What We Do in the Shadows had some surprises in store for fans in its Season 4 finale, bringing several plotlines to a close and presenting some interesting challenges for Season 5.
From Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) being a baby, to Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) having her own Vampire nightclub, and Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) taking control of his life, there was plenty for fans to enjoy over the course of the season.
Showrunner Paul Simms spoke to Newsweek about the biggest surprises in the finale and shared what they could mean for the characters in future.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Season 4 finale.
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Colin Robinson Is Back to His Usual, Boring Self
Over the course of Season 4, Laszlo (Matt Berry) has been raising baby Colin Robinson to be different from his original energy vampire state, but the finale showed that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks because Colin returned to his usual self.
Colin returned to his natural state after reading his very detailed diaries, which were hidden behind a wall in his room. Now back to his boring self, Colin takes charge of the restoration of their house but doesn’t remember anything of his time with Laszlo.
“That was very exciting, we all thought—the directors and the rest of the cast—that when Mark came in for that scene, when he walks back in the living room, we were like, ‘I missed him in some weird way.’ You know what I mean?” Simms said.
“That was the end of a good long, long journey for him, and the part where he discovers the slide and where to knock on the walls is one of my favorite things that we’ve ever shot.
“It really was like a minute-and-a-half long with no dialogue, but it really, in the middle of a comedy show, it suddenly feels really exciting to me, the way it all came together.”
Simms explained that he and the writers always knew what they wanted to do with Colin, but it was the matter of how they would make it happen that took time to figure out.
He said: “We knew we wanted that at the very end of the season, for him to be back to the way he was, but [then it was] figuring out how to do it.
“We did not know when we started filming and that episode.… Of the 10 episodes we do, we usually have nine written before the season starts [filming] and then the 10th one we write right before it’s ready.
“And, so, we just went into the season going, ‘We’re going to figure out how it works eventually,’ and then we did.”
Nadja’s Vampire Club Failure
Another surprising turn of events involved Nadja’s new business venture, a night club that catered to vampires but failed, losing more money than Nadja was able to invest in it.
Rather than deal with the problem any longer Nadja decides to burn the place down in a bid to rake in the insurance money, except she forgot to get insurance before destroying the club.
Reflecting on Nadja’s failure with the venture, Simms said it was in a bid to see the character “spin out of control.”
“I feel like, with a lot of stuff, we just squeeze everything we can out of it, but also I think it made sense,” Simms shared.
“When we first started talking about her running a nightclub, we wanted it to follow the trajectory of almost any story you hear, or read or see about someone running a club, which is they start drinking too much, there’s maybe some drugs, it’s such a thrill running a nightclub and eventually everything spins out of control.
“But it just made [sense], it was less about why did you get rid of the nightclub—because I love those sets and everything—but more about wanting Nadja to really spin out of control this season.
“At first, it seems like such a positive thing, but she’s running her own business and she’s into it and then everything goes to everyone’s heads, you know?”
But, despite it not lasting longer than a season, there were some real highlights at Nadja’s club, including director Sofia Coppola, her husband Thomas Mars and director Jim Jarmusch making cameos as themselves in the penultimate episode, “Freddie.”
“I know Sofia socially a little bit and her husband Thomas, and they’re big fans of the show, especially Thomas is a big fan of all sorts of comedy that would surprise you,” Simms said of the cameo. “It had to be the person that you would imagine what know about some underground nightclub or very, very New York–type people.
“Then it was Sofia who said, ‘I feel like there’s too many lines, someone else should do some of the lines’ and she said, ‘Well, we could ask Jim Jarmusch to do it.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that would be great.’
“It turned out his daughter watches the show also, so he was familiar with [it], and that was really fun.
“The other fun thing about that was our director on that one he’s usually our director photography, DJ Stipsen, and this was his first time actually directing and the guests on that episode were Sofia, Jim Jarmusch, and then the guy who played the clown, Michael McDonald, who directs tons of TV in America.
“So DJ was like, ‘Thanks for giving me this episode where all these other great directors are watching me bumble my way through for the first time!’ But he did a great job.”
Guillermo Is Paying to Be Turned Into a Vampire
The biggest shock in the Season 4 finale came when Guillermo meets with his friend Derek (Chris Sandiford), a vampire hunter turned vampire, and gives him money to persuade him to turn him into a creature of the night as well.
It’s a moment that closes the Season 4 finale, and it will no doubt have an impact on the following seasons.
Simms concurred with this sentiment, as he told Newsweek: “I think a lot of this season he was taking control of his life, you know? I mean, I include him taking control of his life [by] stealing money from the nightclub, and in his own sort of devious way starting to take care of himself.
“It’s the fourth season of the show, and it’s something he’s wanted for a long time, and he’s so constantly thwarted that it makes sense that at some point that he would take matters into his own hands.”
Simms added that he and the writers were “very excited” to dive into what this means for Guillermo’s future in Season 5: “We’re excited, and [Guillén’s] excited. I don’t want to give away too much [but it’s] really good, there’s some really good stuff coming out.”
What We Do in the Shadows Season 4 is available to watch in full on FX, and fans can stream the show on Hulu.
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