Ron Does Stuff

I’m usually on time with The Vampire Lestat, but I had a lot of errands to run over the past few days, and I am at an age where I need to sleep at a certain time, or else my whole body withers and dies. So I wasn’t able to watch it yesterday! But I’m here now.

The previous episode really left people with a punch in the gut, what with Lestat’s traumatic turning being revealed, as well as the return of Armand. There was also the start of the Louis and Regina storyline, which I’m guessing we’re going to see more of in this episode.

But first, we hear what Lestat thinks about being on the road while on tour. Especially after Gabrielle left in the previous episode, and the spectre of Nicki took her place. He’s still not doing well, and while his spirits are momentarily buoyed by the band trending, it turns out the articles on them were just botted by the Talamasca.

Things don’t get any better when the tour bus is stopped by the police. The drug-sniffing dog smells all the cocaine on the bus, but thankfully, Lestat is a vampire, and he uses his telepathy to get them out of that scrape. The mortals he’s with are overjoyed, of course, but this will probably come back to bite them in the ass later on.

We then check in on Louis, who is hovering around Regina, the mortal waitress who just happens to look like Claudia. Must be great for Delainey to get to use her actual accent, though! Louis is making it clear to Regina that he’s not here for sex, seeing as he’s gay, but Regina still isn’t impressed.

On the tour bus, the band members are auditioning their songs for Lestat, and…well. I think Lestat’s face says it all.

He drops that for the moment and heads to Daniel, who wants to talk about Lestat’s mother, not knowing that Lestat’s mother just left them. And another thing that Lestat isn’t sharing with Daniel is that Nicki’s spectre has now started showing up. He’s also lying about how his mother was after being turned. Lestat, baby, you’re not going to get any resolution if you keep on hiding from the truth.

But it’s not just Lestat who’s having parent issues, as Daniel finally encounters Armand, who I am guessing is in the restitution and amends part of his 12-step program. And it is hilarious how Daniel reads him to filth.

Over at yet another pair going through parental issues, Louis and Regina are starting to maybe get along. Louis sorta opens up to her about Claudia and his vampirism, after Regina confronts him about his literal creepy watching, and I’m assuming Louis left her a big tip as he leaves.

Then we jump back to Daniel interviewing Lestat, who’s just told him about his and Gabrielle’s return to Italy and the two of them possibly ~sharing~ a priest during Holy Saturday? And I gotta say, they really got Gabrielle right as well, as least from what I remember of her from the book. She’s always been a cold and feral presence in the book, and she’s the same here.

While Daniel and Lestat continue their adversarial conversation, Alex is talking about how he’s found someone from AA that’s ~like a god~, and it’s really obvious that it’s Armand. Is Alex going to live to see the end of the episode? Armand soon makes an appearance after we see Lestat reminisce about when his and Gabrielle’s relationship crossed a line, and again, it is so hilarious to see Armand do his ~restitution and amends~. I kinda wish people online made more noise about how darkly funny this show is. And then Lestat showering in blood in front of Armand? Hilarious.

Armand gets an invite to one of the gigs, though, so there is that.

Over to where Louis is at, Regina has finally read Interview with the Vampire and she is understandably shook that she looks like Claudia. She is also understandably not happy about Louis being a creep and using her to absolve his guilt over Claudia.

Back to Lestat, things are definitely heading to a climax as he ~reveals~ Armand to the audience, and also to Alex, if unintentionally. And then to debut a song about him calling him out? SCREAMING. Lestat is such a messy bitch, I love it.

Of course, Armand walks out of that concert and Daniel follows him out. Armand tells him that the Great Conversion is a thing, and that Lestat is going to lead it and get all of them killed. and then Armand sorta kinda confesses to Daniel?

It’s a good thing that Daniel’s left, because Armand’s words have started to come true as someone tries to assassinate Lestat after the performance. Not a vampire assassin just yet, but someone who’s convinced Lestat is real and that a bullet wouldn’t kill him.

The attempted assassination unnerves the rest of the band, and at first, Lestat is okay with the group disbanding. But Gabrielle turns things around, especially when she tells him to listen to the vampires looking to him for leadership and guidance. And while I haven’t re-read The Queen of the Damned yet, I remember the earlier parts of that book where multiple vampires are all headed to Lestat’s concert and those are the things they were saying. It may not look like it, but this adaptation really does pay homage to the books.

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