This article comprises spoilers for Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire on AMC.
Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) is aware of the way to conclude an interview in a dramatic type. Unlike in 1973, when the entire endeavor turned a foggy blur, the now-veteran investigative reporter produces a best-seller from the fabric he gathers in Dubai. But a e-book isn’t the one memento of Daniel’s time spent with Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Armand (Assad Zaman), Interview with the Vampire saves certainly one of its greatest bombshells for the top of the Season 2 finale.
Before we get to this game-changer, the traumatic occasions described by Louis (with an help from Armand) within the penultimate episode nonetheless should be concluded. The mud barely settled after the decision and subsequent punishment that Louis, Claudia (Delainey Hayles), and Madeleine (Roxane Duran) endured in the course of the trial, which doubled as leisure for blissfully unaware paying people. However, the harrowing journey down reminiscence lane is way from over, as Louis is left buried alive in a coffin stuffed with rocks. Of course, we all know Louis escaped his dying sentence as a result of he’s sitting on this plush penthouse, telling his story 74 years later. Now, he is able to reveal how in “That’s the End of it. There’s Nothing Else.”
Interview with the Vampire showrunner Rolin Jones has expertly deployed nuggets of fact all through the season, with the good San Francisco reveal in Episode 5 as an enormous turning level. Not solely does this amplify Daniel’s distrust, nevertheless it undoubtedly provides the reporter further incentive to show how a lot info Armand has saved from Louis.
The finale additionally masterfully showcases the defining relationships in midcentury Paris and present-day Dubai. AMC has not solely renewed Interview with the Vampire for a 3rd season however has additionally shared details of how Daniel’s e-book has a knock-on impact in the case of Lestat (Sam Reid). Regardless of the place the story goes subsequent, this can be a satisfying finish to among the finest and most assured TV reveals of 2024 to date as a result of it leaves us wanting extra whereas tying up free threads.
The interview may be over however, like Daniel, we have now some follow-up observations and questions.
Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Ending Explained
Just in case you didn’t discover Claudia’s demise on the finish of the earlier episode devastating sufficient, then getting to listen to Louis recall experiencing Claudia’s dying hammers house what this loss means. Anderson delivers Louis’ recollections of his time imprisoned and ravenous to dying with a haunted however measured tone, underscoring his grief and the magnitude of his ache. Toggling between the 2 timelines is an efficient solution to present how ache modifications form over the a long time. With distance, the fad that festered has dulled, however the ache stays.
The episode well additionally by no means lets us neglect that Armand is the grasp of deception and misdirection. It is what saves Louis as a result of Armand has performed up the despondent card so nobody pays him any consideration, but in addition damned Louis within the first place. When Armand frees Louis from his stone-filled tomb, the finale briefly dips its toes into noir territory, capturing the temper of a revenge thriller. Part of me needs this sequence was in black and white to completely hammer this style alternative house, however Louis embodies the cigarette-smoking trenchcoat-wearing anti-hero with out altering the general visible aesthetic.
Four escape the preliminary fiery assault, however Louis has booby-trapped the bikes to blow up, killing Celeste (Suzanne Andrade) and Estelle (Esme Appleton). As Louis taunts Santiago (Ben Daniels) about his maker in retaliation to Santiago’s feedback about Claudia, Daniel Hart’s rating provides an additional layer to the bottle-blonde showman’s impending demise. Watching Louis take management is extremely satisfying, as is the second he kicks Santiago’s decapitated head like it’s a soccer ball. “He introduced a cloak to a knife struggle” is Daniel’s completely dry response to this slaying.
Considering Daniel’s tenaciousness all through the interview periods, it is smart that the thread’s ultimate pull comes from choosing at inconsistencies. In the primary season, Daniel couldn’t let go of whether or not it was raining when Louis attached with Jonah within the Bayou, and given how far this dates again, you may forgive Louis for misremembering the climate. In the finale, this specificity is an equally pointed and exact weapon. At first, Bogosian’s nonchalant supply stays according to earlier back-and-forths, however the casualness is a ruse so Daniel can twist the knife. The reporter is the least highly effective within the room, but he’s the nuclear bomb that blows up this almost 80-year relationship.
Walking the road between dread and pleasure isn’t any small feat as Daniel builds to the humdinger revelation that Armand directed the trial. I wished to throw up and cheer in the course of the sequence when Daniel asks about seemingly unconnected moments lined in Season 1. This collection continuously reminds us that all the pieces is a matter of perspective and recollections aren’t all the time the reality. In addition, clues have been hidden in plain sight, from Daniel’s penchant for writing notes on scrips to one thing some eagle-eyed viewers observed final week. How may Sam (Christopher Geary) be in two totally different locations in the course of the trial?
Louis has all the time been considerably of an unreliable narrator, and the invention that Armand can fog recollections provides to this. But Louis isn’t as forgetful as he has been portrayed, and whereas the time period gaslighting is overused, he has been made to imagine that his recollections are defective — even after they aren’t.
It is a one-two blow that Armand was an energetic participant in Claudia’s dying, and it was Lestat who saved Louis from an identical fiery destiny. Yes, Armand may be an historic vampire, however he by no means seems smaller or extra pitiful as he tries to recommend the script is a forgery. Whether you need to name this a dance or a chess match, watching Bogosian, Anderson, and Zaman go head-to-head every week because the dynamics regularly shift has been a pleasure to behold. Regardless of how thrilled I’m by the third season synopsis, I’ll miss this masterclass.
Will Claudia Haunt Them?
In the penultimate episode, Claudia tells the paying viewers that she’s going to hang-out all of them from past the grave (even when there isn’t an afterlife). If Lestat can linger in Louis’ thoughts as Dreamstat, I sincerely hope she doesn’t let her two vamp dads get a second of peace (Dreamdia, anybody?). It appears that Sam Reid agrees with me. “I actually hope, ought to we proceed, that she haunts him, as a result of I simply love Delainey a lot,” Reid instructed Entertainment Weekly. Better but, give Claudia company by turning her right into a ghost relatively than a hallucination. Hayles has been an distinctive pressure all through Claudia’s Season 2 arc, and I’m not able to say goodbye but.
Who Are the Talamasca?
In April, AMC greenlit a 3rd collection throughout the Immortal Universe, centering on the Talamasca group, which is tasked with monitoring, monitoring, and even containing supernatural creatures like vampires and witches. As brokers of the key society, Raglan James (Justin Kirk) and Rashid (Bally Gill) have given Daniel supplies that blow aside Louis and Armand’s companionship. While they’ve aided Daniel (and even edited his e-book), they’ve their very own agenda, and there’s greater than sufficient materials to play out. Given how they’ve each added chew (excuse the pun) throughout their supporting turns, I hope Kirk and Gill may have roles on this collection.
What Does Louis and Lestat’s Reunion Mean for his or her Future?
Whether you’re a vampire or not, returning to a spot stained with recollections on each nook is an odd sensation. And much more so when your former house is now an integral fixture on a ghost tour. Truth and fiction intersect in describing what occurred in that home, talking to how grisly tales usually tackle a sensational tone. Yes, horrors occurred within the residence of 1132 Rue Royale, however Claudia was not a toddler bride.
Louis taking part in vacationer is an amuse-bouche to the primary occasion, and it’s destabilizing to witness Lestat within the current day—particularly when he provides Siri a command. Sure, he may be utilizing an iPad, however the raveled Lestat in his shabby, once-beautiful gown and his preliminary feedback recommend his thoughts and physique haven’t moved ahead. Notably, that is the primary time we see the French vampire with out the interview parameters, that means the actual Lestat has lastly appeared. Everything else has been a reminiscence, whether or not Louis’s, Armand’s, or Claudia’s (by way of her diaries). This isn’t to say we should always dismiss this earlier portrayal as a result of all of those items are very important to the poisonous relationship jigsaw.
For every, this reunion is an element confession, half apology, cramming in 70-plus years of remorse. It is haunting and sexy to see this pairing once more, a mixture that’s becoming for this universe. Because they haven’t been bodily this shut all season (hallucination apart), it provides an additional punch to their shut proximity. By the time they embrace, it may topple the rickety home over (hurricane or not), and with all of the gamers concerned, Interview with the Vampire continues to depict certainly one of TV’s most complicated love tales.
When did Daniel Become A Vampire?
On prime of all the pieces else this finale has already dished out, there’s one final twist. No, I’m not speaking about Daniel’s bestseller, however what higher solution to discover out his e-book, “Interview with the Vampire,” has offered greater than 5 million copies in 4 months than with a combative look on a neighborhood Atlanta information station? I can’t consider one. But this isn’t the largest shock, as Daniel’s sun shades aren’t only a style alternative. Later, he begins chatting with Louis with out a telephone, and younger Daniel will get his vamp want. Thankfully, Daniel is the primary vampire skilled, and he can put his analysis into apply — simply consider the probabilities! Will Daniel lastly get to fulfill Lestat?
Leaving so many elements of Daniel’s turning unanswered solely provides to the anticipation. Knowing that the thought of turning a vampire repulses Armand and has by no means achieved it earlier than emphasizes how a lot Daniel obtained below Armand’s pores and skin. The historic vampire is often unflappable, however nobody pushes the traditional vampires’ buttons fairly like Daniel Molloy. Whether in 1973, when Armand discovered the faculty pupil “fascinating,” or in 2022 when Daniel picked and prodded till he discovered incriminating proof. But when and the place did Armand flip Daniel? Was it straight after Louis left for New Orleans? Or did he bide his time earlier than hanging? And the place is Armand now? Only time — and a 3rd season — will inform.
Is Louis in Danger?
Louis may be very a lot feeling himself on the finish of the finale as he embraces the one vamp life. Not solely is he sporting one thing that isn’t black, however costume designer Carol Cutshall has added a pop of Claudia yellow to his ensemble by way of a blocky YMC cardigan. Speaking of Claudia’s signature shade, Louis has hung the gown his daughter died in on his wall as a memorial, however he isn’t residing in a mausoleum or caught in his previous — there’s additionally a portray of his brother Paul. In telling Daniel his story, Louis exudes a lightness we beforehand hadn’t seen, and the Dubai residence just isn’t the flamboyant jail it as soon as was. Daniel thinks Louis ought to discover someplace protected to put low as a result of loads of vampires need Louis lifeless. It is a real concern, and it’s rewarding to see how this interviewer-subject relationship has advanced into a real friendship. Yes, they need to write a follow-up e-book collectively.
Earlier within the episode, Louis doesn’t care if he lives or dies when he takes on the Théâtre des Vampires coven, however this isn’t historical past repeating. Instead, It is an indication of how highly effective Louis has turn out to be in studying what Armand did and didn’t do, and the present has greater than earned this character growth. Breaking a number of Great Laws has put a goal on Louis’ again, and he escalates issues additional by straight difficult those that assume he needs to be punished. I’m picturing a John Wick-style hit squad of vampires from around the globe gearing as much as take him down after Louis challenges the naysayers to face him. Or they’ll slink away into the evening, the cowards they’re.
Either means, Hart’s hopeful rating builds as Louis delivers his DGAF message, including one ultimate punch suggesting he has reached a way of peace inside himself and his lengthy immortal life. “I personal the evening,” Louis states. These are emphatic phrases with which to conclude the season.
Emma Fraser is a contributing freelancer for IGN, masking all the pieces from TV critiques to asking burning questions on Yellowjackets and Stranger Things. They have a decade of expertise as a tradition author with bylines at publications together with The Daily Beast, Elle, Little White Lies, and Thrillist.
