The Vampire Lestat (2022) s02e01 Episode Script

Memory is a monster.
We forget. It doesn't.
Your book makes no
mention of our prior meeting.
Yeah, well, things
didn't end well the last time,
so a do-over.
Truth and reconciliation.
The year was 1910.
Louis, let me introduce
you to Mr. Lestat de Lioncourt.
That man Lestat?
He the devil. Paul!
I can swap this life of shame,
swap it out for a dark gift.
I love you, Louis.
Be my companion.
Rashid, did you
always work for him?
You are getting access
to very precious items
from the archives.
Claudia was everything.
I loved her unconditionally.
There are four pages torn out.
She wrote about it, and
I'd like to read it. No.
Who am I
supposed to love?
You two have each other.
She is poisoning
Louis against me.
This is how it has to be for me.
For my family.
This is not a life!
That's 'cause you took my life!
The tapes are an
admitted performance.
This is the premise
of our interview.
The odyssey of recollection.
I'm gonna go out there
and find other vampires.
The vampires out
there are vicious.
I'm going to kill him.
We were going to kill Lestat.
So what
did you do with it?
We threw him in a trunk and
left him out with the garbage.
We got in our car
and drove away.
A merchant vessel,
newly christened and
headed for Europe,
ready to begin the
adventure of our lives.
Well, you didn't kill Lestat.
You chose Lestat over
her time and time again.
And you're still Louis the pimp
paying a whore to sit in
a room and talk with you.
This session is over.
Louis can sometimes act up.
I protect him from himself.
What was that you
said about memory?
A monster, was it?
Daniel Malloy, I'd like you
to meet the vampire Armand,
the love of my life.
She writes here,
"I do not dream."
I can confirm that.
At least, that's what
she said to me once
when I was talking
about one of my dreams,
which were erratic and
often in those years.
Of course, she might have
said that to shut me up,
but yet she writes it here,
so let's believe it.
Let's.
She continues.
"We traveled light in
our ancestral home.
We slept in the earth,
took circuitous routes
around the mad army
goose-stepping its way
towards Mother Russia."
Some would say a poorly
timed European holiday.
Disregard.
Not for Claudia.
All those years,
scouring libraries for
evidence of our kind.
She wasn't going to let
humanity's ideological rift
delay her.
And the horrors we
walked over every night.
The precision of trains
speeding to atrocity.
They only calcified
her determination
to find others she
could better relate to.
And re-reading these pages,
it's clear she didn't think
I qualified any longer.
Can you imagine never dreaming?
Would you look forward to sleep?
Or would it terrify
you when the day broke?
Or is it the sleep of an infant?
Tabula rasa.
Once again, that's the
voice of a vampire - Armand,
but continue to disregard it
as he remains off the record.
It's Louis'
interview, Mr. Molloy.
- You're at the table.
- I'm in our dining room.
You're not dining.
An ancient doesn't need the
blood as often as the young do.
Intriguing and disregarding.
She had stowed us away in
ships, trains and wagons.
She had asked the desperate
farmers and rationed soldiers
to teach her their languages
before she killed them.
And when she had
cobbled together
enough words and grammar,
she stopped asking.
Claudia was a thing
of little indecision,
a manic tour guide.
And any castle with ties to
Vlad Tepes or Vlad Dracul,
however slight,
had to be explored.
And I endured it
all for Claudia,
whose rage toward me and
my refusal to burn Lestat
had dulled into
a bitter silence.
This war.
It's affecting the blood.
Been drinking misery,
hopelessness.
It's in the blood,
we're taking it in.
Taking it on.
I'm thinking that's
why we can't get warm,
warm up.
You think that's it?
"Louis
did you say something?"
Thank you for asking.
I did say something, Claudia.
I said I'm cold.
I'm sleeping in a
hole every night.
I'm worn to a nub.
How about you?
"Well, brother Lou,
I'm a little low myself.
- But, uh"
- Air raid.
It wasn't the murdering Hun
or beasts of Ivan,
or the fire raining
down from the RAF
that chased the vampire away.
The vampire hadn't been
here for centuries.
The few scraps of
forensic proof we found
made the case plain,
but Claudia was unassailable.
Like like some
deranged geologist
waving a woolly
mammoth tusk saying,
"Let's knock on the
neighbor's door,
there must be one inside."
It's dead.
Maybe it's time we go home.
"He asked me if
we can go home.
Home?
Can there be a more
offensive question?
Run back to New Orleans.
Pry up his bones, why don't you?
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
Dead weight."
I want to thank you,
for the memories you helped
restore the other night.
I understand these
diaries much better now.
And I want to thank you,
Louis, for yesterday's
eight hours on how to
avoid the sun and torpedoes
while cruising the
Mediterranean war theater.
And tonight's two
hours and counting
on chasing old world vamps
who never materialize.
You ever read 'Moby
Dick', Real Rashid?
I'm here to serve.
Ah. Yeah, sure.
I'm sorry, this is
this is so weird.
Where did they send you when.
Shah Rukh Khan over
here was playing you?
Is there a panic room
behind the stolen Rembrandt?
My love ran a theater company
for 150 years, Daniel.
Your love was in a box
pondering a
premediated neck wound,
according to Claudia.
She wrote it, let's
choose to believe it.
Unworthy in San Francisco,
unworthy in Dubai.
Disregard.
Hmm.
Bonjour, mon amour.
- No.
- Oui.
No.
Is it the same question?
Go away.
Or do you miss me?
I miss you.
Despite our recent
unpleasantness
- still missing each other.
- Claudia!
Hmm! Four years
of grim wayfaring
and still no sight of
the benevolent vampire.
So, how does denial
manifest itself tonight?
Sniffing German brandy?
You're not here, I'm
just fucked in the head.
Quite fucked.
- Was she worth it?
- Yes.
- You say it like you believe it.
- I do, I do.
I do, I do.
- I do.
- Stop!
I do, I do.
I do, I do.
I do! I d
Oh. Purgatory is a
lovely room for music.
I have a new piece, Concerto
for Gashed Throat and Orchestra.
- I'm sorry.
- Don't say it again.
You ruin it with remorse.
It was a perfect betrayal.
You gave me a death
of distinction.
Trucks!
But in answer to your question.
Yes.
I'm gonna bloody kill you.
If you were alive you'd
have done it already.
Hmm.
Oh, love.
I'm merely waiting
until you're happy.
So hurry up, mon Cher.
I had taken 7,000
souls by then.
- Argh!
- But Lestat was the only one
that felt like murder.
Semantics, surely,
but it's how I felt.
He came by invitation.
My distraction from the
monochromatic landscape.
The gray of an obliterated road,
the gray-brown of a charred
and bullet-ridden city.
In Germany, Herr Hitler had
popped a pill in his bunker
and Europe celebrated.
But in Romania, the champagne
fizzled and went flat.
Soviets replaced Nazis.
War became occupation.
Why they shooting up coffins?
Windows shuttered, doors bolted.
Like every other
village we seen,
folks left when the
Russians rolled in.
Folks left? So who ran
garlic around these doors?
Who nailed the
crucifix to the wall?
Why don't you knock and ask?
Just like in the books, they
think garlic protects them.
- Your books?
- They think we hate Jesus.
Don't start back
with your books!
- Your books are bullshit.
- There's a vampire been here.
Another crucifix.
Hey, now. Okay, okay.
- Oh, shit.
- Look like you should.
Don't say anything
about anything.
American?
Okay. War, all have sad story.
You understanding my English?
Yeah.
Emilia.
Mary.
This is my father, Robert.
We're tired, we could
use a place to sleep.
We got things to thank you with.
Vodka?
Oh, yeah.
You will make the friends.
No more beds.
Boiler room, you
can use for night.
Warm, boiler loud.
Thank you. That'll be fine.
American!
They are not used to
seeing man with good looks.
And, uh, the rest of everyone?
Most from town,
some can't go home.
Home is gone.
How come you're all
living out here?
Stone walls, metal doors.
Is something going
on out in the woods?
Bombs in ground, wolves,
maybe German soldiers who
don't know war is over.
Maybe something, uh, worse.
- Or maybe vampires.
- Please!
Oh, look,
soldiers with garlic
around their necks.
- No, no, no, no, no!
- Oh.
Soup for cigarettes.
Bad trade for you.
But God will forget
when you die.
God "not" forget.
Americans?
I haven't heard a word of
English in half a year.
Say something, anything.
- Uh, something, anything.
- Oh!
- Hello.
- Hello.
What am I talk?
Oh, you, darling, are
talk broken English
by an Englishman too
enamored with his student
- to do the job properly.
- Mm-hm.
This Robert.
Uh, Louis.
She's a quick studier actually
and very resourceful and I'm
desperately in love with her.
I hear you have vodka.
This Morgan.
Morgan Ward, correspondent
Daily Herald.
They've forgotten I'm here.
And I've forgotten
your name already.
It's, uh, Louis.
Louis! Louis, wonderful strange.
Welcome to, no
question, hell on Earth!
And you? What's your
name, sweetheart?
Why are they shooting
up graves outside?
This is my daughter, Mary.
Oh.
Uh, Andrei.
Maybe you can take Mary here
to meet the other children.
I'm fine, sir, thank you.
Go ahead, Mary. Go and
meet the other children.
I bet they know everything
about this place.
Wait, that's wrong.
She didn't say that
in front of Claudia.
Say what? Who?
The wolves, the Germans,
something worse.
Emilia, she would not have
said that in front of Claudia.
Wolves, maybe German soldiers
who don't know war is over.
Maybe something, uh, worse.
She thought Claudia was
a child. Claudia left.
And then she said it.
Is something going on
out there in the woods?
Bombs in ground, wolves,
maybe Germans who
don't know war is over.
Maybe something worse.
Yes.
Yes!
That's how it went.
We should get
every detail right.
In total agreement.
Perhaps this would be a
time to take a break, Louis.
You know, Real Rashid,
I'm pretty good at my job,
a bright young reporter
with a point of view.
Interviewed a fallen
Catholic archbishop,
four Enron vice presidents,
and if they've got
something to hide
they always start with
some kind of disguise.
Not literally, not some
dumb Halloween costume,
gloves, contact lenses.
They tell jokes,
they're charming.
And then at some crisis
point, when I get close,
it drops away and I see
a flash of the truth.
Armand didn't want me to
do the interview, Daniel.
Still don't.
But he wanted to be close
to it, right, Real Rashid?
I mean, hey, whatever it
is they're trying to hide,
I'm probably not
going to crack it,
which is, you know, who
cares? Happens all the time.
But I wanna ask you, as a
member of the inferior species,
why say, "Hey,
vampires are real.
Here's almost all the story"?
Thank you, Rashid.
That's why I'm coming
after you, Real Rashid.
You I can fucking break!
If you'll excuse me.
Wins what?
Ow!
She got all tore up when our
boys started shipping out.
Volunteered for the Red Cross.
A sainted wife.
Yeah, grew up in
a military family.
Kind of woman you
can't argue much with.
I am familiar with the breed.
Up your bum.
Okay.
Why are they firing
into coffins here?
Farm boys commanded
by farm boys.
German amphetamines,
the superstitions of
a backward country.
Mad fog in the dirt,
trees and rivers.
I keep my trousers pinned
at the ankle when I sleep
for fear it will get me too.
This is an old country
with old things in it.
More mad fog, and she's
currently village prefect.
- I believe you.
- Oh, I do too.
I believe everything
you say, Emilia.
Marry me.
When the priest comes back.
That's our little joke.
The priest was dragged
away by our Soviet friends.
And by dragged,
I mean, tied to a
truck and dragged.
Something out there
with soul disturbed.
Disturbed?
Argh! Argh! Argh!
Argh!
Argh!
Oh!
The triumph over Hitler's evil
can be felt throughout France,
and in no more
fantastic an example
than the priceless works of art
being bundled up
in the countryside,
lifted on to trucks
and returned to their
rightful place in Paris.
And we of the BBC World Service,
speaking for the rest
of the western world,
send a most grateful thank
you to our allies in France
with one of your very own.
Mm!
Are you a Red, Louis?
You say something?
I did.
Didn't catch it.
Then I'll repeat myself.
Are you a Red? No
judgement. Simple question.
I am
a magical vodka Negro.
Having the first alright night
in quite a while. C'mon now.
You're either a deserter or
a Bolshevik, which is it?
This is why you have
no friends, old man.
I told you already.
- I'm looking for my wife.
- Oh.
It's printed on albumen.
I really want to
hear the lady sing.
I take my own photographs,
I make more money that way.
And your dutiful
wife's photograph
was taken by a
glass-plate camera,
printed on albumen paper.
That makes this 30 years
old, which would make her
sixty, sixty-five,
and the birth of your
daughter a medical miracle.
This is a road you really
don't want to go down.
I like you. You seem
like a good man.
If you can be quick with
it. Song's half over.
If you're AWOL, turn back
around and take your punishment.
It'll be paradise in comparison
to Uncle Joseph's utopia.
That it?
That's it.
That was unkind.
I'm cutting you off
and taking your woman.
Never mess with a
magical vodka Negro.
May I have this dance?
If you're a Bolshevik,
you're making a fool's bet.
You really want to marry him?
He's got the big
one down the pants.
Daddy!
I fell out a tree.
It was this big grayish thing
and clothes were rotting off
it like it died in 'em. Do it!
Aargh!
It was strong and it killed
- and carried off its kill.
- Was it a vampire?
It had fangs, what
else would it be?
- A snake, a baboon.
- Baboons?!
- Baboons got fangs.
- We're in Romania! Baboons?
Did it speak? Did
you try telepathy?
- Yes.
- Yes, it spoke?
- Yes, I tried telepathy.
- So it didn't speak?
I think it was sick.
Why are you laughing with them,
giving out your real name?
You even notice while
you're making friends,
everyone's got a
crucifix, wearing garlic.
Mortals are scared of vampires
in a part of the world
known for vampires,
ain't a surprise or evidence
of an actual vampire!
There's one of us out there!
But if he can't take
you ballroom dancing
and tell you you're pretty,
hell with him, is that it?
- Hello, grudge!
- No! Mm-mm!
I forgave you for
messing up my plan,
I did not forgive you for
bringing him with you.
In a landfill with five
years of garbage on top.
In here! You carry him in here.
You slow us down!
What were you gonna ask
him if he could talk?
Change the subject when
the truth blinds you.
Who made you?
And then what? Who made
the one that made you?
What are we looking for here,
Adam and Eve of the damned?
God? Are we looking
for God, Claudia?
Yeah, get in the hole.
I've known exactly four
vampires in my life
and you've all been the worst.
Lestat, Antoinette, the
motherfucker and you.
I'm looking for one, just one,
that ain't a goddamn bastard!
Memories just keep bubbling up.
I woke that night to
the sound of chaos
erupting nearby.
Claudia was, uh
She was dreaming.
Her head twitching
like you would.
Maybe you're just, uh
- frosting the pie.
- No.
I can feel her.
I can feel her next to me.
She's having a nightmare.
What's worse than a nightmare?
If your soul's
projecting out its fears,
at least it's up and running.
But the absence of anything?
The void.
The nothing.
Pieces
coming back.
Hours,
nights.
Objects
surfacing in water.
It was just something she wrote.
But it wasn't true.
She could dream.
Thank you.
If you wanna take that break.
No.
No.
I want this.
To remember.
She woke up to the noise.
We arrived back on
the factory floor
to a maddening swirl of shouting
and Red Army soldiers.
For God's sake!
Louis, please, help bring
some damn sanity to the room!
They think she's a monster.
Louis or Robert, or whoever
the hell you are, just help me!
Look, look!
Look! Look!
Look! Look!
Look. Look. Right!
No!
Are you coming or not?
They're going to butcher her!
Louis, for God's
sake, do something!
Human affairs.
Help her, for God's sake!
Death and how to avoid it.
She was getting them rabbits.
- Their problem.
- No!
No, don't! Don't! Don't!
Our concern was in the woods.
That look like a baboon?
It's okay.
It's okay, he's yours.
We don't want him.
What the hell is that?
It's
a vampire.
No, I'm a vampire. That's a
fucking catfish with teeth.
It's dirty.
It doesn't like us.
Us, you, the same.
Not the same, not
even close. Uhh!
Louis!
Louis!
Uhh!
Louis!
Claudia!
Shh! Shh!
A woman vampire.
An angry woman vampire.
A mom.
Words, language, and
moving slow enough
we sensed she
wanted us to follow.
I'm not stopping.
Me neither.
And so we did.
Through the forest,
as if a fairy tale.
But even if we could
get her to talk to us,
what would she say?
What, after all,
can the damned really
say to the damned?
Yes.
Yes.
Tell her about the blood.
Say it in English.
The blood is bad here.
The humans
there's too much
sadness, too much pain.
We feel it too when we drink.
We can't get warm.
Our bodies hurt.
Maybe you need better blood.
America.
What's she saying?
What's she saying?
Louis.
Claudia.
Yah!
And that is how we met
the old world vampire.
We've received an aggressive
offer for the Bacon triptych.
Oh? I didn't know we'd
made it available.
It's a new name so I'll
have to run due diligence,
but it's a number you
wouldn't anticipate.
Could I see the
pages we removed?
Of Claudia's diaries.
We made an agreement.
I don't know what else is
blurred or misremembered.
My name is in some
of those pages.
I sit across from him
and reckon with the
knowledge I don't know
what other mis-rememberings
made into it.
I won't share them with him
but I need to read them again.
May I make an observation?
I've lost control
of the interview.
Yes.
He's skilled.
He wants you in pieces
for the privilege
of putting them back
together as he sees fit.
- It's his job.
- It's his drug.
He's reveling in it.
- You should end it.
- No.
Put him back on a
plane is what I mean.
No.
I'll have Rashid assemble
the pages removed.
What's the observation?
The boy we met in San Francisco.
The one who fumbled over
his tape recording device,
who barely understood
the meaning
of the story he was being told.
He's still in there, somewhere.
We can find him.
We can have him saying what
happened next in no time.
How?
We do it together.
Like everything we've done
for the past 70 years.
Good morning.
Uh-huh.
So, fellas, what's up?
You have our attention.
Yeah?
Yeah.
On the record?
Okay.
Um
Session ten, the vampire Louis
and the vampire Armand.
You went west.
Claudia was entirely broken.
She had left a part
of herself in Romania.
I knew I had to steer
her far away from it.
I chose the city that
called to us on the radio.
To the mother of New Orleans.
- Members of my coven sensed
- Uh, uh, uh.
We'll get to you.
The war had turned
off the lights,
stripped its streets
of their beauty,
sent its avant-garde into exile.
But now, the whole world
was ready to return,
to remake their lives.
Pilgrims on their hopeful way.
I wanna say something to you.
I don't need to
hear anything back,
I just need you to hear me.
Hard words and soft words.
The hard.
Our life is shit.
It's been shit.
It is shit. It's
gonna be shit again.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
No one's watching, no one cares.
A shit life beats no life.
But where we're going now we
can't be running away again.
Doesn't mean we
forget what we saw.
What she did in front of us.
If I see you going that way,
I'm going pull you back.
I don't need that from you.
As long as you walk the Earth,
I'll never taste the
fire, you understand me?
We're going to find
others like us.
And if it ain't here,
cos life is shit,
or I fuck it up again,
or you fuck it up,
we'll go to the next place.
We can't be the only
good ones out there.
Soft words.
If you were the last
vampire on Earth
it would be enough.
You and me.
Me and you.
You and me.
Me and you.
You and me!
Okay.
Okay.
Louis: Don't be afraid.
Just start the tape.
Welcome to the
Théâtre des Vampires.
Americans are here!
Claudia: It's different
here. I love it.
I never want to leave.
Who's that handsome man
on the wall up there?
Louis: They've got
a shrine to him.
What if they find
out we killed him?
Lestat: We both now exist
in two different worlds.
Are you schizophrenic, Louis?
Lestat: Doomed. Always doomed.
Claudia: Picked
another one over me!
What about me and you,
you and me, me and you?!
Let me tell you a
little something
about 18th-Century Armand.
You fear Armand.
You should fear the other one.
Lestat, Lestat, Lestat, Lestat,
Lestat, Lestat, Lestat, Lestat!
Episode one is called
"What Can the Damned.
Really Say to the Damned"?
It is very much the
recognition of being damned
and looking for an answer.
And there is no answer.
O'Byrne: In the early
stages of development
of season one,
we were originally gonna
do the entire first book
in one season, and there
was always a thought
that we would have
Louis and Claudia
post-New Orleans and pre-Paris
to have this
episode of upheaval,
where they're in the
European war theater
and they're searching
out these vampires.
Anderson: Louis and
Claudia are, like,
right in the thick of it.
I think it's a very
bold way to start.
It was really exciting to feel
like you're taking
these characters
completely out of
their comfort zone.
Claudia and Louis are
at odds with each other
because of how
season one left off.
This war
it's affecting the blood.
Louise's kind of
trying to earn back.
Claudia's trust in him,
but Claudia's very
reluctant to hear it.
Hayles: The scene where I
threw the heart at Louie,
it was really exciting to film.
The guy that played
the dead soldier,
he was very sweet
about everything.
He was like, "Hit me in the
chest as hard as you want."
And I was like, "I'm
not gonna do that."
Anderson: I had the
heart in my hand
and then just, like, preloaded
it and then bit into it,
and it's just like an explosion
of sugar in your mouth.
So I spent the rest of the
night just, like, just buzzing.
Johnson: If you've
committed murder
and you've killed somebody you
love more than anyone else,
that's gonna stick
with you for a while.
Louis
Lestat haunts Louis,
and it is a fixation.
Louis is never going
to shed Lestat.
The way to approach "Dreamstat,"
which is what Jacob called him,
I definitely tried to bring
as much Louis into that Lestat
as I possibly could.
He's mimicking
his body language.
I do, I do.
He repeats the words that
he says in the same way.
I do. Stop!
So you kind of really get the
sense that this is also Louis.
I do, I do.
Johnson: Claudia is looking
for where she belongs,
where she comes from.
Where are there other vampires?
We encounter the
revenant vampire,
which is described in the
book as a zombie vampire.
Anne Rice's vampires
are so human.
It's such a departure
from these kind of, like,
beautified, glamorous vampires.
Oh, sorry. It's just really fun.
It's a vampire.
Louis: Oh. No, I'm a vampire.
That's catfish with teeth.
Action!
The sequence that
we're doing today
is the revenant attacking Louis.
We got a wire system that's
lifting our actor Jacob
up in the air as if he's
being strangled by the neck.
Louis!
And then Claudia does a
big wire-assisted leap,
lands on his back, rips his
eyes out, saves the day.
Delaney is really good.
She's actually really
very handy in a wire.
It's been a lot of fun. I
actually really enjoy stunts.
I like doing physical things,
so the more I could do,
the more I wanted to do.
A lot of harness work,
a lot of leg locking
around actors and pulling.
Ateah: The trickiest thing
is her ripping his eyes out.
So our idea for cheating it
was to slap her
fingers onto his eyes
and cover it with
the revenant's hands,
and then they drop
to their knees,
and we use that
as a stitch point
where we can put in the
prosthetic eye makeup
and cover it with
Delaney's hands.
Eyeballs are kind of
in the palm of my hand,
and I'm gouging,
gouging. Pop them out.
Dirk's amazing and
Dirk's really tall,
so when I was locking
my legs around him,
the harness had to be there.
The sounds that he
makes as the revenant
and how he embodies
it is really amazing.
Louis: Claudia!
A woman vampire.
O'Byrne: Claudia has
never met a vampire
that she was fully
on board with,
and finally meeting
this female vampire
that she appears to
make a connection with
is so joyful for her.
Anderson: Dasiana throwing
herself in the fire
It's a brutal, brutal moment.
Hayles: That kind of
solidifies everything
that Claudia thinks of herself
and what it means
to be a vampire.
It's a lonely life.
Johnson: The interview becomes
more important in season two.
This is the first time
that Armand has been
in this conversation.
Bogosian: I think
Armand is trying
to knock Molloy off his game.
I think he's trying
to frighten Molloy.
May I make an observation?
I've lost control
of the interview.
Yes. He's skilled.
He wants you in pieces
for the privilege
of putting them back together
as he sees fit. It's his job.
It's his drug.
Armand wants to protect himself,
but also he wants to protect
his relationship with Louis
and what they have.
He feels he has no choice
except to come in sharing
the narrative with Louis.
Louie: Claudia was
entirely broken.
She had left a part
of herself in Romania.
I knew I had to steer
her far away from it.
I want to say something to you.
In the van on the way to Paris,
he's kind of planting a flag in
the ground and saying, "Look,
we've been through it.
We're gonna keep
going through it."
We're gonna find others like us.
Regardless of what
happens, I will be here.
If you were the last
vampire on Earth
it would be enough.
Okay.
Okay.