What We Do in the Shadows Sees Major Twist and Usual Suspects Parody in Series Finale: How It Ended After 6 Seasons

This post contains spoilers from the What We Do in the Shadows series finale.

After six seasons, FX’s vampire mockumentary came to a fitting conclusion with a reflection on how nothing’s really changed for any of the main characters — Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Colin (Mark Proksch) and Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) — during that time, commentary on the perfect series finale with a nod to the Usual Suspects and a not-so-surprise twist that allowed for a poignant moment to bubble through the goofball mix of physical gags, recurring jokes and one-liners. 

After kicking off with confessionals seeing Colin and Laszlo detail plans to build a female companion for the newly-“horny” Cravensworth’s Monster (Andy Assaf) while Guillermo and Nandor discuss the logistics for the latter’s underground secret crime-fighting lair — both serving as setups for jokes to pay off later — the finale doesn’t waste too much time before getting into the plot twist. 

It’s quickly revealed that the documentary that these Staten Island residents have been filming for six years has abruptly come to an end, with the crew claiming that they have all the footage they need. While the four vampires (plus their Monster and the Guide, played by Kristen Schaal) are largely unfazed by the news, Guillermo starts to spiral, seemingly unable to accept that this is the end of everything he’s worked so hard for (under the watchful eye of the cameras).  

The only one to pick up on Guillermo’s emotional distress is Nadja, whose rise and fall as a Wall Street employee has taught her more about the human condition, prompting her to take action. Knowing how much Nandor means to Guillermo — sadly, the will they/won’t they of the series never gets fully addressed here — Nadja convinces him to comfort his familiar. 

Also sensing his distress as an energy vampire, Colin jumps in with some various phrases of comfort, starting with a coffee cup favorite often misattributed to Dr. Seuss: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” He then follows up with a Maya Angelou line, “It’s not the number of breaths we take, but the number of moments that take our breath away,” before dropping another from St. Elmo’s Fire: “We laughed until we had to cry. We loved right down to our last goodbye. We were the best.”

After those hilarious line reads, Nandor calls a house meeting to discuss why Guillermo is so upset by the documentary ending. This prompts everyone to offer their take, with Laszlo accusing him of being addicted to the limelight, the Guide suggesting he’s worried he won’t be able to steal food from the crew’s snack table and Colin claiming he’s distraught over having to end his secret affair with 1) Nate the boom operator or 2) Greg the A-camera operator. 

It is Nadja who jumps in to suggest that Guillermo is worried that he hasn’t grown or changed in any way over the past six years — despite even becoming a vampire (and then not again) in season 5. 

However, before they can unpack this information too much, the roommates reveal to Guillermo that this isn’t even the first time they’ve filmed a documentary. In fact, the first was captured in 1958 and sees them doing much of the same things that we’re doing now. 

Guillermo then sees this as an opportunity to rewrite the past and offer a new perspective about them all. He even insists they need a worthwhile ending to their documentary, prompting meta jokes about the pressures of a perfect ending that often plague so many TV shows in real life. (See Lost and The Sopranos as recent examples.) The show even acknowledges that Guillermo’s short-lived arc as the undead the season prior was a natural conclusion, with one of them quipping they should have stopped filming then. 

This all eventually leads the group to discuss lessons they’ve learned — for Laszlo it’s lots of sex and laughs, for the Guide it’s a diatribe about immigration, etc. — before Nadja offers to hypnotize the entire audience into seeing their own perfect ending. That’s when the series briefly switches formats to show Colin at the center of an Usual Suspects parody, with the show recreating the final sequence as the police piece all the clues together.

However, it’s not the real end of the series, with the episode returning back to the house as the vampires continue to wax poetic about life. Colin offers a message about chosen families, Nandor notes that the only thing missing in his life was the previously mentioned crime lair and Guillermo reflects on his decision to become a vampire and then human again while realizing that he was sticking around because he was chasing a dream that he didn’t want. (This is all soundtracked by the Monster’s having sex with a taxidermy bear in the background.) 

With the episode quickly coming to an end, the show hits harder on the poignant notes as Laszlo leads a singalong of Guy Lombardo’s “We’ll Meet Again” while Guillermo tells Nandor that this is his final night in the house, revealing it’s time for him to move on. 

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

After the two share a sweet moment, Guillermo closes the coffin and walks out the door while the documentary crew quickly gets to work cleaning up their set. But the moment is interrupted by Guillermo who comes back in and opens Nandor’s coffin to note that they gave the documentary the ending they wanted — and the two agree they can be friends moving forward. 

But before Guillermo leaves for good, Nandor offers him a seat in his coffin, which unexpectedly is revealed to be the secret entrance to the underground crime-fighting lair much to the former familiar’s delight and surprise. 

After the credits begin to roll, the series fittingly ends with a clip of the roommates watching a rough cut of the docuseries and all of them seemingly bored by what they’re seeing before turning it off. Womp womp.