don't call me a mindless philosopher

post 80's breakup DM. Daniel doesn't remember where this heartache is coming from so he falls back into drugs hard. Armand mourns their relationship, spending hours and hours in the little bathtub from the flat where everything began on divisadero street.

things to look for : they have matching ashtrays. Daniel has the remnants of a vampire bite but Armand also sports a human-shaped bitemark where he was letting Daniel mock-bite him. Hard so see because of the angle but Armand is sporting a black bindi (symbol of mourning) but his hands and feet are still adorning joyful mehndi from when he was with his beloved. The tapes around Armand are all recordings of Daniel's voice. They are both crying.

closeups of Armand's mehndi under the cut !!!

I am so upset by the anti-Black racism in that scene.

it's complicated. it's likely her, but the words themselves aren't. in the book, merrick explains that any spirit called upon lies. that whatever spirit louis spoke to pulled from his deepest fears and guilt in order to hurt him. claudia's feelings about louis and lestat are complex so the concept of her ghost harming louis is still reasonable, but the show took it into an unnecessary antiblack direction, compounded by the major issue of prioritizing the white lead for years now.

and it's so...this adaption built reputation on taking anne rice's work and only expanding it. the changes they made to louis is a strong example. so why is merrick - louis' second fledgling, and a book centered on a black woman grappling with identity and power - potentially a single scene? a scene with THAT dialogue?

merrick should've been woven into louis' arc from the start of the season. her relationship with him continued the themes of race and exploitation at the forefront of his character into season 3. merrick contains many parallels to claudia, even more so with show!claudia. and this line? awesome!