Season 2 Of "INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE" Ends In More Blood, Tears, And Revenge
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“Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold.” - French Proverb
Season 2 of AMC’s hit show Interview With The Vampire came to a close on Sunday night with the show’s season finale. To say this season gave us more of what we wanted as fans is an understatement and we will dive deep into just what made season 2 of IWTV (We’ll be using this abbreviation from now on)so thrilling, bloody, and downright soul-crushing.
Sometimes life throws us for a loop. We think everything is right with our worlds. We got that new promotion at work, our home life is amazing, and we have people we trust and admire in our circle…life is good. Yet, there is always, always those in our lives that are there to muddy the waters, gunk up the gears, and ultimately, make us wish we were never in the situations we are now in.
This is where our favorite vampires, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and his fledgling, Claudia (Delainey Hayles) are currently at when we start with season 2. Coming off the fresh murder of their maker and let’s face it, the real star of the show, Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid). The duo are fugitives, not in the literal sense like a bad episode of COPS, no, these two are on the run from the dark specter that was Lestat and the life…or death, he gave to Louis and Claudia.
Now this vampiric trio may seem like they have the world in their hands just ready to take a bite, but man do things shift in season 2. Lestat, Louis, and Claudia form a twisted, vampiric family unit. Lestat assumes the role of the dominant patriarch, Louis the conflicted caretaker, and Claudia the rebellious child in season one of the show. Season 2 however shows just how much hate, betrayal, and manipulation this “family” unit can and will unleash upon each other…with the help of some French vampires as well.
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SPOILERS - Don’t Read On If You Have Not Seen Season One to Completion
Once we find out that the little servant boy running around Louis’ penthouse suite in Dubai is actually the ancient vampire Armand (Assad Zaman), things go from bad to worse for our interviewer, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). Armand’s very presence shakes the ground Daniel Molloy walks on because Armand is semi…hell he is, totally responsible for the deaths of Claudia and her fledgling, and newest vampire, Madeleine (Roxane Duran) at the hands of the Theatre de Vampires coven and its wannabe new coven leader, Santiago (Ben Daniels). Daniel Molloy is stuck in the middle of these vampires and a new group that monitors vampires and the supernatural called the Talamasca. He’s being fed a story by Armand and Louis yet this new player from the Talamasca informs him that he really needs to tread lightly on what he asks and how he does it, these are skilled killing machines he is interviewing after all. This back and forth between what really happened, what Armand and Louis say happened, and what the Talamasca have discovered through spies in their network over the centuries, is a completely other story. Molloy has some series edits coming his way and by the end of the season, gets rewarded for his efforts…in more ways than one.
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This whole season has been leading up to the return of the “Brat Prince”, Lestat. We last saw him, neck sliced from ear to ear, wrapped in blankets, and left in Louisiana, presumed dead. A little nick on the neck isn’t going to stop our favorite vamp’s life though, oh no, he’s far too powerful for that. He even states such when he reappears at a mock trial the Paris coven has for Louis and Claudia to determine how they should be punished for breaking the “old laws.” The problem with that is Louis and Claudia were never told ANYTHING about there being laws, let alone that there were even other vampires besides them. The attempted murder of Lestat broke the number one old law…vampires are NOT to kill their own kind.
We won’t go into detail on what happens at the trial but we must say the performance by Delainey Hayles as Claudia is soul-crushing. Her defiance, her love for Louis, and even her sadness could be felt through the screen as we watched. Did we forget to mention that Lestat is witness to it all…and does nothing…or so it seems. Claudia and her new fledgling, Madeline, are sentenced to death at this mock trial led by Santiago and are burned alive by the rays of the sun on stage. Even as she burns to ash Claudia is defiant and sings while her flesh peels and curls and turns to gray ash. Lestat and Louis can only stare in heartache and pain as she literally blows away. Louis gets banished to a cement prison and is buried alive for his deeds against Lestat. Trust us when we say you’re going to need some tissues after this scene is through because the sorrow and terror that flow from the screen is as pungent as a corpse in the sun.
In the last 2 episodes of the series, we get fed one lie after another by Armand and thusly by Louis to our interviewer. What is truth when vampires can manipulate minds, even the minds of other vampires?
If you’ve seen the film Interview With The Vampire, then you already know the fates of those in Armand’s coven. Let’s just say things HEAT UP for those in the Theatre de Vampires and a few vamps lose their heads over it in grand fashion. This is where the show and the film differ greatly. The film is now considered a classic vampire tale with homosexual overtones but the AMC series said “screw your shyness” and let everyone know right from the jump that this was going to be a love story between two males that lasted centuries. Also in the film we didn’t get the knowledge that Lestat owned the Theatre de Vampires and knew exactly when Louis and Claudia arrived in Paris from the start. Sometimes films change things to make the movie flow better but we truly feel this should have been added to the film as it would have been a revelation. This is when the final episode really takes shape and starts revealing some sad truths to both Louis and Daniel Molloy. Lies that were thought to be true for decades, lies that kept Louis and Armand together as partners in time are revealed to be total fabrications fed to Louis by Armand to keep him docile and in line. Again, we won’t spoil too much for you in regards to how Louis finds out Armand has been lying to him for so long but when he does…it’s earth-shaking.
The Reunion Of Lestat And Louis
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Upon discovering he has been lied to, Louis leaves Armand and travels back to America. Leaving David Molloy in Dubai but offering to pay for his time and efforts with 10 million dollars and then proceeds to burn Molloy’s laptop and the recordings he had to a cinder. Louis lands in New Orleans (as one would assume) and even takes a tour of the old home he and Lestat owned in the 1940s. As Louis is listening to the tour guide tell fabrications of his past, he sees a young, punk rock-looking vampire, hunting rats. When Louis follows this young vampire, he gets led to a depressed and somber Lestat. This is a reunion no one thought would end peacefully but based on what has occurred, Louis just wants to thank Lestat for everything he gave him and for protecting him for so long. We see that even though Lestat did nothing to save Claudia, he reveals that he is haunted by her every day and wishes he could have done something for her as she was his daughter and him her father.
The show fast forwards and we get a small taste of what is to come. Daniel Molloy, somehow, has made the recordings of the interview into a book and even though many view it as fiction, Molloy and other vampires know, it’s the truth. There is a slight problem with this though. Old vampire rule number two comes into play, vampires should not record their history, and man of man is the other living vampires in the world pissed at Louis. Louis takes a bold move and proclaims he “Owns The Night” and that anyone who wants to try him, may come.
The season finale was a marvel to watch and really grabbed us by the throat a few times. The set decorations, lighting, and stunt coordinators have to be applauded for the immense undertaking they had to light fires inside a wooden structure of an old Paris church and do it safely so no one was hurt. We will admit we glossed over some pretty important points in the season 2 finale so you will have to watch it. We can’t give everything away in one recap now, can we? The very ending of season 2 episode 8 is a bit of a shocker but if you’ve been reading the books or even seeing the hints throughout the series, you know who becomes a vampire next.
Season 3 of Interview With The Vampire has been green-lit by AMC and we’re eager to see where the show goes as they have 18 books to create new shows from. Let’s face it, when you’re dealing with vampires, time jumps and flashbacks are plenty. The third season promises to reveal Lestat as a rock star and the consequences Louis must face because of what David Molloy has printed. We will also see the origins of the vampiric race, find out who created Armand as well as Lestat, and even get to meet the oldest vampire, Akasha, the “Queen of the Damned.”
All in all, season 2 of Interview With The Vampire ends with revelations, heartache, and aggression, each performance was astounding and had so much depth we truly were sucked into the story. We can not wait to see what AMC pulls out of their hat for this next season and we’re pretty confident it is just going to get more bat-shit crazy as we go along. Interview With The Vampire has fast become our go-to series to watch on a Sunday night. When most people are watching dragons, we’ll stick with Vampires.
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