Theories for the last 2 episodes:
Let's start this off by saying I'm following a completely different train of thought from a lot of others. I have many unpopular thoughts/predictions, but I'm trying to frame my theories around the opposite of what everyone thinks is going to happen. I think the writers want to pull the rug out from under us with a few subversions. Please keep in mind that these are just my musings and perspective, just because I think these subplots will lead in certain directions doesn't mean they actually are. I will likely be completely wrong, or maybe half right.
Warning: book spoilers included, and spoilers up to episode 5 of TVL are also here.
Alex:
I think Armand is a huge red herring for being the one to control Alex. I'm predicting it is likely Amel who is in control, getting ready to body hop into Lestat. I think Armand knows this, too, or suspects. The framing has been weird, like trying to point at Armand, but not revealing it. Why, unless it's to hide a huge reveal? We already saw Armand take Larry out. I think it's possible Amel body hopped from Gabrielle to Alex. And Gabrielle is fully on board for getting Lestat to a dangerous place where he will accept Amel's possession. With Amel also, I wonder if it would be possible for the demon to hide its presence from Lestat. Personally, I think if Armand was in control of Alex, Lestat would likely be able to sense his presence in there whenever he happened to read Alex's mind. And maybe Amel can evade this, thus Lestat thinks Alex is normal.
Gabrielle:
She's clearly using Lestat for the Great Conversion. I'm thinking maybe her and Amel are in cahoots maybe, and the last episode will have Lestat submitting to her and doing what she wants at the expense of the other characters. There's been so much focus on her manipulations of Lestat, so I'm hoping it narratively pays off at the end.
Akasha:
This is trickier. I know Akasha wants Lestat, and she's going to want to do a whole lot more once she's awake. This is where I'm going to tie in Armand's possible motivations. I think this version of Akasha is specifically targeting Armand and Daniel because they have Marius's blood. And she's aiming for them to get back at Marius. I believe Marius escaped her, and could be on the run. Other than that, Armand's motivations seem just...very smoke screen right now, like we are being encouraged to think one thing. Something is telling me Akasha might have already spoken to him with threats or in dreams, like maybe she's in a half-asleep state. Marius also could have warned Armand about Akasha. The lore behind Akasha and Enkil is very strange, so I'm not sure how others would feel with these changes. I think this is why Armand is quickly trying to gain Daniel's trust, to possibly get Daniel to leave with him or prevent the album from coming out. He knows the vampire apocalypse is upon them. Until then, he's going to be proactive about destroying the band.
Lestat:
This leads me back to Lestat. Until ep7 airs, I'm not convinced we saw the true letter scenes in ep4. In fact, I think also the Halloween scene in ep1 is altered. All three scenes begin with the Failures tapes. This is heavily pointing toward these scenes being edited/altered by Lestat. I remember on reddit, someone noticed how when the doorbell rings, Lestat has a different shirt when he answers the door versus when he was previously on the couch, implying he had another mysterious visitor. I'm leaning toward the mysterious visitor likely being Armand for plot reasons/secrets. Both of them just seem like they are keeping stuff from Louis and Daniel to try to protect them. In the letter scenes, Armand is deliberately dressed to resemble a little boy, like he's too compliant and off in his behavior, likely being viewed this way from Lestat's POV and painted in a false light. He seems to finally be closer to the Armand we know at the concert in the same episode. Back to his letter to Lestat, Lestat himself also seems off. I cannot be convinced he wouldn't start cursing in French or talking about Louis/Armand's relationship. Lestat is extremely jealous of the idea of anyone else with Louis, he can't control it like what we saw with the attorney scene. I think the conversation went really differently. Armand might have been trying to make amends, for Daniel, thinking this might be the way to go. Maybe he even asked Lestat to fire Daniel and cancel the documentary. I'm leaning toward the idea of Armand telling Lestat about Akasha's threats, and Lestat saying he doesn't care, etcetera, is talking foul shit. In ep4 and ep5, we have references to the Great Conversion from Armand about how they're all going to die, and then another reference to how Lestat "faked us, left us high and dry. Revolutions don't need albums, they need numbers." Eventually, I think this is all leading to Lestat having an inedible mental breakdown. His character has not hit rock bottom yet, and I think Gabrielle is going to lead him there. He's already going to be on the outs with Daniel and Armand and the band dying/being killed. The last thing that gets him to that point will be Claudia's ghost. I'm thinking she's going to tear Loustat new assholes. This is where I think a major secret will come out: her hatred for Louis, but Lestat knew about it. I'm predicting that during the trial, Armand told Lestat about Claudia's resentment/hatred of Louis. Lestat probably wanted to believe it was a lie, but it wasn't. I think Lestat and Armand both have been keeping this from Louis the whole time. Anyway, Lestat will mentally break and accept Amel's possession, Daniel will be the one trying to expose Lestat. We will learn about what really happened on the train, about Paul's death, and the trial. I'm not sure if Daniel will be involved with all these secrets coming out, or maybe ghost Claudia will spill the information. Lestat will violently attack/almost kill Daniel, there's also a chance Akasha tells Lestat to snatch Daniel for her, Louis will try to help Danny and Armand, too, but maybe Akasha/Gabrielle intervene. Once Amel has entered into Lestat, he will be unstoppable. Armand, with help from Louis, will have to behead Lestat. Maybe Akasha steals Lestat's body, and Louis, Armand, and a barely breathing Daniel, will get away with only Lestat's head. Of course, Louis loves Lestat, but if he learns from Armand about Akasha's intention to kill him and Daniel and the potential genocide on the horizon, he's bound to flip on Lestat. He'll try to stop him without violence at first, trying to free Lestat from Amel, but will resort to drastic measures when it's not working. Some of what I'm saying here comes from the flash forward at the auction in ep1. Since Armand and Louis seem to be in a better place and have suffered major damage, I think it points to them likely fighting something or someone together.
The Train/Subway:
I believe the train scene from S1, and the subway incident from ep5 are meant to parallel each other, and are set up this way on purpose. When it comes down to it, I think Armand and Lestat both have the same motivations: protect their loved ones, in the most depraved ways of course. I think we're about to see what really happened on the train. I have the opinion that something did happen, something much worse where Lestat was violent with Claudia, and maybe started experiencing flashbacks of his own abuse as it happened. He probably freaked out and healed her, or scared her way worse, which is ultimately why she decided to go ahead and plan his murder. Lestat seems to be fixated on the train part "never happened" in the IWTV book, and I think it's cause Claudia didn't want to describe how bad the situation really was. Maybe it was shame, maybe it's cause she knew Louis was reading her diary, maybe she thought Louis wouldn't believe her if she went into detail. But all in all, I think Lestat ultimately did what he did to "keep Louis happy." It's really messed up, but Lestat was trying to protect Louis. On the other hand, for Armand, I think he saw killing Larry as a necessity to protect him and Daniel. He didn't want to risk Larry rejoining the band and contributing to the album. The memory erasing wouldn't work, since Larry would have constant reminders: Alex and the media and TVL music. It's fucked up for Armand to do it, but for him, I think similar to Lestat, they are both willing to go to extreme lengths to protect their loved ones. Something is telling me Armand knows Akasha is gunning for him and Daniel.
Paul's Death:
This will be one of the reveals that drives a wedge between Louis and Lestat yet again. I think Lestat is experiencing a lot of guilt over many things, and Paul's death could be one of them. If Lestat decides to say what really happened, this reveal could contribute to his mental breakdown. We saw he killed his own brothers, yes they were very abusive, but I don't put it past him to have offed Paul to get Louis in a vulnerable state. Or the alternative, Lestat speaking to Paul telepathically caused him to truly believe the voices he was hearing were real, thus his tragic self-exit. And Lestat knows this.
The Failures:
For the Failures tapes, I have an idea of where I think this could be headed. First off, I think Lestat is trying to record his own tapes and frame Louis, Armand, and Daniel in negative portrayals, all as a form of revenge for the release of the IWTV book. I think he plans to include this on the album, or maybe release them on their own. Since he feels exposed for abusing his ex-companion and daughter, he wants to get back at the ones he feels did this to him. I noticed the scenes from ep4 with Armand seemed very off, all except the concert scene and after that when he speaks to Daniel. The two letter scenes had Lestat fanfiction written all over them. Daniel sounded like a caricature of himself, Armand sounded meek and even looked very different from how he usually appears. I also think Louis's scenes with Regina could have been altered to paint Louis in a more negative light, but I'm not saying these things didn't happen but Lestat was trying to capitalize on Louis's near mental collapse because he feels this is what Louis did to him. Including all this information on the tapes to get back at Louis is a choice, but I def could see Lestat doing so spitefully.
Daniel's Turning:
I was debating adding this or not, but decided to because I think we're being very much lied to by the cast and crew. Which is fine by me. I want big reveals and surprises! Throughout the season, there has been a few references regarding Danny's turning. And if the intention wasn't to show us Daniel's turning by ep7, why keep referencing it? I think his turning would have only been referred to once if it hadn't actually been filmed yet. I fall in the camp of: thinking the turning happened in the first place because Daniel was having a heart attack or another medical emergency. He's a former heavy drug user, so him having a major cardiac event would be a huge possibility. But what I also think they could show us would be what leads up to it. A montage of the 22 days after the interview, maybe from Armand's perspective? Daniel's turning happened on a private jet, all the fingers point toward Armand's, which tells me Daniel probably willingly got on the plane with Armand. They might have been developing a friendship/bond of sorts. Yes, Armand could technically take Daniel hostage and force him on the plane, but does that make sense with all the information we've gotten? Armand stalks Daniel, saves his life over and over, he's angry at Louis likely because of Daniel, basically being protective of Daniel. Daniel's interactions with Armand in ep4 and ep5 don't come off to me like he's terrified of Armand either. He's mad, yes, but he doesn't look like he was in a 22 day hostage situation or turned violently. I think this is leading toward his turning happened without his consent. In fact, I believe in those 22 days, Armand and Daniel discussed the dark gift, I think he told Armand he'd be fine dying after seeing how miserable all the vamps are. But when it came down to it, Armand couldn't let him go. He turned him when Daniel was ready to die and Daniel is pissed because Armand disregarded what he wanted. This reveal would certainly create interesting conversation about if Armand was right or not. I can see Daniel feeling conflicted also, like he wants to resent Armand for this but then at the same time how could he when Armand is the reason he's still alive. There would be so much to unpack with this reveal.
And finallly...the Trial:
From my perspective, there are several plot points that do, in fact, prove Santiago to be the ringleader. I think, if they try to go with the book version, it creates a lot of potential retcons for S2 or too much reliance on memory wiping/erasing, to put the blame on Armand. I also would like to think that Loustat shippers wouldn't want this. If Lestat truly thought Armand was behind everything and was tortured by him, why would he let Louis go with Armand? Louis wouldn't have known the truth, it'd put a huge torpedo into the ship, and imo it would make Lestat look like he doesn't actually love Louis and that he's completely sadistic. Yes, watch the vamp who planned the whole trial, who is supposedly crazy, take off with the love of your life. Are you kidding me? This was one of the big reasons I believe Santiago did threaten Armand and Lestat probably watched it happen. Since Lestat is very fixated on the trial still, I think we are about to see some reveals. A confirmation that Santiago did spearhead it as revenge against Armand, the coven had enough of Armand and his hypocrisy and the last straw was Madeleine's turning, and I think we will see Lestat went along with it...always with the intention of saving Louis. Here is where I think Lestat is experiencing shame about the trial, hence all the vitriol at Armand in the present, it's projection of sorts. There are a couple of possibilities I can come up with: Santiago, with help from Lestat, tortured Armand, they healed him and only let him out to go see Louis, Santiago might have known about Armand's previous torture with Santino and knew exactly how to break him mentally. Or: Lestat agreed to let Claudia die. This would be the really tragic outcome. I was thinking that if Armand had read from Claudia's mind about her resentment for Louis, and Armand showed Lestat this, maybe this would have influenced Lestat's decision to let her die. I could see years later, Lestat lying to himself, trying to convince himself that Armand lied about Claudia's hatred/resentment for Louis, but ghost Claudia confirms this was true. This would contribute majorly to Lestat's mental breakdown, which all signs point to happening. Where would the conflict be if this doesn't happen? He's already on the precipice of a breakdown, with Gabrielle leading him to the edge as efficiently as possible.
