...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding is the fourth episode of the first season of Interview with the Vampire and the fourth episode of the series overall. It aired on October 23, 2022, on AMC, and began streaming through AMC+ on October 16, 2022.
Synopsis[]
In his penthouse, Louis gives Molloy access to Claudia's diaries, which offer a fresh and contemporaneous account of the creation of the young fledging vampire and how her Vampire guardians adjust to their new family of three.
Plot[]
Rashid gives Daniel Claudia's diaries
Daniel is on the phone with his manager discussing the nature of his trip to Dubai when Rashid approaches and reveals that not only is he aware of Daniel's scheduled levodopa transfusion, but that they had spoken to his doctor and arranged a physician to administer it at the penthouse tomorrow. While Louis rested, Rashid takes Daniel to the reading room, where he is given access to Claudia's diaries to provide a different perspective.
Claudia becoming a vampire
Picking up where he and Louis left off, Daniel reads the entry in a Claudia's diary from the night of the fire, in which Louis saved her from the burning home as her aunt perished in the flames. Referring to Louis as a "Black angel," she spoke of how he took her home and how she was under the impression that she was in Heaven. The "white angel," that being Lestat, joined them, at which point, Louis pleaded with him to turn Claudia and save her life. Weak and barely conscious on the bed, Lestat approached Claudia and turned her into a vampire. It was only then that she realized she wasn't in Heaven and that she wasn't surrounded by angels, rather hell demons.
Following her transition, Claudia had a lot of questions for Louis and Lestat. Louis explained that he heard her cry for help and that they could hear people's thoughts. While Lestat could no longer read her mind given that he created her, Louis could, and so the two of them briefly spoke to each other telepathically. Lestat interrupted the two, elaborating on the nature of their new dynamic, with Claudia making their family whole, but not if they kept secrets, he warned.
Claudia confronting a law man
Louis and Lestat, or as Claudia referred to them, Daddy Lou and Uncle Les, took her on her first kill, stopping by a nearby fountain where they crossed paths with a barely able drunk man. She was hesitant to kill the drunk, turning her attention elsewhere after catching a scent and taking off in the night, with Louis and Lestat following closely behind. Claudia followed the scent to a lone police officer, who she fed from until Louis and Lestat intervened, warning her that she had to stop feeding while her victim was still alive.
Following her first kill, they returned home, where Claudia expressed her growing hunger, much to Louis' surprise, though Lestat surmised that her young lady metabolism was now permanent. Overwhelmed with hunger, Claudia attacked the man across the street.
As Claudia got acquainted with her new vampire life, she grabbed her diary and jumped into her shared coffin with Louis. However, she was ever so inquisitive, asking Lestat who made him and where the other vampires were. Lestat suspected Louis put her up to this, but as Louis explained, it was perfectly normal for a teenager to question her existence.
Claudia picking a coffin
Louis and Lestat took Claudia to a funeral home to pick out a coffin. However, when the funeral home director began to suspect that something wasn't right, Lestat killed him.
With a coffin of her own, Claudia got inside with her diary in hand, though she took a peak outside her coffin after hearing a noise and discovered Louis sneaking inside of Lestat's coffin.
Claudia asking Louis about Lestat
Claudia joined Louis as he rowed a boat through the swamps to catch fish. Claudia accused Lestat of keeping secrets, to which Louis replied that old people tend not to like speaking on the past. He also advised Claudia to be more careful of where she dug. Claudia then inquired about how love worked between two men, also asking if Louis ever liked girls. He used to pretend to, he admitted. As for Lestat, he did like women, but that wasn't where he would go off to at night. Louis explained that sometimes, Lestat's kills would get extravagant, which Louis wasn't a fan of. He then reached into the lake and pulled out a fish to feed on, which repulsed Claudia. Louis explained that it wasn't just about what she ate. She could kill quick and painless, or she could get extravagant. There were times he had gone too far himself; some killings had consequences, like the fire at Claudia's, which came about because of Louis.
Daniel takes a break from his reading and over hears Rashid praying in the other room, leading him to question how Muhammad felt about vampires and how Rashid could worship two gods. After expressing his feeling towards Claudia, who he liked despite her being a killing machine, he apologized for interrupting Rashid's prayer, to which he replied "Asr namozi," leading Daniel to realize that Rashid isn't from Dubai, to which Rashid replies that Dubai is a child and that no one is native. Daniel resumes his reading, but not before updating his profile on Rashid.
Daniel picks up Claudia's second diary, in which she discussed how she got her own room, and they celebrated her 17th birthday. Lestat gifted her a necklace, which was noticeably too big, leading her to question when she was going to grow into it. Like humans, Claudia, Louis, and Lestat fought, ate, laughed, slept, and loved each other. All was good, but then Louis' mom died.
Florence's wake
Lestat and Claudia accompanied Louis to his mother's wake, where Claudia stood at Florence's side, remarking to Grace and Levi that she never saw a dead person look so peaceful, before revealing that she came with Louis and Lestat, who joined them and revealed that he adopted Claudia off of Liberty Street, which Grace and Levi had reservations against, telling Louis not to bring them to the funeral tomorrow, not that it mattered, as Louis wouldn't be able to make it, a sentiment they'd become very familiar with. Grace and Levi actually invited Louis to talk about the house, to which Louis agreed to have papers drawn up.
Lestat taught Claudia how to drive and guided her to lover's lane, where Lestat remarked that no blood was sweeter. He warned Claudia that they were young and strong, encouraging her to be ferocious in her attack, but she became distracted with intrigue when she came across a couple hooking up in their car. Claudia attacked the man whilst the woman fled on foot, only to be met by Lestat.
Claudia meeting Charlie
Claudia came away with a new mindset after her kill on lover's lane. She returned home and disposed of all her childish clothing, reasoning that she'd already been 18 years old for seven months. And so, dressed in the fashion of a woman she'd killed, Claudia took a stroll through Liberty Street, where she made the acquaintance of a young carriage driver named Charlie. He apologized for his horse startling Claudia and offered her a ride home.
Claudia had lost her appetite and could not sleep, so she wrote in her diary as she waited for the sun to set before heading out onto the balcony, where she watched as Charlie passed in his carriage, at which point, he threw a bouquet of flowers at her doorstep. As Claudia rushed downstairs and out the door, Louis, curious about her recent behavior, began reading her mind, asking who Charlie was.
Claudia after killing Charlie
Claudia went on a date with Charlie at the ice cream parlor. While he liked her, he couldn't help but notice how young she was, though Claudia revealed she was 19, much to Charlie's disbelief. She used to live in the area and recalled how there was a toy shop that would keep stray cats in boxes for people to take. The two of them then found some place secluded to hook up in the back of Charlie's carriage. However, Claudia's urges got the better of her, and she fed from Charlie, unintentionally killing him.
Lestat teaching Claudia a lesson
Claudia regretfully brought Charlie's body home to Louis and Lestat, pleading with them to turn him, but as Lestat explained, he was long passed the threshold of death. Lestat, taking the tough love approach, instructed Claudia to clean up her mess and forced her to watch as Charlie's body burned in the incinerator. He wanted her to remember that this was why they never got close to mortals, because they always ended up dead.
Louis joins Daniel, who remarks that Claudia's vivid writing was as if Anne Frank met Stephen King. Beginning session four, Daniel asks where we're all these diaries in 1973. Louis claims they were scattered, but Daniel isn't convinced. Claudia was essentially Louis' daughter, who he loved unconditionally, but he couldn't bear to share her diaries initially because they spoke of in detail how and when Louis failed her. Louis recalls Charlie's death ushering in one of the darkest eras in their lives. The delicate balance of their household was shattered, and Claudia saw herself as nothing more than a bandage for a poor marriage.
Daniel resumes reading, picking back up in 1923, following Charlie's death, in which Claudia recalled how her mom died in childbirth and her father giving her over to her abusive aunt. Claudia exited her coffin, in the middle of what appeared to be some kind of post-life crisis, realizing that she'd never be anything more than the same "flat chested, hairless-crotched 14-year-old baby doll body as her mind and spirit turned 19, 20, 25, 63, 358." Claudia then raised the lever to the sunroof, allowing the light to shine in from above, before jumping on top of the piano and burning her arm in the sun.
Cast[]
Starring[] |
Guest Starring[]
Co-Starring[]
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Trivia[]
- The episode title, ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding, is a direct quote from page 75 of the Interview with the Vampire novel.
Gallery[]
Promotional images[]
Episode guide[]
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| Season 1 |
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"In Throes of Increasing Wonder" • "...After the Phantoms of Your Former Self" • "Is My Very Nature That of a Devil" • "...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding" • "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart" • "Like Angels Put in Hell by God" • "The Thing Lay Still" |
| Season 2 |
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"What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned"• "Do You Know What It Means to Be Loved by Death" • "No Pain" • "I Want You More Than Anything in the World" • "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape" • "Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light" • "I Could Not Prevent It" • "And That's the End of It. There's Nothing Else" |
References[]