Ron Does Stuff

The end of the preivous episode teased the arrival of one of the most memorable characters from the book: Claudia. Let’s see how they portray her in this adaptation!

We don’t immediately get to see Claudia. Instead, we’re back to the “present” in Dubai, where Daniel is talking to his agent, I assume? We also get to see Louis’ servant Rashid tell Daniel that the drugs he takes for his Parkinson’s will be administered to him the next day. I wonder what they’re going to do with this Rashid character since he isn’t in the books?

Rashid takes Daniel to…a library? An archive? Daniel is given access to what appear to be journals. The ones he takes a look at first were written during the Second World War, and I’m assuming that the events in the journal happened in Europe because there weren’t any POWs in the mainland United States.

It’s through these journals that we get to hear Claudia, at least for a little bit. In both the book and the movie, we only see her thtough the eyes of Louis, so this is once again a smart and welcome change that the show has made. And like I said in the previous post, while Louis didn’t drain her, he still had a hand in her death because it was his rash actions that led to the burning of Storyville. And he’s not just carrying the guilt of her death, but the end of a way of life for his people.

This Claudia definitely builds on the foundation laid by the book and movie and gives it an interesting spin. While she’s definitely much older than book!Claudia and movie!Claudia, she shares the same ruthlessness, and we get to hear it directly from her. And can I say I love the “voice” they gave her in this adaptation? Funny and biting and bitchy. I love it. Her saying Lestat and Louis have “a funny way of being nice to each other”? She said stop the MALICIOUS GAY FAGGOTRY.

The way they portrayed her hunger? Hilarious and fitting for a teen! I also think that they’re characterizing her like this because this is a television show and she needs to have a longer arc moving forward than she would in a movie so they’re starting with this darkly funny foundation because thing are going to get really tragic soon enough.

I know I’m repeating myself here but I really like what they’re doing with Claudia’s story here. Louis is upfront and tells her that the Storyville fire is his fault, so I’m curious how the big conflict between him and Claudia is going to happen, because it is going to happen. I’m unsure how they’re going to tell this story, and it’s exciting to me.

Daniel takes a breather from reading Claudia’s journals and chances upon Rashid praying Salah, which I hope is the correct term because that’s what Google told me. Please correct me in the comments if I’m wrong. Daniel notices that the language Rashid speaks seems to be from the Crimea and that he’s not a Dubai native. I don’t know where this is going but I’m going to keep an eye on Rashid because the show is telling me to.

We then get back to Claudia’s journals, and I don’t know enough about fashion history to determine what time period we’re at right now, but Claudia’s got her own room! She’s also beginning to ask questions, like how soon will she grow into the necklace that Lestat just gave her. Well, I guess that turn into seriousness is going to happen sooner than I thought!

Louis gets a call that his mother has died, and let’s just say that Louis’ Roman Catholic family are not happy with their homosexual vampire family member. But this time around, Louis isn’t in a depressive state and is catty and bitchy alongside his equally catty and bitchy husband and daughter.

Claudia’s descent towards dissatisfaction with her eternal youth is also portrayed really well, I think. I think it makes sense that seeing two people have sex is the right way to trigger Claudia’s questions about her own body, since she was turned when she was a teenager. And the whole storyline with Paul? I was enthralled. Engrossed. I also liked the overt declaration that, yes, Claudia was the result of a couple thinking that a baby is going to solve their marital problems.

Also, that final monologue from Claudia to end the episode? Perfection.