What's Going on With Guillermo in "What We Do in the Shadows"?

Content warning: The following story contains spoilers for "What We Do in the Shadows." At the end of "What We Do in the Shadows" season four, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) makes the drastic decision to ask Derek (Chris Sandiford) to turn him into a vampire. Fed up after years of his master, Nandor (Kayvan Novak), ignoring his pleas, decides to get it done himself. But at the beginning of the show's fifth season — which premiered its first two episodes on July 13 — we find out Guillermo's turning didn't work. Or it did work, but only a little bit. At the start of the season, it's been 16 days and the typical vampire powers haven't fully come in for him, which is highly irregular. Guillermo can still eat food (though he does crave very rare meat) and go out in the sun. He can't, however, turn into a vampire bat and fly away. Guillermo also learns that having a vampire who's not your master "turn" you is a massive slight to Nandor, which he didn't know. Laszlo (Matt Berry) calls it the "greatest humiliation" a familiar can inflict on his master, and Nandor says that if Guillermo did it, he would kill him and then himself. Guillermo's in a tough spot, as he also can't have Nandor bite him and pretend that Nandor turned him. Why? Apparently, getting bitten twice makes a vampire explode. In the third episode, which aired on July 20, Laszlo helps Guillermo investigate the weirdness of his transformation. He has small, fleshy bat wings on his back, but he's not any faster and unaffected by garlic. He does have some telekinetic powers and lifts a glass with his mind. We also learn of a stereotype that if you spill rice, a vampire must count it all. Laszlo and Nandor do just that, but Guillermo doesn't share their compulsion. Laszlo also discovers Guillermo's sweat is the key to his ability to go safely in the sun, though they can't agree if that makes him a day-walking vampire like Blade or not. Laszlo decides that Guillermo's transformation has been "stymied." He doesn't know why, but he promises he'll help him get to the bottom of it. So why isn't Guillermo a full vampire yet? Viewers learned in previous seasons that Guillermo is a descendant of the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing, which explains why he's such a wonderful vampire killer (or defender when the coven needs him to be). Is it possible there's something in Guillermo's DNA that keeps him from fully transforming? Could he just be an undead vampire killer now with some weird quirks (like no desire for blood)? It definitely seems possible. There's also the chance that Guillermo's transformation isn't working correctly because he didn't have his master do it for him. Maybe his transformation will finish when he finally does tell Nandor the truth — even if it breaks their relationship forever. We'll have the rest of the season to figure out just what's going on with his vampirism, and if he can make it out of the situation alive (or, rather, undead). New episodes of "What We Do in the Shadows" premiere on Thursdays on FX and stream the next day on Hulu. 48852514