Over the last two episodes, Armand (Assad Zaman) has admitted that he’s in love with Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). This week, he finally explains why, telling Daniel that he’s spent the last 52 years watching over him from the shadows, occasionally intervening in his life but never revealing himself. It’s a beautiful confession, and one that says to me the writers fully understand what made the Queen of the Damned chapter work so well.
Because in response to that confession of love, Daniel asks Armand to “prove it”. And the responses Armand chooses are not about Daniel’s biggest achievements, his interviews, his books, or moments where Daniel was successful or happy in his life. Instead, he reaches for two memories where Daniel is arguably at his lowest: aggressively having sex with a student in the back seat of his rental car in a hotel parking garage, and the fallout of his daughter’s graduation after she’s told him she didn’t want him there.
I don’t think those are random choices. I think they’re the key to understanding why Armand fell in love with Daniel in the first place.
Because, both in Queen of the Damned and increasingly on the show, Armand doesn’t love Daniel despite his humanity. He loves him because of it.
Book readers know this has always been one of the defining aspects of Devil’s Minion. Armand doesn’t fall in love with Daniel because he’s a brilliant journalist, or because he’s clever, or even because he’s funny. He falls in love with Daniel because Daniel is so unapologetically, gloriously human. He helps Armand reconnect with his own human side, which he has been out of touch with for centuries.
One of my favorite moments between them in Queen of the Damned isn’t some sweeping declaration of love, but simply dinner. Armand, having absolutely no idea what Daniel likes to eat or really what humans eat in general, orders nearly everything on the menu. Then he watches Daniel dig in, while “laughing and laughing like a schoolboy.” It’s such a small moment, but it says everything about why these two work. Daniel’s humanity delights Armand, and it’s what he finds “fascinating” about this boy, how alive he has always been in all the messy, complicated ways that humans are.
Looking back at Armand’s confession through that lens, those two stories suddenly make perfect sense. In the rental car, Armand doesn’t stop Daniel from making a terrible decision. He makes sure the student gets home safely, but he lets Daniel make the mistake. At his daughter’s graduation, he doesn’t try to repair the relationship or somehow lessen Daniel’s heartbreak. He simply guides Daniel to the Rothko Chapel, where he makes a security guard start coughing so Daniel can grieve in private.
In both cases, Armand isn’t trying to save Daniel from his pain. He’s protecting Daniel’s ability to experience them in full.
I think that’s because Armand understands something Daniel doesn’t yet realize he’s confessing. He’s not proving that he watched Daniel, he’s proving what he loves about him. The stories he reaches for are moments where Daniel is vulnerable and imperfect, but where his humanity is on full display.
Out of everything Armand could have chosen from those 52 years, those are the memories he treasures enough to carry with him, to even know the exact dates they occurred off the top of his head.
It’s also an interesting juxtaposition to whatever is going on with Alex this season. Lestat’s guitarist has described how his sponsor, who certainly seems to be Armand, has been “erasing” his pain. It clearly isn’t working, as Alex has already fallen off the wagon and started drinking again (and that’s before Armand killed his brother!).
Whether Armand is literally altering Alex’s memories or simply trying to help him compartmentalize his trauma remains to be seen, but it stands in contrast to the way Armand didn’t try to erase or “fix” these two moments for Daniel. He wanted him to experience them in full.
That’s why I don’t think the park bench confession is simply Armand saying, “I’ve loved you for 52 years.” I think it’s Armand saying, “I loved every wonderfully, painfully human thing about you.”
Of course, Daniel is not a human any longer, he’s a vampire. So does Armand still love him as he is now? I think these two have to be allowed to get to know the current, modern-day version of each other first, and I really hope the show plans to spend time developing that.
