What We Do in the Shadows – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

The Wind Beneath My Vampire Wings

What We Do In The Shadows is the gift that keeps on giving. After last week’s celeb-fest, our vampires return this week with a continuation of the overarching plot while revisiting some earlier narrative beats, helping to give the season a much more consistent vibe.

We begin this week with Nandor and the other vampires engaging in their usual weekly meeting. After repeating the house rules to the others, Nandor learns that his country no longer exists. Dissolved back in 1401, Nandor realizes he officially has no home. Thanks to a few encouraging words from Guillermo, Nandor sets out to become an American citizen while Nadja checks on the transformation of Jenna, the girl she turned into a vampire several episodes earlier.

Between interviews with Jenna and Nadja, our female vampire decides to take Jenna under her wing and teach her the ways of the vampire-kind, much to the disapproval of Guillermo. Nadja encourages Jenna to turn into a vampire bat and tries to discover what her secret power is. Several failed attempts later, Nadja realizes her apprentice needs to get some human blood down her so they head to a party to complete Jenna’s transformation. After a bit of coercion and a forcible push, Jenna discovers her special ability – invisibility.

While Jenna learns the way of seduction, Nandor gets to work on nailing his citizenship test. Dressed in a USA shirt, he turns up at the citizenship test and fails. Spectacularly. After getting every question wrong and replying with some pretty hilarious quips, he heads outside and bemoans his luck. Guillermo puts his foot down though and curses Nandor, explaining how lucky he is to be a creature of the night. With newfound courage, he takes off into the night leaving Guillermo behind.

Once again, What We Do In The Shadows continues to surprise and impress. The characterization is strong, with a good dose of lore and clever jokes peppered throughout the episode. There’s some cheeky remarks toward the ongoing gun licence issue here too that may ruffle a few feathers but generally works well within the context of the episode. Despite that, it’s hard to fault Shadows which delivers another very good 23 minutes of dramatic comedy.