The Generational Setup – Talamasca: The Secret Order Episode 1 Review
I enjoyed watching episode one of Talamasca, but two things are throwing me: Nicholas Denton’s American accent and the background location actually being the UK, and not New York.
Meet the Talamasca’s Newest Recruit: Guy Anatole
Which makes sense, seeing as Guy’s personal search for his mother “Anna Leamas” will take him to London, and Helen needs Guy in London as her man in the field to investigate the Leader of the Revenant Vampire Army Jasper and their issues concerning the London Motherhouse.
I had the opportunity to attend NYCC this year as press for my main blog, so some of these details were shared with me during the Talamasca Press Conference with the actors Nicholas Denton, William Fichtner, the showrunners, and also during the huge Anne Rice Immortal Universe panel held on the main stage.
So while watching, I couldn’t help but feel like the artistic choice of continually blurring the exterior shots and the extreme close-up shot of an upward pan of the NY landmark “The Dakota” hotel was just covering up the fact that the character Guy was already in London when he wasn’t supposed to be.
The disorientation of the situation concerning the Talamasca reveal and their constant meddling in his life, alongside the effect of the drugs he’s taking (despite the voices still bleeding through the pill-popping) could hint at his chaotic mind state, thus reflected in “blurry” scenes.
It actually does work either way, but I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched Helen walk past blurry subway signs, or a close-up of her face in front of a “Not New York” landmark with an extreme blur filter on the background.
The Return of Daniel Molloy and the Immortal Universe Crossovers
Despite my light jokes, I really am enjoying this plot – and by enjoyment, I mean it’s clear that Guy never had a chance of escaping the Talamasca’s grasp.
Let’s take Daniel Molloy’s involvement, for example. He’s now officially a vampire in Talamasca: the Secret Order.
Connecting Talamasca to Interview with the Vampire Season 3
Baby gurl Daniel is on his book tour and reveling in the success of his interview book with Louis. After Raglan’s intervention and the tampering done to his computer, Daniel is given “the original” San Francisco tapes, and Real Rashid gives Daniel Armand’s play notes from Theatre des Vampires via their agent, the Vampire Samuel Beckett.
Daniel already has a failing memory due to Armand, and like Louis, can’t really trust the fallacy of his own memory. Despite this knowledge, Daniel knows for damn sure he is unfamiliar with that list of names that includes Guy’s mother, and does his own digging to find out who exactly she is.
The Amsterdam Motherhouse of the Talamasca is responsible for providing those recordings to Daniel, just as Amsterdam is responsible for helping Ciprien Grieve gain control of the New Orleans Motherhouse after Albrecht Escher’s betrayal. They also gain control of all but one of Lasher/St. Ashlar’s Taltos children after the Saint’s death in The Mayfair Witches Season 2.
(If you couldn’t tell, I have watched season two of both Interview with the Vampire and The Mayfair Witches, despite not writing about it on this blog yet. It is in a long backlog of half-written and mostly typed posts I need to upload and release when I get the time.)
Talamasca: TSO How Does the Show Connect to the Mayfair Witches?
The show opens with a basis of the Talamasca lore being drawn from IWTV and Lives of the Mayfair Witches, on top of Anne Rice herself having writing credits on this show before her death.
The executive producer and showrunner at the press conference mentioned The Mayfair Witches’ having a heavy influence on the creation of this show, and I believe one of the producers from that show (Tom Williams) was involved with the production of the Talamasca tv show.
The Secret Order’s Role in The Mayfair Witches
As The Mayfair Witches has already established the rivalry and cut-throat nature of interactions between Talamasca Motherhouses (NOLA vs Amsterdam) and their agents’ nature to abandon “the mission” due to personal greed (Albrecht’s decades long partnership with Julien Mayfair, Ciprien Grieve’s personal relationship with Rowan Mayfair, the Talamasca agent killed by Lasher for getting too close to one of “his” witches – forgot his name) it seems like all agents are hired as expendable, “useful idiots” like Guy is referred to in the show.
Through unnatural (or natural and common, depending on your view) circumstances that arise due to the nature of their profession working with the supernatural, the less experienced agents usually take advantage of a higher officer’s f*ck up and use it as blackmail leverage for a promotion.
After all, that is how the Talamasca controls the supernatural beings that are far too powerful to willfully do their bidding without external factors at play.
Guy even learns as much from the Vampire Burton, as the only reason he does the Talamasca’s bidding is because he was excommunicated from his community. For Sam to do the organization’s bidding and in the IWTV current timeline being employed as a (solo) masked DJ, he must have been in a similar bind as Burton.
If Lestat’s storyline from the novels carries over, Lestat has a somewhat self-imposed exile from the immortal community due to his association with Louis, public enemy number one in the Vamp community due to his book with Daniel.
(We see a glimpse of this in the last moments of IWTV S2)
If all of the vampires and Talamasca agents are simply “doing as they are told” while rebelling in more subtle ways (Burton analyzing Guy’s power level and potential usefulness as an agent despite flat out stating Guy is being used but pointing him in the right direction via “a dream” or) like Daniel writing the book and getting his story via the cloud but having to include the bit about Anna Leamas while warning Guy that it was a trap.
Then again, Guy had no chance against the Talamasca from the very beginning.
An image of his mother branded with their mark (which looks fake like a bad photoshop, btw) in the exact location they need Guy to go, after financing his education and leaving him just destitute and curious enough that he would accept their offer for a job out of necessity – was a setup for betrayal from the very beginning.
But, tell me your thoughts: How many more potential agents do you think the Talamasca has waiting in the wings to take the place of their fallen ones?
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❂ Stories From the New World – “This world is a shadow of the real one”. ❂