nodorothyparker

Good gods, what a mess. While I did sort of like the moment of everybody just giving up as they realized the object they'd been fighting and killing over for two seasons was gone and permanently beyond their reach, the entire last 2.5 episodes of one leader obsessing over getting their hands on Le Kid Jesus, getting killed, and then another person stepping up to insist no, we're still doing this and everyone of their uniformed baddies just shrugging and following along with guns drawn was just too tedious for words. Not once as the B and then C and then D list baddies stepped up did anyone ever really articulate what they planned to do with the kid if they managed to find him or how having him was going to make the ZA any appreciable amount better for anyone. Something something something symbol of something, I think. While I'm happy Ash and Le Kid Jesus are out, it did make me laugh to think of these two landing a freaking plane near the Commonwealth, presuming they can even find it, and going "Uh, Carol and Daryl sent us. They're in France. Yes, France. Yes, I know how that sounds but we had to leave them there and they'll be figuring out their own way home somehow. Can we see Judith now?" Both actors did well with what they had to work with, and I think I honestly would have minded less following that story instead of another round of Carol and Daryl get every last other person around them killed but keep on keeping on. Hallucinating on literal batshit underneath the English Channel with glowing walkers felt like it could be an interesting set piece and I remember thinking had it not been tacked onto the end of this mostly nonsensical season, maybe I wouldn't have minded it so much. But it just went on forever and ended in the usual result of whoops, everybody we started out this trek with is dead and now we're walking to England. See you next season, everybody!

This was a pretty well done episode once you get past the whole wait, why are all these people still willing to get themselves killed over this one kid who very clearly does NOT want to be part of your cult after you've already gotten most of your cult killed over him? I mean, really, they've mostly wiped themselves out and very plainly moved on from the whole peaceful nonviolence they were preaching and the kid obviously can't survive a walker bite to be your new messiah, so what's the point? Some vague concept of "hope?" The thing that made this episode so interesting is something that's been talked about over the run of various shows in the franchise: That as the remnants of Rick's wrecking crew they've left a pretty long trail of bodies and destruction behind them while they keep on keeping on and if they weren't the people we've been following all the way along, we might not be so quick to recognize them as "the good guys." This episode really felt like it was leaning into that idea and that even Daryl and Carol weren't fully sure of the answer. This, after they of course blithely assumed Le Kid Jesus would be jumping at the chance to chuck every last thing familiar to him to go to America with near strangers, where everything would be better and possible for a real childhood. As if Carol and Daryl don't both know all too well how lethal ZA America has been to kids not named Judith too. Carol talked about Ash as if he was another kid to be smoothed over and reasoned with and not a grown man who'd seen his entire post ZA life go up in flames to almost literally fly blind across the ocean on the basis of a lie. And she and Daryl just assumed without even talking to him that of course he'd be just fine with everything to fly whoever they decided to bring along for the ride. It never once seemed to cross either of their minds that he might pull a Cartman screw you guys, I'm going home alone after all your bullshit. Ash has been a great addition, so hopefully he survives to stick around for whatever adventure they end up in next. He deserves to be more than just a plot conveyance. I could almost understand Carol's initial thinking that he didn't really need the details, that dead Sophia is still dead Sophia and what difference did it really make, especially in the wake of Ash saying that the trip had actually been good for him in finally getting him unstuck to start living again. Carol's confession read more like a unburdening to make herself feel better than because it was the right thing to do, and I briefly wondered if she would have done it if Daryl wasn't now a part of their entourage and probably would tell him at some point if she didn't. The actor did a tremendous job of turning on a dime after the reveal and letting us see just how big the betrayal felt to him, and Carol just standing there and taking it felt very in character with her history. I weirdly find myself rooting for Codrone to make it. His talk with Le Kid Jesus about what anger and fear do to people was lovely.

I knew Isabelle was dead woman walking the moment they announced Carol would be joining the series after all. The franchise clearly doesn't want to pair Carol and Daryl off with each other like that, which is fine, but won't let either of them truly pair off with anyone else either. And no, Carol's marriage to Ezekiel of the pretty eyes doesn't really count because it happened almost entirely off screen and when they went their separate ways after the time skip he almost immediately zeroed in on Daryl as the third wheel of their marriage, even if he wasn't the cause of the breakup. Daryl's one and only confirmed relationship happened entirely in flashback after the mother show went to some pains to establish that she was Very Very Bad. It's a shame. Isabelle was an interesting character and Clémence Poésy a lovely actress. But what was almost worse was how deeply emotionally manipulative the whole thing felt. She died just as Carol finally joined the main storyline and then the writing seemed afraid to not throw longtime shippers a bone with Didi mistaking Carol for Isabelle and waxing about how "Laurent" knew they were in love with each other. So much of that dialogue could have legitimately applied to Carol if you didn't know you were supposed to know differently. But for all of that, it was like Isabelle ceased to matter at all as Carol immediately set to yanking every available heartstring to remind Daryl of what was waiting for him on the other side of the Atlantic, how could you have gotten sucked into caring about any of these people at all? It's weird. I love Carol. She's long been one of my favorite TV characters and I'm genuinely happy to have her back on my TV. But I also strongly suspected that bringing her onto this show's canvas would absolutely destroy what was so refreshingly different about it. And I wasn't wrong about that. Elsewhere, Losang makes even less sense after all this. What is the motivation now? The two sides of the fight that saw amped zombies thrown at people after punching holes in their walls shrugging and deciding to team up is also a big headscratcher. Might it have been worth even 30 seconds of asking what they stood to gain in joining the hunt for Le Kid Jesus? What has been the point of any of this, really? Theo and Didi's neighborhood was a hoot. I've really loved this show's use of French history to offer shading on how the ZA is different there than America. If you live long enough you're going to see various armies come through. Sell what you can to live another day. But if you're going to get pissed off at being called a Nazi, maybe don't be machine gunning panicky people in the woods.

One of the things I liked about the first season was that the Nest, Union of Hope, what have you, seemed to be exactly what they were billed as. No philosophizing cannibals, no bored murderous middle managers. No one died cheap deaths unnecessarily for shock. Just mostly everyone, save Madame Really Bad Guy's storm troopers, trying to do their best with a bit of French flair. Now we're told all of that was shit and everybody on both sides is bad to the point of World War II-style machine gunning in the woods or plotting to sacrifice children for reasons that don't even seem to add up beyond not wanting the other side to have hope/not wanting followers to lose hope. It sucks because this show's portrayal of the original outbreak last season was easily one of the best the franchise has ever pulled off. I was initially happy to see more of that with Genet's back story. Her comment that in the beginning they worried more about protecting the art than people interspersed with scenes of her husband being locked out of the museum to be torn apart felt like the on the nose kind of commentary this franchise loves in giving us the answer of whatever happened to the Mona Lisa. Once again, we're shown that the worst of the worst people we've met over the franchise were small time middling sorts like gym teachers, office workers, or janitors pre ZA who made the most of the collapse of the world. I also initially thought that this was why Genet seemed so interested in Carol from the start, that as someone who had also previously been mostly invisible that like was recognizing like. Sure, they're already halfway through a six-episode season and we don't have the screentime left for the kind of indulgent character study the mother show used to wallow in every mid season or so, but there was potential there. There's also the mostly unexplored subplot of just how wrong Carol's instincts about people seem to be on this side of the Atlantic. She's long been pretty sure of herself in her abilities to fly under the radar and do and say what needed to be done to outplay and outlast, but with the exception of Ash in the beginning, she's been pretty terrible at reading or anticipating people. But no, we immediately ramp up to 11 throwing her into what looks like another massacre that will likely require plot armor to survive.

It's like they took everything that made the first season feel so fresh and different and set it on fire. So pointless nihilism and cruelty it is. Genet is making Saviors-era Negan look almost reasonable and nuanced.

I'm half expecting this too. Otherwise, the whole just wander in and surrender your gun plan seems a whole lot dumber than Carol can usually be counted on being. But then this is the same woman who set off on foot alone to a strange city with no more apparent plan to find Daryl than wait for some rando bad guys to show up and tail them to see if they lead anywhere. The French story with Le Kid Jesus is really dragging. So am I understanding correctly that the entirety of their big important ceremony is to deliberately let the most special of special snowflake kids get bitten to see if he's immune to the zombie virus? If he dies, it's going to be pretty hard to continue their cult. "Whoops, sorry guys. I know we gathered you all here to put all your faith and hope in this one kid. But doesn't he make a pretty zombie?" And if he doesn't, then what? Do they also have lab facilities behind all the religious iconography and the know-how to be able to translate that into something usable without immediately losing him to Le Madame Really Bad Guy? Great, Daryl. I've mostly enjoyed how grown up the relationship with Isabelle was compared to all the cartoonish yet strangely chaste fangirling of the mother show. But now you've set off all the death knells to ringing for her.

It's kind of a major design flaw that every time the generator goes out your gate immediately pops open enough to let a whole herd inside the compound. But I realize this is yet another in-universe example of someone who was managing well enough until one of our crew showed up just in time for everything to go to hell, just as I understand that they needed to torch this guy's current entire setup to make almost literally flying blind across the Atlantic in a small rickety-looking plane on what would be a needle in a haystack search even if it wasn't based on a lie seem like a plausible thing to do. I'm happy to have Carol back on my TV even if I'm still not sure how well she's going to integrate with the French crew or aesthetic. Ash seems like a fundamentally decent guy if a little too eager to take a stranger at her word. Maybe it would be different at the end of the world when most everything you ever cared about is gone anyway, but it never ceases to amaze how people in this world so easily latch onto total strangers with even the vaguest of ideas or promises. Carol bald-faced lying to the guy about Sophia feels like something that should bite her in the ass hard at a date to be named later assuming she doesn't get him killed right away. Maybe I'm just realizing I'm not terribly interested in watching another potentially interesting character be introduced and then sacrificed an episode later as a conveyance to get the lead from point to another. And yes, Ones Who Live, I'm still looking at you. Daryl's scenes felt mostly like an afterthought in a show named after him.

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I thought so too in rewatching it. Someone posted a version on another site tweaking the sound where you can hear Daniel's team arguing in the background over who's pulling the camera in for the closeup of Lestat's face as he's monologuing the opening lines of The Vampire Lestat. They may have started this out going vampire kitschy with the goblet on the table but they're realizing he's the one controlling the camera. I just know I can't wait to see Lestat play off this version of Daniel.

There's mad speculation on the site formerly known as Twitter about what we're supposed to make of Daniel's offscreen coughing fit and where that places this in the timeline of the season 2 finale. (The thinking being that a coughing fit would seem to suggest he's still mortal at this point.) Especially given that Assad has seemingly mentioned the Devil's Minion chapter about Daniel and Armand's relationship from Queen of the Damned in every interview posted from Comic-Con. They're also trying to figure out what to make of the grip's tattoo that "Armand told the truth."

The boys are at Comic-Con. After insisting in multiple interviews that they hadn't started filming for season 3 yet, this trailer just dropped. Our first look at rock star Lestat.

The "trial" such as it is only covers about two pages in the book. It's mostly Lestat demanding that they spare Louis for him and Armand refusing to get involved to save Claudia despite Louis begging him. It's of course told from Louis's perspective, so you don't find out until later when Lestat has his say that he had showed us in Paris still very weakened and that Armand had locked him up and starved him until he agreed to name Claudia as his would-be murderer because Armand wanted her out of the way. I was frankly expecting more to be made of the yellow dress than just hanging it on the wall as some sort of grim souvenir because Louis seeing Lestat holding it is how he knows Claudia is dead and then finds their ashes in the courtyard. That's one thing I honestly think the movie did better, although it skips Lestat showing up in Paris entirely and thus removes much of the reasoning for Louis's grudge against Lestat for decades after this.

Magnus, Lestat's maker they keep mentioning, hoarded the wealth of his victims for centuries. Lestat was his heir in every sense. Louis is still a relatively young vampire and doesn't have Lestat's strength. After finding some of this season uneven almost to the point of tedium when Lestat was offscreen for long stretches. I really loved this finale. It sounds like the showrunners were fairly confident they would be getting a third season as AMC apparently gave Rolin Jones a fairly generous development deal after they'd already spent a bundle acquiring Anne Rice's entire catalog, but it wasn't official heading into making this. So they needed an ending that would be satisfying if that was indeed the end with nothing else, but also needed to get all the characters into place for the story to firmly move out of Interview with the Vampire and into The Vampire Lestat territory. So it succeeded on both levels. I also really love the first time we see the "real" Lestat not through anyone else's filters, it's a small bit of quiet in the middle of a literal hurricane. If that doesn't sum up that relationship, I don't know what does. Both actors were so raw and lovely in that scene. And from that Lestat will rise. Of course I know who Raglan James is as a book character and how he'll eventually figure into all of this, but I'm still puzzling a bit that the Talamasca would really care whether Louis and Armand end up together enough to be forwarding 70-year-old documents to influence the outcome of the interview. It probably really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it seemed like they were playing pretty and fast and loose with Daniel's safety in doing that after admitting that Vampire Sam had been one of their own before he was turned and that they haven't had the greatest track record keeping any of their informants alive. Was a little surprised to see Daniel turned this early in the story, but it makes all the sense with this version of Armand. He thought he'd "won" at the end of the interview and couldn't resist getting cocky with that little dig that poor sad Lestat really had always loved Louis. Louis was kind of an idiot to think the guy he'd just dumped by slamming him into a wall would do as he was told to leave Daniel alone instead of making him his fledgling out of revenge and spite. But it looks good on Daniel, so I guess we'll see where it goes. As a former New Orleans resident, I loved loved loved Louis stumbling upon the ghost tour on his former doorstep with its half-true mangled history. Of course that's the kind of thing that would pass into legend in that town.

Lestat drinks from Akasha during his time with Marius, which happens in TVL before he ever goes to New Orleans. Marius makes a point of asking him if he's sure he wants to do that because the combo of Magnus, then Marius, then Akasha's blood is likely to make him pretty much beyond killing even if he's horribly injured. It's such a lovely little Easter egg for book readers. Armand at this point in the original book wouldn't have had any idea who Akasha was -- he isn't even sure if Marius is still alive anywhere at the time -- although I think there was a bit of retconning that later in The Vampire Armand. I'm chalking the fire in the hand thing up to it making for better visuals for TV in the same way that these vampires are pretty messy bloody eaters even if they're pretty fastidious in the books about not wasting a drop. I'm really good with the cast the show has of this being more of an ensemble piece as they seem to be signaling, just as it makes sense with this version of Armand for him to have made a much older Daniel a vampire seemingly out of spite after he blew everything with Louis to hell. There's so many interesting characters in the books who disappear for entire books at a time and so many things that seem to be hinted at just off page. I'm ridiculously excited to see what they do with Gabrielle. The books are a bit of a sausage fest at this point and I love how she's just over being anything to anybody even before Lestat turns her. I'm also curious to see in this Game of Thrones-era of incest for everybody what they do with their quasi-Oedipal relationship.

Here you go. The challenges of adapting this should make for some truly interesting TV. Interview With the Vampire Will Return for Season 3—and Lestat Will Enter His Rock Star Era