#regina asks

And Louis' name in Lestat's phone being a reference to Tis Pity She's a Whore which is about incestuous relationship between brother and sister....

Totally, anon, that level of exploitation runs really rampantly through that sequence and this arc more broadly. Kind of interestingly though, I don't necessarily think the pornification of Claudia and Madeline's relationship there was purely about exploitation (although it was there), but also really deeply rooted in fantasy and Louis having to reconcile with exactly what her age at both her deaths deprived her of. It felt really tied to the conversation all the way back in 1.05 to me in that sense, where Claudia grapples with this reality of her romantic and sexual future:

Madeleine was, in many ways, a part of Louis' own grappling with that, and his decision to make her for Claudia was as much an acknowledgement of what he'd done to her as it was an attempt to absolve himself of that. He knew, even then, that he couldn't love her enough or in the ways that she wanted, and while he resented giving her a companion (I do always tend to see Madeleine's turning as symbolically a father giving his daughter away), it's also important that Claudia and Louis made her together. The act in itself was an incestuous one - Claudia had been daughter, sister, now, there, she and Louis were also mother and father, making a daughter in Madeleine to whom Louis would feel no bond.

The deliberate juxtaposition in this episode with 2.06, the last time outside of the trial Louis sees them, is the exploitation and sexualisation of their memory, but I think it's also Louis trying to repeat the cycle and make a third with Regina again, collapsing his role as father and husband as they are during Madeleine's turning (especially interesting then that Louis and Regina roleplay as siblings then instead). A part of that though is, I think, Louis trying to imagine an adult life for Claudia that she never truly got the chance to live.

In some ways, this scene feels more in-conversation with the Bruce sequence to me than it does with the scenes of Regina in the last episode, because it's inherently about empty fantasy first, exploitation second. Regina's not Claudia, this woman isn't Madeleine, yes, they're both being paid to be there, but seemingly knowingly, willingly, which means Louis' sitting with regret and an ending he's trying to re-write. He can't deal with Bruce now and have it mean anything because Claudia is dead, he can't make believe Claudia an autonomous, adult life, because Claudia is dead, and he can't have a stranger roleplay a romance with her either, because not only is Claudia dead, but so is Madeleine, his first and only fledgling. The past isn't reconciled through recreation, nor is it truly remembered.

Adore this show's focus on details and environmental storytelling

I love it so much too, anon! The titles work on their own, and I haven't seen Glorifying the American Girl, so will put that one aside, but I've seen all of The Gold Diggers films! I've seen what I can of both the original 1923 silent film, and the 1929 remake, which is what that poster is for (both films are unfortunately partially lost, so there's only about half you can still watch [and you can watch them both in their partial assemblies on YouTube]), and I've seen the 1933 remake too which I love - it's an early Joan Blondell film! Queen! - and the subsequent sequels and spinoffs, Gold Diggers of 1935 and Gold Diggers of 1937.

One of the things that I really love about them is that while they're ultimately musical variety romantic comedies (a tragically underserved genre these days, haha), they really understand and are, at their core, about the lack of financial autonomy and social freedom women have in the 20s and 30s, and how performance was a way to get both (even though they all end up married - it was the 20s/30s, haha), which I think speaks to both Claudia and Regina.

Regina's performance now is for financial autonomy, of course, just as Claudia's time performing with Theatres des Vampires was her trying to find and achieve a social freedom, as well as a creative one, which is pretty central to those films too.

What's especially interesting to me in the choice of that poster though is that they went specifically for the 1929 film's poster, which was not only the remake of the original silent film, but actually the second all-talking, all-colour feature ever made.

I was really expecting Regina to look like someone else / be played by a different actress too, anon (or at least, I was until the last After Dark episode where Delainey spoiled it, haha), so the fact that Regina really is a doppelganger rather than a projection just totally wrecked me. It feels like such a stark juxtaposition to the ways Lestat and Louis have been handling their grief, because Louis' been chasing the memory of her for decades, but Lestat's pushed her away because he hasn't allowed himself the right to remember her (he was never her - -).

For those two realities of their grief to collide like that, for Louis to have to remember that there's no way to relive or re-do, and for Lestat to have to face the fact that his memories of her are just beneath the surface, was just perfect to me, and really beautifully and devastatingly done. For her to open that door musically too jut -- yeah.

1- I have a mother and father... along with a brother who I despise with every part of my being. I'm not close to them and they are all assholes, I used to be but since they decided I'm not fit to lead they are dead to me.

8- I guess the environment of nobles affected me alot, it came with alot of work and meetings.. and alot of social rules which I had difficult time following alot of the time. Though I guess it's nice I don't have to do that anymore.

21- Someone kind and willing to put with my anger.... well not put up with it.. but at least someone who wouldn't be upset with my outbusts.

*She blushes a bit more*