Happiness comes at a cost on Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire. In “The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood With All A Child’s Demanding,” Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) welcome a new vampire into their home, causing more tension.
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Daniel (Eric Bogosian) couldn’t pass up the chance to continue his interview with Louis. He left behind some unfinished business including his medical treatments for his Parkinson’s disease. Louis was aware of his condition and spared no expense to get those treatments for Daniel in Dubai.
Rashid (Assad Zaman) informs Daniel that Louis plans to rest but in the meantime, he can visit the library. He’s gaining access to very precious items in the archives. So precious that they ask Daniel to wear gloves when handling them. Rashid leaves him and Daniel goes through some of the items. He comes across a new perspective of Louis’ story. Claudia’s (Bailey Bass) perspective.
Claudia recalls the night that Louis saved her life. She thought Louis was an angel and she was in heaven. Louis took the girl home and begged Lestat to help. Lestat’s first suggestion was to end her life. But then he realized that the girl would keep Louis home. Claudia cried as Lestat drank her blood. But as soon as she tasted his blood, she felt strong again.
Louis and Claudia developed an instant connection. Both were made by Lestat and both were able to hide their thoughts from him. Something that annoyed Lestat to no end. If they were going to be a family, his first rule was no secrets. Louis immediately starts instructing Claudia on how to kill. Her first kill doesn’t go as planned. Lestat and Louis pick a man sitting alone in a park. Claudia smells something better. There is a policeman patrolling nearby and she quickly takes his life instead. The cop calls her a devil before he dies.

It’s clear to Louis and Lestat that Claudia is going to be a handful. They try to give her rules, but she moves to quickly. Since she is young, her metabolism burns faster, causing her hunger to return quickly. The two vampires do their best to help keep her calm. They give her a diary to write in and she sleeps in Daddy Lou’s coffin. Uncle Les doesn’t understand the purpose of a diary. He says she talks to the book.
Daddy Lou and Uncle Les often argue, in French, about how to raise Claudia. Claudia thinks it’s funny. As soon as they are able to, they get Claudia her own coffin. Then they spend some much needed alone time together. It’s clear that Claudia favors Louis. She even confides him her suspicions about Lestat. She knows he keeps secrets. Louis says he doesn’t like to talk about the past. He also tells Claudia to be careful when asking about Lestat’s secrets. Claudia is curious about the nights Lestat spends away from the family. Louis says he needs to kill extravagantly and Louis doesn’t like to watch.
Louis picks a fish out of the river and kills it. Claudia doesn’t understand why he eats fish and animals instead of people. He says it’s not about what she eats. She can kill quickly and painlessly or extravagantly. Some killing has consequences. He warns her about getting caught up in human affairs.
Daniel takes a short break from reading and hears Rashid praying in the next room. He remembers Rashid saying Louis was his god and questions where he’s actually from. Rashid avoids questions so Daniel goes back to work. He picks the next diary from Claudia, written four years after the first. Times have changed, but Claudia hasn’t. The three vampires grew closer as a family, so Claudia wasn’t too concerned with the way the world turned.
One night, Louis received a call that his mother had passed away. He took Lestat and Claudia to the wake. Grace (Kalyne Coleman) is shocked that Louis and Lestat adopted a child. She’s actually disgusted and asks him not to bring Lestat and Claudia to the funeral. Grace is more concerned about what’s going to happen to the house. The house belongs to Louis, and she wants to buy it from him. She can’t pay him what the house is worth, but says Louis doesn’t need the money. He has Lestat’s money. She annoys Louis and he tells her to be careful. He gives in and says he will have the papers drawn up. Claudia and Lestat interrupt, saying they are ready to go home. Perfect timing.

Claudia is closer to Louis, but she and Lestat grew close as well. He tried teaching her how to drive, and even he was scared by her recklessness. One night he decides to teach her about an even sweeter kill. He says killing humans in the throes of passion is even sweeter to the taste. He also warns her that their prey is young and would fight back. So she has to be ferocious.
They go to a place where two cars are parked. Lestat takes one car and Claudia takes the other. Claudia is only able to kill the man in the car as the woman runs away. Lestat captures the woman and takes her life. Lestat told her that she needed to practice killing a couple at the same time.
When they get home, Louis is appalled to learn where Lestat took Claudia. She didn’t really listen to why. Instead she realized that she was 18 now and it is time she started acting and dressing like it. Claudia decides to dress more maturely and leaves to hunt. Louis uses his mind to tell her not to do something that Lestat would do.
Claudia catches the eye of a waiter. She also catches the eye of three white girls across the street. They make fun of Claudia, thinking she can’t hear them. At the same time a carriage pulls up and the horse is startled by Claudia. The horse scared her too. When she calms down, she turns to talk to the driver. His name is Charlie (Xavier Mills) and Claudia really likes him.

Charlie awakened something inside of Claudia. She stopped eating, she stopped sleeping and only thought about Charlie. One night, as he drove by her home, he dropped a bouquet of flowers. There was a note on the bouquet asking Claudia to meet him for ice cream. She was very excited and Louis picked up on it. That night, Claudia learned to block Louis from reading her mind.
Claudia meets Charlie and he questions how old she is. She says she’s 19 and looks young for her age. She reminisces about the neighborhood they both grew up in, proving she’s older than she looks. The two youngster end up making out in the back of Charlie’s carriage. Claudia gets carried away and accidentally drains Charlie. She takes him to Louis and Lestat, asking them to turn Charlie, but he’s dead. Lestat forces Claudia to watch Charlie’s body burn. He says this is why they don’t get close to mortals. Sooner or later, they end up dead.
Louis finds Daniel reading Claudia’s diary. Daniel immediately starts asking about Claudia. Louis says Claudia was everything. He loved her unconditionally. She was his daughter and silenced his chaos. Daniel understands that love because he has two. Louis asks if he came across their diaries and read the exact moment he failed them, would he share that?
Louis says Charlie’s death ushered in a dark era in their life. The delicate balance of their home was shattered. The fantasy of happiness burst. Claudia was a bandaid for his relationship with Lestat. But she changed. Shortly after Charlie’s death, Claudia grieved inside of her coffin. She laughed, she cried, and she screamed about everything. Claudia was angry though. She was angry about her body, her immortality … two demons made her a demon. But that’s okay. The first and the last boy she ever loved called her an angel.
Claudia steps out of her coffin; opens the top hatch in the roof where the sunlight comes in. She steps onto the piano and stands in front of the light. Claudia reaches her arm out and lets the sun burn her. Her flesh turns into sand. She screams until she can’t stand it no more. In her mind, she knows she’s on the right path. Claudia is just getting started.
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Interview with the Vampire airs Sunday nights on AMC. Watch episodes early on AMC Plus.
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