It can be hard enough remembering something that happened a month ago when you were sober, let alone decades before, while under the influence of multiple illicit substances. Throw in the unmooring discovery that vampires aren’t just a figment of Bram Stoker’s imagination, and you have the same mind-bending cocktail that young journalist Daniel Malloy (Luke Brandon Field, playing the younger version of Eric Bogosian’s character) experienced when he first met Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) in 1973.
Memory is a fickle bitch, and this is certainly true in AMC’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s beloved Interview With the Vampire, for both humans and immortal beings.
It was only in the Season 1 finale that Daniel in the present day (played by Bogosian) remembered that Louis was not the only bloodsucker he met in a San Francisco bar decades earlier. Until then, the ancient vampire Armand (Assad Zuman) had been posing as human servant Rashid, attending to Louis and Daniel, allowing him to monitor the conversation. “This time, I won’t save your life,” Armand told Daniel when he dramatically dropped the facade. But did Armand even save Daniel’s life the first time?
Armand’s presence during that first fateful encounter between Daniel and Louis all those decades ago has remained one of the big overarching mysteries of the series. So far, the assumption is that Louis did attack Daniel in the ’70s, and Armand saved Daniel’s life. It was a one-night encounter that Daniel had mainly forgotten, which he chalked up to the copious amount of drugs he’d taken. But that’s only a fragment of what happened in that apartment over four long days, and it turns out that even Louis has been in the dark about the actual events this whole time.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Interview With the Vampire.)
It isn’t often that investigative journalists have the chance to complete an interview they started 49 years earlier. When saying yes to this do-over, Daniel couldn’t foresee the bloody can of worms he has since opened, including why the first attempt at the titular interview went sideways. In recent episodes, Daniel has taken on the role of biographer and unofficial couple’s counselor while uncovering head-spinning revelations of his own.
The season’s fifth episode is so full of surprises, it has the air of a mid-season finale—don’t worry, it’s not. Daniel finally gets answers to his haunting memories of Armand, and Louis learns that his immortal life almost ended decades ago. If that isn’t enough, there is confirmation that Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) was still alive in 1973, and Armand had a direct line to the presumed incapacitated French vamp.
Before we get to the Lestat in the room, there is the small matter of Armand whipping out the ability to redact people’s memories from his bag of tricks, which he used on the twentysomething Daniel. Considering Armand’s manipulation skills, this is hardly a big deal, but the fact he also resorts to this same method on Louis is. That’s right, he pulled an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on the love of his life. For Louis and Armand’s nearly 80-year partnership to survive, Armand might need to remove Lestat entirely from the conversation.
The memories haven’t been wholly zapped clean, however. In Louis’ case, an unedited recording of the first interview with Daniel pulls painful recollections to the surface. There is a domino effect: When Louis unlocks his trauma, so does Daniel, and it is equally enlightening—and horrifying.
Perspective is everything, so watching Daniel and Louis lean on each other to pick at the scabs of the past adds another layer to this compelling confection. Suffice it to say, my jaw pretty much didn’t leave the floor for the 51-minute runtime—and not just because young Daniel initially forgot to put a cassette in his recorder, which is one of my reporting worst-case scenarios.
Pressing pause on Paris
Now, having spent most of the season listening to Louis recall his sojourn across Europe with Claudia (Delainey Hayle) in the 1940s, Daniel sees an opportunity to probe Louis about their first meeting without Armand manipulating the conversation. “I want to know for me what happened between us,” Daniel demands.
For most of his time in this palatial Dubai penthouse, Daniel has been on the back foot, at the mercy of two vampires shaping the narrative. But Daniel isn’t the only one at a disadvantage. While Armand keeps a cool head, Louis struggles to control his emotions. Like how Lestat pushed Louis’ buttons, Daniel’s flippant delivery is a trigger.
Daniel waves off Louis’s attempts at digging for shame material, but Armand’s unexpected presence in the reporter’s mind causes consternation. Bogosian delivers a whiplash of reactions, and his ability to swing from unbridled sarcasm to raw disbelief is Emmy-worthy.
Limiting the characters to Daniel, Louis, and Armand (aside from a brief conversation with the douchebag who will become Armand’s lunch) is a well-earned change of pace, turning Daniel from an observer back into a participant. It is a testament to the casting that watching scenes shift from Field to Bogosian as both versions of Daniel is as effortless as seeing Anderson and Zaman in the present day and flashbacks.
Before pinpointing why Armand is lingering in his memories, Daniel has a question he has been dying (not literally) to ask Louis about their first hangout. He wants to know if they fucked, which doesn’t seem unreasonable considering they met in a gay bar. The flashback shows a flirty vibe, with Louis providing a backgammon box full of drugs (including cocaine and quaaludes) for his eager guest.
It is no secret that Interview With the Vampire is a horny show, so all bets are off when Daniel removes his shirt. But Louis assures him they didn’t hook up. “I really thought we did,” Daniel says somewhat disappointedly. Instead, in the ’70s, Louis wants to tell his story; by telling his story, he means ranting about Lestat.
If nothing else, this episode offers a valuable lesson regarding why going to a second location with a stranger is a recipe for disaster.
The Lestat in the room
Curiosity and swagger drew Louis to Daniel, but he didn’t account for how cocky Daniel would get with coke and ludes in his bloodstream. Daniel is contemptuous toward his younger self, including how stupid it was to insult Louis and then ask to become a vampire. Louis took a scoop out of Daniel’s neck and only stopped drinking when Armand pulled him off.
“I overreacted” is how Louis categorizes his frenzied attack. Like Bogosian, Anderson can flip Louis’ emotions on a dime, and the blowout argument that follows in 1973 with Armand represents years of resentment toward this rebound relationship. Who knew “boring” could be said with such petulance and venom?
Once again, Lestat lingers in the room. No, the Lestat hallucination, referred to as Dreamstat, doesn’t make a reappearance even though Louis just guzzled drug-laced blood. Instead, Armand—who clearly has been listening in—is furious at how much Louis talked about “Lestat, Lestat, Lestat, Lestat.” Somehow, Lestat has been unmentioned for 23 years, so no wonder Louis word-vomited about his ex all over Daniel.
Running out of the room and slamming the door is one way to end a verbal altercation, but Louis takes it further. It is hard to make out on the tape, but Daniel narrates as we hear one door slam, followed by Louis running upstairs and a metal door. The screams give us an indication of where Louis has gone. The tape runs out, and Louis says he doesn’t remember this. Soon, the fragments of Louis’ sunlit rooftop venture shift into hazy focus, as does the “pain like a siren” after Armand saves him.
The price for being fascinating
While Louis had zero recollection of his charred state, Daniel’s nightmare fragments have increased since Armand revealed his fanged identity. Repetition of these images has gnawed at Daniel, and there is grim satisfaction in finding the context. The cellophane corpse on the floor is the neighbor who saw Louis aflame; the memories Daniel had been having about stolen Playboy magazines and asking a classmate to put a paper bag over her head when they have sex is Armand cruelly digging into young Daniel’s actual recollections.
Daniel’s crime? “The 10 hours I spent with that boy were more exciting, more fascinating than decades with you,” Louis yells at Armand. Ouch! With command of young Daniel’s body and mind, Armand’s judgment-clouding jealousy is still methodical rather than impulsive. Being caught in the middle of any lovers’ quarrel can be a pain, but being stuck in the middle of a vampire lover quarrel is actually painful.
Clues like what is on TV lead Daniel to realize he was held captive for at least four days. This episode has the air of a twisted detective mystery, and Armand is the kidnapper of sorts, making demands and negotiations. One of the most revelatory moments is when he contacts Lestat using the vampire mind communication. Yes, Lestat is still alive in 1973. No, Armand will not pass on the message that Lestat still loves Louis.
The other humdinger is when Armand tells Daniel to “rest,” with a permanent end in mind. Louis steps in, as he “needs this one to live,” adding a curious layer to this intellectual threesome. Armand is physically more powerful, but Louis has an emotional hold over him; Armand has called Louis “maître” (master) at least twice now.
In the present, Daniel realizes the freebaser he befriended in the drug den after his first ordeal with Louis and Armand never existed. Or rather, memories of the vampire couple and the truncated version of what happened got conflated with where Daniel woke up. Every choice he has made since stems from an experience he just remembered in full. The chatty reporter is almost lost for words after discovering the lifeline Louis gave him half a century earlier.
Louis doesn’t seem to get the overall ramifications at first, and it takes Daniel to point out they have the “same precise edit on two brains.” Before they can discuss it further, Armand returns from a successful hunt. When Louis says they have been reminiscing about San Francisco, Armand sticks to his well-practiced lie about why he saved Daniel’s life: everything he does with Louis’ best interests at heart—or so he says.
Keeping a secret from Armand has proven impossible so far, and despite this new alliance between Daniel and Louis, there isn’t much to suggest that they will keep this hidden. But it will be fascinating to watch them try.
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