#greg smith

𝗘𝗟𝗦𝗜𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗔WAY : 𝘋𝘐𝘈𝘕𝘈 𝘚𝘐𝘓𝘝𝘌𝘙𝘚

𝗝𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗛-𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡𝗘𝗥 ( 𝗝𝗔𝗖𝗞 ): 𝘗𝘌𝘋𝘙𝘖 𝘕𝘖𝘝𝘈𝘌𝘚

𝗚𝗘𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗔 𝗦𝗘𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗩𝗘𝗗𝗔: 𝘈𝘠𝘖 𝘌𝘋𝘌𝘉𝘐𝘙𝘐

𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗚 𝗦𝗠𝗜𝗧𝗛: 𝘖𝘞𝘌𝘕 𝘛𝘌𝘈𝘎𝘌

𝗖𝗘𝗖𝗘: 𝘑𝘌𝘚𝘚𝘐𝘌 𝘔𝘌𝘐 𝘓𝘐

𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗡𝗧 : 𝘏𝘖𝘓𝘓𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘛𝘈𝘠𝘓𝘖𝘙

𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗔 : 𝘌𝘚𝘚𝘐𝘌 𝘋𝘈𝘝𝘐𝘚

𝗗𝗥. 𝗟: 𝘎𝘈𝘌𝘓 𝘎𝘈𝘙𝘊Í𝘈 𝘉𝘌𝘙𝘕𝘈𝘓

𝗦𝗔𝗦𝗛𝗔 𝗩𝗢𝗟𝗞𝗢𝗩: 𝘚𝘞𝘈𝘕𝘕 𝘈𝘙𝘓𝘈𝘜𝘋

Zoey Deutsch as Elsie Hannaway

Justin Hartley as Jack Smith-Turner

Anya Taylor-Joy as Cece (I know it’s unrealistic)

Adam DiMarco as Greg Smith

Rosario Dawson as George Sepulveda

Betty White as Millicent Smith (I understand it’s impossible but this was my only mental image. Well, Betty and Carrie Fisher)

Matt LeBlanc as Christophe Laurandeau

"The Finale" of What We Do in the Shadows, in its OG or 'sacred timeline' if you will, ends with Nandor not only assuring Guillermo that he has a place with the vampires (with him) regardless of his mortal status which is in line with Nandor's established love languages; and then, he invites Guillermo to sit in his coffin with him the way a couple might occupy a two-seater sweetheart sofa, and surprises him with the secret superhero lair that nobody thought he was serious about (one of the most delightful recurring tropes of the show imo). Even more obvious is the alternate universe ending supplied helpfully by Nadja's vampire hypnosis wherein a human Guillermo and Nandor are incontrovertibly gay married and in bed together. By all accounts, Nandermo is canon and married and a couple, et cetera, ad nauseum.

Still, for all of the quiet, soft moments between them across the past six seasons + all of their homoerotic fighting and such, it surprised me that the show sort of failed to "stick the landing," as Colin Robinson offers. I doubt anyone expected the flagrant homosexual dance between Blackbeard and Steed in Our Flag Means Death to be so romantically and exquisitely realized, and perhaps this set an impossible standard, but I can't help but wonder what ultimately accounted for the decision to soft shoe Nandermo into "The Finale" vs. allowing them to finally kiss and be married and co-plan the next Staten Island vampire orgy (because somehow they'd figure out how to make it work for Guillermo to be a vampire); essentially all of the 'boring' hallmarks that the final episode intentionally catalogued through meta fourth wall-breaking and that whose absence makes the cheeky nature of said cataloging kind of feel like whomever made the call to end the show as such is laughing at vs. with the fans.

Alas, "The Finale" feels a tad mean compared to the way similar OTP ships are dealt with in Taika media, and maybe it's simply that he wasn't directly involved and Paul Simms was feeling hounded and peckish. Given how antagonistic much of fandom's one-sided parasocial relationship with media makers can be - and unfortunately, be it borne from immaturity or malice or desperation to see a much-loved concept be realized, this is a huge issue among some Shadows fen - I wouldn't blame the writer(s) for going into "The Finale" at least somewhat embittered. Even so, I can't help but read some compromise and disappointment between the lines of a recent interview with Harvey Guillen regarding how Nandermo ends up:

I think that, for the longest time, when I started playing Guillermo, that was the idea behind the character was like, "Are they, will they, does he?" And I think, because they have a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome, you start feeling a little bit of a way, because the only thing you see in front of you becomes like this person you idolize. He really does idolize Nandor, and he really does want to be a great vampire like him one day. And I think, sometimes, those lines can get blurry. So, the way that Guillermo is, I always say, I walk him on a tightrope, and it's like if he falls one way, he could be in love, and if he falls the other way, it was admiration, it was just admiration for this person. And that's a nice tight rope, because it's such a balance that people are always asking, "Will they, won't they?" I think sometimes we have to normalize two male friends being really close and not making it sexual. I think that we don't do that in society. If we saw two best friends who are female holding hands on the playground, we'd be like, "Oh, my God, they're best friends." But if we see two boys holding hands on the playground, all of a sudden, "What are you guys doing? What are you guys doing? Separate them." Because that's not normal in society, that's not "normal," but it is, and it should be normalized, that we can have close friends and not be sexual, it doesn't have to be. We could have close, same-sex friends and do everything like in a relationship, go to movies, talk about your personal beliefs, your struggles, your life, crying on each other's shoulders, and not have to make it sexual. Because I think once we cross that line, people are like, "Well, you might as well be married, why don't you marry them?" And it's like, you don't have to marry them, you could be in love and have love for someone and not have to make it sexual. I think with these characters, we've done a really great job of keeping the audience on their toes of that. Now, will something happen this season that questions that even more, or makes them one way or the other? I guess you'll have to find out.

TL;DR: Optimistically, my 'ideal' ending that I've had lodged in my head for at least three seasons was not, in fact, realized on the small screen, and thus, I shall see you all over at AO3 and/or lurking in the show's Tumblr tags!

2018 Music On Vinyl Reissue