Ron Does Stuff

If people thought episode five had a cliffhanger ending, episode six amped it up even more, leaving the audience with the audience with the image of Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine before the audience of the Théâtre des Vampires, awaiting their trial. Another departure from the book that works excellently. Let’s see how things turn out!

We finally get to the meat of the matter, as Louis starts to talk about the day that he, Claudia, and Madeleine are taken by the vampires of the Théâtre des Vampires. What they go through after their immediate capture is definitely more horrible than what was in the book, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I already know what’s waiting for them at the end.

The vampires of the Théâtre des Vampires are even more gruesome now, their evil more visceral, which is a weird thing to say when all the main characters in this show have brutally murdered so many people, with Lestat in particular reveling in eating them. But it really does feel that way, especially since they’ve decided to make a spectacle out of this trial and humiliate Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine not just in front of the coven, but in front of mortals as well.

But then Lestat makes his entrance and it really is a testament to how well his character is written in the show and how well Sam Reid’s embodied him, because my first thought was Yes, girl! DESPITE THE HORRORS GOING ON AND THE HORROR I KNOW IS GOING TO HAPPEN. I’m a simple person!

And can you blame me? When Lestat improvs that Roland Garros line? He is the star, he is the moment! But aside from that, in the present, there is also Daniel being a good journalist, poking at the story, trying to find out what really happened, because as episode five showed us, Armand cannot be trusted.

The structure of this episode? A recap that also pushes the show forward? Engrossing. And that little display of Lestat’s power when he humiliated that homophobic soldier? Thrilling. The vampires of the Théâtre des Vampires realizing they may have just fucked with the wrong vampire after that display of power from Lestat? Exciting. This show makes me feel so many things.

And then when Louis finally confronts the past? How differently it looks now that centuries have passed? Or is this still another example of an unreliable narrator? Are we finally getting the truth, or is there another layer to be peeled? The show is so successful at pulling the rug out from the audiences feet that they can never really be sure about what is or isn’t true.

But I also like how this softens Lestat, because the rest of The Vampire Chronicles is going to be about him, and it’s best to start seeding that now than wasting time in the third season doing that. It really is a good thing that this was adapted once all the books were out because now the production has a clearer idea of where the story goes and can come up with a plan on how to tell the story they want to tell while still respecting the books. And it’s not like it absolves Lestat of everything that’s happened. It’s just showing the layers to everything he and Louis have gone through, show there are reasons for what Lestat did and that he’s more than the one-dimensional monster that was shown in the first season, and that truth and memory are complicated things.

And it’s not just Lestat that gets more depth here, because Claudia and Madeleine get that as well, especially Madeleine. She’s no longer just the crazy vampire mother in the book or the barely there blip in the movie, she’s someone with agency and someone who finally stands beside Claudia and chooses Claudia.

There’s so much to praise aside from all of these. Delainey and Roxane’s performances, Ben Daniel’s performance, and Assad Zaman’s performance. Assad’s, especially, because as broken as he looks I do not believe he saved Louis. After episode five, I can’t just accept what version of events he shares. Having Claudia’s execution happen in front of humans? Horrifying but also powerful.

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