Interview With the Vampire Returns

Behind the Scenes of Episode 8

As I watched Louis make his way out of the gravel, the coffin and the morgue, I thought this is probably the moment his strongest emotions propelled him forward with what was to come. It did take me a moment to realize the ghost of one of Louis' post-exhumation victims was actually helping him prepare.

And like the name of this episode, we see something else that brings to mind the 1994 film adaptation. Louis' revenge.

A fire in a theater.

Since it is well known that a theater is one of the most deadly places to have a fire, Louis used this well. Theaters are large, cavernous spaces designed to hold a lot of people, but have very few doors anywhere. One tragic example of this is the Chicago Iroquois Theater fire in 1903. But how would such a thing play out if those inside the theater are vampires?

Louis went in while everyone was still in bed--I mean coffins. And like the 1994 film adaptation, Louis doused each coffin liberally with an accelerant. Despite this, a few of the vampires, including Santiago/Francis, managed to escape the burning structure. Of course, Santiago/Francis and the others did NOT stop to try to evacuate anyone else. To him, everyone else was completely expendable. Only HE mattered. Something Louis made sure to let Santiago/Francis know he was wrong about--right before he...uh, finished him off.

It would not be until more than 70 years later that Louis would learn it was not Armand who swayed the audience into sparing Louis, but Lestat.

Sometime between the end of Daniel's present-day interview and Louis reuniting with Lestat, Louis returned to New Orleans. And this is the kind of thing I love. A tour guide taking people through the French Quarter, and stopping in front of the house Louis and Lestat had lived in with Claudia. While the tour guide thrilled his audience with the legend of this party gone horribly wrong and what was found in the house after Louis and Claudia had fled, there was Louis, the French Creole, wearing a baseball hat and jacket as he stood quietly listening with the rest of the tour group.

Now, since we have just recently learned there will be a Season 3 of Interview With the Vampire on AMC, let's talk about Lestat's house. Where Louis goes to thank Lestat, who broke down while asking Louis if he tried to hurt himself on September 8, 1973. Without giving away too much, those who have read the Vampire Chronicles, and The Vampire Lestat in particular will recall that Lestat had hidden himself beneath an old ruin of a house in New Orleans in 1929, and did not reemerge until 1984. The old ruin of a house Louis finds Lestat in...same house? We'll just have to wait and see!

Behind the Scenes of Episode 7, Season 2 Featurette

So, this is vampire justice...and the Court of Public Opinion is allowed a vote because they think it's a show being put on? I think? Well, except for the soldier with the big mouth whom Lestat confronts. Despite having to amend the charge of murder to attempted murder since the victim himself is present to give testimony, that only covers Louis and Claudia.

But Madeleine? Someone who merely wanted companionship and had endured frighteningly graphic attacks herself? I'm going to have to go back and refresh my memory on the character of Madeleine, because that seems...unjust. Guilt by association. With a child vampire who should not have been made a vampire because she was a child. That would have been on Louis and Lestat, yes?

After all of that, only Louis is spared a vampire death, instead being banished. However, "banishment" meant a morgue, and sharing a coffin completely full of gravel WITH the gravel. That...makes me a bit...dizzy...

But...wait. HOW did this come to pass? How is it Louis is spared at all, allowed banishment while Madeleine, whose only "crime" seemed to be wanting to remain a companion to a child vampire who wasn't supposed to have been made in the first place because she was a child? Instead of joining a coven who made her acquaintance by doing all of this to her? Well, let's ask the guy in the back. Armand.

Somehow, Armand was able to sway the audience, the "Court of Public Opinion", to vote for banishment over death for Louis. Despite the audience having voted for death for Claudia and Madeleine both. What.

Did Lestat make a move to help Claudia? Of course not. Did he make a move to help Madeleine? No. And why not? Good question, but let's just pause there for a moment. It was Armand who intervened for Louis. With Lestat right there, watching the entire thing. Including the end of both Claudia and Madeleine. So, of course we want to see the season finale! HOW to explain this mess, and how, even after the side trip to 1973 San Francisco, Daniel is seated before Louis and Armand again, Armand being the love of Louis' life?

Behind the Scenes of Episode 6, Season 2 Featurette

Armand had never made a vampire himself in the nearly 500 years he's been one? I think my eyes would have gotten big with disbelief, too, had I been in Daniel's place. Something interesting and curious about both Armand and Claudia just occurred to me for the first time...ever.

Armand was also very young when he was made a vampire. It's a bit jarring to see the difference in the apparent age at the time Armand became a vampire when you compare Armand in Interview With the Vampire (1994) with Armand in this series. However, Armand is portrayed in the series as having been quite young at the time he became a vampire, which is a lot closer to the character of Armand in the Vampire Chronicles novels.But what has this to do with Claudia?

That depends on just how young Armand was when he became a vampire. Claudia was a child when she was made a vampire, rather than simply "very young". Armand had at least reached adolescence or early adulthood when he became a vampire. Despite Armand's eventful "unlife" over a period of nearly 500 years and all that he had done, both on his own and with other vampires he did not make, Claudia having been a child when made was enough to shock and offend even his sensibilities.

Claudia having been forced to remain a child for the rest of her long existence was something she would never be able to get past. She had not even gotten close enough to adulthood to at least try to pass herself off as someone who did not require adult supervision. And like any child, she hadn't exactly been given a choice.

So what happens now? What happens to Claudia, Louis, and this French dressmaker Claudia had chosen to be a mother figure to her? Especially since it now appears that Lestat was waiting in the dressing room as the three were revealed onstage?

Behind the Scenes of Episode 5, Season 2 Featurette

This departure from Paris in the 1940s to San Francisco in 1973 goes over the point in the original interview when Daniel wanted to Louis to turn him, but with one detail omitted: Claudia. What happened to Claudia? Why wasn't she present in 1973? Louis made some vague statements regarding Claudia's having left at some point, that their paths had separated, not to be rejoined again.

We have yet to learn what exactly happened to Claudia, but without giving away too much, there is more that tends to remind us, in vague ways, of Merrick...

Behind the Scenes of Episode 4, Season 2 Featurette

Commentary for Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are not here because the Parlor only kept those up temporarily before deciding to keep a running commentary on a page dedicated to the AMC series...