At the top of the fifth season’s premiere episode, “The Mall”—where you guessed it, the vampires go to the mall for the first time and get into wacky hijinks, something that it’s hard to believe didn’t happen before now—Guillermo did the deed but the stakes (pun intended) are dire and unexpected.
A few weeks following the incident—framed hilariously in signature gory/quirky fashion—Guillermo’s behavior changes around the house. He’s slightly more aggressive and confident but tries to keep his secret confidential. Bothered that the vampires have been more careless in keeping their identity hidden than usual, Nandor suspects his attitude is due to them forgetting his birthday; meanwhile, Laszlo presumes something else. At a birthday dinner, the vamps reveal that to be turned by another is the highest dishonor a master can have. And, of course, like most things ever established in the series’ Vampiric rubric, the consequence is death.
Guillermo’s predicament is where “WWDITS”’s latest season comes alive. Interwoven cleverly as B-plots in each episode, the former vampire slayer’s long-anticipated transformation journey features some of the most hilarious horror-comedy writing the series offers. The writing team have always had an “anything goes” nonchalant approach to rule-setting and worldbuilding. Still, they raise the stakes here with Guillermo’s process, which is taking longer than usual compared to other vampire peers, leading to great gut-busting body horror.
As briefly shown in the season’s trailer (so it’s not a spoiler), Laszlo soon gets involved in Guillermo’s plight, and surprisingly, it offers a fun, enticing character-clashing dynamic between them. While character growth for these literal ageless vampires is negligible to nonexistent—like the other FXX ensemble in the “It’s Always Sunny” crew—it’s always heartening to witness the characters show some care when push comes to shove. Plus, it gives Laszlo new activity following his fatherhood era with Baby Collin cut short.