TVL/IWTV S3 is the trial that Rolin Jones, the showrunner never got to direct in s2. Anne Rice's text demanded that Louis de Pointe Du Lac remain alive and so the reimagined Louis, now a creole character, was not lynched for the enjoyment of the white audience at the TDV. But Rolin Jones, judged Louis guilty of being too loved for a Black character in Hollywood and the IWTV IP being recognized as part of Black media and thus opening up uncomfortable conversations about systemic, social and cultural structures that maintain and enforce white supremacy. And hence Louis the character has to be humiliated, dressed down, beheaded and finally branded. I suspect this was always Rolin's vision with the trial at the end of s2, only now it has been exacerbated by a desperation to put an end to all of those conversations mentioned previously.
There is an unprecedented amount of anger directed at previous two seasons for debating racism-abuse-misogyny and misogynoir; it is the anger at IWTV for becoming larger than it was ever supposed to be, and for not falling into colorblindness. It is an anger at the fandom- especially anger directed at black fans for accurately identifying the character of Lestat with white patriarchy. This demanded a rectification and thus such an identification was swiftly made obscure to re-instate the goodness and innocence of Lestat's "Whiteness". For this, the character of Armand came in handy. It is Armand, a character of South Asian descent we are to see as truly ghoulish, who from what I have heard, has admitted to taking great pleasures in directing the lynching of LouClaudia. Lestat? Well Lestat remains innocent as he always ought to- so much so that there's no ghost!Claudia sitting at the table demanding answers. The Gothic ghost has already done its job- through a perversion of the Gothic genre- in establishing that Lestat is more hers than Louis ever was, on account of blood. Also the white parent was never so abusive actually, it was all the machinations of the black daughter, to lead Louis astray. So no Claudia!ghost to torment the co-lyncher and Armand becomes the ghoul who butchers the black body and brands his initials onto the black body, like a slave master.
However does this mean, that Louis gets to finally hit back at one of his abusers, even when Lestat and his whiteness get absolved? No. Louis De Pointe Du Lac must apologize for not being properly sympathetic to the Armand's CSA. When and where that happened? I won't know, but since this is the season's artistic vision, so it must be so and the butchered Louis must beg Armand's forgiveness. And Daniel? He published the book without consent? Well, Louis De Pointe Du Lac lapped up all the delicious gossip Armand had collected while stalking Daniel for 52 years, so I guess anything goes now.
Back to Lestat's whiteness and goodness- I have heard that Paul, Louis's dead brother comes in a sort of divine vision to console Lestat. Does this make sense? Even a day ago there was much dilemma within the fandom about what drove Paul to suicide- this death that frayed Louis at his edges, did it truly have nothing to do with Lestat's influence? Well now in Rolin Jones artistic vision, this has become a silly question, when in almost as an act of divine intervention, it is this very Paul who comes to comfort Lestat. So once again Lestat has been absolved. He has no monstrosity in him, and whatever there is, is not on his account but is because of the blood of Akasha- a primordial vampiric mother, played by another Black actress. How is it that every ghoulishness of Lestat can be explained by the blood and yet the ghost of Claudia still chooses to tug on this blood forged bond, rather than affirm any connection to her Black!parent? Even when it was Claudia who had previously expressed a deep anxiety over Lestat being her maker? Well, all of this can be explained if we see this season as the unmaking of all that IWTV ever was. It is the season of unmaking of Louis de Pointe Du Lac and Claudia, and reinstating of Lestat and his whiteness as central to a Hollywood production. The status quo has been successfully re-established and all is well. And according to Rolin, finally those who didn't like the previous two season can now breathe easy.
In s2 we saw the TDV violate the minds of LouClaudia and confuse them, thus making them unable to defend themselves in their sham of a trial. Finally in s3 the trial has reached its conclusion at the hands of Rolin, Hannah et al. Reviewers will play their part- much like the vampires who brought the charges against LouClaudia; any anger from the fandom at this blatant display of anti blackness through the recentering of whiteness will be dismissed and be called ungrateful, absurd and malicious. By the end of it all Louis De Pointe Du Lac has been beaten down and made to fall silent; except for offering apologies he now says nothing. His daughter is dead and has confessed to her own crimes of driving the cudgel. The playing field has been evened, with whiteness being front and center once more- the problem of Claudia and Louis has been solved. This is a happy ending.
