I do think the Claudia scene could serve as a really good schism between Louis' depiction of her (he's her favorite, he wasn't always great to her but he carries the guilt of it and realizes his failures, his guilt is unhealthy but noble, and earned because they genuinely loved each other and understood each other as semi-peers under Lestat's foot)
and Lestat's depiction of her (HE'S her favorite, he was genuinely awful to her but didn't know how to not be awful because look at the trauma/family he was working with, he carries guilt for her but can't refuses to focus on any negative feelings like that, and his guilt is in part because he saw himself in her as they were very similar)
but the season has been so sooooooo SOOOOOOO disinterested in actually... depicting memory as a changeling, as a monster, as something unreliable that it just falls flat
the same way claudia hurling racist, loaded language at louis technically makes sense, she is choosing the crudest, most hurtful language she can think of. louis (and oBVIOUSLY lestat's) abuse of her was racialized as well (it was misogynoir and i think on some level invoking the word slave COULD interestingly chafe against what she sort of became, as she was a black child plucked out of her life to effectively be owned by them, which COULD be an interesting play against book louis), so flinging back racist language at him could make sense. and, of course, the "this is filtered through lestat's retelling and as a racist, he'd take no issue with this"
but the show doesn't... do anything with it or really have any response or thematic tie in to make it be anything other than... racist loaded language. this season doesn't do much with race at all when it actually should be heavily interrogated (soooo louis pisses off everyone by exposing vampirism and gets hunted down, lestat does it via song and... he's a white messiah... the context is different but ??? no play with that at all??)
there's no real connective tissue. daniel is there but he isnt' connecting the dots, it's a bunch of failure tapes, with no questioning it. beyond the drugged out pacing of episode 1, the framing of this season hasn't FELT like lestat, so you can't even point out the claudia or racism of it all and be like "this is a byproduct of lestat's narration" because lestat's narration feels so much less present, even when he's singing in a very lestat way. lestat's voice doesn't fit the way things are depicted. claudia's rage FEELS like an objective retelling, not something to paint lestat in a better light, even when it DOES do that.
i could buy claudia preferring lestat. i could buy louis misreading claudia and her resenting him even before the trial and her hurt over you and him, him and you. i could buy her hurling the most hateful words she could think of...
but her not punishing lestat? not hurling shit at him? no. even if she preferred him, she'd still hurl shit at him. with a racial tilt to it as well--why call louis' a slave if not to also denigrate lestat as as slavemaster, something she's done before? doing that would be insulting their relationship together, skewing the imbalance, and highlighting something the show should be grappling with, especially as their social capital has shifted but... no??
on many levels, the scene has some really great moments but imo the foundational work is just not there, a lot of it is unearned, and the tonal shift of their reaction makes it feel less heavy than it should
like i said before, loustat IMMEDIATELY using it to booster their relationship is 110% in character writing, but tonally it should've been handled much differently. at least transition more slowly into the moon eyes
so, ultimately, i feel like i enjoyed the impact of the scene, and the highs of it, but it's kind of baffling from many angles because it goes unquestioned in so many ways
and what's extra baffling is the writers for this are the same writers from s1, s2 and it's like ? i get why louis' perspective maybe wasn't peppered with a million easter eggs for this ?? but surely something a bit more could've been put in
or at least do a throwback line to when claudia hAS been mad at louis? something more direct? some connective tissue PLEASE
