‘Interview with the Vampire’ Recap: Episode 2.1 – ‘What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned’ 

This recap contains some spoilers.

Interview with the Vampire series 2 returns with Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) searching 1940’s war torn Ukraine and Romania for vampiric life. Meanwhile in the present day Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) wrestles with the knowledge that “Rashid”, the faithful right hand man of Louis, is actually the ancient and powerful vampire Armand (Assad Zaman).

After recently finishing airing in the US on AMC Interview with the Vampire series 2 has finally hit BBC IPlayer. Created by Rolin Jones, the first series was a superlative, unapologetically queer adaptation of half of Interview with the Vampire, the first of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels. The show has been something of a late bloomer. While critically acclaimed, the first series got remarkably little traction with the public despite Rice’s legion of fans, and it feels like only now, after its second series has aired and a recent, rapturously received cast visit to San Diego Comic Con that the show has started to become everyone’s new favourite obsession. With the first series hitting US Netflix on 19 August the show’s enthusiastically rabid fanbase is likely to grow exponentially.

When we last left our motley crew of vampires Louis and Claudia had fled New Orleans after a blood soaked, post Mardi Gras massacre at Rue Royal which left many of New Orleans’ finest dead including Antoinette Brown (Lestat’s mistress turned fledging) and Lestat himself (Sam Reid). (Probably for the best when it came to Antoinette to be honest – she was a rubbish vampire. Claudia bested her in 30 seconds). Brilliant, vicious Claudia finally turned the tables on her controlling maker poisoning Lestat with arsenic and laudanum, weakening him so Louis could slit his throat with the knife cane that first drew Lestat to Louis 30 years before. 

Lestat, in a rare moment of clarity at the end, practically offered up his throat to Louis’s knife knowing that his attempted murder of Louis after he tried to leave him and his cruelty towards Claudia were actions worthy of his death. But even in death Lestat still had a vice grip on Louis’s heart with Louis leaving Lestat in a trunk coffin to be taken out with the trash, allowing him the possibility of revival. 

As our episode begins Louis and Claudia are in 1940’s Nazi occupied Ukraine, dodging soldiers and RAF bombings  hunting for signs of vampiric life and finding only dust and bones. As Armand points out in present day Dubai it was a “poorly timed European vacation”. Gone are the beautiful eye-catching clothes Louis and Claudia sported in New Orleans. Clad in utilitarian, brown clothing they sleep in the earth, avoid firing squads and barely speak to each other due to Claudia’s seething anger over Louis’s refusal to burn Lestat. Poor Louis, swapping one form of dour endurance with Lestat for another with his sister/daughter Claudia “grim wayfaring” her way across Europe like a demented Indiana Jones trying to find some proof that vampires exist. Is she really desperate to meet others of her kind so she won’t be so alone? Or does she just want to validate the death they dealt to Lestat by proving that he kept evidence of a thriving vampire community from her?

Finding nothing but ash they swap Nazi occupied Ukraine for Russian occupied Romania where Claudia is giddily delighted at the sight of soldiers festooned with garlic necklaces and crucifixes nailed to doorways. The pair seek refuge in an abandoned factory with a group of terrified locals. Amelia, the local hunter, notes that the group aren’t used to “men with such good looks”, a kind way of noting that the locals are immediately suspicious of Louis and Claudia for no other reason than they’re the only ones with dark skin. Louis and Claudia, always “the other” wherever they go. Amelia tells Louis ominous tales of grim things living in the woods. Claudia, adventurous scamp that she is, can’t wait to investigate although revelation brings her little comfort. 

But Louis is less worried about horrors lurking in the woods than the horrors of his mind. Lestat has returned, clad in the blood drenched white Mardis Gras outfit he was slaughtered in to mess with Louis’s head. Hallucination Lestat (dubbed Dreamstat by the cast) is possibly a faint connection to whatever is left of Lestat, but mostly just Louis’s psyche eating him alive with guilt and fear that Lestat will return to kill them. Louis knew that Claudia would never be free if Lestat lived as Lestat was shamelessly using her as a pawn to manipulate Louis into never leaving him (so much bloodshed could have been spared if that messy French bitch had gotten over his abandonment issues and just used his words where Claudia and Louis were concerned).

Louis ultimately chose Claudia over Lestat but that doesn’t mean he’s not drowning in regret and shame over that choice. It’s telling that one of the first things Dreamstat says to Louis is that he misses him “despite their recent unpleasantness”. Of course Louis misses Lestat and needs the hallucination to comfort him by confirming that no matter what Lestat will always, always want Louis. Sam Reid is gamely menacing as Dreamstat. A striking sequence of a bird emerging from Dreamstat’s slashed, gaping throat to fly away into the gloom of a bombed out vista is remarkably melancholy. Poor Louis, swapped a gilded cage for a scrabbling life of abject misery with a daughter who considers him “dead weight”.

Jacob Anderson continues to be hugely impressive as Louis. Each episode requires him to play a man at two very different phases of his life. The younger Louis is scared, grieving Lestat, struggling with Claudia’s enmity and battling with what it means to be a monster in a human world. The older Louis, in his hermetically sealed luxurious penthouse in Dubai is an entirely different beast. Older, more sorrowful, clad in the clothes of a tech bro, with the mannerisms of a youth pastor, his voice all but shorn of his Creole accent. 

Louis is grateful to Daniel for the opportunity to relive the horrors of his past even though they devastate him. A sequence where Louis tenderly watches Claudia sleep in 1940’s Romania while in modern day Dubai he sobs his heart out and earnestly thanks Daniel for the gift of realising that she could dream (despite her diary suggesting otherwise) is breathtaking. Anderson isn’t afraid to be nakedly vulnerable on camera. It should be all a bit earnest and mawkish but he’s so skilled and the writing so strong it’s just deeply moving instead. 

It’s interesting watching Louis embrace his vampiric nature in this episode. At first he’s happy for the company of the Romanian villagers, getting very drunk and cheerfully declaring himself to be a “magical vodka negro”. But when the time comes to choose between humanity and vampire affairs Louis leaves the humans to their fate. Having spent a series lambasting Lestat for being a monster and punishing him by refusing to accept what he is, it’s a real shift in his character.

Claudia is portrayed in the second series by Delainey Hayles who took over from previous actress Bailey Bass (scheduling issues due to her commitment to the Avatar movies). The change is announced with a grand title card, a fun theatrical flourish. The switch is briefly jarring. Bass was very much in line with Kirstin Dunst’s portrayal of Claudia from the Neil Jordan adaptation (only appropriately aged up). All huge eyes, youthful demeanour and feral nature. Hayles is obviously young but frankly does not look 14 meaning all the scenes in this episode where Claudia is repeatedly referred to as a child don’t entirely work.  But the strength of Hayles portrayal soon overcomes this minor detail.

At this stage in her life Claudia is actually around 41 so having an actress who looks a teeny bit older is actually perfect casting. Hayles is a fierce Claudia. Brilliant, determined, angry and so very lonely. Claudia just wants to meet someone like her who isn’t truly awful. Lestat’s mummy issues and complete inability to communicate effectively with those he loves and Louis’s resentment of his own nature meant their parenting skills left something to be desired. It’s heartbreaking watching Claudia so excited about searching for her origins and trying to seek out her kin only to be met with madness, despair and death. Hayles is a real find in the role.

Elsewhere, Eric Bogosian continues to be the MVP of the series, relentlessly snipping at Louis and Armand (who he is rightfully suspicious as hell of) for trying to play him. His conversations with “Real Rashid” – one of Louis’ staff who is just trying to do his job Sir, are hilarious. Assad Zaman is charming (in the same way that a blue ringed octopus is adorable until it stings you) as Armand who keeps trying to stop the interview in the least subtle way ever. 

At the end of our episode our intrepid duo are off to Paris. No doubt that will work out wonderfully for them…