A new vampire is born on Interview with the Vampire. In “After the Phantoms Of Your Former Self,” Lestat (Sam Reid) shows Louis (Jacob Anderson) how to be a successful vampire.
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Daniel (Eric Bogosian) enjoys a seven course meal while waiting for Louis to wake up. Louis’ assistant Rashid (Assad Zaman) caters to Daniel’s every need, but does not answer any of his questions. His only explanation for his service is that he is serving a god. Louis joins them and the interview with the vampire continues.
ADJUSTMENT
Louis’ transition is a little bumpy but he learns quickly. His first kill is a traveling salesman who likes to talk about his daughter. Lestat talks Louis through the kill, but Louis ends up feeling bad about it. He gets nervous and decides to go home. The only problem is, the sun is up high.
Louis begins to burn as soon as the sun hits his skin. He runs back to Lestat’s, begging to be let in. Lestat failed to mention that they could not survive during the day. He says being a vampire has its challenges. That’s why New Orleans is the perfect setting for a vampire home … a vampire romance.
Vampires sleep during the day and yes, they sleep in coffins. At first Louis is reluctant to get in the coffin. He tells Daniel that it was all too much to handle at once. Daniel questions how Louis could take the life of the salesman, even knowing that he had a family. Louis asks if he contemplates the life of the meat he eats or does he just eat it?
Louis says vampires are apex killers. They are meant to detach from humanity. He says they have the ability to see a human life in its entirety, having the satisfaction of being the end of that life. Having a hand in the divine plan. This book must be a warning more than anything. Louis admits he was haunted by the salesman’s death. It caused him to hesitate killing. Lestat tries to ease the process by telling Louis about his experiences. Louis doesn’t like it, but killing is necessary.
HUMAN ATTACHMENTS
Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy – Interview with the Vampire _ Season 1, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
Louis has distractions. He went into business with one of his regulars, Alderman Finwick (John DiMaggio). His doorman asks to manage the place and Louis says he will consider it. When the doorman leaves, Lestat says the doorman wants to steal from Louis. He knows this because he read the doorman’s mind.
Mindreading is actually quite simple. The trick is to know what humans want. There are three things humans always want: food, sex, and to go home. Louis learns quickly how to hear humans’ thoughts and finds Lestat is right. What’s most interesting to Louis is that Lestat can no longer hear his thoughts.
Louis found it hard to tear himself away from his human life. He felt it necessary to continue working and seeing his family. Florence (Rae Dawn Chong) is still very stand-off-ish with Louis, recognizing that there is something different about him. Grace (Kalyne Coleman) saw it too. She actually saw his vampire eyes, but thought they were beautiful. Louis loves his sister the most and was happily surprised to learn that she is pregnant with twins.
BLOODY BUSINESS
As for his business with Finwick, he meets with Finwick’s lawyer to go over the building plans. He has some good ideas and plans to oversee the construction himself. The lawyer is very impressed with Louis, calling him exceptional and worth the 15% he’s getting. Louis takes offense to how the lawyer speaks to him and kills the lawyer.
Lestat is livid that Louis not only killed a man in his place of business but he killed an important man in New Orleans. He helps Louis get rid of the body while they fight. Later that night he says he would have killed the man himself for disrespecting Louis. He wants to make it up to his lover and asks how. Louis asks to buy the Fairplace Saloon from Tom Anderson (Chris Stack). Lestat cannot say no to Louis even though mixing human and vampire business never ends well.
Louis made the saloon a success for the next five years. He also made enough money to retire, but he wasn’t ready for that. One thing he became delinquent on was seeing his family. After five years, Louis visits Grace. She has three children now, the youngest being only a few weeks old. Grace asks Louis to hold the baby while she gets him food and tends to her twins. Louis hears the baby’s heartbeat and gets very hungry as he stares at the baby.
Back to the present, Louis wants to make it very clear to Daniel and his readers that he does not kill anymore. He is a master of his instincts. Daniel wonders if the others are masters as well. Louis says they aren’t and he knows this because he can hear the thoughts of other vampires around the world. Daniel tries multiple times to find out what happened to the baby, but Louis wants to talk about current events.
AFTER THE PHANTOMS OF YOUR FORMER SELF
Jacob Anderson as Louis De Point Du Lac and Kalyne Coleman as Grace De Pointe Du Lac – Interview with the Vampire _ Season 1, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Alfonso Bresciani/AMC
When he finally returns to the story, Louis reveals that he left a crying baby on the floor in Grace’s home, alone and unharmed. Louis got very upset that he even thought about eating the baby. That’s his nephew. He also realizes that he will never have children. He can never have a family of his own. Lestat says he is Louis’ family now. He says Louis needs to stop seeing his family. They will become fearful of him if they haven’t already.
Lestat wants to cheer up Louis and tells him of his plan to take him to Rome. Louis questions how they are able to travel. Lestat says it’s possible, but he meant going to Rome, via the opera. As upset as Louis was about his family, he couldn’t resist Lestat’s gesture. Lestat was his murderer, mentor, lover, and maker all at once. Louis never felt like a servant with Lestat; he felt worshiped by him.
They went to the opera but kept up an appearance of societal expectations. Louis had to be Lestat’s valet until the lights went down. As soon as Louis sat next to him, Lestat told him his greatest fear. Being alone. Lestat says Louis takes away his loneliness. That is why they must stay together and take precautions. Louis asks if they are the only ones and Lestat says there aren’t many vampires out there, maybe 100.
Louis enjoyed watching Lestat during the opera. This was Lestat’s human attachment. They were most impressed by the soprano singer, but the tenor was annoying. He pretty much ruined the whole thing for Lestat. Louis watched Lestat hunt the tenor singer. He takes him home and tries to correct his flat notes.
POWER OF DEATH
Lestat gets annoyed with the singer and stabs him in the throat. Louis hates the way Lestat plays with his food before killing them. Lestat enjoys it but recognizes that Louis doesn’t have to. He doesn’t care though; as long as Louis embraces that he is a killer now.
Louis only cut the man enough to keep him from screaming. He drained the singer slowly. Louis listened to the singer’s thoughts while he died. He saw the man’s life as he grew up in Italy. Lestat finds some kind of power in being able to see death at the end of a life. He says if Louis will submit to his nature and he will be filled with all the life he can hold.
Lestat had a way about him that made Louis want to please him. He may not have liked his methods, but he understood. Louis joined Lestat in drinking the tenor and pretended to like it so he didn’t disappoint his maker. Louis tells Daniel that Lestat was wrong about him. He would never savor the after taste. He was a botched vampire. Louis tried to have a human dish once a week to keep up the appearances.
The two friends share dessert together. Louis read that this was Daniel’s favorite dessert in his memoirs. Daniel asks what it tastes like to a vampire. It tastes like paste, chalk, or maybe soap. Daniel says this was the dessert he ate after he proposed to his first wife. He closes his laptop and they eat in silence.
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Interview with the Vampire airs Sunday nights on AMC. Watch episodes early on AMC Plus.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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