Summary
- Nandor’s attempt to make a new Jewish friend leads to hilarity as he awkwardly slips Yiddish words into conversation, causing his roommates to criticize his behavior.
- Colin Robinson’s campaign for Comptroller gets derailed by love and scandal, showcasing his unique political strategies and humor.
- The episode ends with the revelation of major bombshells, including the convergence of the Supreme Council of Energy Vampires, ensuring future seasons of “What We Do in the Shadows.”
What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 Episode 4 “The Campaign” is an ironic title for a show that just keeps improving on its formula with even more unexpected scenarios and laugh-out-loud moments. The episode begins with Neighbor Sean out of the race for Comptroller of Staten Island and an eager Colin Robinson jumping at the chance to step in as a replacement candidate. A lonely Nandor, confused by Guillermo’s continuously furtive behavior, spends more time at the gym, where he makes a new friend and, in typical Nandor fashion, decides to embrace their cultural customs to the fullest and alienate him before their bond can solidify.
After having embraced her Antipaxos roots in previous episodes, Nadja spends more time out of the house helping out at her relative’s restaurant, confusing salad plates for coffee cups and refilling them with whatever’s brewing. Meanwhile, Colin Robinson’s campaign trail gets derailed by love, scandal, and potential political ruination before he can achieve victory. By the end of the episode, What We Do in the Shadows future seasons are all but guaranteed thanks to a couple of major bombshells, including Colin and Nandor exposing themselves in more ways than one, and the greatest one of all – the convergence of the Supreme Council of Energy Vampires.
7 Nandor Learning Yiddish For His New Jewish BFF
In an effort to conceal his identity as a half-vampire, Guillermo has been avoiding Nandor, which has only made Nandor more suspicious of both his absence and his relationship with Laszlo, the only member of the household who knows his secret. After deciding that he needs a new friend, Nandor strikes up a conversation with a Jewish man at his local gym and the pair make plans to see a movie together. Hilarity ensues when Nandor tries to slip Yiddish words casually into the conversation at home, making his roommates kvetch about how much of a schelmiel he’s become.
6 Colin’s 5-Hour Town Hall During His Campaign For Comptroller
Sean has to suddenly drop out of the run for Comptroller of Staten Island because of numerous DUIs, leaving Colin Robinson no choice but to step in as a candidate. He relishes the opportunity to feed on all the energy during numerous town halls, in which large crowds show up only to be bored out of their minds. In one notable instance, Colin strings together dozens of personal anecdotes about a made-up family in order to lull them into a stupor, while at the same time poking fun at the political strategies of real candidates, reminding everyone why he’s one of the best What We Do in the Shadows characters.
5 Colin Giving His Emotional Vampire Ex The Titanic Necklace
What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 surprises fans with Colin Robinson revealing that he was in love with an emotional vampire. After draining all the emotions she could from him she moved on to siphoning them from single people at group therapy, which turns out to be as much of a buffet for her as town halls are for Colin. When they reunite, he gives her the Heart of the Ocean, the iconic necklace from Titanic (one of the most romantic totems in cinema history), which is almost as amusing as their quirky tendency to address each other by first and last name.
4 Nandor Getting Circumcised
Like with most things, Nandor takes the great thing he has going with his new Jewish friend Alexander and decides to go completely overboard with it, going so far as to have Guillermo circumcise him so that he will no longer have a foreskin. He doesn’t take into account the fact that vampires have incredibly fast healing, so we he strips down to show Alexander what he’s done, his new friend thinks he’s trying to come onto him. Nandor loses a friend but, also in typical fashion after these sorts of calamities, never loses his dignity.
3 Laszlo Winning Over Nadja’s Antipaxos Family
In an effort to lift a hex that’s been placed upon her, Nadja has been attempting to spend more time with her Antipaxos family, and she thinks the time is right to introduce Laszlo. Unfortunately for her, Laszlo’s research prior to meeting them involves wearing anachronistic clothing, referring to them as “peasants” and other quotes that sum up Laszlo’s character, and singing anti-Antipaxos songs from their rivaling island, and the first encounter doesn’t go very well. When Laszlo decides to just be himself, it actually endears him to the community, and they embrace him as a physical manifestation of one of their oldest deities, who is similar to Bacchas.
2 Meeting The Supreme Council Of Energy Vampires
What We Do in the Shadows has always parsed out its vampire lore in bite-sized pieces that add to the world-building of the series, and Season 5 has included a lot more thanks to Guillermo becoming a fledgling vampire. But the greatest revelation of all has to be in Episode 4, when Colin Robin and his ex-girlfriend get kidnapped and brought before the Supreme Council of Energy Vampires. Watching Colin Robinson squirm as they read through a powerpoint presentation of over five hundred slides on proper energy vampire behavior just proves that when it comes to the different vampires, they might be the most powerful of all.
1 Colin Exposing Himself & Political Scandal Fallout
Even Colin Robinson, for whom the siren song of politics rings the loudest, cannot follow the edict of the Supreme Council of Energy Vampires when they decree that he has to win his campaign. His opponent will only cause chaos and disruption to their beloved bureaucracy, but when faced with actually winning over minds rather than sucking them dry, he comes up with a radical plan that he hopes will derail his political career. He decides to, while on a live Zoom with voters, expose his nether regions and suffer through a political scandal that will annihilate any chance of his success.
Whereas Nandor exposed himself in an effort to win over a friend, Colin did it to lose face in front of his delegation, and in the end, both of them learned a lesson in being careful about what they wished for. What We Do in the Shadows Season 5 continues to show that just because vampires have long lives, doesn’t mean that they take the lessons immortality grants them to heart. Episode 4 ends with some normalcy returning to their world as Nandor and Guillermo share a night out at the movies, though as usual, Guillermo’s observations are dismissed in favor of Nandor’s superiority.
