The Vampire Lestat, Episode 3: Toronto

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We continue as the Vampire Lestat’s "self-financed vanity romp" pulls into Toronto with his band, crew, Gabriella and Daniel Molloy in tow. Daniel seems ready for a last ditch effort to make good on his awards fodder documentary and this episode revolves around a contest of wills between Molloy and Lestat. As Lestat admits, he spends a lot of time “serving cunt” which has made him a difficult interview subject. And Daniel is desperate to break through with him. He eventually does, but not in a way that helps his project. Instead we rely on the narrative device of the Failures recordings for most of what happens here. Louis also has a B-story here, hunting down the Fang Gang and Claudia’s captor, the vampire known as Killer.

The past events in focus here are Lestat’s arrival in Paris, his relationship with Nicky, his “first love,” and his turning at the hands of the Vampire Magnus. This Paris story moves at a lightning pace and is told in a pretty fractured way. For book readers, there is a lot of the Paris story still to be told. Hopefully, we will get it in future episodes. I am confident that since Armand is coming into focus, we see more of him and the 18th century Paris coven.

Lestat runs into Nicky shortly after his arrival in Paris and as in the book, the two had a long-standing relationship from Auvergne, although in the show Nicky came to Paris first as opposed to the two leaving together. We didn’t get as much of this relationship as I would have liked. The Interview with the Vampire incarnation of this show was incredible with the high stakes and in-depth way it handled its relationships, think about the often devastating emotional conflicts between Louis and Lestat and Louis and Armand. We finally  get a little of that here with Lestat and Nicholas but it’s really only one scene and although it’s quite good, I wish we got more of it but that may just be the structure of the show and Lestat's difference from the more introspective and forthcoming Louis. It's taken Lestat three episodes to get to the point where he can reconcile with his pain.

Interestingly, we’ve seen some of these scenes or analogues to them in season two but from Armand’s point-of-view and the differences here are amusingly different. For example we had a version of the Renaud’s balcony scene which Armand characterized as a very romantic private moment between him and Lestat. In Lestat’s version of the scene Gabriella is present and Lestat’s response to Armand’s very tender “I love you,” is a hilariously fed-up “Christ!” Certainly, Lestat is only a slightly more reliable narrator than Armand, so grain of salt. Show Lestat hates Armand more overtly that Book Lestat so it’s no surprise he would not give him any grace in the recounting of their relationship. The very specific, character-based humor continues to shine on this show.

Gabriella’s appearance here also calls into question her absence in Armand’s season two retelling of the Paris events. She is present in the corresponding scenes in the book and according to Lestat’s telling here she was around for all of this. I speculated at the time that this might be shade by omission on Armand’s part. In the books he has a particular disdain for Gabrielle and we get a small taste of it here, where he ignores her and bristles at her pushy questions.

The other major life event depicted here is Lestat’s turning by Magnus and the telling of which hangs on the song, “Your Biggest Fan,” which is to-date the best Lestat song released and the one most closely drawn from Rice’s source material. This single was released before the season started and at first glance it is a sweet acoustic ballad but as it goes on it begins take some dark and disturbing turns. It became obvious after a couple of listens that this song was from the point-of-view of Magnus, the vampire who stalked and abducted mortal Lestat.

Here the story is first presented in a glib music video style telling (complete with Magnus lip synching!) and then flashes of the “real” account that Lestat relays to Daniel in all its brutal and violent detail. Finally, Daniel manages to make a breakthrough with Lestat after multiple attempts that had resulting in little more than games and trolling. Unfortunately for Daniel, their interaction—although meaningful and personal—was purely telepathic and not captured on camera. I think Daniel’s attempt to recreate his interview success with Louis will not be recreated with Lestat.

This is a unique take on Magnus who Rice described as a ghoulish, almost Nosferatu kind of figure. While his actions are in line with the book—he noticed Lestat through his performances and beauty—the show frames him as a kind of creepy stalker of younger more beautiful men. With his too-black hair and somewhat made-up appearance, he is very much coded as an older predatory gay man. Like he might have property in Palm Springs.

Having to process the very transformational trauma which he accuses Daniel of having seems to have resulted in Lestat turning a corner by the end of the episode. He seems to say goodbye to his Parisian muses—Nicky, Gabriella, Magnus. Shockingly, he ends the episode in a relatively healthy place.

Louis, however, spends the episode murdering his way through the Fang Gang coven house looking for Bruce/Killer who arrives with his new wife—episode one’s Baby Jenks. A lot of people were speculating at the time that Baby Jenks was part of a trap to weaken Lestat with drugs before the Fang Gang ambush and they were right. In the Queen of the Damned she is affiliated with the more benign book version of the gang.

When Louis confronts Killer he pulls out the missing pages of Claudia’s diaries which he had pulled prior to his interview with Daniel in the first season of IWTV. This recounting of Claudia’s capture and assault is juxtaposed with Lestat’s “true” account of kidnapping and assault by Magnus. It is a really powerful sequence that is payoff for Lestat’s previous references to his lack of consent in becoming a vampire. Even 1994’s Cruisestat reference this fact and it is central to Lestat’s character.

Louis ends the episode at the dinner with the waitress who is Claudia’s doppleganger (a returning Delainey Hayles). This is not from the books at all and I have no idea where they are going with this. While Claudia appears several times in the Vampire Chronicles it is always as a vision or ghost.

NOTES:

• This is the first time in the last four episodes of the show where Lestat doesn’t reference Akasha.
• Gabriella and Lestat straight up kill a Canadian couple at the beginning of this episode. I’m beginning to wonder what Lestat’s ethical code is. In the books he usually only kills “evildoers.” It is possible that Gabriella is a bad influence, though. Like, in a lot of ways.
• According to Fareed, a "study" indicates that a vampire can survive decapitation for hours before having the head reattached. Is there a reason for this? In the Queen of the Damned, there is a Gathering of Immortals, twelve vampires that oppose Akasha. Some of those vampires (Eric, Santino) are barely ever explored in Rice's fiction so its likely the show due to time and resources will have a smaller roster with an emphasis on previously established characters in the live-action perhaps Burton, and Jasper from Talamasca, Sam from IWTV and maybe Santiago survived his beheading?
• Lestat keeps referring to Daniel in past tense. The character has only a limited presence in the Vampire Chronicles past Queen of the Damned. So they could kill him off.
• Gabriella cracking up as Daniel grills Lestat making fun of his lyrics. She the fucks Lestat’s body double. This lady give zero fucks.
• "steams on Pandora." Well that's kind of a name drop.
• Yay. More Blood Piss.
• Lestat glibly refers to Nicky as his "bipolar boyfriend" which is accurate.
• Gabriella pesters Armand about Italian vampire covens, specifically about covens in Venice, Rome, and Salerno. Book Armand has had some traumatic experiences in Rome and especially Venice. Salerno is a smaller city in southern Italy. It’s near Naples where at least Gabrielle is from. It’s also not far from Pompeii which has been referenced a couple times in the books.
• After Gabriella's prompting, Dan asks Lestat about The Great Conversion which he refers to as "fucking stupid." I kinda agree, Lestat.
• That fucking music video for “Your Biggest Fan.” Chef’s kiss.

• The first vampire that Louis kills at the coven apparently has a Jar Jar Binks tattoo on his face. Now I have to think about Louis and Armand watching and discussing The Phantom Menace.
• Why is Armand in an AA meeting with Lestat’s erstwhile guitarist other than for the cool reveal? Presumably he will be using him to get close to Lestat and Daniel…
• Sam Reid was particularly good in this episode. What does this man need to do to get an Emmy nomination? He’s acting his ass off. He performing an album full of music. Does he need to set himself on fire? He may do that later in the season. Who knows.
• Guys, this show has some terrible wigs. And not just Jorda's.
• This of all episodes aired on Father's Day. Yikes.