House of R - 'The Vampire Lestat’ Episode 7 Deep Dive

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Mal and Jo dive deep into the ‘Vampire Lestat’ season finale! They discuss what worked and didn't work in this finale and share some season superlatives! (00:00) Intro (05:27) Opening Snapshot (14:03) The long-promised long table (35:09) An offal time with Louis and Armand (46:22) It’s your boy, Daniel Molloy (51:03) One night only at Nicki’s Tavern (55:55) The aftermath (01:02:54) Season superlatives Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin Producers: Carlos Chiriboga and Scott Lee Studio Production: Jacob Cornett Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And welcome back to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. And joining me today, our fingers grazing each other's. Could be. Could be. Could be. Could be. Could be. It's Mallor Rubin. Oh, I think I might be a room without walls, floor, the ceiling, and infinite nothing. Sounds right. That's the vibe. Hi, we're both here, gratefully ill to talk to you about the Vamparlistat finale. We are barely hanging on. This episode is brought to you by FIFA World Cup Launch Edition on Netflix. It's a fast, fluid game where your phone is the controller and your TV is the stadium. You just launch it on your TV, scan the QR code with your phone,

and boom, you're shooting and passing in seconds. Plus, it's included in your Netflix membership with zero extra costs. Go to the Games tab and play FIFA World Cup launch edition now, only on Netflix. If you want a $3,000 a month payday for life, what would you feel free to do? Maybe take a long weekend, every weekend, or try a bunch of new hobbies? Would you feel free to upgrade and listen ad-free?

Don't worry, we get it. Every $20 ticket could win you $3,000 a month for life and supports life-saving cancer research at the Princess Margaret. Feel free to buy your payday for life ticket today. Raffle number 155-214. Please play responsibly. We are thrilled to share that the Ring of Earth team, of the Midnight Boys Poo-Pew, and the House of Our, we'll be returning to San Diego Comic-Con this July.

We're kicking off on Thursday, July 23rd at Whiskey Girl for a Ring or Verse fan meetup. No badge required. We'll be there for an hour or so starting around 6.30, so come say hi, grab a drink, celebrate with us. And then, on Saturday, July 25th at 10.30 a.m. Come to our panel. Comic-Con badge holders can find the Midnight Boys Poo-Pew.

And the House of R. Correct. In room 5AB on the upper-Lar. level of the convention center for a ring reverse supergroup panel. We're going to be discussing the franchises that have dominated nerd culture this year and taken stock of what's to come. So whether you're local to San Diego or in town for Comic-Con, we'd love to see you at Whiskey Girl on Thursday or if you're a badge holder, join us on Saturday, July 25th for our panel.

See you in San Diego. All right, quick programming reminders. House the Dragon in full effect. We will have our deep dive, allegedly, coming out. We're going to try super hard. We're going to try super, super hard. Also, we'll do our best to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in San Diego. This weekend for San Diego Comic-Con.

There's a couple of things happening there. Will we be there? Yes, we will. That is the plan and the intention. That is the plan. We've got a meetup. Thursday night. You probably saw the ad for this just recently.

There's a meetup Thursday night. You don't need to pass for that. There's a panel Saturday morning. You do need to pass for that. Please come. We don't want to be embarrassed by an empty room. I was like less worried about it because our room was actually like quite full last year. I was worried last year and then like our room was like standing room only, but we're in a bigger room this year.

Yeah. So let's continue to fill the seats, baby. And our debilitating insecurity is a key part of our core identity. So no matter how big or small the room is. That's a fact. That's how we're going to feel about it. And guess what? When we're back from San Diego, content never sleeps.

It'll be Spider-Man time. It doesn't be a Spider-Man movie. We just talked about a top of all. in Zendaya movie and we're back at it. Yeah. I can't wait. You know, I was talking to some of our colleagues over the weekend about like who was having the biggest year.

And they were like, oh, Robert Pattinson's having the biggest year. I was like, no. Yeah. It's Zendaya's year. Of course. I mean, no question. Zendaya is in everything that Roberts Pattinson is in. Yeah.

But with a bigger role. And she has euphoria, you know, so something to think about. Indeed. I mean. So, you know. Euphoria. What a, what a show. It's a show.

Yeah. It is a show. Okay. And she has Spider-Man, which is a movie that's coming out that we're very excited for. I can't wait for. I can't wait for. So if you want to follow our shambling corpses as we make our way through this, you can follow us on social at House of Harpop. That's on Instagram and TikTok.

At Riggerverse on Twitter, et cetera, et cetera. You can email us, hoppousand dragons. It's email.com. You can watch us to see just what shape we're in. Yeah. On YouTube or Spotify. Full video episodes of House of R available for you to consume. Incredible stuff.

Boy. What a joy for you. Do you think if we ask for heating pads to be like just built in? Yeah, built into the set. They'll be visible on camera. Heating pads, cooling floors, all of it, temperature control. Yeah. Yeah.

I did send you, Carlos, and Arjuna, recently a photo of a new release. of like a vest with double water bottle. No reply. No reply from any of you. You guys think I can pull this off? When did you say that? I think I might have gotten a like crying tears of joy emoji from Carlos, but crickets are

everyone else. When did you send that? I didn't see it. Week and a half ago maybe. My apologies. I said you a lot of Instagram content. Oh, on Instagram. No, I sent it to be a text.

Okay. Well, all right. Spoiler warning for today. Yeah. Uh-huh. The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Dam, no direct spoilers. We're not really doing a book spoiler section today. Right.

There isn't a ton, I think. Trying to find my chapstick in my pants, if anyone's wondering what's happening right now. Couldn't find it, but I got it. We're leaving that in? This is an Alzheimer's. This is just an Alzheimer's. Are we leaving that in? Okay.

I defer to the team on the creative vision, you know, for what they're cutting and what they're what they're including. I say leave the entire shit show in. Is it a failure? No. That's right. It's all part of the creative experience. and the cathartist experience? We're trying.

And that's the message of this episode. So let's go now to our opening snapshot. Yeah, if you're watching this and you're like, oh my God, it's a vampire-less set-up, so Joanna's not wearing the coat. I would die if I had to put that coat on. So we're just doing our best. You're going to put the fangs in for the thumbnail photo still? I mean, I might.

I might. We'll see. Episode 7, the failures. Directed by Alan Taylor. Look at that. Of Game of Thrones and interview with the vampire series premiere fame. He directed the series premiere, which is. like still to this day, one of my favorite episodes of television of interview with the vampire,

directed some famous episodes of Game of Thrones, which I would say mixed results personally. And House of the Dragon episode. That's right. And that Terminator movie. That's right. And some other things. Yeah. A Thor movie.

Something I think about. Okay. That's right. Written by Hannah Moscovich. Aethore movie. The best one? Some might say. Okay.

Only one person might say. You and Alan Taylor's mom are like, that's the best one. Okay. No. Urban, did you like this episode of television? I'm a little mixed on the finale, I will say. I'm very high overall on the season, and the finale did not in any way dampen my enthusiasm for the season overall. I thought this was a really wonderful season of television, like an incredibly entertaining

and week to week just enjoyable and fun and immersive and rich experience for fans of the character, fans of the show, fans of the relationships, fans of the genre, all of it. The finale itself, there's a lot in it that I liked, and I think that the part of the experience that we enjoy, which is very rooted in like introspection and reflection and the characters themselves interrogating where they are, how they have. have come to be there and where they want to go from there, what step they want to take next with that ability to look inward. This is an episode that is rooted almost entirely on that intention. And so I think that if it had been almost anywhere else in the season, I probably

would have been like this was dynamite. But because it's a finale, there's a little bit of a, oh, you know, we got the cliffhanger and that's fun and there's a propulsive element to that to carry this over into season four, which I am obviously eagerly anticipating and hope we don't have to wait too long to get. Right. You know, so I think the fact that we did not get the concert, for example, did not get whatever the— Another Akasha appearance or like—

Contemporary Akasha event is, and that is all waiting for us in the future. I think that a lot of the season felt like it was building toward those crescendos at the end of this season, the concert more so maybe than the Akasha stuff specifically. But so there's a little bit of that— I don't know. I would say the Akasha. stuff too. You know, it was just like heavily hinted at. I'm not upset about it. You can do whatever you want in your own finale, but it does give us, give me at least a little of that House of the

Dragon season two feeling. Similar to the House of the Dragon season two finale, which a lot of people were like, hey, where are those battles you told us about? And it's not that I need like a big spectacle. It's just like when you have this sort of sense of like moving towards something. Yes. And then you get this sort of like sinking feeling halfway through the episode. We're like, oh, we're not getting that at all, are we? Got it, got it. Okay. That's fine. I can pivot. And I think as with the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale, this episode had a couple emotional high marks that for me didn't leave me walking away, like, upset about the episode.

For sure. It didn't feel totally like a finale to me. I like a swing, and this is like, you know, we got a lot of, like, theater of the mind sort of, like, surreal. dream logic stuff going on, which is fun. I will say what really saves the episode for me, what makes me so appreciative of it, is the Armand stuff,

like Asad Sázaman's performance in the Louis Armand Exchange. I did see a tweet last night, too late for me to feebly type it into our outline, but someone was like, wow, third season finale in a row where it's just like, it was Armand doll. You know what?

It's working. Honestly, the Armandstone is consistently really strong. The performance is just so... Yeah, it's mesmerizing. I was just like leading forward as he was both talking and also just as he was listening. And then the Paul appearance. That was fantastic. To bring back Louis's brother from, you know, and there's a lot of moments in this episode

that are bringing us back to season one. But I think for Paul to show up something I never would have expected. Like, I wouldn't have expected to enter. wouldn't have to be in this episode. I wouldn't have expected the tenor to be in this episode, like all these other things. But like when Paul walks in, walks in, walks up along the stage in, like, in soft focus, and then you like sort of realize who it is as soon as you realize who it is. Yeah. And then I just thought that exchange where Laestat doesn't even like look at him once. And that just like floored me. I thought it was wonderful. So like those two things. And then

there's other things to love. But like those two things especially, just absolutely nailing some emotional resonance for me, made me think fondly of this episode, even if I don't know that it's a wholly successful finale. That's exactly how I feel. There was a lot in the emotional and thematic front that I really loved. If we had one more episode after this, too, like, feel like we ended the season on that kind of, oh, no, that would be awesome. I think the only other thing that slightly diminished the episode for me, and this is, I'm happy to admit, or concede more of maybe a personal thing than any universal experience. I would say that this episode had what I would describe as a, for me, tenet-esque sound mixing issue.

It was really challenging. And in a way that tips beyond, like, this is an intentional choice that is conveying something. It is just sensory overload that I was actually kind of having a hard time. I think sensory overload is a perfect way to put it. I had the exact same issue where, like, all season and as we, as we. we've chronicled like my issue with not having captions at all. Like it's been like a real struggle for me to make sure I catch every single line. I go back and I go back and I go back.

But usually even if I'm not catching every single word, I can like follow the gist of what's happening in every single episode. That did not always happen for me here with a lot of overlapping conversation. So like on the one, it's so funny because I'm always sort of encouraging filmmakers and TV creators to like, don't dump it down for your audience. Like we can keep up. Like don't hold our hand. It's fine. Yeah. Make us pay attention.

And my note for this show might be like slow it down a little. For me, at least, I don't know. Maybe other people don't agree. But I just, I have heard that a lot from people this season where like, they're like, I couldn't follow what was going on sometimes. And it's like the zingy rapier wit and the quickness of this show is one of its like finest elements. But I think it tipped a little too far, I think especially in this episode.

I like when the honey of this show feels like it is unspooling from the tool in a way that I can catch every single drop of it in my mouth. And that was hard. Oh my God. That was hard this finale. What are incredible? I'm a little hungry. Wow. Are those just called spool?

What are those called? I don't know, but I have been thinking that we should get one at home because I've started to, Adam has been making me these just absolutely astonishingly delicious fresh fruit and yogurt. bowls and putting a little honey on them for me, and they're wonderful. He's been using fresh cherries recently. It's just sensational. But I would say that his technique, just using a regular spoon, leaves a little... They're called dippers. That's very... Honey dipper? That's very boring. Let's work on that. And disappointing. Time for a rebrand. I would like to hear, if there's a more exotic name for it, honey dipper sounds like something that I, as a kid who ate a lot of French tourists and Dunkeroo.

Dunkeroo, would have had in my lunchbox, exactly. Exactly. And I love Dunkeroo's. Um, I, okay. Should we go now? Oh. I love it. You're very hungry. I never want to eat again. I just have so much pain. Everywhere. Everything hurts. Guys, let's just go to the deep dive. I told our producers this is going to be like kind of a quick episode. And we always say that. And they never have a reason to believe us. I actually think it's true today.

Yeah. We're doing our best. Here we go. The long promised long table. That's right. So, you know, we got a. we got to drop about the long table and eating souls in episode three from the Magnus car scene in a way that you and I were like, what is, what is this? And like the only thing we could think of was the, was the sort of like Leoncore like long table that we saw, but they had never sort of referred to as the long table. But of course, in the opening credits, you know, first of all, Lestat's decapitated head is in the opening credits in the animation there, but also this table sort of location hopping is in the,

opening credits, it's like outside, it's in this hall, it's in that. So like all the set that's here visually in the finale was there all along in the opening credits. What's fun. How much did, you know, we mentioned that we both really enjoy the Paul stuff, but in terms of like the other backwards looking like, oh, season one stuff is here, how did this work for you? What worked the best outside of the Paul stuff? I think that, yeah, Paul certainly the most kind of like, got. smacking and intense appearance, certainly, including the intrigue of just Paul speaking to a figure we can't see. Who is she? Yeah, that was all like really cool and really good. I think the comedic highlight of this stretch for me was, you know, Lestat who has gone through this emotional crucible and has faced, you know, not only his two makers. as he correctly identifies, right,

which was an interesting aspect of this, certainly, and I'll circle back to Gabrielle in a second. Fledglings, Marius is here as well, you know, Paul coming in, but then the audience and attendance of just diligence of people who he has harmed. So there's so much that is grim and intense, but it's the vampire list, right?

And so we still have to have, like, the comedy of him saying, you know, this is why you guys are the opening act and on the headliner and getting up and walking across the table, to kick it up the mic stand. So, you know, and that's on the heels of just being like bound by anguish and screaming as he sits there and crying. And the, the, the, the beats, the performance from Sam Reed is so good all the time. The, as the timer is ticking down. And the timer tone, by the way, is my timer tone. And so it like gave me it really triggering.

Yeah. Same. It was a little triggering. I was like, is it time to wake up? Yeah. Tomorrow already. Oh, my God. The shallow short breath, I was like, it me. I feel that. But there was something about the inability to discern. This is an inability to discern for the audience member in a good and satisfying way, right? How much of that is because he is being pulled out of the last gasp of life, right? And how much of it is because it has become almost unbearable to have to navigate the sea of his history.

But that was all really interesting and really good. I think that the deployment of Gabriela in this stretch of these scenes at the long table, and we move from the long table is there, but we move from the setting, the context around it changes, all of these key locations and Lestat's life. I thought the shift across the episode and the use of Gabriella was really smart. Because initially, as all of the other figures, all of the other muses, fledglings, are quite critical. Critical and severe. She's supportive.

She's defending him, right? And so you are put in this position where you understand kind of the pull that she has on the side that this is her game. This is the game she plays. This is the manipulation. Well, I will be there to tell you love a right that you're special. then go only sold one painting in his life. That was an incredible line. And then it's actually when she flirts with the singer that something kind of pivots,

the jealousy kicks back in, that reminder for Lestat that she is working everybody, including him all the time. They're all pawns for her. They're all putty in her hands. And then, of course, we shift into Gabriella being the primary target, just in that character set before we go back to the real world and have to kind of, And then it's her again, actually, right? In a different way because of the context of the concert.

Why did you take me to the switch burning when I was a kid? Right? And we'll talk about that more in a second. Then when he is, when he wakes from the coffin, he's like, you're going to send me back out there. You know, the level and to be torn apart. The level and degree to which he is a tool for her to use, a scalpel to go back to that premier language from the beginning of the season,

for her to wield and cut with. as she intends and decides. Did you train as a doctor? I did not. Oh. I did not. Oh, your skull technique. Yeah.

Perhaps if I had trained as a doctor, I'd be feeling better right now. So, no. Yeah. I know. It's amazing watching me do this that I did not go to med school and have not yet been asked to guest as an extra on season three of the pit. I am available. Okay.

So, yeah, I think what this did for the, you know, the penultimate episode was such a tour to force for Louis and Lestot and their relationship. and this was, I thought, a very important showcase for, and a successful one for the Gabriela-Lostat relationship at the end of the season. I think to put Magnus and Gabriela in the same bucket as sort of like these makers in terms of, like, Lestat's monstrosity, right? So, like, if Magnus turned him into a vampire and all of the carnage and all of everything that comes off of that is that sort of like original sin to a certain degree, yeah.

What are the ways in which Gabriela planted this season? even earlier of monstrosity inside of Listat or or monstrosity or trauma or however however you decide to clarify it um the witch burning i think is really really interesting this is an adaptive change that it's like gabber and we talked about this early in the season but it's adaptive change that it was like gabriella who took him this is the origin of the stutter which is again an adaptive change this is like an like an original traumatic inciting incident for him and for her to defend it as like I was trying to inspire you to leave. Right.

And you didn't leave until you were 30 anyway. Cabbage. You know, like, blah, blah. But, like, for her to justify taking her small child to do this horrific thing to see children who he played with burnt and for her to sort of justify it and her resentment. So there's, they're inside of the sort of like, I did this for you, that justification, right? I did this to inspire you to leave. Yeah.

There's also the resentment of, and you. didn't until late. There's the judgment and the resentment of just sort of like, you have freedom to move in this world as a man that I've never had. And I gave you all this opportunity and I gave you all this motivation. And this is what you've done with it, you know, is crippling. And I think her flip, it's been here all season. And we've been deeply uncomfortable, obviously, with her all season.

But I think it's been hard for maybe book readers or people who are taking the book into account. to sort of like fully understand how much of a villain she is in the show because it's not necessarily her role in the book. And so I think there is no question at the end of this episode when you have Lestat just like screaming at her. The switch is flipped for him. Yeah. In terms of like his eyes this, you know, his eyes are open. I love you. I love you. That like sort of manipulative memory, all of that sort of stuff. The way in which he was like groomed and manipulated and all these things and abused. Yes.

And so for her to be an interchangeable seat with Magnus inside of this episode. Yeah. I thought was really smart and really interesting. I think, I agree. I think especially the proximity of Lestat saying to Magnus, I refused, right? And we had talked about this and it was very clear because we glimpsed the horror of that assault. It was apparent what that was, even though Lestat was not consistent.

ceding that, nor does he owe that concession to anybody, right, to the documentary recruited Daniel in the present day timeline. But to hear him shout that here and then to go to the Gabriela sequences, the idea of, like you said, the original sin is a perfect way to put it in the fact that that's twinned for him across these figures. And then you think, you know, we talked about like earlier in the season without fully understanding at the time how the long table would pay off the kind of really the smart intentional warping of

a domestic setting, right? Of something that like in plenty of families are sources of turmoil and trauma and pain for people, but something that never provided Blastat with home, comfort, peace, escape, reprieve. It was always

the root and source of the rift. And so then you hear him say like, at the witch burning, even the marquee didn't come to this. Yeah. That's how fucked up this is. Yeah.

Dad didn't even come. Yeah. Right? And so it's just, it's all undeniable. It all reaches an undeniable point. And like, you know, the, the, it's hard to achieve this balance. We, you know, talked last week about this, it's different. The particulars are different, so I don't want to lump them together.

But talked about how effectively episode six. And it made us feel complicit as a viewing member. We would think back to watching Louis hold Claudia's diary and recite it without any need to look and think, wow, oh, my God. Right. And then Claudia, she's like, oh, that's like not your experience and that wasn't for you. A different version of it here, but the way that the show is simultaneously parsing the trauma and. deepening our sense of understanding for how the characters have come to this place

and for many of them, obviously for Lestat and Louis, who are flawed, but we have such a depth of empathy and devotion and love for them and understanding even when they do terrible things. But then, you know, we do have something like this episode. We see this heart of this atrocity that

Gabriela exposes him to, but then we are reminded both in flashbacks and also through the characters, through Louis at that table saying, called it tough love then, showing us was not doing it to Claudia. Yeah. And that, of course, is a powerful commentary, too, on the cycle of abuse and how hard it is to escape that.

And so it makes it all the more important for, I think, this finale to have LaSotte, a character who simultaneously parades this, like, bravado and this sense of superiority, but is crippled constantly by his own doubt and shame and guilt, stare that in the face. And, like, it's, I think just there are very few shows that could manage to. walk that tight rope as effectively as this one has. And I think to connect that over to the B plot, which is Louis and Armand in the butcher backroom and sort of the grace that Louis is giving Armand of like, you were so young when these horrible things happened to you.

So like the fact that you have visited these horrors on other people, I understand where that comes from. And it comes from you as a 12-year-old boy. etc., etc. So we'll come back to that in a second. But before we leave the long table, I want to say a couple other things. In terms of like this surreal taking place inside of the mind, sort of let's pick and choose from iconography from the rest of the series. I thought it was really fun.

I think it's really fun to have Antoinette on the keys on the typewriter. I think bringing back the tenor and having that sort of like marking the sheet music. with the bloody fingerprint callback to season one. I thought that was really fun. So there's a lot of fun, like, imagery and rich detail that's reminding. But, like, it's interesting because I read this in the notes. A treat that I saved for myself on Friday was the – we had a long week last week, too. And the treat I saved myself on Friday was the Heart Stopper movie, which is, like, acts as the series finale for Her Stopper.

I haven't watched yet. I'm sad. or whatever. I'm not going to like, you know, spoil it for you, obviously. But it's like the end of a thing. And so there's a lot of like, let's look back at all this time we spent with these characters. And there's just like always an impulse to do that of like, let's remind you of when you first fell in love with this show and what it meant to you and stuff like that. And sometimes I can tip over into like way too much. And so, you know, I'm curious. I'm still pressing how I feel about like bringing Paul

back and bringing Antoinette back and having Alan Taylor direct and, you know, blah, it's just sort of like remember the beginning of the show and how much you loved that. And like, yes, I do. And I don't think it tipped over into too much inside of this. I think it was a really good use of it, especially since we weren't inside of Listott's mind for that story. You know, it was Louis's story for those two seasons. It was Louis's point of view. So, I mean, I guess to skip ahead, but just to say, like, to have Paul show up, one of the reasons that is that you know, one of the reasons it really rocked me was we never understood that Listad had any sense of guilt or complicity or anything in Paul's death. Did he kill Paul? No. Did he mess with Paul's mind at a dinner

shortly before Paul, like, you know, jumped off the roof? Yes. Right. So, you know, in his sort of like, I'm the headliner speech, he's like, you're all here because I like murdered you or seriously like fucked you up, right? And so, like, that he's carrying guilt around Paul is new information for us and a real sort of showstopper for me. And so it doesn't feel like cheap nostalgia member when, you know, the show is new. It feels like, hey, let's look at Antoinette again from LaSotte's point of view. Antoinette is important, was important enough to LaSotte. And he made a comment about this early in the season, but it was important enough to her, him, that she's at, at the long table with a very small group of people.

And Twinnett is there. She was important in some way. You know, and like Louis's telling of her diminishes her, right? And so all of these things are here to get a slightly different angle on them. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. This is a season, and, you know, in many ways a series, but a season devoted to the examination of memory and narrative and self-mythologizing, right? And so, and attempting to counteract the narrative that somebody else has put into the world about you. And kind of reckoning with the fact that that can be an attempt to achieve some sort of truthful equilibrium or that it can be the opposite.

It can be alive another form, right? And so, yeah, it's hard actually to think of too many other examples of where it would feel so totally appropriate for that many glimpses of either visually or. called upon in the discussion between the characters moments from the past because that's what this entire season has been about, right? Reflecting and shaping and thinking about how the self, but also then society around you, however intimate or wide that circle becomes. Is it your band? Is it your lover? Is it your mother? Is it the great conversion? And everybody's showing up for your concert? Is it the people roasting you on stereo? Yeah. You know, it's all the answer is like, like all of the above and more, right?

The idea that you lose the ability at some point to control what other people think of you and then maybe even understand your own life. Like, boy, isn't that just the human experience in the modern age? It hasn't it always been to some extent, which is also why traveling through time. I find that really interesting because, like, the idea of a season where Lassad is rock star, modern age. Everyone's got their phone in their hand, right? And it's like, what's the trending topic?

And that is a very, like, instantly understandable thing for us, the modern viewer. But what was the version of that 200 years ago? Like, I think the season has done a really incredible job of parsing that, what changes over time and what doesn't. You know, how quickly, even if something maybe has changed for you and you have progressed or you pulled back into that prior state, if the person who did that to you the first time is suddenly there, it's, you know, that stuff is wonderful. And again, I think that's why we're both like, of course we love the fact that this episode drenches itself in those questions and seeks to kind of find some answers. While I think also saying the answer is like you can, like you said at the beginning, you can try, you can try to know thyself, try to be a little bit better. But there's always like more work to do. You know, some of that is achieved not just with what's present here, but what's absent.

I thought the choice to not have Claudia at that table was brilliant. It's like one of the best choices they made all season. because... She said what she had to say. Yeah. What else could you do after the seance? Something that we've not really nailed down, I would say, is that we don't know if this is a true afterlife or just neurons firing inside of, like, vampire neurons firing inside of Lest's Head. So either in an afterlife sort of space or in a limbo sort of space, a trial of a kind.

Claudia has opted not to show up. The real Claudia has opted not to show up. Or in Lestat's dying mind, Claudia would not show up for this. Right. And either way, it's interesting. The Vampire Tough Cookie is here. I kind of showing once again.

Love her. I would watch a tough cookie spin-off. Never a bad frame with her. When they're in the bus at the end and she's just like, hey. That's so good. Hey. Yeah.

She was also really chow-and-down on the various courses of the soul. Also, that kind of- The Soul. Yeah. Every time, you know, we get the new course number. Yeah. The courses are ticking up, but it's always the Soul. Yeah. She was really chow-in-down.

I feel like we can go from Soul Eater to Sin Eater pretty quickly for T.C. She's ready to report for duty. Sounds great. Listen, here's my question, though. If Gabriela made Alex, which is our understanding. Yes, for sure. Yeah. And Lestat made tough cookie.

Which was a reveal. Yeah. Who made the vampire salamander? I guess we should assume the answer is Sam. Sam. Because there were three there to make new vampires. Sam and Salamander as, ooh, I would watch that spin-off too. They would get up to some stuff.

They would get up to some stuff. Great answer. Great answer. I also just want to shout out. So Claudia's absence is amazing. I think Louie's demeanor to. Jake Banderson talked about in the after episode about how fun it was for him to be back and he calls it his

raspberry suit from season one. He's like it's a really comfy suit. I love that suit. But to have season one Louis there, to watch Jacob Anderson play LaStat's version of season one Louis versus you know, decapitated Louis and, you know, to watch these very

different demeanors I thought was really, really fun. It was also, he was like, I rewound a couple times to watch how they all delivered the soul when they did it. Jacob Anderson was just like, thought I was like really silly and fun. He was just like, oh, so, like he was really doing it. It was really funny.

And then before we leave this, I just want to say in terms of the witch scene, this episode, I was expecting us to have a full concert. I was expecting us to get like new songs or whatever. But we got some Daniel Hart's score stuff that was just like out of control. And the witch burning stuff, I thought it was especially

insanely good. Daniel Hart's score work. Just storn in. Stunnen. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery

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No, because that's a pun. Because that's what you call brains when you eat them. Okay. How did you feel about Jacob Anderson's decapitated head acting? It was very amusing to hear him discuss. Oh, how he had to be super still. Having to do it. This was, it was, I thought these scenes were really good. Like you said, the Armand part of it is just so sensational. The switch to the telepathic communication.

And so we're hearing exactly what Louis. is saying and the capacity to tap into, I think the question of the dire straits and how much of what Louis is saying is last gasp desperation to try to reach Armand so that Louis's head can maybe be returned to his body instead of Regina's and he can find a way to get out of there. Like how much of this is a practical effort to survive and how much of it is a in the moment of confronting the end of his life, an ability to really actually find that grace, right? And share something with Armand, who...

I think I interpreted it as the latter, but... I did, too, ultimately, because the performance is, I think, so earnest and empathetic and sincere, like the depth of emotion in Louis' voice as he's saying these things. I guess there could be a little bit of a why-not both to it. Sure. But, you know, I think the fact that, like, we had the more kind of, the tone was very different last week, but we had the version of it where Lestat, after Louis finds out about Lestat and Gabriela, it's like, you're being very judgy, right? And then Louis finds a way to, like, work toward a position of asking questions and trying to understand.

Again, very different. I mean, Armand opens this sequence by revealing to Louis. Hey, you thought you knew all the things that I was secretly responsible for? I've got a few more to share, bud. Guess what? There are further depths to plum with AI. It's bad. Exactly.

Found some candidates for Claudia lookalikes, but why go with the seven or the eight? We've got a perfect one right here. You know, the list of horrors just continues to mount the indignity of the fact that Armand has for read there to, you know, we get a call back to the Budapest mention of the studies being conducted of the decapitated heads from earlier in the season. This is being live stream. What is Dr. Farid always.

He always is analyzing and studying and to think just in general about the fact that they're always under the microscope and under the lens in some capacity is obviously very interesting. So there's... The long arm of the telemaska. Indeed, there's no reason, ultimately,

other than the capacity that these characters who do and have... have been on the other end of so many atrocities and so many terrible things to like find some kernel of connection to tap into. And so what Louis said to Armand was just so heart-wrenching and beautiful and obviously reached Armand and allowed his humanity and the aspect of the soul. You know, this episode is about the soul so we can think back to the soul. Lestat sang to Armand when Armand showed up to talk to Lestat to read his amends to Lestad on

the tour bus. You don't have a soul. But, like, he does still. And for Louis to reach it for a second, it was quite potent. Did you laugh when you heard Armand doing his, like, his 12 steps again? Yeah. But this time to Louis decapitated head. Yeah, pretty great.

Really good. A couple things. So, the threat to you head swap to, like, so. Yeah. One head on a different body. That's sort of slightly lifted from the vampire Armand book, 1998. in a different circumstances. So this is his signature move?

I don't think they're going to do that thing that is revealed in that book. So I think they're just sort of like using it. But I thought that was interesting. And also interesting that Armand doesn't give a shit about the great conversion. We thought he was here to, you know, make sure the rules were abided by. But instead he's just like, nope, petty revenge. Really like elite villain moment on that front specifically. specifically when Armand was like, Nelson, Nelson, okay, he's one of my new followers, got 100 or so,

he thinks he's here to help me stop the grade conversion. I needed him to stuff your head in a cooler and drive me here. That is a degree of savagery, but just disregard, right? Disregard for any other life that is so clarifying on the Armand front, really, really good. And then the rest bit, which not only does Nelson hear that. kills himself. It primes us to feel very anxious about Armand issuing the rest command to Regina. But it takes us back to Daniel, to our favorite episode of season two, and I guess of the series to date, you know, telling Daniel, wouldn't it be nice to rest, right?

And like knowing that this was when he was. I got chills. Yeah. Well, and he said, you know, yeah, he said a similar thing to Larry, right? Like, this is his move. Exactly. Right. It's horrifying.

On the confession apology front. Yes. So this is, so what he says to Armand, what Louis says to Armand, you at 12, at 12, you were 12 scared, poor boy, Arun, you need a love that'll cradle you. Right. And so in season two when we're at the Louvre, on a romantic date at the Louvre, when Armand is sharing his like backstory with Louis and ghost list out is also there. This is what he says, right? He was rescued from a brothel when he was 15, named Arun then. I cannot be sure.

The abuse in the brothel is such that he cannot be sure that this is what his parents named him, the parents that sent him to work on a merchant boat in Delhi. When actually they'd sold him into slavery, my maker's purchase, his renaming me, his reluctance in sharing the gift, knowing what it will do to his beloved Amadeo, I served him with all my heart, basked in his mercy, his worshipful mercy. Still, Amadeo had a skill. And if a friend wandered into town, I was occasionally donated. Just like we've met Marius finally in this season.

And to go back and think about Marius and what he did in rescuing Armand, but then also abusing Armand at the same time. And so this is just like a story told over and over again about these makers and these vampires and these fledglings. Like what did Louis and Lestat do in rescuing Claudia? You know, they rescued her. That's what Louis was telling himself. But like, is that how Claudia sees it now on the afterlife? You know, the day. Um, so I thought this is amazing.

I thought the part where he's repeating, you know, what Louis is saying, he's repeating it, giving different intonation to certain words. I thought was like incredible acting. Just thinking about Assad as an actor looking at this script and thinking, thinking, what is Louis going to emphasize and what is our, what words do Armand think are the most important inside of these sentences? So like the different inflection and how certain lines come across. And then just, again, just on his face. A lot of great just sort of like vampire eyes filling up with bloody tears stuff this season. But just like are the camera on his face as he's absorbing. Louis telling him that he couldn't love him the way that he needed to be loved, which echoes, you know, you needed a love that would cradle you.

And I couldn't give that to you. Right. Taking. And again, to think about the two Louies inside of this episode, Lestat's Louis versus Armand's Louis and like what Armand has said this season about sort of the version of Louis that Daniel has written about that we have been absorbing. He's like, that's not the Louie I know. Methodically cruel. I know a much crueler Louis. So for that, for for that version of Louis, the crueller Louis to apologize to Armand is like I thought really interesting. I agree. I think you need to love that'll cradle you should have that and I was never that for

you building toward Paul saying to LaStat, thank you for loving him, for loving him, the way he needs to be loved about Louis was gorgeous. Made me think of How's the Dragon, too, at the point that you keep raising about, like, are you giving your people, your followers, what they need? Yeah. And, like, yeah, you know, we've had calls across a number of the stories that we covered to, to talk about this and, like, some of it is a very personal thing. And some of it is, like, you know, what do you owe to another person and what do you owe to

yourself and what is like right to demand of another person or to, you know, to know that you need is a person able to give that to you? I think that the recognition Louis has here that he was maybe not giving Armand the thing that could have perhaps allowed him, him being Armand, to chart a different course, is a version of the same like reflection and introspection and desire to improve and grow that we're talking about. It's also, and we are, you know, obviously totally in the bag for Lestat and Louis, but it's like also fair to say. And this episode reminds us totally in an interesting way. It's like, you got to be 100 feet up in the air for that to stick. Hardly the case that the Lestat-Louis relationship was always perfect, right? And so there is,

I think the episode in the series is asking a lot of intense and hard questions that don't have simple answers. I don't think the show is in any way. applying that the answers are simple. It's like embracing the mess, right? I think saying that in some ways the mess is undeniable and the question is whether you're going to be able to like to to navigate it and to find people who can help you navigate it, right, who are willing to try to help you navigate it. You know, the fact that Louis says this thing to Armand, and then Armand decides to spare him, decides to let Regina. go. Okay, good, good. The last thing he does, though, is brand Louis. Yeah, I have questions

about vampire anatomy as to whether or not that scar would stick, but it seems like it probably will. Yeah. Yeah. So to put an A on his chest, like Armand was here. Yeah. Tough. It'll at least be there for a while because their neck scars, you know, Lestad and Louis still have their sort of like neck scars. I don't know, like, how much that wound will heal at the end of the day. I thought it was interesting that Louis and Lestat both have these, like, scars on their chests now. Exactly. Yeah. You know.

All right. It's your boy, Daniel Malloy. I don't have a ton to say about this. I will just say, I think where this season has faltered the most in my eyes is the Daniel Armand stuff. Because my sense, and I could be wrong, but my sense is that there's, like, just a little bit of shorthand they used here of, like, they know there's a strong fandom for these two inside of the book reader community. And so I don't. I'm not convinced they did all the work they needed to do outside of that fandom, outside of people who aren't familiar with these characters in the books, to make this connection, this duo, make as much sense as I think it should make. And Daniel in the last couple episodes, I just don't know, like, he's still kind of fun.

Right. But I don't know. It just has not worked for me the way that I think the show wants it to work for me. Yeah. And if we, I think, consider it both in the vacuum of their relationship, but then also it's, it's not. the connected universe of all these other relationships because the relationships kind of definitionally can't exist in vacuums, then it's interesting to think of that like, you know, you need a love that cradles you. And it's like, well, what is the relationship that Armand and Daniel have so

far of what we've seen in the show? I don't have that additional book context, right? So what I see in the show is jealousy and rage and a need to put that somewhere. Well, and what's so interesting is like that's the foundation of the Louis Armand relationship because like how much is the Louis and Armand stuff about spiting Lestat, you know, from in the first place? Yeah. And so how much is the Armand and Daniel stuff about spiting Lestat? Yeah. You know, almost entirely. And so. Right. And so is that the love they need? Is it the love that allows them to pursue some course, some course of vengeance right now? Is there a connection? Obviously, there's the connection of maker and fledgling, right? There's the connection Dad.

Yeah, there's the connection of all of the truths that were pulled or repressed or obscured over the years. But yeah, it's like hard for me to say in the back half of the season that I felt undeniable need from the two of them to be with each other and more that they were like working on a quest together. Yeah, I'm just not sure it's working yet. I'm not saying it won't work, but it's not really working yet. I did like seeing Alex using the name Boo Radley as his bowling name up on the screen. That was good. Pretty good. He was bowling a clean sheet of zeros.

Dimesdorvah, Dracula, Alex. I mean, the Talmaska, whatever. They're here. They're pro-great conversion. It was them all along. Make more, make more. It seems to be, the explanation seems to be its global warming connected. But I just would just say, I just don't know that we should ever trust anything that Raglan says about anything.

is how I feel about that. So, okay, I'm trying to turn my mind around this. So I was looking back at the beginning what Lestat said, especially because he calls upon the line here of like, you know, what did I say? Oh, that I made a contribution. Let me take that back. The fault was all mine. This is, I'm just going to the last. Yeah, the very end.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So in the beginning of the season, he said, I'm not saying that the attempted extinction of the Y chromosome across the continent was all my fault. Okay. But then we don't know, does that have, is that Kasha driven? I mean, I have, I have answers for that, but I don't think I can say the amount. Yeah. So that's, that's on my mind is like, okay.

On the talamaska front, specifically based on what they, what Raglan shares here, may the vamp safely graze, congrats, you beat peak oil. It's a tipping point. Is it pro-great conversion, or is it pro-great conversion in order to, you know, amass the vampires and then easily kill them. Oh, I thought it was pro-grade conversion to... Cut down on the number of people. Yeah. Yes. As population control. For sure. Population. You know, the range are over... So that's there for sure. But does that mean they're going to just let the vamps run free in perpetuity? I mean... Don't think you guys would be very good in government, right? So I'm like, maybe it's let the vamp swell the ranks cut down on the human population.

And then kill all the vampires. And then kill all the vampires. So maybe that's why he's still in favor of the concert going on? off because then there's still a way to like... They're all there? They're all there. Take them all out. But the conversion is like what is the message that's supposed to come from the concert. Make more, make more. He was really proud of that lyric.

He was. You did it, raglan. I would say... Diane Warren move over. Not the best... Not the best lyric I heard this either. All right. One night only at Nikki's Tavern.

Yeah. As you mentioned, I mean, great stuff when Lestat takes control of the wheel of the story. And he's just sort of like enough cowering. It's me, front man Lestat. But the Salamander T.C. and Alex No Larry

are vamping, musically vamping the whole time that he's up there. It's the chords, it's the butterscotch bitch chords. And I just want to say this just makes fantastic like vamp music.

Just sort of like the dun, dun, like it's just like really good backing, propulsive sort of music for all of this. Anything else? I mean, we've already talked a lot about Paul showing up here.

He has a hard time saying it. Got that from our daddy. Doesn't mean he doesn't. It's just his way. Thank you for loving him, for loving him the way he needs to be loved. I still wish you were a woman. Sometimes, so do I, right? And then about the afterlife, I guess. It's not all that once you get there. And then Lestat says, silver thread, silver threads stretched over other threads. seemingly like looking up. at this sort of like the show spared itself the budget of having to show it to us but like this light event that's happening up up above and um we talked about this idea of like the silver thread when we talked when we were analyzing I didn't know it was going to come up the finale because we did not have this screener so I right but I'm glad we talked about it because we talked about it when we were talking about the lyrics for brutal love yes um which mentioned a thread pulling on a thread a restless hand on a thread I think um so this idea

of the sacred core concept inside of the world of vampires, this thing, this connect, this silver sort of like, thread and bilical cord that connects all the vampires to each other. So I just love that that shows up here. That's very like vampire lore, stuff that could come up even more so in next season. And then Roland's saying in the after episode, you weren't a failure because somebody loved you. Yeah. I thought that was beautiful. Really great. I think that the

Lestat still kind of floundering but working toward some accountability here at the end was felt important and satisfying to see. We have a few different beats, right? Gabriela is heckling him as a failure and he said, I don't agree. In the end, I think I was pretty fucking great,

but he can barely choke the words out. The way Sam delivered that. So fantastic, just really wonderful. If I failed, that means I actually attempted something, which is more than I can say for most of those I loved most. Oh, I don't know if I mean that. That was performative. I loved you.

I did. As grotesque as that love may have appeared to you, I did. And then, you know, as he's continuing to fade, my blood, my blood, I did my best with it. No, no. I let too much spill too often. I did not always honor it. Like, that's progress. It is progress.

That doesn't mean that Lassad is not a character who will backslide again. That feels like the character. Well, whatever's about to happen that he says, it's all my fault. Yeah. You know, further clarity, I guess, when he's recording. the failures, but like he's about to do something that. Yep. It's terrible. Yeah, this yes-ma'am moment. Okay, I want to talk to you about that. I think I've told you about this, but the DeShawala song counting blue cars, right, which has the lyric, tell me all your thoughts on God, because I really

want to meet her. My best friend, Dana and I, like, whenever that song comes on when we're in the car, whatever. We always envision this guy is like this guy with an acoustic guitar. And he's really trying to impress a girl. And he's like, tell me all your thoughts on God, because I really want to meet her. You know, and just like,

look, God's a woman in my song. So that's how we always sing it. I got a voice memo from Diana last night being like, I watched the Lista finale. Tell me all. So like, is God a woman inside of this universe?

is God Alonis Marset. Is that what's happening here, right? Is it Anne Rice, the great author of all of this, the great architect of all of this? You know, is that what that's an allusion to? Because like, presumably we're talking to a deity. Whoever's in charge of who gets more time. Oh, are you sure? Really?

Okay. More time. You know, reset the clock. More time. Or, I don't know, is it Mamager, extraordinaire, Gabriela? Could be. Is it Akasha? You know? Is it someone in the universe who has the ability to pull some strings to puppeteer?

Queens abound. Okay. So God, Alana's Morissette, Anne Rice, Akasha, Gabriela. All gods in fashion. All gods in their own, right. Great. Okay. Okay.

The aftermath. Yes. So somehow Lassat got a costume change. Who did that? Probably Gabriela. Put him in his coffin and put him in some new outfit. Yeah. We get the info that Lestat and Raglan in whenever we're recording the failures in the future are now friends, I think.

This is the quote. The shoe leather of how I got there was explained to me by a man I did not recognize but who I now call a friend. Unless, you know, end quote. So unless there's a sneaky double meaning that I'm missing, which is always possible. I think they're always kind of trying to do some sneaky language. What was your interpretation of, because Raglan is there for the head at the bowling alley, you know, says Farid is way to. for the butcher shop. What was your interpretation?

Yes. What was your interpretation of Daniel flashing the fangs? Was it that, because we have missing information about what transpires, how the heads get back to the body. Was your interpretation of Daniel flashing the fangs at Raglan, I'm not going to make this easy for you, like we're enemies now, or that a fight actually unfolded right there? Because there's also the line about like Alex's role in all this is a mystery. Alex's role in this is missing information about.

exactly what happened. The Alex mystery is really interesting. Well, like, was Alex working for the telemasca? Yeah, he's like, we had an agent there. Like, we thought Alex was working for Armand, which maybe he was, but was he working for the telemasca? Like, what is

his role in all of this? I don't know. Is it connected to the fact that Gabriel is his maker? Is that connected somehow? I don't know. My interpretation of Daniel flashing as fangs was like, this isn't over. Yeah. Not that they had a fight right then and there, but maybe they did in the bowling alley. But more like, I'm a vampire and I'll remember this. Yeah. You have me outnumbered

right now, but I'll remember this. Yeah. Okay. That's my take, but who knows? Um, the desperate, silent, we don't get to hear it, but we can hear it anyway. Where's Louie? Wonderful. From LaSat. Yeah. And then just sort of like, as we mentioned, we alluded to earlier, the episode long repetition of could be hands touch, like this idea of just sort of like going back to them on the bench. This is what Hannah said. Our listener Hannah wrote in to say, listening to the loneliness, which is a song from earlier in the season, it hit me. The lyrics have to stop repeatedly ask himself or literally having his loneliness say to him, how could anybody ever love you? And it was haunting me already even before this that through this effort of his psyche and his trauma to destroy.

his sense of self and consume him, what he keeps returning to is, could be nice, could be. And Louis touching a pinking to his and an echo of the touch he shared with Louis when he first told Louis about his fear of loneliness. The simplicity of those statements, could be nice, could be, is so stark. There's no extravagant poetry there, just the softest, quietest, most intimate longing, the dream of a future together. The possibility of Louie may be loving him. And that tiny touch is a bulwark against the loneliness, those quiet, simple statements that contain the possibility of love in so few words, the answer to how could anybody ever love you is maybe Louis could. And that is a silver thread that LaStat hangs on to to

stay tethered to some sense of himself to once again get back up. Love that. Hannah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Paul there to talk to LaStad and what might be his final moments about Lestat's love with Louis and Louis loving Lestat. Louis, the pen and the paper and his decapitated body's hands, writing about Lestat, saying to her on. And he's, I love that moment. He was like, I'm sorry. Like, even at the end here now, I'm thinking to him. It's hard not to.

And then just the way that they sort of, like, the way that Louis is there on the bus and the way that they just sort of like curl around each other and like touch each other, the scars on each other's necks and stuff like that. Yeah. I just thought that that was wonderful. And then we get this showdown between Lestat and Gabriela, this, this like full pushback that maybe we've been waiting. for. Trauma bond.

Trauma bond. You are listening to the failures album 58 side A is what we get. There are still 53 albums of the failures to go. So I suppose we'll see you in season four for that. Yeah. We get a decimated world. Yes. A reveal. Yeah. She is the answer of graffiti on the sidewalk there. But yeah, the world has been destroyed. Thanks to something that Lestat has done, the concert. Shattered building, sirens in the air. I like the beat right before that. Have I failed at auction? These reels returned to me. I'm sold to my talking to myself. First of all, fun little dancing with myself. Yay! Yeah, yeah, yeah, off the season, but we still don't know, right? Like, all of the details. Yeah. And so, like, that's a, maybe that is the answer. It's good.

But yeah, we do have a timeline of, like, when these were recorded, a bit more of a timeline, but not a full concrete timeline. All right. Before we go, so the last thing I wanted to do is some sort of like quick season superlatives just to like end on a celebratory note of a season that we did quite enjoy. Yes. Anything else you want to say before we get to that? How long do you think it'll be till season four? Is this like a two years between season?

So it's July. I do. I think like earliest would be early 2028. Maybe not that much because they don't have to like write like all those songs, which I don't know how much time that took in all of this. But then I'm curious with the budget because like, so this is going to be a queen of the damned season. It's an Akasha season. Right. I don't think it's a spoiler to say there should be some Akasha flashbacks.

Hmm. Mm-hmm. Which could look really cheesy if not given the full budget. Right, right, right. You know what I mean? Yeah. It could look like that sort of like Michael Jackson, Nefertiti music video, which I just like do not think we should do. Wow.

So I want. I want as much budget and time and thought as possible into the Akasha flashbacks would be my hope. I mean, maybe we'll get an answer as soon as Comic-Con. There's a, there's a Lestat panel. I can't wait. Did you see that, so last year at Comic-Con, the Vampire Lestat, like that was like a huge, like on the side of a building wrapper. Have you seen the Hot Sauron building wrapper that's already up in San Diego? No.

I can't wait, though. Does it also have like a, I'll cream for you thing, like the Lestat? one did when the letter of scream was, remember? I'll forge your one ring. That's incredible. I'll make you cream. I mean, you know, these ideas are here for free, folks. Oh, wow. A very specially placed palm tree. All right, San Diego. Okay, let's go down to our quick season superlatives. All right, best song of the season. This is a tie for me, but they're both from episode six. It's a tie between stained glass eyes and brutal love, both of which were extraordinary. I guess I give the edge to Brutelove because of the performance of Lestat singing

to Louis. Sing us as five, right? I can't remember. Yeah, we did them together. Yeah, we did them together. Yes, you're right. Yeah, so in that, right, I'm saying to the same episode because of the same podcast that we talked about them on. Yes. Yeah, so those are a tie for me. I think Bruttle Love just edges it out because watching Louis and Lestat and then watching Gabriela, watch them, was like a transcendent level of... It has to be Bruttle Love for me, I think. Yeah. Though I did go back in... rewatch loneliness after I read Hannah's email. And that song is really good. Also, the cores of Butterscotch. Bitch are so good.

Like, this is Smuggle Palooza for me. Like, I just think they're a lot of great. Okay. Let me put it to you this way. Yeah. This is the real test. Three Oscars. Yeah.

How's a feel? Which one is going to top your Spotify rap? Like, which one will you actually listen to the most? It's going to be hard for them to catch up to Longface, which is the only one I had for so long. Longface, the one that the show, the show, the show, one you wash cars to, I guess. That's so funny. Maybe that's my contribution.

Really fucking tough. Or clean cars. All right. But I think it's brutal love. That performance. That's great. And, oh, I saw, I saw a great tweet. You know the, you know the euphoria meme, is this fucking play about us?

Sure. Someone took that and they were like, Gabriela during brutal love. Is this fucking play not about me? Incredible. I mean. All right. Funniest line. This is hard to pick.

It's been a really funny season. I will just say, I'm going to say the line that I actually repeat in my own head almost on a daily basis. All right. What is it? And it's just, every time I go to Reddit, I said, more red meat for Reddite. Reddiet is really tough. More red meat for Reddit is like a Pavlovian response to me clicking on Reddit now. So that might be the lasting legacy of the season for me.

That's a great pick. All right. I'll do really rapid fire five other nominees. Oh, please. This was hard to pick. Okay, so a bunch of them came from the second episode, which is interesting. Tough cookies. You guys play baseball like in Twilight.

I got it. You said it was a deer as a D-E-A-R as any K-F-C night manager as a right to be. And then, of course, the boardroom sequence. You know, I bet, I bet, very specific detail to plug out of thin air. That was, maybe it's more about the performance and the line itself, but that's the hardest I laughed all season. This, as I said at the time, this Daniel moment from the third episode killed me. You have a song, long face, the lyrics are, ooh, ooh, ooh, woo, wah, what's the story behind that? You've got to have a sense of humor about this stuff, and it's like just the show really knows when to.

And then, as we talked about last week, and this is actually my pick for just the line, the funniest line, from the sixth episode, Lestat and Louis talking about Daniel. He's an awkward vamp because that you think you're better than me, Chip up? him and we are. It's exhausting to pretend otherwise. Killed me. Incredible. Oh, it's Travis and Taylor. All right. Best fit. Best outfit of the season. So, this was hard because the fits are elite. I mean, we could just pick the bloody pre-com pants. I thought you might. In fact, I thought you might. If I had to put money on it, I would say the Shartreuse pants with the bloody cum. I mean, that probably is the pick. In an effort to not be so pants. painfully predictable and entirely on brand.

I do like in Toledo, the Lestat is wearing the big, you know, wolfie pelt, a coat, Wesking, and Gabriella are hunting prey. And when it falls off his shoulder and he's in the black tank top underneath, that's iconic. And then I think Louis's modern fashion in the, I'm going to brick and bacon time and time again to just spend some time with Regina. Like the sky blue polo with the pinstriped pants. I mean, he's really knows how to dress. Oh, one thing I wanted to mention about Assad's performance in the whole Armand Louis and the butcher sequence is like when he was like doing his impression of Regina's accent. He's really good.

Yeah. Really great. I love him. I'm going to give it to the baby pink silk blouse with the baby pink course. Well, we can only be ourselves. Let he come and a baby pink corset. Coming soon to a theater interview. Okay.

Put it on the march. Best non-Sam Reed performance of the season. So let me ask you a question. Who's eligible for this? Is it literally anyone but Sam? Like, is Jacob eligible? Yes. Then that's the pick.

Yeah. It's either Jacob or Assad, but Jacob has more time to work with. He was so good. They're both fantastic. I was wondering if maybe they were both not eligible. And then I would pick Delaney, who was, I thought, exquisite. Oh, so incredible. Yeah.

How do we pick? Who did this to us? Me. Maybe it's the Vampire Tough Cookie. No one to play it by yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Could do that.

Could be like for the new characters who's to pick maybe. Yeah. I mean, you know, the primary cast is just, once again, sensational. Yeah. It's just sensational. Sarah Swire. T.C. Tough cookie.

Legendary stuff. Really funny. Really, really, really good. My girl. Oh, and she's. Christine at the end, by the way. Oh, true. Well, she's, what did she done to her sex engine?

In the paper with the same. That was great. That was cold. And then, I mean, Sheila, Tim is Akasha. Incredible. Fantastic. Can't wait for more. Wow.

Okay. Various met of Richmond's. And Ritch is last. And Sam Reed, I mean, just like, couldn't have been better. An absolute masterpiece performance. Really, really, really, really excellent. Really great. Like, we had high hopes, no reason to doubt, did not disappoint.

So good. All right, best episode of the season. This was a tough one between two contenders, but I have to give the edge. Episode three finishes just behind episode six. Episode six was... Montreal. Amazing. I agree.

Episode six. Amazing. Well, and validation. They said, the director of the episode said that the inspo for the episode was before sunset. So we were right on the money with that one. Love. Yeah, they're like, hey, Joanna Mallory, let's give you a movie. movie you love, but it's vampires and it's Louis and Lestat. Why not? Guess what? No notes.

Oh, with a dash of incest. All right, anything else we want to say? I'm really good. Thank you so much for doing this with me. Thanks for the bad babies who came along with us for the journey. Always. We're excited to see what if anything we learn about the show at Comic-Con and to be back with Akasha, the queen herself in season four. I can't wait. Depending on the weight and the length, you know, I for sure I'm going to all three seasons before season four, no question. Question is whether I dip into the books. Ooh, I don't know. We'll see.

This season will be a really fun rewatch. Oh, I can't wait to rewatch this season. Yeah, yeah. I cannot wait. Yeah. Also, to listen. Okay. Yeah, I wonder what.

I'm going to start really in serious, like, putting up the numbers on the playlist to make sure it's at the top of my Spotify wrapped at the end of the year. This is an important part of my personality that I need to make sure I would follow on and not wind up with just, like, musicals. for the 1940s again when they're like, your Spotify age is 98. To be fair, that is also an important part of your personality. So you contain multitudes.

Thank you to our band. Jacob Cornett is here, Carlos Chiroboga, Scott Lee. Our dinner on compel and Jomi Adiron, we'll be back with a deep dive. Yes. Thanks for putting up with us turning in like a shorter episode and sort of, I don't know if you caught all of our grimace.

throughout this. We're doing our best. Occasionally looked over at Mallor is making a pained face. Time to retire to coffin. Time to retire to coffin. We'll see you soon. Bye.