Ron Does Stuff

I know I should be watching this more regularly, but I need to earn money, guys. This blog isn’t paying for itself! But I’m back now, ready to find out what’s in store for Louis and Claudia after the previous episode!

Like we were shown at the end of the previous episode, Claudia was assigned the role of a child in the latest addition to the Théâtre des Vampires show, and while Armand thinks that Claudia had to ~pay her dues~ or whatever to the coven, Louis tells Daniel that Claudia had her issue with it, which is understandable.

Espcially since Claudia’s performance becomes a hit. The rest of the coven were bitter, according to Louis, but Armand says they took it with good grace. So, who is telling the truth? What the show is…uh…showing us is that the rest of the Théâtre des Vampires hated how popular Claudia got. The stans in the front throw start dressing up like her instead of Santiago!

BUT, it looks like it isn’t just the Théâtre des Vampires that is unhappy, it was also Claudia herself. She’s not just bored with doing the same thing over and over again, she’s being reminded over and over again that she is seen as a child and nothing else. And she’s apparently been doing it for more than a year!

Armand punishes Claudia by telling her that she has to be in child drag — I mean, that’s what it is — even offstage, but even that opens up another argument, this time between Armand and the other vampires that make up the Théâtre des Vampires. They do not like that Louis gets special privileges and doesn’t live by the rules of the coven, and again, I sound like a broken record, but I like the twists they make to the book’s story to ~refresh~ it for this adaptation.

The show also delves deeper into Armand and Louis’ relationship, something that wasn’t really explored in-depth in the book. It also builds up the tension towards what everyone who’s read the book knows is going to happen. Now it’s not as shallow a reason as the Théâtre des Vampires have grievances that just piled up after several months.

Louis also talks about the phantom Lestat that’s been following him around since he and Claudia have been in Europe, and the show very clearly wants us to look at Armand’s reactions when Louis describes what it felt like to have that phantom Lestat around him. Is he insecure? Maybe! Because, as it turns out, this is the first time that he’s heard about this from Louis.

Daniel then asks about the fire that took out the Théâtre des Vampires, adn here’s where things diverge from the book in an intriguing and exciting way, at least for me. Armand says that that information wasn’t made available to Daniel, and then we get that little flashback to what I’m guessing is the 70s, when Armand did something to Daniel.

But that’s something will have to discover later, I guess, because we’re back to Paris, where Santiago has just caught Claudia journaling, in violation of the third Great Law of the coven. He seems friendly and conspirational with Claudia about it, though, telling her he’s broken the Great Laws himself, but I am paranoid and think this is just him collecting evidence when the thing finally happens.

We also get to see more of Madeleine, who in this adaptation is a dressmaker who’s accused of being a collaborator during World War 2, I think? I’m not clear on whether she actually was a collaborator or just accused of being one, either way, she’s had to clean that swastika off of her shop window more than once from the looks of it.

And then we get the buffoon moment from the book and movie, but remixed, so to speak, and it still works! It also makes the ~insult~ to Santiago more…uh…insulting, since Louis does more than just flick his hat off his head. I wonder how Ben Daniels, the (gay!) actor who plays Santiago, is going to act the hell out of that scene when it comes.

We then go back to the present time, and it looks like there are photographers of actual talented photographers mixed in with the photos that Daniel is looking at, which Daniel thinks are Louis’ work? Then we get another snippet from the past, where it looks like young Daniel was wrapped up in plastic. What the hell happened back then?

And what the hell happened even further back, when Louis and Claudia were in Paris? Louis continues to get the voice of Lestat in his head, while Claudia learns more about Madeleine and what happened to her during World War 2. She was in a Malena-type of situation, basically.

While Madeleine and Claudia get to know each other, Louis gets an apology from Armand that looks an awful lot like Lestat’s own abusive behavior. And Louis notices it too! AND YET. Louis, Louis, Louis. Maybe you just have a type. When Louis asks Armand about who he is, we get a condensed history of the vampire Armand, which is quite lore-accurate, as far as I can remember it from the book! This show really is making me want to read The Vampire Chronicles again. All of it.

However, Armand’s apology date with Louis is cut short because Claudia’s missed doing her Théâtre des Vampires chores because she lost track of time while she was with Madeleine. This results in a heated argument between her and Armand, where Armand reveals to her that he knows about Lestat, and if she wants to keep her undead life, she needs to do better. Santiago was also thre listening in on that conversation, and Armand isn’t happy about that either.

And then Louis intends to break up with him? Oh, this is not a good night for Armand. BUT, that’s not what happens. That’s what the spectre of Lestat thought was going to happen. Instead, Louis tells Armand how he can make his mind up about being the leader of the Paris coven.

I do want to commend the show for the great way Louis says goodbye to the spectre of Lestat. They way Lestat slowly faded? How we didn’t get to hear his last words? Poignant.

Anyways, while Louis and Armand are planning how to thwart Santiago, Santiago has already found out about Louis and Claudia’s dirty little secret. I love that they’ve added this coven leadership conflict in as well because it really does add more depth to Santiago compared to the book and movie.

And then we get another tantalizing look into what really happened back during the 70s. I really like how the show has so smoothly incorporate the Talamasca, so when we finally get to The Queen of the Damned, it won’t need to be a lore dump, since the foundation has already been laid. I can’t wait when I finally get to the episode where what happened during the 70s is finally revealed.

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