Interview With the Vampire’s Grand Trial Is Full of Bite

The members of the Theatre des Vampires have captured Claudia (Delainey Hayles), Louis (Jacob Anderson), and Madeleine (Roxane Duran) with the help of Armand (Assad Zaman), to be put on trial for the murder of Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) in a very special production.

The result is season two of Interview With the Vampire’s most heartbreaking episode, “I Could Not Prevent It.” It’s directed by Emma Freeman and written by showrunner Rolin Jones and Kevin Hanna—and though Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles fans know what’s about to happen, the changes from the source material make it all the more gut-wrenching and elevate the original text. It’s damn near one of the best hours of television committed to screen.

After Armand’s betrayal—despite his assurances that everything we’re about to witness is something he could not “prevent,” though we all know well he weaponizes incompetence—it’s pretty much a cold open with Claudia, Louis, and Madeleine in the middle of the stage with Santiago (Ben Daniels) and coven taking on roles as white-wigged judges to the human audience’s jury. Here they think they’re in for a show, but the vampires are cruelly putting on a very real trial for the trio’s transgressions against vampire rules—which turn out to to be not-so-loose guidelines when petty infighting is involved.

Santiago has waited for this day to rake Louis across the coals at the expense of Claudia, who he seemed to genuinely like but ultimately double-crossed, in order to get back at Armand’s double standards when it came to his boy toy. This is a production he headlines, or at least thinks he does, until his star witness shows up: none other than Lestat de Lioncourt, back from near-death to punish his fledglings for trying to kill him. But the mercurial vampire does anything but stick to the script, much to Santiago’s chagrin, whose ego must endure being upstaged by a true diva.

Lestat starts out game until he turns to face Louis and Claudia because in the moment he does, the anger clearly begins to melt away. However, as the show goes on and he recounts his version of events, it all begins to differ in many ways from Louis’ proven to be inconsistent point of view over the last two seasons and the flashback to the first interview. The abuser, it seems, does take a lot of responsibility for his manipulations but also holds Louis accountable for the choice to turn Claudia in order to stay together. It’s something Lestat drives the point to reveal: he felt like he had no other choice but to do it in order to keep his lover with him. The audience quickly begins to side with Lestat’s new improv monologue of the events, which in turn continues to steal the show away from Santiago. Daniels and Reid diva off each other deliciously, morphing from a team to quick enemies as each tries to control the narrative the audience bears witness to.

Claudia, strong-headed and angry, snaps out of the torture daze the coven has on her and others to tell off her master for his taking the opportunity to show how much he did for love. In this fateful but well deserved drag across the stage, she attempts to call him out for the abuse and violence that justified their murder attempt, in the process owning up to why they did what they did to escape Lestat’s grasp. Here Santiago jumps in—“Confession!”—and tries to steer the trial back to make sure she and Louis pay the ultimate price, but Lestat’s glamour on the audience is too strong to sway.

It’s something that breaks us out of the past and into the present where Louis almost feels like he has to defend Armand’s lack of action, assuring us he was forced to watch and not do a thing. It feels really suspicious to be honest, because how can an ancient vampire just sit there under guard from vampires he’s clearly more powerful than while his boyfriend’s ex flexes his charm to do something to try to save his kin?

It’s too late; with Claudia’s confession we get to the meat of it. The coven asks Madeleine to renounce her makers and join them but she affirms her coven is Claudia. It’s something that isn’t enough to save them but enough to show Claudia at the end that she did find someone who accepted her and wanted her all along. The ending was unfair but true to the spirit of the book as we see the innocent be found guilty while Louis miraculously (too miraculously, I might add) is condemned by the audience to only be banished. Yes, merely banished. Lestat and Armand look stunned by the verdict; their boyfriend meets a different fate than intended by Santiago who for sure wanted Louis dead the most. He’s livid and it’s clear he feels there’s foul play at work, but he can’t contradict the verdict and tries to play if off like “ah yes, a fate worse than death” as his sworn enemy is carted away from his daughter and buried alive in the theater mausoleum. In the present, Armand takes the credit and swears it took too much from him to be able to also save Claudia.

Going on with the show, the grand finale: Claudia and Madeleine are put to death before the audience and Lestat. Even as her last moments are playing out, Claudia rises to show the best of Lestat and Louis that she has in her; she reads the coven to filth, and tells the audience that if there’s an after she’s coming for them. When she delivers her promise of poltergeist vengeance, I longed for everyone who found her guilty to immediately spontaneously combust from the power of her words.

Hayles is best Claudia we’ve ever gotten, helped along by the fact that the character was greatly improved by this adaptation. And it’s soul-crushing to see her look at her father as she turns to dust, giving him the pain she feels to carry for the rest of his undead life. The understanding is heartbreaking and you can see in Lestat’s face that he understands his daughter was not an abomination but the best thing he may have created, more capable and powerful than he and Louis combined. And now she’s dead and gone. Ughhh, my heart.

There’s just one more Interview With the Vampire season two episode left; the finale airs this upcoming Sunday on AMC+ and AMC.

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