Ron Does Stuff

This was supposed to go up yesterday, but as everyone knows by now, there was an outage that took out, I don’t know, half the internet? Anyways, we saw how the carefully constructed world that Louis built up began to crumble in the previous episode, so I’m expecting it to crumble even more this episode. Let’s go!

This episode starts with Louis and Armand having a rose-colored view of the Paris coven, with Armand supposedly taking a less dictatorial approach to running it. But we all now that Santiago is just waiting in the wings, with the information that Claudia and Louis killed Lestat, against the Great Laws of the coven.

Of course, Louis admits that it was a stupid thing because Santiago and the coven were indeed plotting against them. And there’s a little observation about syntax that I never thought about from Daniel, I think partly because I am not a native English speaker. I’ll take note of that!

And then…Malik enters the room, talking about how Armand was going to chase him around in Jimmy Choo sneakers? Was this mentioned before? And, again, I really should wait for the show to tell me what’s happening because it looks like Malik is dinner. Or a newly-minted millionaire, if he manages to evade Armand by morning. Louis assures Daniel that Armand’s “methodology” is never violent, but that repressed memory trying to makes its way out of Daniel’s brain says otherwise. Or at least implies otherwise.

This time around, Daniel focuses on that, asking Louis how often has spared a life in his more than 500 years of existence. Louis tells him that Armand preserves his happiness, and that Armand thought Daniel would prove fruitful in later times. Of course, Daniel isn’t buying that, and he finally asks what happened that night during the 1970s.

And as it turns out, Louis was a drug-peddling real estate mogul during the 1970s! And Daniel was down to fulfill his…uh…side of the social contract! But the two of them didn’t do it, although Daniel does get that look when Louis asks if he wants to do it now. Wonder what that meant?

As Louis recalls the start of that first tape, there’s an immediate back and forth between him and Daniel in the present time, with both of them remembering that night differently. Daniel finally tells Louis what he wants to know, which is what really happened during that night in the 70s.

So we get Louis talking about Lestat in much the same way he does in the book, where he sees himself as Lestat’s superior after the initial glamor of his presence has worn off. In the present, Daniel is telling Louis that he should have known how unstable Louis was back then, because when they get to the part where Claudia leaves, Louis explodes. You can’t exactly blame Louis though, because Daniel is poking at wounds that shouldn’t be poked, even if he is voicing what I thought of Louis during my book re-read. You were just bitching all throughout the book, Louis!

In the present, Louis and Daniel continue arguing about what happened that night, but Daniel then surprises Louis with the enhanced audio of that night provided by the Talamasca. And…well, it’s a fight between Louis and Armand. Not a physical one, but one that comes with long relationships where neither one is being honest about the state of it.

And Jacob Anderson and Assad Zaman in this scene? Riveting. Captivating. Whatever other superlatives you can think of. Jacob’s face as Louis remembering that he walked into the sun? Also congrats on the special effects team for the blood tears pooling in Jacob’s eyes but not falling. That must have hurt.

Eric Bogosian is also captivating to watch, especially when he pieces together what happened to him, not just on the night when he conducted the interview with Louis, but over the multiple nights when he was kept there without his consent.

When Armand interrogrates Daniel? The horror of it all, but also such an effective way of showing just how powerful Armand is. But if you’ve read the books, you’ll know he’s not even the most powerful of them! And speaking of the books, I thought it was a nice little Easter egg that when Armand plays the tape, you realize Louis’ words about Lestat are from the book.

Eric Bogosian is also so good in this, especially when he realizes how much his memories have been messed up by these two beings. And then when the two of them confront Armand, as it becomes clear that he messed with both their minds? Oh, I can’t wait to see how this turns out!

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