If we are being completely honest, Nandor the Relentless is a relentless jerk. We all understand it, but that has also played a significant role in his charm throughout the show’s first 4 seasons.
Fair enough, it could be said for pretty much everybody else on this show as well. You could say that the only innocent figure remaining is “the thing that crawled out of the chest of Colin Robinson” because even Guillermo has grown selfish over the years. Given that he is currently in the midst of puberty, it might not persist for very long.
Marwa comes next. On the surface, Nandor’s wife appears to be the only person who should be innocent in this situation, but that is only because she lacks personality as well.
Parisa Fakhri’s character has largely served as Nandor’s puppet throughout this season under the guidance of Djinn’s magical influence. The original punchline was that Nandor is just incredibly self-centered, and his treatment of Marwa, his fictitious wife, is represented in an extremely literal sense.
However, as time passed, disappointing fans who had hoped to see this plot line expand on itself grew more so. With the exception of the incident where she forced Nandor to leave his own “man cave,” Marwa has never had any autonomy of her own and has instead lived out a misogynistic ideal of what wives should do.
Although our favorite characters have behaved despicably before when they are extremely nasty, the writers are frequently quick to make up for it by giving them some sort of punishment or at the very least making them aware that they are monsters and thus, kind of suck.
The penultimate episode of season four, “Freddie,” gives Marwa a dirty turn by utterly eliminating the character, much like Nandor once obliterated her personality.
The episode in question begins innocently enough with Guillermo’s charming boyfriend being revealed. Although we have anticipated this for some time, it is now official. Guillermo and Freddie became friends while he and Nadja were visiting London, and they have been in touch ever since. However, Nandor becomes involved right away when Freddie arrives at the house and starts to develop feelings for Guillermo’s beau.
Over the previous 8 episodes, Nandor has grown wearier and wearier of Marwa, which is logical considering that she is merely a dull, thoughtless vessel. Nandor resolves to utilize one of his seemingly endless wishes to turn Marwa into an exact replica of Freddie after Freddie catches his attention.
So, it’s not cheating, is it? Although it’s not cheating, there are still a number of other issues with it. Despite the fact that Nandor’s actions are not ideal, the writers play up the notion that he is in fact in love with Guillermo or, at the very least, is fixated with his familiar as a toy.
Prepare for some hilarious moments featuring Nandor and Freddie running around NYC naked on a rug like they’re in a romantic comedy.
That’s all well and good, but Marwa is still nowhere to be found by the episode’s conclusion. In order to make Guillermo feel better after Freddie eventually departs for London once more, Nandor releases his own “Freddie,” i.e. Marwa. In a climactic climax, Guillermo returns to London in search of Freddie once more only to learn that the two Freddies have since moved in together secretly.
Even while it’s entertaining to see the show make fun of gay men who date their own carbon copies (google “boyfriend twins” to learn more), there’s something extremely off-putting about the notion that Marwa is “happier” as Freddie’s twin.
There was a genuine opportunity to place Marwa correctly in the love triangle that surrounds “Nandermo,” a ship that fans have long been enamored with after she was underutilized throughout the season. Instead, the writers chose to transform a woman of color into a white British guy and assert that this makes her happier, despite the fact that she is still not in charge.
It’s a disturbing punchline, to put it mildly, especially in light of the clichés about submissive wives that frequently afflict Middle Eastern portrayal in popular culture.
However, there is still some hope. This entire arc may be building to a redemption tale in which Marwa is ultimately given her own agency and instructs Nandor to continue running with only one episode left in season four.
If not, What We Do in the Shadows could become so ruthlessly vicious that it loses its ability to be amusing. And considering how close to perfection this show typically is, that would be awful.
