Ron Does Stuff

It’s the penultimate episode! In the previous episode, the whole vampire family gets an unhappy reunion as Lestat and Louis fight after Claudia returns after her almost decade-long walkout. It’s not pretty scene, but it does give Claudia even further motivation to sever her and Louis’ connection to Lestat.

The episode opens with Louis talking about how long it took him to recover from his physical fight with Lestat, which was pretty much domestic abuse, especially with the verbal cues we were given in the previous episode.

Back in the present day, Daniel is questioning Lestat’s ability to fly and I like how the show takes stuff from the book, like Lestat calling it the cloud gift. I also like that Louis explains that only the most ancient and powerful of them have that gift, which is something from the book as well. It’s just amazing how this show has been very smart about the things it takes from the book and the things it creates for its own universe.

Daniel questions why Lestat never showed Louis this gift in the 20 years they’ve been together, and to be fair to Daniel Louis really does give the abused spouse answer to his question, so I can’t fault him for being sarcastic. We learn that Lestat has gone off to parts unknown, while Claudia nurses Louis back to health. It really bonds you with these two characters, even better than the book did, so you can really expect Claudia’s eventual fate, and Louis reaction to it, to be even more heartbreaking.

I also want to commend the show for being funny, as well, even in the midst of the horror? Lestat trying to woo Louis back and Louis throwing his coffin off the balcony in response? Lestat’s face when the coffin falls? Hilarious. Lestat continues to get back into Louis’ good graces, bribing him with cars and telling him that his changed since that night three years ago. It would take another three years before a mixtape, of all things, finally cracks Louis’ armor.

After literal rough sex — there’s stabbing! a bloodied face! — the trio of Lestat, Louis, and Claudia try to establish some ground rules about them coming back together again. And we get a peek into the book accurate origin story of Lestat! Magnus is mentioned along with the roomful of corpses that I still remember up to this day! It’s also a great way to explain — but not excuse! — Lestat’s actions.

As they try to repair their family I want to go back to what I said about the show’s humor. It’s so funny to see Louis trying to play the mediator between Lestat and Claudia but it doesn’t distract from the rest of the atmosphere the show is conjuring. In fact, I think it even enhances it.

It’s here that we see how doomed this reunion is, as we find out that Lestat has not killed Antoinette, one of the conditions that Claudia had set for the reunion to even happen in the first place. I am guessing Antoinette is the equivalent of Antoine in the book, so at least we’re going to get two vampires going after Louis and Claudia when the thing that happens, happens. AND NOT ME GOOPED AND GAGGED WHEN THE CAMERA PANS FROM LESTAT AND ANTOINETTE’S ROOM TO SHOW CLAUDIA AND LOUIS OUTSIDE THE WINDOW LISTENING IN.

Less of a gag is Louis’ acceptance that this is just how Lestat is, because I’ve seen and read enough stories of abused spouses to see that it comes to that point eventually. Claudia can’t take any more of it and leaves their family once more. It’s here where we find out that in this iteration of this story, this is where the San Francisco interview ends, not with…well, with what happened to Claudia.

BUT THEN THE SHOW GAGS ME AGAIN WHEN IT TURNS OUT THAT CLAUDIA DOESN’T MAKE IT OUT OF NEW ORLEANS. Lestat arrives at the train, kills the porter at least, and tells Claudia that she cant abandon Louis at the time of his greatest need. And you know what, in his own twisted way, this is how Lestat shows his love!

Making both Louis and Claudia Black also turns out to be an even better decision when Claudia declares that he and Louis are slaves to Lestat, because reading that in the book recently made me a little awkward, to say the least. But with the characters not being white this time around, now that declaration is given a lot more weight.

Claudia finally decides that it’s now time to kill Lestat, and given everything that’s happened in this episode? You can’t blame her. I’d like to commend the team behind the show for that chess scene, by the way, because it felt really tense and to see Lestat lose? It was pretty satisfying.

Daniel, unforutnately, starts to fall asleep from the medication he’s took while the interview was going on, and we get to see him as he was back in San Francisco, with what I think is a subtle little nod to the film.

We get to see Daniel and Louis’ first meeting back in the 70s, and the MALICIOUS GAY FAGGOTRY is on full display. I wanna interview you but if something happens, it happens? I know what you are Daniel Molloy.

AND THEN RASHID IS THERE, LOOKING THE SAME? IS RASHID A FUCKING VAMPIRE TOO? It’s a recollection that snaps Daniel awake.