I HAVE TO SAY…

Below is a slightly edited version of the podcast episode. You can listen to the full episode above, by clicking play, or listening wherever you get your podcasts.

Today, I have to say…Interview with The Vampire just might be my favorite tv show of all time.

Back before the second season came out, I heard about the show and started watching on AMC+, and since then, it’s become part of my personality.

I rewatched Interview With The Vampire Season 1 to prepare myself for the new season and this is Part 2 of the Interview With The Vampire Season 1 recap.

This is intended to be a recap and discussion, with some light analysis of the episodes.

We’ll be picking up starting with episode 5 and ending with final thoughts on the season as a whole. If you want to hear about the first four episodes, go back to Part 1 and then come back!

Even though I’ve seen the series before, I will try my best not to let what I know happens in the future cloud what my thoughts are given the context of the episodes. 

My goal is to keep this as linear as possible, and fair warning, if you haven’t seen already, this is going to be longer than my usual episodes and posts. I’ve tried really hard to condense it but so much goes on in this show. There’s a lot of information in the little details and a lot of foreshadowing…so…yeah.

Episode 5

Episode 5 opens with Louis drinking from Rashid and Daniel reading the diary filled with Claudia’s victims’ final words. Rashid argues Daniel’s work is no different than Claudia’s diary and after he publishes the book, vampires in the world will come after Louis. Louis excuses Rashid for his unwelcomed opinion, and Daniel continues reading the diaries while Louis continues feeding from Rashid, who is receiving it with a smile on his face. And that smile…the last person that Louis fed on didn’t have a smile the way that Rashid did, so it makes you question what the nature of their relationship is. 

It seems like Rashid is an assistant and he’s always around doing what Louis asks. He even himself says he serves a god, which you would insinuate to mean Louis, because we’ve seen him be in service to Louis, but there are also other times where he talks about Louis with adoration. We don’t know much about him…except that he’s not from Dubai.

Louis taunts Daniel, reading Daniel’s thoughts and answering his questions out loud. He even offers Daniel a taste of Rashid, which is ironic considering his previous industry, but Rashid doesn’t find their back and forth funny, emphasizing that he “cares for Louis more than Louis cares for himself” and that’s why he lets Louis feed from him, which is what I was talking about earlier. Like…the way he talks about Louis is…makes it feel like there is more going on there.

Louis confirms the death of Charlie ended Claudia’s thread to humanity and while Louis thought she was on a hunger strike, Lestat eventually enters her room and reveals she isn’t in her coffin and that she’s been sneaking out to feed alone when they’re busy.

Lestat then reads from her diary, which Louis was against at first, never wanting to be the bad guy, but once Lestat hands it over and walks away, Louis reads some of it too.

They corner Claudia in her room after one of her kills and Lestat holds Claudia against the closet to interrogate her. But he holds her by her neck. She looks at Louis for help and Louis looks away crossing his arms, not stepping in.

Eventually they get the truth out and they realize there’s a big problem on their hands, especially because a storm hits and a shitton of bodies starts washing up.

At this point it’s Prohibition, so Lestat and Louis meet with Tom in a speakeasy because Tom is asking them to donate to his campaign for Congress. He looks a little grayer and older, contrasting Lestat and Louis who look the same.

The conversation becomes about the bodies that wash up. Lestat and Louis are hoping for six but the answer is fifty six and Tom reveals that each corpse was missing a body part and tells them that police might start knocking on their door.

Louis suspects Louis set them up. Lestat and Louis agree that one of them takes the Chief of Police, who is also in the speakeasy, and one of them will take Tom…I don’t know if it’s to wipe their memory or suck them in long enough to stop time, because I don’t really know how their powers work, but they work in sync, making their moves and walking out as the world stops, though Lestat makes sure to leave an X on Tom’s cheek before he goes.

The distraction Tom set up worked because at home there are deputies there. Claudia is amused and drunk and Louis and Lestat come up with excuses while Claudia tries to clean up her room. 

After the police leave, Louis and Lestat scold Claudia, who talks about how much alcohol her current victim had in them which is why she’s drunk. Lestat tells Louis to fix her since he wanted her and says, “Do you remember what our life was like  before her? How happy we were?” Louis says, “they weren’t happy”, which I’d have to agree with Louis here and it leads to Claudia breaking down, asking “Who am I going to love?” 

She wants a companion but she’s not human and she looks like a child. She says, “How you gonna fix it huh? Which one of you is gonna fuck me!”

And I just…feel so so bad for her! She’s literally cursed in a toxic home, like she almost escaped her previous toxic home through a fire, which is tragic enough as it is. And thought she was going to have a new family, which turns out to be just as toxic in different ways. She just wants to be chosen and feel wanted. And she wants to be loved and for someone to see her as she is.

Claudia admits that she’s been trying to turn vampires to make more and asks Lestat to make her one. Lestat is cruel, saying she’s a mistake, and Louis defends Claudia like he would his family, telling Lestat to “shut the fuck up” and Claudia asks Louis why he puts up with Lestat when Lestat treats them like shit. It comes out that she’s been following Lestat and has another lover and she tells Louis, “He’s gotten tired of us Daddy Lou. The housewife and the mistake.”

Lestat admits he’s been entertaining himself with Antionette and says once again he will kill her soon, which we’ve heard that before. 

Claudia packs up and leaves asking Louis, “Why didn’t you take me to a hospital? Why’d you bring me home?” and Louis excuses, “You was barely breathin’” and Claudia argues, “But I was breathin’.” And she has a point…Louis thought he was saving her life, but he really damned her and for what? Any reason he has is a selfish one.

In the interview Louis admits they made her out of remorse and selfishness and Daniel mocks the idea that she wasn’t held enough in between her ritualistic murders. Louis excuses it, offering perspective because she spent every night for half a decade with no friends locked in a cycle puberty. And Daniel basically says it doesn’t take away from what she did…and yeah…he has a point.

Louis and Lestat have to be more careful now that Claudia is gone and the bodies have washed up. Lestat wants to dismantle her room, but Louis is sure she will be back. He tries to call out in her mind, but she blocked him out. Louis spends all his time reading and ignoring his duties as the housewife Claudia claimed him to be. He and Lestat argue more, and Louis enjoys provoking Lestat because he blames him for why Claudia left, though at the time he doesn’t also blame himself. He’s also to blame for why she’s upset. At least partially.

Meanwhile, Claudia is travelling to different universities. That’s where she meets her first vampire. Things start off nice, but then she learns he had been following her, and he insists on teaching her manners and how to be a nice young lady and things go south.

Daniel finds that the pages have been ripped out, which he says may be noble but leads him to wonder what else is missing or what else is full of shit in Louis’s story. He tauntingly asks Louis to recite it from memory, but it’s clear that what’s missing was Claudia being taken advantage of and so, Louis gets pissed off and starts making Daniel’s hand shake uncontrollable, reminding him who has the upper hand. Rashid stops Louis and apologizes on Louis’s behalf. Daniel slaps Louis for the disrespect and they continue recording…which, I don’t think Daniel is a coward, ‘cause slapping a vampire is bold.

And the fact that Louis just like…didn’t do anything. He didn’t react. He kinda just stared him down. I feel like part of him was like, Yeah I deserved that, but he would never say that because of his ego. But he also didn’t fight him about it either…that’s interesting…

But Louis is still trying to find Claudia through newspaper reports of killings and Lestat is annoyed about Louis ignoring him when he stayed and he says that he’s Louis’s type, which is lowkey weird that he’s jealous of someone he knows Louis isn’t interested in in that way. Like Lestat insists on being the center of attention at all times.

And then Grace calls to meet with Louis and tells Louis she’s leaving with her family, accusing him of not being her Louis, which technically she’s not wrong, and shows Louis the tombstone she set up, declaring that he died in 1930, saying she prayed about what to do but God didn’t talk back so she felt like that was the answer. 

This part actually made me cry, just because of how drastically their relationship changed…would there ever be a world where Louis would tell Grace he was a vampire and she’d accept it? Like, I wonder why he didn’t tell her ‘cause I don’t think there’s any rules about that…and that is his sister and they’ve been through a lot together. And there was a fondness that was there between them before everything happened.

But then I also wonder if the problem was Lestat. Lestat’s possessiveness over Louis, and Lestat not wanting him to deal with human affairs.  And towards the end, Grace didn’t even like Lestat that much. So, I wonder if it was Lestat that was the issue of why it never crossed Louis’s mind to tell her.

At the same time though, I think Louis is used to not having to confide in his sister and if he did tell her, it would bring up questions about his sexuality. 

But it also could be because he considers himself a coward. In the first episode, he calls himself a coward, so it could just be he was too scared to face whatever her reaction was.

But Claudia is watching the whole thing and she realizes they made Claudia to be Louis’s sister, so seven years after she left, Claudia goes home and apologizes to them for putting them in the position where they have to hide. Lestat doesn’t accept, but Claudia says she read a lot about vampires and wants to leave to find more and that she came back for Louis. 

Lestat tells them the vampires out there are vicious then mocks her saying that she already knows that because he senses something different about her, I guess. And when he says that…it’s just so insensitive. And I’m wondering if I’m sensitive and just taking it this way and he’s just matter of fact about things or if he means for it to come out petty.

But Claudia responds, “Oh yeah. Keep him scared.” referring to Louis, and adds, “That’s his way (as in Lestat), but I think Lestat is the one who’s scared.” 

And we know Lestat doesn’t want Louis to leave because through some twisted romance, in some twisted way he loves Louis. And we know this because he always folds to make Louis happy.

And I guess Lestat is actually petty because eventually he says, “How did Charlie taste? Like the love you’ll never really know?”

They go back and forth a little more, but Claudia pleads with Louis to leave and to go with her and says she can’t live without him.

Lestat is frustrated that Louis is even considering it and Lestat gets angry yelling because he can’t believe that Louis would leave him after seeing her for a minute when Lestat has been there the entire time and been ignored while Louis’s been in his bubble.

Claudia tells Louis to leave and meet a vampire worthy of his love and that sets Lestat off. He attacks Claudia. Louis pulls her off and Louis and Lestat fight all over the house, punching and throwing each other into walls. 

Claudia is screaming and it seems like things have calmed down. Lestat says, “He fought his nature and controlled his temper a million times” as he drags a bloodied and battered Louis by his neck through the street.

Claudia tries to stop him. Says to leave Louis alone because “it’s her that he wants.”

Lestat says, “it was never her” and tells Louis, “I chose you.” 

Maybe he was talking about turning him in general. It’s possible he meant “I chose you” romantically, but also, I chose you to be my companion.  I chose you to have the Dark Gift. 

And then he feeds from Louis, asserting dominance, and they fly high in the air together. Lestat is pained, telling Louis he has waited for Louis to love him as he loves Louis and wants Louis to just admit that he will never love him.

And Louis tells him to let him go. 

And Lestat says, “Anything for you,” and drops him a thousand feet to the ground.

He lands, with broken bones, blackened eyes and bruises all over his face. And Claudia runs to him, crying. 

The crazy thing is, Louis never said he didn’t love Lestat.

Episode 6

In Episode 6 Louis was injured really bad and needed months to heal like Lestat had mentioned to Claudia before when he was talking about how vampires can still get hurt. Louis had nightmares of falling and Claudia would bring him rats to feed on and she nursed him back to health.

In the interview, Daniel questions how Lestat could fly, which Louis says it was more like floating, calling it “the cloud gift” and saying ancient ones can do it.

People like to say Louis did know Lestat could do that because the first time they hooked up he lifted them on the ground, but I’m sure Louis was too distracted by what they were doing to notice or care about that and also a few inches off the ground is different than flying above buildings.

In the interview, they bring in a doctor to give Daniel his medication, and the amazing journalist that Daniel is, he tries to figure out who the doctor is. Daniel even throws out a name, but the doctor denies it and reminds him he’s not there. Rashid emphasizes that the doctor is off the record. And I think this whole interaction just shows 1) how much power Louis has in the world, because Daniel ties the doctor to another power figure of the world and 2) how much secrecy is involved with working with Louis, which can make you think about what he isn’t actually telling you.

Daniel and Louis play their game, with Louis asking if Daniel dreams of their first meeting. After a joke, Daniel asks if Louis can fly, which Louis says he can’t, and Daniel questions how he never knew Lestat could fly after 20 years together and why Lestat wouldn’t tell him and why Lestat would hide that from him in the first place.

Louis guesses that if Lestat showed all of his power, Louis would never feel like his equal and their relationship would suffer.

Daniel says, “He only beat me one time, Officer. Classic Stockholm,” to describe Louis which…Daniel does not get off of Lestat’s neck and their dysfunctional, toxic relationship and I can’t blame him because though I have grown to love these characters and their relationship…I’m also like…why are you guys like this?

Louis responds, “Are we the sum of our worst moments? Can we be forgiven if we do not forgive others ourselves?” pretty much saying he’s accepted what’s happened, but also maybe that he’s still seeking forgiveness for what he’s done.

So, Lestat disappeared and Claudia takes the role of housewife, cleaning up the house and rehabilitating Louis. Lestat keeps calling the place, but no one answers, so he comes with a gift and gets rejected. Louis even throws the coffin out of the window.

Time passes, Louis heals physically, and he and Claudia are walking around talking and Lestat pulls up in a Rolls Royce and gifts it to Louis, informing them he’s back in town permanently. He says he didn’t know what possessed him that night and Claudia says three years ago. Which three years of trying to get him back is crazy but what is time to a vampire?

Lestat insists he’s changed and wants to prove it, declaring, “I’m nothing without you. I’m nothing without both of you. If you want me to go away just say so. I’ll obey you. I’ll leave your life forever.”

And Louis says nothing, so Lestat says, “The silence is cruel. You were never cruel, Louis.”

But Louis also never tells him to go away because he can’t and a part of him probably doesn’t want him to. And I’m sure deep down Lestat knows that and that’s why he keeps trying to get his attention.

Claudia throws away the car keys and scratches the car and waits for Louis to follow her and eventually after a long glance at Lestat, he does.

For six more years, Lestat keeps sending gifts, which continued to be ignored or burned, which again, ten years of begging is insane, but in 1937, Lestat sent Louis a vinyl titled “Come to Me” which he said to Louis the night he was turned and he wrote and sang on the record himself. 

But also on that record was Antoinette, the singer that he had a side affair with. Louis says, “The audacity of it all, matched with its sincerity.” Louis was touched and offended, because only Lestat, a toxic king, would think to put the singer he is sleeping with on a record he dedicates to Louis. And only Louis, also a toxic king, would be so responsive to that that he locates Lestat and bursts through the door. But we know that Louis is motivated into action by rage and despair. 

His despair led him to confessing his sins, his rage led him to his first kill out of spite instead of hunger, and it led him to his first extravagant kill and display. His despair led him into a burning building to save a girl he heard calling out for help, and now his despair mixed with rage led him back to Lestat, when those were the two things that attracted Lestat to him in the first place. I mean his despair is what made him a vampire in the first place too.

Louis yells, “ Six years of begging you think a song is going to get a rise out of me?” Which, duh he thought that and it worked so *laughs*. 

Lestat is in bed with Antoinette and Louis breaks the vinyl on the floor saying, “Write me a song and put your lover’s voice on it. What the fuck is wrong with your head?” 

And what the fuck is wrong with yours Louis that that is what brought you back. But Lestat is turned on, especially after hearing Louis swam to find him and they kick Antoinette out of her own house, which she needs to stand up too lowkey, cause that’s crazy work. And Louis tells Lestat “he hates him” and Lestat says, “As you should.” Toxic kings. And they have sex.

Daniel says, “You took Lestat back.” And Louis explains, “It’s the vampire bond. There is no human equivalent.” Antoinette cries while smoking a cigarette while she watches them outside her house in the window.

Claudia and Louis give Lestat rules for accepting him back which includes killing Antoinette, recognizing Claudia as their sister, not their daughter, and no lies, including exaggerations and omissions. So you can imagine this is just gonna go so well!

But Lestat agrees and opens the floor for questions. Louis asks if he aided in Paul’s death which is interesting because there were times I wondered the same thing…and there was never an inkling on the show that it was something Louis thought about. And I think that’s also just really great writing because it’s a way to answer that question in theory without doubt. Lestat says sincerely, “No. I would never hurt your brother.”

And Claudia asks who made him and Lestat answers for the first time, saying Magnus kidnapped him, left him in a room of bodies all looking like Lestat. Fed from him against his will and turned him into a vampire before walking into fire and leaving Lestat with money and having to figure things out on his own. He says that he didn’t want to be a vampire, but he has “a capacity for enduring” which is what he did and it’s why he doesn’t like to be abandoned. Which is super tragic. They all have really horrible stories of being turned into vampires. I haven’t read the books so I don’t know, but in my opinion it sounds like Magnus…whole goal was to create a vampire eventually to leave his legacy to, kind of.  But that’s without any context. 

So, Lestat’s story really touches Louis, gives him some perspective, and Claudia, who sees how easy it was for Lestat to pull Louis in, reminds Lestat that he needs to kill Antoinette.

During this time, people are scared of them and leaving voodoo dolls in circles of salt outside of their home and notes telling them to go back to the dark place they came from.

But they continue enduring and Louis tries to get Claudia and Lestat to warm up to each other. They sit together in the park chatting and Lestat admits he feels like Louis looks down on his “bodies needs for humans” and Louis has an air of superiority when he says they don’t need humans to survive since they can drink animal’s blood. But Claudia agrees with Lestat and says she feels tolerated sometimes, so Louis decides to start hunting humans again. 

And I do think Louis is being self-righteous about his choice to hunt animals, especially when you think about the industry he was in. 

Lestat says life’s purpose is pleasure and that’s what Louis sold in his former life, so when it comes to Louis, it’s interesting how his goal in this life, as a vampire, isn’t pleasure anymore. How he’s okay with…just okay. But actually, I guess it makes sense because he was the supplier of pleasure, and you’re not supposed to get high off of your own supply. And if you think about Louis’s life before being a vampire, did he do anything that was really pleasurable? Besides earn money, which I think was pleasurable for him…I mean he had to hide who he was. He wasn’t accepting of his own sexuality before Lestat. And he had his family, but even sometimes they got into it. I don’t know if he actually felt like he was living a pleasurable, happy life before being a vampire.

But I also think Louis probably never felt like he was hurting or killing anyone with the career or the industry he was in because he was so far removed from his clients. He didn’t have to see anyone drink themselves to death, or OD, and there’s an idea that everyone in his brothel wanted to be there, but we don’t know how true that is and if it was true for every woman or just some of them because he never thinks about it or talks about it in that way. 

But as a vampire, killing is so personal. You have to get close to them. You have to bite them hard enough to pierce their skin and suck from them, and you can see and probably feel life leave their body. So I’m guessing that’s why Louis had a hard time being a vampire that drinks from humans, ‘cause it’s more personal and he considered himself weak and a coward. It’s easier to stomach it when you’re not close to it, vs. when you’re actually the one inflicting the end of someone’s life.

But also, Louis is in denial about who he is in some ways because it doesn’t really matter if you’re the one who pushes the knife in or if you hand someone the knife, either way you’re still responsible.

Louis asks Claudia to try harder with Lestat, always defending Lestat. Louis says that Lestat is trying and he taught her piano and chess.

Claudia still thinks that Lestat is lying about things though. and Lestat comes back with a finger and a newspaper article announcing Antoinette’s passing, but that doesn’t sway Claudia at all and she even criticizes Louis saying, “One sob story and you’re back to eating from his hands.” Which…yeah…

Lestat complains that Claudia is impossible. This is happening one on one. But Louis tells Claudia everyone is making changes. Louis is drinking blood, Lestat ended it with the singer, and he asks what Claudia is doing. 

She says, “Enduring.” which is honestly fair. ‘Cause when you think about it, seeing someone that you care about get sucked back into a relationship that ended with him bloody and battered and with someone that lies to him consistently and can be argued took advantage, takes advantage of him. And that’s not to say that Louis is innocent because he’s not. But in this first season specifically, it’s clear who has the upper hand in their whole relationship.

And sometimes Louis sees it himself. In some points he says Louis and Lestat’s are equals, but in other times he recognizes that Lestat has the upper hand because of his race, because he’s an older vampire, because he can come across as straight if he wanted. In this time period, and in this season, but also just when it comes to the knowledge that Lestat has about being a vampire specifically, Lestat has more power in their relationship. Like it’s not an equal power dynamic. I can understand why Claudia is sick of being in the whole thing.

Louis in the interview says that Claudia and Lestat were more alike than they think, “finding weakness and reveling in the exploitation of it” and that they enjoyed making Louis “bear witness to it.”

Louis, though, is the same, he just does it in a different way. We see throughout the interview the games he plays with Daniel poking fun at him, sometimes playfully, sometimes tauntingly. He throws Daniel’s words from his book back in his face and retaliates when he feels slighted. He pokes fun at him for being in a gay bar and about his sexuality, and it’s unclear of Daniel’s sexuality, but he still likes to tease him and play with him about it.

Claudia asks questions about Lestat’s first love insincerely and Lestat talks down to Claudia’s chess playing skills, which is kind of funny because he taught her and you can only be as good as your teacher, right? Is that what the saying is? But Claudia starts referring to Lestat as her massa and anytime she talks about him as massa, it’s hilarious to me. I crack up every time.

After their back and forth, Lestat decides to hunt alone because he’s frustrated with Claudia  and when he leaves Louis tells Claudia, “You’re ugly when you act like that,” and Claudia says, “Better ugly than blind.” and…yeah…she keeps trying to wake Louis up and call out his behavior to his face and Louis is just not responsive to what she’s saying. He’s so blinded by how it feels for Lestat and by Lestat that he just isn’t hearing what she’s saying…or maybe he hears it but just doesn’t care.

Lestat vents about Claudia to Antoinette, worried that she’ll turn Louis against him and Antoinette argues that he doesn’t need either of them. Through their conversation, we learn Lestat turned Antoinette and Lestat still goes to her when he wants have fun and relax, so he didn’t kill her like he said he did, they just caught off her finger.. And then, Antoinette and Lestat tell each other that they love each other. 

Claudia and Louis overhear, and Louis isn’t surprised because he says, “Lestat is a brat who doesn’t like to be told what to do” and he figures Lestat wanted them to know, which is why he didn’t go that far out of town. He figures that Lestat only said that he loved Antoinette because he figured they would be watching and he wanted to twist the knife of the situation because he’s fucked up, but Louis refuses to bring it up to him, that he knows, because he doesn’t believe that bringing it up would change anything. Lestat’s going to do what he’s going to do.

But it’s unclear in the episodes if Lestat did it on purpose or not, that’s just what Louis thinks and how he feels. And there’s no way of knowing if that is true or if Lestat really did love Antoinette. Lestat is pretty petty so I can see a world in which he did this all to mess with him, but you never know.

Louis was resigned about the whole thing. Numb, but accepting of it, because he doesn’t know what else he would do. For whatever reason, well I guess it’s the vampire bond, he doesn’t envision himself leaving Lestat. Claudia wants to leave though, and tries to talk Louis into it. She has a train she wants to sneak onto but Louis makes excuses for why he can’t, saying he doesn’t want to hold her back, but of course, the truth is probably that he doesn’t want to leave Lestat.

Claudia says, “When he hurts you again, and he will, come find me.” and Louis rattles off the cities she’s been talking about going to because he remembers. They have a tearful goodbye, and Louis assures her she doesn’t need him anymore and she’ll be fine.

And so Claudia goes, hiding where the suitcases and pets are.

Louis interrupts the story, I think in this context to brace himself for what happens next, and teases Daniel about how Daniel asked Louis to make him a vampire at this point in the story the last time they did this. Louis would make him one now if he asked, which Rashid overhears and he doesn’t seem to appreciate in my opinion.

So back in the story, Louis mentions how he was ready to die again but he didn’t want to taint Claudia’s escape the way Paul tainted Grace’s wedding night, so he continued enduring and finds Lestat sitting and waiting for him, only to reveal that Claudia is there too.

We see Lestat break onto the train and kill to make it to the back of it. He takes a head with him, terrorizing Claudia by saying “Tickets please,” and moves the mouth like it’s a puppet and tells her that Louis needs her.

Claudia says that Louis picked him and Lestat disagrees, saying he’s too weak to pick anyone. And that stands out to me because does Lestat not see that he plays a role in this in some ways? And that’s not to say that Lestat is solely responsible for Louis’s happiness, but it’s disingenuous to think finding Antoinette didn’t play a role in how Louis is feeling, though it is unclear if Lestat actually knows that Louis knows about Antoinette. But like he doesn’t feel any guilt about that? Or wonder if Louis found out and that’s why his attitude has changed?

But in my unprofessional opinion, Louis had also symptoms of depression. There are times where he has casual suicidal ideation and is just not happy. Like this isn’t the first time where he enters a state where he’s just like…disconnected.

Lestat mentions the motorbike, from when Claudia was taken advantage of and tells her that he can read the minds of other vampires, no matter how far they are if he really tries, and that he hears Bruce thinking about her. Says something bad could happen again and Louis would never forgive himself and he threatens Claudia, basically telling her he will kill her if she doesn’t come back, so she has to go home. 

They’re back to enduring. Claudia and Lestat play chess and through their minds, Claudia tells Louis that they’re slaves and she will free them. 

This scene is my favorite scene this season because while Claudia and Lestat are playing chess, Claudia is explaining why she can successfully kill and defeat Lestat with Louis in his mind.

Louis says it’s impossible to kill Lestat, making excuses for why it can’t be done. but as Lestat says in the first episode, “only the impossible can do the impossible.”  A few more moves in the chess game and Claudia puts Lestat in check and Lestat realizes that she won. 

But Claudia doesn’t finish the game or make the final move. She says she’s tired and she says goodnight before walking up the stairs, which is such a badass move because Lestat rarely loses in this game with her and he’s very competitive. So her refusing to engage with him and finish the game riles him up and she knows that it will.

Lestat gets angrier and angrier at the slights, and starts crashing out, yelling in French and knocking the pieces off the board. I’m sure in Lestat’s mind she kind of disrespected him twice. First, by beating him and second, not even officially finishing the game to beat him. It’s just very petty of Claudia and I think that’s really what annoys Lestat too.

And it also shows us as an audience that Claudia can think ahead of Lestat. She is capable of defeating him. And that maybe before she was trying to play as nice as she could, possibly for Louis. But now she’s fed up and doesn’t want to play the game anymore. She’s done.

Louis in the interview doesn’t get a reaction from Daniel, when he declared that they were going to kill Lestat. He even says it twice just to hear him say something and Daniel doesn’t say anything because he fell asleep. Louis says that the medication hit him and asks Rashid to put a cover over him so he can be warm with his dreaming.

And Daniel dreams about the night in San Francisco where he met Louis. Louis flirts and pays for a drink and they talk a little. Daniel mentions he’s a journalist and as they talk he wants to interview Louis. Rashid comes over and stares Daniel down before talking to Louis and leaving, showing the audience that he and Rashid have met before and that Daniel just doesn’t remember that. 

And then Daniel wakes up with a cover on.

Episode 7

In episode 7, Daniel keeps looking at Rashid in a way he didn’t before, as if he’s met him before. But then refocuses on the interview asking how they plan to kill Lestat when he’s immortal.

Louis answers, starvation, drinking the blood of the dead, fire, and decapitation are ways to kill someone who is immortal…but the question is if they really could do it. 

Things between Claudia, Louis, and him have returned to normal with everyone enduring. Claudia sleeps back in the same chamber and Louis says they were “locked in hatred because he would have it no other way.”

A sick man comes to the house uninvited to drop off a letter saying that he believes angels live there, but before he states his purpose, Lestat kills him. Claudia reads the letter he brought, saying the man wanted to know their secret. 

But Lestat is concerned that two people came in one night and people have been leaving piles of dolls, bibles, and letters, which he believes will turn into torches and pitchforks, so they need to get out of town.

Claudia and Louis talk telepathically, with Louis wanting to know Claudia’s plan and Claudia refusing to say because Louis loves him and he can’t pretend not to. The audio team for the series added a nice touch, as we hear Louis and Lestat’s hearts beating together in sync while Claudia says they breath in sync after an hour together. Claudia says her plan only works if Louis leans into it, and Louis is concerned he’ll lose himself, but Claudia says she’ll pull him back out.

During Christmas time, Claudia makes fun of Lestat as usual, this time about his music choice on the piano, but ends up talking about how they would look weak running just because a sick man came to the door. And Lestat assures her it’s wisdom.

Then she says they should throw a party before they leave town, “mocking the city, like how they mock their victims.” Claudia and Lestat begin playing the piano beautifully together and Louis becomes their page turner, showing us that things could be different if Claudia and Lestat were on the same page. It could be beautiful.

But Lestat ends up rejecting the party idea this time.

The conversation comes up again and again with Claudia painting a picture of what this event could be and how to make it happen, and Lestat comes up with the idea of starving themselves beforehand, pretty much sold to the idea. Which Louis didn’t think he would be, and I wonder if it’s because he didn’t want him to be.

So they visit Tom to take over the Mardi Gras celebration. He’s creeped out that they hadn’t aged and laughs in their face when Lestat says he wants to be Raj, a coveted spot in the celebration, but they end up bribing him and getting their way.

Because of the exclusivity of needing a brick of gold to get in, people show up. Claudia and Louis hand out flowers of their targets who they seduce with the idea of knowing the secret of immortality. 

And Louis wishes he didn’t fast because he wasn’t thinking clearly, “stuck between wanting Lestat dead and wanting him all to himself” …but it’s not the fast in my eyes…because Louis had been refalling in love with Lestat this entire time. But Lestat doesn’t approach Louis after their shared glance and Louis knows something is off.

They end up sharing a moment on the porch later and Lestat talks about how he is going to miss this place, talking in imagery about it all with tears in his eyes. And then they decide to have a last dance before they feast.

And the dance led to Louis falling even deeper into Lestat, not caring about anyone or anything and they share a kiss on the dance floor. Louis says, “I was his and he was mine.” and Claudia interrupts the dance to dance with Louis. Louis wants to back out. Claudia says it’s too late, tells him she poisoned one of the twins, and bites Louis to get him to snap out of his trance.

The ceremony starts about the secret to immortality, and we learn Lestat was born in 1760, turned in 1794, making him 180 years old. Louis was born 1878, making him 61 and he was turned in 1910 and Claudia was born 1903, turned in 1917, making her 36.

And with a little more taunting, they start feeding on everyone inside the house. The music playing outside drowns out people’s screams inside. They leave a twin for Lestat, and then Lestat says, “Smells like rosemary…and something else. What is it my love?” And Louis answers, but Lestat wasn’t talking to him.

Antoinette walks in and names the poison Claudia picked up and we learn Antoinette has been around the entire time. Antoinette tries to force Claudia to feed on twin’s blood as Lestat holds Louis back, telling Louis again Claudia was a mistake, and she tried to tear them apart. But Lestat starts throwing up and Claudia reveals her plan.

She knew about Antoinette the whole time, she knew Antoinette was the reason Lestat knew she boarded that train and is pissed Lestat wouldn’t let her go, mocking him as he struggles to breathe. She knew who Lestat would go first during the ritual, which is ironically the person he marked with an x before and she tells Louis to tell him goodbye.

Lestat tells Louis their bond is real and that he loves him “with all myself” with resigned acceptance of his death, and Louis slits his throat, as he tries not to cry.

 Claudia uses Lestat’s blood to write “put me in my coffin, Louis, Louis” in a different language. I believe it’s French.

And now that I think about it must’ve been his final words because Claudia has a history of writing down people’s final words. And that’s left out of Louis’s interpretation of the story.

But they clean up and burn the bodies, including Antoinette who woke up in the fire as she burned, and is finally, officially dead.

Claudia wants to burn Lestat and Louis doesn’t want to, so they end up wrapping him in carpet, throwing him in a trunk and leaving him with garbage as they leave.

Daniel doesn’t buy it, because it seems too “neat and tidy.” and with their history, I don’t blame him at all.  Louis refers to the experience as traumatic, but Daniel disagrees, saying unless Claudia expresses that on the missing pages, which were cut out with a ruler and not torn, Claudia seemed completely fine with Lestat’s end.

And Daniel points out that Louis spared Lestat out of “some fucked-up idea of love” by not ensuring that Lestat actually passed. He says Louis had to know the dump would have rats and “with a trunk that locks from the inside”, Lestat would be fine.

Louis gets agitated and Rashid is watching this exchange with growing concern and interrupts saying the session is over.

Daniel continues grilling Louis and we see maybe the real version of events, that Claudia is telling Louis they have to burn him and get going because the sun is coming up. But Louis holds her by her neck against a cupboard or a wall like Lestat did previously, refusing to kill him.

Daniel says, “Was it raining, Louis?” referencing their earlier conversation about memory.

And Daniel goes in on Louis, who seems to be overwhelmed as Daniel points out Louis chose Lestat over her again.

Louis goes to the room with the tree and sinks his feet in the pebbles as Daniel talks shit to Louis. Rashid comes to Louis’ defense but Louis tells Rashid to stop and Daniel keeps going, basically calling Louis a pimp and himself a whore and accusing Louis of lying, saying “This is like San Francisco.”

Rashid begins to float saying “he won’t save Daniel this time” and that “Louis can sometimes act out” and he protects him from himself and always has.

Rashid floats to the bookcase, confirming that ancient vampires actually can fly, or float, and Daniel confirms that he doesn’t remember Rashid from San Francisco, which means he didn’t really remember the dream that he had.

And Louis says, “What was that you said about memory? A monster, was it?”

Daniel says he saw Rashid standing in the sun and Rashid says, “What’s a mediocre star to a 514-year-old vampire.”

Rashid gives Daniel the book he floated to get and Louis officially introduces Daniel to the vampire Armand, “The love of my life.”

Final Thoughts

One thing about this show is that it is dialogue heavy. They talk at length, which makes sense ‘cause it’s an interview, but there’s so much going on and so many call backs and foreshadowing, that even the little details matter. It’s a show you really have to sit and watch and that’s why this recap is so detail heavy.

The type of banter in this show reminds me of a Gilmore Girls type of show, if you’ve seen that, where the characters are so quick witted, they barely take a second to breathe.

This show is also way funnier than I remember. I remembered all the tragic moments, but I was laughing a lot this rewatch, especially at Daniel and his sarcasm ‘cause there were times he was just not into what Louis was selling.

The acting in this show is amazing, the writing is poetic, the storytelling is intentional and full of life, and I just love this show so much. This is genuinely the first show I’ve watched in the past decade that made me feel something and everything.

These characters are all flawed in different ways and the story isn’t pretty, but I think morally grey characters make the best ones sometimes.

There’s so many themes in this first season alone about the odyssey of recollection and memory. Daniel thinks Louis is intentionally feeding him bullshit at times, but what if he isn’t? What if he really can’t remember clearly?

Daniel admitted in his books remembering something that didn’t even exist in his reality and there are things in my life I can’t remember the way other people do and vice versa. Does memory make us all unreliable narrators? Because eventually what you remember is just different versions of you reciting the thing and not the thing itself, you know?

The show also talks a lot about God, humanity, and morality. Louis thinks of himself as the next stage of evolution which is as full of hubris as Lestat believing vampires are gods, or at least god adjacent. But is Lestat right? Are either of them right? Louis is giving this interview because there are vampires that want to take over the world and God gives life and in theory, depending on what you believe, God takes or at least accepts the fact that life can be taken.

Is Louis more morally right from feeding from animals instead of humans? Is Louis morally wrong for being a pimp and supplier of pleasure? Do both of those acts cancel each other out?

And of course, this story doesn’t shy away from race relations at this time and I love that because being Black is a part of Louis’s and Claudia’s identity and it will shape their experiences and their worldview. It shapes how they were treated and perceived. And I like that the show highlights that instead of hides from it.

The show also does speak on abuse and it’s something some people like to shy away from when talking about it [the show] because it’s a fictional show and they’re vampires, and I know the producer asked would you apply human beliefs onto vampires? Which is also kind of what the show touches on.

And I’ve seen a lot of takes on threads saying it’s boring to apply real world ideologies onto the show, but I think there’s a place for both. And applying real world ideologies on the show doesn’t take away from your enjoyment of the show or these characters. ‘Cause I don’t think it’s wrong to say this is a very abusive toxic relationship, but also say in the same breath that these characters are very likeable, even when they’re being bratty or detached from humanity.

Maybe one day I’ll have to do a more thorough analysis on the themes and the characters.

So, yeah. That’s all I got for you today.  Thank you for reading!

 Next week, I’ll be posting about Season 2, though I might not post it on Wednesday and I might have to split it up again…I’m looking at Friday.

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