Our Interview with the Vampire Season 2 recaps continue with episode 7, “I Could Not Prevent It.” Catch up on our previous recaps for the first six episodes right here. Beware: spoilers below!
In the present, interviewer Daniel (Eric Bogosian) is still interviewing the vampires Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Armand (Assad Zaman) about what happened after the Théâtre des Vampires coven abducted Louis, Claudia (Delainey Hayles) and her companion Madeleine (Roxane Duran).
Flashback: as Louis and Armand alternately narrate for Daniel, we see Louis, Claudia and Madeleine trying unsuccessfully to fight their captors. They are covered by sacks and the coven acts en masse to disorient them.
When the sacks are removed, Louis, Claudia and Madeleine find themselves tied to chairs on stage at the Théâtre des Vampires in a one-of-a-kind afternoon performance. They are accused of murdering the vampire Antoinette Brown and attempting to murder Lestat (Sam Reid). Louis says he lapsed in and out of consciousness as Santiago (Ben Daniels) hams it up as the prosecutor.
The other actors in the coven play judges; the human audience is the jury. Everyone on stage has scripted lines except for the three prisoners. Their ankle tendons have been slashed.
Louis says as the fight went out of Claudia, he could feel a “familiar” presence. That’s Lestat (Sam Reid), who makes his grand entrance to huge applause.
Although Santiago tries to prompt Lestat into calling what happened between him and Louis butchery, Lestat says it was love. Projections show animated drawings of Santiago’s version of the past, while Lestat talks about his early love with the “fragile” violinist Nicola.
When Santiago says that Nicola died by his own hand, Lestat adds, “With a little help from others,” and looks meaningfully at Armand, who is in the shadows in one of the theatre boxes. Louis sees vampire playwright Sam (Christopher Geary) preventing Armand from leaving.
Louis tells Daniel that Armand spent the whole performance calculating a way to save him.
Lestat says that, in grief, he buried himself in the dirt for a hundred years, his only sustenance his own blood.
Santiago says that when Lestat disinterred himself, he went to the New World. He then asks who Lestat met there and further states that Lestat pointed at Louis. Lestat counters that he only glanced at Louis, and that Santiago should be more precise.
When Lestat claims that Louis kept showing up, wanting Lestat to come to him, Louis finally cries out that “Come to me” were Lestat’s words.
Lestat has to be prompted to say his next lines. Lestat talks of offering himself to Louis. One of the men in the human audience makes a noise. Lestat says, “Men embracing men. It disgusts you?” Lestat reads the man’s mind and reveals aloud that the former soldier tried to desert during the war but was able to cover it up. Members of the man’s company are also in the audience. They may be disgusted by two vampires of the same sex embracing, but they’re probably more disgusted by the man’s cowardice.
Santiago tells the audience that the worst thing for a vampire is to be alone – it is human loneliness magnified. Lestat goes into the audience and takes a mortal man’s hand. The man begins weeping as Lestat lets the man feel his vampire loneliness. Lestat cries a tear of blood and says that Louis threatened him with abandonment. “Shame on you!” the mortal yells at Louis.
Santiago mocks Claudia by reading from her diary in an approximation of her voice. Claudia exclaims that she is more of a vampire than anyone on the stage – and then she is silenced by the other vampires controlling her mind. Lestat claims that he told Louis it would be terrible to turn a fourteen-year-old, as she’d physically stay that age forever while her mind matured. Lestat tells the audience that Louis gave his blood to Claudia.
In the present, Louis admits to Daniel that this is true. He had misremembered it before. He begged Lestat on his knees to turn Claudia.
In flashback, Lestat acknowledges turning Claudia. He’s the one who broke the law regarding turning children. If Louis and Claudia are to be sentenced, Lestat should be sentenced, too.
Claudia whispers to Louis that this is all lies, right? Louis reassures her that it is. Meanwhile, Santiago is unprepared for Lestat’s confession and tries to minimize his testimony.
Lestat says they were all happy for a while, but then Claudia left for seven years. Louis withdrew his affections, and Lestat finally turned to (and turned) Antoinette Brown. But Lestat says he still held out hope that Louis would emerge from his melancholy and love Lestat as Lestat loved him.
Then Claudia returned and, per Lestat, persuaded Louis to leave him and go with her to Europe. In Lestat’s version of the huge fight, Louis threatened to kill Lestat.
Lestat tries to take some blame, but Santiago contradicts him. Then Claudia says Lestat tried to kill Louis. There is an animation of Lestat flying Louis into the sky and dropping him, but Santiago says that, for a vampire, this is just a hard fall and Lestat knew Louis would be fine. “No!” Lestat shouts.
In the present, Armand says Lestat went off script. Daniel asks how he knows this wasn’t part of the show. Armand says Sam, the playwright, was cursing. Also, “You cannot script a hurricane, and Lestat was a hurricane.”
In a flashback, Lestat says that he couldn’t force Louis to love him, so he broke him by throwing him to earth. Crying, Lestat tells Louis directly that he will always be sorry for what he did.
Claudia is so angry that she manages to get to her feet. She yells at Lestat for what he did to Louis and then tries to apologize. She’s also angry that none of this was ever about her—she was just a prop in their romance. She sits by Madeleine, who asks if they are on trial. Claudia replies, “It’s not a trial. It’s a stoning.” This sobers the audience somewhat.
The animated projections are working again, and Lestat is back on script, recovering from his apology. The mortal audience is enthralled.
In the present, Louis is disturbed at reliving all this. First, he laughs. Then he says, “This is hard.” Then, he throws a dish at the wall.
In flashback, it is pointed out that Madeleine has committed no crime – except that she was made without the consent of the coven master, who is now Santiago.
Madeleine is given the choice to join the coven or die. She declares Claudia her immortal companion and her only coven. The audience declares Madeleine and Claudia guilty and sentences them to death.
Claudia says that if there is an afterlife, she will find everyone from the audience and kill them – and even if there isn’t an afterlife, she’ll find a way. Since it’s established that there are ghosts in Mayfair Witches, which is part of the same AMC Anne Rice Immortal Universe as Interview, let’s hope we get a vampire ghost revenge story.
Then it’s Louis’ turn. The audience declares him guilty, but there is silence when Santiago asks for a sentence. Armand whispers, “Banishment,“ and the crowd takes up the cry.
In the present, Daniel notes that Armand saved Louis. Armand says, “It took all my strength.“ But, Daniel notes, Armand didn’t save Claudia. Armand says, “I could not prevent it.“
In flashback, Santiago at first objects but then tells the audience to have it their way. Louis tells Daniel he was put in the crypt in a coffin filled with rocks. Banishment meant being locked in a box to starve to death.
In the present, Armand tells Daniel that Claudia and Madeleine were whispering their last words together, defiant and scared.
Flashback: Santiago reminds the audience that what they are about to see is “fake.“ The blackout curtain is pulled off the Théâtre roof, and Madeleine and Claudia disintegrate in the sunlight. Claudia begins to sing her “Windows“ song from when she played Baby Lulu. Armand says it is clear that the last thing she saw was Lestat’s face.
We really feel for Madeleine, who has developed huge loyalty to Claudia in what feels like a short amount of time (though, in story terms, it is years). We also feel for Claudia, whose courage is undeniable.
But mainly, we’ve got tons of questions. Did Lestat have a hand in Louis’s deliverance? Could Armand really not save Claudia? Does Louis blame Armand for not saving Claudia? How does Louis get out of the coffin? Is anybody going to take revenge on Santiago? Does Louis actually want Lestat back after all this? Which, if any, of these issues will be resolved in next week’s season finale? Aggh, the suspense …
Watch new episodes of the Interview with the Vampire TV series every Sunday on AMC & AMC+. For more, catch up on our Interview with the Vampire episode recaps. We may only have one more episode left in season 2, but AMC just announced Interview with the Vampire season 3, plus more of The Talamasca in AMC’s recently announced full-blown expansion of their Anne Rice Immortal Universe with The Talamasca series.
Stay tuned for next week’s Interview with the Vampire season 2 finale.
