AMC’s Interview With the Vampire TV series has easily become one of my favorite adaptations. Bringing to life the relationship between Anne Rice’s vampires Lestat and Louis de Pointe du Lac isn’t easy, and yet the AMC+ series has mastered the allure of Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis’ (Jacob Anderson) love for him, with the villainous ways and gaslighting that we’ve come to know Lestat is capable of.
Mixed into their family dynamic is Claudia (Bailey Bass). When the young girl is about to die in a house fire, Louis begs Lestat to save her, and thus their vampire daughter is born, but as the first season progresses, we see exactly where Claudia’s loyalties lied, and they are not with Lestat.
Claudia’s introduction in the show is refreshing for a number of reasons, mainly in Bass’ performance. She’s older than she was in the books and the movie starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst (as Claudia). In the movie, she’s 10 years old, which is still older than she was in the books, but in the show, she’s 15 years old and has a great journey of coming to terms with constantly being at the in-between point of adolescence and adulthood.
But where we really get to see her shine is in the plot to kill Lestat.
**Spoilers ahead for the finale of Interview With the Vampire which has already aired on AMC+ but will air on AMC later 11/13**
Claudia holds the power, but Louis’ love trumps all
In the finale, we get to see the “plan” that Claudia is cooking up to kill Lestat. Louis continues to be aware that Claudia is planning their murder plot and actively excluding him from the process, and when he asks her what’s wrong, she calls him out—meaning she is willing to recognize the fact that Louis will never stop loving Lestat and unless she plans his demise on her own, it will backfire.
So, she tells Louis to distract Lestat with his love and affection, and it works, for the most part. They are in the final stages of their plan, with Lestat dead as far as they can tell, but as Claudia begs Louis to take it one step further and burn his body to finish the job, he tells her no, and even Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian)—the titular interviewer, hearing this story from Louis years later—says that Louis would have known that it meant Lestat wasn’t really dead.
The reality of the situation is that Louis did to Lestat what Lestat did to him, but he caught Claudia in the crossfire. We see, at the end of the episode, Lestat reaching for a rat to keep himself alive, and from the books and the movie, we know that it was not the end to Lestat and Louis, but the show really highlights Claudia’s strength in this finale.
We see her planning, her observation, her ability to do what is necessary to protect herself and her father, and she would have burned Lestat if Louis hadn’t stopped her.
What comes next for Claudia and Louis?
We see the two going to Europe, and it does leave you with a pit in your stomach if you know what unfolds in the books. It isn’t going to end well, and that’s upsetting given how much I love Bailey Bass as Claudia. But I hope that season 2 takes us on her journey for answers with Louis a bit more and we get to see the two free of Lestat and his debauchery for a little while.
(featured image: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC)
