the whole world is here, waiting

the scene is meant to communicate several things which are simultaneously true regardless their contradictions:

1) claudia and lestat lived similar lives, societal position aside

2) they never understood each other in this way because lestat abused claudia, which was enabled by oppression, which neither of them had control over, but lestat unintentionally weaponized

3) lestat has come around to understanding who claudia was on this deeper level because he had the gift of the "many nights in front of [him] where [he] might learn to live honestly" that claudia never got (because of his abuse, both louis and lestat know this is fundamentally unfair!)

4) loustat's relationship to claudia was and is fundamentally characterized by the original sin of her nonconsensual transition to undeath. they killed her and made her their own. as for louis, there was never any hope of a relationship btwn him and claudia that wasnt marked by how he hopes she will absorb his sins in life and undeath (his exploitation of others) and purify him. and any and all interaction either of them have with her (commodified, post-book release!) memory will be somewhat exploitative because of this context.

5) claudia really was just the roof shingle that flew off loustat's house, another round in their stormy romance

it’s never made sense to me that mohan, who’s a senior resident who’d specifically been researching care for marginalized patients, would know nothing about insurance. but it would make so much sense for javadi and i think that seeing her reaction orlando’s daughter, who seemed close to her age, talking about picking up extra shifts and crowdfunding to cover his medical care would’ve even more impactful to her character than seeing roxie’s sons affected by her dying. bc she really has lived with a lot of privilege and having another girl her age choosing to work more to support her parents would’ve still gotten her to that point of feeling guilt about wanting to be around her parents less.

and having mohan, who’s lost her father and is actively avoiding her mom’s calls, confronted with a terminal patient who’s choosing end of life care and seeing her interactions with her sons would’ve been so interesting through mohan’s pov. would she be judgmental bc her dad didn’t have that kind of choice? would it have had a bigger impact on how she was choosing to handle her mother’s calls?