No one suffers more than girls who are a little too much like their fathers. No one suffers more than girls who love their mothers more than their mothers love them back. No one suffers more than hopeful girls who are trying their best in a world that hates them by design.
Just by listening to him, I felt like I was in a trance. I felt like I was fighting. And I cried! I cried in his arms after we shot the scene.
~ Luke Brandon Field on Assad Zaman as Armand during the "rest" scene in 2x05, ScreenRant Interview
It was such a scary thing to do to be sort of thrown into that episode, and it's the one I look back at and I can see– I have a bit of an out of body experience every time I watch it, kind of don't recognize myself in it.
~ Assad Zaman on the filming of 2x05, PRIDE Interview
Armand is already setting himself up as a Judas figure in the sense that he was a coward who failed his beloved God in a moment of weakness. It's "human" failing, one that he can admit to whilst still underlining his vulnerability. I was laughing about Louis and Armand having a Judas painting in their bedroom last month, but it makes sense that it would be so prominent because that's the narrative that's dominated their marriage. But when you start to look at the story being presented to us (and with prior knowledge from the books) it quickly falls apart.
He didn't read the minds of the coven because he was distracted, but he'd know if Claudia and Louis eavesdropped on his conversation with Madeleine. Santiago is plotting right in front of him and doing a bad job of hiding it, but he doesn't notice despite picking up on Claudia laughing. He feared the coven would kill him even though we've already seen him knock them all out without breaking a sweat. He's not present at Madeleine's turning because he disproves, but this is also a convenient way to cover his own back. He claims to need protection from Daniel and his questions after we watched him throw him around like a ragdoll in last week's flashback. All of the excuses he gives go back to emphasising his self-described weakness. He's just a poor, unworthy disciple who made an awful mistake he has to atone for. The elephant in the room isn't that Armand is a Judas figure, but that he was far too involved and far too powerful to convincingly inhabit that role.