I first read Interview With the Vampire in middle school and became instantly enamored with it. I have read the series more times than I care to admit (especially The Vampire Lestat) and can say I have been waiting a lifetime for a decent adaptation. Lestat is my favorite fictional character and the two film versions of him have been terrible (but I still watch them because I have a problem).
Finally, AMC’s Interview With the Vampire has given me what I’ve craved for so long. Their adaptation is brilliantly updated and amazingly acted. Sam Reid’s Lestat and Jacob Anderson’s Louis are beyond perfection, and the chemistry between the two of them is off the charts. I mean, that ballroom scene in the last episode of season one? Even when they are supposed to hate each other? Wow. The first season of Interview With the Vampire ended with a bloody finale that set us up for so much in season 2. Let’s go over what happened and what it all means for the future.
The end of Louis and Lestat’s Gothic romance
The season finale, titled “The Thing Lay Still,” was a lot. Claudia and Louis plotted Lestat’s end—and their escape—under the guise of an over-the-top Madi Gras ball. After poisoning the blood of one of Lestat’s chosen victims, Claudia and Louis deliver the death blow to Lestat. There is a poetic symmetry to Louis using the same cane knife to slit Lestat’s throat that made Lestat first take notice of Louis in the streets of New Orleans. At first, Louis told Daniel that they killed Lestat and put him in a rug before Claudia and Louis sailed off for their new adventure.
However, Daniel smelled Louis’s lies from a mile away. He read Claudia’s diaries and noted how she seemed to hate Louis for a while. It wasn’t the “adventure of their lives,” as Louis had painted it. Between Claudia’s diaries and Louis proclaiming he’s been telling this story in front of Armand (we’ll get back to him later), who he called the love of his life, Louis suddenly became an unreliable narrator. When Daniel started directing Louis’s story, new scenes of Lestat’s death unfolded. In this version, Louis angrily told Claudia she couldn’t burn Lestat’s body and Louis sobbed while holding a dead Lestat. Most importantly, Louis put Lestat in one of their special trunks that could be locked from the inside, knowing it would wind up at the dump where many blood-filled rats might help a weakened vampire regain their strength. Lestat is not done and will return to us in the next season.
Who is the vampire Armand?
Throughout the first season of Interview With the Vampire, Louis had an assistant named Rashid who was always hovering around in the background. Sometimes, he would take care of Louis’s affairs; other times, he would tend to Daniel or offer his neck to Louis. Daniel seemed to fixate on Rashid, commenting several times on how young he looked. Was this because he found him attractive or was it because he recognized the man from his previous encounter with Louis?
At the very end of the episode, it was revealed that Rashid is actually a 500-year-old vampire named Armand, whom Louis calls “the love of my life.” If you have read The Vampire Chronicles, you know that Armand is kind of a big deal. In Rice’s books, he was supposed to become a vampire around the age of 17. Obviously, the show aged him up into his early twenties, but he is still young-looking (he’s also supposed to have red hair but I’m digging this new version). Before his time with Louis, Armand led a coven of vampires who followed Satan and divorced themselves from humanity. He and Louis have an affair for a while, but more importantly, Armand and Daniel end up in a relationship that changes both of their lives. And Armand has his own history with Lestat.
What is the Théâtre des Vampires?
In the final moments of the episode, Armand handed Daniel a scrapbook filled with old newspaper clippings referencing the Théâtre des Vampires. If the show follows the novels, the Theater of Vampires is important for a few reasons. When Lestat was still human, he and his lover worked at the theater. After becoming a vampire and inheriting a ton of money, Lestat bought the theater he loved so much. Through trial and error, they renamed the theater the Théâtre des Vampires and put on shows in which vampires entertained human patrons by performing harrowing acrobatics.
Around the same time, Lestat met Armand. The two had drastically opposing life philosophies, but eventually, Armand decided that living like Lestat (connected to humanity) was a better way to spend his immortality. He would become the leader of the theater’s vampire performers when Lestat moved on. Coincidentally, Louis and Claudia stumbled across the Théâtre des Vampires after “killing” Lestat. The subsequent events at the theater forever changed whatever plans Claudia and Louis had for their eternity together.
What can Interview With the Vampire fans expect in season 2?
Between the events of the season 1 finale and Rice’s source material, we can take some guesses at what we will see in season 2. When Louis’s story left off, he and Claudia were happily traveling to Europe after doing away with Lestat. From there, they will eventually travel to Paris, where they encounter Armand and his Theater of Vampires. Louis might also make another vampire so that Claudia can have a female companion while he is off with his new love, Armand. Without spoilers, I can tell you it does not conclude with a fairy tale ending.
The creators of the show have hinted that we’ll see more of Lestat’s backstory in season 2, and while it won’t be a verbatim adaptation of The Vampire Lestat, the series will work in much of the information from that novel. In season 1, Lestat hinted at “those who must be kept,” which means that events from the third novel, Queen of the Damned, might be woven in as well.
I was born a Louis and Lestat shipper and I will die a Louis and Lestat shipper, so above all else, I am excited to see where season 2 takes their relationship. But it looks like we are in store for more drama, more vampires, and lots of blood. I can’t wait.
(featured image: AMC)
