“I have slumbered in a variety of sarcophagi over the centuries, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the 7,000 ft model I endured in the fall of 2025…”
-Lestat
The episode begins with Lestat faking his death while his band went on to work on Lestat’s one and only album. Gabriella took over Christine’s job, and Lestat’s entourage was let go while the band was pushed to its limits in the recording studio. But, Lestat is ready to talk about THE queen, which, if we’re honest, is what we’re really here for. And, it’s about time.
Let’s review!
Warning: It’s about to get spoiler-y.
Death of a Rockstar
In a dramatic yet mildly insulting fashion that only Lestat (Sam Reid) can achieve, the band was pushed beyond its limits while making the album that marked the tragedy and emotion of Lestat’s death. Unfortunately, it turned out that you had to be a vampire to understand the goal he was trying to reach. Each detail that Lestat was putting in and asking for was seemingly outrageous. Even Freddy Mercury would’ve been asking questions about Lestat’s methods. Lestat running out into daylight to capture burning despair shook us up the most probably (from laughter).
Yet, when it came down to it, for the band to be on Lestat’s level for this one and only album due to his faked death at the hand of an overzealous fan, that meant transforming them. Surprisingly, it was Alex (Seamus Patterson) who demanded it first. The talk he had with Armand in 1×03 was life-changing. We had no doubts about TC (Sarah Swire) and Salamander (Ryan Kattner) since they were teetering on that edge already.
While Alex demanded the transformation, his brother, Larry (Noah Reid), quit the band. With how invested he was and the way he and Lestat enjoyed pressing each other’s buttons, it was a shock that he walked away. Unlike Alex, who’d been welcomed back into the fold with Armand’s help, Larry was given a mental push into the path of a metro train by the vampire.
Fame isn’t for the weak…which is too bad. We liked Larry.
The Queen
Though Lestat had turned Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle) and Louis (Jacob Anderson), and Nikolas still haunted him, he didn’t jump at the opportunity to transform his bandmates. Louis was transformed out of passion and Gabriella out of love, but his band was family. He told them a story first. He told them about Akasha.
This was the moment everyone had been waiting for since the season began. Through flashbacks, Marius, a vampire who had been watching over Akasha and the remains of Enkil (vampire royalty, if you will), had dug Lestat out of the ground. And yes, that’s right, that was definitely Christopher Heyerdahl. So well known for his work in the Twilight Saga, Supernatural, The Last of Us and more.
Lestat had been sulking in the ground, starving himself, for 80 years because Gabriella left him for whatever she defined as freedom, and this was the perfect time to put it to an end. The instructions for caring for Akasha (Sheila Atim) were pretty simple. Talk to her, play the violin for her, bring gifts that keep her in the present. Just don’t wake her up. Don’t drink from her. You know Lestat broke the rules. Even if you didn’t read the books, you know.
Akasha manipulated Lestat, using his loneliness against him. At the turn of the century, she broke through her stony curse. While she did drink from Lestat, she also gave him her blood. The act of debauchery was broken up by Marius returning to a chanting Akasha calling out to all vampires and Lestat high off of her blood. He was literally high, levitating up in air, enjoying he ride.
I. Am. The. Answer.
There are a few things to be said about the Queen of the Damned, Akasha. The religious, vampiric zealot made her debut. While it could be said that she connected with Lestat and that’s why she shared her blood with him, we’re not so sure about that. It doesn’t seem too far-fetched that she would take advantage of Lestat’s loneliness and desperation for connection to try to break free of her stony prison. More so, she’s been able to follow him ever since the bond was formed, even in the present during Lestat’s tour.
From place to place, havoc has followed Lestat and his band. Though Lestat has purposefully remained oblivious to The Great Conversion, it’s obvious that Akasha has been riding his coattails. That she’s using his shows as a chance to gather any followers that agree with him about being out in the open, almost as if Lestat is a prophet to her godliness. Lestat just hasn’t opened his eyes to it quite yet.
Sheila Atim’s rendition of Akasha was breathtakingly amazing. That’s not to say we don’t love Aaliyah’s Akasha in all of her medieval gothic glory. Nobody could ever replace her, but Atim’s version certainly followed closer to the books.
The moment that Akasha nearly awoke and ranted on and on left us with chills. We can’t even imagine what she’ll be like completely awake and lucid. With vampires rising and buildings crumbling, Akasha is a deadly force to be reckoned with. And this is only the beginning.
As far as theories go, we feel like she had something to do with Larry’s demise. Why would Armand hurt Larry when he helped his brother, Alex, and has such a strong determination to fix his relationship with Lestat? With all the effort Armand has been putting into getting his and Daniel’s forgiveness, it would be counter-intuitive to shove Larry in front of a subway train.
Lestat Meets Regina
Louis couldn’t help but pull Lestat into his mess with Regina. And as sad as it is, yes, Louis has been very messy this season. He couldn’t pick up the phone and check on Lestat after he’d been shot, but he didn’t think twice about asking him if Regina was Claudia. That was as wild to us as it was to Lestat. He was so petty earlier in the season, and now he was asking Lestat for this?
The encounter reignited Lestat’s grief about losing Claudia. We get it. He’d wanted to punish Louis and Claudia for what they’d done to him, but he didn’t want them killed. While Louis had survived, losing Claudia destroyed both men.
Lestat’s black hoodie as a disguise was comical, but meeting Regina made one thing clear. Regina was a con artist. Throughout the episode up to the moment Lestat met her, we believed that, too. We’re starting to wonder if she’d read the book before she met Louis and then reeled him in. The red flags were major. The money Louie offered was good, but keeping a diary suddenly and even trying to capture Claudia’s accent? No, thank you, which is exactly what Lestat said. He followed that up by telling her to stay away from our broody Louis, and rightfully so. Also, telling Louis that she wasn’t good for him was the most mature we’ve ever seen Lestat.
Let’s hope Louis listens to him and finally lets this woman go.
This episode was a wild ride. What did you think? Let’s chat in the comments below.
