What We Do in the Shadows New Roommate Changes Everything About the Show

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Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for What We Do in the Shadows Season 6.

Everyone's favorite vampire comedy on television, What We Do in the Shadows, is officially back. Sadly, it's returning for its sixth and final season, but that also means that the show is pulling out all the stops. There's one major change from previous seasons: after many years as Nandor's (Kayvan Novak) familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) has left the position. Although Guillermo spent all of Season 5 hiding the fact that he had started his transformation into a vampire, the season ends with an intense confrontation between him and Nandor — culminating in Guillermo ultimately becoming a vampire before reversing the process when he realizes that it's not the right decision.

Now, with Guillermo no longer wanting to become a vampire, he has no reason to be a familiar anymore. Of course, the change in position leaves him struggling financially, so he is living in the vampires' garden shed now. This change has really shaken up the house as of the Season 6 premiere, "The Return of Jerry," in which Guillermo's absence gets the vampires reminiscing about their former roommate. Jerry (Mike O'Brien) first entered a super slumber back in 1976, and the vampires accidentally left him asleep for much longer than he had planned. They all remember Jerry as the perfect roommate, so they wake him up again. Jerry ends up messing up the group dynamic in ways that are so far lingering over the rest of the season.

What Happens in the 'What We Do in the Shadows' Season 6 Premiere?

As Guillermo points out in "The Return of Jerry," Nandor, Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin (Mark Proksch) have been living together for centuries. Adding a new person (or vampire) to that dynamic will inevitably mess with things. The reason that Guillermo fit in with them so seamlessly was that he put their needs above his own for the whole time that he was Nandor's familiar. When Jerry comes back, he immediately starts unraveling the current group dynamic. He points out that when he was last awake, Nadja and Laszlo were in such a massive fight that they had not spoken to each other in five or six years. This, of course, gets the two fighting again about the idea of Nadja getting a job where she's working among humans.

Meanwhile, Jerry criticizes Nandor for not being ruthless enough, and Laszlo for not dedicating himself to becoming the real-life version of Dr. Frankenstein anymore. Colin remembers Jerry as the only person who was ever nice to him, but Jerry does not remember Colin at all. Thus, Jerry brings out all of the vampires' biggest insecurities, functioning as a sort of anti-Guillermo. The new (or old) roommate's effect lingers over the next two episodes of Season 6, even after Guillermo fixes things by sending Jerry off to help The Guide (Kristen Schaal).

What We Do in the Shadows Season 6 poster

Jerry's Impact Continues to Affect 'What We Do in the Shadows' Season 6

Even though he moves out of the house by the end of the Season 6 premiere, Jerry's words seem to have really affected the vampires. The next two episodes show Nadja going back to work by following Guillermo to his new job, and Laszlo killing a man for the sole purpose of trying to bring him back from the dead. Compared to them, however, Colin's loneliness begins to take center stage. While this vampire literally feeds by sucking the energy out of everyone around him, Season 6 reveals the other side of that, which is how often Colin is left feeling completely and utterly alone. It's a gut-wrenching and fascinating arc that feels very fitting for the final season of the show, but it might not have been set into motion without Jerry's return.

Meanwhile, as Guillermo thrives on his own with a new job and an identity outside of Nandor, Nandor is left grieving his former familiar's absence and trying to sort out his complicated feelings for Guillermo. Instead of approaching Jerry's words by trying to be more relentless, Nandor defaults to Guillermo's way of handling the situation. In the third episode of What We Do in the Shadows Season 6, "Sleep Hypnosis," everybody in the house gets hypnotized at one point, which leads to a very fascinating scene where a clear-headed Nandor interviews a hypnotized Guillermo for the position of his familiar. It seems to be a moment of realization for Nandor, as he sees how much his relationship with Guillermo has changed after years of taking him for granted. It is a refreshing and compelling turn to see the roles reversed between these two in the show's final season — but it also remains to be seen how their dynamic will continue to evolve now that Guillermo is no longer taking orders.

What We Do in the Shadows Season 6 airs on FX every Monday night, and is available to stream the next day on Hulu.