Rewind the Tape — IWTV S1E03 Rewatch
It's time to continue @iwtvfanevents Rewind the Tape with Episode 3. A disclaimer: this is my first time rewatching the show (excluding indirect watch through YouTube reactions), and it's purpose for me to refresh my mind and noticing things. So, I won't dwell on certain theories, but I'll take notes about it for myself. An extra disclaimer: I revoke my feminist card for Antoinette Brown.
Before that, this is my favorite shot of this episode:
• The music during the opening. It's a comedy show lol
• "I put you on this earth. Your purpose is to enjoy yourself." A bar. An extremely red flagging bar.
• "I know you don't believe that." This is entering a headcanon/personal theory zone, but I always suspect Lestat during this era has this "ideal life" he envisions for him and Louis. That vampires should be this or that, vampire family should be this or that etc. And he stubbornly holds to it which leads to him denying himself to be vulnerable and more communicative to Louis and Claudia. I wonder if we'll get some clue on this later. anyway, BACK TO THE MAIN PROGRAMMING
• "I desire *small voice* blood..." He is so cute
• ugh Louis' suit is Excellent. Carol Cutshall i worship you
• "Every one of them is capable of abomination, even the ones worthy of admiration" "Thrust them into circumstance,[...] and you'll see all kinds of depravity" Unfortunately, he is right.
• I, too, want to flirt with my spouse while talking about how to decide which human we'll kill.
• NOT THE CAT LOUIS 😭😭😭😭
• And with that, the theme of the episode is set: the consequence of Louis' eating disorder. Deeper exploration after establishing what he lost and not lost to vampirism in the previous episode.
• Antoinette is from Atlanta.
• "You're ashamed of what we are." Highlighting this for later.
• "Could you not use the word..." Louis 😂
• Louis has business in Clairborne. Google tells me it's dominated by Black population back then and has a lot of shops. (cmiiw ofc)
• "There it is". We're gonna back to this later.
• Not at Louis staring at Lestat staring at Antoinette. With Lestat already knew Morton will leave Louis soon, you know that his bad idea (he'd call it genius actually) of inciting Louis' jealousy and rage through Antoinette flashes in his little brain right there.
• Jolly Morton vs Lestat banter. what a moment 😂
• *Googles* Wolverine Blues was written in 1923.
• Okay, this is paraphrase, but Daniel said, "When you're still too close to it, the abused still loves the abuser. But you flipped it on its head" aka '70s Louis hated and trash talked Lestat, but now he romantisized him. Well, we'll definitely see the answer in S2. But I wonder if this raises a possibility of Louis meeting Lestat after the '70s interview? Or 2022 Louis believes Lestat is dead dead? You know, you could be forgiving after someone dies. Anyway, kind of fast forwarding here, but this and how Louis downplays Lestat's power in E01 and Louis' whole speech in E06 about "are we the sum of our worst moments?" establishes Louis' current POV actually softens Lestat. Beating that "Louis is lying to make Lestat look worse" allegations. (Unfortunately, he really loves that man guys 😞)
• It's so cute of Louis he really knows what page he has to read out loud when Daniel starting to question his story. Like, he's very aware there's accuracy problem to his memories.
• Louis looks so cute when he's happy (and what a good acting there from Jacob)
• I like that light blue vest on Lestat. Why do we only see it once (and with Antoinette on top of that)? 😭
• Lestat and Antoinette's gig is two weeks old by this time.
• "I understand the indulgence. I let it happen" Oh, Louis 😞
• Not at Lestat offering a threesome. And "I like burnished complexion". God, they should have killed this racist fake ass sooner. And woman even opens her dress herself 😭
• The editing during this scene is kinda jumpy though. But again, no male gaze on the naked woman body. I appreciate that.
• The laugh omg. I don't know, maybe i'm kinda sick in the head and could see how crazy Lestat's brain works, so since the beginning, even before knowing the "inappropriate laugh" explanation from the books, I saw it as like him going "are you really saying you're not enough? LOL" but that's still fucking rude from Louis' POV. That's like the closest Louis ever being vulnerable and saying "I love you" to Lestat, but alas. In E01, Louis himself says he doesn't like how his family judges him, and now he gets Lestat laughing at his sincerity, so OF COURSE he will become more closed-off.
• "There. I said this" And as I said, we're back to the beginning of this episode. This whole thing with Antoinette is Lestat's "clap back" to Louis' shame about their vampirism, which he sees as a personal slight to him because he's Louis' maker. He's deliberately doing this in away that it betrays his own words. So, Lestat is not being hypocritical here, he's being, "Look, how silly it is when we go along with your words of sparing them according to the standard that pleases us?" He's trying to make a point. This is not unlike when Lestat uses "my love" on Antoinette after Louis calling him "my love" while presenting him the poisoned blood that would kill him in E07. I mean, they're both so petty to each other, and unfortunately they're literally this Taylor Swift meme:
• And as we know, unfortunately Lestat will keep using Antoinette to push Louis' buttons until Louis is numb enough to feel hurt about it 😞
• "So, I can fuck whoever I want?" And since it's basically about making a point, Lestat of course has never considered a possibility of Louis fucking anyone else. Because he assumes Louis would be mad and drain Antoinette himself soon. He's that genius (sarcasm).
• "sanctioned infidelity" Louis really has a way with bis words 😂
• Ordinance 4118. Segregating Storyville.
• Lestat standing right in front of the stage while Antoinette is performing 🤮. They're so overtly public. Rubbing on something he can't do with Louis as a couple.
• Oh Jacob's acting during the game and talking to the Alderman. He looks hot as well 🧎♀️
• Ngl since I'm not American and I don't know much about American history, I opened Google for these lines.
• God, after the incident with Benny, there's definitely no contact between Louis and his family because he only knows it's the twins' birthday from Jonah.
• "Do you remember the old days?" Oh, Louis is giving that whole montage of their youth for Lestat. Something they don't have together as a couple. They're so nasty to each other woo!
• Oh Lestat takes umbridge because Louis is praising Jonah's uniform, later saying it's Louis' "type"
• I believe here Lestat is honest he stops the thing with Antoinette because he sees his "clap back" doesn't work like it should be. Tries to wave the white flag of surrender to Louis by offering a night out together the next day, but unfortunately Louis chooses to go to his family. Interesting though, 2022 Louis definitely notices Lestat's disappointment at that time, judging from that shot of Lestat freezing there. Again, this goes with my assumption that 2022 Louis tries to understand Lestat better.
• In hindsight, it's interesting Louis himself offers the opening for Daniel to question his recollection by saying the mud on Lestat's boots could come from anywhere, because later he knows for sure Lestat was there in the bayou watching. During my first watch, I thought Daniel catching his error, but maybe Louis deliberately wants Daniel to catch it? Which makes his words in S2 trailer "I want to remember" more sense. He's been prepping Daniel to see through his errors.
• The eye contact with Armand there. So brief, but what a clue. Is he lingering for Jonah's bit or for the testing memory bit?
• That transition to the girls calling him a ghost. So clever.
• Six months of no contact.
• And Lestat claps back to the Jonah thing by bringing those soldiers to their home. Again, he's genius like that.
• "I think Bricks is onto us". Ofc Bricks knows (because like Antoinette says, they talk gossips), but making Lestat notices this from her after weeks of Lestat and Antoinette being so public is interesting. Idk where I'm going with this, but interesting.
• I still really like with how they did Lestat's face during this big showing of power. Kudos for special effects team
• And I watch you drain the dog and eat rats" Yes yes, Lestat did this whole plan to drive Louis to kill in rage but it ends up with him so close to eat properly yet still draining animals. I believe he'd be less mad if Louis drinks from Jonah there. Anyway, first proof of anything Lestat has planned never ends well (except the Come to Me record in E06, but that's not a long game) and yet we have people saying he's like Hannibal 🤷♀️
• Louis really makes him speechless there. Kudos.
• I'm glad to see Lestat supporting Louis here in front of Fenwick and Anderson, and rejects Fenwick's suggestion to make him the face of Louis' business, because I was ready to slap him if he said yes during my first watch.
• And of course Lestat calls it a "hobby" because he never takes Louis' human business seriously and he is unable to understand why his bussiness is important to Louis. The scene where Louis' making the No Whites sign proves it.
• So, Louis' remaining business after this riot in Clairborne is hats and grocery stores. And like Louis says, the money isn't that much. That and the remaining Azalea money (if he saved them, exclusing the amount he's been giving to his family as deputy in charge of their trust) are what funding his life and Claudia during Lestat is away in E06 and their whole trip in Europe in S2. That, if those shops survives the Depression.
• The directing during the killing of Fenwick is so 🤌
• Hanging him at the St. Louis church is too on the nose, Louis, but like Lestat, I really appreciate the style. (I wonder how they got the permit to hang it there. I zoomed this shot a lot back then to identify the church, so I'm pretty sure that's the real church not a replica)
• That zoom in on Louis by the window 🤌
• I went to Google and apparently the Ordinance didn't get time to be applied because it's challanged immediately by a mixed raced Madam, and Storyville ended up being closed due to military pressure. Read here. In the show though, it's applied, so logically it makes the existing racial tension even worse, and there's a big possibility of a race riot to happen with or without Louis' action.
• He really says finding Claudia is a "before you and after you" type of moment 😭
• God, all the things Louis puts on the saving of Claudia. Azalea, Storyville, his people. *spoiler* It's no wonder unable to save Claudia in the end is very traumatic for him.
Summary:
So, we're here in episode 3 aka the essay of all consequences when Louis self-regulates too much. Side effects of his eating disorder we've seen in this episode: "barely energy to hold up a book", lacking libido, easier to become bitey when he is aroused (i mean, it took longer for Claudia in E04 but since she's way younger, she lost herself immediately unlike Louis), healing way later than it should be (a scar that should only take minutes to heal probably takes one good night sleep), unable to control rage hence he's prone to uncontrolled outburst.
If in the last episode, we see how bad Loustat handling a conflict, this time we see their ugly habit of "settling a score" when they're mad with each other instead of communicating like normal people. And when one of them let themselves vulnerable enough to communicate, the other doesn't respond well and instead worsen the other's insecurity (however, we can't blame Louis not noticing Lestat's moment vulnerability because unlike Louis who vocalize his insecurity and gets laughed at, Lestat conceals what he feels and why)
Anyway, can't wait to see this gets even worse 😂😭
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