Catch up on Interview with the Vampire
What’s Interview with the Vampire Season 1, Episode 2 about? What does Lestat and Louis get up to? Which human gets their blood sucked?
If you missed the other Interview with the Vampire episodes then head here:
- Interview with the Vampire Season 1, Episode 1: Recap and Review
- Interview with the Vampire Season 1, Episode 3: Recap and Review
- Interview with the Vampire Season 1, Episode 4: Recap and Review
This is a recap and review of Interview With the Vampire Season 1, Episode 2: ‘After the Phantoms of Your Former Self’.
Viewer beware – spoilers below!
Interview With The Vampire Season 1, Episode 2: Recap
“2 vampires walk into a church, that’s where we left off.”
In the present day, Louis invites Molloy to dinner. He informs Molloy that the book he writes should serve as a warning on the vampire as much as anything.
In the past we see Louis settling into his life as a vampire. Lestat teaches him the rules of feeding and body disposal although Louis’ hunger does get the better of him when he makes a family man his first kill. Lestat is furious as his victim is a person who will be missed.
After an argument, an angry Louis tries to leave Lestat and go home in the daylight, but the sun drives him back to his mentor.
After reconciling, the two vampires start a business together, opening a new club the Azalea. Louis also returns to visit his family (his first in a while) and finds himself tempted by the blood of his own baby nephew.
Lestat and Louis attend the opera, where Louis has to pretend to be a valet to be allowed in. Lestat is incensed by the less than stellar tenor and enacts a plot to seduce and dispatch him.
Six years into their relationship, Louis learns how to read minds and even see memories.
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Interview With The Vampire Season 1, Episode 2: Review
After the first episode’s faster pace, the show relaxes into a slower groove, delving into the strengthening bond between Louis and Lestat while also showing how Louis’ nagging conscience and remnants of his humanity still affect him. Lestat has little patience for Louis’ foibles and is furious with his lover when he kills an upper class resident which could draw attention to them. There are already rumours of a fatal illness that leaves the dead drained of blood with two holes in their necks. But despite this they continue their life with little suspicion.
We also see Louis’ frustration at still having to deal with racism in society, particularly a business partner who calls him “one of the good negroes” and the indignity of having to pretend to be Lestat’s valet. The fact that Lestat is happy for Louis to play the role so he can attend the opera is another complication.
We also get one of the first major instances of Lestat’s petty cruelty with his murder of the average tenor; a trait that was very prominent in the Cruise version of the character, where boredom seemed to have warped him into an exceedingly cruel character. Reid’s interpretation of the character is more likeable and someone we are more likely to enjoy following, whereas a whole season of petty cruelty would be a bit much. And Anderson’s Louis is thankfully less mopey than Pitt’s version, here he is fuelled by an anger that is stoked by the mistreatment of the black community in the early 1900s.
He both invites and rejects the way of the vampire, and his hot and cold relationship with Lestat has a lot to do with this. He is disgusted by his temptations, especially in the tense scene where he is left along with his baby nephew and starts going into a blood lust, a disturbing scene that is hilariously undercut by Molloy in the present day asking Louis, “Did you eat the baby?”
The modern scenes continue to provide a welcome contrast and context to the past – we see how Louis has adapted to modern life with his blood donors and tinted windows to keep the sun out. Molloy is delightfully irascible and keen to dig into Louis with his line of questioning. The tension between them is another major difference between the book and film, where the Interviewer was a wide eyed ambitious reporter instead of the deeply cynical and short tempered Molloy. Their antagonistic relationship and Molloy’s prodding of Louis is a highlight of the show.
There is still no sign of Claudia, the child companion vampire, but given the series seven episode run, she should be along soon.
RELATED: Interview with the Vampire Season 1, Episode 1: Recap and Review
Who’s part of the Interview With the Vampire cast?
- Jacob Anderson as Louis De Pointe du Lac
- Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt
- Eric Bogosian as Daniel Molloy
- Bailey Bass as Claudia
- Assad Zaman as Rashid, Louis’ familiar in 2022
- Steven Norfleet as Paul de Pointe du Lac, Louis’ brother
- Kalyne Coleman as Grace de Pointe du Lac, Louis’ sister
- Rae Dawn Chong as Florence de Pointe du Lac, Louis’ mother
- Jeff Pope as Finn O’Shea
- Chris Stack as Thomas “Tom” Anderson
- Luke Brandon Field as Young Daniel Molloy
- Rachel Handler as Peg-Leg Doris
- John DiMaggio as Alderman Fenwick
- Dana Gourrier as Bricktop Williams
- Christian Robinson as Levi Freniere
- Maura Grace Athari as Antoniette, a blues singer
What did you think of this episode?
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