Someone.

Disjointment is not beyond what you might expect from Lestat telling a story, and the fact that we are in Queen Of The Damned and the petty comeback is a background for Akashapocalypse was pretty evident from the start. Was it a good decision? After finishing the season, I don't really think so.

Don't get me wrong, we got a lot of funny stuff, immaculate songs, Sam pouring his heart, soul and ass into this character as he always did, but it somehow didn't feel like fully his season. When reading TOTB, I legit wondered what vendetta Anne Rice suddenly had against Lestat, her favorite. And thinking about next three books after TVL, so Queen of the Damned, Tale of The Body Thief and Memnoch The Devil, Lestat goes through some SHIIIT. You can put it to lack of ideas, irratic inspiration, whatever, but it's true. Lestat was put through the ringer, but it started from his telling his truth and being delusional about things like his turning, mystery of Marius and his fascination with humanity. Lestat is a clown, because he's the epitome of ''if I don't laugh, I'll cry''. Can you really blame him?

But TVL the show just puts him through the ringer, and pivotal moments of his upbringing are the montages and aesthetic shots. I honestly would rather hear that the tractor salesman was a bigot or the tenor was a dick and that's why ''kill the evildoer'' works. But smart and introspective Lestat that spend about 10 years with Akasha, who was communicating with him, never really honored the blood, I guess. As much as I hate the Marius lore dump in the book, show!Lestat just doesn't know that, I guess?

Don't get me wrong, some moving details make sence, I think. But Marius being just a cooky scientist rubbed me the wrong way. Gabriella, obviously, rubbed me the wrong way. And since my thoughts a rapid (and rabid), I'll move on to her. I've said this before, I'll say it again, this whole bit is a weird Ryan Murphy-esque move. There's enough gross and shoking stuff down the line, and that makes me worried. Is Akasha going to be girlbossed into not being...the actual worst? Is what she does to Maharet and Mekare is going to be played up for shock value and then somehow redeemed? Akasha is basically a religious zealot set in her ways that was given an unimaginable power. She was right once, but not in execution of anything she had ever done.

It really seems that the problem of misogyny bled into the show from the books. Only in the books it was internalized, obviosly still harmful, but the writer was a woman. Now it really feels like Rolin and\or Hannah are getting a little bit too cocky. We got Merrick, adult Merrick and mentions of other Mayfairs which is also, let's be honest, quite concerning.

So instead of a monster that doesn't need humanity or societal expectations of pretending to be human, that doesn't need her son or any kind of lover, but will come back to help Lestat against what, arguably, she might be powerless we have...a mean brothel madame that dangles her sonlover above an abyss for some vague vampire domination plot, and on top of that, literally wants to have a claim on him as a mistress. I imagined Gabrielle as a weather-worn traveler that imerges if she's really, really needed. There's only one moment where I saw something interesting - the moment where she says ''I love you'' to Lestat. It really seemed like a woman's way to dial down a scary situation that involves a man that thinks he has a claim on her. The rest of the time, before or after, Gabriella still hates the Marquis, the French, men and seemingly what Lestat is as a person. I wish she would hate push up bras. Jennifer Ehle seemed so excited and interected in the character, and we all got perverted version of Yzma if she was Italian.

Regina bit I didn't mind. I love Delainey, I'd be down if she appeared in another role and just nobody said anything. Her accent, the Armand plot, it's fine. I think Delainey did a good job with what the writing was. I truly saw a girl that is just surviving the life she was given, trying to find her place, and getting mixed up in the worst shenanigans she probably could. Her doing OnlyFans though? Did we really need that? Not only it's Louis The Pimp 2: Let's be delusional with BroDaddy, it's just a lame inclusion. Logical, maybe, but the coming back of ''Sexy Claudia Costumes''through Louis' storyline could have been done smarter, if needed to be done at all.

Everything with Louis is...hard. I love Louis like I would have loved an older (stupid) brother I never had. I think it's really interesting to have a gay man, so far the only vampire not leaning both ways, who really wanted and maybe still wants to be father. Yearns for that hand in his. But the entire understanding of the fact that he's delusinal about Claudia, about his businesses, about the extent of his love and his trauma, a lot of it falls on the viewer. I'm really not vibing with his apology to Armand. If it's what Lestat is retelling to us, it makes sense that Louis is flipping through his rolodex of metaphors, but...It's not enough. Him thinking about little Arun, using his memory to steer Armand in correct directions, and never ever thinking about what age all of his girls started working? While seemingly being willing to help Regina with OnlyFans? There's always something to uncover in future season, gay men can be mysoginistic too, etcetera. But wouldn't it be so ironic if Gabriella poked him with something like that?

I'm in no way qualified to speak on the racism part of the Louis discussion. My delusion choses to consider ''fried chicken'' comment as a reference to the Anne Rice Popeys owner beef. What Claudia says to him could be justified for her specifically. She wanted to stab deep and twist it. She had all the right to do that. And I do think that vampirism set in stone all of those mechanisms and traumatic responces concerning Louis' race and sexuality. He will never be able to hide from it, the same with the rest of them.

You could say that being annoyed with Devil's Minion was the goal, because Lestat is annoyed with them. You also could say that Daniel is the way he is because he's not only pissy and weird about Lestat's treatment of him, but he's also wired to step on heads and throats as a journalist, and now he's doing it with vampiric power, which might ultimately lead to a breakdown. But these fuckass shots of Armand while Louis is talking about Arun? There's some shots in this seasons I truly can't look at and be normal about them. It's honestly kind of hilarious (if I don't laugh, I'll cry, remember?) how love is show this season. Not even a nip slip, not even a kiss with the peepaw and the gremlin. We are back to the books in the lamest way possible.

I'm not entirely upset about Armand. I enjoyed him choosing to be evil and somehow it works with the way Lestat would see him after Paris, but without ''Why don't you want me?", without Lestat actively choosing to go after Marius, without two blond men bringing ruin to Armand's livelihood it all just rings empty. I know, it's half of the story, the budget, executives, constraints, blah-blah-blah. It still sucks. But his beef with Gabriella is now more justified, I guess?

The band were pretty neat. Honestly, loved the fact Lestat made TC and not the boys, but I didn't get enough Dee or Christine. I guess there's at least one Dee bit that was cut (I saw a shot where they sit in Lestat's lap while he's wearing the velour shirt and striped pants. I hate that outfit), but I wish we had a car scene to cringe through with Chrstine. I really don't think TC survived Akasha, Gabriella really shouldn't by all logic, but I am hopeful.

I'm tired. But we saw Claudia. We have so many different versions of her at this point. Little kid Claudia, Rushing to Grow Up Claudia, Serial Killer Claudia, Team Player Claudia and so on. This works in the context of memory, totally. Her speach at the seance does read a little...''look, someone said a black girl wouldn't have said ''stoning'' instead of ''lynching'', she would have probably said all these things''. Was it cathartic? Of course. But it makes me think about how Claudia might be this show Gabrielle. Nobody really understands how to write her.