The third episode of Interview With the Vampire is one of the best episodes I have ever watched. Lestat and Louis are reading on a bench in Jackson Square. Lestat reads from a newspaper column and describes the history of the square to a New Orleans native. They used to take runaway slaves, cut their heads off, and put them on the iron gates as a warning. Louis asked not to look up from his book. Lestat stops and says, "I'm only halfway through." Let's take a look. The rest of the episode is a complicated drama that explores the way that these characters plaster over the holes they leave in the wall. You can't remove the damage because it's still there. Maybe Louis can cover it up.
Louis tells Lestat that he doesn't want to kill people who aren't deserving. Lestat doesn't see what's going on. He says that everyone is capable of bad things. Lestat teased Louis as they began their hunt. There are all these requirements for salvation. Lestat doesn't consider morality to be worth investigating. Why should he think the same way as a human? Louis kills a cat instead of drinking from his vein. Lestat didn't say anything.
Louis and Lestat are continuing to test each other. The hapless Mr. Morton is picked on by Lestat towards the end of their fight. There is a Jelly Roll Morton. Lestat heckles him off the stage, plays a classical piece of piano, and improves a melody that would later become Morton's famous "wolverine Blues."
Daniel is the first one to cut in. There is a demand for confirmation that Louis really means to say that Lestat is responsible for the blues. He says that Louis seems to be changing his past. Daniel played clips from their first interview and compared them to their current interactions. Louis seems to have softened his stance, but that is not the only difference. He had previously described Lestat as dumb. Do you think now is the right time? He is a smart and sharp hunter.
Louis says that the current version is the more nuanced one. Louis insists that he wasn't abused or a victim as Daniel talks about how trauma can affect memory. Daniel said that Louis acted like he was locked in a gothic romance.
The crux of the show is what we heard next. Louis quotes from Daniel's own memoir "the odyssey of recollection" The viewers are reminded that this is a new story, strung together from the bones of the original, when they watch Interview With the Vampire. The audience that might remember the original book is the challenge of the series. Daniel decided to destroy the tapes. The story will remain on its own. The real rewrite can start now.
In New Orleans, Lestat seduces the lounge singer. The two vampire talk about open relationships, commitment, and trust in the backyard after Lestat wanders. The show shifted from surprisingly good to amazing, actually, when Louis asked Sam if he could "fuck whoever he wants." "Of course," repeated four times, with increasing absurdity and camp each time, shifted this show from surprisingly good to amazing, actually.
We are watching a set-up as we move into the political maneuverings of Louis. There is a second run in every scene in this episode and every other episode. There is no wasted space or time where narration is filling in. Everything that is laid down will come back to life. In a master class in writing, every single moment is a domino in a line, waiting to be knocked down by a bigger, badder mess.
An old friend of Louis is about to be shipped off to the front. They are walking and reminiscing about the past. They have a less-than-romantic tryst while walking along a back road near the bayou. As Louis is sucked off, he sates his desire for blood by biting on his own wrist, avoiding the murder of his friend.
The mud on Lestat's boots was noticed by Louis when he came back to Lestat. It might have been a sign that Lestat was following him. Louis paused and asked if it rained that night. Is it true that did it? Louis and Jonah are under the trees in darkness. There was thunder and rain under the tree. There is no truth. Whatever Louis tells Daniel is the truth. The story is just an old one. The rest of a life is what we are seeing.
Louis tries to visit his family but it doesn't go well. Everyone knows that he is a monster and a devil. Lestat, who is throwing a massive party full of enlisted, uniformed men, might as well have hung a "Welcome Home, Cheater!!" sign on the front porch. The soldiers are drunk and singing and Lestat is playing the piano. I am able to eat them.
Lestat knows that all of Louis' hard work is being destroyed and he's helping it along. He blames Lestat for his first death, the loss of his relationship with his family, the politics that seem determined to bring down his establishment due to the skin color of its owner, and many other things. The horrible, insipid, racist irony hit you like a punch to the gut when Alderman Fenwick suggested that he would be willing to buy back the Azalea at 15 cents on the dollar. Every line in this show has a second chance.
There is a lot of layers to the Black experience. This episode feels like a lot of the seeds that were planted in earlier episodes have fully grown and bloomed. Louis feels that racism is centered and his struggles are centered as well. He was chased out of his place of business. We focus on his face and fate. Take a black man in America and make him a vampire and see what happens.
I talked about second lives. This is the point of the episode, this wrestling with Anne Rice's material, this rewrite of her work. She could never have written a gothic horror like this. Being a black man who is continually fucked with has a lot of pain and fury. The writers have hung up Anne Rice's mantle and made their own in the third episode. All of the themes laid out in the episode were explained in Daniel's line. It is a reminder that we are heading into new ideas.
The man confronted the man. It's a testament to both the writing and Anderson's acting abilities that when someone sends an off-hand glance towards Louis, I believe in the power of murder. The vampire doesn't flinch when Louis is shot. He won't be killed by this man. Louis said he would allow you to reload. The scene is important. I like the comeuppance and the violence.
All of Storyville goes up in flames after the Azalea house is burned down by avarcisious competition. One last match is thrown onto the fire by Louis inside the house. Lestat was told that the two of them wouldn't work. If you've been watching the show, Lestat's worst fear is that he'll be alone.
The episode ends with Louis going into the burning streets of Storyville to find his wife. We have to wait until episode four to truly meet her, because we don't see anything except an outline. At the end of the show, we have a broken man who has lost his business, his family, and his lover. The themes of the episode ring out as he grasps at one thing he can fix. The rest of the story will not be the same. Will be told a lot of things. It will be the same as the rest of us.
New episodes of Interview With the Vampire will be aired on Sunday. The show is on AMC One week early, AMC+ is showing episodes online.
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