S02.E02: Do You Know What It Means to Be Loved by Death?

[Mr. Sparkle]

May 19th, 2024

Armand joins the interview, and he and Louis tell Molloy the story of how they met.

[magdalene]

3 minutes of Lestat and I cried during that.  Look, this season is shaping up excellently and the scene where Ben Daniel's vampire torments the poor young woman the troupe kidnapped on stage before he and the troupe kill her was very gripping. Watching Claudia watching this and smiling and enjoying herself during that "performance" - I will try to remember her smile when a certain point in this season comes.

Personally for me a couple of measly minutes of Lestat is not enough.  I miss when he was a main character. I am not into this season as much. 

As a side note the commercials on AMC+ are unbearable, so many and so intrusive.

[Mr. Sparkle]

48 minutes ago, magdalene said:

As a side note the commercials on AMC+ are unbearable, so many and so intrusive.

Thank you for affirming my decision to not renew. 

[Ohiopirate02]

Daniel cueing up the theme song to The Young and The Restless when he realized Lestat had been with both Louis and Armand had me laughing so hard that I had to pause.  

[AngieBee1]

I love this battle of wills between Daniel, Louis and Armand. Louis and Armand have the vampire advantage, but Daniel is giving it his all.

Mind you, I don't know how Louis getting into the weeds of his life story with Daneil  helps with getting the word out to the world that being a vampire sucks and don't get swayed by the Great Conversion vamps have planned, but I'm all for the storytelling.

[magdalene]

3 hours ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Daniel cueing up the theme song to The Young and The Restless when he realized Lestat had been with both Louis and Armand had me laughing so hard that I had to pause.  

Smiles.  Was that what that music was. I am not educated in daytime soap.

[Ohiopirate02]

6 minutes ago, magdalene said:

Smiles.  Was that what that music was. I am not educated in daytime soap.

Yes.  I've never watched an episode of Y&R, but know the theme.

[peridot]

I liked that they showed Louis and Claudia were immediately tagged and followed once they entered the city.  It's pretty scary that the New Orleans crew had no idea they were followed until Armand made himself known.

Santiago and Louis seemed destined to butt heads, but Louis didn't help by falling asleep during one of Santiago's performances!

I wonder how no one suspects that Louis and Claudia plotted to kill Lestat, especially since it seems that Louis can't guard his thoughts well.  I guess it's a ruse at this point.

[magdalene]

6 minutes ago, peridot said:

I wonder how no one suspects that Louis and Claudia plotted to kill Lestat, especially since it seems that Louis can't guard his thoughts well.  I guess it's a ruse at this poin

They are playing with them making them feel safe, and then...

[Mr. Sparkle]

I thought Bogosian was playing Daniel way too smug and sarcastic. It was nice to see him get easily humbled by Louis. 

[Chaos Theory]

I like this version of Claudia and that the ancient French vampires aren’t automatically going with the “she’s too young” story.   But the warning signs are still there.   Someone who had the mind of an adult but lost in puberty.    Basically a deadly version of Peter Pan.      Plus it’s good to see Claudia happy with other vampires who seem to accept her.  

Spoiler

It would be far more tragic if the reason for her death has nothing to do with Lestat and has more to do with her inability to control her impulses.   

 

Daniel can’t be completely enamored by Louis.  Plus he is at this point in his life “tired of all this shit”  and being sarcastic when Louis gets poetic about his experience is a good way interject humor.   Plus asking hard questions when Louis drifts off allows for Louis poetic nature but brings the story back “France was….”  “France sucks.”   

[Snow Apple]

I love Daniel and his snark this season. He says stuff I want to say to and about Armand. He's scared of Armand but plows ahead anyway since words are all the power he has.

can you tell I hate Armand? LOL. Talk about smug. I'm sure the writers know people hate calm smugness. I miss Lestat's frantic emotions.

Poor Louis. Lestat is physically abusive and now Armand is mentally abusive. I can't wait for Louis to get his real memories back.

 

Edited May 20 by Snow Apple

[Ohiopirate02]

11 hours ago, peridot said:

I wonder how no one suspects that Louis and Claudia plotted to kill Lestat, especially since it seems that Louis can't guard his thoughts well.  I guess it's a ruse at this point.

Armand figured out pretty quickly that Louis and Lestat have some sort of history.  He noticed Louis's reaction to the Lestat portrait, and he mentioned Louis visiting Lestat's lawyer.  I assume the other client the lawyer had that night was Armand, and Louis was being an idiot with that visit.  

[iMonrey]

Yikes. Ben Daniels is not aging well.

The "Theatre de Vampire" was always my least favorite part of the story. I have a similar revulsion to it as Louis. Mostly I find it just weird and annoying. I hope we're beyond seeing any more "performances."

[tennisgurl]

I'm sorry, but after seeing What We Do in the Shadows, its really hard to take Theatre de Vampire seriously. When Armond was introducing his whole crew all I could hear was Simon the Devious.

"We've got Asian Mike, and that's Chunt, Jane the Soulless, Elgrad the Fifth, Horvok the Pit Master, Gonthrapel and his brother Krylsac. It's Wesley Sykes, Desdemona the Shrieker. There's Len my account and of course, Count Rapula."

Claudia is finally living her best life in Paris, which of course involves a lot lot of theatrics and murder. The Parisian vampire coven are a whole lot, the opening scene of their show did a good job of showing them to be both melodramatic and scary, tormenting that woman they kidnapped and making it part of the show, not surprised that Claudia finds it enchanting while Louis finds it distasteful. He's always been a kill to survive sort of vampire, it doesn't give him much joy the way it does these guys. 

I didn't realize how much I missed Lestat until we saw him for just a few minutes. I loved Daniel's reaction when he realized that Lestat was a founding member of this vampire coven and that both Louis and Armond slept with Lestat, it is all very soap opera of them. 

[Ohiopirate02]

1 minute ago, tennisgurl said:

Claudia is finally living her best life in Paris, which of course involves a lot lot of theatrics and murder. The Parisian vampire coven are a whole lot, the opening scene of their show did a good job of showing them to be both melodramatic and scary, tormenting that woman they kidnapped and making it part of the show, not surprised that Claudia finds it enchanting while Louis finds it distasteful. He's always been a kill to survive sort of vampire, it doesn't give him much joy the way it does these guys. 

After seeing who the coven decided to hunt, I wonder if the are also using similar criteria when selecting the victims for their show.  Paris would be full of Nazi and Vichy collaborators for them to kidnap.  

[silverstream]

I don't know how the Theatre de Vampire hasn't been exposed yet - surely if they encourage their victims to state their names on stage every night, sooner or later one of their patrons is going to read in the paper the next day so-and-so went missing and remember that's the same name they heard the night before (even with the war barely over, something like the raid we saw in the episode is bound to be mentioned somewhere)? I was expecting them to get their victims from much further away. Or perhaps Annika's (?) escape in the play we saw wasn't staged after all and they usually have a different show?

It was nice to see Claudia happy for once. 1940s Armand definitely knows something is up in regards to Lestat.

Louis was not careful at all going to that lawyer, and Lestat being so melodramatic that he writes an 'alas, do not revenge me!'-letter without (as far as we know) any cause was funny.

 

[magdalene]

9 hours ago, silverstream said:

don't know how the Theatre de Vampire hasn't been exposed yet

Indeed.  And the sun will always rise...

[Mari]

On 5/22/2024 at 1:23 PM, silverstream said:

Louis was not careful at all going to that lawyer, and Lestat being so melodramatic that he writes an 'alas, do not revenge me!'-letter without (as far as we know) any cause was funny.

The lawyer said the last contact with Lestat had been while he was arranging for them to flee to South America.  Since Lestat was onto Claudia and Louis' plan, I think the letter was just in case it succeeded.

If Louis took part, Lestat knows Louis well enough to know he'd feel guilty, and that would add extra guilt sprinkles and sauce to his guilt sundae.  

If Louis tried to stop her, it would poison his feelings toward Claudia.

[ferjy]

On 5/19/2024 at 1:10 PM, magdalene said:

Personally for me a couple of measly minutes of Lestat is not enough.  I miss when he was a main character. I am not into this season as much. 

No, I’m not either. Lestat is what made the show for me, Sam Reid was superb. The few minutes he’s been on this season has lit up the screen. He also brings Louis alive, who has been a bore so far this season. It doesn’t help that I don’t like Eric Bogosian’s interpretation of Malloy at all. Christian Slater played the part so much better.. interested in the story, but always a bit on edge (and who wouldn’t be with vampires in the room with you!). And I don’t care for Armand. I’m hoping they’re building up to more scenes with Lestat. I think Delainey Hayles is fitting in nicely. Claudia has been the one saving grace. Oh and I like hammy Santiago, nice to see Ben Daniels join the cast. 

 

[magdalene]

1 hour ago, ferjy said:

No, I’m not either. Lestat is what made the show for me, Sam Reid was superb. The few minutes he’s been on this season has lit up the screen. He also brings Louis alive, who has been a bore so far this season. It doesn’t help that I don’t like Eric Bogosian’s interpretation of Malloy at all. Christian Slater played the part so much better.. interested in the story, but always a bit on edge (and who wouldn’t be with vampires in the room with you!). And I don’t care for Armand. I’m hoping they’re building up to more scenes with Lestat. I think Delainey Hayles is fitting in nicely. Claudia has been the one saving grace. Oh and I like hammy Santiago, nice to see Ben Daniels join the cast. 

 

The next episode is much better. Enjoy!

[Kelda Feegle]

On 5/20/2024 at 9:07 AM, Chaos Theory said:

I like this version of Claudia and that the ancient French vampires aren’t automatically going with the “she’s too young” story.   But the warning signs are still there.   Someone who had the mind of an adult but lost in puberty.    Basically a deadly version of Peter Pan.      Plus it’s good to see Claudia happy with other vampires who seem to accept her.

Spoiler

  It would be far more tragic if the reason for her death has nothing to do with Lestat and has more to do with her inability to control her impulses.   

 

Daniel can’t be completely enamored by Louis.  Plus he is at this point in his life “tired of all this shit”  and being sarcastic when Louis gets poetic about his experience is a good way interject humor.   Plus asking hard questions when Louis drifts off allows for Louis poetic nature but brings the story back “France was….”  “France sucks.”   

 

Spoiler

Claudia dies? Shit, I've not read the book.

 

[ShellsandCheese]

They really should have changed the plot and made Claudia like stuck at 18. Neither of the actresses who played her can pass for fourteen and Delainey Hayles, while indeed very petite, looks like she’s in her late 20’s or early 30’s. They really should have tried to cast someone who looked younger! 
 

I haven’t decided yet which Claudia portrayal I like better. They are both talented.

Edited October 4 by ShellsandCheese