The Vampire Lestat, Episode 6: Montreal

The penultimate episode of TVL is surprising for a number of reasons. There are no flashbacks and very little lore. Instead we get a  Louis and Lestat relationship “open bottle” episode in which the two characters warily circle each other and try to reconcile their vast baggage. That and a completely bonkers ending. 

Personally, I am a huge fan of these kinds of character-focused stories in which we follow characters around for a day and watch them interact. And it works early well here due to the strength of the these two actors and their incredible chemistry together. I can’t even be mad about not getting the kind of novel material I would have wanted. I'm honestly happy to let these actors and this creative team cook.

Failure is a recurring theme in this season and Lestat is stewing in the fact that his album is poorly reviewed and only reached a mediocre number sixty-eight on the Billboard Top 100. This is a distinction from the novel in which (at least as Lestat tells it) the album is a huge success.

We are full circle from the season premiere and Lestat is back in Montreal on Halloween, although now with Louis in person instead of via FaceTime. It has been a month and a half since the “New York” episode and the two have been spending more time together in the wake of Louis’s crash-out over “Fraudia.” Since then, Satan’s Night Out has been turned and guitarist Alex has taken his brother’s apparent suicide hard, seen here lurking around moodily in a Dracula mask. 

Lestat seems to be taking his  death-faking at least somewhat seriously, as we seem him thumbing through some fake passports featuring some of his known aliases from the novels. We see here Sheridan Blackwood and Clarance Oddbody. This does give some context for his apparent “death” in the framing device in episode one. Maybe he’s just leaned into is faked death and has fucked off somewhere.

Although Lestat and Louis are not back together, they are certainly interacting comfortably together. A familiar refrain in this episode is “Should we cancel?” both referring to some dinner plans and mysterious other event. One of the joys of this episode is seeing the two interact and interact in a (for this show anyway) healthy way. “Why you bein’ nice,” Louis asks him.

Lestat (complete in Grim Reaper costume) and Louis meet Daniel to conclude the documentary interview. Dan is a suspiciously Trumpy orange color. The two proceed to fuck with Daniel as they had been all along but one again Lestat gives him an honest and gracious response to his question about Louis and Lestat’s reunion in New Orleans, “It was enough that he showed up.” Dan is not in a place to really appreciate the candidness and intimacy of this answer.

Lestat and Louis then head to a band rehearsal where Louis and Sofia/Gabriella finally meet. At this point Louis doesn’t know who she really is other than that she is an intimate of Lestat. She toys with him, clearly threatened by his hold on her son. When Lestat sings his ballad “Brutal Love” in their direction, it becomes clear he is singing to Louis and Gabriella is not happy about it. At this point a bunch of music has been released and some of them are clearly about Louis (a few are specifically about Gabriella) despite Lestat’s protestations. Although in this episode he does admit that “most of them” are about Louis.

When asked what he though of Sofia, Louis responds “I’ll tell you in the car,” which is never a good sign. Sofia, threatened, is attempting to get Lestat to go with her to Spain to watch the fallout of the Great Conversion but he brushes her off. It seems like he is finally getting sick of her manipulative shit.

Much of this episode takes place in the back of Lestat’s limo and Louis is sent a link to a video that Daniel has posted showing Lestat and Gabriella in bed and an interview with him and Armand outing her as Lestat’s mother. I love that Armand has descended into high school Mean Girls cyber-bullying at the this point. Also, Dan and Armand are seen in the daylight. This is one of those weird deviations from the lore established on the books. While certain vampires are old and powerful enough to survive the daylight, none of them are what might be called “daywalkers” in other lore. Certainly, Daniel would not survive this.

This Gabriella information causes a blow-up with Louis and Lestat. I think the show is making too big of a deal over this. As Lestat says, they are “unnatural beings” and he accuses Louis (rightly so) of whipping out his “half human soul” to win an argument. The problem with Gabriella is less that she is Lestat’s mother but more that she is toxic and manipulative and that he was lying about it.

The make it to their final appointment of the night which is with a witch named Merrick Mayfair, a character who was a protagonist of the eponymous Anne Rice novel. She is a character spun off from The Lives of the Mayfair Witches and is also associated with the Talamasca and the apparently-dead-on-the-show David Talbot. Here she is a New Orleans acquaintance of Lestat, and a voodooine that he brings to Montreal to hold a seance to reach Claudia and provide Louis with the closure that he seeks.

I really wish they had brought the characters back to New Orleans for this episode. Narratively it would make more sense since that is where Merrick lives and also where Claudia was born and lived much of her life. Mostly it would have been nice to get those season one NOLA vibes back.

Much as in the book, the raised ghost of Claudia is pissed and not having it from either of them, especially not from Louis. Delainey Hayles is amazing and powerful in this scene, so much so that I wish they wouldn’t have pooched her appearance in the Fraudia subplot. I think her appearance would have been more impactful if this was the only time we saw her this season. A lot of the people behind this show are from the theater and this scene really has a heightened theatrical feel and Delainey prowls this mystical circle like she is performing in the round. Lots of people associated with this show have and will deserve awards and Hayles is one of them. Hopefully she gets the recognition she deserves for this show-stopping scene.

Among the many terrible things she says to Louis is “I liked him better,” referring to Lestat. Which is basically what she says in the book. One thing I wish we had got this season was some of the events of IWTV from Lestat’s perspective and especially his take on the Claudia relationship. In Louis’ telling, the two were constantly at odds but boom Lestat describes much more closeness and camaraderie between them which we never really see on the show.

Of course, there is no closure for Louis, only more trauma but it must be said he takes it better than his book counterpart. As with the books we are left to wonder was that really Claudia? Was it all of Claudia or just a shadow of her rage? Did she really mean all those very hurtful things that she said? This scene is lifted straight from Rice's writing and is consistent with the way that she approached ghosts throughout her writing which is to say in her cosmology you can never expect to get truth, clarity or "closure" from a ghost. 

As Lestat and Louis discuss their baggage and even carefully broach getting back together they notice Alex skulking in the distance with his Dracula mask. They are then promptly beheaded by Armand and Daniel.

NOTES:

• Lestat refers to the different roles he has fulfilled as “The nesting dolls of identity” and the show is very much about him reconciling all of those  elements of his his personality. I thought that was a lovely way to put it and as far as I know not from Anne Rice.
• Louis’ solutions to his Claudia issues in this episode: seance and blocking on social media.
• Gabriella mentions to Louis that vampires from Dubai, Paris, and Detroit will be attending. All famously the sites of his rampages.
• My goodness Jacob Anderson was serving some face during Brutal Love.
• Lestat about Gabs: “I conduct the chaos, she is one of the many chainsaws I juggle “ 
• During the voodoo ceremony Claudia breaks the barrier ring. Does that mean she is loose in the world? Ghost Claudia does have a VERY memorable scene in Queen of the Damned. It's also one of the most genuinely scary scenes in her writing which despite all the monsters is not really what you would call horror.
• So, Gabriella turned Alex, which I am sure Lestat is going to be totally cool and not possessive about. Did Lestat make any fledglings? I imagine that Gabs, Sam, and Lestat each turned one of them…
• Lestat’s aliases are straight from Tale of the Body Thief and tie into the themes of that book or are literary allusions. Clarence Oddbody is a character from Its a Wonderful Life, tied to the theme of a supernatural vision of what life could have been. Sheridan Blackwood is not related to her novel Blackwood Farm but instead a combination of the Gothic authors Algernon Blackwood and Sheridan le Fanu who wrote Carmilla, an early vampire story which was a big influence on Rice for its Gothic atmosphere and complex, conflicted vampire.
• Louis was Degrassi High fan. These vampires are consuming A LOT of media.
• The uncle in question here is Cortland Mayfair who is a main character of AMC’s Mayfair Witches series, although Merrick has not appeared on that show.
• Justice for Antoinette. Indeed.
• Blood of Akasha count. Here we go again. Does Louis even know who Akasha is?
• Did we ever see Gabriella’s portrait in Interview with the Vampire season one?
• “She spared us the ambiguity.” Indeed.
• “Why do I actively, manically pursue failure?” Although a case can be made that book Lestat is less messy than show Lestat, I think this line is true for both versions. Book Lestat has some cosmic-level failures and wild lapses of judgment.
• Somehow it looks like we are getting more Auvergne and Nicky in the finale.
• Look, they have been teasing decapitaitons…They are both okay. It's fine. We're all fine.

The Vampire Lestat, Episode 5: New York

"New York" is a long, dense episode chronicling Lestat's attempt to make an album out of his three-century "trainwreck" of a life. We get into some serious lore here, introducing VC character like Marius and Akasha. Even Amel, the evil spirit animating the vampires gets a few name drops. As is the case for other elements of the season, there is a bit of deviation and compression of the source material here which is initially distracting and even upsetting to those of use who love The Vampire Lestat novel but once you have gotten over some of the nagging differentness of the story, it is an enjoyable episode with a ton to unpack. The first appearance of Akasha does not disappoint.

We start with the band in studio making the album. At this point, Lestat has faked his death. Christine (apparently having survived her gunshot), Farid, and even Daniel have been sent on their way with the rest of the entourage having been replaced the vampire Sam and Gabriella, who are producing and managing respectively. Lestat, being the consummate demanding musical diva that he is, is starting to come to the conclusion that the band in its current form will not be able to give him what he needs from this album.They are planning one live show, presumably with Lestat. Maybe he is going to pretend to a hologram? Like the novel, it looks as though everything is building up to one massive and chaotic concert event.

Cut with these scenes hots of him being pulled out the group by Marius and taken to the sanctuary of Those Who Must Be Kept located in Greece. In this version of the story he is recruited by Akasha. In the book, during his wanderings he had been actively seeking the Roman vampire, Marius during his travels with Gabrielle and Marius finds him in the ground.

In the show Lestat underground for 80 years and Akasha sends Marius to him. This is (at least for the moment) a different interpretation of Marius than the book version. As the keeper of the Those Who Must Be Kept, he is apparently actively in the shrine the majority of his time and seems to have gone a little mental, as Lestat does later. When we first meet him, Marius has a very Yoda-in-his-early-Empire-Strikes-Back-scenes vibes.

Now Marius is a core Vampire Chronicles character, whose story is told not only in his own book, Blood and Gold but he is a major character in The Vampire Armand and Pandora. The showrunners have indicated that this is just a tease of the character and they have "plans" for him so I can't be too mad we didn't get the long sit-down with Lestat where he tells his life story. Seemingly there are other opportunities to do that. Given the success of the show and the popularity of the Armand character, it seems reasonable that we could get an Armand-focused spinoff in which Marius would be a major character.

Meanwhile, Louis is doing some uncomfortable improv with Fauxdia and a local actress playing Madeline. Is this the most disturbing element of the show? Maybe.

Armand is also in town and hovering on the fringes of things as is his wont.  He finds Daniel shooting interview segments for the documentary and recounts his fifty plus year monitoring of Daniel's life. He offers to help him "finish the job" of the documentary. He also offers to let him "walk in the sun." Armand reveals that Gabriella is Lestat's mother, which it seems Daniel had been working out on his own. "He lies with his mother," the gremlin adds, spicily.

Lestat and Gabriella discuss all the times she has abandoned him. This includes an unseen instance in New Orleans, presumably after Louis and Claudia left. "You were a terrible mother," he concludes. Letat's mommy issues have been a big theme this season and I can only assume this is to set up his seduction by Akasha who will be his new mommy.

In flashbacks, we see that Lestat has been taking care of TWMBK. He is going slightly mad in the same way Marius had been but on some level he seems content to take care of a mother who is incapable of abandoning him. In the book, they are described as looking like marble but are her depicted as having an almost bronze finish and they look fantastic.

Louis and Fauxdia continue their uncomfortable IWTV LARPing. She's writing things down in a book. It's very Claudia but also very sus. Characteristically, Louis seems tortured by the whole situation.

Back in the sanctuary, Lestat hosts a mad imaginary dinner party on New Years Eve, 1900. This would be about a decade before the events of season one. Akasha awakens and drinks his blood.

Back in 2025, Louis reveals his Claudia situation to Lestat. It's so nice to see these two back together and speaking. Despite Lestat being upset that Louis hadn't reached out after the shooting. Louis seems to be confused as to whether or not Fauxdia is actually Claudia on some level. I'm honestly a little confused as to what the show wants me to think about this. This subplot has been presented in a very grounded kind of way but the show seems to be suggesting that something supernatural is afoot. It should be said, that in the Anne Rice cosmology, ghosts can be very physical. So the fact that she is visible to others does not preclude Fauxdia from being a ghost.

Lestat goes in to see Fauxdia in full Low Key Marvel disguise, complete with sunglasses and a hoodie. He is deeply affected by seeing this woman who looks exactly like Claudia, although he tells Louis a different story. He goes on to record a really beautiful song about her which changes his whole approach to the album.

Lestat concludes that the band needs the blood, much to Gabriella"s delight. There are three vampires and three band members. Also, Salamander given the blood basically equals Matt Berry's character in What We Do In The Shadows and I am here for that.

Marius returns to find in Akasha awake and ranting and Lestat floating in the air. He wrangles Akasha and casts Lestat out. Sheila Atim is amazing in this brief scene as Akasha and I cannot wait to see what she does with the character next season.

The show ends with a scene of Armand compelling TVL guitarist Larry to walk unto the subway tracks For Some Reason. The camera then lingers on him looking cvnty and disassociated and already inspiring memes.

NOTES:

• The episode begins with Lestat describing some of his past coffins, including his first one from his days as an orphan vampire in Magnus' lair. I am still bummed we never saw more of this. We have not even seen Magnus go into the fire.
• In his voiceover Lestat says "I, Amel digress." This is very interesting.  Amel is the spirt that animates the vampires and was residing in Akasha for millenia. In the books, it ended up with another vampire at the conclusion of Queen of the Damned. It does not end up in. Lestat until much later. It makes me think they are streaming things here and ending QOTD in a different place.
• TC refers to Gabriella as "Yoko Mirren"
• "I'm finally going to talk about the Queen." Because he has previously been so reticent to bring her up until now.
• "I don't like being alone,"says Lestat when Marius goes off on vacation or wherever he goes. Great line reading by Reid and also just a huge theme of this version of the character. 
• Marius when Armand is mentioned: "Rotten boy." Armand is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Immortal Universe.
• Enkil back of head blown out and missing fingers. Marius seems to suggest this is from his accidental exposure to the sun but...um, wut?
• "There's not enough of us to make it profitable," Louis lamenting about how serving vampires is not economically feasible and offering a financial justification for the Great Conversion.
• Dan's daughter attended "Rice University"
• Armand describes Louis as "calculating to the core. Methodically cruel." Um, project much?
• "You do not need around you what does not need you anymore." Gabriella's justification for abandoning Lestat. It's a little twisted and roundabout but coherent and kind in its own way.
• "You don't have to do the accent. It's hard. The Yat." The irony of these two British actors having this conversation.
• The cheap reproduction Tiffany lamp keeps taking me out. Can we get a better lamp and wig budget next season. Mind you, one of the reasons I used to watch Gotham was because the lamps and light fixtures were so good.
• "Why is her tongue cut out?" This is the only line from Akasha's ramblings that seems directly related to the events of QOTD, famously the witch-turned-vampire Makare has her tongue removed on the orders of Akasha.
• In the next episode Lestat and Louis apparently enlist a witch to help them with their Claudia problem. This is essentially the plot of the vampire chronicle Merrick, featuring Talamasca member and Mayfair witch, Merrick Mayfair who helps them exorcise Claudia's ghost.

Patrick Garone Will Be Attending G-Fest 2026

 

Did you know the original version of City of the Gods was a Mockumentary?

City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl had an odd path toward its publication. When I was first working on the story, I naturally thought it would work best as a movie. After all, the kaiju genre is primarily a movie genre. Aside from occasional novelizations, there really have not been a lot of notable kaiju novels. I worked on it as screenplay for a while but the whole thing felt a little flat to me, the characters really didn't pop the way I would have liked them to.

At the time (in the aughts) I was very involved with sketch comedy and improv here in Chicago. I had a lot of comedy friends. I was also in school for Media and was looking to do a final project so I combined the Quetzalcoatl idea, with my comedy friends, and we got a camera and equipment and shot The Making of Quetzalcoatl: The Defender, a short film embedded above. The film is a send up of the very self-important "making-of" documentaries that were included as DVD special features at the time (especially "The Beginning" doc included in The Phantom Menace.) I had a notion of releasing it on a DVD as a special feature to a movie that was essentially just two hours of green screen with a commentary track. Still not a bad idea. 

 

The Vampire Lestat, Episode 4: The Devil’s Road

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This show seems to be alternating between brilliant episodes and less inspired ones. Episode Four, The Devil’s Road is in the latter category. It is an episode that despite the fact that there is a ton of book material yet to be touched, spends much of its time meandering like the chapter of The Vampire Lestat for which it is named. Incidentally, a chapter that frustrated and stymied author Anne Rice to no end.

My big problem with this episode (aside from some arguably questionable Gabriella characterization) is tonal. I know Lestat is firmly in his brat era but it is just…too much. He’s overshot brat and is firmly in obnoxious territory for parts of this episode. His behavior is way over the top. When the episode has me empathizing with Armand over Lestat, we have problems because I loathe Armand.

This is also frustrating because Lestat seemed to have developed some real self-awareness in the last episode, in which he appears to say goodbye at least to some of the ghosts of his past, and seemingly Gabriella. In any case he is riding a bit high at the start of the episode having gone viral for video of his concert levitation.

Meanwhile Louis, dubbed by Lestat as “he who licenses and franchises the night,” a spin of the Louisiana vampire’s “I own the night” line at the end of season two,” has been hanging around the diner where Claudia’s doppelgänger, Regina, works. This is borderline creepy stalker behavior and we learn more about her throughout the episode, specifically her checkered past back in Europe and the UK. This character is extremely sus. It is pretty crazy that there is another character who exactly resembles Claudia. Most likely she is a Talamasca operative. Her name translates to Queen in Latin, so perhaps she is some kind of harbinger of Akasha. She is observed interacting with other customers, so it seems like she is real enough. This is uncharted territory as Claudia does not appear this way in the books although she does return as a ghost a couple of times. The two settle on an arrangement where the young woman agrees to do some Claudia LARPing for Louis. His storyline this episode has less to do with being a vampire than a really messed-up billionaire.

Daniel continues to try to break Lestat for the documentary, despite the humiliating experience last week. Lestat describes the telepathically-shared story as a gift but Dan is not buying it. I do think Lestat is sincere here. Ironically, Daniel, seems to hold a point of view common to many younger people that if an experience didn’t happen on camera it holds little value.

However, Daniel does seem to have worked out that Sofia is actually Gabriella, Lestat’s mother despite the fact that Lestat spins a sad yarn about her demise in their interviews. Throughout the episode we see some flashbacks that detail the “real” story of their post-Paris travels together on “the Devil’s Road.” These flashbacks cover about a decade of the pair traveling across Europe and we see their new vampire relationship develop. These scenes are scored with lush romantic music and often feature a recurring sound effect of the crashing waves which Lestat associates with her abandonment.

There is a lot of the Gabriella characterization that the show is getting right, particularly the liberation she experiences at her new-found state after first living as a girl “wrapped in black silk” and cloistered away and then shipped off to rural France to be subsumed into marriage and motherhood. In the book, her lust for freedom also manifests in her gender expression and she eschews binding female clothing and long hair in favor of a more male or androgynous appearance. Sadly the show has kept her pretty glam. As in the book, she takes to vampirism even more than Lestat, with little or no compunction about killing. 

The show does play up this element of her character as well as making her generally more sinister and manipulative. In this episode she is seemingly aligned with the Great Conversion, the explosion of the vampire population around the world. Indeed, she seems to want Lestat to lead or be involved with it and she sees the tour as a way to rally the vampires together. Book Gabrielle-while in her younger days expressed some of the same sentiments-is largely uninterested in the world of human beings or even vampires for that matter. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with Akasha’s appearance. In the books, Akasha (and, Amel, the spirit that animates her) are offended by the unchecked spread of vampirism as it dilutes their power.

If Lestat is on a rock music tour, Armand is making an apology tour. Apparently his introduction in an AA meeting last week was to be taken literally and our favorite murder gremlin is going around making amends to the people he has harmed. The fact that a five hundred year old vampire would take part in a mortal recovery program is a little goofy but so is blood piss and blood showers. So here we are.

He starts with Daniel Malloy the fledgling that he created out of spite apparently, and then abandoned. Daniel, of course is having none of it and we get the first of a series of brutal Armand reads this episode. Maitre then makes his way to Lestat for his apology. Lestat takes this in the way you would expect and confesses that his silence about his role in saving Louis from the vampire trial was specifically to torture Armand and eat away at their relationship over the decades. When you have eternity to be petty, you can really play the long game. 

Lestat invites Armand to his concert where he literally shines a spotlight on him and sings a diss track  that he wrote which begs the question: is it possible to overserve cunt? Because I feel at this point we are getting diminishing returns, especially if the result is making Armand into a sympathetic character. The treatment was so humiliating that even Daniel followed his maker out to the street to check on him. From this scene Armand claims to love or have loved Daniel. When? Where? How? Also, the phenomenon that Daniel has been feeling of the whole world disappearing save for Armand does not seem to actually have been caused by Armand. Is this perhaps related to the Akasha’s awakening and other apocalyptic events that seem to constantly happening around the fringes of this tour?

After the concert the fan for who Lestat “signed” a copy of IWTV in the “Detroit” episode shoots Lestat and his lawyer, Christine. He also releases an anti-vampire manifesto online. This storyline is reminding me alarmingly of the “witchhunter” subplot of Mayfair Witches. While Lestat was prepared to return home, Gabriella returns and convinces him to conclude the tour.

NOTES:

• Lestat claims the Talamasca are behind the bots responsible for the viral concert clip. WTF are they even doing? This is another reminder of how the Immortal Universe has completely bungled this organization which is one of Rice’s best creations. This is the one thing that Queen of the Damned movie actually got right compared to this show.

• Lestat refers to Daniel as “The Vampire Bourdain.” 

• Lestat asks Daniel “Are you missing the psychodrama from Dubai?” This could also be a troll aimed at the audience, some of whom are missing the pacing, drama, and maturity of the first two seasons.

• Alex before he describes his AA experience with Armand: “This is going to sound like a can of corn.” “I like corn.” A not so subtle shoutout to Johnathan Davis the lead singer of the band Korn who fulfilled a similar role with the music on the 2003 Queen of the Damned movie that Daniel Hart does on The Vampire Lestat.

• Armand has apparently been sponsoring Alex and helping him. Mind you, not helping him do the work of recovery but by messing around in his mind and taking away his pain, which is Classic Armand "No Pain" de Romanus.
• Lestat to Armand: “You used my lover to lure me and my mother to you underground death orgy.” So she was there despite Armand omitting her from his retelling last season.

• This episode is the source of the semi-cringey “I’m quite sexy” line from the trailers.

• This one doesn’t feature any great music, at least not that is showcased. We get a couple of snippets and Plastic Fiends is blasted over a scene. The only showcased song, “Big Boss” is obnoxious and terrible.

• Marius is next week! And he looks…very Roman.

• For all Lestat’s Akasha name-dropping, strange we haven’t heard anything about her in his music. In the book, there is a specific Those Who Must Be Kept song and music video. Maybe next week?

• Lestat refers to his portrayal in IWTV as “Toxic bitch anxiously-attached show pony with a personality disorder.” I mean if the Lelio costume fits...

I’d like to close with a curated selection of Armand insults from “The Devil’s Road.”

• A “Friendless Bottom Twink Sociopath.”
• A “Five-hundred year-old pussy.”
• That his recovery is sponsored by “Pseudologis Pensioner Fuckboys for Sobriety.” I had to look that one up. Pseudologis basically means compulsive liar.
• That he has no soul.
• That he has “uso, Japanime eyes.”
• And that he is a “fuck cloud.”

Patrick Garone

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.

Patrick Garone

The Vampire Lestat, Episode 2: Toledo

 

The end of the previous episode, Detroit, introduced us to The Vampire Gabriella, who had been Lestat’s mother in life and his fledgeling in immortality. Episode 2, Toledo, largely focuses on their complex relationship and the show starts to dive into book content from Anne Rice’s 1985 novel, The Vampire Lestat. As someone who loves that book, I will say that some of this important backstory is handled in a perfunctory way due to the limits of adapting a long book to a seven episode season with a limited budget that shows itself here and there whether that means opting to not show certain things that would be expensive to realize or skimping on the hair and make-up budget for secondary characters.

We pick up with Lestat’s hilarious voiceover, referring to last week’s Gabriella incest reveal as an “Oediphany” and spends much of the rest of the episode reconciling it. This is less of an issue in the books due to the fact that the book vampires are decidedly disinterested in penetrative sex. Book Lestat and Gabrielle have an erotically-charged relationship and the same deep connection but not because they are fucking. Anne Rice has the following to say on the subject: “When you have eternity you can work out anything, even an Oedipal complex.” I’m kind of sorry they didn’t work that line in as it would fit right in with the tone of Lestat’s narration.

Lestat recounts his childhood which is told through a very theatrical device where we have a series of vignettes that happen around the table in his family dining hall where we meet his brothers and father, all of whom are decidedly trashy and loud. These scenes are all played pretty broadly and the choice was made to give everyone wild French accents and increasingly bad wigs. 

As in the book, Lestat’s father is a rural French lord with a grand estate and title but little money. His mother was a woman from Naples who was married off at a young age and broods unhappily in the castle, deeply contemptuous of her husband and children, save for her youngest, Lestat, with whom she has as warm a relationship as she can manage.

These scenes recount some of the Lestat’s formative experiences, mostly attempts to escape the dreary confines of his castle and “cabbage” family, first to study at a monastery and then to run off with an acting troupe. All these attempts were thwarted by his father and brothers. Book Lestat finds some purpose in hunting the family lands and it seems to be the case here as well. Later, when the villagers petition their lord to kill a pack of wolves preying on their land it is Lestat who is called upon to hunt them.

This sequence of hunting the wolves is a huge part of the mythology of the Vampire Chronicles and the forging of Lestat’s character but the episode gives us only the briefest glimpse of it. Of the eight wolves we only saw some movement in the bushes and a single shot of one wolf charging the camera. I couldn’t help be disappointed by that but it is not inconceivable that we get more of it in future episodes. That said, I’ve seen enough bad CGI wolves in shows over the years to understand it might be a better option to show less than to show bad. This puts me in mind of the first few seasons of Game of Thrones where battles largely happened off camera, only to be described later, theater-style.

Gabriella dresses his wounds and describes all the unspeakable things she would do if she had the freedom to do them. This element of her character gives Gabriella resonance. She represents any woman who has felt constrained by the trappings of her gender, the inability to go and do whatever she wants. Gabriella represents a desire for pure freedom, which she only ever experiences once she gets the blood. 

She also lets Lestat know that she is dying of consumption. As he describes her in the episode, Gabriella is a “complicated hang.” I think the show largely does a good job realizing this character, despite the needlessly incesty vibe and the sometimes distracting accent (although now we know where Lestat got his Donatella Versace-esque Euro-mumble). We repeatedly see Lestat’s desperate love for his mother and her inability to really reciprocate his feelings. As in the book, the two are fundamentally misaligned in how they look at the world, with Gabriella being far colder and more ruthless than her son. Their coming together happens much differently in Rice's book but here we get to see Lestat at kind of a low point and he is clearly needing something from Gabriella that she is incapable of providing to him. Perhaps there is another character on the horizon who might fulfill his maternal needs...

Lestat awakens and has to contend with the fallout from his skirmish with the Fang Gang last week and his bandmates coming to terms with him being an actual vampire, which raises some awkward and funny questions. As always, the bass player Salamander has some of the funniest asides and business. They specifically have a bunch of Interview with the Vampire-related questions. “When was the last time you saw Armand,” earns a scowl from Lestat. He reminds them that he lived for 54,554 days before meeting Louis.

Speaking of Louis, it turns out he is the owner of the Dracula’s Daughter hotel in which the fight occurred last episode and they attend mediation with their lawyers which spirals into trolling and accusations. Lestat is repped by his manager/lawyer Christine and Louis by a gorgeous vampire lawyer named Lemuel who I do not believe is a character from the books. This whole scene had previously been released and I kind of love it. These vampires—both in the books and on the show—are extremely petty. 

Louis attends Lestat’s show in Toledo and the two share what is almost a lovely moment which Lestat ends by slapping a well-annotated copy of Interview before him. This scene with Lestat floating above the frozen crowd while singing looks gorgeous. Daniel and Louis finally catch up in a restaurant in another previously-released scene. Lestat is not in this scene and his narration acknowledges the point-of-view questions this raises which he waves away much in the same way his book counterpart does in Queen of the Damned. He also bitchily states that his depiction of the two will have “less whining,” a burn that recalls Cruisestat.

Lestat’s night with Gabriella ends on a sour note as she asks him about Louis. Also Lestat seems to realize why they parted ways in the first place. We flash to a montage of scenes depicting Gabriella’s transformation into a vampire which seems to happen almost exactly as in the book. Although the flashback seems to indicate that the two travel back to Auvergne to kill the remaining de Lioncourts, which I am writing off as fantasy. Not only is that not how they die in the books but it is a seemingly impossible trip for two fledgeling vampires to make.

Now, agents from the Talamasca have been floating around in the background this whole episode and Raglan James and (Real) Rashid cut into Daniel’s meeting with Louis asking for his help to clear out the remaining Fang Gang coven members. Apparently, the coven has been unusually active and disruptive lately, seemingly related to the Great Conversion event that has been repeatedly referenced in Interview with the Vampire as well as the Talamasca series. Even in this episode Gabriella references it as something she knows about. Louis initially demures until they mention that Bruce—the vampire who had abducted Claudia—is leading the coven.

Notes:

• Gabriella tossing jewelry to the monks so that they would teach Lestat Italian writers is very in line with the book version of the character who had a seemingly endless stash of jewels.
• Could they not get someone who looked more like Sam Reid to play Teen Lestat?
• Do French people when speaking French have what we would call French accents?
• Is Salamander just Donald Ducking it every time he is offstage? This dude is hardly ever wearing pants.
• Man, Lestat is determined to name drop Akasha at every opportunity.
• Gabriella and Lestat have seen each other twice in the last century. Later she mentions she had seen the “aftermath” of Louis and Claudia’s attack. It seems she might have gone to his aid after Louis and Claudia left for Europe. His infusion of her blood likely helped him heal. It makes me wonder if the Lestat described in the Theatre Des Vampires performance was actually more injured that he was depicted in IWTV season two, in which he seemed fully-healed with no visible scars.
• Louis is going by the name Thomas Pitt. Maybe Lestat goes by Bradley Cruise…
• “Santiago I could understand, at least he had presence!” Lestat shitting on Armand will never not be funny.
• “You’re looking younger Daniel.” If the show goes for many more seasons are we setting the stage for replacing Bogosian with the actor who plays young Daniel? Bogosian is in his ‘70’s and you could fudge the lore to say the blood is de-aging him. It’s not in the books but neither is vampire eating and pissing. Although he would likely lose the Low-Hanging Balls Gift.
• Farid Vampire Watch: Definitely still not a vampire.
• This Lestat is going through great pains not to kill people with a “farm” and volunteers donating blood which he transfers into his victims.
• Has The David Talbot Watch Ended? It is implied that Louis killed a Talamasca member referred to as “Agent Talbot.” Book readers have been anxiously awaiting the debut of a character named David Talbot, who during this time was the Secretary General of the Talamasca and a character who becomes a close associate of Lestat and plays a very large role in The Tale of the Body Thief. Here it seems to be indicated that he is killed offscreen and what’s worse Raglan states “None of us really liked him much.” In the after show they address this and show runner Rolon Jones gleefully acknowledged that they killed him offscreen. This seems like trolling to me. I feel like he may in fact show up before the season is over.  It better be. 

Patrick Garone