Random question!
Do you think Lestat and Louis encountered each other in any way since the 70s/Louis's suicide attempt? Lately I've been thinking about Lestat's non-reaction to Louis appearing in NOLA for their reunion, and it throws me. And there's Louis's bitter/frank instruction to Daniel during the interview that Lestat is, was, and will always be for Lestat. idk. That blasé initial reunion reaction is so odd. (Or perhaps Armand told Lestat much later at some point Louis survived his suicide attempt.) (SR said at one point in an interview Lestat had thought Louis had been dead all this time, but I appreciate they have to fudge the truth sometimes for spoilers.)
You are so thoughtful about meta; curious to hear your thoughts?
Thank you for your kind words, and ah! No, I don't think they'd seen or encountered each other since Paris.
I don't think Lestat's response to Louis being there is a non-reaction, I just think it's a slow one, and I think you can attribute that to a few things. I think it's partially an indication of how weakened / unwell he actually is - we know that the rat diet isn't really a sustainable one for vampires, but regardless, he doesn't eat any of what Felix brings him, and presumably hasn't otherwise eaten that night when he's in a fairly depressed and deteriorated state (and honestly, who knows when he last actually ate). I think it's also probably a bit of an indication that he might have already been hallucinating Louis. Sam said in interviews on the s2 press tour that Lestat probably had his own version of Dream!Louis, and now that we know the show's going there with Lestat hallucinating - and specifically hallucinating Louis - I think it's probably a pretty short bow to draw.
More than anything though, I just don't think Lestat knew where Louis was emotionally, or why he was there. They don't have access to each other in that way, and the last time they saw each other in Paris didn't exactly go well. Louis threatened to set him on fire, brought up Magnus only to tell Lestat that he didn't care, blamed him for the death of their daughter (which to be fair to him, he had reason to believe), and left with Armand. It kind of goes back - at least to me - with what Jacob said at SDCC. Louis' a bit of a headfuck!
In that sense, I don't think I see Lestat's initial reaction as blasé so much as I see it as cautious. I don't think he knows what to expect, I don't think he knows if he can trust himself to know it's really Louis there with him, I don't think he's well. I think all of those things compound to just make him a little slower, a little more tentative, a little more self-deprecating until the tide builds and the tears come and he can ask Louis about that night in September.
More, until he can ask him about their daughter.
So yeah! I'd say that I don't think it's a non-reaction, I just think it's a delayed one.