We're All Trapped In Our Coffins

Interview with the Vampire

Aka Baby Jenks (Bruce’s next victim) is the one who ends up killing him instead. In the books , after she was turned, she mowed people down with an axe. And if anyone deserved to kill Bruce, it would be her . It’d be more empowering that someone paralleled to Claudia , down to the nickname (baby jenks/lulu) , ended Bruce once and for all. One of Bruce’s victims being the one to stop him - and thus preventing more Claudia’s in the process would be a more impactful narrative beat. Kind of like how Claudia prevented Madeline from being assaulted by those men.

Not to mention, Louis has a habit of using grand gestures to try and absolve himself of guilt. That's why Claudia was turned in the first place. Having Louis not get that catharsis could be an interesting area for character exploration. Because at the end of the day: Claudia is gone , and when she finally opened up to him about Bruce (she was met with silence).

They could of course go the more 'obvious route'. But, even if Louis does kill Bruce , it wouldn't nullify his pain or guilt over Claudia’s fate (just like how killing the Parisian coven didn’t do so ). Arguably , maybe that'll be the point (there wasn't character progression ). In s2 he kills a coven, and in s3 he kills a coven, but once again he doesn't feel any better . Because there's no easy or quick solution to absolve his guilt and grief regarding Claudia.

Maybe it’ll parallel the seance scene too . In the books Louis did a seance to talk to Claudia . But in the show it may be Lestat. And (spoiler alert) : she pretty much said he only called her to absolve his own guilt and to feel better about himself , not for her sake.

You could argue Louis revenge plan and lestat’s (possible) seance will just prove Claudia right : “it was never about her (but them feeling better about how they wronged her ).”

IWTVL S3 Musings: POSTHUMOUS AUCTION?! 👀

AMC thought they were reeeeal cute with all those props auctions, huh. 🤦‍♂️🤣

"Lestat's narrative, similar to Louis' in IWTV, is the story within the story--told via recordings at a posthumous auction of the golden-haired vampire's belongings. But very little about what's going on in the present is revealed until later on in the series, which gives priority to its narrator's enchanting, if unreliable, account."

This is a FASCINATING premise. Now it makes sense why the journalists were saying S3 would be non-linear; and why Rolin Jones hemmed & hawwed so much about Lestat's mortality. etc.

Ok, so I'm assuming that S3 is basically already in the post-QotD timeline, a la the books, where the public thought Lestat had "died" after his disastrous concert in Death Valley when Akasha showed up.

But there's also something else I think is going on, too:

Cuz I have a niggling suspicion that Lestat's music sucks at first because he's being unreliable AF (high/drunk, mad/sad, dishonest & avoidant & ducking accountability, etc). But the more he looks inward & faces the ghosts of his past failures, instead of processing it healthily, he internalizes the guilt & self-loathing and IS "trying to end it," as Rolin Jones said--a la book!Lestat's suicide attempt(s) in TotBT. Esp. if all his music's really amounted to was unleashing a literal horror onto the world by waking Akasha up--another thing Lestat hates himself for.

But ofc like Sam Reid said, Lestat's already drunk so much of Akasha's blood that he CAN'T die in the sunlight--"he'll just get a tan."

So are the recordings auctioned off while Lestat's laid up somewhere already burned (& healing) but knowing that his career's over because he CANNOT be redeemed thru his music? 🤔 So he sells his recordings & memorabilia off as his final bow? (Will Memnoch visit him as he convalesces?)

Is Akasha already dead, OR is she just getting started (so she's holding him hostage while this auction takes place)? 👀 (My main suspicion is that it's Akasha's voice we're hearing on The Failures, and that she's lying to him & controlling the narrative more than HE is.)

So while it would make total sense that the humans all think Lestat's dead & gone--what do the VAMPS think? 👀

Main question: How many coats does Louis own? 🤔

Cuz I assumed that was Louis with the cane at the auction, and yeah, apparently he IS there:

In 3x1 "the dynamic between [Armand, Daniel, & Louis], who are all attending the auction of Lestat's recordings, is unclear."

So my question's just if Louis' wearing the same coat in multiple different scenes / points in the timeline--before & after the auction? (I would truly hate it if it's all different times in the same coat, that's so boring, costume department-wise. Give that man different fits! 😭) Cuz we definitely see him WITH Lestat in some of those scenes, in what looks like the same dang coat? So, WHEN? 🤔

So Louis and Armand have this giant wall, in their living room. The wall is given a lot of screen-time, and a lot of importance. And I think that this wall (and what's hanging on it) says a LOT about Louis' mental state, Armand's mental state, and the state of their relationship.

So this is the very first shot we get of the inside of the penthouse, it's our intro into Daniel in Louis & Armand's world.

We've got those three red pantings, called out in dialog as "the Bacon triptych" "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion," and "The Three Furies." Which I think we're meant to read as a visual representation of Louis' pain.

First, Francis Bacon is specifically riffing off this altarpiece:

and you can absolutely see him subtly using the iconography and shapes of (from left to right) - John the Apostle, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist

the left one has John's red hair and red wrap, the center has mary's white veil/headscarf, and Bacon leans into the way it kinda looks like a blindfold (the shape of Mary Magdalene has been simplified into that table/tripod thing.) And the one on the right is the general shape of John the Baptist, with the lamb represented as that furry carpet.

The most important painting is the center "Virgin Mary" one, the one that frames Daniel. And the most OBVIOUS meaning here (other than the catholic of it all, which is very Louis) is -- death of a child. Mary is watching Jesus die. It's a painting of his Claudia pain.

BUT these are also the three "furies," the goddesses of vengeance (so ALSO very Louis) who come down especially hard on liars and oath breakers. And the remaining liar/oath breaker? Armand, and arguably Lestat. Louis doesn't know the extent of Armand betrayal, but he DOES know that he sold them out to the Paris coven because of his "cowardice." These are the two main sources of his current pain. Daniel is here to help them process them, and that's why Daniel's sitting right in the middle of them. His head is literally in the game.

BUT Armand (in his Rashid persona, and that doesn't feel like a good omen, putting on a false face in front of the furies) is blocking the one on the right almost completely. HE wants to sell the Bacon Triptych, take it down off the wall. That's because... Armand doesn't WANT Louis' pain front and center. The last thing we hear him say to Louis is "One night, 70 years ago. You are over this, Louis! The pain of it has left you (...) You have forgiven me for what part I played in her death!"

After he successfully sells the triptych, Louis and Armand have this conversation in front of the blank wall:

ARMAND: The two Barcelos would fit. LOUIS: If we replaced the couch. ARMAND: I assumed we would. LOUIS: The couch, then the table, then the Antieau Javelina, then, then, then, then. ARMAND: How about the Ai Weiwei wallpaper with the Hockney lemons? LOUIS: Like we're a Firmdale hotel lobby? ARMAND: Okay, what do you think we should do with the wall? LOUIS: What about a selection of Fred Steins, tastefully framed? They've been sitting in my albums all this time, seems a waste. Or better not to have so tangible a reminder of Paris up on our walls? ARMAND: An interview about Paris is a more tangible reminder of Paris than a few photographs. LOUIS: Huh. Leave it bare then. Wait for revelation to enter the room.

It's unclear what Armand means by "the two Barcelos" so I get to speculate. I think we're talking about Miquel Barceló, and I also think we're talking about his sculptures rather than his paintings, because of the reference to moving the couch. Which you would DEFINITELY do if you were moving in sculptures, but probably not if you were hanging a painting. Especially since it's a really neutral, charcoal grey couch.

Also, the fact that it's TWO Barcelos mean that I'm looking for sculptures that are part of set, and the famous Barcelo sculpture series is "Metamorphosis."

And I dunno. This seems pretty Armand coded to me. Metamorphosis as a concept is very Armand, with all his shifting identities, but I'm also getting *hunger* from this, I'm getting *damage,* I'm getting shaky foundation... and the shaky foundation, it's built out of corrupted Roman pillars (cough marius de romanus cough.) So, if the Bacon triptych symbolizes Louis' pain, maybe this symbolizes Armand's pain (and his interiority, his backstory.) It's his first pick after all.

But Louis says no, shuts it down. Armand's next suggestion is pretty straightforward. The Ai Weiwei "Wallpaper" piece is all about imprisonment and surveillance.

And David Hockney, important figure of post-war pop art, painted mid-century American scenes that at first glance seem to be bright, clean, and happy... but have a sort of melancholy, suburban malaise underneath the surface. He's really famous for his paintings of swimming pools.

But he also painted a lot of lemons. I think it's because we've got that bright yellow on the outside, hiding an underlying bitterness.

So, this pair of artworks is Armand saying "can we continue as we have been?" (me keeping you superficially happy in my "prison of empathy.") And Louis says no, because he's recovered his memories at this point, he's getting wise to Armand's deceptions.

Then Louis suggests (a little sarcastically) that they should hang the Fred Stein photographs that Armand has been slipping into his portfolio. We're never explicitly told WHY Armand is doing this - pretty weird thing, but I think it's got to do with memory, and the David Hockney superficial happiness of it all. Armand wants Louis to remember a Paris that was better than it was, more romantic than it was (where Louis was a better photographer than he was...) But that story isn't reflected in Louis' photographs, so Armand... fixes it. 'Cleans up the mess' (the way he always does.)

So, Louis wanting to put that 'Fred Stein' lie front and center is a call out. He's saying that he wants to focus on Paris (with Daniel) and remind himself of Armand's lie. So, a way to interpret this conversation is Armand saying "can we focus on my damage/past/interiority/pain," Louis saying no. Then Armand saying "can we keep things status quo?" and Louis saying no. Then Louis says "can we focus on the truth of Paris." And Armand says no. At which point, Louis says he wants to wait for "revelation to enter the room." AND - we cut to this shot.

Revelation HAS entered the room (its name is Daniel Molloy.) Because Daniel of course breaks the case wide open, exposes Armand, and helps Louis process the pain he's had since that first shot.

Pictured - Louis processing pain. By throwing Armand at the living room wall.

The NEXT time we see the wall, it looks like this --

Louis has introduced color back into his life (also lot of yellow. which is a very *Claudia* color.)

The new painting is "Shelter" by contemporary artist Peter Jerrod Macon, and it's of a mother embracing a child. (confirmed by production designer Mara LePere Schloop.) SO - Louis is no longer defined by his pain like he was at the beginning of season one, when he the Virgin Mary watching a child die. Now he's defined by the *love* he feels for his child.

short answer? kind of yes. people rationalizing away/getting upset/dooming over assad's "i'm going to break you" comments, i'm totally with you that that's not the whole story, but i also think it's 1000% correct and in character. that said, DONT WORRY. devil's minion is not in danger

i've actually been meaning to talk about this and now i have the perfect opportunity! especially since assad's comments support where i've always thought armand's head was at with daniel's turning :)

i've spoken at length as recently as yesterday about the domestic side of daniel and armand's relationship, and i really do believe with my entire heart that they are good for each other and that their relationship will eventually stabilize. that said, i've also talked about how rocky the road to getting there is. this is where many of my personal gripes about people sanitizing the dm relationship come in. armand is a fucking mess. he's extraordinarily traumatized. he has been systematically stripped of any opportunity to learn how to love and be loved. he has extreme, largely unaddressed cptsd, which traps your brain in a state of hyperarousal. from armand's perspective, on a subconscious level, every bad thing that has ever happened to him is still happening. he's stuck. this is also the essence of the anne rice vampirism/trauma allegory. my girl is crazy! i say this with all the love and empathy in my heart because i am unfortunately also crazy lol

these things set armand up for failure when he approaches his relationships, and they strip him of any ability to feel secure in literally any situation. think about how cloudy your head gets when you're completely overwhelmed by fear. that's his default decision making state! the idea that it's fundamentally unsafe to exercise his autonomy or try to address his own needs has been literally tortured into him over the years and so, because those things are unavoidable parts of life, the perceived danger of approaching them can make armand impulsive and childish at times. this isn't even touching his insanely warped world view and complete lack identity, or the fact that pretty much every survival strategy he's had to learn over the past 500 years ranges from unhelpful to completely antithetical to building a stable, loving, egalitarian partnership. again, my girl is crazy. devils minion may be sweet and loving and domestic, but it will never be sustainable until some of these issues start getting excavated and addressed, and holy shit is that an infected, festering wound. excavation is going to hurt like hell.

armand's refusal to make another vampire sits at the very center of that wound, and i think his revulsion at the thought of turning anyone goes even deeper than most people realize. not only is it the single act of autonomy he's been able to maintain for the past 500 years, not only does he think that anyone he could turn would come to hate and leave him, he really truly does believe that it's the worst thing that can be done to another person.

the name of the game when it comes to armand is repression. he's a character who hides everything from himself. the weight of everything that's been done to him is unendurable, so he doesn't endure it. he seals it behind a brick wall inside of himself and tries so so desperately hard to forget it's there, but it's always going to leak through the cracks. even worse, all these things that he won't let himself think or feel mutate and metastasize inside him while he refuses to look at them. in particular, armand still loves marius, and he still doesn't really have the tools to understand what's been done to him. marius also deliberately cuts him off at the pass in tva by outright telling him he might not remember their relationship in a good light later in life and making him promise to remember that they were in love and armand chose their relationship (from page 69-70 in the mass market paperpack, i just spent twenty years trying to find it):

"—and when you think back on this time, when in half-sleep at night you remember me as your eyes close on your pillow, these moments might seem corrupt and most strange. They'll seem like sorcery and the antics of the mad, and this warm place might become the lost chamber of dark secrets and this might bring you pain." "I won't go." "Remember then that it was love," he said. "That this indeed was the school of love in which you healed your wounds..."

what that amounts to is that all the violation armand feels from years of grooming and sexual abuse, all the fear and pain he won't allow himself to access from his time with marius, gets sublimated into his feelings about his own turning. the mostly-buried resentment he feels toward marius is resentment over condemning him to this horrible life as a vampire, surely. and surely, because amadeo wanted so badly to be a vampire and to be with marius and now he's so desperately miserable, it's an impossible thing for anyone to consent to. put that all together and armand basically ends up with this subconscious conflation of rape and vampire turning, which really just manifests as an overwhelming revulsion toward the idea of turning anyone. and the thing about armand is that he's terrified to his core of hurting the people he loves the same way he was hurt, so he is completely repelled by the idea of turning daniel in a way he hasn't truly examined and can't put language to.

at the end of 2.08, armand is drowning in a super volatile and complicated sea of emotion. many many people—from devils minion truthers saying armand turned daniel out of love to tv only fans thinking it was uncomplicated spite—don't tend to take into account just how messy and fucked up and contradictory armand's feelings in that moment were. yes, armand loves daniel and is terrified of the prospect of watching him die and living in a world without him. armand also can't stand the thought of being alone and hardcore panics when louis leaves. and whose fault is that? daniel's. daniel, who armand made the biggest sacrifice of his life for. daniel, who armand broke his own heart setting free, and when he did it he went crawling back to louis, who is a source of stability and who he does love, albeit in an incredibly self-serving way. and now daniel comes back just to destroy the one life raft armand was clinging to in his absence. how dare he? how dare he do that to armand, who he always claimed to love? despite i think partially (subconsciously, again) approaching the interview as an opportunity for daniel to set him free from his marriage, armand is feeling deeply, deeply betrayed, and i think that's the thing that pushes him over the edge into turning daniel. besides, daniel hates him now. daniel sees him and knows how awful and disgusting and unworthy he is and he showed louis too and so it doesn't matter if he hates him a little more. it's all over. armand has completely and totally lost both louis and daniel. he's at rock fucking bottom in that moment and doesn't think he has anything else to lose.

i want to stress again that in absolutely no world is armand sitting there and actually thinking through any of this. no, armand is hit with all of these feelings at once like a sixteen car pileup and then he acts with that same fear-driven impulse we discussed above. while i don't think there's a world in which armand would have been able to let daniel die, i also don't think he had come to terms with turning him yet and daniel isn't dying as imminently as he was in qotd, so spite/resentment/betrayal is an important part of tipping armand into action in the tv show. and then after that, because turning someone is so monstrous to armand, because he lashed out and did the unforgivable to daniel, i imagine he is pretty much instantly overwhelmed by a crippling degree of guilt and shame, so he runs away. and then stays gone. because he just did the worst thing imaginable to the person he loves the most, and because daniel surely hates him, and because all is completely and entirely lost.

LOOK AT THE LOGOS

Daniel’s in-universe book is published by Roman Weiss? Same as his own memoir???!!

And yeah, Marius' Maker, Teskhamen, was one of the three founders of The Talamasca. Something that, in the books, Marius himself didn't learn about his Maker until over two millennia later.

So it looks like the show might be tying Marius, Armand, and Daniel all much more into The Talamasca and whatever storyline the show is doing with them, and very likely because of something to do with Teskhamen IMO.

And if Bianca is involved with this, too, this involvement with the Talamasca just might extend to everyone in Marius' (and therefore Teskhamen's) bloodline.