Initial thoughts for 2x05 (Episode 12) — SPOILERS INCLUDED!
In the words of Armand, “He’s fine. He’s just fine. Oh he’s fine. You’re fine! This is fine! We’re all fine!”
(It wasn’t meant to be funny, but I laughed out loud, because I get it, Armand. Truly I do. 🤭😅)
Before I get into the heavy stuff, I just have to say I loved Daniel and Louis in this episode. Their relationship in Dubai is something really special. More on this later, but Louis finally confirming they didn’t fuck each other, but teasing Daniel over the fact he actually stripped for Louis and propositioned him in San Francisco? “Do you want to now? He sometimes lingers when boats come into the harbor.” Idk why, but that is so precious to me. Louis laughing and smiling and joking. There’s the other side to the real Louis. 🥺 Anyways….
*deep breaths* So here it is. Louis attempted to kill himself once before in what can only be described as an AU of the Tulane draft for Merrick. In my humble opinion, the real Merrick event is not off the table. I still believe everything is setting up Louis attempting to kill himself (again) in Dubai, but the next time Lestat will know where he is and will be able to physically reach him, unlike in San Francisco. More on this later.
This episode belonged to Assad. He absolutely did the damn thing. We’ve finally got the full confirmation (🖕🏽 to all the willfully ignorant asshats who tried to say that was something “invented” to absolve Lestat) that Armand is gaslighting and fucking with/removing/implanting memories for both Louis and Daniel. Several echoes in this episode to S1 and why it was told the way it was told. I’ll get to that too.
Having said that, DEAR LORD! The Loumand fight! Absolutely brutal. Yes, Armand is finally revealed as the manipulative and vindictive little gremlin that he is, but also? VALID. He is HURT. He’s had enough of Louis’ shit, and I absolutely understand exactly why he’s doing everything that he’s doing wrt Louis, and it also explains why Dubai is happening the way that it is. As I’ve said, Armand knows what will happen to Louis if he’s not kept under this mental veil in the gilded cage that is Dubai, which leads me into the actual context of the fight:
“You’re boring! You’re boring! You are so boring!”
*Armand inaudibly mocking Louis simultaneously*
“Colorless! Flavorless! Dull! Dull! Dull nights! Dull weeks! Dull months! Dull as FUCK! Suffocation by the world’s softest, beigest pillow! The ten hours I spent with that boy were more exciting, more fascinating than DECADES with you!”
“Oh there it is. The half-blank, half-apocalyptic look, but what does it mean tonight? Does he wanna lick my boots? Or chop my hands off? Is it the gremlin or the good nurse tonight?”
“Okay. Okay, perhaps, but am I as boring as the blather committed unto the tapes of your fascinating boy?”
“Picking lint off the sofa?”
“Oh, it’s so hard to be me! It’s so hard to feel human! *inaudible on the tape* Everyone I know has wronged me!”
“Okay. Okay. Let’s wake the boy up and let’s try you.”
“I’m the Vampire Armand and my vampire daddy groomed me into a little bitch!”
“Ah my brother tossed himself off a roof! My sister buried me alive!”
*Louis inaudibly mocking Armand simultaneously*
“But the vampires that murdered my daddy made me act like I didn’t have a dick for 240 years!”
“My daughter was my sister was my throw pillow when he wouldn’t look at me kindly! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat!”
“I talked shit about him the whole time!”
“The NAME! The name! Unuttered in our home for 23 years said over and over again until it was pounding in my brain like a hammer!”
“Our problems aren’t about him!”
“And you threw her name around just for cover, but it always circled back to him.”
“But she didn’t love YOU! Not like he did! Not like I have!”
That right there. “I know!” That is what Louis cannot handle. Lestat loved him. Claudia did not, and Louis allowed himself to be used to destroy their lives in NOLA, which led to Claudia’s inevitable demise. Remember when I pointed out S1 was framed in such a way to show why it was “inevitable” that Lestat had to die to remove Claudia’s (and Louis’) culpability in the breakdown of their family? There it is buried within Loumand’s fight. The crux of it all. Lestat was never the monster, and Louis started spiraling once Armand said that. He started recalling Paris. He started remembering the truth. That is when he throws himself into the sun. In Dubai, when everything Armand has been doing to his mind/memories is undone and Louis remembers? Hello real Merrick moment with Lestat finally showing up when the true extent is revealed of what actually happened both in NOLA wrt Lestat’s murder and what happened in Paris wrt Claudia’s murder i.e. Claudia played Louis against Lestat, because Lestat loved him and Claudia did not and Louis knew this yet still allowed it all to happen.
This behavior from Louis has been happening for years. Armand pointed out it was “128 boys” and always ended with Louis (or Armand) killing them and Armand having to clean up the mess. Daniel was different. Louis spilled his heart to Daniel, something he had never done for Armand, and Armand wants to know why. What makes Daniel so fascinating? *cue the chase era of Devil’s Minion*
The way my jaw dropped when the tables turned, and we realize it was actually Louis who saved Daniel from an “easeful death.” The callback to “Maître” and “Arun” in that moment? The way Armand just regressed back to that hurt little boy looking for love and someone to give him purpose? “Teach me how to be fascinating.” Hoooo boy! 😩
I teared up when Daniel started reading from his book while realizing those words were what Louis told him in San Francisco before they let him go. The way the tides shifted in Dubai. The realization that Armand has been gaslighting and fucking with/removing/implanting memories for them both. The way this discovery was only possible with Armand out of the house. *cue the Louis/Daniel alliance Jacob and Eric told us about at TCA*
The way Armand waltzes into the penthouse, parroting the lines from Louis about Daniel eventually proving useful, making it sound as if he was the one who felt that way/said those things when it was actually Louis. *ahem*
That leads me to the conversation with Lestat. Quite the bombshell. So Armand has known where Lestat is and has been keeping it from Louis. Armand also immediately clocked that the 1973 interview was intentionally full of rewritten “trash” about Lestat in an effort to get Lestat’s attention i.e. the way Lestat knew “Come To Me” would get Louis’ attention. It’s only once Armand holds it over Louis’ head that he knows Lestat’s whereabouts that Louis calms, has a spark of hope, and then goes right back into the self-hatred and self- flagellation and telling himself that Lestat cannot possibly love him hence his “No! No! No!” Lestat has always been the true trigger.
Another thing I’ve pointed out that this episode confirmed? Armand would reach out to Lestat with Louis in the condition that he’s in. That means Lestat, in Dubai, has to be unconscious at this point. Otherwise, he would be at Louis’ side in a split-second. Perhaps Armand later lied to Lestat about Louis? Perhaps Armand later told him that Louis succumbed to his injuries since he left Lestat frantic and not knowing what had truly happened to Louis or how badly he was injured? Imagine Lestat’s headspace, already weak and feeble and hearing that Louis is with Armand and has “injured himself” while having the backstory that he has with Armand in which Nicki also “injured himself” while under Armand’s care and eventually died. Parallels galore! 💔
We also hear from Daniel’s POV that Armand is refusing to tell Lestat where Louis is. “I’m with him now. I won’t tell you why. No. I won’t say where.” How many years has this been happening? How many times has Armand taunted Lestat with Louis’ whereabouts or Louis’ headspace while Lestat has been too weak and injured (*cough* tower push *cough*) to get to Louis?
On the flip side, how often has Louis been in this position, clearly wanting Lestat more than anything, and Armand has refused to tell Louis where he is?
“Louis? Louis. Mon cher? You wanted to say something to me? Why are you ill? What’s happened to you? I love you, Louis. Tell him I love him, Armand. I love you, Louis. Tell him, Armand! Tell him! Louis? Louis? Louis! Louis!”
And now if y’all will excuse me I just —
THAT BROKE MY FUCKING HEART INTO PIECES! SOMEHOW TOPS THE LETTER SCENE AND THE BENCH SCENE! I’M STILL CLAWING THE WALLS WHILE WAILING AND SCREAMING ABOUT HOW MUCH LESTAT FUCKING LOVES HIM!
*deep calming breaths* It’s clear from this episode that Armand is keeping Louis from Lestat and keeping Lestat from Louis. And like I’ve said before, it also confirms that in no real universe will Lestat ever reject Louis.
The love. The desperation. The yearning. The way Lestat sounds so weak and so sick and doesn’t even try to roust himself or gain strength until Armand says that Louis is injured and his immediate reaction is “WHY ARE YOU ILL? WHAT’S HAPPENED TO YOU? I LOVE YOU, LOUIS. TELL HIM I LOVE HIM, ARMAND. I LOVE YOU, LOUIS. TELL HIM, ARMAND! TELL HIM!”
Lestat doesn’t know what has happened to Louis. He just knows he’s hurt or sick and all he wants Louis to know is that he loves him. He probably thinks this might be the last time he ever gets to speak with Louis. How is he to know Louis isn’t dying in that moment just like Nicki? He wants his last words to Louis to be his undying love. “All my love belongs to you. You are its’ keeper.” Just shoot me now. 😭💔
Armand claiming he was leaving Louis prior to reaching out to Lestat? I actually think he fully intended to do it. I think he changed his mind when he heard Lestat’s love for Louis, the love Armand begged him for but that Lestat would never return. Lestat will never love him like he loves Louis, and Louis will never love him like he loves Lestat. Armand realizes this and digs his heels in even further in that moment. I’m coming to this again.
Also! Did y’all catch that last “Louis!” from Lestat? It was the same “Louis!” from 1x05 right before the fight. We see Louis lying injured in his green satin coffin after a huge and hurtful brawl with Armand. We see Armand being apathetic to his injuries, and we hear Lestat screaming for him in the exact same way as right before their fight. Something something about 1x05 being revisited….something something about Armand coloring the tale….
Now for the second part of Lestat’s pleadings to Louis….Armand DIDN’T TELL LOUIS! He really is such a complicated character, because the reasons for him withholding are quite complex. On the one hand, fuck you, Armand. Lestat is begging for you to just tell Louis that he loves him and you said nothing! You could see the longing on Louis’ face, hear the frantic aching in Lestat’s voice, and you said nothing! You vindictive little manipulator! On the other hand, I get it! Hearing Lestat so earnestly and emotionally telling Louis that he loves him, after everything Louis has done to Lestat, and Lestat never returned that love to Armand. And then on the third hand, hearing Louis “rant” about Lestat for ten hours to this “fascinating” stranger in an attempt to get Lestat to come running after him, spending years with Louis never verbally saying Lestat’s name but thinking of him always i.e. “I told him (Lestat) you (Louis) were thinking of him again.” — It’s no wonder Armand withheld that. Hearing Louis, whom Armand also loves, say the vicious things to him that he said, basically telling him that he’d never be Lestat and seeing that Louis will clearly never love him like Lestat? Ouch! Combine that with the fact Louis has just went off the deep end and tried to kill himself, tried to abandon Armand, and it’s honestly no wonder. Armand will do anything to not be alone and to keep Louis safe and to keep his purpose. Dubai is the result of San Francisco. Armand asking Louis if he was going to be on “suicide watch” for the next thousand years? 😬😬😬😬
Also! Did y’all hear Armand scream “Louis!” when he realizes what Louis is doing in the exact same way as he does in Dubai when the bookcases shatter? Again, the foreshadowing and parallels!
Remember Armand’s face in 2x04 when Louis was describing to Daniel how DreamStat felt? That was Armand realizing that, even all these years later, even after Armand has done everything he’s done to keep Louis sheltered, it is still “Lestat! Lestat! Lestat! Lestat!”
Luke Brandon Field as young Daniel was incredible. He truly felt like watching a young Eric. Superb! And like I said, I think this episode is showing us the start of “the chase” era for Devil’s Minion. After all, we know Louis and Armand kept tabs on Daniel all these years, and we know Armand was aware of Alice’s true feelings when Daniel proposed. How did he know that unless he was around for that? 😈
Lastly, Armand strolling in all tickled and aroused in Malik’s glasses? Never change, Armand. I love you just the way you are.
If y’all actually read all that rambling, I hope it was worth your time. 😆
To all my anons? I’m getting to you guys. Just have patience with me. We are on information overload compounded with all the feels. 😅
