One of the new characters from Anne Rice’s imagination has joined The Vampire Lestat, and it’s a surprising character that doesn’t appear until the ninth book in The Vampire Chronicles. Episode six, “Montreal,” introduces the witch Merrick Mayfair, who ties Rice’s Vampire books to her Lives of the Mayfair Witches novels. In The Vampire Lestat, Merrick Mayfair is played by actress Sarah Afful. Eventually, Merrick becomes part of a vampiric coven with the iconic Lestat and Louis, only to meet an untimely end just one book later. Join us as we explain the mortal life (and brief vampiric life) of this New Orleans witch who can summon the dead. Here’s everything you need to know about Merrick Mayfair after watching The Vampire Lestat.
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Merrick Mayfair First Appears in the Anne Rice Novel Merrick (2000)
Merrick Mayfair first appeared in Rice’s novel Merrick, the first of three novels, which were Vampire Chronicles/Mayfair Witches crossover books. Those books formed a trilogy: The Witching Hour, Lasher, and Taltos. Merrick was described as part of the powerful Mayfair clan of witches. Merrick was a Voodoo priestess, descended from a line of the Mayfair family that was primarily African-American. Her mother was a woman named Cold Sandra, and her sister had the nickname Honey in the Sunshine. While Merrick Mayfair herself was raised by her Great-Great-Grandmother, Great Nannene. In Anne Rice’s books, Merrick’s witch abilities, primarily her powers as a medium, began to develop at an early age.
Merrick’s mother and sister died when she was very young, and Great Nannene then passed away when she was a teenager. Because of her abilities, Merrick is taken in as a ward of the Talamasca, the ancient secret order of supernatural scholars. She becomes the ward of a British Talamsca agent named David Talbot. During an excursion in Central America as an adult Talamasca agent, she finds a mystical jade mask of great power, one she’d use in rituals years later. She eventually returns to New Orleans, where she takes up residence in the Talamasca’s New Orleans Motherhouse. Sometime later, Merrick Mayfair’s mentor (and former lover), David Talbot, becomes a vampire, turned by the Vampire Lestat.
Merrick Mayfair Summons the Ghost of the Vampire Child Claudia
After becoming a vampire, David Talbot contacts Merrick Mayfair in Merrick, asking for her help in doing a favor for his fellow vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac. Louis hopes to use Merrick’s skills to conduct a séance to contact the spirit of Claudia, his long-dead vampire child. But it turns out that Merrick has her own secret agenda, and she actually used spells to make David Talbot contact her in the first place. She wanted to be brought into the vampires’ orbits, so she could receive the Dark Gift. During the séance conducted by Merrick, the spirit of Claudia is horribly cruel to her father, Louis. Of note, Merrick casts doubt on whether this spirit is actually Claudia or a demon brought to life by all of Louis’ worst fears.
Louis Turns Merrick Mayfair Into a Vampire (For a Short Time)
Regardless, the interaction greatly shakes Louis, and he attempts suicide by walking into the sunlight afterward, but survives. Lestat gives him his powerful blood, which heals him. Louis and Merrick, bonded by these intensities, fall in love, and Louis turns her into a vampire in Anne Rice’s Merrick. This infuriates the Talamasca, who feel the vampires have turned another one of their order into the undead, which they see as a hostile declaration of war. Unlike most witches who become vampires, Merrick Mayfair retains most of her psychic powers. But this, combined with the Dark Gift, becomes a mental burden for her. One that is too much to bear.
After spending a few years with Louis, Lestat, and David, Lestat asks Merrick to help with a similar spell. A young man named Quinn Blackwood needs her to deal with a spirit named Goblin. This takes place during Anne Rice’s tenth novel, Blackwood Farm. During the intense ritual, Merrick throws herself into the fire, ending her vampire life a mere two years after receiving the Dark Gift. Merrick Mayfair’s undead existence as a vampire was brief, but eventful, in Anne Rice’s world.
How Merrick Mayfair Appears in The Vampire Lestat
In The Vampire Lestat, Merrick Mayfair is introduced as an acquaintance of Lestat’s, whom he calls to conduct a séance to contact the spirit of Claudia, just as in the book. Merrick is able to do it, and the séance is emotionally devastating for everyone involved. Claudia’s violent ghost even manages to bust Merrick’s face and lose a tooth. Like in Anne Rice’s books, we don’t yet know if the spirit that Merrick summoned for Louis and Lestat is actually Claudia or just a malevolent apparition that’s taken her form.
In The Vampire Lestat, however, no love story unfolds between Merrick Mayfair and Louis. And given the notion that Louis has proclaimed himself to be “Gay, gay, gay,” there probably won’t be one that mirrors Anne Rice’s Merrick book exactly. But Merrick does note that her family and Louis’ have a long history. She tells Louis, “Great Mama Ernestine sends her regards, says the du Lac boys walked past her porch, head so high, you wouldn’t know their money came from flesh.” We’ll have to wait and see whether that relationship evolves.
Additionally, of note, the name Lestat intends to give himself after his concert is Sheridan Blackwood, a clear nod to Lestat and Merrick’s dealings in Blackwood Farms.
For now, we don’t know what becomes of Merrick Mayfair after the séance in The Vampire Lestat. It doesn’t seem she’ll become a vampire, at least not at this point. But we suspect she may appear in AMC’s Mayfair Witches series in some capacity. We doubt this is the last we see of Merrick Mayfair in the Anne Rice Immortal Universe.
The Vampire Lestat airs on AMC and AMC+ Sundays at 9 pm ET/PT and midnight, respectively. You can snag The Vampire Lestat and Merrick by Anne Rice to read, if you’d like to know a little bit more about what’s going on.
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The post Who Is the Witch Merrick Mayfair in THE VAMPIRE LESTAT? appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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