments and stumbles upon Guillermo and his family, who quickly covers the situation by saying Nadja is both his maid and girlfriend. The de la Cruze’s ask Nadja to join them, and seemingly charmed by his family the vampire joins them. Guillermo’s grandma asks him to take her to the bathroom, but she really just wishes to tell Guillermo that as a little girl she had been warned about the existence of vampires and that she knows Nadja is one.
The Jersey Devil
Nandor and Laszlo find The Boy and Sean, who is being dragged away by the Jersey Devil — as it turns out, the creature is very real. Laszlo is able to briefly subdue the creature by playing a pipe, but the Jersey Devil quickly breaks it. Nandor and Laszlo are able to team-up to fight the Jersey Devil, but even their combined strength is no match for it. The Boy is able to distract the creature with Jersey Music (“Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi, duh) long enough so the pair of vampires can kill it.
Upon their return home, they mount the Jersey Devil’s head on the wall as a trophy from their weekend.
Mamma Mia 2!
The rest of the de la Cruze’s quickly figure out that Nadja is a vampire thanks to their Van Helsing blood and attempt to kill her. Guillermo is able to stop them before it’s too late, finally revealing the truth to his family — he works for the household of vampires, has this entire time, and that he hopes to be a vampire himself one day. Guillermo also comes out as gay to his family during this time, who are much more accepting of his homosexuality than his desire to be a vampire.
Nadja puts Guillermo’s family under hypnosis and plans to drain and kill them, but Guillermo is able to convince her just to hypnotize them since she can empathize with watching one’s family die. Nadja hypnotizes the family to forget everything — except for Guillermo coming out to them — in exchange for Guillermo securing her a copy of Mamma Mia 2!.
Our coverage for season 4 of What We Do in the Shadows, including recaps for each episode, can be found here. Episodes air weekly on Tuesdays on FX and are available to stream on Hulu.
