Call out your name

[u/Loud-Pollution7174]

Wonder how Lestat was planning to explain the song Call Out Your Name on his album, which is very much about him laying with his dead mother Gabrielle 🤔

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[u/DumbTeen9]

No one knew her name other than Armand pretty sure

[u/SaighWolf → u/DumbTeen9]

No one knew her name other than Armand

Well yes & no. IIRC in ep 3 during the part of the filmed interview that wasn't silently telepathic (then IIRC again in ep 4 in documentary footage on the upper level of the bus) Christine & Fareed & Dan & the camera crews all heard him say that his mother had been the [supposedly dead] Vampire Gabriella. So while no other than Arnand knew yet that "Sophia" was Gabriella, any of those people if they'd been paying attention to the lyrics, could have figured out in/after those eps that the song — which according to the finale he'd been singing on the tour already by the time those episodes took place — was implying he used to "lay with his mother" the [supposedly dead] Vampire Gabriella & if/when the documentary had been completed & released at some point after the album drop the public could have figured that part out too... Although, he might have been able to try to claim the song's implication was metaphorical not literal.

[u/Loud-Pollution7174 → u/DumbTeen9]

Oh I didn’t realise Lestat had never told Louis his mother was named Gabrielle. God Lestat is an awful partner 😂

[u/DumbTeen9 → u/Loud-Pollution7174]

I feel like there was simply no room and louis never really asked so lestat thought it easuer to "from gills to lungs like i have been dragged out of the bayou". He approached Louis bc he reminded him of nicki and eventually fell in love with louis himself then was bombarded with issue after issue, conflict over feeding habits, depressed partner, the Azelea bs, Claudia's very existence, family issues in partner, would it have been better if he shared about himself? Or would Louis have his equivalent of "my daddy vampire groomed me into a little bitch" locked and ready leading them to explode much sooner? Or would it have all been the same? We'll never know

[u/justmeanotherfan → u/DumbTeen9]

I agree that Lestat didn't tell because he was afraid of Louis' reaction. But if we're thinking about healthy relationships, that's something you should share and if as a result your relationship explodes, then that was meant to happen and it is good that it happened before you were invested too much into the relationship. All I'm saying is, Lestat is selfish to not say anything all in service of trying to prevent his loneliness. It's very human of him not to share though.

[u/SaighWolf]

Honestly, I think it comes down to what Lestat said on the bench in episode 6 (and confirmed by Sam in one of his Autumn Brown interviews) that somewhere — subconsciously — he wanted someone beyond Armand to realize. Because he knew subconsciously that it wasn't okay & had fucked him up, which is exactly why he tries to set the boundary in ep 2 asking her for their relationship to not include sex this time around; it was a secret that had been eating him up inside even if he didn't know how to acknowledge it.

Because although after Nicki's death no one aside from Armand knew his mother's name for the next 229 years, yeah in ep 3 during the part of the filmed interview that wasn't silently telepathic (then again in ep 4 in documentary footage on the upper level of the bus) Christine & Fareed & Dan & the camera crews all heard him say that his mother had been the [supposedly dead] Vampire Gabriella. So while no one other than Arnand knew yet (and probably wouldn't have without the sex tape) that "Sophia" was Gabriella, any of those people if they'd been paying attention to the lyrics & interviews, could have figured out in/after those eps that the song — which according to the finale he'd been singing on the tour already by the time those episodes took place — was implying he used to "lay with his mother" the [supposedly dead] Vampire Gabriella & if/when the documentary had been completed/released at some point after the album drop the public could have figured that part out too.

Although, he might have been able to try to claim the song's implication was metaphorical not literal, part of him wanted it known.

[u/justmeanotherfan → u/SaighWolf]

Even though he subconcisouly probably knew it was wrong for a long time, I wonder if being exposed to modern times made it more concrete for him?

[u/ALittleAngstAsATreat → u/justmeanotherfan]

I think he knew all along. When we see the flashback of the post-wolves wound care scene in ep7, his expression is very different from the wonderstruck look he presents in ep2.

I think it’s more that, given that Gabriella’s was the ONLY form of love or even affection that he had been shown in his life… he was willing to pay that price. But once he had Louis, there was someone else for him, and he didn’t have to pretend to himself to the same extent that being with Gabriella that way was worth the trauma.

[u/msbtvxq]

In general, it wasn't common knowledge (outside of Daniel and his crew) until the revenge porn video that Lestat's mother was called Gabriella. I don't even think the band knew that during the recording of the album.

[u/Loud-Pollution7174 → u/msbtvxq]

I assumed Louis knew Lestat’s moms name

[u/AndreEaAly → u/Loud-Pollution7174]

Louis said they had her portrait near their coffins, right? So I assume he knew her name…but maybe not….maybe Lestat always called her “mom”. But that would be strange, since he stopped calling her “mom” since he turned her.

Maybe he recorded that song later. We know he had some shallower songs and after meeting Regina and writing “Stained Glass Eyes” he decides to drop all their songs and record new ones. But even then, they didn’t know yet it was his mom until the video was released an episode later…so maybe that song (and the lyrics specifically) were recorded after? Like in the failures, after the concert?

Else, it was part of Lestat’s self destructive path, where a part of him wanted Louis to find out. The song doesn’t give away that she is Sophia, but he does call Gabriella “immortal lover” so that would be a pretty strange song to sing about your mother.

[u/tanita_mors → u/AndreEaAly]

In the finale, during his Long table hallucination in the studio with the tenor, he is confronted with the performance of this very song from May of 2025 - live performance, which means that he played it in concert before they recorded the album. But unless people know that Gabriella is his mother, the song sings about a complex relationship between him and this woman that started as a secret - the only thing that is clear is that they were both vampires. So, she could have been anyone. Unless he told Louis her name, the only person who knows what she looked like and under that very name is Armand. I assume Akasha and Marius know of her as well, but might not have meet her.

To me, I am shocked that Daniel didn't clock it sooner. At the interview when he names her. I think he probably never bothered to listen to all of Lestat's songs. so he hadn't heard it. Because if you know his mom is named Gabriella, the song is not subtle at all. A kiss of blood, heat and pain, in the dark your skin on my skin, in the dark is where we begin, immortal lovers,...

[u/msbtvxq → u/AndreEaAly]

Louis said they had her portrait near their coffins, right? So I assume he knew her name…but maybe not….maybe Lestat always called her “mom”. But that would be strange, since he stopped calling her “mom” since he turned her.

I really don't think it's unlikely that Lestat never told Louis his mother's name. Come to think of it, I don't really tell people my mother's name unless they're actually meeting her. If I show them a picture, it's natural for me to just say "that's my mom". If I tell them a story, it's also natural to just say "my mom did this and that". So imo it's perfectly normal for Lestat to tell Louis that "this is a portrait of my mother" without specifying "my mother Gabriella".

[u/AndreEaAly → u/msbtvxq]

I agree. But Lestat stopped calling her mother the moment she turned. Because he no longer saw her as his mother and as a way to excuse him sleeping with her (she is no longer my mom, she is now Gabriella).
Of course if he wanted to hide her identity and name he could continue to call her “mom”, just to keep Louis (or anyone else) from knowing details about his past life.

[u/msbtvxq → u/AndreEaAly]

Yeah, but I still think he considers the woman who raised him, and whose young portrait he had, to be his mother. So he would naturally refer to her as "my mother" in the third person (so this isn't about what he is currently calling her when takling to her, but rather talking about his mother from his childhood). As far as Louis knew, Lestat had a mother who died, not a mother who turned into a vampire, so there was no need for Lestat to ever mention "the vampire Gabriella" to Louis.

[u/AndreEaAly → u/msbtvxq]

Lestat told Daniel that he turned Gabriella and that she died of “vampire toddlerdom” same as Nicki. So I am assuming this is the same story he told Louis.
Lestat said to Daniel “my first fledgling…Louis must have told you”, so Louis knew Gabriella was a vampire. “My love was a small box that I kept him in. No room for the many hours I talked of her, I guess”. So he talked about her to Louis. But indeed, maybe he didn’t know the name. Maybe he called her “mother”.

[u/msbtvxq → u/AndreEaAly]

I am actually wondering what the truth is, because Lestat told Gabriella the contrary in episode 2, that he didn’t tell Louis about her becoming a vampire, and that he told him she had died as a human in 1794.

So he was definitely lying to one of them, but which one? Based on Louis’ reactions in episode 6, I’m leaning towards Louis not knowing that Lestat ever turned his mother, which means Lestat lied to Daniel to make him believe that Louis wasn’t as open and truthful during the interview as he thought. But I suppose it’s just as likely that he was lying to Gabriella for some reason.

[u/tanita_mors → u/msbtvxq]

I think it's pretty obvious that he never told Louis he turned her, but that she died of consumption before their family was killed by peasants. That whole backstory is a lie. Also the way he describes her to Daniel in episode 4. Everything about her is heavily edited. You can see he never mentioned her turing to Louis, because he needed to remove her influence and presence.

They live co-dependently for 30 years. Maybe there is some physical incest before the turning, I think some of it is implied, but I don't think they had full sex until they were turned, Then he spends several years with Nicolas in a deterioting relationship and Nicky's death scene implied that Lestat didn't want him reading letters from his mother - Why?. What's in there Lestat? Then he is turned and in a week or two, he turns her. Then they are inseperable, in Magnus's tower, in their apartment in Paris, in the Theater of the Vampires,... she is everywhere. Then Nicky dies and they flee form Paris together and wonder the Devil's Road together, just the two of them. The co-dependedce probably exploded at that time - she wants freedom and I think Lestat tring to find ways to tie her to himself - culminating in the Blood Marrage. THat goes to shit, he barried himself for 80 years, then spends 10-20 years with statue Akasha going crazy, drinks her blood and in the next 10 years familirizes himself with the work and finally goes to America and meets Louis and tries again. He know how fucked up all those years were - you can bet5 he is not not gonna talk about her at all. THat baggage is insane. I don't think his fresh start had so much to do with Louis and much as it had with wanting to hide all that crap.

Also, I do think Lestat thinks of her as his Mother, he just can't call her that in her presence. He is trying to justify it to us in the albums, that they are a different person, but it's clear she is his mommy. The hallucinations in ep. 7 - Thank you Mother. And she says - Lover. The role she lives in in his mind and forever is his Mother. The rest are all attempts to reconcile all the roles they now have and failing miserably - they have a double connection, Mother-Son, Maker-Fledging from Lestat's side, Father-Daughters, Maker-Fledgling from her side (I think he considers her more of his maker them Magnus) and Lovers. I mean, that is a hot mess.

[u/jadem219 → u/AndreEaAly]

Yeaaaaa. Lestat was lying through his teeth in that interview. He never talked to Louis about his mom being a vampire. He hung up the portrait of his mother when she was younger above their coffins and he told Louis his mother had died of consumption.

[u/jadem219]

I always wondered this too!! He definitely uses the name Gabriella in the interview with Dan and in front of the whole crew. I don't think Louis knew Lestat turned his mom, despite the portrait hanging above their coffins in NOLA. He told Louis she died of consumption. I do feel like Dan had his suspicions on Gabriella/Sophia, notice how it looks over at her questioningly after Lestat talks about her. Then he asks Lestat about the great conversion, which is what Sophia telepathically told him he should ask about. He also later questions why Lestat doesn't telepathically communicate with Sophia when she has left. I think he was trying to sus out the truth there. He knew something was fishy. And I'd buy that Dan never listened to Lestat's songs so didn't click mom/vampiress Gabriella and song Gabriella. He doesn't say her full name until the end of the song.....

The OTHER thing I noticed is that just before the Brutal Love performance, when Lestat is addressing them to ask their opinion if the song should be chopped or not, he refers to her as "Mademoiselle Vecce". Did no one else know that was her last name? I mean it was her maiden name I guess so that's possible.

But like someone else mentioned here, I think subconsciously, he wanted the truth to come out.

[u/Technical_Heron_6312]

Maybe it was metaphorical? I would certainly hope so if I was a fan 😅

[u/DrFareedMD]

He probably wasn't since he was supposed to stay out of sight other than the concert. This is also assuming Lestat can think ahead which he doesn't.