Ron Does Stuff

This show has just been hitting it out of the park episode after episode. At the previous episode, we saw Claudia’s descent to madness masterfully portrayed. Was it a direct adaptation of what happened in the book? No. Did it get to the heart of Claudia’s problems and expressed it spectacularly? Yes. Let’s get into the next episode!

This episode opens with Louis feeding on Rashid, while Daniel continues to read from Claudia’s journals, specifically Claudia’s collection of the final words of her victims. Louis takes a really long time drinking from Rashid that I start to wonder how much blood does he have?

While Louis is feeding on him, Rashid tells David that the vampires of the world are going to kill Louis once his book is published, and that David is basically writing a long suicide note for Louis. I do start to think that there’s something unusual about Rashid because he doesn’t seem as out of it as the previous human that Louis fed from. What are you hiding, Rashid? What Rashid isn’t hiding is his contempt for Daniel.

The interview starts again, and Louis admits that he did not know at first that Claudia had gone on a streak of killings. In fact, he thought that Claudia was on a hunger strike, and he’d been leaving injured birds in her room just to ensure that she had something to eat. Of course, Lestat quickly and insensitively disabuses him of that notion, and even goes on to read Claudia’s journals where she has the same thought that Jessica from True Blood had when she first lost her virginity. Unfortunately, the men she meets are not like Hoyt.

Of course, the parents confront Claudia about everything she’s done when she returns and I gotta say, it’s such a great depiction of a teenager acting out and gives another layer to Claudia because the book doesn’t really dive deep into her since Louis saw her mostly as a creature, if you get what I’m saying. A creature that he loved, yes, but still a creature.

We also find out in this episode that we’re in the Prohibition era, as seen in a scene where Louis and Lestat are in a speakeasy and being courted by a potential politician for their support. Scenes like this make me realize that Oversimplified does have his facts right.

Anyways, the aspiring politician also had another agenda — to tell Louis and Lestat that the police are investigating the 50+ bodies that have turned up in the bayou, who were of course all Claudia’s victims. Well, not all of them, since one of them is apparently in Claudia’s closet decomposing. It’s the dead woman equivalent from the book but ramped up! And the confrontation is just as good as the one from the movie, with its own tweak that makes it its own.

One tweak I did not expect is Claudia running away. It’s interesting how they’re going to bring her back, if she disappears for more than one episode, because of course she has to come back to kill Lestat. I don’t think that’s one thing that they’re going to change.

Claudia’s departure, as Louis reveals, also affects his and Lestat’s relationship. They really are that couple that thought having a kid would solve all their problems! He then says that they went underground for seven years, which I wish the show clarified. Is it literally, because in the book they can do that. Or did he mean they just toned down their activities. I don’t know if the next scene is seven years after or not. Is them rotting in their home happening within those seven years? Or is that them after seven years?

Anyways, while out in the world, Claudia’s met another vampire, who was made in Copenhagen. A Nordic vampire! Was it Thorne? We don’t know! But Claudia now begins to learn things about the world that Lestat or Louis never bothered to teach her. She also learns that as much as she hates Lestat our Louis, there are worse vampires out there than them.

It’s during this interview that Daniel tries to prod Louis, challenging him to share what it is that happened to Claudia. It’s a tension-filled scene that really unsettled me, and I want to congratulate the production on it.

As Lestat and Louis continue to drift away from each other, Louis gets a little jolt when he gets a call from his sister. Here’s where we find out that Louis is supposed to be 53 years old now, because Grace has already made a plot for him. It’s his last connection to his past life severed, and Claudia is a witness to it. And wouldn’t you know it, her running away wasn’t a season-long thing!

It’s not a happy reunion, however, as Lestat cannot contain his jealousy. And the fight that ensues? How it echoes domestic abuse? The desperation in Lestat’s voice, asking to be loved? The anger in Claudia’s eyes? I love how this show just really expands on everything that the book touches on because it just makes for a sumptuous adaptation.