Cata

The creation of the revenants is so beautifully close to the book lore, closer even that IWTV depicted it (or show!Louis knew it I guess).

Helen and her glasses... well I reblogged the post by @romaroy the other day, and it is very interesting, especially given the backstory. And how it makes her look.

Also - the wig looks... IDK. Black hair, the way it's styled.... Doris is that you? 😅

(Also this reminded me of the movies "Split" and "Glass", actually. Different personalities or personas merged into one?! And the whole demeanor is so different here.)

Episode 4 was a lot of fun, especially. And it more or less opening with Helen asking if the gardener had seen her before?! Interesting.

But of course the most interesting parts in 4 were Guy and Jasper... and Raglan.

At the beginning of the episode Jasper takes Guy into the basement to show him his revenants, and tells him a story of Bacille. Bacille, who, in 1271 Romania gets banished for going "vegetarian". He turns to the Talamasca to find out who is responsible, and the Talamasca agent finds out it was Morgut who had him banished in 1271, and is now heading a coven in Bolivia. And Bacille kills all those 17 vampires.

Now Jasper... for him this story seems to be personal, a young boy is shown being killed with the flashback (Guy later infers that this must have been Jasper.).. but he then does something very interesting - he calls the Talamasca agent who found out the name "greedy", and that he isn't the "exception but the rule".

Jasper notes that the power in their world isn't blood, but information. And that the Talamasca ... kept "them" in line through that information - and that "they" let them.

And then ... the Westcroft - the only vampire coven in town. A hotel as a front for a coven.

It brings back memories of Louis' Azalea for me, and is a perfect explanation for the in-universe canon suites that are kept everywhere for vampires (in the books Lestat has several on "stand-by").

Jasper also heals Guy's forehead wound with some of his blood, and it sets up perfectly the context for what happens at the hotel a bit later.

Jasper claims before Guy goes in that he wants to bring the Talamasca down - talking about how "that book" contains all the whereabouts of every vampire, and that there are "not enough" vampires in the world.

And that the Talamasca... break families apart.

Now, if that is Jasper's real backstory... then Jasper was a kid in the 1920s. And was turned later.

And I find that VERY hard to believe. Because if he was like... 12(?) in the 1920, and was turned in his, what, 50s, 60s? then he was turned only in 1960 plus.

Making him a mere 60 years old vampire.

A 60 years old vampire running/overtaking the London motherhouse. Sure.

There is of course more, and here we get to the lovely Raglan.

Who was a JOY this episode.

Not only does he pick Guy's pockets for the medication, but his comments and whole demeanor made me cackle more than once.

I absolutely loved that Raglan was able to clock Guy's abilities right away, and called it, too. And that he implicitly warned him about Amsterdam and made clear he was looking out for his own interests first and foremost.

Now Guy accompanies Raglan to the transaction - and what a transaction it is.

Not only is the whole thing gloriously gory (because of course shit goes wrong), but it is also perfectly underlined with Pat Banatar's "We belong" LMAO.

In any case, Raglan gets shot, but he gets what he was after - a suitcase full of vials of a 600 years-old vampire's blood.

Now... if you know the story of "The tale of the Body Thief", then you know that Raglan will, ultimately, end up "stealing" Lestat's body, for immortality... and power. (And his money)

Ragland loves power. He revels in it, the canon expression of flaunting his (stolen) wealth and power on the cruise ship is his downfall, but never is it more clear, imho, as when he takes the vials of (already) powerful vampire blood... and only holds it up implying he has everything he needs to... heal his shoulder. "This is all the hospital I need" indeed.

Not to collect it (or any vampire blood) to turn himself, no... if it were that, then it was made more than clear this episode that he has more than enough access already.

But the truly most interesting scene comes shortly after, when Jasper arrives in the hotel suite... and finds the "ancient" vampire that they (not even completely) drained to get the vials of blood.

Jasper calls the vampire in the bed "600, 700 years old. Born before the printing press, before the discovery of the New World".

Which... how would he know that? This age frame? How would he know where that vampire was born? Did he read the mind? Does he know that vampire? If Jasper really is only 60 years old, then ... that is a massive display of power - and experience.

Which leads to the next part - his little rant speech against the Talamasca:

"The Talamasca watches? They're always there? They keep things in balance? Bullshit. This, this goes against everything we believe. What good are they, if they can let this happen right under their noses? Back when the Talamasca started, vampires like him, they had a seat at the table. They were there in the beginning. And when there's more of us... they'll be there again. You watch."

And then he just kills that... "ancient" vampire. Just like that.

Imho there is NO WAY that Jasper is only a few decades old.

Not only does he know too much about the old Talamasca, no, he also slips, imho: "this goes against everything we believe". And: "vampires like him".

Oh, so vampires a few hundred years old had a seat at the table when the Talamasca started????

Yep. That tracks with canon.

Because the Talamasca were founded by vampires and ghosts (Gremt, Hesketh and Teskhamen (Marius' maker)), triggered ultimately by an encounter of a ghost with Pandora.

In the year 752.

I think he ... is hiding in plain sight.

Which is why he also knows the old lore, of the iron head cages, making controllable revenants, and so on. Can kill supposedly ancient vampires. Can overtake and run a Talamasca motherhouse.

If I am right, then the reveal wrt this will be only something for the upcoming seasons though... there is no way they will do this reveal this season. So... we'll see. Eventually 😈

Honorable mention: twins, twins, more twins. A twin named "Rose", and the fitting music: "Ring of the Roses", WHICH, in turn, is extremely interesting not only through the name connection, but also by the connection to the "great plague"...

Spoilers Below:

So, the major, overall takeaway for me was that the best episodes of the season were Episodes 1x01 and 1x06. Which is mostly because, even if the pacing in Episode 1x06 was fast and left me with questions I wish I didn't have to wait to be answered, both episodes didn't have the almost snail's pace I thought the rest of the season had.

All in all, when it comes to this show, I prefer the faster-paced episodes to the slower ones, I guess. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for stories that take the time and pace to breathe and not rush through things, but I think this was the opposite in that not very much was really moving forward for most of the season, because they clearly didn't want to give away the big reveals until the Season Finale.

And for me, the biggest reveal wasn't even about Doris. I pretty much thought, since her character first showed up, that she was not a witch, meaning not human. So everything with her, from her popping up to Jasper not hearing her heartbeat when she hid in the car, I always felt sure were clues wrt her non-human status. (And she has violet vampire eyes, too, btw. Funny that she's been pulling an Armand S1 with the contacts. 🙃)

Now, I thought she was a spirit, not a vampire, so I was wrong about that. But being a vampire means she could always conceal herself from others, including other vampires.

But the reveal that she was purposely made a weak vampire was an interesting twist to it. Meaning Doris only has and can only do the basic vampire ability stuff. (Heightened speed, concealment, drink blood, that kind of stuff.) With no chance of her ever gaining abilities like the Fire Gift, Mind Gift, or the Cloud Gift over time.

And yes, this is once again the show pulling something from the established Vampire Chronicles lore. Because that is exactly what book!Lestat did when making both Louis and Claudia in the IWTV book. He purposely made them weak and closer to humans, with no ability to read minds in particular, or any other special gifts or chance of gaining them over time.

Louis and Claudia, in the show's universe, however, were not made by Lestat to be weak vampires, in contrast. So I wasn't sure if the show(s) were going to do that level-thing with it.

So revealing this with Doris shows that this show, and the entire Immortal Universe itself IMO, is establishing that there are strength levels vampires can be initially made into. Even when it comes to Revenets, too, it looks like.

Continuing with Doris, yeah, I guessed correctly that she was the 752. Again, the knowledge of all things supernatural from at least the 8th Century CE contained in that little book made no sense. Storing it all in a human brain, however? Yep.

I also suspected that Doris might have been Helen's sister. So that being confirmed, too, I liked and felt it made sense. (Though I thought she had been made a bound spirit or something, to account for her age. Weak vampire, OTOH, is a much simpler way to go with it.) So it was nice to get all my questions about Doris answered in this episode, and that I was at least on the right track wrt to her and what her deal was.

Although her being the only backup of the Talamasca archive is still kind of a wtf. IMO, she can't just be the only backup. Especially with the Talamsca not being on some kind of high alert, with their data library having gone missing, and just wandering around somewhere out there in London.

You know, I would almost do a rant, also, about that lady shooting that man in the head in front of Helen and then just leaving Helen alive. But given the type of show this is -- where who and what characters are isn't revealed right out of the gate, and motivations are just as concealed as well -- I'm going to let it go for now. I hope it's not unaddressed in Season 2, and so far, I don't have a reason to doubt that it won't be.

I'm also guessing that Helen is totally going to recruit that cop lady to help her catch Olive, who now has a new little, dangerous pet. Really, next season we have to get her backstory and motivation because a double agent is a nice, twisty reveal, but now I'm ready to learn her motivations for becoming one.

I knew Jasper was fucked the minute the guy in Amsterdam, Housman, I believe his name is (and is he the superior general of the Amsterdam Motherhouse? I wasn't clear on that), said it was time to bring "him" in. I knew very well he was not talking about Guy, but Jasper.

It's clear that those in Amsterdam knew very well what was going on in London and were just letting Jasper do what he did in commandeering the London Motherhouse because they, too, had clearly been looking for the 752, but couldn't find where it -- she -- had gone. My guess is they lost track of Drois when she and Kevas joined the houseboat witches coven or something.

I am very, very intrigued by Amsterdam and what is going on there, BTW. Especially Houseman quid pro quo-ing Jasper into making more vampires.

Neither of them said the words "Great Conversion" about it, but I suspect this is the Talamasca, or at least the Amsterdam Motherhouse, taking up their own part in it. Which is also something I've suspected since... well, since I saw the end of Season 2 of IWTV.

And yes, I very much do think Jasper is going to turn all those people. At the end of the day, he does seem to want more vampires in the world, even if his hands are rather, cuffed, when it comes to his plans to take down the Talamasca right now. So I'm sure he'll be working on a plan to still get what he wants while he's also making vampires for Amsterdam.

Sadly, the only thing I'm finding interesting about Guy at the moment is his mother, whom we've never even seen yet, except hidden in a flashback and in one slightly blurry photo. I don't think he's Rowan Mayfair levels or boring as a main character, and I don't think it's the actor's fault either. It's just the way he's been written, which I think has been too passive. For most of the season, things happened to Guy, rather than him really driving anything wrt the plot.

That said, I did appreciate the scene in the police station when he put those lawyer skills of his to work to try and get them out of that situation. Because I had actually kind of forgotten that he studied law and had been about to work at a law firm before Helen recruited him.

Speaking of Helen and Guy, btw, no, I do not think she's his mother. Maybe they're blood related in some way (meaning he'd also be blood related to Doris, too, which -- 🤨), but no. Not his biological mother or anything like that IMO.

All in all, no, I don't think the show is bad. I think it's decent, though for me the most interesting aspect of it is all the lore that it is drawing upon from the books to do its worldbuilding, and that that worldbuilding IS part of the same world that IWTV/TVL takes place in. It's also not the type of show you can just turn your brain off to watch, or you will miss things and/or not understand others. But, at the moment, I wouldn't call it must-watch. I think it could get there at some point, but it hasn't reached that kind of level yet IMO.

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