I Want You More Than Anything in the World is the fourth episode of the second season of Interview with the Vampire and the eleventh episode of the series overall. It aired on June 2, 2024, on AMC and AMC+.
Synopsis[]
The coven questions Louis and Armand's special relationship; Claudia finds a new friend.
Plot[]
With Louis and Armand watching from the balcony, Claudia takes the stage for the very first time to perform the new play, in which she stars as Baby Lu. The play is an instant hit, but the coven becomes bitter over time as Claudia begins to overshadow as the star of Theatre Des Vampire. Further complicating matters, by the 500th performance, Claudia is beyond bored with the role, which is visible through her performance.
Armand confronts Claudia for her lackluster performance, forcing her to explain that she's a fierce vampire, trapped in the body of a little girl. She's reminded of it every night of her existence, buttoning up the dress and singing and smiling, while the mortals laugh and point. She relives every condescending look or comment she has ever had to suffer. Ultimately, Claudia has lost her passion for work on stage and would prefer backstage work. Armand first insists that Claudia owes Sam, the playwright, an apology, as it is a privilege to work in the production. Secondly, in an attempt to help her recover her passion, Armand says that Claudia will no longer remove her costume. She will sleep in it, rehears in it, feed in it, and hunt in it. She will live with the character off-stage until she returns to Claudio on stage. Santiago interjects that the audience was singing along to her performance in full voice, coming to Claudia's defense and saying that they've all begun to feel similarly to her. Armand hasn't noticed because he's only been periodically attending their performances, which began a year and a half ago when Louis was granted dispensation from coven membership. Santiago accosts Armand for disciplining Claudia for bumping into the scenery on stage, but allowing Louis to run wild, leaving many of them to wonder if he and Louis are companions. Armand says yes, but Louis says no.
Afterward, Louis and Armand convene at his apartment, where they discuss what exactly is the nature of their relationship. Companion isn't necessarily the word Louis would use to describe them. What they have is great; they see each other when they want to, and when they want to be alone, they can be. What they have is easy and good, and Louis doesn't want to change that. However, it's not easy for Armand. Louis doesn't understand what he risks every night for him, and how that danger compounds with Louis' every slight towards the coven, such as not joining them on hunts and reading his novels during performances. Louis proceeds to light a candle with his mind. His powers are progressing, but it only seems to work when he thinks of things that anger him. Ultimately, Armand wants Louis to come around more. Louis agrees and tells Armand that he loves him, and Armand says the same thing back, causing the version of Lestat in his head to laugh.
Molloy questions if Louis is schizophrenic, or if Louis considered himself schizophrenic at the time when he was constantly seeing Lestat, but the term doesn't necessarily apply to a vampire, Louis retorts. Louis reveals how he could feel the movement of air with Lestat's movement and his breath on the back of his neck. If Louis was to reach out and touch his hand, Louis wouldn't say it was his hand, but it was not not his hand either. Armand wasn't aware that Lestat was in the room or how present he was during that time, but looking back at it now, he can understand it. Molloy then asks if they were the only two to survive the theater fire, but he was never provided that information through their archives. Molloy seems to come to a pause as he has visions of Armand talking to him. After snapping back into reality, he reveals that one of his researchers found it in a New Haven library.
Santiago joins Claudia as she disposes of the body via rats. He catches her in the act of breaking the third Great Law, which is her writing about the history of vampires, but Claudia claims that she's not writing history necessarily, but just random thoughts. Santiago asks that she read him something from her diary. She reads that Celeste and Estelle hate her. She can hear their petty insults in the middle of their scenes. Santiago reveals that behind her back they call Celeste "The Marie Celeste" because her talent disappeared without trace years ago. And Estelle is so far up Celeste's ass that she doesn't need a coffin to sleep in anymore. Santiago asks for something more juicy, perhaps pertaining to him, so Claudia allows him to read it himself, but instead, he warns Claudia about Armand's attachment to the laws and how his attachment to Louis might not be enough to save her should he find out. Santiago recalls a previous question Claudia asked him about himself, when he was a human actor by the name of Francis Naughton. He explains that he was transformed without the permission of Armand, an absentminded violation of law one. And for that, Francis' maker, lies in the wall with other lawbreakers and heretics. Claudia heads his warning and tosses her diary away with the rats. Santiago tells her not to be so dramatic and retrieves the diary to return to Claudia.
Claudia gives Madeleine a flyer
Claudia walks the streets as Baby Lu, passing out flyers. She grabs herself a bite to eat and approaches the alleged Nazi shop owner, Madeleine, who previously sold her a dress. She recalls how Claudia paid for it in crumpled up bills and some earrings with blood on them as if they had been snatched from the lobe. Additionally, she remembers how Claudia had a body about to bloom and the mind of a sophisticate. Claudia explains that she now works at the Theatre Des Vampire, which Madeleine says is a divertissement. When Claudia jokes about the painted swastika on her shop window that Madeleine is desperately trying to wipe off, Madeleine remarks that Claudia's French is still ugly, as is her baby Lu dress.
Louis attacks Santiago at dinner
Louis attends dinner with the coven, where Santiago mocks his enthusiasm for modern Paris and notes that he doesn't sound like Chicago to him, rather New Orleans. Louis super speeds across the room, reaches his hand down Santiago's mouth and grabs his tongue, daring him to say anything else. Armand becomes frustrated and freezes the room and everyone within it, save for the three of them. He warns them to behave and unfreezes the room, at which point Louis leaves.
Louis attempts to sell some of his photographs. In the bunch is a photo of Armand that mistakenly made its way in, though all in all, he leaves empty-handed.
As Molloy discusses Louis' photography, Louis notices that the photos on his album weren't actually taken by him; they belong to more famous photographers, and he looks to Armand for answers, who suggests that maybe Rashid mixed them up. As Louis attempts to get to the bottom of this, Molloy again finds himself faced with flashes of Armand talking about a girl from high school with a paper bag over her head. Louis is a bit embarrassed. He was not trying to pass anyone's work as his own and insists that the audience know this, but Molloy simply asks for an aspirin.
Madeleine attends Claudia's following performance. Afterward, just outside the theater, she says that Claudia's French was better than the play itself, though she particularly enjoyed the part of the play when Claudia jumped out the window and cracked her neck but jokes that she should kill whoever wrote the horrendous song. As she's preparing to leave, Claudia offers her a ride home.
Louis is upset with the feedback he received on his photograph, looking to Lestat for reassurance. He then hears Armand calling to him from the street below.
Madeleine fits Claudia for a dress
As agreed, Claudia gives Madeleine a ride back home, where she fits Claudia for a new dress. She questions why Claudia spends all night and day in Baby Lu's blue performance dress. She explains that it's a punishment. Madeleine questions if she's a hostage, but Claudia says they're more like her family. T.B. killed all of Madeleine's family. Her town was sad for her, but not too sad because they had money and no one really knew her family well. Claudia asks about the swastika someone painted on Madeleine's shop window. Madeleine explains that she engaged in an affair with a 19-year-old lieutenant from Dusseldorf. He gave her food, cigarettes, and comforts. She wasn't inviting Hitler to stay in France. She was simply inviting a frighten boy to cradle her. For this, she was viewed as a traitor.
Armand takes Louis to an art gallery, though Louis isn't impressed. In fact, he argues that Armand's recent actions are very reminiscent of Lestat — flex his powers one night and follow it with grand groveling the next. Armand doesn't enjoy using his powers as so. It was simply for coven discipline. Louis has handled folks like Santiago both his lives and doesn't need Armand coming to his rescue. He also doesn't like Armand parading Claudia around in that doll outfit, claiming that it all makes Armand look weak.
Armand takes Louis to a gallery
Armand takes Louis to a specific section of the gallery to see a painting called "The Adoration of the Shepherds With a Donor." It was painted by an artist named Palma Vecchio. A contemporary of Armand's maker, Marius de Romanus, who was also a fine painter, albeit one of lesser skill. In fact, the donor in the title was Armand's maker. The canvas painted in his maker's studio. Armand points to a specific boy in the painting named Amadeo. He's 20 years in the painting. He's Armand, who was rescued from a brothel when he was 15, though he thinks he was named Arun then. The abuse in the brothel was such that he cannot be sure that is what his parents named him. The parents that sent him to work on a merchant boat in Delhi, when in actuality they sold him into slavery to the ship's captain. All of that time is fragments, from being shackled on the boat, to the brothel, to his marker's purchase and his renaming of Armand. Even his reluctance to share the Dark Gift, knowing what it would do to his beloved Amadeo. Armand served him with all his heart and basked in his mercy. Still, Amadeo had a skill. And if a friend wandered into town, he was occasionally donated. This was seven years before Armand was stricken with illness, and before he was turned into a vampire. He got the name Armand from the coven in Rome after they set fire to the studio and his maker, before sending him to Paris to reign over the coven abandoned by Magnus, who made Lestat.
Madeleine notes that the dress is a little loose on Claudia in the front due to her not having much of a chest, no more than she had two years ago, Madeleine recounts. Claudia claims the war stunted her growth, but Madeleine also points out the oddity in her eyes, but that's because she's been through one dark thing after another. Maybe she seeks it out. She's not sure why, but it's something Claudia thinks about because even in between the dark things, there's something broken in her, like a collision that makes her want to go bang. Madeleine encourages her to go bang, and then she'll be fine again. Blood suddenly begins to run down Madeleine's leg due to her period. Claudia unintentionally bares her fangs and informs Madeleine of her bleeding, who tends to the matter. At which point, Armand arrives and drags her home, though Claudia insists that she doesn't want to play the role of Baby Lu anymore. He reminds her that she left the sacrifice on the green room floor. They're supposed to honor the blood when they dispose of it, but in actuality, they only dispose of it so they won't get caught, Claudia argues. She missed a chore and made a friend, something she can't do within the coven, as they've all turned inward too long ago, which she suspects Armand already knows, which is why he turns to Louis. Armand loses his patience and confronts Claudia for killing her maker Lestat. Moving forward, she will do more than the bare minimum, on and off stage. And the friend she made, she will not see again. He then discovers that Santiago has been following them and warns him to learn his role unless he wishes to join his maker in death.
Louis uses his new-found fire powers to set his photographs ablaze. Claudia returns home and confronts him for allowing Armand to learn the truth about Lestat. Louis explains that he's known the whole time, after having read their minds the first night at the theater. Louis never told her, as he didn't want to ruin her happiness. Moreover, they can trust Armand with this secret, but Claudia reveals he just threatened her with it. Louis insists that doesn't sound like Armand, leading her to suspect that Louis has picked Armand over her, but it is she who picked the coven over Louis. After Claudius storms out, Louis begins to burn the picture of Armand but then he stops himself and suggests that he and "Lestat," or at least the version on him in Louis' head, go for a hunt. However, after Louis exits his apartment, Celeste and Tuan act as look-outs whilst Santiago sneaks inside.
Santiago breaks into Louis’ apartment
Louis and Lestat are on the prowl for their next meal when he suddenly proposes that they have a seat on the park bench. Louis has summoned Armand. Lestat believes that he intends to break it off. Lestat says that it was doomed from the start, but he's happy Louis tried. He's not really though, but it's what Louis wanted him to say. Lestat questions why Louis sees him in this specific suit, to which Louis replies that it's his favorite on him. It is then that Lestat realizes what is actually happening; the break-up isn't with Armand, but rather Lestat, who slowly begins to fade away until nothing is left. Armand joins Louis on the park bench, revealing that a mutiny is brewing and that everyone is doing what they want, when they want. He's not sure if he can keep them in line much longer. Santiago wants to be coven leader, and they will follow him, so Armand urges Louis to leave, but he refuses to do so. Since Santiago wants to run things so badly, Louis instructs Armand to allow him to do so, and they will watch him fail. At the very least, Louis advises Armand to throw Santiago a bone, make him feel as though he's Armand's heir apparent. He'll over play his hand and everyone will see him for what he is. And when they know they have no alternative, they'll beg for Armand back, and that's when he'll decide if he wants to go back or something else. Armand says that he wants Louis more than anything in the world. "You sure about that, Arun," Louis asks. "Yes, Maitre," Armand replies. Unbeknownst to them, they're being watched. Tuan reports to Santiago that Louis and Armand are sitting on a bench having a smoke, whilst Celeste reports that the coast is clear just outside the apartment, nothing but a man walking his dog and a drunk sleep in his car. Santiago steals a journal and tells them to meet him back at the theater, with them both referring to him as "Maitre."
Present day, Louis accosts Armand for having him look like a fool in front of Molloy due to there being four Fred Stein photos in his Paris album. Armand claims it might've been an honest mistake by the staff. Meanwhile, Molloy goes to through his files, searching up the name of Armand's maker. He then begins to have more flashes of Armand, leading him to recall their first encounter in San Francisco. He then proceeds to search through the suspected vampire victims archive that Molloy got from Raglan. Among the list, he sees the name Kathryn Mitchell. He then searches his own name in the archives and finds photos of himself with Louis from the night of their first interview, as well as enhanced audio files from that night, in which Louis became enraged and attacked Molloy until Armand interrupted.
Cast[]
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