Initial thoughts for The Vampire Lestat 1x02 (Track 2) — SPOILERS INCLUDED!
Track 2: Toledo
"Fabulous. Moving on."
"Kiss. Grope. Aftercare. Onward." — The self-awareness here. Lestat fully acknowledging he had to sexually satisfy her before she'd show him "care." Lestat saying it was a "grope" i.e. implied non-consent. Lestat fully aware that his backstory with her is why he is the way he is. Lestat fully aware this is Freudian levels of a psychosexual dynamic. Calling it an "oedepiphany" in reference to the Greek tale of Oedipus. As I've said, Lestat knows what this is, but we'll come to that....again.
The way I screamed when I realized we were finally going back to Auvergne. I've waited so long for this moment. Seriously. 14 years in the making for me. Let me savor it. 😭♥️
"Tail-end of aristocratic decline."
BabyStat. 🥹 The table setup. Lestat's father and brothers at one end. Lestat and Gabriella at the other. That's the dynamic. Lestat is already emotionally enmeshed with her. He already emotionally clings to her to be his beacon in this darkness.
The fucking stutter! 😭😫
The Monsignor saying he sees "good" in Lestat, but his father and brothers mocking it.
Gabriella gives up her broach to "pay" for Lestat to attend the monastery.
TeenStat. References to the theater troupe and Lestat joining them, which has brought shame to the family....as if they weren't already living in shame due to his pathetic and lazy father and brothers.
Lestat talking about Gabriella not having an escape. He's sympathizing with her. He mentions she had herself sterilized so that his father couldn't humiliate her anymore i.e. bearing more unwanted children.
Cabbages. Their own little joke about the patheticness and stupidity of the family.
"The cabbage heads with cabbage brains with cabbage wives all speaking cabbage."
Lestat thundering against his father and brothers. Challenging their stances of nothingness. Gabriella defends him, but his brothers beat him. The book canon oppression of "Lestat will accept his worthless lot in life and be nothing like the rest of us."
"I grew hard by example."
HumanStat. 🥹 Give me a minute. When I tell you I sobbed at this! That's him. That's Lestat. That's my baby! I waited 14 years to see him! 😭♥️
His brother mocking Gabriella's cough and Lestat pulls a gun on him. Yeah, there's protective Lestat.
"Be men!"
"She meant to kill me with the challenge. Better a quick end than watch me surrender another decade. Watch me join the cabbages."
Interesting change here. Gabriella challenges him to "be a man" instead of sitting on his ass on an "empty title." And of course, Lestat rises. Again, he's aware she thought he'd die, but Lestat being Lestat only sees the good in it and believes she was "looking out" for him. Better him dead than to end up like his brothers. It's giving shades of Lestat saying he believed Armand was trying to "help" when Armand did what he did to Nicki.
"The good in me lost at the monastery. My sense of wonder abandoned in a traveling player's wagon." — Did the priests really molest him? That's what this statement implies, and it fits with Lestat not wishing to dwell on it. It says just enough to let us know and combine that with his seemingly off-handed comment in 1x02 (IWTV S1) about the priests being "kid fiddlers"? Yeah, I think it's a sound conclusion to draw here. 😖
His scars are from the wolves. He's badly BADLY injured. Almost dead. Makes his endurance here even more poignant. He wanted them to "come" until he didn't, because Lestat just will not give up or surrender to anything.
"My dog." 😭😭😭😭 — The line delivery. I guarantee Sam was thinking about Rani. That broken pain was real.
"Eight." — That's right, baby. Eight. His resilience and strength is just beautiful. 🥹♥️
Ah yes. Gabriella's sexual fantasies. Note the servant girl's reaction. It is disturbing and uncomfortable and crossing a line. And Lestat is totally at her feet. He adores her. She's like a goddess to him.
"I belong to no one."
"Except for me." — He just wants his mother.
She's dying. That's the only reason she lets him go.
Lestat screaming for his mother. Just a child who wanted the love of his mother.
He has night terrors about Gabriella. This is a reoccurring trauma, which is another telltale signal of exactly what Gabriella does to him.
Gabriella is now going by the name Sofia. They HIDE it! They hide the fact she's his mother from everyone, because the relationship is what it is! Lestat is ashamed of this! Hence the hiding! ‼️‼️‼️
Lestat is rationalizing it, but he knows. He knows. Listen to his tired, self-loathing tone.
"You are being very patient regarding the vampire incest factor, and I do appreciate it."
The credits are never tedious! Love them every time! (Again, All Fall Down should've been longer!) 🔥
Lestat gets most of his blood from the farm. He doesn't have to kill every night.
Daniel flirting with Gabriella. Oh lord.
"I understand the panic. You saw something that you didn't want to acknowledge, but willful ignorance is sleep in a giant's hand." — Oh, how this pertains to SO MUCH with this fandom. LOL.
Lestat is protecting the band from the other vampires. Yeah, that's Lestat.
The band wants to know if the songs are about Louis. Lestat brushes it off, but this will come around again.
Lestat also thinks he's invincible because he carries Akasha's blood. Interesting. This will likely come into play when we fully get into the TOTBT arc.
"It's Louis. Not Lewis." — He's so offended. Do not mispronounce his baby's name.
"Black Licorice is about the first kill I made AFTER Louis and I reconciled."
He's brushing all this off, but he is very protective when it comes to Louis.
"I lived 54,554 days before I met Louis de Pointe du Lac." — The fact he literally counted the days he had to exist before he met Louis. *sobs*
"And so was I." — There's a lot loaded into this exchange. See here.
Lestat considers Alex the best out of the band. He also allows Alex to freely leave. Stark contrast to the portrait that was painted of him as the monster who "wouldn't let Louis and Claudia leave." Mmhmm. Sure.
"And I make it a rule to never sleep with my bandmates."
"We need to make a pact if you're gonna stay."
"Companionship without the come." — Lestat wants a pact. He doesn't want to be sexual with her. ‼️‼️‼️
See? I want to like Gabriella, but geez. The way she strings Lestat along. The way she exerts her power over him. The way she dangles love in front of him like a golden carrot. *sighs*
Gabriella likes the cloud gift. Interesting. She didn't like it in the books.
Gabriella and Lestat visiting the strip club. Canon reference to them visiting brothels.
Lestat saying he would realize "later" that they were being watched by the Talamasca. Interesting.
"An unamusing muse."
Lestat calls Christine "lover."
"I'm doing my job motherfucker."
"No more. We have a pact now." ‼️‼️‼️
"Do I have to fuck him?" — The implication here being Lestat uses his body as currency. Listen to his tone. He's tired. Resigned to it. It's what he's been brainwashed into believing thanks to the dynamic with Gabriella. He must give people sex before they'll pay him any mind. He believes it's all anyone wants from him, because Gabriella won't "help" him unless he fucks her.
Louis owns the hotel — Dracula's Daughter. His alias is Thomas Pitt. He facilitates the meeting with Lestat over the damages to the hotel. He's also the one who arranged for Lestat's band to appear at his hotel. This is Louis' cry for help. This is Louis finding an excuse to be in contact with Lestat without admitting what he's actually doing. It's giving shades of the OG 1973 interview in which he was baiting Lestat into coming to find him by creating an "excuse" to go back to Lestat.
Gabriella "out-monsters" and "out-banters" Lestat. In his mind. He feels insecure with her, but being around someone with that level of power "feels good."
See? Again, I want to like her, but GAH!
Lestat is WTF over her obsession with the Great Conversion. (This will come back around later. Prince Lestat threads.)
Lestat says physical sex is "never like the blood." He prefers the blood, and Gabriella drinks from him without asking. Crossing his boundaries. Taking his agency. ‼️‼️‼️
"We rawed the edges of our pact." — No. SHE rawed the edges. ‼️‼️‼️
Her sexual possession of him is in full force here.
"You stole my personal physician. You hired my biographer. You trashed my hotel."
Lestat calls Louis' hotel "tacky." Louis says the songs are about him. Lestat denies it. (This will come around again!) Louis is being self-righteous and says Lestat's songs feel like a "cry for help." (Mmhmm. Flipping it back to Lestat when really it's Louis crying out for help. Classic Louis™.) Louis says he cares, and Lestat fires back "just as you cared in your book?" Louis is dismissive and wants to shrug it all off. Again, Classic Louis™.
"You insulted me page after page after page."
Oh. Louis says Daniel and the Talamasca wrote it. Right right. No accountability whatsoever. (Remember when I said Louis had regressed? Yeah.)
Louis employing Sam Barclay as a DJ to "pay off his debts."
"Oh, bottom-line Louis. All sins negotiated." — GOLD. 💀
Louis STILL blaming Lestat for the trial! 🙄 Meanwhile, stop and think about why Lestat would hate Sam Barclay for his role in Paris if Lestat "wanted" the trial. Because in 1x01? Sam is scared of Lestat. He says "the Talamasca dragged me into that" as if to say "it wasn't on me!" But if Lestat wanted the trial? He wouldn't care what role Sam played. Nor would he care about Louis fucking off and frolicking with Armand after what Armand did in Paris.
*coughs* Regressed Louis. *coughs*
Louis confirms he's fucking the lawyer. No strings attached. No emotions involved. Lestat is fucking Christine. Remember when I told you that they would have feeding flings? That's what this is. Louis won't call Lem a companion.
"Companion enough for yourself era over?" — That's right, Lestat. Call out the hypocrisy.
"Are you enjoying this exclusive fan experience?" 😭💀😭💀
"I am." — His fucking face. 😭💀
Louis, I love you, but you frustrate the shit outta me! 😅💕
Louis owns 45% of Lestat's merch. Lestat is unamused. ("Bottom-line Louis." 😭💀🎯)
Why Do I Have To Feel? (LOVE LOVE LOVE this one! It's one of my tops.) 💗💗💗
Daniel referring to Louis as "the story" for Lestat's doc. Fitting. It's always Louis.
Lestat freezes time to fly to Louis and throws the book in his face while singing to him. He was trying to "write the prettiest song in the world" pointed lyric at Louis, but he got "distracted" and bitterly throws the book in Louis' lap. Callback to the Loustat FaceTime.
Louis is still in denial about Lestat's pain and his love for Lestat. He's mad at Daniel. Says him and Lestat were "finding our way back again when the book dropped. It hurt him." Yes, Louis. Maybe ACT like it! Or no, he just knows he's fucked up with the book, and he's deflecting. Again, Classic Louis™.
Lestat's notes in the book! 😭
"Why is Louis trying to hurt me?"
"Oh, my dear Claudia. Why?"
Daniel describes time stopping when he feels Armand around. Everyone around them disappears, and it's only them. He's literally describing the vampire soulmate bond! Him and Armand share what Louis and Lestat share! Not every maker and fledgling have this! (Where are my Devil's Minion lovers? 😈)
Meanwhile, Louis quips that it "sounds weird." Right, Louis. Right. Deflect, deflect, deflect.
In case you were wondering, Daniel is an asshole.
"We were finding our way back again when the book dropped. It hurt him." — I like when Louis is honest.
Ah. Louis is being haunted by the memory of Claudia. Seeing people who look like her.
Louis confiding this to Daniel, yet Daniel sells him out to his "producers" — Raglan and Rashid.
Lestat is playing the melody of the song he was playing for Louis during the FaceTime scene. He's thinking about Louis.
"What does he know about me? What did you tell him?" — Of course she wants to know. She already suspects what Louis means to Lestat. She just experienced the time-stopping, everyone else disappearing except Loustat, too.
Yeah, Lestat talked to Louis about Gabriella and led Louis to believe she "died." This will come back around again. For one, Lestat makes the distinction between Gabriella as a human and as a vampire. He categorizes her as "being dead" (his human mother died) to rationalize the sexual abuse in his mind. In his mind — it can't be *this* (sexual abuse) if she's not really his mother. For another, Louis does find out that she's alive and does find out what she's doing to Lestat, which you already saw a glimpse of in the Rolin cut trailer. 🙃
Gabriella is curious about Louis. She's looking at pictures of him.
She came to Lestat after murder night. She saw the aftermath. His slit throat was slow to heal. Rotting roof and bathrobe stuck to his skin. So she came to him after Paris, too. Interesting. The only two times that Lestat saw her in the 1900's. That factors into why he's so desperate for her to stick around now.
"An aloof poetry behind the eyes. Uncanny beauty. An elusiveness. Come and go. Yes. No. I see why you gave him a daughter. I see why you took her back." — Referring to 1x05 when Claudia came back home. She already knows Lestat would do anything for Louis.
Lestat shuts down Gabriella's talk about Claudia. As I said, he is very protective of Louis and Claudia. Contrast that to Louis spilling their dirty laundry. 🙃
"Your father's tongue." — French.
"It's my tongue, and Italy never made a Baudelaire."
Lestat takes the song he was writing for Louis and sets it to the poem "The Fountain of Blood" by Baudelaire —
It becomes La Fontaine, and the words are quite pointed at Gabriella, especially the last line about love to him [Lestat] being "a bed of needles made to slake the thirst of the cruel prostitute" [Gabriella]. *screams* (I do wonder what he would've originally done with this musical piece, because it was meant for Louis as confirmed by Lestat in the previous scene at the concert. He was trying to write "the prettiest song in the world" for Louis. Until Louis "distracted him" with the book. Now he's left to twist it into a "song" "for" Gabriella.) 😫
And here's the full context of killing the family. Gabriella is the one who pushes it. The idea of going back and killing them "for revenge" hadn't even crossed Lestat's mind until she suggested it. Just like she "rawed the edges" of the pact. As I pointed out in my post for 1x01, Lestat goes along with what she wants, because he's always aware that she will abandon him if he doesn't. He has to do what she wants, and he has to be sexual with her. Otherwise, as I said, she leaves him. She takes her "love" away. The context matters, guys.
And we see Lestat regrets it all when he hears his nieces and nephews screaming. His heartbroken face and the diabolical transition to his modern day anguished face. He still regrets it. He still hates himself for it. He's still Lestat.
Also note how fitting the poem is for Lestat turning Gabriella. Almost as if he is saying he's only good for his blood to make more monsters and to turn "the color of all nature to red."
"Fuck it. It's different for vampires. That's it." — Rationalize, rationalize, rationalize.
Raglan wants Louis to kill the Fang Gang. Louis has already been killing people. He's good at "dispatchment." He's now infamous for this. I like this development.
Louis admits he knew it was the Fang Gang responsible for the damages to his hotel, which confirms he only set up the meeting with Lestat about "damages" as an excuse to see him.
"They tried to decapitate your love." — Louis does NOT want to acknowledge that little statement. Deflect, deflect, deflect.
"Thirty-two if you count Agent Talbot."
"No great loss. None of us liked him much." —Bahahahahaha! Did Louis kill David Talbot?! Is this the show's way of writing him off?! Rolin absolutely would! 😭🤣😂💀
Bruce is the head of the Fang Gang. That is what sells the proposal to Louis.
Lestat is rationalizing. Louis is deflecting. Yikes. We're just getting started!
