Warning: The following contains spoilers for The Vampire Lestat through episode two as well as what came before in the TV show and the books. Read at your own risk.

Intro

The second episode of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat was much better than the first one, lemme tell you.

Now, as a friend of mine pointed out, “It was fine” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. But 1) last week’s ep blew hard and not in the fun way and 2) second episodes of seasons aren’t usually groundbreaking so being perfectly serviceable is understanding the assignment if you ask me. Plus this week we actually got something approaching a story and information, so huzzah for that.

We’re also starting to get an idea of how they’re adapting the books and changing things from previous easons, so let’s get into it.

AMC’s The Vampire Lestat is Somebody’s Fanfic

Let me be clear: there is zero shame in making your fanfic and/or headcanons canon. I’d do the same. Likewise any adaptation from a book to another format is going to change the story purely by need of the medium. How big the changes are can vary from tiny tweaks to wholesale new takes that are so good the canon is changed to match it.

So I have zero problem with the TV show not matching the books. Go nuts. I will judge you on your own merits and be happy to do so.

When you try to straddle the line between including the source material and making changes, though, is when trouble can arise. I don’t think AMC’s The Vampire Lestat is there yet but they’ve got some obstacles they’ve set up for themselves that I’ll be interested to see how they handle.

The issue is the same problem The Last of Us had where they introduce new rules for how the infected work and then promptly ignore those rules in the very same episode because they were so focused on recreating scenes from the game that they forgot to connect those scenes to their new canon.

This is basically the problem that AI has, frankly. So much goes into even seemingly simple choices about a character’s costuming that if you don’t understand what you’re looking at you don’t understand how to translate. AI has no capacity to understand why a character is in a different colored hoodie from everyone else, it just knows statistically this character wears that color. You need a human to know what the color means and why it shows up in one scene and not others.

This then gets writ large the further and further you go out from tiny details.

Before I get into said details, let me put in the disclaimer that I stopped reading The Vampire Chronicles after Vittorio the Vampire. So if any of the details showing up in the show were established in later books I have no idea.

That being said, certainly up until the canon established by Vittorio, Lestat didn’t have a stutter. His story didn’t need one, frankly. He already had a perfectly packaged backstory about being a physically and emotionally abused and neglected child simply for existing and wanting things. “Also they made fun of his speech impediment” is gilding the lily.

However, that’s for the story Anne Rice told in the books. I can absolutely see a reason to change it for a TV show up to and including why the fuck not? (Again: plenty of shows did great with this! Perfectly valid!) I just hope it’s being done mindfully and for a reason. Like potentially this version of Lestat will be more about how he struggles to communicate his true feelings, so the stutter as a child symbolizes how that’s always been a thing for him. Not true to the books, but still an interesting concept. Go nuts!

What does amuse me, though, is how much the show is increasingly being more and more blatant about how some of these choices are purely because someone working on the show, my guess Rolin Jones, is getting to make their take on Vampire Chronicles canon real.

The most obvious was the “Nobody liked him” line about David Talbot who we’re told was unceremoniously killed offscreen. Now I’ve suspected for a while that David wasn’t going to appear on the show because an aged up Daniel Molloy combined with Raglan James as a more active figure early on fulfill his role pretty effectively. That being said, I’m a fanficcer from way back and I know someone with a hater hard on for a character when I see it. “Nobody liked him.” Bullshit. I was there when he was introduced, fandom liked him fine. You don’t like him so you killed him off.

Assuming we can trust that he’s truly dead, of course. This is the show entirely about lying and unreliable narrators. Regardless, “Nobody liked him” is somebody working on the show letting their feelings through. C’mon now.

The issue of unreliable narrators comes up with the other interpretations. In the books Lestat killing the wolves is an entirely different thing. Gabrielle gives him guns and dogs as gifts for him to have something like freedom. The death of his dogs is devastating because for years those were his only friends.

Likewise the escape and closeness to god Lestat felt when he was able to study in the monastery along with the subsequent being dragged out of there and beaten were deeply formative experiences to Lestat’s feelings about god and religion for the rest of his immortal life. Meeting and performing with the acting troupe wasn’t a brief thing, it was the first time he got to bask in praise and attention for being himself (which is to say someone who could be very charming while pretending to be someone he’s not).

So on the one hand it’s weird to me to take what any reader of the books would classify as the key moments of Lestat’s mortal backstory and treat them like quick background noise to mention and move on like they don’t matter. However, is the show treating them like they don’t matter or is Lestat treating them like they don’t matter? An argument can be made that this Lestat, hurt and wounded from reading Daniel’s version of Louis’ words, has good reason to put shields up around his most vulnerable mortal moments.

The changes to Gabrielle are another one to ponder. First up the change to Gabriella is such a “This is my headcanon” move. Again: c’mon now. It’s so fucking pointless even the actors have been like “Yeah we don’t know, they just told us that’s her name now.” when asked about it.

I get that the idea is she was so attached to her Italian heritage she’d have and keep an Italian version of the name but first and foremost that attachment is in and of itself an invention. What we know from the books is that Gabrielle felt as trapped and miserable as Lestat did in that home and handled it by retreating into her books as much as possible (one of many reasons why Jennifer Ehle was brilliant casting). She likewise did what she could within her limitations to care for Lestat, such as using her jewelry to buy things for him.

The weird grooming him thing is an invention. And speaking as someone who has herself written a version of “No, this is what really happened” fic about The Vampire Lestat, trust that if there was evidence of Gabrielle also abusing Lestat through anything but emotional neglect I would’ve used it.

Before I get into what the show is doing, I also want to point out that in the books Gabrielle is very much a story about women being trapped by their circumstances. As one of the - at the time - few female characters in The Vampire Chronicles, Gabrielle represented a late 1980s version of feminism, which was the idea of women who wanted options other than marriage and children.

Once made a vampire, Gabrielle adopts more masculine stylings and fairly quickly fucks off. She loves Lestat, but she loves her ability to be independent even more. That’s why in the books it matters that the groundwork is that, yes, she does generous and kind gestures towards Lestat but her daily life was about taking care of herself by hiding away. She kept herself at a distance from the start and continued to do so.

(Note: at the time Gabrielle dressing like a man to travel was about the traditional fictional trope of how pretending to be male was the only way for a woman to travel safely by herself in that era. But, even though it was not intended as such, one can absolutely make a case for a transmasc Gabrielle who only found the freedom to be himself after he became a vampire. I certainly hope there’s fanfic out there which explores it.)

Now again: the show does not have to be the books. But I talk about how the books handled it so you can see how Gabriella, the present but constantly sniping at the sons she doesn’t care for as much as she snipes at her horrible husband, manipulative woman who grooms and sexually abuses Lestat is a vast difference from the canon. And a difference that takes a for the time fairly positive feminist character and turns her into a much worse person than she was. Which, considering that this is a female character on a show not exactly known for having a good track record with how they handle those, is worrying.

That being said - again is that the show saying this or is it Lestat saying this? The woman we are seeing in this episode feels very much like a woman written by a man with zero thought given to what’s going on with her internally. But, textually, this is the story of a woman being told by a man, specifically a man with entire magazine racks full of issues. It’s entirely possible that what we’re seeing is Lestat’s interpretation, where he was left feeling as though Gabrielle’s actions were more horrible than she may have done and/or intended, because the results to him always ended up being painful.

Plus we may always discover yet another season two style reveal that the story was never the story.

So as I say, wait and see.

One thing that did not work for me was the constant harping on “Did I mention the incest? We’re having incest! We’re incesting incestily down the staircase! INCEST!” Again, I can allow for Lestat being uncomfortable with the idea far more than he ever was in the books. It’s that the show doesn’t shut the fuck up about it that gets me. At a certain point it stops feeling like a character choice and more like a TV show written for stoned people.

But! As I say, these are things that stand out to me as potential problems I hope they avoid. Plus they are things that fall under the umbrella of similar potential problems that showed up in the first two seasons which turned out to have been on purpose for later twists. So I’m fine for taking a wait and see approach to how it all goes. At least we’re finally getting some actual story out of it!

Lagniappe

As always, things that didn’t fit anywhere else:

• In the same way that Lestat of the first two seasons was a highly filtered version (Louis’ memories as corrupted by Armand fucking with said memories), I’m fascinated by the version of Louis we’re seeing right now since it is explicitly in Lestat’s POV. We’re getting to see the Louis Lestat loves so much, which is fun.
• Louis at this point resembles his book counterpart - actually I was going to say in name only but they keep doing the “du Lac” thing so not even that. But I’m all for it. Frankly I think they should follow the example of Louis and move Lestat further away from his book self as well. But it’s clear from what scenes we’ve gotten so far that Louis is nowhere near anything like his book self and god bless.
• That accent for Gabriella is… a choice.
• I like how we’re getting to see more of how Lestat is around people in his handling of the band. He’s incredibly charismatic and can make you want to be on his side… but he’ll remind you that it can be very bad to not be on his side.
• As I mentioned last week I’m fine for retconning Claudia’s rape into never having happened. That being said, I do like the implications we’re getting that potentially the truth is that something happened and Claudia made sure to blame it on Lestat even if he had nothing to do with it. She was, after all, manipulative. (In this case I say so as a compliment, since manipulation was one of her few ways of surviving as someone trapped in a child’s body.)
• I liked the reveal that the trashed hotel belonged to Louis. It adds so much more to Lestat seemingly being on the back foot during that fight. One of the themes of his music career in the books was that he was using it as a way to get other vampires to come after him for various reasons. In the show’s context, it makes perfect sense that if he can’t have Louis in a good way he’ll get negative attention by acting out.
• “Thomas Pitt” was cute.
• This week’s ep was written by Jonathan Ceniceroz and Kevin Hanna and was improved on last week’s for it, if you ask me.
• I loved how Lestat was in a coat with a fur collar while with Gabriella in modern times. It was such a great callback to his wolfkiller cloak and spoke volumes about how being around her put him in a mindset that was his past self rather than his present.
• Not for nothing but as soon as I noticed that detail I immediately said wait, that’s not the costuming language normally used by this show. Sure enough, this year they’ve got a new costume designer in Jeff Dineen. So hat tip to Jeff and I look forward to seeing what else he does this season.
• Someone asked me why it was a problem that Lestat didn’t like aspects of modern life. It’s not. He can absolutely dislike aspects of modern life if that’s what you want to write for him. My issue was that last week he sounded like an SNL Drunk Uncle bit. So much so that I genuinely cannot tell if it was written to make Lestat sound like that on purpose since he was drunk while he was rambling. And if you’re making Lestat sound like Drunk Uncle, it then raises the other issue I mentioned last week which is that Lestat feels too much like a grumpy middle aged man than a bratty immortal twentysomething.
• I forgot to mention last week but another one of those signs this is too clearly the POV of a middle aged man who doesn’t understand the audience for this show was that Tough Cookie was given a Chappell Roan moment of pushing back against a photographer. It was clear this was intended to show TC letting even a small amount of fame go to her head when - again I cannot stress this enough - who do you think the audience for this show is? If you remotely imagine that the average audience member doesn’t still have Pink Pony Club on repeat I don’t know what to tell ya. File this under my many answers when people ask why this show doesn’t get better ratings.
• Frankly not only should Chappell Roan not be made fun of, she should be a touchstone for how they write Lestat. Tell me “I’m your vampire’s favorite vampire” doesn’t sound like something he’d say.
• Back on “does it sound like that on purpose?” is Lestat’s music. Just… I mean maybe the point is that it’s bad? Because he’s struggling to be authentic? Possibly?
• I’m really glad I didn’t ask last week what black licorice was supposed to mean now that we have the answer. See above for my response to that.
• Many people pointed out that All Fall Down sounds a lot like A Little Bit Alexis and someone did the work to compare the two to show that yeah it’s basically the same song.
• It’s also very Darkwing Duck as long as we’re being honest.
• In fairness, if they’re making the music from the POV of a musical giving Lestat an “I am” song works thematically since I am songs are for villains. (See also: I’m a mean green mother from outer space and I’m shiny.)
• Someone raised the issue of how would the kids in last week’s episode both want and have access to authentic costumes to look like Claudia and the like. I won’t say I’ve never tried to hide my horror at hearing some adults insist their six year old is obsessed with media that is vastly inappropriate for them, but in this case I think the more likely odds are that Lestat was interpreting the actual costumes as being about the lives haunting him.
• Rolin Jones gave an interview about how it’s not possible for people to fully understand what they’re doing with the show this season because it's so advanced, omg. Where what they’re doing is stuff like unreliable narrators and broken up timeline structure. On the one hand I’m kind of eyerolly at how he thinks it is too advanced for the audience to understand when it’s the exact same thing they did the last two seasons. Who the heck is sticking around who didn’t already grasp the concept? But on the other hand audiences are struggling to grasp a straightforward show like The Pitt so maybe he’s right.
• I never mock attempts to save on budget but “wolves” clearly being “some PAs shake fake plants while ducking down as best as possible” made me chuckle. But in a positive way, I promise.

And that’s all for this week! Hopefully next week continues the quality trend. See you then!