I don’t understand why some people especially Hannah and Rolin refuse to view Louis’s post Paris behavior through the lens of grief. They treat Louis’s post Paris behavior as if it exists in a vacuum. You cannot separate Louis’s behavior from his grief, and you cannot separate his grief from its source: Claudia’s death.
Louis’s lack of affection and coldness stem from grief → that grief comes from Claudia’s death → Armand orchestrated Claudia’s murder.
The logic is not complicated.
That’s why I find it baffling when they focus on Armand’s hurt feelings while ignoring the elephant in the room. Armand is the architect of his own misery. You cannot expect love, forgiveness, or affection from someone who is grieving the daughter you killed, then grow resentful when they cannot give you those things because they are still grieving the daughter you killed.
There is also another layer to this relationship that rarely gets acknowledged: Louis and Armand were a couple when the lynching happened. The violence inflicted on Louis was not just violence; it was violence inflicted by his partner. In other words, it was domestic violence.
Anyway, Armand desires something from Louis that his own actions made impossible for Louis to give. That’s why his resentment reads as entitlement to me.
I feel like I'm going crazy. How is Armand even a little justified?
If I try really hard, I could see why Armand, as a character, might believe Louis owes him something. Armand is a deeply disturbed individual with his own baggage. But I genuinely do not understand how anyone else arrives at that conclusion. Louis's lack of affection and coldness are consequences of grief. That grief stems from Claudia's death, and Claudia's death is the result of Armand's actions. Once you acknowledge that, the idea that Armand is even remotely justified in punishing Louis for being cold and distant simply stops making sense.
So what exactly is the argument? That Louis was supposed to love, forgive, and be emotionally available to the person responsible for the death of his daughter? That he deserved to be punished because he couldn't give Armand what Armand wanted?
I really cannot wrap my head around it. It makes no sense. For me, the mental gymnastics required to make Louis the problem in this situation reveal a drastic lack of empathy toward Black characters. Louis's grief is ignored or minimized, while far more effort is spent catering to the feelings of the person responsible for that grief.
Another thing, Louis’s past as a pimp and Armand's history as a victim of CSA are entirely separate and unrelated issues from Louis being cold and distant after Paris. You cannot just brute force those topics together and use them as a retroactive justification for Armand torturing Louis. You cannot just pile those unrelated issues on top of Louis's coldness and act as though they somehow make Armand's treatment of him more understandable or justified. Neither changes the fact that Louis's post Paris behavior is shaped by grief, nor do they justify Armand torturing Louis.
I don't have any trust in Hannah for next season because this lack of empathy toward Louis is not only going to affect his characterization, but the characterization of everyone around him as well. Louis's story was the foundation the show was built on. You cannot lack empathy for Louis and still accurately write the characters most closely connected to him. Just look at how they turned Armand into a mustache twirling cartoon villain this season. Their lack of empathy toward Louis distorted Armand's characterization.
