Recap / Interview with the Vampire (2022) S1E7 "The Thing Lay Still"

"I wanted [Lestat] dead. I wanted him all to myself."

Aired November 13, 2022

The vampire family plans to leave town after a big Mardi Gras ball. Claudia and Louis operate outside of Lestat's knowledge. In Dubai, Louis reveals a new element to the interview that changes everything.

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Tropes:

• The '40s: Most of the past events take place in 1940.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Louis detests Tom Anderson, but he is nonetheless amused by the latter's joke about marriage.
  Louis: Do you know the secret to immortality?
  Tom: Never get married.
  Louis: (chuckles) That's a good joke.
• Adaptational Location Change: The book version has Louis and Claudia dump Lestat's body into a swamp at the bayou, whereas on the show, the latter ends up in a landfill outside of New Orleans where he eats rats instead of alligators to survive.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: During the after-party feast, the Socialite in the blue gown and one of the MacPhail twins plead for the lives, but the hungry vampires don't grant their human prey any mercy.
  Socialite: Please, I don't want to die, please.
  MacPhail twin: No, you don't have do this, please don't do this!
• All Gays Love Theater:
  • We discover from a Socialite that the bisexual Lestat used to socialize with the Women's Opera Society.
  • At the end of the episode, the queer Armand (who hasn't explicitly identified his sexuality, but he and Louis are in a same-sex relationship) lets Daniel know that he was once part of the Théâtre des Vampires.
• Alliterative Name: The identical twins are named Matthew and Mark MacPhail.
• Always Identical Twins: The MacPhail brothers are identical twins who wear matching tuxedos and green masks at the Masquerade Ball to further accentuate their sameness.
• Asshole Victim: Tom Anderson is homophobic because he refers to Louis and Lestat as "you and your fag pederast," plus he mockingly guffaws at them when they kiss at the Mardi Gras ball. Lestat gleefully murders Tom during the after-party feast.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Of their first season smooches, Louis and Lestat's kiss in the finale is the only one filmed in slow-motion to ensure that the audience doesn't miss a detail. Both men look gorgeous and regal in their 18th-century French period costumes and makeup, and the brass notes of the instrumental version of "Come to Me" (one of the couple's Love Themes) swell as they embrace each other. In the "Episode Insider" featurette, showrunner Rolin Jones affirms that this scene is the romantic peak of Louis and Lestat.
  Jones: It is the swooning heights of the uber romanticism of ours is this dance in front of everybody and their kiss.
• Bilingual Bonus: Just before Louis slices Lestat's throat, the latter tells his beloved, "I'm happy it was you, here with me... à la fin." ("at the end.")
• Bookends: Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is heard at the beginning and at the end of the episode.
• Book Snap: Because he loves tormenting his human prey, Lestat slams shut a book◊ to force an encyclopedia salesman (who's tied to a chair and close to passing out) to remain alert as the latter's blood flows into a glass decanter.
• Camera Abuse: In the climax, as Claudia raises her head after she's done feeding, some of the dead man's blood hits the right side of the screen.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Louis lampshades his love-hate relationship with Lestat:
  Louis: I wanted him dead. I wanted him all to myself.
• Carpet-Rolled Corpse: Lampshaded by Louis when Daniel inquires as to how he and Claudia disposed of Lestat's body.
  Daniel: So what did you do with it?
  Louis: We wrapped him in a carpet. We threw him in a trunk, and left him out with the garbage.
• Choke Holds: In the climax, Lestat restrains Louis by enveloping his arm around his lover's neck from behind and then squeezing it forcefully. Although Lestat doesn't intend to kill Louis, he's still applying ample pressure to cause Louis pain, as seen by the latter's distressed facial expression as he struggles to free himself from Lestat's suffocating grip.
• Climactic Music: Daniel Hart's "Laudanum and Arsenic" is the Background Music in the second-half of The Climax, and it's a dramatic track that builds tension in a scene where two pairs of vampires with their own murder plots face off against each other: Louis & Claudia vs. Lestat & Antoinette.
• Coming-Out Story: Louis and Lestat mutually agree to publicly out themselves from their Transparent Closet of 29 years ^note late 1910 - Feb. 6, 1940 by dancing together at the Mardi Gras ball in front of a bigoted crowd. They're both so hopelessly in love and spellbound by the other's beauty that they lock eyes as they waltz across the ballroom before locking their lips, which shocks and disgusts most of the guests. Louis is disappointed that his and Lestat's illegal activity at the venue wasn't reported in the news.
  Louis: So much would be written about that grim night in New Orleans, but not a single mention of our last hour at Latrobe's, as if the only crime unfit to print took place on that dance floor.
• Compartment Shot: The camera is inside the incinerator when Louis and Claudia quietly observe a shrieking Antoinette being torched.
• Continuity Nod: Tom Anderson has an X-shaped scar on the left side of his face because Lestat had scratched it there with his vampire fingernail in the fifth episode when he stopped time at the speakeasy.
• Coordinated Clothes: Any observant passerby on Rue Royale during 1939's New Year's Eve celebration can intuit that Lestat and Louis are a couple based on their matching tuxedos.
• Copycat Mockery: Claudia ridicules Lestat by imitating◊ his wheezing as the arsenic-laudanum toxin that she tricked him to ingest takes effect.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Claudia jots down in her journal Lestat's final words ("Mets-moi dans mon cercueil, Louis, Louis" ^note French for "Put me in my coffin, Louis, Louis") with his blood by dipping her pen into a wound on his neck.
• Cradling Your Kill: A brief shot near the end shows Louis holding Lestat's body and screaming, after Louis himself slashes his throat.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Considering that Lestat is the definition of Evil Is Petty, it's quite remarkable that even after he finds out about Louis and Claudia's plot to murder him, he still desires to keep Louis as his lover. Lestat is so head-over-heels in love that he'll never willingly let Louis go even when his boyfriend wants to kill him, so Lestat directs all of his vindictive fury at Claudia, placing the blame squarely on her for the disintegration of his romance with Louis. Lestat conspires to bump off Claudia not just to punish her for her betrayal, but also so that Louis will love him and only him (at least according to Lestat's warped sense of logic). Regardless of how Louis feels, if Lestat's scheme had succeeded, it would be impossible for Louis to escape his clutches because Antoinette — who is now a vampire and can read Louis' thoughts — can alert Lestat to anything and everything Louis is thinking.
• A Deadly Affair: The Love Triangle between Louis, Lestat and Antoinette finally comes to an end after 23 years when Louis kills his abusive boyfriend and the latter's side chick. It's the only way Louis can escape from Lestat's Gilded Cage and an eternity of being the latter's Property of Love, which will soon also include Lestat forcing Louis to be his Gender-Inverted Top Wife in a Vampire's Harem. Lestat's control over Louis would be absolute in this scenario because Antoinette, now a vampire and Lestat's soon-to-be second wife, can telepathically monitor Louis' thoughts and inform Lestat if Louis wishes to flee or commit suicide. To avoid this everlasting hell, Louis murders them both.
• Deal with the Devil: Lampshaded by Tom Anderson when he inquires about the vampire family's eternal youth.
  Tom: Where do you meet the Devil, and what are the terms of the agreement?
• Death Glare: There's a murderous glint in Lestat's eyes when Tom Anderson cracks up at the idea of Lestat wanting to be Raj, the King of Mardi Gras.
• Disappointed in You: Louis is Lestat's protégé in vampirism, and the latter is exasperated by his fledgling's refusal to embrace his vampire nature, which includes not consuming a sufficient amount of human blood as part of his daily diet.
  (Lestat is about to refill Louis' empty wine glass with human blood from a decanter)
  Louis: I've had my fill.
  Lestat: (scoffs) Louis has never honored the blood as he should. (tersely) Blame the teacher, not the student.
• Disrupting the Theater: Lestat and Claudia rudely chat in their normal voices during a Newsreel screening at the cinema. An annoyed moviegoer shushes them twice, so Lestat activates his People Puppets ability to force the man to slap himself silly. Claudia giggles in amusement.
• Double Entendre:
  • After Claudia elaborates on how they will trap their would-be prey inside their home after the Mardi Gras ball, Lestat's left hand grabs Louis' butt and pulls his boyfriend closer to his chair. While glancing hungrily up at Louis, Lestat utters in a seductive tone, "And let the flesh instruct the mind." Lestat is ostensibly telling Claudia that they'll let their thirst for human blood dictate their actions during the feast, but it's also plain that he's ravenous for Louis' body and wishes to take him to their bed.
  • Later, a blood-starved Lestat is attired as a French king at the Mardi Gras ball, and when he's introduced to the MacPhail twins, he expresses his literal hunger with "The king finds himself suddenly famished," only to turn around and see Louis in his French duke costume for the first time. Lestat is gaping at his gorgeous lover as if he's tempted to "devour" Louis right there and then.
• Double Meaning:
  • Louis quips, "The king's hair (heir) has betrayed the king" when he spots Lestat's discarded powdered wig, who is garbed as a French king at the Mardi Gras ball. Louis can be regarded as Lestat's heir because he's Lestat's vampire son (the French monarchy had practiced Salic law, so women were excluded from inheriting the throne), and Louis is indeed conspiring to murder his despotic maker during the after-party feast.
  • Lestat soulfully monologues about New Orleans to Louis on the balcony, its connotation being that Louis is the product of the environment he grew up in, and Lestat finds him beautiful because of it.
    Lestat: There's not an inch of this city that wasn't built from the fierce wilderness that surrounds it. Hurricanes, floods, fevers. The damp climate on every painted sign, every stone facade. High windows, through which enameled bits of civilization glitter. Silhouettes emerging, wandering out to catch a silent flash of lightning. The silky warmth of summer rain. Desperately alive... and desperately fragile.
• Drag Queen: For the Krewe of Raj float during the Mardi Gras festivity, Lestat is dolled up as Marie-Antoinette (so he's a French drag queen who is costumed as a French queen), complete with makeup, wig, sparkly tiara and necklace, a giant bedazzled frilled collar, Fluffy Fashion Feathers, a fur-trimmed cape, High-Class Gloves, a gown and a corset (which is worn backwards for some reason).
• Dying Candle: In the climax, the flames of all the candles in the candelabrum are snuffed out when Lestat leaps over the table to attack Tom Anderson, which signifies that all the humans inside the townhouse will soon die at the hands (or more accurately the fangs) of Lestat, Louis and Claudia.
• Eat the Rich: Most of the guests that the vampire family invite to their Mardi Gras ball are the elite of New Orleans, and several human prey are selected for the after-party feast, where Lestat, Louis and Claudia literally eat the rich.
  Lestat: Well, this idea of yours, what kind of a party did you imagine?
  Claudia: A ball. A lavish, decadent ball.
  Lestat: To what end?
  Claudia: We invite the most beautiful, the most gluttonous, seduce a choice few for a feast to remember.
• Every Man Has His Price: Lestat, Louis and Claudia want to be in charge of the city's Mardi Gras ball. Normally, this would be impossible because the festivity is only a month away, and it's presided by the Committee of Raj, which has finalized its plans three years ago. However, the vampire family gains control of the Masquerade Ball after they bribe Tom Anderson and his fellow Raj members.
  Louis: We know you're on the committee.
  Tom: The Committee of Raj is a secret and sacred group of citizens— (Claudia puts a list of the committee members on his desk) ...bound by honor and tradition.
  Louis: Get us a price, get back to us.
  Tom: These things are planned years in advance. Louis, you're a native.
  Lestat: You've expanded your export business, shipping coffins from port back to Europe?
  Tom: Shipping and manufacturing. Double dip. Good margin, product in high demand.
  Claudia: You lost one of your ships recently.
  Tom: Took a torpedo in the rear from one of the Fritz's U-boats.
  Louis: Would you like a new one?
  Tom: (is silent for several seconds while he ponders the offer) I['ll] attempt your no doubt humiliating and reputation-destroying ask.
  Louis: (in 2022 narrating to Daniel) The Krewe of Raj had been three years in planning their Mardi Gras theme, and they abandoned it within a week once the Parisian law firm of Roget and Albert had transatlantically wired their bribes. From the Marais to the Mississippi, money flooded the town. Unavailable vendors became available.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: While performing on the Krewe of Raj float, Lestat sports a shimmering tiara and necklace as part of his Marie-Antoinette Drag Queen getup in order to appear more queenly.
• Exact Words: In the previous episode, both Louis and Claudia insist that Lestat has to "Kill Antoinette" if he wishes to live with them again. We learn in this episode that Lestat did indeed murder his mistress, but only so that he can turn her into a vampire.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: By the time of the after-party feast, the eyeliner Louis had worn at the Mardi Gras ball has become so smudged that it resembles a thick layer of black eyeshadow, which adds a dramatic flair to his green vampire eyes. Although Louis typically isn't cruel towards his human prey, being blood-starved for the past three nights means that his vampiric urges completely override any empathy he might have felt, so Louis indulges in excessive violence by ripping out a man's lower jaw before exsanguinating him.
• Eye Scream: In the climax, Claudia spits out an eyeball and its accompanying socket while mauling a man.
• Face Death with Dignity: Although he initially tries to thwart Louis and Claudia's plans to murder him, once Lestat realizes he's been outsmarted and is already poisoned, he's resigned to his fate and allows Louis to slit his throat, saying he was glad it was Louis with him "à la fin." ^note French for "at the end."
• Facepalm: Tom Anderson covers his face with his hand because he's embarrassed by Lestat's tasteless public display of pretending to eat a toy baby on the Krewe of Raj float, which scandalizes the crowd.
• Finishing Stomp: After Claudia pins Antoinette to the floor with a fire poker, she then stomps on the older woman's head, which renders Antoinette unconscious. That's why the latter's face is bloodied and mutilated as she's being burned alive in the incinerator.
• Fire Keeps It Dead: Louis and Claudia place an unconscious Antoinette into the incinerator to be absolutely sure that she dies. Antoinette wakes up screaming in agony while she's being consumed by the flames. Claudia wants to do the same for Lestat's body, but Louis won't allow it because he still loves his (ex-)boyfriend. Not surprisingly to Daniel, Lestat is Not Quite Dead.
• Flashback Cut: A brief clip of Lily from episode 1 is seen when when Daniel concludes that he's a Replacement Goldfish for her because Louis is once again "paying a whore to sit in a room and talk with you."
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: As the vampire family delineate their plan to lure their would-be victims to their home for the after-party feast, Lestat does a variation on pinching by abruptly squeezing Louis' derrière and then tugging his lover next to him. Lestat's hand remains clasped on Louis' rump for the rest of the scene, and he's making it crystal clear to his beloved that he's fantasizing about doing something much more intimate with Louis when he murmurs huskily, "And let the flesh instruct the mind."
• Fountain of Youth: Lampshaded by Claudia when she first approaches Lestat about organizing a party on their final night in New Orleans. They will invite several humans to their house with the promise of eternal youth, and then massacre their guests before they depart for Buenos Aires.
  Claudia: They think we've got the fountain of youth in here. They don't know they're the fountain.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Eagle-eyed viewers can spot Antoinette in the streetcar◊ two seats ahead of Lestat in her Sweet Polly Oliver ensemble.
  • Later, two pages from◊ Claudia's journal◊ contain a small preview for Season 2:
    Left page: Dear diary, I have been planning the trip out in my head. When we get to Europe, we aren't going to look at any of the touristy sights. We are instead going straight to the Black Sea and then on to the Carpathian Mountains. Those are the places I've been reading about in the books I've brought with me. We had to leave so much behind, but I brought those books. Louis doesn't care much about what he calls [unclear] for old [unclear]
    Right page: Friday: Louis has been increasingly anxious and morose because of what we did. He says he's never known fear like that in his life, like he felt before we left, the vulnerability, the sheer terror. And he says, there's no relief from it now that we're on our way. Even though he's miles away from Lestat, whose body is bled dry and rotting in a garbage dump. Sometimes, Louis can't break free from his grasp. I can practically see Lestat in front of me, hanging in the doorway, because he's the subject of all Louis' thoughts.
• Gasp!: The homophobic guests at the Mardi Gras ball audibly gasp when Louis and Lestat kiss on the dance floor.
• Gilded Cage: Lestat's sumptuous and comfortable townhouse is a suffocating prison for both Louis and Claudia. Lestat rules his household with an iron fist, and he doesn't permit either his boyfriend or his vampire daughter to depart without his approval, under the threat of excessive violence for Louis and death for Claudia ("I'll turn your bones to dust").
  Louis: Add to the toxic air a new ever-present paranoia. [...] We were compelled to sleep in the same chamber together again. [Lestat] would have it no other way. We would spend our hours enduring, with little pretense of getting along, locked together in hatred. He would have it no other way.
• A Glass of Chianti: Lestat drains the blood of an encyclopedia salesman into a decanter, and then pours it in crystal wine glasses for himself, Louis and Claudia in their opulent dining room, a Vampires Are Rich version of a family dinner. They generally don't drink blood in a fancy setting (they typically go out to hunt), but the pretty glassware in this scene accentuates how Louis and Claudia are confined in Lestat's Gilded Cage.
• Gratuitous French: Claudia has one line of dialogue in French: "[La] Musique française pour les mains françaises." ("French music for French hands.")
• Guyliner: Lestat and Louis both sport eye makeup at the Mardi Gras ball to add authenticity to their 18th-century French period costumes and powdered wigs.
• Handsplay in Theater: Lestat puts his arm around Louis at the cinema, which is a bold move in 1939 because homosexuality was illegal.
• Hates Their Parent: It's hinted that Daniel's daughters hate him because they refuse to have any contact with their father.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack:
  • During the tram ride scene, as Claudia psychically tells Louis, "You spend an hour alone with [Lestat] and you're breathing in sync together," the sound of heartbeats becomes mingled with the dialogue, although it's not made clear whose it belongs to. It may be Lestat listening in on Louis or vice versa, or it could be Louis and Lestat's hearts thumping together as one because they're vampires in love.
  • Later, when Louis and Claudia enter the venue for the Mardi Gras ball, they are overwhelmed by the heartbeats of the guests because they had starved themselves of human blood for three consecutive nights before the event.
    Louis: The blood was everywhere. The veins and arteries of a few hundred hearts ringing out like air raid sirens, drowning out the rhythm section of the hired band.
• Held Gaze: Louis and Lestat share one as they dance together at the Masquerade Ball, which culminates in Louis kissing Lestat.
• Holding Hands:
  • Louis and Lestat walk hand-in-hand from the balcony to the ballroom of the crowded Mardi Gras ball venue because they're coming out of their Transparent Closet.
  • Later, Louis and Claudia hold hands in solidarity as a screeching Antoinette is being consumed by the incinerator's fire. They both wanted her dead for a long time, so this gesture is their unspoken "We finally did it."
  • At the end of the episode, Louis and Armand clasp each other's hands in front of Daniel to make it clear to him that they're a couple.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the climax, Claudia stabs Antoinette, who has just fallen to the ground after being punched, with a fire poker which goes through Antoinette's chest, which pins the latter to the floor.
• Indirect Kiss: On the balcony of the Mardi Gras ball venue, Louis and Lestat share a "cigarette kiss" by touching the ends of their cigarettes together.
• Instrumentals: An instrumental brass rendition of Lestat's Villain Love Song "Come to Me" plays during Louis and Lestat's dance at the Mardi Gras ball.
• Internal Homage: Like in episode 5, Claudia is pushed against an armoire while being throttled by one of her vampire fathers.
• Intertwined Fingers: At the end of the episode, Louis and Armand weave their fingers together while Holding Hands in front of Daniel during their Relationship Reveal.
• In Vino Veritas: As Louis explains to Daniel, because Lestat had a tendency to withhold information from him, his maker's tongue loosened on a blood-drunken night in Baton Rouge where Lestat divulged to his fledgling how a vampire can die.
• Jawbreaker: In the climax, Louis tears off the lower jaw of a man and drops it to the ground before consuming his victim's blood.
• Jealous Parent: Lestat firmly believes that Claudia has ruined his relationship with Louis. ("Look what she did to us. She's corrupted everything.") Lestat's "solution" to their romantic woes is to get rid of Claudia for good. In other words, he views her as a platonic version of Murder the Hypotenuse.
• Kill the Ones You Love: Louis lacerates Lestat's throat to escape from his lover's Domestic Abuse and to eliminate the threat to Claudia's life (Lestat had conspired to murder their vampire daughter). However, Louis is still in love with his (ex-)boyfriend, so he prevents Claudia from burning Lestat's body, which means the latter is Not Quite Dead.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Louis attempts to inject some levity with a Pun when he notices that Lestat's powdered wig is on the floor, but Lestat finds it rather dull. Louis concedes that being blood-starved for three days in a row means that he can't think of a better one.
  Louis: The king's hair [heir] has betrayed the king.
  Lestat: Hmm. Was that a witticism from the Duke of Gloom himself?
  Louis: Hunger's got me light-headed.
• Last Kiss: Louis gives a heartfelt kiss to Lestat during their dance at the Mardi Gras ball. Louis and Claudia will murder Lestat later that night to free themselves from his abuse, but because Louis still loves his boyfriend, this kiss is his loving way of saying goodbye to Lestat.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Lestat is no longer thinking rationally when it comes to his boyfriend Louis, with Lestat somehow deluding himself that Louis will finally love him with all of his heart by severely restricting the latter's freedom. Lestat now treats Louis — a black man who deeply resents being oppressed by white society — as his Property of Love and keeps him confined in a Gilded Cage. Any sensible person would recognize that reducing Louis to a mere love slave would cause him to loathe Lestat even more (Louis has already contemplated suicide as a means to escape from Lestat's Domestic Abuse). Louis' lack of personal autonomy is further worsened when Lestat (who's promiscuous) suddenly foists a Vampire's Harem structure upon their relationship without consulting Louis (who's a monogamist) beforehand — Lestat clearly doesn't care about Louis' opinions or feelings on the matter, and is essentially behaving like a slave owner whose word is law. If Louis being forced into the position of Lestat's male Top Wife wasn't bad enough, Lestat also intends to murder their vampire daughter Claudia (whom Louis adores) because he views her as an impediment to possessing the entirety of Louis' love. It's no wonder that Louis is willing to kill his psycho lover in order to regain his freedom and keep Claudia safe, which is the complete opposite of what Lestat wants.
• Lover and Beloved: Tom Anderson lampshades this trope with a homophobic slur when he's chatting with Louis ("you and your fag pederast").
• Lured into a Trap: The vampire family trick several gullible humans who were at the Masquerade Ball to attend an after-party at their home with promises of being granted immortality. Once the guests enter the townhouse, they basically become cattle inside an abattoir; Lestat, Louis and Claudia spare none of their prey during the ensuing bloodbath.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: It's mentioned that sometime around the late 1920s, Lestat and a Socialite from the Women's Opera Society had a quickie under the stairs of the lecture hall where her husband was onstage giving a boring speech on Don Giovanni.
• Masquerade Ball: Lestat (and to a lesser extent Louis and Claudia) organizes a Mardi Gras ball. Most of the guests are the elite of New Orleans, and they're decked out in lavish costumes and masks.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": When Lestat slaughters Tom Anderson to feed on his blood, the other human guests at the after-party all panic because they realize that they're going to become meals for the vampire family.
• Meaningful Background Event:
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but while Lestat is twirling Louis in the ballroom, there is a brief shot of Claudia in the background handing Tom Anderson the poisoned glass of whiskey.
  • In the final scene, Daniel confronts Louis about being an Unreliable Narrator in the foreground while an out-of-focus Rashid stands behind them as he removes his gloves and contact lenses. Rashid then slowly levitates, which proves that he's actually a vampire in Human Disguise.
• Mind over Matter: In the climax, Lestat (who's in a different room and cannot see the front door from where he's standing) shuts his eyes and concentrates to remove the doorknob so that Antoinette can enter his townhouse.
• A Mistake Is Born: Lestat brings up that "[Claudia] should never have been made, Louis. Look what she did to us. She's corrupted everything." He uses it as justification to murder her.
• Monochrome Past: In the climax, there's a muted variation during the Once More, with Clarity sequence where the Flashback snippets are moderately desaturated.
• Neck Snap: Lestat snaps the neck of a man with blood cancer after finding the taste of his victim unpalatable.
• Newsreel: There's a scene in Dec. 1939 where Lestat, Claudia and Louis are at a movie theatre while a news update of Adolf Hitler is being projected on the screen.
• Not Quite Dead: Because Louis can't bring himself to burn Lestat's body because he still loves him in spite of his (ex-)boyfriend's Domestic Abuse, Louis and Claudia's murder attempt is exactly that — an attempt. At the garbage dump, Lestat unlocks the trunk that he has been stashed in from the inside (the inner locks were installed by him and Louis), and his arm pokes out from the makeshift coffin to grab a nearby rat, proving that he survived.
• Offing the Offspring: Lestat plans to murder his vampire daughter Claudia partly because she herself is plotting to kill him, and partly because he unfairly blames her for all of the unhappiness in their household. Lestat underestimates Claudia and she outmaneuvers him, so his scheme backfires spectacularly.
• Once More, with Clarity: The climax revisits a few earlier scenes from Antoinette's point-of-view where it's unveiled to viewers that she was in disguise and psychically eavesdropping on Louis and Claudia's telepathic conversations, including a Flashback from the sixth episode where Antoinette was at Jackson Square and had listened in on Louis and Claudia's thoughts about the latter boarding a train to New York. This confirms that Lestat had already turned Antoinette into a vampire by this point. There's also a clip of Claudia poisoning Tom Anderson's drink earlier that night at the Mardi Gras ball before handing the glass to him, which he eagerly sips. Tom was the first person Lestat had drained to death during the feast, so that's why the toxin is now in Lestat's system.
• One-Eyed Shot: There's a close-up of Louis' left eye as he watches a Newsreel about Adolf Hitler.
• One True Love: Lampshaded by Louis when he refers to Armand as "the love of my life," and it's important to note that he never told Lestat "I love you" directly. By 2022, Louis and Armand's ongoing romance (a minimum of 49 years) has lasted a lot longer than Louis and Lestat's relationship (which was just over 29 years).
• Overcrank: When Louis and Lestat share a Held Gaze and a Big Damn Kiss during their waltz at the Mardi Gras ball, the slow-motion makes the sequence seem dream-like to accentuate that they're both head-over-heels in love with each other.
• Patricide: Louis and Claudia attempt to murder their vampire father Lestat — who has been psychologically and physically abusive towards them — by poisoning him with dead blood and cutting open his throat, but they don't succeed because Louis refuses to burn his lover's body despite Claudia demanding that they do so. A clip near the end of the episode shows that Lestat did survive, and Daniel deduces that he can eat the rats at the garbage dump.
  Louis: Could the children murder the father? [Lestat] was stronger than us, quicker than us, in possession of ancient powers that had been passed on to his progeny only in a diminished form.
• People Puppets: Lestat makes a man at the cinema slap himself continuously.
• Philosopher's Stone: Lestat claims he has produced the Elixir of Life using this, with that being why he, Louis and Claudia are immortal and eternally youthful, which serves to lure several people inside their house, and the trio drain them all to death.
• Pimped-Out Cape: As part of Lestat's Marie-Antoinette Drag Queen act, his costume includes a fur-trimmed cape to reinforce the French queen's royal status.
• Promotion to Opening Titles: After being credited as a guest star for the first six episodes, Assad Zaman is listed as a main cast member in the Season 1 finale, his name appearing in between Bailey Bass and Eric Bogosian.
• Punny Name: The "Phail" in McPhail is a homonym for "fail," as the twins fail to escape from the townhouse before being killed by the vampire family.
• Quizzical Tilt: Louis tilts his head◊ after he notices that Daniel is distracted because the latter was staring at Rashid, who is chatting on his cell phone while standing in sunlight. Louis is wondering why Daniel is now engrossed by Rashid when he wasn't before.
• Relationship Reveal: Although Daniel suspected that Rashid was Sleeping with the Boss in episode 2, he (and the audience) doesn't receive official confirmation until the end of Season 1. Louis and the vampire Armand ("Rashid" was merely his Human Disguise) have been a couple since at least 1973, and while Holding Hands, Louis informs Daniel that Armand is "the love of my life."
• Replacement Goldfish: Daniel infers that he's a replacement for Lily, the prostitute whom Louis had habitually paid to simply chat with him when the latter was human. Louis doesn't dispute it.
  Daniel: 144 years of life, and you're still Louis the pimp, paying a whore to sit in a room and talk with you. [...] Ten million dollars. That's my whore number.
• The Rich Have White Stuff: Evoked by the 18th-century French period costumes worn by Lestat, Louis and Claudia during the Masquerade Ball (plus Lestat's Marie-Antoinette Drag Queen finery on the Krewe of Raj float). Their white outfits indicate that they're portraying members of the French royalty and nobility.
• Sarcasm Mode: During the Christmas season of 1939, the biracial Claudia dislikes it when Lestat plays Johann Sebastian Bach's music at their piano because Bach is a German composer (Nazi Germany had instigated World War II three months prior). The racially insensitive Lestat assumes that Claudia's aversion to Bach's repertoire means that she's not "sophisticated" enough to appreciate it. She offers a sardonic retort.
  Claudia: Bach. Always back to Bach.
  Lestat: Bach is beyond you.
  Claudia: Yes, the music of the master race is... not made for these mongrel ears.
• Scream Discretion Shot: Louis murders the MacPhail twin who wasn't poisoned by Claudia, but the audience doesn't see it happen. Lestat (who's in a different room and was expecting to eat both twins) is surprised when the young man cries in agony.
• Screaming Woman:
  • The sole human woman at the after-party feast screeches her head off several times before Lestat exsanguinates her to death.
  • Later, Antoinette wails in agony as she's being engulfed by the incinerator's flames.
• Sigh of Love: A Socialite from the Women's Opera Society whom Lestat had a quickie with over a decade ago sighs and places her hand over her chest when he turns around to face her. It's evident from her reaction that she still finds his good looks to be breathtaking.
• Slashed Throat: In the climax, Louis unsheathes the knife from his Sword Cane and slices Lestat's throat with it.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Lestat pokes fun at the dead husband of a Socialite he once had a quickie with, and she bursts out laughing at his joke.
  Lestat: Now, which one of you did I pull under the stairs during that dull lecture on Don Giovanni?
  Socialite: That would be me. And that was my late husband giving the lecture.
  Lestat: And did he talk himself to death?
  (Socialite guffaws)
• Stalker without a Crush: Antoinette trails both Louis and Claudia to monitor their psychic communications, and she later reports her findings to her lover Lestat.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: From the perspective of the man with blood cancer, Lestat abruptly materializes next to him (he never saw Lestat pass through the front gate), so naturally the man is a bit perturbed by this.
• Stealth Insult: Lestat and Claudia are watching a Newsreel about Adolf Hitler, and after Lestat compliments the look of the Nazi uniforms (he's a Sharp-Dressed Man who adores fashion), Claudia insinuates that he's a dictator in their own home.
  Lestat: They may be nasty little beasts, but they do have excellent tailoring.
  Claudia: Well-dressed tyrants. Where have I seen that before?
• Stronger with Age: Lampshaded by Armand when he explains to Daniel why he's immune to sunlight, unlike most vampires.
  Daniel: But I saw you standing in the sun.
  Armand: As we age, the sun loses its power over us. What's a mediocre star to a 514-year-old vampire?
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Antoinette — who has been a vampire since at least the prior episode — has disguised herself as a man in order to spy on Louis and Claudia and read their thoughts, which is why she's aware of their plot to murder her lover Lestat.
• Themed Party: The visual theme of the Mardi Gras ball is The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. Some elements of the triptych can be seen on the artwork of the invitations and the decor of the venue.
• Title Drop:
  Louis: This horror that had been Lestat... I stared helplessly at it. The thing lay still.
• Transparent Closet: Tom Anderson calls Lestat "your fag pederast" while talking to Louis, and Tom surmises correctly that Lestat is the Lover and Louis is the Beloved in their Lover and Beloved dynamic.
• Unreliable Narrator: Louis insists to Daniel that he and Claudia couldn't go through with burning Lestat's body, with the implication they both agreed to not take that final step out of respect for the complicated relationship they had with him. This is aggressively called out by Daniel as pure BS, because while Louis was unable to render Lestat Deader than Dead because of a "fucked-up idea" he had about love, Claudia utterly despised her maker and would "not have a fucking problem tossing him on the grill." Daniel suggests that Louis, despite everything, chose Lestat over Claudia and is lying — rewriting events to make himself look better. Flashbacks confirm that Louis flatly refused to let Claudia incinerate Lestat when she persisted that they must carry out the act, to the point of outright attacking her in a way uncomfortably akin to how Lestat abused her in episode 5.
• Vampire Dance: Louis and Lestat waltz together in French period costumes at the Mardi Gras ball.
• Vampire's Harem: Lestat attempts to create his own harem with Louis (whom he loves the most) as the male version of his Top Wife and promoting Antoinette — who is now a vampire — from The Mistress to his second wife ("Antoinette will be much more agreeable to our life together"). Louis, who loathes Antoinette because he's jealous of her and wants her dead, would never accept the idea of having to live under the same roof with her and both having to share Lestat's bed (or coffin), which is a far more insufferable arrangement than if she had remained as Lestat's side chick. Although Louis was initially hesitant to carry out Claudia's plan to kill Lestat for abusing them, his outrage at the thought of Antoinette joining their household (plus Lestat intends to murder Claudia) boosts his determination to destroy his maker.
• Villainous Face Hold:
  • Lestat briefly holds the face of an encyclopedia salesman he has kidnapped and restrained while taunting his victim with "Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk. There's three of us you must provide for tonight."
  • Shortly afterwards, Lestat performs the same gesture on the man with blood cancer just before he bites his neck and then snaps it.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
  • The MacPhail twin who was poisoned by Claudia pukes as Louis corners him and his brother.
  • Later, Lestat retches up blood twice as the paralyzing brew of laudanum and arsenic (which he had ingested by consuming Tom Anderson's tainted blood) courses through his veins.
• Voodoo Doll: Lestat points to a pile of objects that superstitious people have discarded on their doorstep, which includes voodoo dolls. He understands it's a warning that the locals don't accept "demons" living among them, and it's only a matter of time before they'll try to kill the vampire family.
  Lestat: [Voodoo] Dolls, Bibles, letters become torches and pitchforks. We have to leave this place. We have to leave New Orleans.
• Western Zodiac: There's an allusion to Western astrology when Louis talks about Lestat: "...the sun-hot ego of the vampire king." The "Lion" in Lestat's surname Lioncourt is a Meaningful Name because he possesses many leonine qualities, and Leo is the zodiac sign of the Lion ("the king of the jungle") which is ruled by the sun. Moreover, Lestat is costumed as a French king during the Mardi Gras ball, the most famous of which is Louis XIV (a tyrant much like Lestat is towards his family), who was also known as le Roi-Soleil (the Sun King).
• White Shirt of Death: Subverted in the climax when Lestat, Louis and Claudia's elegant white costumes are splattered with the blood of their human victims at the after-party feast.
• Writers Cannot Do Math:
  • Episode 5 establishes that Louis was born on Oct. 4, 1877 (that's the date engraved on the family tombstone that Grace had added below their mother's name), which is accurate because his transition into a vampire occurred in late 1910 at age 33. However, the screenwriters forgot this because Louis says that he was born in 1878 and is 61 years old on Feb. 6, 1940 when he should be 62, and Daniel later mentions that Louis is 144 years old in June 2022, which matches with the Oct. 4, 1877 birthday.
  • While remembering events from the autumn of 1939, Louis tells Daniel that Lestat was "148 years the blood-drinker." This number is incorrect because Lestat received the Dark Gift in 1794, so he had been a vampire for 145 years.

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