The Season 1 finale of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, “The Thing Lay Still,”returns to Molloy (Eric Bogosian) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) again at the long dining room table. The interview has picked up where they last left off, with Louis’ revelation that he and Claudia would attempt to kill Lestat. Louis lists the few ways vampires can be killed: starvation, fire, decapitation, and drinking the blood of the dead.
While Lestat is not consciously aware of the threat against his life, he grows increasingly paranoid. This desperation turns to tyranny as he tightens his grip on the family’s every move. He’s forced them all to sleep in the same room, letting either out of his sight as little as possible. Louis and Claudia are left with no choice but to communicate telepathically, something Lestat has always resented.
“Are you the new postman?”
A sizable amount of Lestat’s (Sam Reid) paranoia comes from the constant stream of Bibles, candles, spells, and sigils left at their doorstep. He sees these offerings as the precursors to neighbors descending on their home with torches and pitchforks. Lestat and Louis catch a man in the act of slipping an envelope under their door. They drag him inside to find that he had come to beg for a “blessing” from the “Angels in 1132.” When the man confirms that he had told no one where he was, Lestat bites him but spits out his blood immediately. Claudia (Bailey Bass) reads from the letter he’d slipped under the door and confirms what Lestat has already deduced, that the man was sick, dying of cancer of the blood. He’d hoped the vampires would be able to save him. Meanwhile, back in Dubai, Rashid (Assad Zaman) enters the room to clear Louis’ bowl. Molloy eyes him with suspicion. Louis notices but says nothing.
The brush with death in the sick man’s blood has pushed Lestat to the limit of his risk tolerance. He has decided that it has become untenable to remain in New Orleans and announces that they will make plans to leave. Louis suggests Greece, but Lestat has long opposed the idea of traveling to Europe. He decides on Buenos Aires. While Lestat and Louis plan their departure, Claudia devises a plan to kill Lestat. Just as Lestat has final say over their move, Claudia has final say over the murder plot. She tells Louis that she will require his assistance but refuses to provide any more detail; Louis’ role is to keep Lestat distracted by giving him exactly what he wants: a loyal and devoted lover.
Louis’ bad cop foil Claudia mocks Lestat’s decision to leave New Orleans, accusing him of fleeing out of fear. She points out the hypocrisy in his running away under cover of darkness while taking such pleasure in torturing his victims. She suggests an exit befitting their time in the city: to throw a massive party on the eve of their exit. Louis dismisses the idea, reminding her that they are pariahs who have been out of social favor for more than a decade. Claudia cites the sick man’s letter as evidence that their neighbors are more curious than hateful.
“They may be nasty little beasts, but they do have excellent tailoring.”
The next scene opens with the vampire family in the back row of a movie theater watching a newsreel and establishing the year as 1939. Claudia compares Lestat to the Nazis, describing them both as “well-dressed tyrants.” This backhanded flattery adds fuel to Claudia’s farewell party idea. She suggests the party should embody the decadence and luxury of an earlier time.
By New Year's Eve, she has the idea to align their party with Mardi Gras. The three vampires pay a visit to businessman-turned-politician Tom Anderson (Chris Stack). They haven’t spoken in seventeen years. Anderson makes no secret of his distrust toward them, pointing to a 30-year-old photograph in which Louis and Lestat look exactly the same. Lestat asks to be made the King of Mardi Gras. Anderson laughs in his face. He is a member of the Krewe Raj, the secret society responsible for organizing Mardi Gras festivities, but these events are planned years in advance and not weeks. Louis knows Anderson well enough to know his price. A German U-Boat had destroyed one of Anderson’s merchant ships importing coffins from Europe; Louis would replace it if Lestat would be crowned King. The family returns home for a manic month of planning: designing their costumes, booking passage out of New Orleans, and settling their affairs.
“You seduced the seducer.”
Molloy is briefly distracted from Louis’ story as he watches Rashid take a phone call while standing in the sunlight pouring through the window. Back in New Orleans, Mardi Gras arrives. Lestat is crowned king, and their party is a roaring success of ball gowns, colorful masks, and drunkenness. Each of the three vampires has been fitted with a handful of boutonnieres, invitations for the private afterparty at their house: their farewell feast. They have fasted for three days in preparation. Louis, just as Claudia had expected, has fallen hopelessly in love with Lestat again in the process of distracting him with affection. Watching Lestat bask in the adoration and attention, surrounded by people he once flirted with, Louis is jealous. His love for Lestat makes him hesitant to go through with Claudia’s plan, but he wants Lestat dead if only to prevent anyone else from having him.
Louis feels off-balance and woozy from hunger. He thinks he hears a voice telepathically call him a dog; it is not Claudia. He fears he is losing his grip on reality when he hears Tom Anderson’s voice soon after. Tom approaches, explaining that the building had been designed by the same architect as the US Capitol, complete with whisper galleries. This sets Louis’ mind at ease until Anderson points out that Louis still should not have been able to hear him over the noise of the band, chalking up his acute hearing to witchcraft. When Anderson uses a few choice homophobic slurs to describe Louis, he pins a boutonniere to his lapel. Louis finds Lestat and the two share one last dance as partygoers watch with disgust.
“Not for long, Tom...”
The vampires gather their chosen and bring them back to their townhome. They have promised to share the secret of immortality with only this select group. They gather in the dining room, around a table. Lestat describes their magic as ancient, building exposition. Tom Anderson, bored and drunk, grows antsy. Lestat motions to a punchbowl in the middle of the table, explaining that it is full of the elixir of life and that he, Louis, and Claudia have all drunk from it. To build their credibility, the vampires share their true ages. The crowd is shocked, and a desperate Tom Anderson lunges at the bowl. He lifts the lid to find that it is empty. Lestat reveals his fangs and latches onto Anderson’s neck. Claudia and Louis follow suit, killing and feeding while the onlookers scream in terror. A few of the men attempt to escape to find they have all been locked in.
Claudia and Louis stand behind a guest who has passed out drunk in his seat, saving him for Lestat. Lestat examines this offering, stopping only to open the door of the townhome with his mind without a word. He drops to his knees before the boy, caressing and studying him. He cuts the boy’s neck with his nail and watches the blood spurt out. He smells it, noting traces of rosemary. He thinks he smells something else and asks what it might be. Neither Claudia or Louis answer, but Antoinette (Maura Grace Athari), dressed in a suit and a gold mask, enters the room and answers: laudanum and arsenic.
Antoinette goes on to reveal all the details of Claudia’s plan: dose one of the partygoers with poison that mimics the stupefying effects of drunkenness and wait for Lestat to feed on dead blood. Lestat reveals that he brought Antoinette to the party to spy on Louis and Claudia; Antoinette recounts one of their telepathic conversations verbatim. Claudia bares her teeth, and within moments the struggle begins. Antoinette grabs Claudia and drags her toward the dying body, trying to force her to drink. Lestat restrains Louis, assuring him that Antoinette will be a far superior companion to them than Claudia ever was.
Suddenly, Lestat grows ill, retching and choking. Louis slips from his grasp. Claudia has bested him after all. They’d gotten the details of Claudia’s plot right except the boy in the chair is not the one that had been dosed. Claudia takes advantage of Antoinette’s shock to break free of her and drive a fireplace poker through her heart. As Antoinette lay dying, Claudia mocks Lestat as he gasps for air. She reveals she has known about Antoinette’s lurking for weeks and that the person she had poisoned was Tom Anderson, knowing that Lestat could not resist a nemesis. She tells Louis to have his goodbyes and kicks Antoinette’s body on her way out. Louis picks up a knife and slits Lestat’s throat while cradling him in his arms. Claudia returns to the room with a notebook and pen. She dips the pen into the wound in Lestat’s neck and records his last words in his own blood.
Claudia and Louis clean up after their feast, burning Antoinette and the corpses in the incinerator. Claudia wants to burn Lestat’s body, but Louis cannot. Instead, they wrap his body in a carpet and leave it out with the trash. They load a few belongings into their car and head for the port. Instead of taking the ship to Havana that Lestat had booked, they steal back the ship full of coffins they’d given to Tom Anderson and turn toward Europe.
“Louis can sometimes act out.”
Daniel Molloy holds Claudia’s diary from this period. To Molloy’s chagrin, pages have been removed from this journal as well. Even without them, Molloy can gather the deep rage and resentment Claudia expresses about Louis in the immediate aftermath of their escape. He demands to know why. Louis gives a superficial answer, blaming the overarching trauma of transition into vampirism, the loss of his family and his partner, and the uprooting of their lives for the wedge between them.
Molloy is too experienced to accept what Louis says uncritically and has already figured out for himself why she was angry. The poison had made Lestat sick, but he had not consumed dead blood. Exsanguination is not a means by which vampires die. By saving Lestat from the incinerator, Louis saved his life. Molloy explains his reasoning: trash is delivered to the dump, a hotbed for rats like those Louis sustained himself on for many years. Louis is upset, and Rashid steps in to end the interview.
Molloy does not respect Rashid’s authority. He continues to goad Louis, calling him a pimp and a narcissist, accusing him of wasting their time and behaving no differently than in their previous interview. Rashid asserts himself as the difference; he gently rises from the ground, pulling a book from a high shelf and dropping it at Molloy’s feet. The book is full of clippings and excerpts about vampires. Rashid reveals himself to be a vampire and over 500 years old. He explains that sunlight loses its destructive capacity as vampires age, and that Louis likely would have killed Molloy in their earlier interview if he had not intervened.
Louis steps back, and takes Rashid’s hand in his. “Molloy, I’d like you to meet the vampire Armand, the love of my life.”
