If you’ve ever read a fanfic, you know the high. (And if you’ve never read a fanfic, what are you doing with your life?) That unbelievable euphoria that comes when the stars align, the writing is on fire, there’s hurt, there’s comfort, there’s a deep tangle of confused feelings, and yet some fated, universal thing is irresistibly pulling two characters together in exactly the way you’d hoped for. And then, if you love that relationship, you come to literally understand where the concept of the word “high” came from in the first place. Because you feel like you’re floating. Perhaps for people who regularly ship canon ships, this kind of thing is not unusual in official capacities. But for folks who hold queer ships in their hearts, these moments are rare to behold on our screens, and rarer still to receive with true meaning, depth of story, and intent behind them. Often, we get glimpses of exciting possibilities, enough to get the fanfic machine revving and creating, but almost never do these moments combust into something greater. But, oh, The Vampire Lestat episode four, “The Devil’s Road,” brought that full fanfic feeling to life when it came to the scenes between Armand and Daniel, also known as “Devil’s Minion.”
In my The Vampire Lestat Review: Devil’s Minion Edition, I slyly noted, “And I will say this, there is a moment later in the season, one of my favorites, that could have been plucked from a Devil’s Minion fanfic. Where I was like, ‘Omg, Daniel, just…’ And Daniel did! We love to see it.” And for me, that’s the entire diss track concert sequence in The Vampire Lestat episode four, and everything that comes after it. But specifically, it’s that moment where Assad Zaman drapes Armand in that fanfic favorite “look of fragile pain and frozen rage” and turns on his heel to exit the show, furious and humiliated by Sam Reid’s unbelievable Lestat, who oozes an incredible sheen of sharp viciousness and a desire to punish. (Which, Armand, of course, in so many ways, deserves. He has done much worse and caused much harm. And despite this can still feel hurt in this moment.)
Meanwhile, Daniel is in the crowd, watching all this unfold with an, as the fanfics love to say, “unreadable expression.” And now, I invite you to imagine the fourth member of this unholy quaternity, me, leaning over my laptop at midnight, yelling at the screen. “Oh my god, Daniel! Just GO!! AFTER!!! HIM!!!!” Yes, this actually happened, just like that, and I’m proud of it. And Daniel…
If The Vampire Lestat was a Devil’s Minion fanfic, then as Armand despondently pushes his way through the crowd and out into the street, Daniel, conflicted though he might be, would feel unable but to follow him. The world would vanish around them, figuratively and literally. The only two souls left in the world. Daniel would shove Armand into the nearby wall, get too close, “their breaths mingling” or “their faces suddenly so near their breath became shared” or what have you, they’d say angry, awful things, and then Armand would inadvertently confess his love, even though he didn’t mean to, but how could he not? Wait a minute. That’s what happens in The Vampire Lestat. Do you hear that? That’s the sound of a million DM fanpeople collectively losing their minds across the world.
Of course, if this were a Devil’s Minion fanfic, we might suggest Armand and Daniel would have kissed here against the wall in The Vampire Lestat episode four. But, in some ways, for me, Daniel going after Armand and everything that comes with it, in this moment, is almost better than a kiss. Or, to be clearer, it’s an incredible lead-up to an eventual kiss which had better come. But kiss or not, the exchanges in The Vampire Lestat episode four speak to that intense something that pulls Armand and Daniel toward one another, unfold so perfectly the dense, delicious promise of their relationship.
Armand and Daniel’s clashing together here is so intensely multilayered. Though Daniel might think he’s furious at Armand and going after him just to yell at him some more, that’s clearly not the case. And when Daniel asks Armand why he’s finally returned, and Armand says, “You’re courting great danger with Lestat.” Daniel’s “Him?” is so pained, it literally begs to be the reason why Armand is there. That veneer of anger holds for a breath, then shatters away completely.
As Eric Bogosian tells us, “Well, it does start out with raw anger, but just as we saw when we ended the second season, there’s more to be learned when it comes to Armand; there is a lot more to be learned. As he learns it, he’s really put on his back foot. It’s something that just keeps moving along through the season.” And we can see Daniel start to learn it here in episode four of The Vampire Lestat.
Meanwhile, on Armand’s end, there’s a rawness we hardly ever see on the vampire. Perhaps still born of his journey through Arun and Amadeo and the confusion of who he is amongst all the broken pieces of his current existence. And although we know Armand lies like breathing, intent and vulnerable, he wants Daniel to believe that Dubai wasn’t just a farce, that it’s the truth when he says, “But it was love.” And I want that too.
Assad Zaman tells us of the moment where Daniel confronts Armand in The Vampire Lestat episode four:
Well, in the beginning, I think he just thinks that Daniel is just going to sort of berate him again because that’s what he did in the bowling alley. He fully believes that Daniel has every right to hate him. He left him. He left him completely vulnerable. He left him with something that he didn’t ask for, and so he feels guilt for that, and he knows that Daniel really does hate him in his guts right now, but then I think both of them don’t… Daniel and Armand, they don’t understand what this connection is that’s happening. Armand does more than Daniel, but they don’t understand this vampire bond because it’s new for Armand as well, but the fact that Daniel is asking about Dubai and going, “Was it all a lie? Was it all fake?” Is a moment that kind of comes out of nowhere for Armand.
And in that moment, I feel like he doesn’t want to lie to Daniel.
And I think it comes out, it’s an honest confession that, ‘Yes, you can hate me, you can hate me for what I did. I manipulated you. I turned you, I did some fucked up shit, but that pretending to let you manipulate me… That’s not true. You think you were under my spell, actually, I was under your spell. That’s why you were able to free everyone.’ and maybe that’s part of it. Maybe Armand, somewhere deep inside, is like grateful to Daniel for freeing Louis and Armand from this disastrous, nothing relationship that’s a spiral of misery. So yeah, it’s a really tender moment that comes out.
Tender, messed up, and beautiful. Truly, we could want for nothing more. Except maybe that kiss. But for now, we’re content with this gorgeous slow burn between Armand and Daniel. And our hats off to Assad Zaman and Eric Bogosian for their top-notch acting and the incredible way they bring to life the beauty of Armand and Daniel’s constantly shifting, tumultuous emotions and complex affections.
The Vampire Lestat airs on AMC and AMC+ Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT and midnight, respectively. You can snag The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice to read, if you’d like to know a little bit more about what’s going on.
Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She’s ready for Devil’s Minion to become canon so one of her ships can finally sail.
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The post THE VAMPIRE LESTAT Episode 4 Gives Me That FANFIC HIGH appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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