Yeah…I watched it. I finished the season. And It honestly took me this long to digest it all. And I still haven’t figured out WTF the writers were trying to do. I know the book is slllloooooooowwww. I’ve praised the show for streamlining the material. But.
But this is just a hard turn into Law & Order: Witches. Readers don’t really come to Anne Rice for punchy action scenes. They come for slow dread. A molded velvet throw being pulled away to fully reveal the horror beneath. I have utterly no idea why they thought the entire idea of “transferring” Lasher to Tessa, then having her kidnapped by witch hunters would do. This episode, the last two really, are so utterly at odds with the feel of the rest of the show that I still don’t know what to make of it.
Also the entire rivalry between Ciprien and Lasher just…It bodes badly for the future of this story. It honestly has made me question the decision to merge Michael and Aaron into Ciprien entirely. I was skeptical to begin with but…
Spoilers!!
Lasher loved Michael from the beginning because he would be his father. Not that I liked the incest angle, but it was a MASSIVE plot point, and the reveal that Michael was a Mayfair was stunning to me as a reader. That sense of Michael and Rowan fighting Lasher and the legacy, and yet entirely playing into it was a major, major part of the appeal of the book. And the writers of the show stripped that away.
Likewise Aaron is probably one of my favorite characters in all of Rice’s work. Later in the witches books where the Talamasca kills him I was completely devastated and horrified. It also was a major plot point, and it’s just casually thrown out. I am pretty infuriated about these changes.
The Talamasca’s policy of watch and observe, but don’t interfere is also one the deep questions of Rice’s work, one many characters consider through multiple books. Even Lestat inserts an opinion in Tale of the Body Thief.
Months later, here I am, trying to put this review together while also finishing my read-through of The Witching Hour and this entire episode sticks out to me like the CW took over for the season one finale. Just…wtf??