‘Interview with the Vampire’ 2×05 Review: “Don’t Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape”

Interview with the Vampire 2×05 takes us back to Louis and Daniel’s first interview in 1973, and the result is one of the most powerful, emotionally devastating episodes of the series to date. Leaving out the bulk of the episode for a moment, we can’t help but take note of how different the opening moments of the hour are from the very end. We begin with a Louis and Armand very much in love, yet with Armand very much in control of the narrative. Louis is completely unaware of those little hints viewers have received along the way, of his lover perhaps manipulating both Daniel and himself.

In the closing moments, though…the tables have turned. Armand returns from a successful hunt, not a care in the world — sporting his victim’s shades and pulling off the look far better than anyone, much less a centuries-old vampire, has any right to. But the moment he hears that Louis and Daniel “reminisced about San Francisco,” his face falls. And Louis’ expression, utterly smitten prior to Armand’s lunch, is now nothing but hard. Accusatory, challenging. All of this, as Daniel’s countenance turns similarly dark — yet, somehow, purposely blank —as well.

The images that we’re left with, as Armand is caught and Louis knows the extent of the control his lover has held over him for decades, are most certainly a warning of more pain to come. But they’re also simply signs of an ending of sorts in their own right.

The illusion is dead. Now what?

Lestat, Lestat, Lestat…

In Interview with the Vampire 2×05, Jacob Anderson and Assad Zaman deliver the kinds of performances that defy words. They have both been fantastic all season. And we’ve made no mystery, whatsoever, of Zaman’s portrayal of the vampire Armand being one of our favorite things about this series, period. Even so, despite knowing what these two actors are capable of and what they’ve already delivered in previous episodes, we were not prepared for what they do in this hour. Absolutely everything, every line, every bitter smile that expresses anything but what a smile usually should, feels like a blow straight to the chest.

To put it as simply as possible, watching Louis and Armand attack one another with words — and not just any words, no. The most painful ones they can imagine — hurts. But it hurts so very, very good. And it tells a story of years and years of pent up emotion. Emotion that neither vampire could bring himself to express because both knew to do so would be the end of them. And even though his ghost is not present here, simply the mention of his name is too much for Armand to bear.

In fact, hearing “the name!!!” so many times, after over 20 years of not hearing it, is what sets Armand off. And it’s what leads to both Anderson and Zaman tapping into this raw emotion, this undeniable pain — bottled and buried for so long — that can only be expressed by hurting each other. Over and over until nothing is left. Louis calls Armand boring, mocks his traumatic origin story, tells him the 10 hours he spent with “that boy” (being a young Daniel Molloy) “were more exciting, more fascinating than decades! With you!!!!”

In these moments, Anderson fully embodies the broken soul that is Louis. He totally becomes the vampire who’s never dealt with his anger or his pain. It’s like Louis has no choice but to lash out. Because he wants the one he loves — and blames — to hurt just as much as he does. (To put it in fewer words, Anderson is perfect.) And lash out, Louis does. Until even this powerful vampire, this larger than life former coven leader, is nothing more than Marius’ beautiful, but wounded, Amadeo once more. But maybe that’s a far too flowery way of putting it. Let’s just say that, in short, Louis breaks Armand’s heart. Whatever may have been left of it to break in the first place, that is.

“There it is…the half blank, half apocalyptic look. But what does it mean tonight? Does he want to lick my boots? Or chop my hands off? Is it the gremlin or the good nurse tonight?”

And then, he continues breaking Armand down. He pushes, and pushes, and pushes. And we get the feeling he’s wanted to say some of these awful things all along. Louis, feeling the effects of the drugs in Daniel’s system, stumbles through but seems — with what little bit of clarity he holds onto in the moment — to enjoy hurting Armand. Even uses the word “gremlin,” which the spirit of Lestat once used to describe Armand back in Paris, back when Louis was just beginning to fall for him. Interesting choice of words there, all these years later. One can’t help but wonder if some part of Louis always saw Armand that way

Let’s not make Armand some tragic, helpless character here, though. Because in the same explosive fight, he deals his own death blows. Zaman is hilarious as Armand mocks Louis’ “it’s so hard to be me” story. But the hilarity doesn’t last because the characters are both so wrecked as Armand does his mocking. And it’s when he brings up her — mentions that Claudia never loved Louis the way he and Lestat did — that Louis walks into the sun.

Armand claims, at the time, that Louis “threw her name around just for cover, but it always circled back to him.” And, perhaps, Armand’s greatest weakness may be his jealousy over what Louis feels for Lestat. But even as he rages “Lestat, Lestat, Lestat…” (etc.), and even as he’s so terribly fixated on Louis’ description of Daniel as “fascinating,” one can’t help but wonder if Armand feels any sense of guilt or remorse about…that.

Armand unleashed

Then again, Interview with the Vampire 2×05 doesn’t really make much mystery about Armand’s feelings — or lack thereof — on the subject of Claudia either. When Louis is in utter and complete agony, Armand is (at least initially) the most detached he’s ever been. As he lays out how Louis came to be in this awful, awful state — “you drained a drug fiend, you said the worst things you’ve ever said to me. And then you ran outside, and now, you’re a convalescent” — Armand is about as emotionless as it gets. He also spares Louis no care, whatsoever, for his “meaningless” apology.

But, for as detached as Armand is there, his anger still works its way through — that emphasis on “you’ve” being the red flag there. Then, he goes into logistics about the floor being slanted, blood flowing a certain direction…and that carefully controlled rage boils over yet again once Louis, near death from his trip out into the sun, shows more concern for the boy than for either himself or Armand. Here is where Armand becomes every bit as great and terrible as we’ve so rarely been reminded he can be. He uses his Gifts to levitate Daniel’s chair, then slam it back down again, repeatedly. Just because he can. It’s not even for his own enjoyment, really.

Because he enjoys nothing. Not in the way we humans understand enjoyment, at least. And make no mistake: Hundreds of years old, Armand is far from human. Forget all his practiced smoothness, his carefully-performed calm, his pantomime of being unbothered by all the tiny slights from an older Daniel along the way. It is all just that — practiced, performed, pantomime. An act.

Back to it…

Later, Armand becomes even more terrifying, his expressionless mask no longer able to hide the violence inside of him, as he “interrogates” Daniel and wounds him with his own memories. He truly can not stand that Louis sees something in this “boy” that he does not. Not only that, but whatever Louis sees in Daniel, he prefers it to Armand.

So, to get back to Claudia, as even Armand himself does when he finally puts Louis in his coffin to rest: No, he doesn’t have any regrets. Or he does. Just not about her, specifically. All he cares about is Louis, keeping Louis, somehow getting Louis to turn away from his enduring love for Lestat and grief over Claudia.

“You left me for death. Will I be on suicide watch for the next thousand years. Have I atoned…for my part of…Paris. Have I crawled an inch forward, or am I a reminder of the worst of it?”

For further proof that Armand cares for Louis, even in spite of his total lack of ability to really care about much anymore, he sees out Lestat’s voice “among the many.” And pay careful attention to the way Armand repeats all of Lestat’s message for Louis…but will not pass on the “I love you.” Wait. Not will not. Can not. Zaman makes the vampire’s struggle against hearing those words very clear.

As selfish as Armand is here, as much as his wish for atonement is clearly about him and getting the love back from Louis that he so desperately craves, it’s impossible not to somehow, still, feel awful for him in this vulnerable, heartbroken moment. And when, later, he not only saves Daniel at Louis’ request (demand) but only after taunting him with the story of his own painfully normal future, even that is equal parts utterly diabolical and just purely bittersweet. (Also, we can’t handle that caress. It doesn’t quite fit with this point. But uh…oh.)

Pick your superlative — we’re going with a stunning portrayal of this complex character — and Zaman fits it. We well and truly do not know how to drive home how good he is in this role. Surely, though, Interview with the Vampire 2×05 makes his immense talent clear.

The vampire and his boy

Back to the interviews, though…

One thing Interview with the Vampire 2×05 does alarmingly well is reconcile the two halves of the whole. This applies to two different aspects of the storytelling. First, while it’s often been easy to get completely wrapped up in Louis’ past as he tells his story, thus making the modern-day interview scenes feel a bit like a footnote, that is not the case here. Second, revisiting the original interview reminds us that Louis has changed his story over time. Not only that, but this hour also immediately answers the question of why that’s the case.

“He appeared frail and stupid to me, a man [made] of dried twigs with a thin, carping voice.”

In 1973, Louis de Pointe du Lac…didn’t tell Daniel Molloy about Lestat de Lioncourt being one of the great loves of his life. Instead, he said all sorts of terrible things about “superficial charms” and his “flimsy gentleman’s veneer.” Well, through Anderson’s performance, we see the truth of the matter: Louis was still every bit a wounded ex-lover, not at all over it, at that point. All that hatred was merely the intoxicated ravings of someone still very much not over his breakup. With time, however, he’s come to remember things a bit differently.

Now, the interviews. Another chance to sit back, marvel, and just be like…”wow.”

This entire journey to 1973 begins with an older Daniel Molloy once again having some strange flashback to that time, experiencing some memory Armand had previously cut away. Once Armand is out of the picture, physically gone and too focused on his meal to keep tabs on what’s happening back home, Daniel finally has — and takes — his opening.

“You’ve made me an accessory to murder. And you’ve had 13 sessions. I want 20 minutes. For me. I want to know — for me — what happened between us. Ok?”

Sure, Daniel begins with a bit of his usual snark. But by the end of his plea, he is really, truly pleading with Louis. It’s a beautiful moment of vulnerability from Eric Bogosian, made all the more powerful by how rare that sort of openness has been for Daniel. And it’s enough to move whatever humanity remains in Louis and get him to switch gears on the interview. For the remainder of the hour, as we seamlessly work our way back and forth between the characters’ two encounters, it’s that humanity that remains important. Because both Daniel and Louis begin to realize, together, that they experienced such agony together.

“Pieces of my life…gone. I knew who I was without those pieces.” 

It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant work from Anderson and Bogosian throughout. For Anderson, the most gut-wrenching moment (in the present day, at least) is probably when Louis realizes he walked into the sun all those years ago. Such a haunting, lost quality takes over him. Bogosian portrays a similar sense of being haunted as he recalls someone else being in the room back in ’73, the tape being flipped over, his horrifying encounter with the vampire Armand. As the two piece each other’s memories back together, they’re able to mend their own. And it forges something between them — something fragile and human and real.

Perhaps the better word may be fascinating, even. Because we never quite get a clear picture of what Louis might have found fascinating in Daniel — not in the chaos that is the flashbacks, at least. Sure, a young Daniel and a Louis eager to tell his story — desperate to reconnect with humanity — both have their, uh, flirty moments. And sure, Louis is amused by Daniel’s foolish lack of fear. But none of that measures up to what happens in Dubai, feet in the rocks, wounds each man didn’t even know he had exposed for the other to see.

And how gutting, really, is it to know that the young Daniel — in a soul-searing performance on Luke Brandon Field’s own part — went through all of that, witnessed all of that, only because Louis found something in him. And whatever that thing was, he had to live a whole life — one that was manufactured by an Armand yet again in the role of Directeur Artistique — before actually getting to sit down and share something real with him? Not to mention, what does it say about the current state of Louis and Armand’s relationship, that Armand allowed for these two to have another interview — even his supervised one?

Just…what a stellar bit of storytelling, top to bottom. No words. Thousands of words here, maybe. But all fall short.

More on Interview with the Vampire 2×05

• TL;DR this cast is way, way too talented.
• And the writing is simultaneously so very much in Rice’s spirit while such a huge departure from the story many of us “know.” Like, it’s 100% the same but also 100% different? Amazing.
• Let’s all go back and admire Anderson’s fond glance with his hand under his chin and Zaman’s dazzling heart eyes. Perhaps we should’ve paused and lived there forever. (Except not because we’d be robbed of those performances.)
• “Funny thing, trying to remember what occupied one’s time when one was ignorant of the plotting around him.” Hm. The way this applies not just to Paris but also to all the lost history we uncover in Interview with the Vampire 2×05…and to the fact that Armand goes out for his F-boy arms dealer snack, carefree, with no idea what’s going on at home.
• “You’re circling something? You’re getting close to something you want distance from?”  The delivery from Bogosian here…especially the way he draws out “you’re.”
• Forever in awe of how well Bogosian immediately switches the Daniel sass off whenever the character gets bombarded by another flashback to Armand’s emotional torture.
• “500 years, hundreds of thousands of kills…how often has Armand spared a life?”
• “Armand could see I was partial to you; Armand preserves my happiness. Even when I don’t  or can’t. He had a hunch you might prove fruitful in later times.” And the way Louis chimes with the “hunch” line at the end!!!
• What a manipulative little sh*t. (Don’t change, Amadeo. Never change.)
• “Did we…?” The editing as we fade from Louis’ sly grin in response to that question, to the beginning of the book the 1973 part of the episode…gorgeous.
• “I’m not fun.”
• “Fulfilling my side of the social contract.” “Do you normally interview your subjects with your shirt off?” I—.
• “So, we didn’t.” Anderson’s face. Just…purely smug, fond, amused…
• “You weren’t always a vampire, were you?” It’s on the page!
• So’s this (mostly): “There’s a simple answer to that. I don’t [believe] I want to give simple answers. I want to tell the real story.”
• Field is so good at Daniel’s skepticism, blended with his naivety. “The boy” indeed.
• “You were terrified of me, Daniel.” Not entirely! “You were lonely, Louis.” …yes.
• “Tape after tape of emotional upchuck.”
• “…blind and sterile and contemptible.” *nods* Have heard this about Lestat before.
• Louis showing Daniel his fangs, when Daniel’s all basically “aw, shucks” about being a “stupid boy.” Kinda reminiscent of Santiago’s faux playfulness with Claudia, except this actually feels real. Louis likes Daniel.
• “This! After all I’ve told you! Is what you ask for, boy?” The way Anderson roars this line would be the highlight of most episodes of television. Not this one. Because there’s just so much more.
• And it’s another thing straight from the text.
• Same here: “You don’t know what human life is like! I mean, you’ve forgotten, man. I mean, you don’t understand the meaning of your own story!” (Just the “man” and “I mean” got added in for the TV show.)
• “You’re a liar, Daniel.” “So are you, Louis! Whether you know it or not.” This hits so hard after seeing the entirety of Interview with the Vampire 2×05 play out. Like, no. He had no idea, actually.
• “My daughter was my sister, was my throw pillow when he wouldn’t look at me kindly.”
• The use of the music during the entire sequence that shows Louis’ suicide attempt: Art.
• “The pain.” “Must be exquisite.” It is when I watch y’all fight. Thanks for pointing that out.
• “I’m sorry.” “Meaningless words — meaningless.” Been there.
• “Oh, he’s fine. You’re fine. This is fine. We’re all fine.” (Narrator: They were not, in fact, fine.)
• “I can be on my knees in a second.” And then, the way Armand actually drops him!
• Assad Zaman. That is all.
• “An instinct to self-efface. Is that what makes you fascinating.” And his head tilt, his hunger, the threat he poses, his total lack of fascination…
• “In high school, you told a girl you’d only do her if she had a paper bag over her head. She agreed, and she did it even as she cried. A splinter of coldness in you: is that what makes you fascinating.” I mean, hearing this…stan Armand for torturing him, honestly.
• “I don’t know. No point. Other than f*ck your boyfriend.”
• “Rage is an imprecise emotion. I’d hurt him. But I was fragile. An invalid.” Louis will make excuses for the men he loves until his last seconds on Earth, huh?
• Have we mentioned how good Bogosian is with, like…the way Daniel jumps in with seemingly random recollections? This is it — the nature of memory. So. Good.
• “I listened to the tapes. All of them. Twice. Lestat, Lestat. Claudia. Lestat, Lestat…” Take a drink every time Armand says Lestat’s name in this episode. An extra drink if it’s different from every other time he’s said it. (So, two drinks every single time.)
• The tiny bit we get to hear Sam Reid as Lestat, just wounded over hearing Louis harmed himself and first begging, then demanding, Armand share his “I love you.” Oof.
• Spoiler alert? For any viewers who are not familiar with Anne Rice’s books, you now have full confirmation that Lestat was never truly dead. In 1973, Lestat is very much alive and even able to use the Mind Gift to communicate with Louis via Armand. So, uh. Yeah. Surprise!
• “…reads your nasty embellishments and comes chasing after you again.” Hm, yes…there’s a whole intro to a book about that…
• “If you want the insanity back, if you wanted escape from this prison of empathy I’ve locked you in[?]…all you had to do was ask, Louis.” Does Armand know what is “empathy”?
• “Come, come. Hold onto me. You rest now.” The dream.
• “Are you asking, Maître?” “No, Arun. I’m not asking.” I have. So many. Questions.
• So, Armand spared one life because Louis demanded it. The price for staying with him.
• Love that Daniel pulls out his own books and notes page numbers, just like I occasionally feel compelled to do with the Chronicles when I watch this show…
• “Same precise edit. On two brains.” PAIN.
• We have just seen how utterly, unapologetically evil Armand can be…and he comes in, looking like that in those shades. Ok!
• No but how does he pull that look off???
• Armand looking back and forth, trying to figure out how screwed he is and what he can/should do about it while the other two are a united front. Help.

Got thoughts about Interview with the Vampire 2×05 “Don’t Be Afraid, Just Start The Tape”? Leave us a comment!

New episodes of Interview with the Vampire release Sundays at 9/8c on AMC. Or watch it early on AMC+.