S02.E04: The Curse

[formerlyfreedom]

While the vampires fear they've been electronically cursed, Guillermo tries to thwart a deadly threat to his masters.

Airing Wednesday, April 29, 2020.

[peridot]

Tonight had some creepy moments!  The 70s vampires were bizarre and hilarious. 

I laughed when Guillermo ended up throwing the lady out the window, and the "oh shit" moment of the camera guy.

It's weird to think of any of the vampires having an email account.  I half expected for the joke to be the chain email was sent in 2009, as well.

[Blakeston]

The effects used to depict the creepy twins appearing in the background were genuinely terrifying.

It's the first thing on the show that creeped me out as much as the chase sequence in the movie when they hunt down their prey at that dinner party.

[LittleIggy]

Has anyone tried emailing Colin Robinson? If I had written down his addy, I would have. That episode was hysterical as usual. Nandor telling Guillermo to get Tide on the Go pens cracked me up for some reason. Then he got more change back. The curse was lifted! 😆 Good to see the haunted doll back. Poor Derek. Died a virgin. Wonder if he was turned? 🤨

[voiceover]

IIRC, it's> travelbug54@aol.com

So I wonder how long they'll be splitting the plot -- Gizmo & hunters/the vamps.  

I thought it was sweet when Nandor wanted Guillermo to sit with him.  And as ever, Nadja wins Line of the Night ("Laszlo, your forearm is not curse-proof!").

I'll confess it here: this series has been the first thing to make me happy since Quarantine.

Edited April 30, 2020 by voiceover

[Vermicious Knid]

When I read the description I figured it was going to be one of those chain emails. And wasn't it from 2009 or thereabouts? It was right after the Blind Side invitation. I've always found it entertaining that in the 21st century emails systems have a mailer daemon.

I knew the people in the house were going to be something not human, but I thought they would go with another type of supernatural. Stuck in the 70s Vampire Nest was pretty funny though. Guillermo kicked ass while everyone else was flailing around. Was that the first time we actually saw the camera crew?

[gatopretoNYC]

"Unforeseen riches!" 

Fantastic episode. This new season is gold, Jerry. Gold!

[ItCouldBeWorse]

2 hours ago, voiceover said:

So I wonder how long they'll be splitting the plot -- Gizmo & hunters/the vamps.

Oh, I think the other hunters are done hunting. RIP Derek.

1 hour ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Was that the first time we actually saw the camera crew?

Two of them were left behind in the pit after the vampire trial. I think we saw them then.

I know that it's possible that Nandor would still be able to read his native language but not understand more than a spoken phrase or two, but it did take me out of the episode a bit.

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by ItCouldBeWorse

[Bort]

3 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I know that it's possible that Nandor would still be able to read his native language but not understand more than a spoken phrase or two, but it did take me out of the episode a bit.

Oh, I totally buy that. At work, I have to go through aircraft records and a lot of our aircraft spent time being leased to Brazil and I had to learn to read Portuguese. I can’t speak it, I can’t understand it if spoken to me, I can’t write it myself (because I don’t know how to conjugate). But I can read it.

[teddysmom]

8 hours ago, Vermicious Knid said:

I've always found it entertaining that in the 21st century emails systems have a mailer daemon.

I have to send out over 300 emails regularly to all the local real estate brokers regarding vacancies in our business parks, mailer-daemon has been haunting me for years.  Our leasing agent gets angry if the brokers don't get the email, and I have given up explaining to her that their corporate servers have spam blockers and I have no magical power to change that. 

 

3 hours ago, kariyaki said:

But I can read it.

Same here. I can read some Spanish & French, but I can't speak it. 

The energy vampire here at my office tells me he's learning Spanish by watching Telemundo.

Where's Bloody Mary when you need her? 

[Bruinsfan]

It was hilarious, but you'd think at least Nadja would be more an expert on when curses are real and when they're BS. We have seen an ACTUAL curse in action on the show with that witch's hat, after all.

The night raid on the creepy house full of homeschool vampires was amazing!

[iMonrey]

Quote

Was that the first time we actually saw the camera crew?

The Master killed one of the sound guys back in Season 1.

How does this show keep getting better? It's weird because I thought the joke sort of wore thin after about 20 minutes into the movie but the TV series is really firing on all cylinders. I don't know, maybe the premise is just better suited to a half hour show.

The whole idea of the vampires thinking they're cursed from a chain e-mail just cracks me up to no end. And that Nandor and Colin Robinson both have AOL accounts. "What is the shortcut for arise? CTRL+ALT+7?" Yes I can totally buy them believing it's a real curse. It's not a joke, it says so three times!

It's actually lucky the house the vampire hunters broke into was a vampire house because otherwise, Guillermo was right - they'd be arrested for breaking and entering. Clearly these idiots have no idea what they're tangling with.

Did we notice before that Nando's coffin is fur lined? It actually looks super comfy! The lid has pillow cushions and the bed is lined with what looks like either fox or rabbit fur. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

5 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Oh, I totally buy that. At work, I have to go through aircraft records and a lot of our aircraft spent time being leased to Brazil and I had to learn to read Portuguese. I can’t speak it, I can’t understand it if spoken to me, I can’t write it myself (because I don’t know how to conjugate). But I can read it.

I feel it might be somewhat different if Portuguese had been your native language versus a language that you never learned to speak, only read,

I guess Nandor dreams in English, if vampires dream.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I know that it's possible that Nandor would still be able to read his native language but not understand more than a spoken phrase or two, but it did take me out of the episode a bit.

It's quite possible that Nandor simply remembers what the letters say without actually being able to read them anymore. He's had them for thousands of years, no doubt he has most of them memorized. No need to know how to read Al Quolanudarian anymore.

[Iguana]

This is one of the few shows that can reliably make me laugh out loud when I watch it.  But I don't just like it because it's funny, because I love the characters and their interactions.  The frantic antics of the 3 vampires trying to get email addresses, freaking out when the phone rang, and slowly being drained by Colin Robinson's droning on was slapstick at it's finest.  And Guillermo taking on the house of '70's vamps was a quality action sequence that I wouldn't have expect to see in a half hour comedy.  Loved the vampire's costumes and the disco music soundtrack.  Based on his expressions when tucking Nandor into his coffin for the day, I think Guillermo is getting very close to a breaking/decision point about how long he will be willing to stay a familiar.

[kieyra]

Ha. When the phone rings and they all freak out, Lazslo calls it “the clanging chimes of doom”. Then the last person they emailed was “Sir Bob Geldof”. 

[MisterGlass]

I was suspicious that all the photos were from the 70s, but did not expect how awesomely nuts that was going to get!  Whoever directed this did a fantastic job of building up to the climax in the attic.  Amazing sequence.  The final trifecta of Guillermo flipping off the vampires, diving backward out the window, and the camera crew having to run for it was great action and great laughs.

Guillermo really stepped up and saved the amateurs.  He's on the verge of being their mentor instead of their saboteur.  I mean, he was a short John Wick with stakes.

I have to think the hunter they lost is going to come back as a vamp.  I really want to see that confrontation.

I always forget that of all the vampires, Colin Robinson is the one who comes closest to living in a dungeon.  My favorite joke about the curse was how excited (for him) he was about forwarding it to all his co-workers.

If they put out a soundtrack for this show I might buy it.  Whoever picks their music is so clever.

ETA:

6 hours ago, iMonrey said:

He's had them for thousands of years, no doubt he has most of them memorized. No need to know how to read Al Quolanudarian anymore.

This is a good point.  I thought initially he must have read it because he opened that one letter for the first time about the enemy general asking for peace, but maybe it was in a different language that he does remember.

Edited May 1, 2020 by MisterGlass
Addition

[pasdetrois]

I think we saw an homage to classic horror shows - The Shining (creepy twin girls), The Exorcist (body being flung against wall), The Walking Dead ...too many for me to catch them.

Guillermo and his Tide pen. Funny.

Edited May 1, 2020 by pasdetrois

[LittleIggy]

Nandor and the Baskin-Robbins coupon was sweet.

[CletusMusashi]

On 4/30/2020 at 9:44 AM, teddysmom said:

Where's Bloody Mary when you need her? 

Last I saw, she was on a supernatural Hulu sitcom called "Deadbeat."

I recommend the first two seasons highly. The third, not so much.

On 4/30/2020 at 11:52 AM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I guess Nandor dreams in English, if vampires dream.

All vampires dream in English, although it is often broken and heavily accented.

That's why if they get reanimated after thousands of years they can still communicate.

[Cherpumple]

On 4/30/2020 at 12:34 AM, voiceover said:

I'll confess it here: this series has been the first thing to make me happy since Quarantine.

Same here. This show has been EXACTLY what I needed right now. It's engaging, it's hilarious, and there's not a weak link in the cast. Amazing. It's probably the only show I watch at the moment without having a phone or a crafting project in my hand, because I don't want to miss a thing. Even little details, like watching Nandor's hand positions as he types on the laptop, have me laughing out loud.

I loved the 70s vampire den, but really wanted to get a closer look at all the pictures on the walls. The few glimpses we saw looked awesome. Maybe we'll get to see the house again, if word gets out about what happened there. And it was oddly sweet that Nandor wanted Gizmo to stay with him until he fell asleep. It made me want to give him a big hug and a kiss on the forehead. Damn, I love this show!

[yourmomiseasy]

On 4/29/2020 at 10:48 PM, Vermicious Knid said:

When I read the description I figured it was going to be one of those chain emails. And wasn't it from 2009 or thereabouts? It was right after the Blind Side invitation. I've always found it entertaining that in the 21st century emails systems have a mailer daemon.

Not to be a Colin Robinson, but it's not just email that have daemons.  It's just a background process that sits and runs.  This is all super simplified, but...  Most web servers are running on a process called httpd (the d means its a daemon).  Chrond is the daemon for chrontab -- you schedule chron jobs and chrond sits there and runs them when it is time.  Ftpd needs to be running if you want to ftp.  If you want to ssh you need the ssh daemon running.  Syslogd is the system logging daemon.  Ntpd (network time protocol daemon) makes sure the system clock is correct.  Fingerd lets you finger someone, but I'm not sure there's a lot of that going on anymore -- I don't think I've fingered anyone since the 90s.  It goes on and on.  It's from the ancient Greek meaning of daemon which were just invisible things that toiled in the background, not the Christian meaning of demon.  On Windows they are called services.  I'm not sure what they are called on Macs. 

[kieyra]

7 hours ago, CletusMusashi said:

All vampires dream in English, although it is often broken and heavily accented.

That's why if they get reanimated after thousands of years they can still communicate.

Also important for flashback sequences.

[teddysmom]

16 hours ago, Iguana said:

This is one of the few shows that can reliably make me laugh out loud when I watch it.  But I don't just like it because it's funny, because I love the characters and their interactions.  The frantic antics of the 3 vampires trying to get email addresses, freaking out when the phone rang,

I watched it a second time this morning and laughed as much as I did the first time. 

Esp when the phone rang "the clanging bells of doom" and Guillermo is warning them to get out of the house or they'll all be killed on the answering machine, and they think it's the curse. 

Also, Derek, in the middle of a vampire hunt, stops to play guitar? He's like the Xander Harris of the bunch.  

Edited May 1, 2020 by teddysmom

[Gobi]

9 minutes ago, kieyra said:

Also important for flashback sequences.

Vampires can also learn a language from drinking a victim’s blood. This knowledge can fade over time without new victims with the same language.

I just made that up.

[Mr. Sparkle]

5 hours ago, Cherpumple said:

It's probably the only show I watch at the moment without having a phone or a crafting project in my hand, because I don't want to miss a thing. Even little details, like watching Nandor's hand positions as he types on the laptop, have me laughing out loud.

I watch it when it's live, and then I watch it again a few days later to catch the stuff I missed. 

[Catfi9ht]

Another great episode. I loved how the curse and vampire hunter story lines converged with Guillermo calling them and the three vamps boasting about how they beat the curse after Guillermo said their lives were in danger.

I think my favorite tidbit is when the vamps were asking Colin Robinson for his email, they stood in the doorway and refused to enter his bedroom. All the little things in this show add up to make it great.

[questionfear]

5 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

Not to be a Colin Robinson, but it's not just email that have daemons.  It's just a background process that sits and runs.  This is all super simplified, but...  Most web servers are running on a process called httpd (the d means its a daemon).  Chrond is the daemon for chrontab -- you schedule chron jobs and chrond sits there and runs them when it is time.  Ftpd needs to be running if you want to ftp.  If you want to ssh you need the ssh daemon running.  Syslogd is the system logging daemon.  Ntpd (network time protocol daemon) makes sure the system clock is correct.  Fingerd lets you finger someone, but I'm not sure there's a lot of that going on anymore -- I don't think I've fingered anyone since the 90s.  It goes on and on.  It's from the ancient Greek meaning of daemon which were just invisible things that toiled in the background, not the Christian meaning of demon.  On Windows they are called services.  I'm not sure what they are called on Macs. 

I didn't realize energy vampires could drain over the internet-you must be feasting whenever you hit Reddit. 

[tennisgurl]

This show is just so good, I look forward to it every week. The vampire hunters failed attack on the 70s vampire nest was actually legit scary, the effects they used on the creepy twin vampires was really creepy, I am impressed! And look at Guillermo being such a badass, like a short Blade! 

I wonder if the one vampire hunter who was left in the house will come back as a vampire? 

The whole curse plot was just killing me, especially Colin Robinson giving them his email to pass the chain letter along to his co-workers. When it gets to Becky, he is really going to get a talking to. I especially loved Laszlos expression when Colin Robinson told them that they're now signed up for his bi weekly newsletter. Like, maybe having your guts ripped out and left on the porch like Arianna isn't SO bad...

I love when the show acknowledges the camera crew, like when the vampire hunters thanked Guillermo for bringing his camera crew with him (and they waved) and when the camera guy high tailed it out of the 70s vampire nest. 

Edited May 1, 2020 by tennisgurl

[teddysmom]

12 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Like, maybe having your guts ripped out and left on the porch like Arianna isn't SO bad...

Oh, did I tell you about that? Just dreadful!

[iMonrey]

Quote

Then the last person they emailed was “Sir Bob Geldof”. 

@yahoo.com. LOL. And I love that Nandor has a Hotmail address. 

Quote

Guillermo really stepped up and saved the amateurs.  He's on the verge of being their mentor instead of their saboteur. 

I'll be interested to know if we see any more of them going forward though. Clearly they were in way over their heads and had no idea what a real vampire fight would be like. I'd think they would cast someone like Craig Robinson for more than just a couple episodes but I'm not sure where else they can go with this group now that they got a taste of reality.

Quote

I watch it when it's live, and then I watch it again a few days later to catch the stuff I missed. 

Oh I definitely have to watch every episode twice, there is so much going on. Like when Colin asked why they wanted his e-mail address all three of them said something different at the same time.

[sistermagpie]

4 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I'll be interested to know if we see any more of them going forward though. Clearly they were in way over their heads and had no idea what a real vampire fight would be like. I'd think they would cast someone like Craig Robinson for more than just a couple episodes but I'm not sure where else they can go with this group now that they got a taste of reality.

I would think this would be a great opportunity for plot because these guys now know that Guillermo is the biggest bad ass vampire killer and why would they keep quiet about it? Especially if they have access to the footage?

I just realized that in a way, the show's brilliantly flipped the script where you've got a house full of people who don't know there's a monster in the house--and the monster is Guillermo who's out murdering people. First it was people coming to the house to attack his vampires, but he just basically led a raid on a random vampire nest!

p.s. How did Bloody Mary get our number?!

[iMonrey]

I kept thinking of Kristen Schaal as the Vampiric Council rep who showed up last season saying "We ravened you! Why didn't you raven us back?" And Nandor kept saying "but . . . we have a phone." So I was a little surprised when they didn't seem to know what the phone ringing was at first, but they did understand it was a phone. I guess nobody had ever called them before.

[Vermicious Knid]

Nandor: "I know what the ether is!"

I would really love the backstory on how the regular vamps met Colin Robinson and they all decided to live together.

[kieyra]

15 minutes ago, Vermicious Knid said:

Nandor: "I know what the ether is!"

I would really love the backstory on how the regular vamps met Colin Robinson and they all decided to live together.

Agree. He seems like such a product of the modern world. How old do his oldest portraits look in the credits? I can only picture the one with the party hat.

[Gobi]

1 hour ago, kieyra said:

Agree. He seems like such a product of the modern world. How old do his oldest portraits look in the credits? I can only picture the one with the party hat.

There is one very old portrait of him that goes by fast. I'd say he's not as old as the others, though.

[Vermicious Knid]

Yes! Someone out there screenshot the whole opening credits. The oldest one for Colin looks like the 19th Century?

[MisterGlass]

Great screencaps!  That does look like 19th century clothing on Colin.  There is another photo, next to a gold rat statue, of all four vamps in front of the house and it looks like it is a similar age.

[Cherpumple]

I love that most of the pics of Colin show him holding a coffee mug. It's the same boring pose through the decades, which is totally on point for him.

I have to say that I didn't think I would like Colin at first compared to his more flamboyant housemates, and I was worried that the energy vampire gag would wear thin. But he really holds his own, and he's actually the one whose background and powers I'm most curious about.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I have to say that I didn't think I would like Colin at first compared to his more flamboyant housemates, and I was worried that the energy vampire gag would wear thin. But he really holds his own, and he's actually the one whose background and powers I'm most curious about.

Yeah but the show is totally trolling us, because a couple episodes ago Colin himself admitted even he didn't know what his "deal" was. I doubt the show is going to explain it. 

Last season we saw Colin levitate (in the episode where he was competing with Evie, the Emotional Vampire, at work). So he does have some kind of power - he's not just a boring guy.

Also, that photo of the house is telling because clearly it was taken before the neighborhood really started to build up (although I'm not sure it's the same house). It does seem to suggest Colin is much older than he looks, like the other vampires.

[Alice Mudgarden]

Nadja always has the best turns of phrase. Last ep it was saying the old lady looked like an elephant's knee, this week was calling someome a piss snake... keepers, the lot of em.

Edited May 3, 2020 by Alice Mudgarden

[Prower]

Mailer Demon - now that was some inspired comedy. I almost pissed myself laughing. 

On 4/30/2020 at 8:27 PM, iMonrey said:

It's quite possible that Nandor simply remembers what the letters say without actually being able to read them anymore. He's had them for thousands of years, no doubt he has most of them memorized. No need to know how to read Al Quolanudarian anymore.

But one he never read before. "Ooops"

On 5/1/2020 at 3:12 PM, Gobi said:

Vampires can also learn a language from drinking a victim’s blood. This knowledge can fade over time without new victims with the same language.

I just made that up.

Are you sure you made that up? Wasn't that a thing in the new Dracula from Gatis and Moffat? Blood is lifes and all that crap.

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Prower

[Gobi]

2 hours ago, Prower said:

Mailer Demon - now that was some inspired comedy. I almost pissed myself laughing. 

But one he never read before. "Ooops"

Are you sure you made that up? Wasn't that a thing in the new Dracula from Gatis and Moffat? Blood is lifes and all that crap.

 

I may not be the first to make it up, but I have never heard of it before.  Never heard of Gatis and Moffat.

[Prower]

No? The guys who made and subsequently ruined Sherlock?

Talking about this Dracula btw: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9139220/

But of course multiple people can come up with the same thing. Though it's also possible that there is prior lore that we all have in the back of our minds somewhere.

[Gobi]

34 minutes ago, Prower said:

No? The guys who made and subsequently ruined Sherlock?

Talking about this Dracula btw: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9139220/

But of course multiple people can come up with the same thing. Though it's also possible that there is prior lore that we all have in the back of our minds somewhere.

Never watched Sherlock or this Dracula. I’m not particularly current on pop culture.

[MisterGlass]

I wish I had not seen that Dracula.  This is a way better vampire series.

9 hours ago, Prower said:

Wasn't that a thing in the new Dracula from Gatis and Moffat? Blood is lifes and all that crap.

Yeah, it was in there.  After the fact I remembered that the Underworld movies had a version of that - transmitting memories through blood.  It may exist elsewhere too.

[Orbert]

Wow, another winner.  Again, Guillermo was mostly separated from the rest for most of the episode, allowing for separate stories, and both were great.

There are other vampires on Staten Island!  Or there were, anyway.  The growing dread on Guillermo's face as the hunters started laying out their plans for the night.  The phone call to the house that tied into the curse storyline.  The 70's-era vampire den.  And yeah, the twins were creepy.  I got a genuine chill when they got up and moved to the doorway in the background while the hunters were discussing them.  I wasn't expecting that.  Nice effect!

Yeah, maybe a little inconsistency with the vampires freaking out about the phone ringing, after Nandor mentioned to the council last year that they have a phone.  But we've never seen them use it (or have we?) and we could write it off as a panic reaction, since they were all kinda freaking out at the time.  Chimes of doom!

Guillermo's gonna need a bigger Tide Pen.

[Prower]

17 hours ago, MisterGlass said:

I wish I had not seen that Dracula.  This is a way better vampire series.

I liked the first two episodes. The third one was extremely horrible. But alas that's Gattiss and Moffat's MO. They make a show with a promising premise and really good first few episodes and then proceed to completely ruin them.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

19 hours ago, MisterGlass said:

I wish I had not seen that Dracula.  This is a way better vampire series.

Yeah, it was in there.  After the fact I remembered that the Underworld movies had a version of that - transmitting memories through blood.  It may exist elsewhere too.

I never saw iZombie, but I think that is the conceit of the show: when the protagonist consumes a dead person's brain, she temporarily inherits some of their personality traits and skills, and she experiences flashbacks of that person's life. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by ItCouldBeWorse

[MisterGlass]

@ItCouldBeWorse, you're right, that's how it worked on iZombie. 

11 hours ago, Orbert said:

Guillermo's gonna need a bigger Tide Pen.

That was such a great way to wrap up.  Great sponsorship opportunity for Tide if they were interested.