As today is the anniversary of Daniel Molloy and Louis de Pointe du Lac’s San Francisco interview, which originally took place on September 4, 1973, I thought it only fitting to talk about points of view, and how they shape the meaning of a story.
While we’re waiting impatiently for Queen of the Damned (my guess, unfortunately, is 2028… but we shall see), I think the writers have already given us a big clue about where we’re heading next season on the series. While the first two seasons of the series (titled Interview with the Vampire) were narrated almost exclusively by Louis, the third season shifted gears with The Vampire Lestat, and put us firmly into the mind and narration of Lestat himself. Now, the fourth season will be getting another name change to Queen of the Damned, and just like that Anne Rice novel of the same name, I think we’re going to be getting multiple narrators and points of view this time around.
Why? Well, executive producer and former showrunner Rolin Jones (showrunning duties will be taken over by Hannah Moscovitch for Queen of the Damned) basically already told us exactly that.
“You paint yourself into 9,000 corners, but there’s also, probably every burning question a really precise audience member would ask about what you didn’t see here, there’s a lot of stuff… People went off this way and went off this way that. You didn’t see what they were doing. I think there’s a very exciting structural thing in Queen of the Damned, these strict point of views that I think are really interesting as a way to see this,” Jones explained on the final episode of The Vampire Lestat: After Dark about what’s coming next in the series. “We’re not doing what they want you to do, which is give you the thing that you get comfortable with. I think our fans, the people who really, really like this show, love that we come out and risk total failure. This was tonally really exciting. Structurally there’s something really exciting [in Queen of the Damned].”
I could easily see the writers changing the structure as he hinted at there, and giving us a season in which each episode has a different narrator, each one here to tell us their version of events — both in the present day to move the story forward, as well as setting the record straight for things that Lestat got wrong, or wasn’t privy to in his own season.
Think there’s more to Nicki’s ending and how he really died than what we saw on-screen last season? Well, Armand seems like the only real candidate who can delve into that. Want to know about Akasha’s backstory? Let her tell her own story. Want to (finally) see Devil’s Minion on-screen? I don’t think Lestat is the best person to narrate that.
As the writers keep telling us, The Vampire Lestat was really only part one of a two-part story. And while the title may be changing, there’s still a lot left off-screen that I think we’re going to delve back into… and the only way I think we can do that, is by changing points of view and shaking up the format of this series again.
With all of that said, with presumably another seven-to-eight episode season, there’s likely a limit to how many narrators we can realistically have. So let’s get into whose point of view we could explore in the upcoming Queen of the Damned, and why they might or might not make sense:
Lestat
Lestat is not done narrating his own story, and there is simply no way, in my opinion, that we don’t get more of his narration. The biggest question to me is just how much of the season is devoted to his “The Failures” albums, and how the other points of view come into play. We’ve only made our way through about half of the records, and I just can’t see Lestat sitting down and playing reporter à la Daniel Molloy to get everyone else’s POV. So how do the other narrators come into play? That’s why I feel like each episode could take on a different narrator, rather than jumping around, but how the show ultimately handles that is perhaps the thing I’m most curious about.
But regardless, there’s simply no way we don’t get another Lestat-focused point of view at some point along the way. I could easily see the season opening on, say, the concert from another character’s point of view and building to a Lestat episode later in the season. Starting the season by giving us the aftermath of the concert through someone else’s eyes first might be exactly the kind of destabilizing choice this writing team would make, and then letting Lestat fill us in later in the season on his thoughts about everything that followed.
Akasha
This feels like another no-brainer. There’s simply no way that Akasha doesn’t get her own POV in her season, and I suspect the show will use hers to fill in the enormous ancient backstory from Queen of the Damned.
Book readers know there’s a full, rich history here of how she became the first vampire, and I’m sure we’ll get flashbacks to at least some of it. Now, will her backstory also be our only real entry point into the twins as well? With a limited number of episodes in a season, I could also see the show foregoing giving the twins, Mekare and Maharet, their own POV backstory, and filtering it instead through an Akasha-centric episode. But that’s a lot to cram in, especially when the twins are incredibly important to both the series as a whole and this particular story. Then again, this show has never been afraid of long expository monologues, and Akasha is arguably the most compelling long-expository-monologue vehicle we’ve ever had access to.
Daniel
For me, this is exactly what Jones was hinting at in that After Dark interview. By opening up the series to multiple narrators, it’s a chance to go back and revisit some of this season of The Vampire Lestat. To quote a very high (but surprisingly astute Daniel Molloy), “You don’t even know the meaning of your own story.” And while Lestat may have told us some of the story, I think the other characters are needed to fill in the blanks, give context, and reframe certain scenes.
And there is so much to cover with Daniel, and so many blanks to fill in. Not only is there whatever the “why does the undead need antibodies” line that I still think is going to play a huge part in his upcoming story, but we’ve also been promised that we’ll see his transformation scene. I also think there is a lot of time to fill in between Armand’s park confession in 3×05, to the two of them lobbing off Lestat and Louis’ heads at the end of 3×06 (show us Armand teaching Daniel to daywalk, dammit!) and Armand calling them companions.
And of course, there are plenty of signs that Armand was not telling the entire truth in the park, and that he did a lot more than simply watch Daniel in the past. Yes, if you’re like me and believe that past Devil’s Minion is real (it is guys, it is), then there’s an entire backstory here to explore. My fever dream of a hope is that we get an entire episode devoted just to past Devil’s Minion (Queen of the Damned is the book in which that chapter takes place, after all!), but with so much to explore with Daniel, I’m just not sure I’m going to get what I want there. But still, in that same After Dark interview, Jones also confirmed “there’s some Molloy/Armand stuff ready for the world to be had.” So let me continue to have hope until it’s dashed.
Armand
Again, I remain, as ever, the delusional girl who thinks Devil’s Minion is going to be too big for one single episode. Which means I want an Armand POV episode too, and I could also see more of past Devil’s Minion being revealed through Armand’s POV rather than Daniel’s. After all, he’s surely the one with the clearer memory of it, given how many times Daniel’s memory has likely been meddled with.
Outside of Devil’s Minion, though, I think there are also plenty of other things we could revisit from Armand’s POV. For instance, I think there’s a very real chance we revisit Nicki’s death from Armand’s perspective, and we could get more of whatever is going on with Alex, who Armand was clearly running some kind of long game on all season (though considering just how weird Alex was by the end of the season, I’m not sure Alex is following along with Armand’s playbook entirely).
Gabriella
So far, we have only seen Gabriella through Lestat’s eyes, and it’s obvious that it’s a very biased point of view. Those two have a very complicated relationship (to put it mildly), and I simply don’t think there’s any real way for Lestat to see his mother clearly. So giving us an episode through her POV could definitely help frame her as less of a one-note villain. But even if she is meant to be mostly our “big bad” (at least until a bigger bad awakens), it’s obvious she’s been making moves all season we haven’t been privy to regarding the Great Conversion. I strongly suspect she has already found Marius given we see her ask about him twice (once is a hint, twice is beating you over the head with “this is important!”), and I think it could easily be a way to get Marius back into the narrative.
Gabriella was operating on her own agenda all season while Lestat was distracted by his tour, and I want to know what she has actually been doing when the camera hasn’t been on her. Which is, again, exactly what I think the writers are planning and how I think they plan to flesh out this past season of The Vampire Lestat.
Louis
I’m also fairly confident we get a Louis-centric episode. He’s absent for large stretches of Queen of the Damned in the book, but this writing team has already proven that they aren’t afraid to invent new material worthy of actor Jacob Anderson. It feels like there is no way they don’t give him a POV hour. This feels like an episode likely to be heavier on present-day storytelling than flashbacks, since we’ve spent so much time in Louis’s past across seasons one and two.
In my heart, I feel like Louis or Lestat will close the season. And I also strongly suspect that whatever episode this winds up being, Baby Jenks could return during it to extract some kind of revenge on Louis for murdering her new groom, Bruce, on their wedding night.
The Twins
Mekare and Maharet are also a definite possibility for a POV episode of their own. Their backstory is essential to understanding what Akasha and Amel actually are, and while I’m sure the show could find a way to weave their story into an Akasha-POV flashback, it feels like they deserve their own POV and a chance to tell their own story.
But with only seven to eight episodes, I’m just not totally sure there’s going to be room for this.
Alex
Look, this is kind of my worst fear… and so I’m putting it out there to make it your problem too.
I have a real fear that we’re going to get an entire episode from Alex’s POV, because it feels like the show has planted some big red flags that there’s a lot more going on with him. It’s hinted that he might be working with Raglan James and the Talamasca, that he could be daywalking (how?!), we don’t really see how he went from being in Lestat’s band to helping to lob off his head, and we don’t know yet if he’s aware Armand is really the one who compelled his brother to throw himself in front of the train… Do you see why I’m worried? There are so many unanswered questions with Alex that I could truly see the show giving him his own POV.
There is nothing wrong with Alex as a character, he’s just kind of bland and boring. He’s the least compelling of any of the band members, by far. And an entire episode devoted to him, even if it’s mostly about him being Armand and Daniel’s lackey and serving as a way to fill in some of that time and show us what they were up to, sounds equally bland and boring. If this is the plan, I’m sure the writers are sitting there going, “But filling in the blanks is what would make him compelling!”, to which I say, …I don’t believe you.
I would much rather he take up a small portion of Armand’s episode, or that we get an episode about whatever Raglan James and the Talamasca have been up to all season, than have to spend a full hour inside Alex’s head. But if I have to think about this, you do too now. You’re welcome.
Raglan James
On that same note, though, maybe the way we fill in some of Alex’s backstory is by getting an episode with Raglan’s POV. We’re never really certain what he’s up to, so getting to see that firsthand could be incredibly compelling. And there are plenty of unanswered questions still with him as well. What did he do with Daniel after the bowling alley? Why do the Talamasca (or at least Raglan) seem to want The Great Conversion to happen? If Alex is working with the Talamasca, we could see Raglan filling in some of the blanks for Alex, telling him what Armand did and recruiting him to help with getting Lestat’s head back.
I’m also just not sure we need the character of Jesse from the Queen of the Damned, but if we do, I could see adding her in as a smaller side character through Raglan’s POV.
And if we are heading towards Tale of the Body Thief (and it feels obvious we are), then setting us up for a Raglan POV now makes sense to me.
Other Characters
There are still plenty of wild cards the show could pull from. Queen of the Damned itself gives us other POV characters like Khayman (the only truly good vampire, and I stand by that assessment), Pandora, Jesse, and more. And knowing this show, I don’t even think you can rule out them tossing the book aside entirely and giving us something completely unexpected, like Salamander, the Vampire Sam, or some other character none of us had on our bingo cards.
The problem is just math. With only seven or eight episodes to work with, there are presumably way more interesting perspectives than there will be room for them. So at some point, the writers are going to have to get ruthless about whose version of the story we actually need to see, and whose can stay off-screen.
