#muse rambles

SO THIS IS A LOT

If I thought last week was a lot (the devil's were minioning good lord in hell) then this week hit me like that subway that killed Larry (RIP king, you just wanted to fuck Lestat at least once we've all been there).

Anyway, where to even start?

I might go character by character because this season seems to follow everyone on their own arcs that look like they're all going to come together in the next two episodes which will be cool. I love plots like that a lot, where it seems all over the place at first but then at the end you see how it all connects and it's like "Holy Shit! How did I not see that?!" and then you go back and watch the season and you see so much you missed and you find all the clues, it's so much fun.

Let's start with our title character, the main girl herself, Lestat.

Oh my god. So we get to see the process of recording The Failures and how Lestat really wants to put his whole life into this album. The music this season has been amazing and 4 and 5 have definitely had the best so far (The Loneliness stand on it's own podium, it's too perfect).

The muses of Nicki and Louis (in the outfit he was turned in!) and CLAUDIA. Stained Glass Eyes was heartbreaking and yet so cathartic, it really felt like a breakthrough. I will never understand anyone who believes that Lestat never loved Claudia, he adored his daughter and this song and his reflections (and him meeting Regina!) showcased that perfectly.

Then we have the flashbacks with him meeting Marius and encountering Those Who Must Be Kept.

First off, fuck you Marius de Boring Roman-us. Armand is not a rotten boy, you just saw him after he was indoctrinated into a cult and peaced out because he wasn't your precious jewel any more. I may not be an Armand stan technically, but when it comes to anything related to Marius or if he says anything else about Armand I will throw that groomer into the sun myself!

It was funny when he basically pulled Lestat from the ground into his messy ass basement and said "Here's the keys to the house, I left instructions on how to feed the King and Queen who are our infernal origins and I'm going to go on holiday byeeeeee!"

He basically got Lestat to house sit while he did whatever it is Marius does (wax poetic about boring Roman shit to Pandora who sits there calling him a little bitch? IDK I don't care) and Lestat went mad and threw a NYE party with his imaginary friends.

We discover how he got the blood of Akasha and Sheila Atim delivers the performance of a lifetime as Akasha. She is fantastic and Akasha is the perfect amount of intimidating and strange and creepy (that part where she's a statue standing next to Lestat saying "Come to Me", oh my looooorrddd).

It does answer some things about the drop in season 1 but I'll be really honest and say they needed way more setup for that to make more sense, but I will let them cook. Like I said earlier, it appears this is a season with lots of little pieces that will come together in the end so we'll see how they go.

Oh, and he still is kissing his mum. I know I said nothing about it, and it's not that I don't want to acknowledge her relevance to his story. On the contrary, the relationship he shares with his mother is one of the most formative of his life. It clearly affected the way he loves others and how he develops relationships. I have a degree in Early Childhood Education I'm well aware of attachment theory and the roles our parental relationships play in our development. Especially in abusive cases like The Lioncourts.

That being said, much like Armand, I don't like her at all and wish I could omit her from the narrative because watching her around Lestat throws me into a protective rage. However, I can't do that because she's important to the plot.

I'm allowed to acknowledge her significance to the overall narrative and still think she's a bitch.

Honestly, it means that the writing of her character is great if it means I'm getting such a visceral reaction. It's not meant to be palatable, I'm meant to be uncomfortable and in that case the writers, producers and Jennifer are doing a fantastic job.

It's similar to how I'm feeling about Louis right now (the creeped out aspect mainly). I love Louis and have a lot of sympathy for him, much like I do all the main cast.

But oh my god Louis, what are you doing?!

Louis continues with Regina and adds an actress to play Madeline as well. They dress the part and everything, it's so unsettling. All of Louis' scenes with Regina freak me out, in the sense that I can see Louis spiralling with this and trying to cope the only way he seems to know how - paying someone to indulge in his bullshit so he can feel some sense of normalcy.

It ultimately doesn't work (which I knew it wouldn't). The scenes where Regina and "Madeline" kiss in front of Louis in such an exaggerated way, the shot we see of him so uncomfortable as he realises the facsimile he's created followed by the scene on the boat where he freezes Regina and touches her face immediately snapping out of it and forcing them to go home. it's so good. I love that Louis got to realise that himself because I really wanted him too.

That clarity is so important for him and I love that he got in contact with Lestat to help him.

I loved their scene here. I love Louis acknowledging his selfishness and Lestat being upfront about his pain, yet also indulging Louis by going to the diner (very "How can I say no to you?" from season 1).

Lestat and Regina was something I wasn't expecting but I'm glad it happened. When I say that, I mean that I had no idea where Louis and Regina's story was heading (though with the teaser from the end of this episode I feel like it's going in the direction of the Merrick book) so seeing Lestat meet her was good.

I was glad that Louis stopped himself before it went too deep, though you could argue that he was already too deep when he first talked to her in the diner. Louis this season presented himself as someone who thought he had acknowledged all of his trauma and could move on, but I don't think he realised that he only ripped the bandage off. Now he has to actually look at the wounds and acknowledge that he's in pain and he needs to heal properly.

I feel like his relationship with Armand was a distraction - if he escaped to the penthouse in Dubai he could hide not only from the world, but from all of the pain and trauma. Armand being Armand didn't help things.

I might write up my thoughts about everyone and how they deal with things at a later date as well as my thought on the whole season when it finishes.

Lastly, the Devil and his Minion!

Now when I first watched the show, like many I had no idea about this ship and in between S1 and S2 I learned about it and I liked it a lot. There is a lot there that just works so by the time S2 ended, I was on that train ready to go.

In episode 4 we started the Devil’s Minion arc for this season and if you kept an eye on these two in S1 and 2 you would have picked up on some subtle (some may argue non existent but you clearly weren't paying attention) foreshadowing. As well as the last episode of S2, where we find out Armand turned Daniel and it created a lovely game of mystery in the fandom, with some people not understanding that Louis saying it was spite and Daniel not necessarily agreeing with him meant that that was only Louis' opinion and not the actual truth. (lord have mercy on the media literacy of this next generation!)

This results in Armand and Daniel reuniting in Ep 4 (The Devil's Road, which has a double meaning in regards to Lestat and Gabriella) where Armand is on his apology tour after going to AA meetings.

That is definitely not going to be the weirdest thing I write about Armand I fear.

Anyway, Armand tries to read out his little apology note in the bowling alley (and we get the whole world going quiet, everyone disapearring until we're the only two in the room type thing fuck!), and Daniel was having NONE of it!

I loved his rant here, just lashing out with pent up emotions that have been boiling under the surface.

Then there's the whole push him up against the wall, then the rapture thing happens, then he tells you he loves you thing. THAT WAS A LOT OK?

Now in New York, Armand is back and we learn he has been keeping tabs for FIFTY TWO YEARS????

And Louis knew? (Daniel once again asking the audiences questions, though lowkey I think Armand may have lied or like I said earlier Louis was too checked out to care)

AND IT WAS LOVE THE WHOLE TIME

ARMAND WAS IN LOVE WITH HIM THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME

then he yeeted Larry in front of a subway and I blacked out