Last week’s episode of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches left things in a precarious position for Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) and Ciprien (Tongayi Chirisa) but a somewhat triumphant one for Lasher (Jack Huston). After seeing Rowan put on the emerald-jeweled necklace belonging to all of the Mayfair designees — and thus connecting to her to Lasher — Carlotta (Beth Grant) attempted to end things once and for all by burning it all down, literally. Her efforts were thwarted, however, and as the episode ended Lasher let Carlotta know in no uncertain terms that he had indeed won.
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In this week’s episode, “The Thrall”, Lasher makes his next moves in regard to Rowan and the Mayfair family. Speaking with ComicBook.com, Huston discussed what Lasher is up to in the episode, speaking about his motivations — particularly noting the seductive quality of what he’s offering Rowan with his deal with the devil.
Warning: spoilers for this week’s episode of Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches, “The Thrall”, beyond this point.
In the episode, Rowan and Ciprien find themselves seemingly in a loop of sorts before it slowly becomes apparent that Lasher is running the show. While Lasher is manipulating the situation with his own motivations in mind, Huston explained that part of the situation is that he wants Rowan to realize her own power as well.
“Episode five is that moment where you realize, or what he wants Rowan to realize, is as much as he is this entity that is able to control things and do things everything is actually through her. He wants her to understand that it’s her choice and he wants to empower her, but that’s not without the subtle manipulation that comes with that, with Lasher,” Huston said. “I think Lasher does have ulterior motives, but don’t we all? I think he’s a very complex character because his existence is purely based on the witch who he’s attached to, so he doesn’t exist without them, and they aren’t the all being, all powerful, which Rowan especially doesn’t know at this point, without him. What he’s saying is, if we work together, we’re capable of anything, but also without me… it’s that famous old saying, it’s very warm under the wing of the devil.”
Huston also explained that while Lasher’s manipulations may seem sinister, there’s more to it than that — and he sees the character as being more complex than merely good or evil. He sees him as very human.
“It’s funny. Yeah, sure, it could appear evil, it could appear sinister, but on the other side of it, there could be something quite empowering about it form a perspective of ‘you are special, and don’t you want to exist as this special person, as this entity? Can’t I make you? With my help, you could be all powerful. You don’t even know how strong you could be without me, but we have to understand each other and realize that we work together and there’s beauty to this.’” Huston said. “The way I look at it, or looked at it when we were working, was it’s a relationship. It’s this co-dependent relationship and there’s this love triangle that’s going on. One’s the bad boy, the other one’s the good guy and sometimes you want a little bit of nasty.”
He continued, “Sometimes you want a bit of rough, sometimes you want the good guy to take care of it, and that’s the hard part, who is going to win out overall? I didn’t personally read the novel before the show because I wanted to experience every episode as it came to me clearheaded and understanding that an adaptation is a very difficult thing to do when you’re turning it into a series That artistic license should be given free rein, and that’s such a beautiful collaboration. I really loved Lasher. I found that he actually, for all of him being a spirit, I found him very human.”
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC and AMC+.
