listen. "me and my husband" by mitski is SO loustat coded you don't understand
the whole song is about resignation to our fates and making the best of a bad situation. it begins with a tired sigh, like the wife is already defeated, as if it's already taking up so much of her strength and wherewithal just to say this. and what she has to say is that she "[steals] a few breaths for a minute" before "[she'll] be nothing", that her existence is already so devoid or meaning or purpose that it means nothing to anyone, least of all herself. she's hollow. everything that could mean anything to her will be gone too, her "memories" and "all the things [she's] seen."
this very much parallels louis' life before he becomes a vampire. he is the dutiful son, forced to bear the burdens of his family and their judgement, all the while supporting them and keeping them in lavish ignorance. he's never truly been himself or done what he wanted. he admits at the end of ep1 in the confessional that he despises what he's done to the people working for him, that he lies to himself to make it right and justify his continued exploitation.
this changes when lestat forces himself back into the narrative and turns louis into a vampire, much like mitski mentions her "husband" after going on about her meagre existence. lestat opened louis' eyes to the beauty of life and what it means to be alive. louis also struggles with his vampiric nature because of this.
we see from mitski's language that she has put all of her eggs in his basket. it's "always been just [her and her husband] together." even when he's disagreeable and has a "furrowed brow"- lestat's violence and spite- she has to tell herself that they're "doing better." she's "bet all [she has] on it." she has to continue believing that what she has with her husband is enough to justify being with him, because if she's not with him, what's left?
the wife is resigned to her life, her fate with her husband. she can't escape or ignore him.
just like louis has done with lestat. after he became a vampire, he signed his human life away. he struggles to juggle both his human and vampire parts but it doesn't work out. his brother dies, his mother rejects him and dies, his sister leaves new orleans with her husband and children, and all louis is left with is lestat.
it makes sense that he'd stay with lestat. who else could a vampire have than another vampire? the mortal world is inhospitable to him, or rather he is inhospitable to it. all of louis' attempts to give himself the illusion of humanity have blown up in his face or directly resulted in the people he cares about getting hurt.
even worse is the fact that louis can't escape humanity and its prejudices and trappings. in mitski's song, she goes on about how she is "the idiot with the painted face in the corner taking up space." this directly parallels louis' inability to remain above the human world like lestat does. although he is a vampire and therefore has all its unique and powerful benefits, he is still beholden to white men like tom and alderman fenwick. being a vampire means nothing when he is still a black man in the jim crow south.
it isn't until the husband "walks in" that "[the wife] is loved." that her existence is validated. much like louis is only allowed to be seen or heard because of lestat's presence. not to say that he doesn't do a lot for himself without lestat, but a lot of doors are opened to him because lestat is supporting him. and even then, he has to pretend to be lestat's valet at the opéra to be able to attend at all. lestat may preach that they are above the meat, but louis cannot escape their judgement and the social limitations place upon him.
all of these things have made louis resigned to his fate as lestat's wife. which claudia points out. she calls him the "housewife" and herself the "mistake." they don't really exist by themselves for themselves, always bound to lestat and his whims.
louis especially. he so easily becomes absorbed in him, when he allows himself to. it even becomes a liability to claudia's plan to free them. again: when lestat walks in, louis is loved. he finally has a reason to exist, if only it's in bitter resignation. we see that in episodes 5 and 6.
louis stays with lestat. he doesn't need to, but he has nowhere else to go. this is the episode his sister leaves, and regardless he hasn't spoken to her in years. he takes petty satisfaction in needling lestat and provoking him, when he's not absorbed in his books, but he doesn't leave. he's as much bound to the house as lestat is. and then the fight- if you can even call it that, for how one-sided it was- starts. it's terrible, brutal. but not shocking. the whole show has lead up to this. I suspect louis wasn't surprised that it happened, just that he wishes claudia didn't have to bear witness to it. and, knowing how fucked up it was, all that lestat did to him, louis still takes him back in the end.
lestat may be violent, he may have a "furrowed brow", a violent and erratic temper , but that's all louis has to bet on, it's all he can trust to always be there. even in the throes of his depression after claudia ran away, lestat never left. he always came back. he spent three years trying to win back louis' regard. afterwards, louis tries to compromise and try to heal their family. he's always trying to make the best of a bad situation. he knows that his efforts are futile, but he tries anyway because this is all he has left. this broken family and his terrible husband.
it's claudia is the one who kickstarts everything; she won't suffer lestat anymore, she's done. but louis needs to be corralled into it, and he's always a bit of a flight risk. even when he does decide to kill lestat (which has doubt cast onto it because louis is an unreliable narrator), it's because of the risk he poses to claudia. it's never about himself.
if it were only he and lestat, he would stay, because at the end of the day, it's always been and will always be louis and his husband, together.
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