The amount of comedy in The Vampire Lestat might make it seem startling and slow-paced compared to the first two seasons of Interview With The Vampire. In two episodes, this rebranded third season has mostly just established the brat prince’s tortured rockstar avatar and offered a glimpse at his complex feelings for Louis and Gabriella. However, much like “Detroit,” “Toledo” offers a scathing insight into Lestat’s crumbling state of mind while on tour. Underneath his erratic behavior, affinity for theatrics, and love of mockery is a 265-year-old vampire suffering from a massive identity crisis. It’s an inherently funny and tragic concept that the show milks for all its worth. Naturally, the reappearance of his ex-lover and his mother (who is somehow also an ex-lover!) is bound to send him into a tizzy.
How The Vampire Lestat plays around with Anne Rice’s juicy material—whether through absurd yet intentional original songs, Lestat’s twisted history, or the hints at The Great Conversion—is keeping me on my toes. I’m glad the show doesn’t waste time after blasting us with Lestat’s outré relationship with his mom, either. The show quickly lets us process the depths of this Oedipus complex, and hoo boy, it’s a doozy. Their parent-child connection expanded after they became immortal, with Lestat turning his mother when she was on her deathbed so he wouldn’t lose her forever. Knowing they’d have to spend an eternity together enhanced their extremely odd yet strong attachment.
Rushed flashbacks to Auvergne, France, in the early 1700s reveal that, while growing up, Lestat was close only to Gabriella. It was both of them against the world because Lestat’s older brothers and father were particularly vindictive toward him. His father robbed him of the chance to study at a monastery and stole his sense of wonder when he forbade Lestat from working with a group of actors. All Lestat had was his mom’s support (and, yes, his stutter). Although, the most telling scene is when Gabriella didn’t flinch or try to save Lestat from getting beaten up by her older sons—she went right back to reading her book. It’s because Gabriella herself desired a bigger, better life, away from the “cabbages” around her. The turning point arrived when Lestat, at the age of 20, was brave enough to face off against wolves to protect livestock and help the village’s farmers. It gained him local worshippers, much to Gabriella’s delight.
I hope it happens in the near future, but for now, The Vampire Lestat doesn’t dig into the immorality of Gabriella working her charm on a vulnerable Lestat, or how it led him to form an unflinching, turbulent bond with her. Through Lestat’s narration, the show chalks their undead incestuousness up to “this is just what vampires do.” But the truth is, Gabriella and Lestat found it tough to stay apart even as mortals. While helping him recover from his wolf-inflicted scars when he was still just a man—by sensually rubbing medicine all over his chest and thighs—she spoke of wanting to bed other men and why she belonged to no one. When Lestat added “except for me,” she didn’t deny it. Gabriella’s manipulations groomed Lestat enough that he carries a torch for her even after over two centuries of being alive. How can you expect the guy not to be fucked up?
His plight worsens when you understand that, at some point after he turned her, Gabriella abandoned Lestat. Before she showed up at the end of episode one to help him, they’d only seen each other twice in the last 100 years. And now, she’s joined The Vampire Lestat on the road, with mother and son making a pact to stop banging each other for a while. To the rest of his friends and groupies, she’s Lestat’s cougar-y old pal, Sofia. In Toledo, the two fly all over town, catch each other up, and stalk their potential victims—a group of guys working at a glass company. But what Lestat and Gabriella don’t know yet is that Talamasca is following them.
Might it have something to do with The Great Conversion? Gabriella casually mentions that a man at the strip club, due to his predatory spirit, is a good candidate for it. The Great Conversion is essentially a rise of vampirism, and how the world would fall apart if their number grew exponentially more than that of the mortals. If humans never procreated or died, it would negatively impact the ecology and economy. Evidently, season three will further explore this, with Gabriella being a gleeful proponent.
Lestat still doesn’t have to worry about any of this; he’s got too much on his plate anyway. For starters, his favorite band member, Alex (Seamus Patterson), quits because he doesn’t condone working alongside a blood-sucker. Lestat gets it—he gently warns Alex to take some time away, and that going to the cops isn’t an option, unless he wants Lestat to kill his fellow bandmates. Then there’s the fact that Gabriella remains a closed book and won’t let him know how long she plans to stay. And worst—or best—of all, Louis is back. Going by the name Thomas Pitt, Louis reveals he owns 45 percent of Lestat’s merch (it’s a business decision only, he claims with confident delusion), and he also owns the Detroit hotel that Lestat fought the Fang Gang in. So Lestat and Louis meet around a conference table, with their respective lawyers in tow, in what feels like a hysterical divorce proceeding but is actually just Louis checking in on Lestat.
Their reunion is as moving as it is absurdly funny. Lestat can’t help but let his jealousy rise to the surface, and Louis doesn’t make matters easier by calling Lestat’s songs “a cry for help.” It takes only five minutes for Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson to remind us of their potent chemistry. After season one, they haven’t had nearly as much screen time together, so it was a thrill to watch Loustat collide and combust again. They can yell at each other, but it comes from a place of unabashed yearning, as seen when Louis attends Lestat’s concert later. Lestat, while singing the ballad “Why Do I Have To Feel,” uses his powers to slow time, floats up to Louis in the audience, and stares him in the eyes while singing, “I tried to write to you / The prettiest song in the world / But I got distracted,” while flinging Louis’ memoir at his face. Both actors carry their characters’ pain in their eyes—it’s a shame that Anderson doesn’t have all the awards for IWTV.
The Vampire Lestat also reminds us that, while this is Lestat’s POV now, Louis is still the story. Daniel says that verbatim while trying to capture footage of his former interview subject at the concert. The two later dine together at a bar with a view to discuss their lives. Daniel admits to Louis that he likes being a vampire, even if it comes with a lot of loneliness. Meanwhile, Louis admits he still misses Claudia, and he even followed a Claudia lookalike once in New York City. And it’s a good thing he says it, too, because Daniel introduces him to Talamasca agent Raglan James, who has a mission for dear Louis. Raglan wants Louis to take out a local vampire who’s set up a destructive little fentanyl operation. Louis has no interest, not until he hears that the vamp in question is Bruce—the same Bruce who harmed, assaulted, and tortured Claudia after she left New Orleans in 1923. And just like that, Louis has revenge on his mind again.
Clearly, Louis’ mission will take him away from Lestat again, but I hope season three doesn’t keep the actors apart for too long. If anything, “Toledo” was a great reminder of their strength as a duo. As much as I’m enjoying Reid bringing Lestat’s turmoil to life—both in song and in his excellent narration—the show just finds more emotional depth when the two toxic lovers intertwine. Let’s hope their paths converge at some more concert stops soon. Until then, we have Gabriella’s deviousness to keep Lestat (and us) company.
Stray observations:
- •Lestat: “You’ve weathered the Freudian storm, and yes, that boat is my penis, and yes, that ocean is my mother’s vagina. Kiss, grope, aftercare, onward.”
- •Just when you think the Interview With The Vampire can’t get any more good-looking, they bring singer-songwriter and actor Moses Sumney on. He plays Louis’ lawyer/emotionally unavailable fuck buddy, Lemuel. Despite his obvious jealousy, Lestat points out that he, too, is banging his lawyer because, “She’s petite, surprising, and can perform what most metropolitan draining systems can only dream of.”
- •I understand Gabriella’s urge to mess around with the food delivery robots.
- •Lestat’s bandmate, T.C. (Sarah Swire), has a lot of questions for him after realizing he’s a vampire, but the two big ones are: “Are your songs about this guy named Lewis?” and “Black Licorice. Is that song about sucking Louis’ dick?” As a reminder, the lyrics go, “I want to stay in bed / eating black licorice.”
- •Line reading of the week once again goes to Sam Reid for the way Lestat ragebaits himself when Louis talks about his time with Armand in their Sausalito home: “I bet, I bet. A very specific detail to pluck out of thin air.”
- •For those who are curious, in Rice’s book, Lestat and Gabriella don’t kill their family members after becoming vampires, as they do in this episode. Instead, Gabriella decides never to speak to them, while Lestat sends his father and brothers money frequently and keeps tabs on them until they die.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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