Emeraldine

Everything. ♥️

The way he ran to Louis. The way they're looking at each other says everything. The gentle way they touch each other's neck scars. The profound emotions laden beneath this tender exchange. The reverence for each other. The quiet appreciation and thankfulness that they're both safe and alive.

I really struggle with the narrative surrounding Lestat’s ability to finally confront Gabi and how this has often been centered on Louis’ influence on Lestat. While I absolutely agree that Louis is an integral part of Lestat and that they’re slowly but surely finding the best ways to love one another, I hesitate to say that Louis is the most significant reason that Lestat is able to rail against Gabi at the end of the episode.

We’ve watched Lestat grapple with Gabi’s abuse of him the entire season. We’ve seen him try to push away from her on his own (for example, the “why won’t you let me hate you” scene). We’ve seen him using an iteration of inner child work in his interactions with Babystat, specifically in the recording studio and long table scenes, although I don’t think he knows he’s actively approaching it that way. We’ve seen him push back against Louis, even, by asserting that it’s unfair of Louis to see his abuse as a sickness. Lestat has gone through a grueling arc separate from Louis this season, and he’s largely done it on his own while being effectively waterboarded by ongoing trauma and his continued attempts to care for Louis and those around him. I think his isolation in navigating these challenges is further highlighted when he blatantly acknowledges that Louis never reached out after the shooting.

Also, Louis said objectively horrific things to Lestat about his victimization. I won’t negate that Louis did apologize, and I see that as growth on his part. But, I can’t imagine that Lestat will easily forget the love of his life accusing him of being “sick”. And not just about the incest piece but the, “source of all of your sickness” line implies that Louis sees additional things he may consider a “sickness” in Lestat. More troubling, Louis tells him that there is absolutely no justification imaginable for how someone could end up experiencing incestuous abuse. Lestat remembers. When he eventually tries to divulge more of his experiences to Louis, as I’m sure he will because of their trust on each other, that statement alone could very well haunt him because it further solidifies his own shame, self-blame, and guilt over his abuse. I believe that forgiveness and reconciliation are possible, but I personally don’t think that Lestat would ever simply forget that Louis still said these things to him in a moment of anger and disbelief.

Lestat clings to criticisms of his character (being a villain/monster, the terrible album review, the train scene allegation, etc.) and I don’t think this part of his internal world and characterization goes away because these things were said by Louis specifically. Given how deeply he loves Louis and values Louis’ opinion of him, I think it’s entirely possible that these statements about his abuse would cut deeper than things said by anyone else in his life.

Taking all of this into consideration, I think that attributing Lestat’s ability to confront Gabi mostly, or solely, to Louis’ presence in his life continues to strip away pieces of Lestat’s agency. I’m not, at all, discrediting that Louis has a role in Lestat feeling safe enough to take this step, but Louis has also caused real and meaningful harm to Lestat specifically related to his abuse. I want Lestat to be seen for the internal work he’s done, alone, to get to this point. Centering a victim’s ability to stand against their abuser on another person feels like it takes something away from Lestat, even if that person is Louis.

I know you’re a diehard and true Lestat supporter, as am I, so I was just a little bit surprised to see how much Louis was centered in this part of your reflections on episode seven. I love Loustat, but I also love Louis and Lestat as separate characters. Their ability to find strength in one another is undeniable and beautiful - one of the most central parts of their dynamic - but it starts with the strength they have within themselves. I ultimately just want to see Lestat’s character growth recognized outside of his relationship to Louis - as his own person with strength, insight, agency, and autonomy.

I wanted to put this out there as food for thought because I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer. I really do look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Hey!

You're right. There isn't an easy, *correct* answer.

But it ultimately comes down to two aspects for me.

One — Lestat clung to Gabriella as his formative cornerstone and allowed the abuse because he needed her crumbs of affection. Once Louis is back in his life, he doesn't need to abide her abuse any longer, because Louis is there to give him the real love he actually wants and needs. Simplified summation? Yes, but that's the bottom-line.

Two — The thesis statement of Lestat's long table reckoning came down to one thing — Gabriella. The revelation was framed as Gabriella being the reason for every "failure" in Lestat's life. You're right, Louis' words did cut. He called it a "sickness", but what the long table dream sequence did was basically make Louis "correct" about this. It's no coincidence that brutal argument from Louis happened in the previous episode, because Lestat comes to the realization that Gabriella actually is the source of his "sickness", his "failures." Louis saying that to him set this up, imo.

Lestat, deep-down, always knew what she was doing to him. He never wanted it.

It took Louis' words and Louis' comfort before Lestat could even begin to confront this horror, and the dream sequence just further cemented that. Yes, it's a nice notion to think of Lestat being able to handle this for himself, but he also needs Louis. Without Louis, things spiral for Lestat. We saw this all season. It's a resounding statement that the one episode in which Lestat is stable and at peace and genuinely happy is the one episode with Louis.

This breakthrough —

This started because of Louis. I really don't think Lestat's dream would've been what it was without the previous events with Louis, and I don't think he would've felt he had the true support he needed to go against her if it wasn't for Louis. One of the main problems has always been her control and her isolation and her manipulation that kept Lestat under her thumb. It's not a coincidence that until the one person who can take power comes along — Louis — that Lestat starts pushing back against her, and it started in Episode 6, even before Louis learned of the truth.

I'll be living in this forever. 🥹♥️

"Love of my life was him."

"He has a hard time saying it. Got that from our daddy. It doesn't mean he doesn't. It's just his way. Thank you for loving him. For loving him the way he needs to be loved."

"Where's Louis?"

Omg, let's all die!

Don't do this to me! Please don't do this to me!

They just wanted their future together! 😭

First of all, if I’m to explain any of this, I have to first introduce another piece of media through a movie called “Confessions”.

Confessions is a Japanese psychological thriller movie in which the story of a murder of a child changes based on the perspectives of the character. There is one truth out there. It’s just the truth is different based on who was involved in the murder.

If anyone wants to see a deep dive on the movie, look no further than here. Warning, the story is very graphic.

This tactic was done frequently in S3 in which it had multiple moments where the audience believes they know the truth they always believed until another perspective changes it on its head. And then maybe another. The finale did this a lot.

A few good examples are the following:

1) Claudia’s train story was believed to be true until Lestat said it never happened and said it was impossible. During the seance, Claudia confirmed that she had lied about Lestat threatening her with rape or worse to manipulate Louis. And yet, during Lestat’s concert in between life and death, he meets and acknowledges the train conductor he had decapitated.

2) Armand claims in his apology letter to Lestat that his relationship with him was one sided and this is more or less confirmed in Lestat’s retelling of his time in Paris with him. However, Nicki’s phantom repeatedly haunts him during performances and recordings of “Big Boss”with Lestat looking guilty. Not only that, but several other phantoms in Lestat’s mind repeatedly remind him of his relationship with Armand.

3) Claudia’s diaries reveal that Lestat had forced her to watch Charlie burn in the incinerator as she squirmed. In Lestat’s flashback, he’s holding her as they both watch Charlie burn with tears in his eyes. Inside his mind, phantom Louis accuses him of doing what Gabriella had done to him as a child with witches. He calls it “tough love” and we do indeed see Claudia squirming as Lestat tries to hold her still to watch Charlie burn.

The tactic in this form of storytelling intentionally gaslights the audience to believe they understand the truth of a situation only to make them question all of it. If it’s done well, the story can do this multiple times and leave the audience questioning all of it by the end. The only thing about The Vampire Lestat is that when writers aren’t well coordinated and don’t intend to utilize this theme consistently, it just looks like sloppy writing. Hence why I said frequently, not consistently.

Hannah Moscovitch was the writer for episode 5 and 7 and she was also one the main writers of the first two seasons. She knows how to play with inconsistency in narrative and craft it all her own whether it be altered memories, lies, or difference in perspective. That’s why episode really 7 works, because it made the audience think they understood the truth only to question themselves once again. It also explains why the fandom fights so much about who is right or wrong.

The answer is no one is completely right or wrong. They have their perspective and no one else’s. And if we haven’t noticed by now, everyone lies.

“It’s not how it happened! It is how it happened”

The people in that room were all the people he loved and respected as well as all the people he had drained and killed in the last 200+ years. And he remembers every single one. From people who seem insignificant to the significant.

Paul wasn’t someone he drained, but someone he had unintentionally drove to suicide just as he did Nicki. He messed with a mentally unstable man and it led to poor consequences.

But Paul isn’t there for judgment nor penance. He’s there to remind Lestat on the few things he did right in his life. And one of them was loving Louis, as grotesque as that love may have seemed to him.

You could call Paul an Angel or some form of divine messenger. He’s just a gentle presence for Lestat to lean on as a quiet in the loud chaos when the lights go out.

Magnus, Marius, Gabriella, Louis.

You would never see this outside of Lestat’s psyche.

What I learned is that there is an inflexible rule about how people interact with systems. If your system would work perfectly if people Just Would, and yet they Don’t, then your system is bad and you should feel bad. Systems must be built with an eye toward “will people actually do this”?

Recycling was a thing when I was a child. (The 70’s.) In my home in New York State, you could carry recyclables to a recycling center. Nobody did. Now in 2024 Baltimore there is a trash truck that comes every week to pick up my recyclables, and I and my neighbors fill our cans with objects that can be recycled, because a system was developed that was easy for busy people to do, and there’s a lot of social pressure to do it – but the social pressure wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t easy to do. Only the most crunchy granola people bitched at you if you didn’t recycle in 1979, when it required a lot of effort. Now it is considered kind of on par with spitting in the street or leaving a dirty diaper on the diaper changing table in the bathroom instead of throwing it out, if you don’t recycle.