What we do in the Shadows series finale turns a main character into Batman

Spoilers forward for the end of “What We Do In the Shadows.”

“What We Do In the Shadows” is one of the best TV comedies in recent years and an all-time great TV show based on a movie. For six seasons, it gave us delicious, strange, and horny stories that examined the dull immobility of immortality and drew comedy from the fact that the series’ centuries-old vampires are so carefree about their existence that they basically waste their lives. oblivious to everything that happens beyond their home and without interest in anyone but themselves. In a sense, it’s anti-“Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End,” because instead of looking at the fleeting nature of time and finding melancholy in it like the anime does, “What We Do In the Shadows” simply has its cast of Los Lovable buffoons willingly ignore all that.

This does not mean that the characters are totally and absolutely static. Sure, the show brilliantly combines the lack of change inherent in comedy with the immortal nature of its main characters, but even if they try to deny it, the vampires of Staten Island have changed, even if just a little. Laszlo (Matt Berry) comes to care about his neighbor Sean (Anthony Atamanuik) over the course of the show, and becomes warmer and more patient with Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) after he raises him as a baby for a season. Likewise, Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak) comes to see his ex-relative Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) as a friend rather than an employee (and even if he fails often, he’s learning to be better).

Nowhere is this clearer than in the series finale, which, among several fun endings, has Nandor find a new purpose in the afterlife. After performing a good deed for once and realizing he likes the feeling in the penultimate episode, Nandor spends the finale thinking about a career change to become a crime-fighting vigilante. He even offers Guillermo the role of his partner. That’s right, Nandor wants to become Batman, and when Guillermo immediately points out the resemblance, Nandor is unaware of the existence of another Bat-themed caped crusader with a secret lair beneath his mansion.

Somehow, despite never having heard of Batman or having any idea what a superhero is, Nandor nails every part of the Caped Crusader’s aesthetic. He comes up with a plan of his secret lair in a cave beneath the house, which can only be accessed by an elevator connected to his coffin. He also wants a supercomputer and a costume complete with a cape and mask.

Sure, it’s a funny joke, especially since Nandor spends the entire finale trying to convince Guillermo that their crime-fighting partnership would be equals, right before asking him to design the entire Batcave and elevator on his own. Still, what makes the plot work is that it is Nandor, the former supreme viceroy of Al Qolnidar and fierce general of the Ottoman army, who wants to start doing good deeds.

Of course, only a guy whose specialties are violence and extravagant clothing would think of the life of a superhero like Batman as a way to deliver justice. As Nandor says, he’ll already be killing people due to his vampiric nature, so why not make sure he kills the right people? Of course, he won’t choose a name as obvious as Batman, but rather “The Phantom Menace”, much more available and copyright-free as his nickname.

The icing on the cake of this hilariously delirious story comes at the end of the final episode, where Nandor invites Guillermo to his coffin for a heart-to-heart, only to pull a lever and reveal that he actually built the secret elevator to his new lair to fight crime. It turns out that Nandor had been working on the mechanism for a while without relying on Guillermo to do it for him. We don’t know what the future holds for the vampires of Staten Island (and Guillermo), but hopefully there will be some adventures fighting bad guys for The Phantom Menace and Kid Cowboy.

“What We Do in the Shadows” is now streaming in its entirety on Hulu.