Claudia was truly drug into a messy, toxic relationship that would eventually be her undoing.
On the precipice of human death, she thought an angel had come to save her, but instead, it was Louis de Pointe du Lac, besieged with guilt, trying to save a piece of himself by gifting a dying girl with eternal life.
But Claudia was not destined for eternal life, as Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Episode 7 walked us through the vampire trial of the century, which was meant to end in no other way but with Claudia’s demise.
All roads were always leading to this hour, and whether or not you’ve read the novels or seen the movies, there was a Claudia-sized hole in the present and an overwhelming sadness permeating her entire existence, as told by present-day Louis.
We’ve witnessed Claudia’s tragic story since we met her, and all tragedies must eventually reach their inevitable conclusion.
The trial was the focal point here, with the penthouse scenes used to zoom in on Armand’s sad face as he recounted that poor, poor time he was forced to watch the love of his life fighting for his life.
Oh wait. Armand’s the one that turned Louis over in the first place. Silly me, I forgot.
Everything about the trial was fantastical, with the technicolor slideshow zooming across in the background, as Santiago took off-center stage but commanded the room as he sweepingly broke down everyone’s histories so the audience had a thorough background about each of the players on stage.
Daniel: Just a clarification for the readers, to save your own life, Armand, you fucked over Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine. And then you sat in the best seat in the house, watching the consequences of you fucking them over.
Louis: He had a lot to account for. He spent the whole performance calculating a way to save me.
But this was an hour about Lestat, Louis, and Claudia diving into the past as old wounds that never closed became infected. Lestat rose from the dead (not really) to give his sweeping account of all things that led them to that exact moment in time.
Lestat was glowing when he made his grand entrance; his skin looked flawless, and his tailored suit was fit to perfection. But while he looked good outwardly, a dark cloud followed him around, and you could tell immediately that he was less than pleased to spend his time in that theater.
The trial was a play in all the ways a play can be, and it raised so many questions. How long had Lestat been in Paris rehearsing the lines that would lead to Louis and Claudia’s deaths? How long did Armand know what was going to take place?
Perhaps those questions will come in the future, but for now, we were left with this cruel twist of fate, as Claudia and Louis were forced to not only recount their history but unable to speak up and refute most things.
Interview with the Vampire thus far has been Louis’s story. We’re seeing and hearing Louis recount his version of events, with splicing moments of Armand’s memories and Claudia’s, as told through her diary’s words.
Knowing this has meant watching the series with rose-colored glasses at times and understanding that Louis may be an unreliable narrator. And aren’t we all?
If you tell a story involving multiple people, there’s a genuine possibility that your recollection won’t sync up perfectly with everyone else’s. And we saw that here, as Lestat’s version of two pivotal moments in the miserable trio’s history was unlike what we’d previously known.
Claudia’s turning was pivotal in the relationship between Lestat and Louis. And seeing it through Lestat’s eyes, like Louis, I’m inclined to believe his memories over what we saw in the past.
Louis was desperate and frantic that night, fully taking on the looting and rioting happening in the streets squarely onto his shoulders. He was desperate to save someone, to assuage a piece of his guilt and help him save himself.
Claudia provided that for him, and the opportunity to play hero/angel was only buoyed by the chance he found for himself to get the daughter he would no longer be able to have in his immortal state.
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Lestat was anti the whole thing in the scenes we saw during Interview with the Vampire Season 1 Episode 4, but hearing him point out all the reasons it would be the wrong decision for Claudia was awful to hear, especially because of how true some of his words would ring.
There’s a reason children are not to be made into vampires, and Lestat turned Claudia for one reason and one reason only: to keep Louis with him.
Louis had one foot out the door almost at all times it seemed like in New Orleans. If Lestat had denied him Claudia, there’s no telling what Louis would have done as he continued to struggle with vampirism and completely relinquishing all ties to humans.
Hearing Lestat’s words must have been chilling for Claudia. When she looked to Louis for confirmation that this was just another lie spouting of Lestat’s mouth, you could tell how badly she wanted to believe Louis’s assurances, but how could she?
Nothing has genuinely ever been about Claudia. Her turning wasn’t even about her, not really.
I don’t know why I bother. You didn’t come here for me. One more round in the stormy romance of you two! Never been about me. I was just a roof shingle that flew off of your house.
Claudia
It was about Louis wanting something he thought he would never get and Lestat doing everything he could not to end up alone.
Louis flat-out telling Daniel to use Lestat’s memories in the book told me all I needed to know about what actually happened that night. It was more complicated than I always assumed but equally as devastating.
They took from Claudia that night for all the wrong reasons, inviting her into that dank, crippling townhouse to almost lose her mind under the weight of the melancholy, dysfunction, and abuse that seeped into the walls.
Perhaps it’s because I am fresh off a season 1 re-watch, but the time covered in New Orleans, as told by Louis, of course, was more bad than good, though there were pockets of time in which there did seem to be some form of happiness in that house.
But those times were fleeting, and Claudia could feel that she would never be on par with the epic love story of Louis and Lestat, which was why she left in the first place.
As she sat on that stage, forced to relive that time again, she must have felt such rage at how things ended for her. Even with her life on the line, a trial being held to punish her for something she never regretted, it was more about Lestat and Louis than her.
When it came to the part of the story where Louis and Lestat had the fight that effectively shattered any hope there may have been for the three to live in some semblance of forced bliss, Lestat’s version painted him in a more passive light, while Louis took on the taunting, cruel role that was so often Lestat’s forte, have Louis tell it.
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If Lestat’s memory was indeed correct, not a thing changes about the brutality of that night.
Louis was a shell of himself with Claudia gone, a piece of him no longer attached.
One thing Claudia has always wanted is for Louis to want better for himself. To want better for himself than Lestat.
Lestat, per usual, got cruel and aggressive when he felt the grip of his control on Louis weaken, and thus, we got that heartbreaking fight that culminated in Louis’s descent to the ground.
Side note: reawakening that argument, though it was ultimately used to invoke sympathy for Lestat, once again brought Louis’s refusal to tell Lestat he loved him to the forefront. And tell him he didn’t love him, for that matter.
On shows like this, everything these characters say is intentional. And we’ve been reminded of Louis never telling Lestat he loved him enough this season for me to believe we will be re-circling that before the season ends.
But getting back to the memory, Lestat made a big show of his apology to Louis, which was believable. He said all the right things and invoked all the right emotions, but you can recognize someone is being sincere while also understanding it doesn’t mean anything in the long run.
Lestat broke Louis down, mentally and physically. You can’t sorry your way out of that.
Lestat’s heartfelt admission was off-script, and it was another one of those moments that highlighted how much Lestat detested what was happening around him. No matter what script was seared into his brain, he was not reveling in Louis and Claudia’s demise.
Delainey Hayles has been a delight this season, taking and molding Claudia into a different version from season 1 but every bit as compelling and beloved by audiences.
She had so many moments throughout the trial where just the expression on her face told a story. No words were necessary to understand the depths of the pain and eventual resignation of her fate.
The sentencing came about with Santiago as gleeful as ever and the audience, as obnoxious as ever, ready to hand all three vampires a death sentence.
It’s fascinating and sad to see the audience scream out guilty and death, even while believing everything they’re seeing is fake. Santiago stood up there mocking them, and their obliviousness was embarrassing.
But it’s an authentic commentary on humanity’s constant love of violence and torture in its many forms.
Poor Madeleine was merely a hypnotized onlooker during the trial, only getting a chance to defend herself when the choice was to leave Claudia for the people about to kill her or be killed herself.
God, everything went terribly for Claudia in the end, but she found her faithful companion in Claudia. The one who stood up and beside Claudia, even when there was an option to save herself.
Armand could learn from her.
Daniel: He saved you.
Armand: It took all my strength.
Daniel: You saved Louis.
Armand: Yes.
Daniel: But not her.
Armand: I could not prevent it. I could not prevent it.
Do we have to get into Claudia’s death? Just thinking about it makes my heart hurt because, in that moment, as she sang, her body flaking away in the air, eyes intent on making sure Lestat felt her in that moment, it felt like we were seeing that teenage Claudia all over again.
Lestat, being the last face she saw, was disgustingly poignant and one final way for Claudia to ensure that Lestat forever had to feel that moment.
It was as if she was saying, “Remember what I said in my final plea? Why yes, I was talking about you specifically.”
We knew Louis didn’t die in Paris, but trying to figure out how he managed to escape death was one of the biggest questions of the hour. And finding out it was Armand who saved him?
Well, that would explain why the man who screwed Louis, Claudia, and Louis’s fledging over was still lying down beside Louis for the past seventy-plus years.
But here’s what I don’t understand.
Armand is powerful. Armand was powerful. He was able to subdue the whole damn coven, but he couldn’t overtake Sam? He could render the entire audience unable to speak, but there was NOTHING he could do to save Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine?
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I could not prevent it, he said, but do you believe that?
Louis certainly did. Enough for him to reunite with the vampire sometime in the future when he got out of that crypt.
Armand has already proven himself untrustworthy, and if the look in Daniel’s eyes was any indication, he didn’t fully buy what he was being told.
Join the club, Daniel.
With only one hour left, it feels like we’ve reached the end of this phase of the story, while also feeling like how are they possibly going to finish this story in one singular hour.
There are many questions to be answered, and Daniel’s the right person to answer them because there’s no way he listened to all that and doesn’t have serious questions to ask the soulmate vampires sitting across from him.
Extra Thoughts
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The slicing of the ankle tendons, rendering the vampires unable to stand, was an extra layer of cruelty and a disgusting display.
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Claudia mustering all the strength in her body to point out the hypocrisy of Lestat’s apology was one of the strongest moments of the hour. Lestat’s apology is swooned over, while Claudia is predictably never afforded that same luxury.
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Lestat, ever the manipulator, turning he and Louis’s first meetings around to suggest Louis was the one to haunt and pursue him. The racial undertones of Louis being presented to that audience as the stalker wasn’t lost on me.
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This was such a well-written piece of television. Every line had meaning. Every word said purposefully. The actors were brilliant, as usual, but the writing in this episode was truly something.
One hour to go, and I’ve never been more excited, nervous, and saddened that this mesmerizing season is ending.
This was a five-star hour, and I’d love to hear your thoughts about everything, including what you think we’re in for as the season wraps up. Leave all your comments below!
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Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.
You can view the original article HERE.
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