Monday, July 1, 2024

The End Twist: It's a doozy

 Okay, once again, this is a review of season two of the new series Interview with a Vampire, if you don't want to be spoiled, please read some of my other posts.

Okay, no magic Claudia didn't die whatever. I guess that was too much to hope for. However, the twist that does come after Armand and Louis have finished telling their version of the story is no less shocking. Although I have said before that I was doubtful as to Armand's honesty about the situation, I didn't know to what extent he was being a lying little snake.

Because Lestat's on-stage apology wasn't the only thing he did for Louis that night. Okay, so let's rewind.

After the whole thing, when Louis is about to starve, Armand feeds him some blood and helps him escape after all the other vamps are asleep. Once Louis is free, he spends his time plotting a way to wreck revenge on the whole coven. However, he warns Armand to be gone as a courtesy and a thank you for saving him.

After mercilessly burning most in their coffins, exploding the two who rode their bikes off into the night, Louis faces off against the main conspirator the very hateable Santiago who brags about them using Claudia's ashes as eyeliner for their plays and antagonizes him completely by every word in this telepathic conversation. But Louis is prepared and when Santiago emerges from the sewers, Louis is waiting to decapitate him with a machete, probably the most satisfying death in the whole show.

Then Louis goes to Armand who spins his little web of lies about how he was helpless to keep it from happening and apologizes for lying to Louis. Louis asks if Lestat is still in town, they find him in what looks to be a torture dungeon where his maker kept him like in his story early on about how he was made. Lestat looks broken and defeated. Louis asks him if he feels anything at all about Claudia's death and of course Lestat talks about the great laws which Louis correctly reminds Lestat he's never followed before. Louis then says he's here to kill Lestat which Lestat responds with I have the blood of Magnus and he mentions someone else, then Louis says, well we share the same blood. There's no epic fight scene. Louis jabs Lestat in the most painful way possible by kissing Armand and telling Lestat that his death will be the knowledge that Louis chose Armand. Lestat responds, we'll see how long that lasts but he's obviously devastated. Then it cuts to Daniel taking down the story and Louis says that's all there is to it.

Now, I suppose you're wondering where Armand's treachery comes into this. The way it is revealed is so brilliant. A question here about something that doesn't make sense. A comment there. Then Daniel Malloy pulls the entire rug out from under Louis by producing proof positive that Armand was in on the play from the start. He has a copy of the script with footnotes written by Armand directing the play. It turns out Lestat not Armand was the one who saved Louis during the play.

It flashes back to rehearsal, where Armand is overseeing the play and Lestat is arguing about how they can't keep Claudia in check and they're underestimating her. Daniel gets a computer message from the people who sent him the stuff about the fire and the script saying: GET OUT OF THERE NOW. Louis and Armand fight, breaking a bunch of shit, but when Daniel goes to see Armand is obviously defeated. Louis tells him not to harm Daniel and swears that if he does, he will kill the older vamp. He then tells him he's leaving and when he gets back the other vampire better be gone.

So what does this revelation mean, well besides the obvious that Lestat always loved Louis, truly loved him, as his on stage apology would have seemed to suggest. It also shows that nothing Armand says can be trusted. I figured this when Armand left out the crucial detail about Lestat asking him to tell Louis that he loved him.

Louis goes back to New Orleans where he finds Lestat who has gone a bit crazy (he's playing a wooden piano and eating only rats). Lestat tells Louis how much he regrets what happened with Claudia and says, at the end before she died, she looked to him like a daughter looks to her father. I knew I noticed something in his eyes when the scene of her death played, but I wasn't sure how much to trust it since it was Armand's narrative. Lestat cries and Louis hugs him as a hurricane rages outside. This is a beautiful end to their relationship arc which was always filled with storm and passion. 

Next, we see Daniel Malloy has become a bestselling author for his book, but most people aren't taking it seriously as a memoir. He's on a talk show with a host who calls it a "work of fiction". Daniel insists on the veracity of his book and takes down the talk show host and his condescending remarks by saying "you haven't read it" and the host continues to act like Daniel is somehow delusional. Then, Daniel talks telepathically with Louis who is in Dubai revealing that before he left that day Armand turned him. The final act of treachery, not able to kill him without facing repercussions, he made him a vampire instead. Vampires all over the world are gunning for Louis because of the book and all the damning evidence that's written in it, but Louis sits down and issues a warning of sorts to those who would challenge him. End scene. It was such an epic way to end it. Louis has come full circle from the fledgling vampire who didn't want to be a vamp, to become someone powerful enough to confidently throw the gauntlet at anyone who dares come at him. I loved the fact that Lestat really had no choice in what happened to Claudia and that it scarred him as much as it did because he seems not to care about her for much of the story.

Well, that's all folks, unless they do a season 3. Not sure what they'd use for the story line if they did.

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