Leave it up to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) to give Louis’ (Jacob Anderson) interview a final definitive disruption that leads to marital woes for Armand (Assad Zaman).
Call it a vendetta writ large for our entertainment while Molloy plays roast host like a daytime Maury or Divorce Court episode, because you’ll be hootin’ and hollerin’ during “And That’s The End Of It. There’s Nothing Else”—the eighth episode of AMC and AMC+’s Interview with The Vampire season two. The episode brings in showrunner Rolin Jones as its scribe for all the explosive revenge and revelations in the finale directed by Levan Arkin.
Louis nears the end of the tale. In the aftermath of the trial he is buried alive and describes the isolating, suffocating pain of his guilt over Claudia’s death. Armand feeds him blood and tends to his coffin as Louis is kept alive by the thought of vengeance, and when he’s strong enough he makes a break for it. The madness, the rage, and the determination makes him go into hiding instead of on the run as Armand had hoped. No, Louis is gonna get Santiago (Ben Daniels) and his ghoulish coven for what they did to them.
Santiago of course is now running the Theatre des Vampires and relishing in the power. It’s a joy to see it cut short when Louis shows up to torch the trashy troupe. He burns a few of the weaker coven members alive in their coffins but the main instigators of Claudia’s demise make a run for it, including Santiago, Celeste, and Estelle. The immortal mean girl duo get their comeuppance through motorbike explosion and it’s a real treat to cheer along in a very Tarantino moment. Seeing the show go full-tilt ultraviolence amps up the fun especially during the chase between Santiago and Louis. Daniels plays it up, as ever the gesturing villain and drama queen who makes like a rat to the sewers to escape. At this point Louis knows Paris better than he does, and doles out a straight-up medieval execution by blade, beheading the short-term maitre and stomping his head in for the really nasty things Santiago said he did to himself with Claudia’s ashes. The laugh out loud moment was when Louis hits a goal by kicking Santiago’s head off screen like a soccer ball—prime television right there.
The story seems to wrap up with a “they lived happily ever after moment” between Armand and Louis, free from the coven finally. They go to confront Lestat (Sam Reid) who has sought isolation in his dead master’s prison. There, the charismatic vampire is broken by what he did to his daughter but Louis doesn’t care, still high off all the violence. To punish Lestat they don’t kill him— though that’s Louis initial intention, allegedly. His former lover does throw in a taunt to Armand that it would be difficult to do as he has the blood of Akasha in him. Armand is clueless as it’s a reference to Lestat’s rendezvous with Marius, but he realizes he may not have been aware of his master’s knowledge of their ancient makers. It’s a quick moment to wink at us Vampire Chronicles fans. The story continues as Louis gives Lestat a soul death and chooses Armand in front of him just to spite him. True love and “the end,” right?
Wrong! Molloy’s got a copy, courtesy of the real Rashid of the Talamasca, of Sam’s—another vampire survivor in the mix—script of Trial! with annotations by the play’s director, Armand. Turns out Sam disagreed with Armand’s intention to destroy the coven and turned mole for the Talamasca—presumably for protection from Louis’ wrath for the day he could help ruin the sham of his ethereal soft husband’s bullshit.
This is when Molloy goes full Maury and Judge Judy wrapped in one clever curmudgeon old journo who also desires to get back at Armand for San Francisco. They go over the script notes in Armand’s writing that reveal he wasn’t as much of a victim as Louis had been led to believe; in fact, he was in on it all along and that Louis was meant to die. The “banishment” ruling was improvised by the show’s only guest who proved he could charm the audience, who, as Molloy reminded Louis, had a whole military troop leave their home back in New Orleans with the power of his mind, and who we know could only do it with the blood of Akasha. Lestat saved Louis and Armand took the credit!
One word: divorce! Louis and Armand have it out while Molloy is told to make a break for it. Louis sets his laptop on fire but we already know the Talamasca backed our boy’s files up. Armand is instructed to let Molloy live as Louis decides to leave to make things right with who really saved him.
Lestat lives, as we see the familiar sights of New Orleans. Louis takes in a ghost tour to follow crumbs that might lead to Lestat and quickly finds a twitchy fledging that leads him to a decrepit little shack. There he has an iPad for music and a plank that has a nail scratched piano keyboard on it. He’s so out of it from the loss of Claudia and Louis, haunting this home while half-ass keeping a millennial vampire fledging around and planning a “tour” for his music (a tease for season three). Louis gets right to the point and asks why he let Armand take the credit for saving him, and ever the complex mystery of a self-aware egomaniac, Lestat says, “I don’t like to point out my virtues.” A hurricane builds around them as the emotional walls between them come crashing down over their love of Claudia and being terrible fathers. Louis assures Lestat it wasn’t his fault, sure… but yeah they did play a huge role in her fate. I still hope she haunts the hell out of them! They kiss and make up.
The end closes on Molloy in a TV spot talking about his book Interview With the Vampire, which the humans think is a joke but the vampires are about to go to war over. The Talamasca and Molloy worked together to make it happen but covens all over are enraged over being exposed and the whispers among them reach Louis. They’re out for him and won’t stop. Oh, and these whispers? Molloy can now hear them, because Armand turned him. We love this for him and his future in publishing—and getting a new chance to get his real freak on moving forward on the show.
We can’t wait for next season and Lestat starting a band to distract the rage pointed at his man by using the truth of their existence as a gimmick. It’s going to get more wild and unhinged. Let’s go!
Interview With the Vampire is now streaming on AMC+.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
