‘The Vampire Lestat’ Drops a Terrifying Bombshell After a Twisted Trip Into the Past - MCE Notices | California State Portal

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 and references rape and incest.

The last we saw of Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) in The Vampire Lestat‘s premiere, he was recovering from sensory overload by, well, crossing every boundary with his mother-fledgling, Gabriella de Lioncourt (Jennifer Ehle). Things don’t necessarily get worse during his concert stop in “Toledo,” written by Jonathan Ciniceroz and Kevin Hanna with returning director Craig Zisk behind the camera, but that specific revelation neatly dovetails into a trip down Lestat’s pre-vampire memory lane. As for Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), a name from his past — the show previously known as Interview with the Vampire — completely upsets the life he’s assembled.

Since Lestat’s audience needs to understand how he became his flamboyant and deeply broken self (his self-described “Oedipiphany” included), the current “The Failures” recording jumps to 1772 and the de Lioncourt family mansion in Auvergne, France. Despite its impressive size, the estate has been steadily declining. Far worse is the fate of Lestat’s seven siblings, five of whom passed away. Child Lestat (Shepherd Munroe) pokes at his dinner while a monk (Zachary Amzallag) recommends that he receive an education at the monastery. Lestat jumps when his father (Peter Outerbridge) slams the table and curls into himself when his older brothers (Kaleb Horn, Rhys Alexander Phillips) mock his timid stutter. Sitting to Lestat’s right, Gabriella finally looks up from her book long enough to sneer, in Italian and with pristine disdain, at the entire room.

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The household can’t escape its patriarch’s tirades during Lestat’s teenage years (Gage Munroe), either. First, the Marquis rages about his tenants requesting financial compensation, then he rebukes Lestat for entertaining himself with a troupe of traveling actors. When her son verbally bites back at her husband, Gabriella smiles with pride. Lestat’s voiceover notes how Gabriella Vece’s miserable arranged marriage “sacrificed her youth” and “squandered her intellect.” The only rebellions available to her are burying herself in books and paying a midwife to ensure she can’t birth more children. She simultaneously despises men and envies the precious autonomy they take for granted. Gabriella and her youngest child are the two outcasts, finding solace in their similarities and inside jokes.

Such comfort is always short-lived. Lestat’s brothers beat him for his defiance of his father’s orders. Rather than defend her son, Gabriella returns to her book. “I grew hard by example,” he muses about his distant mother. Years later, adult Lestat and Gabriella sit side by side. The tenants are gathered in the dining room, begging Monsieur de Lioncourt to address the wolves terrorizing the village. Gabriella can’t endure all these men arguing, pleading, and trembling with fear; her simmering fury explodes. Lestat answers her challenge and searches for the wolves in the forest. Either his miserable life will mercifully end, or surviving the brutality will turn him into “a man.”

He returns home spell-shocked, covered in the blood of eight wolves, as well as gruesome injuries to his chest and leg. Gabriella declares his victory a familial triumph. Still frightened, Lestat confesses he fantasized about killing his father and brothers while he tore the wolves apart. Gabriella tends to his wounds and shares her own secret to ease his guilt: sleeping with any man who approaches her bed. Her touch quickly turns sexual before she withdraws, seized by a consumption coughing fit. Gabriella abruptly announces her imminent death and leaves the room.

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Lestat screams for his retreating parent in his memories and the present-day tour bus. To say Satan’s Night Out has a difficult time adjusting to their frontman’s secret vampire identity is an understatement. As they pepper Lestat with questions, Gabriella lounges in the back corner. Lestat promises the band their safety, crediting the power of Akasha’s (Sheila Atim) blood. Nevertheless, Alex (Seamus Patterson) leaves with Lestat’s psychic message — half-patient praise for his musicianship, half-warning to never reveal the truth — ringing in his mind.

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Gabriella and Lestat spend hours regaling each other about their various exploits. Although she agrees to linger, she can’t commit to a set timeframe. Vampirism has freed Gabriella to chase and satiate her every desire. Obviously, the “vampire incest factor” is one of those taboos, and they acknowledge it’s better for them to resist the temptation. They tour Toledo’s various delights: the cityscape, restaurants, their chosen targets, and Gabriella sampling Lestat’s blood. He recognizes a watchful, sinister presence and seems to hallucinate one of his brothers, but ignores the quasi-premonition.

The next day, as it were, Christine Claire (Jeanine Serralles) and Lestat meet with lawyer Lemuel (Moses Sumney) and his client, Thomas Pitt, the owner of the hotel that Lestat, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), Sam Barclay (Christopher Geary), and the Fang Gang obliterated. Pitt just so happens to be Louis’ current alias. Lestat seizing Dr. Fareed Bhansali (Gopal Divan) and Daniel for himself “feels like a cry for help,” Louis explains. The estranged vampires argue like you’d expect: Lestat yelling, Louis remaining calm, their respective lawyers silently exhausted. Lestat deigns to gift Louis a free ticket to that evening’s performance.

Cut to Louis and Gabriella observing the shirtless Lestat belting out “Why Do I Have to Feel?” Telepathy allows Louis and Daniel to have their first conversation since Daniel and the Talamasca published Interview with the Vampire; they agree to physically fight until Louis purges the anger from his system. Lestat reclaims their attention, as always, with a showstopper move — he floats over the crowd to Louis and directly sings to him about how the infamous book hurt his feelings. The ecstatic crowd eats it up.

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Sam Reid and Jennifer Ehle in The Vampire Lestat

From there, Lestat deviates to Daniel and Louis’ post-show interaction. Why would the Brat Prince relinquish time to anyone else? He’s going to follow “anyone I feel is important towards understanding how I woke the Queen and unleashed her wrath upon the world.” Lestat’s imagination takes creative liberties that aren’t too far off-base; Daniel’s vulnerable sincerity contrasts with Louis’ chilly aloofness, and they politely talk in a fancy bar instead of throwing fisticuffs in the venue’s back alley.

Daniel drops the sarcasm and opens up about how his vampire loneliness has manifested. He feels constantly tethered to Armand (Assad Zaman) and keeps experiencing a sensation “where suddenly, everyone around me disappears.” (That’s not ominous at all.) As for publishing the book, which he apologizes for, its success compensates for the impressive vampire gifts he lacks. Louis resents the wrench Daniel’s quasi-betrayal threw into his and Lestat’s reconciliation, not to mention Daniel’s representation of him as “passive, selfish, a liar.” It’s only after Daniel reveals the fact that his daughter continues to ignore his calls that Louis’ reserved shield shows its first cracks. He admits he was recently captivated by a waitress who resembled an older Claudia (Delainey Hayles).

The documentary’s producers choose that moment to crash the party. Admittedly, “producers” might be a generous title for Rashid (Bally Gill) and Raglan James (Justin Kirk). You see, Raglan has a little problem. The Detroit coven is too unpredictable to ignore, but the Talamasca doesn’t sully their hands with preemptive murder. Louis’ track record of eliminating the Théâtre des Vampires and 32 would-be vampire hunters in Dubai makes him Raglan’s ideal candidate for the job. Louis refuses, until Raglan drops the name of the coven’s leader: It’s Bruce (Damon Daunno), the vampire who kidnapped and raped Claudia (Bailey Bass).

Meanwhile, Lestat and Gabriella relax among the ruins of the restaurant they demolished, blood-soaked servers included. Gabriella admires a picture of Louis with predatory curiosity. Lestat assures his mother that Louis believes Gabriella died from consumption. As she sits beside Lestat at the piano, avidly listening to him sing in French, he remembers giving his frail mother eternal life — and how much pleasure they took in slaughtering their family. They framed the villagers for the familicide and show no remorse.