Interview with the Vampire – Season 1 Episode 6 Recap & Review

Like Angels Put in Hell by God

Episode 6 of Interview with the Vampire begins with Louis assessing his damages. After his fight with Lestat last week, Louis has bad dreams about falling, remembering Lestat’s flying as a rare gift that very few vampires actually possess. Despite living with him for 20 years, Lestat never showed that he had this gift of flight. Louis deduces that Lestat restrained this on purpose to try and keep them even and level in the relationship.

Well, with Lestat struggling to apologize and looked at with contempt by Claudia and Louis, the latter slowly starts to rehabilitate, struggling to even hunt a goat around the house for dinner. With a cane in hand and breathing hard, Louis eventually gives up. “We’ll try again tomorrow,” Claudia suggests.

And tomorrow turns to the next day. The next day passes into years, and still Lestat attempts to get back to the pair. 6 years he tries in total, and soon it starts to crack Louis’ armour. In the Spring of 1937, a composition arrives via post in the form of a vinyl. Lestat played all the instruments himself, excepy for vocals… from his lover.

Despite initially taking offence to this, Louis ends up getting Lestat back, but only on several conditions. Firstly, there should be no lies between them. Lestat also needs to kill Antionette. And finally, he needs to treat Claudia as a sister rather than a father.

Despite the trio back together, they ended up with an awkward bond. Things are still tense between Claudia, Lestat and Louis though, with the trio discussing dinner and their chosen meals. Although they’re amicable together, it’s still not right. Louis wants Claudia to open up and be a little softer with Lestat, while Lestat believes they’ll never the same and that there’s a darkness in Claudia that wasn’t there before.

Funnily enough, the pair have more in common than they care to admit. Both manage to exploit each other’s weaknesses, and verbally spar while playing chess. The mental game of chess between them is far more interesting than the physical one, and the discordant song in the background is such a lovely stylistic touch. Speaking of weakness, Claudia and Louis watch Lestat that night, as he heads back to Antoinette, who’s still alive despite his promises.
Louis decides to stay quiet about their discovery, but the numbness remains.

Claudia has had enough and decides to go, leaving on a train and getting away from Lestat and vampires like “him” (that being Bruce). As for Louis, he’s torn and decides to stay. He does promise to come and find her though if things go sour. But things do go sour. Germany invades Poland, but it’s Lestat who shows up onboard the train Claudia is on and causes the first massacre, killing everyone and bringing Claudia back under the pretense that Louis needs her.

Back home, the chess game continues, as Claudia telepathically speaks to Louis while moving her pieces around the board. She’s done playing games though. She wants to kill Lestat. For real, properly. Claudia is convinced she can kill him, and she knows that Louis wants to kill him too. Interestingly, Claudia ends up winning this game, which surprises Lestat and eventually angers him. Louis is convinced that killing Lestat is the only way.

We then skip forward in time to find Daniel first meeting Louis at a bar. He points out he’s a journalist and looks for people in the cracks of the city. He openly admits that he’s a vampire, but passes it off as a joke, breaking the ice between them.

The Episode Review

Interview with the Vampire takes on a really interesting dimension this time around, as the mental and physical game of chess between this trio takes on an extra dimension. Seeing how Claudia is starting to get smarter while playing, against Lestat’s cockiness that slowly undermines him, is such a nice way of framing everything that’s happened between the group.

Lestat’s secrets know no bounds and despite promising no secrets between them all, it’s very clear that he’s a compulsive liar. There are parallels to that of an abusive relationship, and Claudia pleading with Louis to leave and come with her, while Louis sticks around to try and see if things get better, is a nice way of contextualizing his inner struggles in dealing with this.

This chapter is a really stylish, thematically sharp and intriguing episode, one that promises plenty more drama to come next week.