#1x3 Thomas analysis

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV Musings - LDPDL & Nosferatu 2024

We all know & love AMC!IWTV's canon that the Unholy Family saw Nosferatu in 1922, and busted a gut rotflol over Hollywood's vampire.

But if Louis saw Nosferatu 2024, in the wake of Lestat in NOLA, and esp. Armand in Paris/SanFran/Dubai & Claudia's death, I reckon he'd be triggered on several levels. Ofc, one doesn't need to see Nos24 thru Louis' eyes/POV to recognize all the themes about the predatory nature of vampiric seduction, let alone the devastating ways vampires affect/abuse/take advantage/wreak havoc on human vulnerabilities like religious mania depression, mental illness, and suicidal ideation. But let's go for it!

The Closeted (Isolation, Repression, & Mental Illness)

In IWTV, Louis was a closeted gay man who had to grow up always hiding who he really was, for fear of punishment by his uber-Catholic family as well as society at large. Homosexuality was not only considered a mental illness, subject to extreme forms "treatment" including solitary confinement in a sanatorium (mental asylum--the same place his mentally ill brother Paul had already been sent that made him "worse than before"); but also a crime punishable by incarceration or even death.

I've long said that "Rashid"/Armand's treatment of Louis esp. in Dubai was more like a nurse than a servant--the kind of nurse that hates their job (being "stuck on suicide watch") & whose bedside manner effing SUCKS, having no patience for the mentally ill & no capacity to properly take care of them; just making things worse.

In Nosferatu, Ellen was always "touched" as a child, having the 2nd sight that allowed her to always know ahead of time what her Xmas gifts were, and know the date her mom would die. Her mean father thought she was a freak and had her closeted away & isolated from society, the family embarrassment. Even after she got married, Thomas' BFF Friedrich barely tolerated Ellen, and when her seizures started he had her tied & doped & corseted up--all the worst ways of caring for her that likely did more harm than good. Ellen even called him out on it, knowing Friedrich tied her up cuz he hated having to deal with her in the first place "I tire of discussing her; can we please talk about something else; the entire household centers around her fairy whims!," and got sick of her being in his house anymore.

Book & Hearth's video analysis of Ellen's mental illness in Nosferatu says this:

So, Louis/Ellen are both people stigmatized by Victorian society for things that were never their fault (homosexuality, mental illness, etc), either socially closeted/isolated (Louis) or spatially closeted/isolated (Ellen).

(Lestat kept whining in 1x3 & 2x7 about how the worst thing a vampire can feel is loneliness--as if that's not awful for humans to feel, too. 🙄 Esp. since vamps are immortal, they've got all the time in the world for someone to eventually show up & fall in love with them; unlike humans, who grow old & decrepit & die in no time flat.)

We see the extreme lengths Louis & Ellen would go to, to alleviate their loneliness & desperation for companionship, and their desire to feel seen & close to someone--even if that someone was the Devil himself: a vampire.

"Come to me" - Loustat & Orllen

Both IWTV & Nosferatu use Come to Me. It's a motif as old as Dracula itself, so it's par for the course, really.

"Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!" --Lucy Westenra, Dracula

But both shows play around with it in interesting ways.

In IWTV, Lestat repeatedly chants C2M/Viens a moi to lure Louis to him. In 1x1 Louis actually runs away, fleeing to the church & prayed to God to help/kill him; only for the Devil/Lestat to show up & "give you death" by making him a vampire. But in 1x6, Lestat uses the song "Come to Me" to "get a rise out of" Louis, who swims the Mississippi to take his estranged husband back. But during the Trial, Lestat lied on Lou and accused him of saying C2M to "accost" Les instead--the human seducing the vampire. Meanwhile, Lou still has Les's master recording of C2M in 2022, which he plays for Daniel in Dubai--again proving that Les was lying on Lou & weaponized C2M against him.

Nosferatu24 plays the human-calling/seducing-the-vampire straight, where Ellen literally summoned Orlock. Lonely, she'd prayed to God for a companion, "a spirit of comfort," but accidentally roused the Nosferatu from his sleep as she kept repeating "Come to me."

Ellen accidentally called Orlock, and Lestat hunted Louis down--but both characters are still guilt-ridden by their open-armed acceptance of their vampire lovers, once they eventually realize that the person they thought would be their comfort/safety had only taken advantage of their loneliness, desperation & ignorance about their situation and the type of creature these vamps really were.

Louis' relationship with Armand doesn't 1:1 fit, since they never use C2M per se, but Armand DOES approach Louis similarly to Les, as the charismatic vampire who stalked Lou before finally confronting him, luring him & Claudia into the Theatre to recruit/convert them to his crazy AF coven/cult; and then using a series of lies, manipulations & brainwashes to take advantage of Louis' trauma post-Banishment to keep Lou as his (un)willing companion for 77yrs after killing his daughters.

The Death of 2 Daughters

Orlock's murder of Friedrich's 2 daughters is a chilling scene. The Nosferatu puts a spell on Friedrich while he's sleeping, his hand casting a spectral shadow over Friedrich's face to keep him pinned in his bed and trapped in his nightmares. Meanwhile, his 2 daughters & wife are screaming for him to help them, but Friedrich can't move or wake up, impotently clutching the gun in his hand as his wife & kids are slaughtered bu Orlock, just down the hall from him.

Orlock has both the little girls in his clutches, and throws them down like sacks of potatoes once he's done draining them, as their mother Anna helplessly watches, screaming, before he kills her, too.

This is painfully similar to how Armand instructed the coven to fog the minds of Claudia, Madz & Louis whenever they tried defending themselves, on top of their ankles being slashed so they couldn't move, escape, or fight back--esp. not once Lou was dragged away kicking & screaming to be buried alive, ensuring that he'd be helpless to do anything to save his 2 daughters from being murdered. The last thing he ever heard Claudia say was her screaming his name.

(Since this is 2024, Louis wouldn't yet be privy to the details Lestat reveals in S3 (2026). But if Lestat's also watching Nos24, he knows even more about Claudia's final moments than Lou does--that feeling of helplessness is only amplified by the fact that she's HIS literal Blood Child--he'd've felt her die the same way Louis felt Madz die. Drained after using his Mind Gift to save Louis with Banishment, Lestat's too weak to save Claudia as she burns. The last thing Claudia ever saw was her father just standing there, uselessly watching Armand & the coven burn her to death.)

Sexual Inhibitions, Awakenings, Stigmas, Salvation

Louis is often mocked/derided in the fandom as a d**kmatized Pick Me who only thinks with his loins to stay with toxic AF Lestat's "considerable considerables;" after years of closeted sexual repression.

"Do you remember the best you ever had? So imagine that flowing inside your veins again. Now multiply it by miles, to the rings of Saturn and back...." "He had a way about him, those first years, Lestat. Preternaturally charming, occasionally thoughtful. He was my murderer, my mentor, my lover, and my maker--all of those things at once. He had taken what he called un petit coup, the Little Drink. Not enough to kill me, but just enough to keep him fit. It takes an enormous amount of restraint for us, the Little Drink. For a human, experiencing it for the first time, it was…unsettling. And not for the physical toll on my body, which was significant, but for the feelings of intimacy it awoke within me."

Lestat's seduction of Louis was a sexual revelation/awakening, but it also spooked TF outta Louis. He fled Lestat's house in a gay panic, "vowing never to return." I also discussed how Lestat's C2M in 1x1 was dubcon/noncon, and mirrored Lestat in Paul's head, making both him AND Louis feel unclean.

She sank on her knees on the floor in an agony of abasement. Pulling her beautiful hair over her face, as the leper of old his mantle, she wailed out. “Unclean! Unclean! Even the Almighty shuns my polluted flesh! I must bear this mark of shame upon my forehead until the Judgement Day.” -- Mina Harker, Dracula

(Lou was bored to dangit death with Armand in SanFran (the gay mecca where he'd been enjoying his 2nd wind/try at a gay sexual awakening), mocking Armand for having been forced into ascetic celibacy by the Children of Satan, who made him forget he had a working peen (Lou was obvs mad that Armand wasn't using said peen with Lou--the Bed Death Truthers were right all along, LOL).)

Meanwhile, Ellen was outright called a "sinner" by her father when he found her lying naked after a (Orlock-induced) fit/orgasm.

Orlock stayed with Ellen for years, an incubus visiting her in her dreams & having sex with her (the best she'd ever had, as she later throws in Thomas' face, "you could never please me like he could"); but also throwing her into fits/seizures--"at first it was sweet...and then it turned to torture!"

In the end, LDPDL & Ellen use their sexual prowess to distract their vampire husbands long enough for their Murder Plots to be accomplished--a la Mina Harker in Dracula.

Louis is literally instructed by Claudia to seduce Lestat, keeping him distracted with sex while Claudia plans how to poison & kill him. Louis is afraid to fall back into the "well with no bottom" and "lose myself in him," and Claudia promises to be his salvation--pulling him out in time to strike the killing blow to Lestat.

Ellen is another femme fatale who welcomes Orlock into their marriage bed, where she forcefully holds him close as he notices the sun rising; keeping him distracted with sex long enough for the sunlight to cook him to death as she hemorrhages under him. Her suicide is her salvation/martyrdom, as she frees herself (and the whole town) from Orlock's clutches.

(Again, Armand doesn't have as neat of a 1:1 fit, since Louis doesn't distract him with sex to defeat him. But Louis still plays up his seemingly helpless submission to get Armand to allow the interview to continue, as if Daniel isn't threat, and as if Louis doesn't suspect Armand of foul play--at least not until the end of 2x5 ofc. But Armand constantly wrests control back, and by the end of the interview in 2x8 he ALMOST wins. Louis doesn't defeat Armand or save himself at all here--DANIEL defeats Armand & saves Louis instead, showing the leagues of difference between the threat Armand posed vs Lestat. )

[misunderstoodnotevil]

Series 1, episode 3

To begin with, I find it interesting how Pamuk is said to be a Turkish diplomat instead of an Ottoman one (a quick research showed that in Western Europe they did use Ottomans and Turkish alike) and it's quite amusing (to me) that an actor of Greek descent played the Turkish character.

Let's talk about the episode now, This is where you actually understand that there's not going to be any consistent characterisation of Thomas here. Who has been the one to go against authority so far (shown as a bad thing because how dare he?)? O'Brien and Thomas. Who's the one sneaking behind Gwen's back to bring her typewriter in the kitchen and rat her to Carson and Hughes? O'Brien. Who tries to take Gwen's side? William! What does Thomas reply to the perfectly logical "Why shouldn't Gwen have a typewriter if she wants one?". "Mind your own business." Yes, that's the same Thomas who two episodes previously was proclaiming he didn't want to be a footman any more. We learn servants have to right to privacy, courtesy of Ms. Hughes. Anna, Mr. Bates and William come as the good guys. Everyone else? Not so much. Of course, some are forgiven because they are the good guys. I won't even start with O'Brien's "What's wrong with being in service?" and what follows. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a villain just as much as the next girl, but -just like Thomas- this is the woman who was humiliated by Cora and Ms. Hughes in the previous episode, who claimed there was no real friendship among anyone "in service". Is this her way of taking her revenge on someone of a lower status than her? As a writer, I always try to find the motivation behind every person's actions. And "yes, she/he is the big bad meanie" sometimes doesn't cut it.

[Matthew is quite taken by Mary. Edith's attempts to seduce him are fruitless. Mary doesn't know which suitor to choose from. Except Matthew. Clearly, he's beneath her.]

Enter Kemal Pamuk. An attaché at the Turkish embassy (read Ottoman Embassy). He's a son of one of the sultan's ministers and he's in England for the Albanian talks. The first time Mary sees him it's like she's never seen a man before. We first see him in a hunting party, where

Thomas carries the tray of food. Dogs seem to want some. If Thomas could get away with it, he'd prefer to sit down and eat the food with the dogs, I think.

* "Is that one mine?" Once again, from the reaction of the participants the audience gets to conclusions; 1. Pamuk is a handsome dude. 2. Mary likes him. 3. Carson wonders if it's alright for "Pamuk to be Thomas"'. 4. Gwen thinks he doesn't look like any Turkish (I wonder how many Turks she knows). 5. Anna thinks he's beautiful. And Thomas knows every little thing that crosses their minds.

[So if you - the viewer- don't think Pamuk is handsome there's something wrong with you. (In later episodes, they try to convince the viewer Lavinia is not beautiful, which, in a way, is even funnier, IMO. But that's for another time)]

Robert calls Pamuk "a treat for the ladies" and "gorgeous Turk". Objectification at its finest (kidding).

In case you wonder why Pamuk doesn't have a valet, it is because his valet remained in London because he doesn't know English, In the meantime, in Pamuk's English there is not the slightest accent. Like, not even a little to show that the guy is a foreigner. But his valet doesn't know English. Why, but because Thomas has to become his valet.

Robert hopes Thomas doesn't mind "helping" Pamuk. "Oh, you know Thomas, milord. He has to have a grumble, but I gather he cheered up when he saw the gentleman.' For one thing, what gentleman? For another, what the bloody hell? "He cheered up when he saw the gentleman"? By now, we, they and the whole world knows Thomas is homosexual. In the closet, but everyone knows. (Except Daisy, because she's what? 13?)

Now, can I say that Thomas is an idiot? Why, yes I can. And Bates' witty remark foreshadows the next scene. Because why not? The epitome of amazing writing!

So, while we are all here wondering what "Turkish culture" is (eunuchs protecting the Sultan's harem? the taboo of homosexuality? the unquestionable eroticism of the hammams?) and why Thomas seems to be so interested in it, Pamuk leads him on, because Pamuk as an aristocrat is a clever bastard and Thomas as the servant (and anachronistically, let's call him gay), is an idiot, who just has to make a move at him so Pamuk can blackmails him to take him to Mary's room and have the story progress. Or it could be that Thomas' experience is solely the Duke and he's as subtle as a thirsty elephant.

As I wrote when I started this, Thomas' sexuality twice now, puts at risk the inhabitants of Downton Abbey. His sexuality is shown as something that leaves him weak and easily taken advantage of. And because it's Thomas (the de facto antagonist by now), it's not exactly a good thing, is it?

"That will teach you to believe what the English say about foreigners. I ought to report you." Pamuk pretended he didn't know how to fix his bowtie, we don't know why he left his valet in London, he was friendly enough and held small talk with Thomas about "Turkish culture". It's as if he [gasp] knew about Thomas' sexuality from before.

This is again where I want to mention that while Thomas is Pamuk’s valet and attempts to flirt with him he seems smaller in heigh than Pamuk, but when he’s advance is denied and is humiliated by Pamuk, he’s in his actual height and taller than Pamuk, despite the fact he seems blank and numb.

Later on, as Robert talks about Mary and her suitors he claims "no one's sensible at her age. Nor should they be. That's our role." I think we can assume Thomas and Mary are roughly the same age. But doesn't the same apply to him too?

Anyway, the only redeeming part in his involvement in Pamuk's seduction of Mary is that he saw her following Pamuk out of the room. If even that. Then again, it had to happen so Mary's story to go forward. Does it change anything for Thomas? He's one of the three people involved. Pamuk dies, Mary has to face the consequences of it for the next two seasons (at least). What about Thomas? What does he learn from this? To stay away from male aristocrats, and not make a move at men until he's certain his affection is reciprocated? Stay away from men in general?

When Anna helped Mary moving the body she considered who they could ask for help. Bates is out of the question, for obvious reasons and "William can't keep a secret and Thomas wouldn't try to." I'm almost looking forward to snarky for no reason Thomas we'll have plenty in the future. Because so far, this second hand embarrassment is nerve breaking.

And, then it's Thomas of course who finds Pamuk dead. Which is followed by some comments about his character. Later on, Robert discusses with Carson about how the maids took the news of Pamuk's death and he says [and I quote] "Don't let the footmen be too coarse in front of them. Thomas likes to show off, but we must have a care for feminine sensibilities. They are finer and more fragile than our own." I am thinking back and try to remember if there was ever any positive comment about Thomas. The answer is no.

 I have to be honest here, the first time, some 9 years ago this was the episode I stopped watching Downton Abbey, which is a decision I now regret because I missed watching and being part of the discussion when it was new and exciting. Alas...

*

"I'll be asking the same question later, so you better have an answer ready."

While Thomas smirks at Ms. O'Brien when she says that, it does make me wonder the kind of relationship they have. "you better have an answer ready" seems to be having an "or else" missing there. So when he does share the story with her the fact that "he doesn't want to get in trouble over that" means that he wants to keep it a secret, both his own involvement and the whole dark affair. Right?

PS I applaud Rob James-Collier for giving an extraordinary depth (and beauty) in a so far one dimensional character.

PS 2 As my lack of knowledge is vast & my horizons are narrow (quoting Jarvis Cocker is a favourite pastime) if anyone can provide info as to what Thomas was babbling about Turkish culture, I will appreciate it.