Bury Him || TVL Meta
Wow, what an episode. Don't have the spoons to unpack it all, but mostly, I've noticed a lot of empty vibes for a member of the band who didn't make it.
But I feel like we owe a little love to everyone's least favorite as he exits this moral coil and so let's talk about what it means to be a player fretting his hour on stage in the story of Lestat's life.
**SPOILERS** for The Vampire Lestat, 1x05 **SPOILERS**
TRIGGER WARNING: This post includes suicide as a part of the events of the episode.
The Front Man Made Sideman
From the beginning, Larry's been Lestat's whipping boy. When Lestat was furious with Louis for publishing IwtV, instead of rushing off to confront him, he ran across the street to take his rage out on Larry's apparently painful guitar riffs.
It was Larry who chased after him, impressed with his skill, praising him and seemingly recruiting him into the band. Afterward, Lestat would completely take over, rebuilding the whole act in his image and according to his values, naming it after himself ("naturally") and making himself the front man. All of the songs are all about him.
In his hindsight diaries, he describes Larry like he's some kind of talentless loser who hates and envies him. I don't know if anyone remembers this, what with the cavalcade happening around it, but Lestat tried to murder Larry on stage for daring to play his guitar during Black Licorice, pulling focus from Lestat's violin solo.
He even mocks him for thinking he sounds good, laughing cruelly, "No one is coming to hear your guitar, Larry!" as if it's the stupidest thing he's ever heard.
When he pressures Alex into silence, he threats to kill Larry:
"Think thrice before running to the police or sharing in one of your anonymous groups, not if you value your life... or your brother's."
Frailty
In episode 5, we learn Lestat has been pretending to be dead as they record their album -- a smart choice, considering he was publicly shot at the end of the last episode. He forces the band to do hundreds of takes to satisfy the muses that have been attacking him. He talks about the album as if it's his own epitaph.
To their faces, he describes the band as if they're all parts of them, but describes Larry as his "frailty" and attacks his talent and skill. Again.
A Deep Grave
When Lestat hears Garbriella say that Florence Welch wants the band to open for her without him, he glares at Larry through the booth glass and snaps at him for being distracted by his little brother falling off the wagon -- something that, at least currently, doesn't seem to mean anything to Lestat compared to the album. But it turns out all the hell he's been putting Larry through is for nothing.
Unlike the others, he's planning to completely erase Larry from the band by rerecording everything he's playing for him. This may be Lestat's epitaph, but Larry's the one getting buried.
Even Sam Barclay has to point out this is a dick move, but Lestat doubles down and insists they fuck him, reminding Sam that he's been all-in on more than a few dick moves in his time.
Later, Lestat decides the album is going to be by and for and about vampires only, and before the rest of the band can hop on that ill-advised bandwagon, Larry quits.
The Yips
For a while now, Larry has been having a hard time playing to his full ability and is feeling terrible, likening it to when he was a goalie as a boy. He's ragged, worn out, and hating himself, unable to take much more of Lestat's perfectionist abuse or the worry over his brother's backsliding, or his own mental block. And he's tortured by the fact that the band will likely be riding to glory without him.
He's a footnote, praying for some rest.
Unfortunately, God isn't listening to Larry, and his prayers are instead answered by the Angel of Mercy himself. He's got a permanent solution to Larry's temporary problems and with just a quiet, effortless word, he convinces Larry to jump in front of an oncoming subway car.
Compare this to the struggle he had with Daniel. Larry doesn't argue with him. He doesn't fight. He was already defeated.
Too Little, Too Late
Unlike other kills this season, this one landed differently for a lot of people. It's evil, yes, but not uniquely evil. Like I said, Lestat wanted to murder Larry for not playing a tambourine. And no one cared...
You didn't care.
Unlike the comic framing of Lestat's poor treatment of Larry, this feels like a short horror film, especially because we don't yet understand why Armand did it. It can't be random, just like him showing up at Alex' AA meeting wasn't random. Without that information, it just looks like a senseless murder, drawing on dark emotions.
I'd like to say poor Larry will be missed, but did any of us ever give him his flowers before this? If Lestat had killed him on stage in episode one, would anyone even care?
Hasn't the narrative been framing him as expendable by making him a target for the protagonist's bullying? Because if he isn't a useless jerk, then Lestat's constant abuse would feel... unwarranted.
Why would Lestat treat him this way if he doesn't have it coming?
The Party
The Vampire Lestat is a puzzle box, but every now and then, it gives us a peek into what's rattling around inside. The Party is like that: Lestat, driven insane by ten years of loneliness, throws a little party for Akasha. Around the table, he's made places for everyone in his head, and is describing their behavior.
But every time he's unhappy -- every time he fails to live up to his own expectations or doesn't get what he wants -- he blames Armand. It's Armand's fault Marius abandoned him, it's Armand's fault a record split the song he's listening to between side A and B. The other place settings have gifts, but Armand's has moldy bread, and even that is taken away in a fit of rage.
"I don't know why I invite you! Worthless."
If you're locked into #TeamLestat, it might seem like I'm off on a tangent, and maybe I am. Maybe Lestat just hates Armand because Armand is so hateable?
"He did a brave thing for me once." -- 1x04
"I couldn't do it. But I watched... As Armand pushed him into the fire and made sure he stayed there with a poker in his chest." -- 1x03
During the recording of lead vocals for "Big Boss," the Armand diss track, a phantom of Nicki torments Lestat, seemingly for cheating on him, just as Nicki did in Lestat's flashback.
"39, 8, 83. Ate his dick behind my back!" -- Muse!Nicki, 1x05
"Did you two decide this in the wings, huh? Or the box? The Place Dauphine last Sunday? The Hôtel de Ville on the Feast of Assumption? And the night after?" -- Nicki, 1x03
Never mind, it couldn't be. Armand lied about them fucking in the box. Nicki was being paranoid, and that song where he fucked him is also somehow a lie. Lestat hasn't done anything to be ashamed of, and he wouldn't touch Armand with a ten foot pole. It's not like Lestat has a history of infidelity!
Armand kidnapped Nicki, so all of this is his fault! Lestat isn't displacing his guilt about cheating on Nicki, or turning him, or asking Armand to kill him. Nicki haunting him while he sings about Armand doesn't mean anything.
And maybe Lestat's abuse of Larry was warranted, too. Maybe every time he blamed Larry for someone or something else upsetting him, it was all Larry's fault. Maybe we were supposed to hate him?
And then blame Armand.
Blame Armand
Lestat felt antagonized by Larry's pathetic band, lashed out at him and, when Larry responded by reaching out and praising him, Lestat thanked him by destroying the band to create a monument to himself.
He takes out his temper on Larry and blames him when things don't go his way, pushing him to the outside and taking his place with relish, seemingly getting off on Larry's humiliation.
He responds to the idea that someone might want Larry instead of Lestat like it's a declaration of war that must be dealt with, and roasts Larry in front of everyone, thinking nothing of leaving him out in the cold. Frames him as a jealous wannabe. Cuts him out of the story.
Worthless.
Bury him.
Why Larry
Ever since Gabriella returned to Lestat, he's become the willing figurehead of The Great Conversion, an apocalyptic cult on the road to destroying the world by flouting the old laws and making more vampires than there are humans, inevitably leading to a disaster that will kill all vampires, or worse, starve them for eternity. Armand, always the survivor, has asked Lestat to stop but of course, Lestat won't listen.
So if you were going to try to make Lestat quit without ever presenting a target, which of Lestat's pawns would you take first?
If he makes Larry -- who has been Lestat's punching bag all season -- kill himself after leaving the band, no one will wonder why he did it. They saw the way Lestat treated him, what he put him through.
And then he'll have already taken out Alex, the loving little brother who deals with his pain through substance abuse. Lestat told Alex that he'd kill Larry if Alex blabbed, he saw Larry internalize Lestat's insults. He will explode, if not at Lestat, then at himself.
All that will be left will be TC and Salamander, and how will they take Lestat driving their bandmates over the edge?
How will Lestat take it?
I'm not saying this is Armand's plan -- I'm not even used to Armand having plans, let alone elegant ones -- but if it is? I'll have to eat crow about all the times I've shit on his skills.
Maybe Chess Master Armand is real? As long as there isn't anyone else behind the moves Armand is making.
