Ramblings on Episode 1
too many thoughts and I got to get them out!
I think it is interesting that Black Licorice is the song the band was practicing on Halloween when Lestat barges in with his opinion on Larry's solo and that it is the song where he breaks down on stage. Something happens for Larry to go from"that was sick" to fuck you I'm taking my solo back after Lestat presumably wrote lyrics and gave himself a violin solo instead. Mr. "I need 50 years of practice" is exerting a Prince-level of control over his band and how they perform. His standards are high and they are feeling the weight of it. His own reflections on the time is that their middling success was his fault because he insisted they spend 18 months in rehearsals and missed their window where more people would have cared. And yet, the music they were making was just okay. Whatever creative synergy he had with Larry has evaporated and he is just "the singer" and the guy who signs the checks. As if to suggest, "if you don't see my musical value well then I don't see yours. Put on your little show and sing your stupid lyrics and fuck off." It is not surprising to me that Larry tries to take his song back by reclaiming that solo. And it also doesn't surprise me that Lestat wants to kill him for it. Not only because of what making music means to but because it's the violin specifically who we know connects to Nicholas. What cracks open in this moment that feels to him like a transgression, a crossing of a boundary, disrespect and defiance of his rule, all the horrors flood in. He is lost panicking in what felt like yet another moment where something is being taken from him. Yet what happens in his vulnerability, is that the band is finally in concert with him. They aren't taking anything away, they are creating with him, feeding off each and the audience. If you've ever been to a concert where this happens it's magical and intoxicating. He presumably felt this synergy at one point when the song they were practicing became his vehicle to tell the story of his first kill in decades. The kiss shared later between Larry and Lestat felt reconciliatory as they lapped up Baby Jenks' praise like Lestat had finally delivered on a promise he once made to get them to creative heights and success they couldn't imagine.
I wonder if the violin he is playing is belonged to Nicholas. Even if it didn't, I don't think it's a coincidence that he has a breakdown over Larry playing over his violin solo. I bet he gets worked up every time he has to play a song with violin in it but after the frustration from the previous night around that song in particular it was a perfect storm for his intrusive memories to pounce on him.
Do we think DJ Sam has anything to fear from his former coven leader, Armand? He knows that Sam was cozying up to him and being a kiss ass during the Paris years as part of his remit. He knows that without the script he provided, his lie would've held for longer. We've seen him set coven members on fire before so who's to say he won't exact some vengeance on the only one who is left?
Seeing Lestat spiral out reminded me so much on Brandon from Shame, the 2011 Steve McQueen film. There is such desperation in Fassbender's performance that I think Reid is going to execute just as devastatingly well. I have a feeling the random sex will start to make me feel like I did watching that movie where by the orgy near the end I'm begging him to stop. Watching the scene with Brandon and Marianne was so heartbreaking because you know he likes her and seemingly that's why he can't physically connect with her until he awkwardly asks her to leave and next thing you know he's fucking a sex worker against the glass for anyone to see. I feel like there will be something like that where I'm sat there really rooting for him to be vulnerable and connect in a real way and he won't be able to even though what he truly wants is right there.
Why is Dee sleeping on pillows on the floor? Lestat does seem to care for her in a very basic way, even if she is his hired fuckbuddy and drug mule. Was it a choice she made herself or is she his lapdog sleep at the foot of his bed as instructed just like everyone else doing as they're told?
What if the muse of Louis from the night he was turned doesn't speak but just stares at him with a knowing judgemental smirk? "The silence is cruel, Louis and you were never cruel." he once said. What if this muse is?
The panic in Lestat's voice when he asks his hallucination Who's coming? really broke my heart. It really could be anyone and he looks so afraid of facing whatever is coming alone. How does he move from that to feeling goooood on the sofa soaking up praise at party? I've never taken the drugs he mentioned but I do wonder what that in between time was like and if he saw anything else or did anything else before pushing himself forward to make his appearance, fashionably late.
When did Louis mention his stutter? Was it when he was spiteful in 1973 or waxing poetic in 2022? I wonder if we'll get this context or if it'll matter.
Lestat's shirt changes between a sheer button down and a black top in the Halloween flashback. He goes to answer the knock on the door in one shirt and opens it wearing another. Wonder what the significance is there if any.
Ramblings on Episode 2
The recap at the beginning included altered takes and the way his voice sounds when he says Never happened! is devastating. The take in the episode is angry & comedic but including that one I think connects with Louis coming face to face with Lestat's hurt and pain.
Why is the image we first see of the mediation scene upside down and backwards? Who's perspective is that?
Hearing Lestat call Magnus' tower home really broke my heart. It also struck me that Gabriella is the one who drives the mission to go on a killing spree at their family home. He smiles at her and says my mother that is so open and affectionate. Like after being trapped with his Maker, he is relieved to be with his actual creator and wants to go be monsters with her.
There's definitely some visual storytelling going on with Lestat and sunglasses in the episode. When you can see his eyes versus when you can't or when it is partial like the glasses are sliding but still on. Watching his night out with Gabriella it is a fascinating thing to keep track of in how it relates to his vulnerability and openness.
The fight against the Fang Gang in ep1 is our action packed wolf fight brought into modern times. I prefer to watch that versus Sam fighting a bunch of CGI wolves. Plus I love the details like the design of the garrote with the claws, the fight choreography having as someone pounce on him and lots of teeth tearing flesh, the actors who play Tim & Rus having wolf-ish features. In watching it again in contrast to ep2, the reposition I think is interesting from a story perspective too. In the past, defeating the wolves is a moment of triumph to those around him, cracks open and forever changes his relationship with Gabriella, and haunts human Lestat in the moment not only because he lost his dear animal companions but the last bit of humanity. He connected with his monstrous self and everyone is applauding and his mother is perversely attentive. It propels him forward toward love (Nicki) and ruin (Magnus). In contrast, in present day, he can't defeat the wolves on his own. He needs Daniel and Sam. I pondered last week if Dee was his lapdog and well, he turns her away and keeps her away from the carnage unlike Mojo who gets slaughtered. He is battling against intrusive thoughts of how he lost his family and aftermath and it is weighing him down unlike the the thoughts of murdering his father and brothers helping him in the past. He's at his most animalistic and monstrous then revealed to the waiting crowd and no one is cheering or worshipping, even though their lives were likely just saved by him. And then there's Gabriella showing up after much begging and him finally giving up, refusing care just like he did in the past. He apologizes for not being at his best because he knows how much she adored his triumph over wolves in the past but this time he failed by those same standards. He knows that she doesn't want to belong to him so he is overly gracious in thanking her for coming. She has no words for him like she did in the past. There's no worshipping crowd awaiting or men in their family to rub their faces in his triumph. It's just them living in the reality of the monstrosity and freedom they fantasized about with nothing left between them but transactional affection and her "tending" to his wounds. We start here because it is propelling him forward to love (Louis) and ruin (Akasha).
Ranblings on Episode 3
Lestat rejected his title when he went to Paris I would imagine to help protect himself during the Revolution since he comes from a noble aristocratic line. He wants to blend in and be like everyone else but as Nicki points out, he can't. His cloak, hard won and a gift for his heroic triumph, makes him stand out. He can't avoid it. He stand out on stage to Magnus. And he forces the title of vampiric heir on him and leaves him with his fortune. He's doomed to a tragic fate whether he would've been taken by the revolutionary mob or by an obsessed immortal.
The "pity is treason" line is something I had to look up to confirm my suspicion. It was a statement made during the French revolution to indicate that even feeling bad for the royals and the aristocracy was treasonous. So in the context of the scene, Lestat says the rallying cry of the revolutionary mob in the street and Nicki says this line in response. Then Lestat shakes his head, No while biting his lip and looking a bit nervous. Nicki knows that Lestat is noble and trying to lay low. So imagine how heartbreaking it is for Nicki to know that Lestat is keeping something from him after being trusted with his life. To know that he now has money and is willing to show it off in his attire. He went from being his most trusted confidant to know being on the outs and Gabriella taunting him surely didn't help.
Seeing and even more terrifyingly hearing what went down in that tower makes it even more terrible that he called it home in episode 2. Hearing him reciting Bible verses, begging for him to stop it, desperate to be saved makes me wonder how much of his time in his childhood home was spent the same way before he was broken into the husk of himself we see before he becomes the infamous wolf killer.
His lyrics are called into question in the interview with Daniel and it made me think about how we're seeing his journey as a musician. When we see him at the end of season 2, he is relentlessly practicing classical music written by someone else and declares he needs 50 years more practice before he can continue the great work. Then we see him writing his own music but presumably using the words of Baudelaire when we see him playing for Louis in Montreal over Facetime. He's creating, not just practicing, but still not his words. Then we see him on stage after grinding his band with 18 months of practice, and he's singing his own lyrics. With the exception of Black Licorice that has music from the band and his additions and words, he is creating original works that seem surface level but have deeper meaning that can read into it as he intends. But then the piece that is transcendent and lifts him off his feet, is direct and soul baring. He finds his voice.
Jarda is called "Neanderthal me" in episode 1 and he calls his human self the "Ape of Auvergne" in the interview scene. Gabriella having sex with Jarda is a power play on so many levels. He's already upset with her for laughing when Daniel is poking fun at his lyrics. He hits back with his line about moms, LEGO, and Peppa Pig while looking in her direction. It is a well placed threat, not so much to reveal her identity as he doesn't want that but that he'll view, refer, and treat her as a mom which we know she doesn't want that title or responsibility. She sets her sights on Jarda in retaliation. She goes after a version of him she can control like his human self, even starting by caressing his thigh just like she did to him three centuries ago when they were human. The aggressively loud sex is meant to rattle him, negate his threat of motherhood, center her as a sexual force, disrupt any discussion of his first love, any of the vulnerability, confidence, or power he'd been displaying that wasn't in service to her or to her liking. Also it may be another instance of them showing us visually something without showing us so we can connect the dots. Her fondling the ping pong balls while smirking at him in episode 2. Her enjoying sex with a bewildered much younger person who is in over his head in episode 3.
The sound Nicki makes in the fire is the same sound he makes when he ODs before talking to Baby Jenks on the ceiling. Did he get a taste of mortality?
Ramblings on Episode 4
"Do you hear that Armand?" after the opening scene with the cop that he mocks and taunts is so pointed. This very strict by the rules guy comes onto the bus to start the episode and get ridiculed but also acknowledges how hard the job must be because he sees the worst in humanity. As if Lestat is saying, I get this is hard on you Armand but I'm still breaking your stupid laws no matter how much you expand your jurisdiction.
The voiceover narration this time around becomes quite erratic and less narrative focused at times. He seems distracted rather than reflective at times. I think the album numbers are some of the highest we see as well. Has he started to lose the purpose of doing these by this point in the recording process?
So my previous pondering about Gabi and the loud sex was validated and pushed into an even more heartbreaking place. She was specifically taking him back to his early days as a vampire and Maker where she was able to manipulate him into fulfilling her sexual desires. I watched that scene so many times because I was struck by the acting choices. Lestat really tries to confront her and have some sense of power as her Maker only for her to destroy that influence by once again pulling on the string of her maternal love that he is so desirous of. She may not have said it with that intent but it is how he receives it. When he takes off his shirt, she is awed by his form and continues this almost masturbatory usage of his form for her pleasure. While he starts hesitant and looking impossibly young before she kisses him. By the time he is inside of her, he looks determined. Not playful or awestruck or drugged up and distracted, he looks determined to do a good job. He's doing anything his mother asks of him, as he says.
When we get to the sequence where Blood Marriage is playing, we have both Lestat and Louis doing their own communions. Lestat has crossed lines because his mother asked him to to keep her affection and companionship so he is performing the role as assigned he thinks. They will be monsters together as they fantasized not acknowledging that Gabriella shared a long list of things she wasn't. He still thinks he is the exception. By crossing these lines with him from their mortal lives into their immortal ones, Gabriella has created the very thing she feared: an unbreakable attachment. He will always desire her attention and she will always desire the power over him. It is she who reaches out to him first in episode one. She abandons but she always returns. Louis' communion with Regina is also a never ending cycle of him bartering for company for his own needs regardless of the consequences for that person. In the long list of people, they are all dead or undead as Raglan said last season. We've seen where Lestat's failed attempt led him but it is to be seen for Louis but I think it's clear it's going to be bad.
When talking to Regina we see a movie poster called The Cameraman right when he gives her the 1k cash too and then shares outside that he found her OF. Is Louis going to make new footage for his archives? Make her read the diaries he already memorized or wear outfits he can remember? Will she not be up to it and he lashes out? Will it be revealed that through her slip ups how unfilling it all is so he goes further to try to get the real thing and we get her ghost?
Lestat says that of these liminals spaces their kind don't acknowledge that they need rest or service. Our boys go looking for both.
I noticed that on Lestat's phone Gabriella is named Sophia but we still see Moi/Toi conversations. I doubt this is a mistake so something is up.
The "piece of shit brothers" are back can apply to Lestat and Armand. So many twisted relationship dynamics!
