So, Why Did Armand Carve an “A” into Louis’ Chest in ‘The Vampire Lestat’?

The Vampire Lestat couldn’t get out the door without lobbing another mystery, or seven, at fans to be answered in an as-yet-unannounced Season 4 of Interview with the Vampire. For example, why the heck did Armand (Assad Zaman) carve an “A” into Louis’ (Jacob Anderson) chest in the finale?

Instead of shrugging off Armand’s bloody doodle with an “okay crazy,” let’s try to figure this one out. Or at least, since objective truth objectively does not exist on this show, come up with some fun options. Does a self-described infinite void need a motivation? Why do any of us do anything?

At the end of The Vampire Lestat, we learn that Armand has been not so much biding his time as carefully manipulating Louis into the circumstances (and into a butcher shop) that will get him to apologize for throwing him into a wall and wasting almost a century in an ultimately loveless companionship. Chill and normal! Bless his immortal heart. Armand apologizes to Louis’ decapitated head first, of course, but then demands that Louis admit the ways he’s wronged him as well. Louis, who is historically prone to guilt, eventually looks inward and come up with both an apology and an earnest observation about their doomed relationship that satisfies Armand for now.

But before he leaves the butcher shop, the gremlin takes his vampire nail and marks Louis with three quick cuts in the shape of an A for Armand.

It’s a signature, though not a signature move that we were aware of before from the gremlin. “A” is Armand’s initial at least three times over. He believes he was born Arun, and went by the name Amadeo for some time in Italy. There are a lot of “A” names on this show, when you think about it. There’s also Akasha (Sheila Atim), Antoinette (Maura Grace Athari), Alex (Seamus Patterson), Amel (TBD), and of course Alice (TBD)…

What the “A” means according to the cast of The Vampire Lestat

“Ask Rolin [Jones] and Hannah [Moscovitch],” said Zaman when, in a Q&A with Vulture, Sam Reid asked why he thought Armand did that, pointing out that it was above Louis’ heart. “But I have been thinking about it,” Zaman continued. “I think it’s a reminder to us as an audience: No matter how much you think Armand might be moved or healing, there’s something disconnected in terms of empathy or social etiquette, even. He thinks in some twisted way that this might be a romantic gesture.”

Anderson also pointed out that the placement is similar to Lestat’s scars wolf scars and kind of levels them, in a way. Reid mentioned that there was already an element of BDSM to Louis and Armand’s relationship. It’s really interesting food for thought, and in a weird way kind of low stakes. He’s fine!

Zaman doubled down: “It’s romantic! Normal people would see it as spiteful and psychotic. I think it’s going to heal, and Armand probably knows it’s going to heal but he wants Louis to take away something like, Don’t forget this beautiful morning we’ve had at the butcher shop!“

“The closest we came to was that it was like a scarlet letter,” Anderson told TV Insider in a post-mortem interview, possibly referencing the Vulture conversation where he made a similar observation. “Armand was shaming Louis. He was marking him for Lestat because he knows he’s going to run to Lestat next.”

Shaming him for what, exactly? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the titular symbol stands for adultery. However, Armand made it crystal clear that monogamy was not at the top of his concerns. So, while it is a scarlet letter it is not that scarlet letter. Unless he was just slut-shaming Louis in general. Rude, but these vampires love to do it. So he’s signing Louis like a greeting card to send back to Lestat. Or…

More reasons why Armand might have put that “A” there:

• He’s a fan of the film Easy A. (Which is, of course, a Scarlet Letter adaptation.)
• The “Armends” were graded and Louis got top marks. Congrats!
• Louis de Pointe du Lac will return in Avengers: Doomsday.
• It’s actually a four, for IWTV season 4! We have received your coded message, Armand.
• He was trying to draw a five-pointed star and got distracted.
• Armand thinks Louis is aces! He’s the ace up his sleeve. It’s his ace origin story.
• He’s teaching Lestat how to read.
• The show wants us to know what Armand’s handwriting looks like when a similar “A” shows up carved, maybe even tattooed, on Daniel another character in the future…
• He’s a fan of the long-running Freeform series Pretty Little Liars. Remember Freeform?
• Didn’t he tell you about his Zorro fantasy?
• Anarchy!
• It’s not an A. It’s a Kryptonian glyph that means smell ya later!!
• It’s an inside joke. Remember the “writing numbers on each other’s backs and pretending to guess wrong” thing? I BET!
• Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably…
• It’s a treasure map and the treasure is love <3

Jones did imply that the “A” would stick around for a little while in The Vampire Lestat: After Dark finale special. Makes sense, as both Louis and Lestat have neck scars in the immediate aftermath of the Molloys sneak attack beheading on The Vampire Lestat. So you can imagine that the “A” is there at least long enough for Lestat to see it, and for them to have a conversation about it. Hey, maybe that’s the so-called real reason! To force Loustat to discuss Armand at least one more time. Wouldn’t you? And while we’re asking questions, why was Armand airing his dirty laundry on a livestream to Eastern Europe? That’s the weirder move, if you ask me. They didn’t need to know all of that.

The important thing is that the “A” is not forever. Probably. Vampire wounds heal, right? We know they do. How can Louis move on with his life, as Armand promised was the goal, with a… you know what? Let’s cross our fingers and hope for season 4.

(featured image: AMC)

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