‘The Vampire Lestat’ Episode 4 Deep Dive

House of R - The Ringer

A lively deep dive into 'Vampire Lestat' Season 3 Episode 4, 'Devil's Road,' focusing on character dynamics, humor, and eerie visuals. The hosts dissect the blood shower scene, tour bus chaos, and tease upcoming plot twi

Key takeaways

• Blood shower scene highlights Armand as audience avatar

Transcript preview

Hello, welcome back to House of Art. I'm Joetta Robinson. That's Molly Rubin. Our pod never stops for gas. We run on bots and abandonment. It's a vampire lestat. Are you excited, Mallory? I can't wait. I almost texted you in a Gabriella slash Sophia's capacity. You made a terrible mistake. This teakie bar is full of wonders. I can't wait. I can't wait. I almost texted. I almost texted you. I almost texted. you know save it for the pot so now here we are and I've saved it for the pot you have but actually I would like okay and then I'm gonna do the yeah right after this but I do I want to go to a techie bar here in Los Angeles I would like some recommendations from the bad babies so Hobbets and Dragons at email.com for your Los Angeles techie bar recommendations because we have like some fun vampire themed drinks we're supposed to get this month okay all of that right after this is presented to you by Target. 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Perkin reminders, vampire listat every week we only have three more episodes left, very sad. Sheesh. But here we go, we're barreling towards the end of the tour. Yeah. How's the dragon though? That's right. I mean we're only two episodes into this season of this season. lot more coming. Talk the Thrones for episode two already exists in your feed you can find that that happened on Sunday night and then tomorrow is our deep dive yes will it be as unhinged as last week's deep dive one can only hope and drink I had a great time I had the best time let's try to match that energy okay Mallory yeah I can folks get all of their dragon and vampire needs from us follow the pod why not that's it's all you have to do follow the pod on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, but you can watch full video episodes of House of Our and the Midnight Boys, Pee pew on Spotify. You can also watch full video episodes on the Ring ofverse YouTube channel, so follow along there as well. While you're at it, follow us on social. We have New Wish. We have New Wish. I don't know when we have to retire new. This is always something we, sometimes we keep new in the mix for a year and a half. We'll see what feels right. New wish, social handles. At House of our pod, on our pod, on we have fun photos we have graphics we have all sorts of things going on to me social first stuff that's right dragon math check it only be found on our social that's right little beautiful mind action with the that's great yeah great add from Joan yeah wonderful stuff all right and then Hobbits and dragons at g email at g email dot com as we already mentioned tiki bars or anything else you have in store for us that's right spoiler warning today's podcast will be informed by our knowledge of the books the vampire listat and the queen the queen of the But no book direct spoilers until the very end. We will have a book spoiler section with a sound that will delight and titillate you but not give you a cardiac event. Right. Yes. And I have no book knowledge. So it's a delight and titillate but not give me a cardiac event experience for me as well. Can't wait. Let's go now to our opening snapshot. Let's do it! Devil's Road, Molly Rubin, did you like this episode of television? I did, I'm having a great time with the season. I think episode 3 was still the high bar, that was just exquisite, but we're keeping the momentum going in a way that I'm excited by. I feel like there's a lot of really intriguing, mid-season, oh we can feel we're moving toward the next major event kind of stuff happening in this episode, but as is so often the case with interview with the vampire, the the action, the Harbingers of Doom are all entwined with these lovely character beats. The humor continues to mix with the horror in a way that I just find really expert and astonishing. I have some questions for you about blood shower or hygiene that I don't know when is the right time in the pod to get into that. You let me know. We can do it right now if you want. Okay, here's my question. Yeah. Obviously very memorable scene. Very effective and memorable sequence. I have I have basically. I have basically, I have basically no. I have Except you have a few notes. I have questions. Yeah. Okay, so the blood shower comes down. We are in, I'd say never has a character on television been such an effective audience avatar as Armand in that moment. We are. Speaking of the generous endowment and just doing this. We are Armand, Armand is us, correct? Wonderful. It's nice to feel seen known and understood. Great stuff. Great stuff. Okay. The blood shower comes down and then there is a very brief period of cleansing with water. A rinse a spritz. Yeah. No soap? No and he doesn't even get all the blood. Does he not reek of blood? Like part of what I understand in my heart and soul despite never having it inhabited the same physical space as Lestat to be true is that he smells like cinnamon and cotton candy and you think Lestat smells like cotton candy and sandalwood and whatever smells good to you. I just feel like he probably smells delicious to everyone. Oh, this is something like Harry Potter. situation where it's like whatever your most favorite smell that's what exactly could be that I think he smells like patuely bloody pre-com yeah like yalang yalang you know yeah so does he just smell like iron and like I would not be surprised if he constantly kind of smells a little rusty okay we do get an email from a list right I didn't include it but they were sharing some anecdote from the T-Rex the band T-Rex has been referred to a couple times in this season. To my delight, Mark Boland is a lead singer of that band. He said there's an anecdote from Mark Boland that people were so excited by the T-Rex experience that they would just like piss themselves in the audience and the T-Rex shows just like smelled of piss. Like they didn't want to leave to go to the bathroom so they just like peeve themselves or they're too excited or a... Nah, this is not good. You know like not on the right drugs or whatever the case but like that and so our listener was like what do you think the vampire listat shows smell like that mix of like bloody pre-com plus wet plus whatever my and welcome to our podcast but like my being here with us my thing after the shower is like why even bother with the rinse because he does the rinse off but he doesn't even like get like there's so blood like watery blood on his back and that's just gonna like to do his big boss performance with pigtails and the incredible makeup. There's like blood crust on his neck. Well it probably mixes oddly with the glitter. Sure. You know? Wow. The glitter never comes out. I'll tell you that much right now. Especially not if it's kinked in blood. Kankton, crust in blood. Yeah. Sam Reed gave an anecdote about the blood shower. He said when they were first showing him what it would be like they put like a test dummy underneath and they put like a test dummy underneath and they're like a test dummy underneath. it looked like and he was like that dummy was like sand blasted with blood and I was just like I can't perform a scene with this much the dialogue blood like pouring like shooting down on me so he's like they turned off the outer ring and it was just like the center so we could just that's why he's doing that yeah do the like around the blood thing it worked yeah it did but I just like I would love to see the behind the scenes footage of that like test dummy just getting like absolutely blasted by blood Incredible stuff I wonder if there was any commentary on whether the dummy had a generous endowment or if that left it was left a unremarked upon. I think on the tour bus hygiene front also feels worth noting here in the opening snapshot where we set the stage and hit the real top level highlights that one of the funniest moments in the history of television was when he walked by one of the documentaries. And he's like shit and die. Which in an open air shared tour bus experience I think is appropriate. I don't know that I've ever noticed that there was a just a toilet right there. A chittend guy. Like the showers in the middle of the room we know that we've seen many people shower in there but there's a toilet just right there in the middle of the room with no you know and the and the cameraman's like oops you know and I feel like he had started the process at that point. I don't know. A lot of toiletable action in this episode too because the cocaine you know and we got a good sense of the geography of the bus. I had the bus. I had the bus. I had a upstairs. That was helpful. Made me feel like I was touring London, but by watching Lestat tell people not to take shits and then being a double-decker bus situation. Got it. Love it. All right, quick correction. I also love this episode. I also think season 3 was sort of the high water mark so far this season. But something that I love about the show is like, you know, not everyone is loving this, but I love about the show is like, again I can't get the closed captioning to work on my screeners, which is, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's, but it's I just like pause to write things down and go back and re-list it and I'm like it's Daniel Malloy shouting at the names of Pulitzer Prize winning journalists as he's bowling is that what's happening right now. But the it's just going so quickly that there's so much it's so dense in a way that I really love because it just feels like a treasure trove for me to to like root through like a truffle pig but like um sorry that's a cave your reference but I'm but I think that I think that's a something I was thinking about you know this this episode is credited to Jonathan Cheneserowitz maybe something like that anyway probably really butcher that but there is just a like a pat or a patois to like every single episode that reminds me of something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Jaw Sweden used to give every episode like a top pass right we're just sort of like the rhythm of the show per minute and all that sort of stuff came from like one singular mind and I have to wonder if like Roland Jones like does a similar thing where like the humor is so singular and so fast and so sharp that it really feels like it I don't I don't want to take Rob credit from anyone else in the writing staff and I believe in in large and robust writers rooms but it really does feel like yeah one person's voice is shining through in these episodes and it and it's like one of my favorite voices and it's like one of my favorite voices works for me. Yeah and I also think it's one of the ways where in a television adaptation that is distinct and singular it also feels very much like novel-esque right where like an author is giving you a version of the universe and I agree like you know the episodes vary certainly but there is a clarity of tone and a cohesion episode to episode in like the pace and the clip I was hearing you say that it makes me think of the one of the buffy anecdotes you shared I can't remember was it would have been season three or season four because it was one of the more recent buffy pods but about how like some character at some point got a line as a zander line yeah for Willow yeah yeah yeah like Lestats lines Louis lines are unmistakably Lestats lines Lewis lines Lewis lines Lewis lines I'm so in a really good satisfying fun way as if you are clearly intentionally destabilized and disoriented by this because there are moments for us for Louie where you are just like in a rapture and deceive yourself into thinking or maybe you're like should my theory brain be going like am I with Claudia and then there are moments where you're pulled out of that very intentionally and that's been that's been quite fun I thought that this was one of the better Daniel showcases cases on this front to this episode for just giving I mean I mean the The bowling scene was very fun and everything but like the taking over the steps from Armand the like the pitch in Bogotian's voice the rage and the real feeling of like betrayal and terror you know that Daniel feels in that moment but also with that kind of like for Daniel that Daniel feels in that moment but also with that kind of like for Daniel that Daniel that's something that can never really it feels like be stifled for too long even in his moments uncertainty which is like I'm going to tell you why I know best you know why I'm smarter than you yeah it was captured so effectively in that sequence so I'm excited about about that's that's similarly having our Mont here you know like I just I really missed him and I loved having him here. Quick Corrections Department slash info department the CN tower collapse that happened in last week's episode was apparently only in Lestat's mind per Roland Jones and and and we had listeners point like the tower collapses, then later you see Lestat drive by it and it's like backup and intact. So this was sort of like a psychic reflection of the turbulence of Lestat's mind and not something that like a big bad vampire accomplished something like that. We had been folding some theories. I don't know that I fully grasp that, but I'll be interested to see if that plays out in other landmark locations. Right. You know, is Lestat bringing other skyscrapers toppling, I don't know, but I thought that was kind of strange and interesting. Especially in a show where we're moving in and out of time so much and sometimes just cutting very quickly to flashes from other periods on the given timeline? Like the harbor flashes that happen in this episode. A very like important moment for Lestat that we don't understand what's happening until we see the moment. And last not least you might have already tracked this but like fun fact, opening credit song every week. Last week is the first week I noticed him saying like, well that was a piece of shit or something like that about the song and I was like, oh, has he been saying that every week and I just missed it? But no, he says something different every week and this week he said, did you hear that Armand at the end of the opening credit song? So something to track. Love it. Let's go now to our deepish dive. I'm calling this section, Hey Big Bus, aka The Marginal Mystery Tour. We're gonna do just like kind of all the bus tour stuff here as much as much as we can, right? So we get this like ups, you know, this is called The Devil's Road, we get this upside down shot of the freeway, very reminiscent of the Immortal Universe, upside down New Orleans like opening that we had in seasons one and two. Did it make you think of Agatha, our beloved Agatha and The Witches Road as well? kind of like what is known and unknown and what is a trial and what is a test. I think you know I'm always thinking about witches. I'm always thinking about witches. Which stuff go would you say? Always. We get a shot of both a Joey Chestnut who's a competitive eater who was mentioned earlier in the season and an Elon Musk bubblehead. Yeah. And Elon Musk bubblehead is like one of the worst bobbleheads I could possibly contemplate. What's the worst bobblehead that you can think of? Oh God. Oh, that you hate like an enemy of thine Orioles or Ravens or something like that in terms of what would really upset me to be like around in a contained space every day it would probably be a bobblehead of the camera guy from a documentary crew taking a shit in an open space that would be pretty upsetting just like his ass wobbling over the bull. Elon's a good candidate it's really hard to top Elon. The Joey chest that one is so funny the fact that's go up multiple times this season is incredible. sort of like a montage of like this is what it's like to be a rock band on the road a montage love that like tough cookie has a groupy interlap and stuff like that I want to talk about salamander want to talk about I always want to talk about any anything that's going on in this heatenistic sort of montage we get this is like an example it's a visual version of what you were talking about with like the density in a great way of the show where like you're listening you could rewind and rewind four-ish minutes of the show and spent three hours just trying to parse every detail both in an auditory and visual capacity. Yeah. And it's really fun to go back and do that. The, and to think like are these what is being paired intentionally when we get a Lestat voiceover with what we're seeing. There is a certain aspect of it we're just giving yourself over to Christine snorting coke off of like the neck of a prone man pinned beneath her with a condom like. wrapped around his ear. It's like a used condom. Yeah. Any level that you choose to watch the show on is probably gonna be rewarding. I also quite enjoy, let's get the old guy to watch you choke me? Yeah. This was a great Christine episode. Well I'm concerned. Oh, I think she's fine. I hope so. She was just like chewing people out while they were like st launching her wounds. Yeah, she just had some feedback on the bullet wound care. I was just like that she was just like that she was like that she was just like being a ball-bustered. I was So not the bitter end, I think she's fine. I hope so. I'm not ready to say goodbye. She can seem okay. Yeah. More annoyed. Yeah, more irritated than anything else. Lestat, pronunciation watch. Please rank these for me. Chapodel. That was great. A return of a classic. Red Meit for Redit. Still my favorite. And Wertchus. And Wertch is to her Massachusetts. Is it Redit for you? That one has yet to be topped? There's something about it that just absolutely kills me in a way. I can't quite explain I think it's the way that he's trying to take something like Reddit and make it feel very like posh gosh and a gage Exactly Yeah exactly so that just kills me. I think the fact that we went from the Worcester pronunciation lesson into his ridiculous into receiving the text update from Sophie about oh look she's getting her twot lazard overall stretch was tough to top and the way she typed it was I'm having my lawn scorched and he knew what that meant he did he's like I've received because they're very close they are very close they are very close I think I think red meat for redid it incredible just making it like sort of like a rhyming couple it makes it even better all right the Talimaskabot army Lestat gives this direct address to whomever is listening to the failures and it's once again a nod to how obscenely rich this person might be, right? Like we got the gilded bathtub reference earlier. And like obviously if you won this bidding war you have a ton of money to spend but he said should your privilege per strings become interested in pursuing the actual truth of our recent apocalyptic adversities ominous. Look no further than that watchful order of the river of discrete money flowing in dark directions. So the Talamasca using their money to boost engagement with the bank Any theories as to, I don't know the answer to this. This is not like a, this is not a foundational like book information I have, but I would guess with this sort of great conversion, like it seems like it's aligned with what Gabriela's intention is, which is like, the more Lestat sings, and the more his messages spread via song, and now, per the end of the episode, hopefully an album. That's right. In the studio at last. Yeah, the more. Magnus will be so pleased. The more the vampires of the world will get encouraged to bite and make more. So is that is the Talamasca pro great conversion? Like what's going on there? Does that feel right to you? Does that make sense? Not really. They seem to like be trying to keep like a lid on all the vampire activity, right? Yeah. I don't know. The idea of them, yeah, fueling the bots and spreading the word and reach. And it is interesting to see just the kind of like, the voices