In s1/2 Daniel was acting as the mortal/human contrast to the vampire melodrama - more subdued and sarcastic compared to the big emotions and relationship drama of louis/lestat/armand. Now hes entering that space and its jarring for some fans bc hes now occupying that space (you can argue how sucessful bogosian is at navigating that). I actually really love the scene where daniel talks to louis about the crowds vanishing where he senses armand - eric is almost shy about it in a way thats quite sweet and a nice bridge between normal daniel -> Romantic lead Daniel

Now the love confession scene works better than the stalking confession scene to me because you have this push and pull of the crowd disppearing and reappearing as this source of tension and visual externalisation of their realtionship. We got nothing for the next episode. Sat on a bench chatting. Boring! Makes the sun stuff come a bit out of nowhere - like dan has complained over lack of vampire powers but its never seemed like a lacking just a sort of jealousy or interest in power. If we had seen dan really mourn his inability to outside in daytime maybe that offer wouls be more powerful. Or have the sun play a part of the scene! Maybe its almost dawn and dan is in danger if he doesnt get inside! Then theres more visually interest and the stakes feel higher

It does feel a bit with dm stuff that its a bit low stakes - like theyve barely interacted but not in a juicy way with danger or stalking, armand has just been absent and drops thr L bomb and then....hangs around to explain himself. The interesting thing (to me) in the relationship is that armand is fucked up and daniel is on the recieving end of it. Armand should be more mysterious and treat daniel worse. And Dan should be more mad about it