Time For Some Thoughts On The Finale Now That It’s A More Reasonable Tome To Discuss It (and Then K

time for some thoughts on the finale now that it’s a more reasonable tome to discuss it (and then k can let myself reblog all the gifsets I’ve been dying to post for the past like 40 hours)

my biggest overall thought is that the finale would’ve benefitted greatly from being split up into 2 episodes. a lot of the pacing felt rushed where it deserved to breathe, which meant that a lot of things didn’t quite feel earned. unhinged revenge louis was an absolute delight to watch but I wish in the end we’d had more time to dedicate to his slaying of the coven, particularly with santiago. I think the one-and-done chop felt too quick for the villain that he was and would’ve loved to see the telepathic fight lead into an actual physical fight when santiago showed himself. also rip ben daniels you were fantastic and I hope you come back next season as a different but equally cunty villain. all that said, gay blade louis was so hot, his being unhinged and plotting revenge was delicious, and his hallucinations were spooky as hell.

I am coming around to the main twist of lestat being the one to save louis and armand’s actual relative powerlessness at the trial. yes he directed the whole thing, but powerlessness in the sense that his fear of being alone essentially paralyzed him to any active defiance of the coven. I did love the louis/armand conversation and armand admitting that he couldn’t count on louis’ love long-term, and I feel that justified his sticking with the coven and even his more active participation in the direction of the trial itself. as for the fact that he was willing to let louis die, I still feel a little lukewarm on it, but I’ll admit that I got attached to my own idea that armand’s ultimate plan was to manipulate louis into his arms by purposefully saving him, letting claudia die, and solidifying louis’ hate for lestat. at the end of the day though, I guess he still achieved those goals but in a slightly more opportunistic and pathetic way than I’d expected, and the horrific manipulation of him taking advantage of lestat’s actions and lying to louis across an additional 70 years of their relationship is delicious in an altogether different way. so for the most part, I’ll take it. (as an aside, I hope we hear more from armand in future seasons about his rationale of the trial. I’m personally of the opinion that he truly didn’t know whether or not he would intervene on louis’ behalf in some way later on into the proceedings, and that we’ll never truly know bc lestat got to it first. which is kind of hilarious and tragic in equal measure when you really think about it)

my main problem with the twist (and ultimately the biggest problem I had with the finale) is that daniel’s reveal of armand directing the trial and lestat being louis’ actual saviour didn’t feel like it was earned. armand directing the trial, sure, that was almost to be expected, and again I’ve come to terms with the idea that lestat saved louis. but the sam/talamasca/copy of the edited script deus ex machina wasn’t signposted enough and felt like an ultimately cheap way to bring about the reveal, and daniel jumping from that reveal to the certainty that lestat saved louis felt rushed. show me daniel putting the pieces together over multiple episodes; show daniel perhaps suggesting that armand may not be being truthful and have louis start to question it himself after everything he’s learned about armand this season. show me more of the fight, with louis dragging the truth out of armand and throwing him around the room. the way it was presented felt like it was something daniel pulled out of his ass, like daniel connected dots that weren’t really there. again, this is a critique that could’ve been solved by splitting the episode in 2 and signposting daniel starting to put it together across episodes. the finale really just needed more time to breathe.

daniel was a fucking delight (outside of the lead up to the reveal about lestat mentioned above), both as the human finally getting the last word against the ancient vampire he’s been trying to trip up ever since 2x05, and the as the deliciously blasé vampire who seems to have upped his sarcasm and lowered his bullshit-tolerance tenfold after being turned. I cannot WAIT to learn more about his turning and whatever is going on with him and armand (and I don’t believe for a single second that it was just done out of spite, I can’t wait to revisit it in s3 and see what was really going on) and I am beyond delighted to see bogosian living his dream and to see daniel continue to be an old man (the body thieving theories were scaring the daylights out of me)

the only other thing I’ll say about danny’s role in the finale was that I never truly felt the stakes were that high for him. during the fight he never seemed to truly be in any actual danger, so raglan james warning him to run felt a bit hollow when all that essentially happened was that some papers fell on his head and the he got 10 million dollars. (he very much did get turned into a vampire I guess, but I never felt like he was actually in danger of dying or getting seriously hurt — “you should be afraid of the other one” WHERE, louis never did anything to indicate he would put daniel in any danger, despite his anger at the reveal. like okay let me see louis get genuinely angry at daniel for ruining the fiction he’s resigned himself to for the last 77 years, give me some payoff on that or something). however him and louis remaining best friends and the setup for the armandaniel stuff next season means I never lose.

the loustat reunion did work for me, probably mostly bc jacob and sam’s chemistry is literally electric, and also because lestat looking so pretty and pathetic did move me a little. the acting was phenomenal, and the framing of them as grieving parents solidifying claudia’s central role in their lives and in the fabric of this story was really nice. “siri, stop” was absolutely iconic and I am fascinated by the first true look at lestat as a weird offputting creature that is going to take to the 21st century in the craziest ways imaginable. his driftwood keyboard was pathetic, his shack was dilapidated, and jacob and sam both deserve emmys for that reunion scene.

really glad to see louis powerful, thriving, moisturized, still a lil depressed, but ultimately growing into himself. so glad he’s going to stay a main focus of the series and in absolute awe of jacob’s performance. overall, this wasn’t the strongest episode of the season (reserved for mid-season 2x03-2x05 where I think it really hit its stride) and definitely not as strong of a finale as I wanted it to be, but solid overall and I’m exciting to see where they take things next season.