Madevampselle @madevampselle - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
Madevampselle
@madevampselle
M
IWTV, orbited by everything and anything else that interests me
Reticent Tumblress, Lover, Non-discriminating, Disregarder
Tracking #Madevampselle
Mine: #incorrect IWTV quotes/#IWTV crack
so.... were you disappointed by first episode? :( you just dropped of after it and never said anything :(
Why anon, nonny? Since you seem to care about my opinion and noticed I haven't been around, I'm guessing you're following me? Come off anon and slide into my DMs. I'm nice. But if you really wanna know now, I don't have a clear answer for you, because I don't know it myself. I definitely need to rewatch it. I doubt I'll ever be disappointed with this show, though.
The European Union already forced Apple to abandon its proprietary charging port and adopt USB-C across its entire iPhone lineup. It just did something bigger. A new EU mandate requires every smartphone sold in Europe including Apple devices to feature a battery that can be replaced by the user without specialist tools, without voiding a warranty, and without sending the device to a manufacturer approved service center. Batteries must maintain a minimum capacity threshold after a set number of charge cycles and replacement parts must remain available for up to ten years after a model goes on sale.
The consumer electronics industry built its current business model around batteries that degrade, cannot be replaced at home, and create a natural upgrade cycle every two to three years. The EU just legislated that model out of existence in the world's largest regulatory market.
Apple, Samsung, and every other manufacturer now faces a choice between redesigning their devices for the European market or accepting that their current hardware architecture is no longer legally sellable there.
Given that no company walks away from European consumers voluntarily the phones are going to change and once they change for Europe the rest of the world will ask why theirs still do not.
i'm sure you get lots of asks but i'm new to the fanfic/tumblr fandom scene. when you say horrific topics like incest and noncon should exist, do you mean they should exist because it happens irl but it shouldn't be romanticized? because if so i agree. i think we should experience reading and/or writing such things. movies and shows have portrayed such acts for years. but i think the problem lies through the fetishization and romanticization of it.
no. I mean romanticize whatever you want. my stance has always been “write whatever you want, however you want.”
not to mention that you can’t always tell if something romanticizes bad things. two people can read the same fic, one can say “this romanticizes non-con”, the other can say, “no, this doesn’t romanticize anything.” it’s all about each person’s interpretation. it’s all subjective.
that said, if someone wants to romanticize bad things in fiction, then go ahead. it’s their rights and their freedom to create whatever they want, however they want. no censorship means nothing is censored, doesn’t matter how it was written/created.
and if these taboo fantasies are someone’s fetish, then as long as they’re not harming anyone in real life, what turns them on is literally none of your business.
incest and cnc kinks have always been one of the most popular kinks, and most people who are into them can separate fiction from reality.
(and if some of them can’t, their inability to separate fiction, kinks and fantasies from reality is not other people’s problem or responsibility.)
fanfiction is not an act of activism. someone’s kink and what they do in bed with their consenting partner is not an act of activism.
kill the moral cop in your head. fanfiction and kinks don’t have to be “morally correct”. it can be whatever turns a person on, however turns a person on, and as long as no one in real life is harmed, what they do and how they do it is no one’s business.
you don’t have to be comfortable with it. you don’t have to like it. you don’t have to understand it. you just have to mind your own business and not shame or harass others over fiction and fantasies. because otherwise it’ll just make you a bully who wants to find a “morally correct” excuse to shame and harass innocent people.
In case anyone doesn't know it yet, yes, there are links. Not great quality, though, but we wouldn't even have them if it weren't for the hard work and generosity of fellow fans who literally fought against fucking Apple to get this for us, so go thank them if you can. Good luck!
Back in 1989, the production budget of the still-nascent TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation had budget overruns during the production of the show’s second season. So that, by the time it came for them to produce the second season finale, the show had almost run out of money for production that season, and Paramount Pictures, which produced the show, refused to give them more money for production that season, holding them to the already set budget they had.
This budget shortfall resulted in the production of the episode entitled "Shades of Gray," the final episode of Season 2 of the show. Which, at heart, was a clip show nestled within a framing device of First Officer Will Riker lying ill from an infection in sickbay, that might kill him.
That episode went on to be considered, by both fans and critics, to be one of the worst episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation ever produced. If not, the worst.
And while I, in no way, think "The Failures," the final episode of Season 3 of TVL, is on a "Shades of Gray" level of bad? I do believe it was produced as it was for similar reasons.
And that it is also mainly a clip show for similar reasons.
And all of this has, sadly, made it the messiest written episode of the show to date, in my opinion.
Well, it was bound to happen at some point. No TV show is perfect.
But the first place where this episode goes wrong is the fact that it is nearly impossible to make a clip-show episode good or engaging to watch. Because, unless it’s just an episode of all the actors sitting on director’s chairs reminiscing about the show in question, while some well-known journalist asks them questions about it, then a loose framing device is all you’ve got. And that framing device is always, nine times out of ten, a dream sequence.
Which, right away, lowers the stakes. Pretty much into the basement.
Honestly, there is only one instance of a show doing such a clip show, with the “dream” framing device that I can think of, that I found in any way engaging, and that was the "Interlude Party" episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
I really do think that episode of FMA: Brotherhood is the best in-universe style clip show ever done.
And even with that? I still wouldn’t rank it anywhere near the top of the best episodes of the whole series of that show.
And this episode of TVL? Felt, to me, like a lesser version of “Interlude Party,” a thought I honestly had as I was watching the episode.
Because, at their heart, clip shows are mainly done to save money. And with the year-long pre-production that went on with this show, because of all the songs that ended up being written, I’d already heard that the show blew through most of its production budget for the season because of that.
Hence why the show was so minimal in a lot of ways this season. Which, IMO, is not a bad thing. EP205, from last season, was, for all intensive purposes, a minimal, bottle episode, and I still think it is the #1 best episode of the whole series to date.
And EP306 was pretty minimal in its production, and I think it was the best episode this season. And would have made for a much better Season Finale than this episode did.
No. The main problem with this episode is that it felt utterly divorced from the first six episodes that came before it. And, even more annoyingly, it advanced next to nothing of the story we were already dealing with.
I have to say, this is the very first time I have ever felt the show thinking it is more clever than it actually is. And that is not a good feeling. Because god do I hope it doesn't become a habit, which it quickly can do with many shows if the writers and showrunners think they can do no wrong.
Rolin, Hannah, everyone? I say this with all sincerity: look towards Benioff & Weiss, how they let the success of a show based on someone else’s material go to their heads, and how that ended for them.
Don’t become that. It’s okay to have tried to shoot for the moon this season, and you mostly ended up missing, particularly with this episode, because you overextended your budget and ran out of money. Shit happens. Just don’t dig in your heels about it when it comes to next season, okay?
As for this season? Well, let’s break down this final episode. The little that worked, and the most that didn’t.
* * * * *
What I Liked:
- Armand, calling Daniel his companion.
- The little hint about the past Devil’s Minion, when Armand says that Louis going off with broken boys, just allowed him to spend more time with Daniel.
- LOVED Armand’s confession that he was fucking with Louis’ head the whole time they were together, and that yes, he did put those Fred Stein photos in Louis’ portfolio. THERE is my lovely gremlin!
- Louis, admitting that Lestat is the love of his life, always will be, and that he knew the whole time he could never love Armand in that same way.
- Louis, however, saying to Armand that Armand deserves to be loved by someone completely for who he is.
- Armand, clearly running off to find/be with Daniel after everything with Louis, and what Louis said to him about him deserving love.
- Just Assad Zaman’s overall performance in general. Really, all the performances were great.
- Lestat, remembering that he had to watch a childhood friend, who was only 9 years old, be burned at the stake for being a witch. Heartbreaking.
- Lestat talking to Paul at the end. That made me audibly “aww” when it happened.
- Lestat, mentioning “Silver Threads” as he was clearly starting to fade into death. A CLEAR reference to The Silver Cord.
- Lestat finally telling Gabriella to GTFO.
- Raglan James, weasling his way into Lestat’s inner circle, and Lestat calling him a friend. I really love all the setups they’ve done for Body Thief so far. Raglan is clearly going to actually steal Lestat’s body in this adaptation of the story, and that is being set up perfectly.
- Raglan, revealing that the Talamasca want the Great Conversion to happen, and have been helping it along. Good, and makes sense wrt everything we’ve seen with them across two shows now.
- The final shot, of Lestat looking out over a ruined city, that I think is Monteral, after what was clearly Akasha’s apocalypse. And standing in the sunlight as he does so, which also hints at what went down between him and Akasha.
* * * * *
Things I’m not wild about, but okay:
- The cliffhanger with Daniel. I was afraid the show would do this, which is why I kept hedging about whether we’d see Daniel’s fate this season or not. Anyway, as I said in my short review, Daniel was clearly gearing up to fight for Lestat’s head. But by the end of the episode, we never see Daniel again — and Raglan James and Alex are just fine, on the bus with Lestat. And with the way Daniel was about it? No way he just handed over that head to them. So between that and Raglan explicitly talking to Daniel about souls and the connection between a body and head … yeah. I smell where this is going. Also, you know, there was a whole Talamasca assault team there along with Raglan and Alex.
I don’t know what state Armand is going to find Daniel in at the top of Season 4, but I doubt it’s going to be a good one.
- Weirdly, I’m okay with Armand and Daniel not having any scenes together in this episode. I’m not happy about it, but I’m okay, mostly because I knew going into this season that there would be minimal interaction and no real romance between them this season. And well, that is exactly what happened. So yeah, I don’t feel ship baited in the least about it all because I knew we’d get almost nothing in that regard between them this season. The visual representation of their bond that we saw — and were not just told about — back in EP304 was enough for me right now, and way more than I expected we’d get.
- The reveal/twist with Regina. I’ll go into Armand’s whole plan in a minute. But this was the one part of it that at least made sense to me. However, I didn’t really like the co-opting of Armand’s experiment with Claudia here. Or, at least the implication of the co-opting of it.
- So… Armand put hidden cameras in Lestat’s house? And that is how he knew about the seance with Merrick. Okay, I’ll just let it go that Lestat never noticed them. And given the recent poster of Merrick, I think I can see where this is going with her. (Not that Armand is going to turn her or anything. But he might be the reason why we see her again soon, and why she ends up getting turned.)
- The body horror itself didn’t bother me. I expect these kinds of gothic horror things in a gothic horror show. However, I do understand those who are disturbed about seeing it with Louis, a black man, having to go through that, while we didn’t even see what was up with Lestat’s head. Also, was Armand branding Louis really necessary? I get that it’s supposed to be a call-back to what Claudia said about Louis in the previous episode, and Armand himself having once been a slave as well, and Louis not having the courage to talk about all that with Armand, who was 12 when he was taken into sex slavery. So like, I think I get what the show was trying to do with it, but … I don’t know. I think if we’d seen Armand do it within the midst of his torture of Louis, that would have been better, and spoken more to Armand’s mindset regarding all of this, than to just revealing it afterwards.
- Buttersotch Bitch is a good song. Too bad we only heard it played over a montage, and not a live performance.
* * * * *
Things I Did Not Like:
Oh, where to start …
- Well, I already went into the clip show aspect of this episode above. As I said, clip show episodes are usually only done in this way when a production is out of money. And, unfortunately, they used the dream sequence / As I Lay Dying / An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge method of storytelling, when we already knew the main character was not actually going to die. And yes, we did know it because of “The Failures” album. Lestat is still narrating it during all of this. Which we know he hadn’t even begun to record yet. So, right off the bat, those stakes are gone from the episode.
- So, how do you add stakes with such a story where no one is really scared that the main character is going to die? Well, within the dream sequence itself, and what it reveals of the psyche of the character within the dream. And while I could see this being a walk down the path of Lestat confronting the things he viewed as failures over the course of his life? I do not think it all hits in the way the show was going for. Because you can’t take a character who is already self-avodant wrt his own trauma and then put him in a situation that would require him to finally acknowledge that trauma and then … just continue to have him blame himself for everything.
Because that is very much what this episode does with Lestat’s dream sequence section. It just has Lestat continue to blame himself for all his traumas — and the failures he sees that resulted from those traumas.
The hallucinations are all about what Lestat thinks they all think of him.
And I’m sorry, but after a full season of Lestat already doing this when it comes to his tramas and such? That is not an insightful revelation about Lestat in the least.
And what is worse is that, by the end of this whole sequence? We never really see the switch.
The switch to Lestat, realising that, for all the things he is and should take responsibility for, there are some things he should not. That he was, in fact, not responsible, but the victim of those circumstances.
And yes, I get that Lestat does not like to see himself as a victim of anything. Again, that was the main overall underlying character arc going on with him this season. But Louis didn’t admit that he is selfish until he had to confront that fact about himself head-on — and has begun to do so.
Lestat, however, appeared to remain in the same fucking place when it comes to how he was abused, even before he became a vampire, for the entirety of the dream/hallucination sequence.
The center of this is the adaptation of The Witches’ Place scene. The setup of it is good. The execution of it is harrowing, with Lestat finally confronting that his mom not only made him watch his childhood friend burn, but that Gabriella gave the girl a bag of tinder that was around her neck so she would burn more quickly.
And what does Lestat take from this?
That Gabriella apparently did all of that to push Lestat to escape Auvergne, and Lestat failed because he didn’t leave until he was 30.
Excuse me, what?
Um, excuse me, Hannah, what happened to Gabby seeing Lestat as a substitute spouse? That she wanted Lestat to stay with her and only let him go when she was dying? Hell, the show even seems to imply that she wanted him to die in the wolf fight because SHE was already dying, and knew so.
The revelation at this moment should not have been that Lestat thinks he failed because he didn’t escape Auvergne until he was 30; the revelation should have been the reasons why he couldn’t escape Auvergne until he was 30.
But that revelation was something that was never conveyed. At all.
However, that revelation would have actually matched not only what we watched between them over the course of six episodes … but it would have matched what happened after Lestat woke up and told Gabriella to kick rocks.
Because if that is the message you were trying to convey within that dream/hallucination sequence by the end, that Lestat had come to that conclusion about it all, and yelling at Gabby to leave after he woke up?
Well, I’m sorry, but you failed to do so. (Haha, but no, I wasn’t trying to be funny or clever with that.)
The whole of that was muddy and muddled because you never showed or conveyed in any way that Lestat had come to such a revelation to make him want to kick Gabby to the curb.
Again, as I said above, this is the first time I have ever felt this show was being more clever than it actually was being.
Anyway, it is clear that the Witches’ Place memory was the whole emotional weight and point behind the rest of this rather pointless dream/hallucination sequence. Yes, I’m sorry, it was pointless, and really only seemed designed to bring in as many cameos as you could by the end.
And yes, look, dream sequences can, by their nature, have incoherences in them. But this one, overall, didn’t even appear to have a point to it beyond having Lestat confront that memory regarding The Witches’ Place.
You could have left everyone else out of that dream sequence, except Gabriella, and come to the same point and place. All of Lestat’s fledglings being there at the table? Magnus being there at the table? Marius showing up at the table as well by the end? They were irrelevant, and their being there was irrelevant.
You could have replaced them all with kid-Lestat and teen-Lestat, who both would have made much more damn sense to be sitting at that long table, and would have linked back into the major point about Lestat’s realizations about not getting away from Auvergne until he was 30 and why.
But instead we got … what we got. Which just felt like a reason to squeeze in as many actors as you could to try and make the whole sequence feel as big and grand as you could make it, and nothing beyond that.
Anyway, if none of you have ever seen the “Restless” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, go check it out. That is a dream sequence episode that — aside from not being a clip show — also managed to focus its dream sequences on the overall point only, even with the surreal and nonsense imagey and situations going on within them.
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- Which leads me into the next overall incoherent bit of writing going on, not only in this episode, but which covers basically most of the season, which is Armand and what he has been doing all season.
Because there are some BIG logical mismatches that make no sense regarding what Armand was doing prior to this episode, and the reason revealed about why he did it all in this episode.
Which apparently, no, had nothing to do with trying to stop The Great Conversion. It had nothing to do with just wanting to screw over Lestat, or even really be a "Maker" to Daniel in some way (since we barely saw them interact together this season, and didn’t even get to see Armand doing so).
No. Apparently, Armand did all of this -- including puppeteering Alex as his sponsor and killing Larry and the release of the revenge porn -- because . . . he wanted Louis to admit to his own failures when it came to their past relationship and apologize for them.
Excuse me. What?
Like, I'm sorry, am I supposed to think that makes Armand super unhinged in some gremlin way? Because, like, no, it doesn't.
It just makes him a shit planner.
Because the plan does not match the motivation/endgame.
Now, the Regina part of the plan. Okay, yes, that part makes sense, as I noted above. I had a few little quibbles with it, but it’s fine.
But the rest of it? Becoming Alex's sponsor? Killing Larry? Telling Daniel about Gabrella and releasing revenge porn about it? Withholding info from Daniel about their past together (which he actually dropped info about, in this episode, to Louis)? Even reading apology letters to Daniel and Lestat first?
Armand doing all of that... was mainly about wanting to get to Louis and... not apologize to him but to get Louis to apologize to you.
Louis, who had zero interaction with Lestat’s band all season. Louis, who barely talked to or interacted with Lestat all season.
You did all of that, all of those things that Louis had zero connection to, you did all of that to get Louis to apologize for what he did.
As I said, this plan isn’t gremlin unhinged. This is just Armand going 2+2=5.
And like, look, as I said above, I LOVED Armand admitting he was fucking with Louis' head almost the whole time they were together. That he was the one who put the Fred Stein pictures in Louis' portfolio made me laugh out loud. Hell, I'll even let it go that Armand admits he did want to, tried to, kill Louis in Paris. I think it strips a lot away from the book canon, that a person is only safe with Armand if he loves them, but okay, fine. Louis does — did not — fall under that umbrella for Armand. Maybe he will after this, but back in Paris? No, Louis didn’t.
Fine. So far, it only appears that Daniel falls under that umbrella, given the simple fact that he lived his whole damn life because, as Armand told him through proxy back in EP305, he did go back to kill him, but didn’t because he kept finding him fascinating. The Devil’s Minion shipper side of me is fine with it, even if the Armand-fan side of me is … sidelong glancing at it.
But doing all of this simply because you wanted to make Louis look at what he did to you in return, how he contributed to the failure of you two together, and apologize for it?
That plan to do so makes no damn sense.
But you know what would have made sense?
If this situation had been between Lestat and Armand.
Use Regina to lure Louis out of the way for a bit, and then chop Lestat’s head off. Then all three people — Regina, Alex, Larry — as well as the release of the revenge porn video, seamlessly tie into your plan.
And then, you know what this siatuation being between Lestat and Armand could have allowed for?
REVEALS.
Reveals regarding the full truth of their past together. Reveals regarding how Nicki died, reveals regarding the Paris trial, and Lestat’s presence in Paris… hell, even reveals about Murder Night, which, after three seasons, we have STILL yet to see!
And look, I could tin-foil hat and Epileptic Tree so much with what we did get regarding that scene/sequence with Armand and Louis as-is. Such as the fact that Fareed was there to monitor Louis' vitals in the first place during all of that.
But I'm not going to do it. Because I'm tired. I'm tired of this show dragging its feet when it comes to real reveals and moving its plot forward. End of the third season, and we still have some of the same questions, such as what happened on Murder Night. Or Paris and the trial.
There is a fine line between leaving some questions to be answered and just stalling with giving real answers to those questions. And we are very much hitting the tipping point now of nobody giving a shit once you finally do reveal it all.
I used this gif a few days ago regarding all of this, and I'll use it again here:
Anyway, you know what would have not only made this whole sequence better, but also the dream/hallucination sequence better, too?
If this whole episode had been a bottle episode and not primarily a clip show episode.
One, you would have only needed three characters — Lestat, Armand, and Gabriella. Yes, Loustat and Devil’s Minion shippers would be pissed, but whatever. This is an episode that would be focused on character arcs, reveals, and moving things forward in some way, finally regarding stuff we’ve been treading water about for the past two seasons, as well as advancing the overall story and character arcs from this season.
Anyway, while the dream/hallucination sequence is limited to Lestat, teen-Lestat, kid-Lestat, and Gabriella, the framing device would be Armand and Lestat, basically in a rewrite of what we got with Lestat and Louis. And while Lestat is talking with Armand, he is going in and out of consciousness, into the dream sequences with Gabby and his other selves.
The more coherent revelation is made within the dream/hallucination sequence, as I detailed above. In the real world, Lestat makes it clear why he could never love Armand in the way Armand always wished (the “Cinderealla at the ball” moment is revealed), but Lestat says the same thing to Armand that Louis did, about Armand deserving someone who loves all of him for who he is.
Then you just leave Fareed to reattach Lestat’s head to his body. You can have Louis already waiting for Lestat on the bus, as we saw. And if you have to rope Raglan into it in some way to get him and Lestat to be “friends” now, just have him arrive after Armand leaves, having brought along Alex with him as well as more sophisticated means of helping Fareed reattach Lestat’s head to his body.
There you go. Yes, it leaves Daniel in limbo, but the whole point of him hanging out with Lestat’s head in the bowling alley was just him being petty towards Lestat, hopped up on being with his Maker in such a way — and then the Talamasca coming in and leaving his fate up in the air, but not looking good.
You could still do all of that, with the Talamasca just trying to find out where Armand disappeared to with Lestat, and Daniel having that knowledge. And that is what they take from him to find where Fareed and Lestat are at the end.
There. Daniel and Louis get short appearances; the episode itself is much more centered and focused, with Armand’s plan making sense, and the dream/hallucination sequence is also more focused on its main theme and without all the extraneous nonsense that, at the end of the day, will mean absolutely nothing in the long run.
Because there are clips in here that, again, due to things we learned this season, and even before, that make no damn sense. Such as the scene with Lestat puppeting the train conductor’s head. Claudia already revealed that she made up the train scene. So why the hell is the train conductor not only there among the crowd of people that Lestat has killed over two centuries, but we also see a clip of that very train scene that Claudia admits to fabricating?
Who edited this? Did they even watch this show before editing this episode?
And speaking of that end sequence — Lestat was in Vienna in 1953? After Paris? Why? What was he doing? Ya’ll seemed to focus on that, and the guy named Enzo, whom he ate in a significant way. Is that actually going to mean something? And if so, what? And are we going to have to wait three seasons before we get maybe a tiny bit of an answer?
Also, regarding that past sequence? Paul. Listen, what Paul said to Lestat was very sweet (for the most part). But you do realize that Paul being there gives off the implication that Lestat killed him, right? Which Lestat has flatly denied at every turn, and that Louis, in just the previous episode, admitted he’d put that blame on Lestat out of anger with his mother for blaming Paul’s death on him.
Whether intentional or not, you muddied all of that by having Paul there, in that sequence, in the first place. Whereas, you know, if you had cut that whole pointless sequence in the first place — because yes, it was pointless, sorry, we didn’t need to see Lestat reach his epiphany about his failures like that, it could have been done another way that wouldn’t have confused this point with Paul.
Plus… look, I’ve read the books. There was no way in hell that Lestat was on his way to heaven. So was Paul even really Paul? Or was that maybe someone else … say Memnoch, trying to lure Lestat into one of his hells?
Again, I can only think this because I’ve read all of the books, and so know the tricks that Memnoch will play on Lestat to try and get him to hell to work with him there. But for anyone else who isn’t as versed in this stuff … it does look like Lestat was headed for a peaceful afterlife while Claudia was stuck in hell/purgatory.
As I said a few weeks ago, you guys really need to stop being afraid of giving away “too much” when it comes to things like this. You could have just done a one-frame flash to show what was really up at that moment — maybe even that that wasn’t really Paul — to hint at it and make it clear what I suspect was up with that whole exchange between them, and why Paul was there in the first place.
And, instead, you left it all too vague once again, as you did with the 1x05 fight, and now here we are.
And because it was part of the dream/hallucination sequence, again, it’s possible to just retcon all of it, making most of what we watched regarding it all utterly pointless anyway.
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- Because that is how I very much felt watching most of this episode. I kept checking the time to see how long so much of this would keep going on for, and if we’d get to some real story progression before the end. And, by and large, we didn’t. In the end, we got a cliffhanger with one character (Daniel), a distant/future cliffhanger with another (Lestat), Lestat finally standing up to Gabby after a dream sequence that only implied that it was his own fault for all the failures in his life and that Gabby had only been trying to help him, and Armand letting out his rage at Louis that came together via a convoluted plan that mostly had nothing to do with Louis.
All interlocked and held together with a whole lot of clips, some of which make no damn sense being there within the context of where the story ended, and the reveals we did have about some things by EP306
Like I said at the start. Messiest written episode of the series ever, in my opinion.
* * * * *
Concluding Thoughts:
Look, all episodes of a series can’t be a winner. And while I still think EP302 is objectively the worst episode of the season, its main crime is that it is an exposition episode where very little happens. But what little did happen at least made sense within the story it was telling.
This episode, however? Made little to no sense in too many respects, given the episodes that came before it. It’s muddled, and the clip show format and presentation of the story do not help it at all.
EP306 should have been the season finale. This episode should have been cut and rewritten as the Season 4 premiere, like @nalyra-dreaming suggested in her review.
Because there are some good ideas in here, buried under a whole bunch of nothing, and trying to go BIG in some way that the budget clearly wasn’t allowing for. Hence, the clip-show presentation of such a big majority of the episode, when it came to the dream/hallucination sequence.
And it is very clear why this episode was held back from reviews and screenings. And it wasn’t for a good reason.
Missed and wasted opportunity indeed.
And you know, I do see the vision you were going for when it comes to it, and the whole season, in fact.
But, in the end, you went too big, and this episode suffered the most for it. It’s not too late to correct and right things for next season. But I can already tell you will have lost some trust from some fans for this. And I can’t say the loss of that trust is fully wrong. Yes, some of it I personally saw coming before the season started, and so I am not as angry/disappointed at the whole season as much as I am with the sum of this episode.
But this was a miss, a big miss, and the worst season finale episode of the show so far.
And what is really sad is that it was clearly, from what I can see, them being too ambitious during pre-production that led to it being so.
Initial thoughts for The Vampire Lestat 1x07 (Track 7) — SPOILERS INCLUDED!
Track 7: The Failures
As Lestat Says in Episode 3: "Well that was shit."
So y'all know I always give my brutally honest opinions, and I have to say I didn't love this episode. It was....a letdown, to say the least. The season overall? Bloody fantastic. I'm pretending Episode 6 was the season finale. This episode? Giant misstep, imo.
First of all — The long table. I knew this would be a dream sequence of Lestat confronting his "failures" (not actual failures but shit he blames himself for that isn't his fault at all). It's every person who has made an impact on his life telling him what *HE* thinks they think of him. Okay, and? We've known this the entire season. We've known of Lestat's canon self-blame and self-hatred. We've spent six episodes watching Lestat being used and abused and his agency and bodily autonomy stolen from him again and again. Yet now we need an entire episode of Lestat mentally berating himself over this? *sighs* Total waste of time. I found myself checking the timestamps, because I just wanted to get on with it, and that didn't happen with any of the previous episodes. The caveat with this dream sequence? They can retcon whatever they want from it at anytime by simply saying "it was just in Lestat's mind." Again, okay, and? Smh. Whatever, Rolin.
Secondly — As I discussed here, we spent the entire season building. We've been dancing around key elements from The Vampire Lestat and hinting at things via other characters, yet never from Lestat himself. I said I was quite annoyed with that framing, but I'm more IRATE about it NOW given what they've seemingly done with the dynamic they were allegedly building — Lesmand.
Seriously. What was the point of any of this now?
And yes, I am considering Rolin's quote about this season being "part one of part two" and yes, I am aware they could come back to this in S4, but honestly? I doubt it for the simple fact of what they've seemingly done with Armand's canon obsession, which brings me to my next point.
Third — Louis and Armand.
WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCK WAS THAT?!?!?! 🤬🤬🤬
The majority of this episode was spent in Armand's little butcher shop with Louis' head on a pike while Armand fucking tortured him for an apology because *checks notes* Louis was "mean" to wittle baby Armand for killing his daughter. Seriously. That's it. That's what they've done here. They've made Armand obsessed with Louis, whine to Louis about Louis never loving him, and made Louis have to "acknowledge" Armand's backstory and "understand" him.
Are you kidding me?
Armand tortured Louis in S2. Armand never loved Louis as he admits in this episode. Armand wanted Louis dead in Paris. Armand deliberately fucked with Louis' head. Armand brainwashed him. Erased his memories. Implanted new memories. Gaslit him. Stalked him. Killed Claudia. Lied to him about his involvement in her death. Lied to him about Lestat's involvement in her death. Lied to him about Lestat saving him. Isolated him in Dubai. Cruelly tortured him in San Francisco after his suicide attempt. Deliberately delayed care to his burns after his suicide attempt. Dangled Lestat in his face after his suicide attempt. Orchestrated the Regina spiral just to fuck with his head like he did with the planted Stein photos. Bugged Lestat's apartment to spy on them. Took Regina hostage after mind-controlling her. Killed Larry. Mind-controlled Alex. Beheaded Lestat. Beheaded Louis.
All of this for....*checks notes* an apology from Louis. Meanwhile, Louis doesn't owe Armand anything!
WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'm watching Louis being tortured at Armand's hands AGAIN just because Armand went off the rails over Louis never loving him?!
You know who that dynamic ^^ actually belongs to? Lesmand.
Fourth — Lesmand. If they would've switched this scene to Armand torturing Lestat for never loving him and holding Louis' fate over his head? It would've made perfect sense. You know, any normal person watching this season and knowing the books would expect that to be the case, you know? Canon Lesmand.
Here? They've repurposed it and transferred it to Loumand. For no reason. This makes zero narrative sense. I'm sitting here watching Louis dying while being spitefully tortured because he didn't love the psycho who killed his daughter.
On top of that? Louis has to acknowledge Armand's backstory and "understand" him before Armand backs down. Know who that was in the books? Lestat.
Armand is obsessed with Lestat. Armand is constantly whining to Lestat about "why won't you love me?!" After Armand rapes him, he tells Lestat his backstory and yes, Lestat sympathizes with him and understands him. It's a key part of their dynamic. Yet here in the show, they've inexplicably given it to Louis for no reason, because Armand outright says in the scene that he never loved Louis and wanted him to suffer and wanted him dead in Paris simply because Louis always loved Lestat instead of him. Yes, we knew this in S2. Why are we back here again watching torture porn against Louis for an apology that means nothing other than satisfying Armand's vendetta against Louis "wronging" him? After everything Armand fucking did to Louis?
I really cannot begin to express how utterly disgusted I am with this choice. As I said here, this aspect is WORSE than S1E5. At least that choice made narrative sense. This?! It's the most bizarre writing choice I've ever encountered, and I cannot wait for the interviews in which they attempt to explain away this crock of shit.
LEAVE. LOUIS. ALONE.
He does not owe fuckass Armand anything!
Lastly — The positives!
The long table dream sequence shifted when Lestat replaced Magnus with Gabriella at the head of the table. It slowly morphed into Lestat realizing that Gabriella was the key monster in his life. She was the reason he became what he did....for better or worse. His changed facial expression (from what we initially saw in Episode 2) when it flashed back to the aftermath of the wolves said everything. That was not the first time she'd done that to him and already back then, we could see he was repulsed by her touch. Again, he had this realization back in Episode 3. Why are we still rehashing this? But anyways, I do digress, because it lead to Lestat finally pushing back against her. He finally stands up to her and calls her out for what she is — "you fucking monster!" I cheered. However, that shift in Lestat's stance where she was concerned was always set to happen because of Louis. Episode 6 established that bond between Louis and Lestat. It established that Louis is the one who is going to be the safe haven for Lestat. It established that Lestat was always going to choose Louis over Gabriella. He asked Louis in the bar if it mattered to him, Louis' answer is what truly dictates Lestat's response to her in Episode 7. If it matters to Louis, Gabriella will be packing her bags. There is no world in which Louis' feelings will not take priority for Lestat. The dream sequence finds Lestat accepting himself, flipping his "failures" back to his abusers in acknowledgement of what they did to him, and reaching the point in which he now knows that "failure" meant he at least tried. He did love. He did what he could with the shit bag he was handed, and that brings me to the saving grace of this episode.
LOUSTAT.
Lestat's point of reference for reality in his lucid dream state is Louis.
"Could be nice. Could be. Hands touch."
This is what he periodically repeats to himself. It's as if he's clinging to that promise of a life with Louis as his anchor to actual life, because Lestat is actively dying in this moment. He's fading.
Paul. 🥹♥️
Truly, one of the best moments of the entire season. Maybe of the entire series. In an otherwise horrendous episode, this stunning moment will carry me into the cold, dark abyss of the hiatus. (And another scene, which I'm coming to.)
Lestat is at the point of death. The heavens open for him, which is likely them finally getting his head out of that damn bowling bag, and he sees the silver cords. (Another PL seed!) He's dying, yet what is the one thing on his mind in this moment at the threshold of the afterlife — Louis. The implication being his love for Louis is what grants his place in Heaven.
"He has a hard time saying it. Got that from our daddy. It doesn't mean he doesn't. It's just his way. Thank you for loving him. For loving him the way he needs to be loved."
The only thing Lestat doesn't feel he's failed at? Louis. Loving Louis. The only reason Louis survived the beheading is because of Lestat's blood.
"I have the blood of Akasha."
"No, it ain't the blood. It's what you do with the blood."
Yeah. Takes on an entirely different meaning now, doesn't it? Because Lestat's "monstrous" blood saved Louis' life. The thing Lestat most loathes about himself just saved the love of his life.
I just —
And that brings me back to Louis.
"Love of my life was him. Heard the witch. Must've heard the bench. Me. Him. Then. Even now. Still thinking about him."
"LOVE OF MY LIFE WAS HIM." 😭😭😭
"OR MAYBE IT WAS HIM."
Jaw on the floor. He actually fucking said it! You could hear my shrieks and sobs all the way to their home in New Orleans! I mean, we knew this, but hearing Louis admit it out loud?! Oh, my heart! Louis, also on the threshold of death, is only thinking of Lestat. Louis is refusing to back down from his love for Lestat. Not even to save his own life or Regina's life does he ever deny his love for Lestat. This is perfection. Absolute perfection. Louis loves him! Louis would die without Lestat!
It was never Claudia. It was never Armand. It was never Gabriella. It was never Antoinette. It was always them. Louis and Lestat. Lestat and Louis. ALWAYS. 🥹♥️
As soon as Lestat wakes and is able to come to himself, his concern? Louis.
"Where's Louis?!"
The way he RUNS to Louis. The way we can literally see the relief washing over him.
The way they're looking at each other says everything. The gentle way they touch each other's neck scars. The profound emotions laden beneath this tender exchange. Seriously don't even talk to me right now. This + Paul assuring Lestat of Louis' love saved this. I'm telling y'all. Without this Loustat thread throughout the entire episode? Geez. I shudder to think. They are the beating heart. The touchstone. The spine holding this entire organism together.
And then this —
The dream sequence wasn't the catalyst for this. Louis was the catalyst. Lestat standing up to her. Lestat having Louis as his rock. Louis finally giving him the courage. The knowledge that Lestat's love for Louis is where his true power lies. His blood saved Louis. He's not a failure. He deserves better than the shit Gabriella has subjected him to. The way his expression instantly darkens when Gabriella starts harping on him while he's looking at the damage done to Louis.
"This is you, right? Right? This is your idea!"
"You go on stage! You get torn apart!"
I don't know how they'll get him on the stage, but the fact remains the mayhem and carnage that ensues will, ultimately, be because of Gabriella. Lestat is blaming himself for it in the aftermath while recording The Failures, but the driving force behind it was always Gabriella. Remember when I said I don't predict she has any fans after this season? Well, here we are again. Arriving at that conclusion. I loathe her.
LEAVE. LESTAT. ALONE.
Let him run away with Louis to their trailer in Utah and Nevada. Everyone else can fuck right off!
A few other things —
Lestat calling Raglan "a friend" in the recordings. Well, Raglan did save their lives. I bet that is how the body thievery will be explained.
Lestat saying that Louis told him about what Armand did to him in the aftermath of Akasha. So that means that's when the canon love confession to Lestat will happen, because Lestat knows in the recordings what Louis said to Armand about the love of his life.
The witches' place being framed as Gabriella trying to get Lestat to flee Auvergne at, *checks notes* age NINE. I'm sorry but what? Either she wants to be him and use his "organ" or she wants him to be free? Pick a lane, Rolin.
I'm glad Regina survived. The last thing we needed was her death at Armand's hands so the writers could spend another season regressing Louis back into the grief spiral after placing him at his PL point of development exactly as they've done yet again at the end of S3.
Daniel's fate is left unknown. I don't care. That asshole threw the world's biggest toddler tantrum and beheaded Lestat just because he was pissed at Lestat for not allowing him to exploit Nicki.
Armand's whereabouts are left unknown. In the words of Blanche Devereaux, "Eat dirt and die, trash."
First off: isn't it a shame that we only got six episodes this season, and it left us with a cliff-hanger of epic proportions?
Yeah... if you want the rest of my thoughts? Since everyone is chatting about it already anyways? Under the cut:
This episode is one of the biggest disappointments of the season for me. Not only invalidate(*) they several of previous season's statements, no they also re-appropriate a whole book arc of relationship and reduce it to nonsense imho.
And, at the same time - here comes the (*) into play, maybe, likely, later - they give themselves the caveat that it's all a "hallucination" and "close to dying and not quite conscious".
*stares into the camera*
Let's start with what I liked:
I liked "Butterscotch Bitch", while not sung still very much present and pointed at his "failures". It is the rejection of those failures and honestly? Yes.
I liked the twist with Regina, and that she got to live despite everything.
I liked Armand referring to Daniel as "his companion".
I liked Raglan coming to the rescue.
I liked Lestat finally standing up for himself against Gabriella
I liked Armand... finally owning some shit.
I liked the performances.
I liked that Lestat was disgusted at her putting her hand onto him. Which is also a reaction very telling as of being... not the first time.
I really liked the scene with Paul.
I liked that they made God female.
I liked Raglan wriggling himself into the inner circle already.
The silver threads - the silver cord.
... *coughs*
I did not like:
The whole episode is what @cbrownjc called a "clip show". And it's almost all .... hallucinations. They can just walk back a lot of it if they feel like it. They also put a LOT of little clips into it that make no sense. Like, for example, Sam stating that he played the train scene over the top, right? Intentionally? Because he knew that was fake? And now... they put the conductor into the crowd there - fair enough - but ALSO the clip with the head? And Lestat commenting on the head? So what, is that now true? Did they just shit with Sam there?
And the failures themselves, and Lestat's "soul" reliving his failures... so far so good, but... if it had only been the dead fledglings and Magnus this "could" have been real, but with all of them there? It's just in Lestat's head.
It's what HE thinks THEY think.
Meaning we are still in the same place wrt any reveals re the trial or Armand or Nicki or... whatever really that we were prior to the episode. Very, very unsatisfying.
Armand. Now Assad really blew it out the water there. Absolutely. But... what is that reasoning there. "Why" Armand did it. Like... he did all that, did the steps, got into LESTAT's band, killed LESTAT's band member to .... get at LOUIS? And he searched for a Claudia-lookalike, installed wires and cameras in Lestat's home to.... what. He wanted Louis to feel things for Regina to make him APOLOGIZE?!
WTF. As if LOUIS needed to apologize to ARMAND.
Like, get fucking real. That is not even something ARMAND would ever think, imho. Armand, who always understood Louis, pretty well, actually.
Which, like, gets me to the next point. Armand being obsessed about his relationship to Louis. Please, someone tell me they did not take the Lesmand dynamic of the books, to make it about Louis. Don't get me wrong, I love that they give Louis more to do, and Jacob was a very nicely done severed head.
But... I have no idea if the Lesmand dynamic we have seen so far... actually works without any of the reasons for it?? WHY is Lestat so pissed with Armand? Why is the dynamic we saw in the rest of the episodes the way it is? "Just" because of Nicki? Something they ALSO softened? Make it make sense. Imho they invalidated the dynamic with it.
Oh, and... having Fareed there to ... infiltrate Lestat to learn about Lestat's blood and... just to... know how long Louis could survive without his head? Really?
The witches' place.
They want to tell me that Gabriella took nine-year-old Lestat there to make him run away. Question mark?
That the wolves was not an attempt at "killing him" to get him out of the house? That she considers it a "failure" (okay in Lestat's mind, granted, but still) that he... was not able to run away till thirty? That she did NOT see him as a substitute for herself?
THAT is what they made the witches' place about????
The only (slightly) saving grace there was the fact that they pointed out what burning "witches" was really about. -.-
Armand and Daniel. Like, I knew we would not get much more this season, and that most of it would be in s4. I knew that. But Daniel going along with this... plan, for these... reasons? And then dragging Lestat's head through the city. I mean...
Paul's scene, as lovely as it was, leaves the impression that Lestat killed him after all, given the surrounding audience. No matter what has already been stated on this. God I'm tired.
Also, it toys with the lore from Memnoch once more, with heaven and hell, and how that works in the VC.
That said? You know, other than the diary and Claudia being direct lore...? THIS (both Louis' torture nor Paul) was not.
Meaning they thought splitting it like this - Claudia in hell/purgatory, Louis tortured, Lestat dying and staring up into the light - was a good look. Have I said I'm tired?
Montreal. Nice shot, I'll give them that.
It also pulls the story into its own universe now, completely. Which makes you wonder why they even bothered with covid in the first place. And given Lestat's jadedness there, and Louis' absence...
What was the revenge porn for again? Whyyyy did Armand do that? I mean that didn't include Louis, did it? How could that punish Louis? Like, again, Armand's reasons being making LOUIS admit to something.... makes ZERO sense. Zero.
So. My conclusion?
I'm not sure why AMC actually held this episode back, or maybe I do. And by now I think it does not actually have much to do with spoilers being given out, or, let me rephrase that - with positive spoilers being given out.
But I can understand why they wouldn't any for this. (Apple apparently didn't though lol)
This episode could have been a great 4x01.
I'm serious. Think about it.
You are left hanging with the beheading and the concert juuussstttt around the corner, with Armand taking the mask off and Daniel there with him, with Loustat juuussstttt making up, and then after the hiatus, it opens with some explanations, but with plenty of room to ... expand on it all. Plenty of space for "WTF".
(Still would have made no sense with Armand's reasoning behind it, imho, but let's just accept that for now.)
We would have gone into the season knowing that disaster is coming after the final shot, we would have gone into the season the concert is up next, we would have gone into the season intrigued for more.
Now, we have to sit with a "ha ha, gotcha, and btw it's all more or less hallucinations and we're in a separate universe now" situation. It's "ha ha, we're pulling up stuff that is directly contradicting things in the three seasons before now, and also some things the actors said".
I... am left with a certain bad taste in my mouth.
As finales go this is the weakest for me.
It did not really have any reveals outside the... very weird "Armand's reasoning" - reveal. Oh, and Regina's little role in it all. And taking one more Lestat-dynamic from the books... for someone else (???).
Because, again:
Everything Lestat "experiences" there? Is a hallucination. of what he thinks they think.
I'll give them that Louis finally admitted that Lestat is the love of his life at least. That's something. And Paul's words might help Lestat deal with the insecurity about Louis' love.
And I guess, Louis acknowledging Armand's fucked up past especially wrt his own businesses is something, too. Though that would have deserved some proper handling, not some telepathic-I'm-about-to-die-yeah-thinking-about-how-I-exploited-women-the-same-way-you-were-treated-makes-me-feel-sorry-now.
I’m afraid no marvel adaptation will ever do it like blade. the blood rave. the leather fit. the techno soundtrack. wesley fucking snipes. kris kristofferson is there for some reason and he’s killing it. the clunky 90s CGI. the R rating. the pointed and perfect f bomb drops. the female co-lead who’s as smart as she is badass and she saves blade as often as he saves her and she’s not even explicitly a love interest. “it’s still heavy” “but you’re so big?”
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