When in doubt, trust the process. Throughout the majority of season 4 of FX’s vampire mockumentary series What We Do in the Shadows, I’ve been waiting for that episode that was going to stand out for me in the season and be the one I think about long after the season has come to an end, and thankfully, I got that in season 4 episode 8, titled “Go Flip Yourself.”
In season 1, it was the episode that revealed that any actor who has played a vampire in a movie or television show is actually a vampire. In season 2, it’s obviously Jackie Daytona, leading up to the season 3 episode I will never stop thinking about, which is when Nandor is convinced he’s human again and is doing exercise while singing the Barenaked Ladies song “One Week” in ’80s workout gear. It’s a rite of passage for the show, and the season 4 choice was so perfectly set up that I will think about it for as long as I love this show (so, for the rest of time).
From the first episode of season 4, we’ve seen Laszlo (Matt Berry) in the house by himself, raising the being that climbed out of Colin Robinson. Whenever the child is sleeping, Laszlo is sitting on the couch and watching a home renovation show called Go Flip Yourself. A clear play on the Property Brothers, it features two twin brothers who make jokes at each other as they’re designing houses.
The bit alone would have been good given that home renovation shows are often a hilarious twist into DIY projects gone wrong, but it gave Laszlo a great bit of hilarity throughout the season, with his comments on how to fix something or the style in which something was made. What I didn’t expect was for the show to connect Go Flip Yourself so completely with the house, as well as the entire What We Do in the Shadows series as a whole.
**Spoilers for season 4 episode 8 “Go Flip Yourself” lie ahead.**
The payoff was worth it
Fans of the series may remember Nick Kroll’s Simon, the vampire our main characters were trying to team up with who was willing to do so if Laszlo gave up his witch-skin hat. We know that didn’t happen according to Simon’s plan, because while Laszlo initially gave the hat up, it ended up with Simon’s nightclub being blown up because, as Nadja continues to point out, the hat is cursed.
Flash forward to this episode, and the twins Toby and Bran Daltry are heading to the vampires’ house in Staten Island to fix it. Part of the appeal is that no one knows they’re coming, so it results in Nadja killing one of the twins, Laszlo instantly recognizing them, and our favorite vampires realizing they’re going to be on Go Flip Yourself. And the only one who seems to be a little concerned about this is Guillermo.
He keeps saying the exposure might be bad and that they shouldn’t do it, and as the construction is going on, everyone seems to get really excited about the possibility of what their house could be—and with Nandor’s man-cave, it looks really nice! But the reality is that the house is just the exact same (with the addition of some blankets and paintings) by the end, and when everyone starts to call it out, it’s revealed that Bran Daltry is actually Simon in disguise, ready to get his revenge (and the hat back).
It’s so funny in that they went through all this effort. Simon filmed 150 home renovations just to mess with them, and it resulted in nothing good happening to the house (with the exception of the new closet) and Simon going on to still film Go Flip Yourself and having the hat curse him in the same way yet again.
It’s perfect, hilarious, and exactly the kind of weird connection that makes this show so good!
(featured image: FX)
