The Queen's Game

And Neil’s ribs are a half-broken puzzle in his chest. He forgets, most of the time, but Andrew doesn’t — when he runs his hands over Neil’s bare chest, he feels the minute bumps and divots where the bones beneath his skin have fractured and healed all wrong. There’s a brokenness there that he carries around with him everywhere.

In the kitchen, Andrew has his hand on Neil’s side as he reaches up to grab something from a top cabinet. His t-shirt and skin stretch with him, moving over those broken places, and Andrew feels or maybe imagines the way his scarred skin catches on the ridges. He wonders how it doesn’t hurt. Maybe it does, and Neil’s just forgotten that too.

Hi! 👋🏾

So yeah, I have some... ruminating... thoughts about it. Nothing for sure, however. But I don't mind giving some of the thoughts I've had about it after we got Lestat's subconscious version of Magnus referencing it in EP 3x03.

So first, let's look at the shot in question:

Now, I know I'm not alone in thinking this is some type of hallucination/dream sequence.

Now, in EP 3x03, this is what Magnus said about it:

We eat your soul at the long table. 68 courses so far. We keep waiting for the bill, but the plates keep coming.

I think the "we" Magnus is talking about is just himself. He is eating at Lestat's soul. Which, you know, makes sense, given what Magnus did to him and the trauma Lestat still carries about it.

But another thing Lestat carries about what Magnus did to him is wondering why. Why did Magnus decide to give him the Dark Gift, instead of just letting Lestat be one of the failures -- the other blond young men that Magnus kidnapped, assaulted, and then just killed instead of turning? That is something that, in the books, Lestat also carries about it all.

And, at least from all the screeners who have seen the first six episodes, this shot above is not in the first six episodes. Meaning, the shot is very likely going to be in EP 3x07, the title of which is "The Failures." (And which is also the title of Lestat's audio album/diary about all these events.)

68 courses so far. We keep waiting for the bill, but the plates keep coming.

So what if the 68 courses are... actually the number of young blond men, before Lestat, that Magnus kidnapped, assaulted, and killed? Because remember, Lestat was with Magnus for a week before he was force-turned. And he said that during that time, Magnus kept him locked in the tower with the look-alike corpses.

Maybe... Lestat counted the number of corpses that were there with him? Though I don't know if that jibes with the line about the plates that keep coming, but...

Okay, anyway, the next reference to the long table is when Magnus names those who are sitting around it by a moniker and not their names... except for Claudia, who is the only one he outright names.

And who, if you notice, is the only one who isn't at the table. However, I do believe the empty seat to the right of Lestat is the seat that is her's. So, IMO, Claudia hasn't arrived yet, or... she's already left.

As to all the others around the table? Well, as others besides me have said, we know all of them, except for TC, appear to be Lestat's feldglings -- Gabby, Nicki, Louis, and Antoinette. And if Claudia is just not there yet, or has already left, that would mean all of his fledglings would be at that table.

Though... Claudia could be missing from the table for another reason. Maybe for a reason we've yet to see, but will in EP305 and/or EP306. I'll just say there was a spoiler given in a review before the season started about a character who is coming in this season, who hasn't shown up yet, but I do believe will soon... and who is tied to something regarding Claudia.

And so what happens with that character regarding Claudia could also maybe account for Claudia not being at the table. But that is just pure speculation at this point.

Anyway, again, TC is the one exception to the feldgling thing, at least given what we know so far. But that doesn't mean that she couldn't be turned between what eps we've seen up to this point and this moment in EP7. We have no way to know at the moment.

Though I will say, for a bit now, I've thought all the band members would get worse endings in the show than in the books.

As to why they are all gathered at the table... for some reason I feel, at least right now, it relates to Lestat feeling that he has failed each of them in some way, given the title of the episode this moment appears to be in. And Lestat is confronting and dealing with any feelings he holds about having failed them in specific ways, and trying to move forward from that.

But at the moment, that explanation feels a little too simple to me. Though it is all I've got right now. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Book-related side note, however: in Queen of the Damned, there comes a point when all the "main" vampires -- as it were -- all sit together, with Akasha, at a long table as she explains her take-over-the-world plan. And then, in the Prince Lestat Trilogy, the ruling council of the vampire court also sits at a long table together as well.

So this table above could be a foreshadowing of those two long tables that I feel certain are coming, given where the story is going, as well. In fact, Gabriella, sitting at one end, while Lestat sits at the other, kind of gives off that "dark monarch" vibe that they were discussing in EP3x04

The Monarchy of Darkness, in fact....

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"Democrats and Republicans in Congress have struck a deal on a bill they say will help keep children and teens safe online. The KIDS Act could pass on the House floor as soon as next week; if enacted, it would fundamentally change the way everyone — not just kids — accesses the internet.

At stake is your ability to use many social media platforms without revealing your identity. 

That’s because the KIDS Act at least strongly incentivizes — and, for some services, outright requires — age verification. Many platforms will turn to age verification to avoid potential liability under the law. Companies like X, video-sharing services like Vimeo, and others with a history of users’ populating social feeds with edgy content may be required to verify users’ ages because they host a certain amount of content deemed “sexual material harmful to minors,” a term that the KIDS Act defines broadly. 

That’s a big problem for people who need to be able to use the internet anonymously, since, as Taylor Lorenz has previously written about in The Intercept, “there’s no way to reliably verify someone’s age without verifying who they are.” 

Threats to online anonymity harm everyone, but one group is often overlooked: journalists and the sources who talk to them. Age verification requirements will help the Trump administration carry out its vendetta against the press by creating new avenues to identify journalists’ confidential sources. [...]