Recap / What We Do In The Shadows S 1 E 7 The Trial

Season 1, Episode 7

The Trial

The main trio must stand trial before an international tribunal of vampires for what they did in the previous episode.

Tropes That Appear In This Episode:

• Actor Allusion: Aside from the Vampiric Council themselves all being cast for this reason, Garrett (Dave Bautista)'s description of how he plans to take vengeance against the real vampire whose crimes he's taken the fall for sound very reminiscent of Drax the Destroyer.
  Garrett: If I ever find out who did it, I will take a dagger... and stab them 5,000 times, with this hand, then switch hands, and stab them another 5,000 times!
• Actually, I Am Him: Garrett animatedly discusses the ways he would harm the vampire who framed him for baby-siring. He does this in front of Laszlo, the guilty party.
  Garrett: I can fill up this book with the ways I would torture that vampire.
  Laszlo: Wouldn't want to be him...
• Affably Evil: While the Tribunal are all vampires who are willing to execute Laszlo, Nadja, and Nandor for the Baron's death (even though none of them are all that beat up over the Baron being gone), they all come across as being camp in varying degrees.
• Bait-and-Switch: We see the well, hear screams, and see three charred skeletons... then Laszlo, Nandor, and Nadja are standing in the darkened part of the well, noting "That's just macabre."
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Laszlo confesses to having been Jack the Ripper.
• Brick Joke: Laszlo mentions that he turned a baby into a vampire, which nearly landed him in hot water with the Vampiric Council. Near the end, when the council condemns the three vampires to death by sunlight for killing the Baron, a vampire baby is one of the council members calling for their death.
• Call-Back:
  • Deacon gets to do his erotic dance before the trial— and nobody interrupts him this time!
  • The "familiar lounge" of the Vampiric Council themselves is a major upgrade from the one in "Manhattan Night Club"... in that it's a similar dingy bare basement room, but at least this one has a small water cooler, a cheap plate of vegetables and cheese cubes, and some folding chairs (which are all already occupied when Guillermo arrives).
  • The basement corridor follows fire code, unlike the house in the original movie.
• The Cameo:
  • Kristen Schaal as the tribunal's messenger.
  • Dave Bautista as Garrett.
• Cameo Cluster: Nearly every member of the tribunal is a big-name actor who's played a vampire (or a half one). The members include Viago, Deacon, and Vladislav (Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement and Jonny Brugh from the original What We Do in the Shadows), Tilda (Tilda Swinton, who was in Only Lovers Left Alive), Evan, Princess of the Undead (Evan Rachel Wood, who was in True Blood), Danny (Danny Trejo, who was in From Dusk Till Dawn), Paul (Paul Reubens, who was in Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Wesley the Daywalker (Wesley Snipes, who was in Blade). Other members who are mentioned but not seen include "Brad" and "Tom" (Interview with the Vampire), "Kiefer" (The Lost Boys), and "Robert" (Twilight).
• Cassandra Truth: Guillermo explains to the Vampiric Council how he killed the Baron. Nobody on the Council believes him (presumably barring Colin Robinson, who saw the whole thing), because they won't believe that somebody as meek and unintimidating as Guillermo could do such a thing.
• Crossover: With the original film.
• Council of Vampires: The International Tribunal of Vampires.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Lazlo insists that they did not "discuss" murdering the Baron, they "floated" the idea of murdering him. Vladislav points out that "floating around" the idea of killing someone and "plotting" their death are "very similar" concepts.
• Endless Corridor: Nadja asks the messenger if they're walking through one of these, only to be corrected that it's "just a freaky long hallway".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Siring a baby is considered a serious crime among vampires, Laszlo getting away with it (only doing it because he was bored) because a different vampire took the blame instead.
• Extra-Strength Masquerade: The tribunal's messenger adds a sign to the floor plan of a civic building in New York saying "Basement: Vampire Tribunal" and no one bats an eye.
• For the Evulz: The reason Laszlo turned the baby.
• The Friend Nobody Likes:
  • Wesley (who has to call in via Skype) is hated by every other member of the tribunal for being a Vampire Hunter and a Dhampir.
  • The Tribunal has no lost love for the Baron, everyone commenting that he was a psychotic weirdo even by their standards and only going through with the trial and execution because it's the law.
• Gone Horribly Right: Guillermo is cornered by a vampire trying to feed on him, and pulls a crucifix. The vampire recoils in horror, accidentally staking himself. Guillermo panics at accidentally killing a second vampire in 24 hours.
• Heroic BSoD: Guillermo is traumatized over having killed the Baron, to the point where he has a guilt-induced anxiety attack when he harms another vampire in self-defense.
• Hollywood Torches: The vampire tribunal is lit by spooky flickering torches. They're LED's. The fire-marshal would have had a field day otherwise.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Wesley apparently lets it go when the other Council members insult him for being a bastard half-vampire and being a traitor to his own kind, but gets very heated when they start criticizing him for having crappy wi-fi making his Skype stream constantly glitch, insisting that it's not his wi-fi (he seems to be in a hotel room) and "I got the best wi-fi!" (To be fair, he probably didn't even hear the other insults, because of, you know, the bad wi-fi.)
• Just the First Citizen: Tilda has no special title compared to any other Council member, but Viago informs us that she's "pretty much our leader, makes all the big decisions".
• Large Ham:
  • The Tribunal's messenger.
    Messenger: We sent ravens. We sent FIVE-HUNDRED RAVENS!!!
  • Paul likes Chewing the Scenery whenever the camera is on him.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the Vampiric Council discusses who couldn't make it, it's mentioned that Brad and Tom weren't interested, Kiefer wanted to come but scheduling commitments got in the way, and Robert wanted to put this business all behind him. Behind the scenes, all four actors were asked by the showrunners if they wanted to guest star and said no for the aforementioned reasons. Danny then comments that they aren't as committed as the present members are to Vampiric Council business, which can easily be read as ribbing on how the actors cameoing are committing to the joke of being actors who are vampires that have played vampires on-screen.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Emphasis on the "mundane" part: Colin Robinson uses a patio umbrella to save Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo— and feeds on them by discussing the means by which he got it.
• No OSHA Compliance: Subverted. Guillermo believes that a torch could warm him up, but the messenger explains that the council had to use LED lights for their hallways because otherwise fire marshals would've litigated them for having so many torches in the basement.
• Offscreen Teleportation: How the tribunal messenger moves in the building. Nadja keeps commenting on how impressive it looks.
• Pet the Dog: Nandor defends Guillermo in front of the Council.
• Punch-Clock Villain: No one on the Vampiric Council is bothered by the Baron's death (aside from Deacon, perhaps), but they are legally bound to exact punishment for it anyway.
• Rule of Cool: The vampire tribunal has flickering LED torches, a crazy long corridor leading to it, and a spooky choreographed dance number to open it. The tribunal messenger points out that this is all more or less just because it looks cool.
• The Scapegoat: Everyone assumes that Guillermo is just a loyal familiar who's taking the blame for his master's actions with his ridiculously unlikely story of how he killed the Baron by accident (which is, of course, a Cassandra Truth), but ended up perfectly willing to accept it anyway, since killing and draining a familiar is no big deal and they were all already hungry for lunch. Nandor surprises everyone by intervening and making himself The Scapegoat to save Guillermo, dooming himself and his roommates to the grisly execution that the Council was hoping to avoid.
• The Silent Bob: The gang is thrown when the Baron's familiar reveals that she can not only talk, but in perfect English, to make them look worse.
• Spanner in the Works: Throwing the vampires in the well would have killed them... had Colin Robinson not come by with a huge umbrella.
• There Was a Door: Nandor is annoyed that the council sent 500 ravens when they have a phone and could have just called.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • Colin Robinson is temporarily made a member of the Council's tribunal, since their law apparently stipulates that the tribunal must have a representative from the local vampire community. He makes it pretty clear that he's helpless to influence their vote for execution, although he does end up coming through and rescuing our protagonists by showing up in daylight with an umbrella.
  • Wesley the Daywalker is also vaguely hinted to be one of these, since — in an obvious reference to Blade — he's said to be a "half-vampire" and a "vampire hunter", and one who barely seems to even know what's going on in the trial.
• Too Dumb to Live: The three Household vampires are on trial for a capitol crime they know they (probably) didn't commit. They are constantly followed around by a film crew. They don't think to ask to see the footage of the crime that would instantly exonerate them. Colin Robinson even points out that some of the crew are trapped with the vampire council.
• True Companions: Colin Robinson and the nightwalkers may have a vitriolic relationship with each other, but when the latter are in mortal danger, the former comes in and saves them.
• Voice of the Legion: Appears to be one of Evan's special powers.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: The vampires consumed so much alcohol- and drug-tainted blood on their night out that they genuinely don't remember whether they really killed the Baron or not.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Nadja still chastises Laszlo for turning a baby 90 years ago.
• Would Hurt a Child: Laszlo. In fairness, he was bored.