...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self is the second episode of the first season of Interview with the Vampire and the second episode of the series overall. It aired on October 9, 2022, on AMC, but began streaming through AMC+ on October 2, 2022, along with the premiere episode.
Synopsis[]
Louis recounts his transition to becoming a vampire; his first kill, his reluctance to break ties with his family and his ultimate failure to enjoy the art of his new powers, much to the chagrin of Lestat.
Plot[]
Rashid approaches Daniel as he marvels at the Venetian painting from an artist named Marius de Romanus, explaining that Louis covets the rare. Daniel becomes concerned with the consistent creaking in the distance, but Rashid informs him that the building simply sways a bit due to the height, but he need not worry. Daniel then turns his attention to Rashid, questioning his motives and loyalty to Louis, to which Rashid replies that it is his honor to serves a god. Before exiting the dinning room, he instructs Daniel to sit at the table and prepare to eat, at which point he will be joined by Louis on course seven.
Lestat warning Louis
As planned, Louis joins Daniel at the dinner table to finish conducting their interview. Beginning session two, they pick up where they left off, with Louis and Lestat fleeing the church after having just slaughtered two priests. Lestat had put the two of them in a wheelbarrow and taken them to the cemetery, with Louis in tow, but the blissfulness he felt upon his initial transition had passed, with it being only the first stage in his transformation, and now Louis was feeling a seizing and unrelenting pain. His body confused; his lungs feeling like fire and his heart like water, that pain Louis was so overwhelmed with was death, Lestat explained. As Lestat prepared to dispose of the bodies in a grave, Louis attempted to drink the blood of the dying priests as it dripped onto the ground, but Lestat warned him that they solely lived off the blood of the living, "Lap up the blood of the deceased and it'll suck you right down into death, along with your victim."
Louis and Lestat with the salesman
Having completed his transition into vampirism, Louis' senses heighten to levels of which he never could've conceived, the district illuminated with overwhelming detail. Lestat described it as Louis' ears "picking up the world like a maddening symphony." Piqued with hunger, Lestat took Louis to a bar to hand-pick his first victim. Louis initially chose a sailor, an ill-advised prey by Lestat's account, as he was surrounded by his comrades, all of whom would come searching for him if he went missing. In the beginning, Lestat instructed Louis to allow the prey to come to him instead. And so, they settle on an unsuspecting tractor salesman, luring him back to the house, where Lestat watched as Louis fed and made his first kill, instructing him on how to be most proficient in the hunt.
Louis burning
Although Louis seemed regretful of his actions, Lestat assured him that the feeling would pass over time and that the first time was the most unwieldy. Still, Louis insisted that he needed to go home. When Lestat attempted to intercede, Louis shoved him with great force against the wall, before exiting, only to discover that his skin burned from the sun's touch. Overcome with excruciating pain, Louis returned to Lestat's, where he was welcomed back with open arms and escorted upstairs, where their shared coffin awaited behind a secret door. While hesitant to join a naked Lestat inside his coffin, Lestat assured Louis he would receive his own soon enough.
Louis recalls with Daniel how Lestat rushed him headlong through the encounter with a night full of firsts: death, rebirth, coming out, homicide, etc. However, Daniel questioned the relevance of Louis sexual nature in regards to the fact that he killed a man. Louis didn't wish to conflate the two, but being transformed by Lestat and bedding down with him was an overture to that side of Louis' nature. He recalls getting into the coffin with Lestat and how they were equals in the quiet dark, but Daniel argues otherwise. For their next course, Louis is brought a living sand fox to feed on, explaining to Daniel that vampires are killers and apex predators with the ability to see a human's life in its entirety before bringing an end to that life.
Admittedly, Louis was haunted by the death of the salesman and as a fledgling vampire, he did not readily take to killing. Lestat compared Louis' disdain for killing to his initial reluctance to learn the English language before ultimately embracing it. They were then approached by Finn, who requested to take over as manager of the new gaming house Louis was commissioning for Alderman Fenwick. Claiming to be good with people and numbers, Louis agreed to take it up with Fenwick, but Lestat informed Louis that Finn was lying. In actuality, he wanted the job so he could steal from Louis; over change for drinks and women. In that, Lestat revealed that vampires could read minds, a skill he proceeded to teach Louis.
Every human boiled down to three things he claimed — "I want food," "I want sex," or "I want to go home." Lestat instructed Louis to hone in on a panhandler across the street and to focus on his heartbeat. His mind being nothing more than just another bodily sound, Louis was able to read the man's mind, who desperately needed something to eat. Louis went on to read the mind of a woman passing by, who was having lesbian fantasies. And lastly, they passed a shoe shiner on the street, who was ready to return home, confirming Lestat's theory around the three desires of humanity. Additionally, Louis was able to see the last man's thoughts as well. Louis instructed Lestat to read his mind, but he could not. A sacrifice was made when Lestat shared The Dark Gift with Louis, preventing him from reading his mind.
Louis' unwillingness to separate from humanity was a constant struggle. He felt it was essential to maintain ties, even as Lestat warned him against it. And so, Louis returned home, greeting his mother, though the tension between the two was thick; it had been half a season since she'd seen him last. Louis read her mind and could hear his mother's crude remarks about his nails and glasses, to which Louis replied that his doctor advised him to wear the glasses due to the sensitivity of his eyes.
Louis headed inside the house, where Grace welcomed him with a strong embrace, during which point, Louis could hear the heartbeat of the babies growing in her womb, informing Grace that she was pregnant with twins. When Grace removed his glasses, she noticed the change in his eyes, comparing them to a church window. Looking to change the subject, he handed her a band of cash, insisting that it'll come in handy when the babies were born.
Louis and Mr. Carlo
Louis met with Alderman Fenwick's attorney, Mr. Carlo, with whom he discussed the new property they were hoping to turn into a sporting house. Mr. Carlo was skeptical, though impressed with Louis' intelligence and creativity. Referring to Louis as an "exceptional Negro" angered him so intensely that he killed Mr. Carlo just outside the establishment.
Upon learning of Louis' discrepancy, Lestat helped him dispose of the body, while also scolding Louis for his reckless behavior. Louis argued that the man disrespected him, and how that may be difficult to see due to Lestat not being from America. Still, Lestat reminded Louis that Mr. Carlo was an important figure in town and that people could come looking for him, not that Louis was concerned, certain that the incinerator they were placing the man's body in would destroy any evidence. Lestat encouraged Louis to show restraint, referring to him repeatedly as "fledgling," a term that Louis did not take well to, indicating that it rang similarly to the phrase slave, which Lestat insisted was not his intent.
That night, as they lied in their separate coffins, Lestat muttered that he didn't like sleeping angry and extended an olive branch to Louis, asking what he could do to make it up to him. Louis replied that he wanted to buy the Fair Play Saloon, which was exactly what they did, assuring Tom Anderson that he could continue to eat, drink, and fornicate on the house. Now the owner of the brightest club in the distract, the Fair Play, later renamed to the Azalea Hall, was everything he had ever wished for. From 1912 to 1917, Louis made enough money to retire and be buried like a pharaoh.
Louis visiting Grace
While Louis had thrived in his financial endeavors, the same could not be said for his personal relationship with his family, more specifically Grace, who had not only given birth to the twins in his absence, but had since given birth to a third child named Benjamin. Grace handed baby Benjamin over to Louis whilst she headed to the kitchen to fetch him some Gumbo. With the baby in hand, Louis could hear his heart beat until Grace returned and suggested he spend the night; they had a good laugh over the notion that their mother would be happy to see Louis. Grace was unfortunately forced to leave once more to check on the now crying twins, leaving Louis alone with baby Benjamin. Fangs erect, Louis began salivating.
Daniel questioning Louis
Louis informs Daniel that he no longer kills and that his last victim was in the year 2000. However, Daniel is more interested in if Louis ate the baby, a question he would not immediately answer. So moving on, he asks about the other vampires in the word and if they have mastered their instincts similar to Louis, but it is quite the opposite. Most of them are slaves to blood, exhausted from decades of hiding, and eager to increase their numbers. Daniel again asks if Louis ate the baby and if the pandemic is the opportunity they were waiting for. Louis could hear the other vampires, as their thoughts travel thousands of miles. One of them, a brute in Madagascar, called the pandemic "the great conversion." Daniel, again, for the third time, asks if Louis ate the baby, but he did not reply. It is then that they're joined by Damek, an associate of Louis, who essentially acts as a living blood bag, offering Louis his neck to feed from. Afterward, Damek stumbles away, with Louis calling in Rashid to assist him.
Back to the baby: just moments away from feasting on his own nephew, Louis momentarily regained control and fled, leaving baby Benjamin on the floor alone for Grace to recover. Having fled back to the house, Louis feared that he'd never be able to get his hunger under control. Lestat wiped the bloody tear from Louis' face and advised him to distance himself from his family, as they'll only grow to fear him if they haven't already. Realizing he'll never have a family of his own, Louis told Lestat to just throw him in the incinerator and make another fledgling, but after walking the earth for two centuries, Lestat insisted that Louis was one of a kind. Hoping to lift Louis' spirits, Lestat suggested they go to the opera to see Donizetti's comic masterpiece, "Don Pasquale." Lestat was an acquaintance of his and saw the premiere at the Salle Ventadour 73 years ago.
Louis mentions that Lestat had a way about him the first few years of their companionship. He was preternaturally charming and occasionally thoughtful. He was Louis' murderer, mentor, lover, and maker, and because of this, there was a kind of worship on Louis end.
Lestat and Louis at the opera
Unfortunately, Louis' status in Storyville did not extend to the operators and patrons of the French Opera House, meaning Louis was forced to act as Lestat's valet when they attended to avoid any conflicts. With Louis angered by his predicament, Lestat seized it as an opportunity to disarm Louis by revealing that he most feared loneliness and that Louis took that fear away from him, leading Louis to question how many vampires there were in existence. Not many, Lestat replied. Maybe only 100. Music was where Lestat separated man from food. Music pierced his damned soul, and any humans who were involved in the creation of it, existed on an elevated plane in his eyes, among them was the soprano, Sofia Consoli, at the opera.
Louis and Lestat feeding on the tenor
However, the tenor did not live in the soprano's vocal stratosphere, which angered Lestat, so much so that he plotted to kill the tenor, though Louis, despite having been Lestat's pupil for six years at the time, felt it no easier to take human life than he did during his first kill. After the show, Lestat lured the tenor back home, where before killing the man, Lestat showed him the flaw in his performance. He then punctured the man's throat with his nails and watched as he slowly bled out on the floor. Louis disapprovingly watched before confronting Lestat directly, to which Lestat retorted that while Louis did not have to enjoy the kill as he did, he did need to embrace the fact that they were killers. Lestat then lifted the dying tenor and carried him to the couch. As Lestat slowly drank from the man, Louis listened to his thoughts, which came with visions of the tenor's life. Before long, hypnotized by Lestat's sway, Louis joined him, and the two of them drank from the tenor for hours, with Lestat completely enthralled, whilst Louis pretended to be rather than disappoint his creator.
Louis reveals that Lestat was wrong. He was never going to be a natural killer. Instead, he was a shame-ridden, botched vampire. Louis tries to have a human dish at least once a week to maintain the thread, so he has dessert served to him and Daniel, though to Louis, human foods tasted similar to paste, chalk, or soap. This was the very same dessert Daniel had after he proposed to his first wife. During a moment of vulnerability, Daniel reveals that he and his wife, Alice, were in Paris. He recalls how half of her eyebrow was blonde, which she always dyed brown, but he liked it when she left it alone, Daniel says before ending the interview.
Cast[]
Starring[]
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Co-Starring[]
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Trivia[]
- The episode title, ...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self, is a direct quote from page 62 of the Interview with the Vampire novel.
Gallery[]
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