The Vampire Lestat (2022) s02e03 Episode Script

Louis and Claudia, the
Théâtre des Vampires.
What about the
others out there?
Giddy to increase
their numbers.
The great conversion.
What you're about to see
is for you, an outrage.
You were amazing.
Who's your maker?
His name was Brent.
We don't talk about him much.
Who's that handsome man
on the wall up there?
Our co-founder,
Lestat de Lioncourt.
That means you knew
Lestat before he did.
Yes, Armand knew Lestat.
You both fucked Lestat.
What if they find
out we killed him?
I want to go back.
It's not safe there.
I do believe I felt
some trepidation
when the name Lestat presented.
Who? Armand: We could simply
return to the interview.
If you're willing to ask your
questions and then listen,
which is your job.
What happened next?
Here we go.
Oh
Partial to the non-wriggling
items. I should've said that.
The perils of Omakase.
We cede power to the
chef, submit to his whims,
to his eye at the fish
market. A series of risks.
- Right.
- 'Under the Burning Sky.'
The one about Enron,
'Black Blood' was it?
You're Daniel Molloy.
I've read your books.
A reader. Well, prepare
yourself for disappointment.
I see they've separated
you from your laptop.
They?
Off your game a touch yesterday.
Perhaps they believe
you've been humbled.
Clever on their own,
now there's two of them.
Of course, there was
always two of them.
You just came to that late.
Going to stop
looking at you now.
A little pale for Mossad.
Although that could
be very Mossad.
I wish. I'd be better
funded. No, no, no.
I work for another watchful
shop, the name of which
has not come up in your
conversations with them.
A stake in the
story I'm writing.
You have me bugged, or you
want me to think you do.
We were tracking 900
of them a month ago.
We're tracking 1,600 now.
The Great Conversion.
It's real. It's happening.
Well, then you have a
more immediate problem
than a book being
researched. Got a name?
You're not the first to
attempt this, Mr. Molloy.
I could give you the names
of four others who have
and they're all dead, or undead.
The name is Raglan James.
Got a real name?
Files have been placed,
with proper encryption,
on your comically
vulnerable laptop.
Most are primary sources
that your infamous friends
Anyone here a fan of
intelligence officers?
We got a live one.
Gochisousama, Taisho-san.
How was your
walkabout, Mr. Molloy?
Michelin fish in the desert.
I burned my entire per diem.
How many people in the world
know what you know, Rashid?
How many Rashids, Rashid?
I suspect just enough to
help them stay hidden.
No, that's how billionaire
vampires do it.
How does your
average Jo Mo vampire
keep people like you in
line? Unspoken threats?
The threat is always there.
He could kill us both now.
But he doesn't. They
are peaceful beings.
They drain and disappear us.
They have a
biological imperative
that is in conflict
with human morality.
But what is that morality
other than rules agreed upon?
Thank you, Rashid.
A romantic answer
to your question.
The average vampire has
minimal contact with humanity.
When exposed, they feed
or run or kill themselves.
And I'd say we're
multi-millionaires.
Not quite a billion.
It was wrong of Louis to
enter your memories yesterday.
You were invited
here as a guest.
- Cell phones.
- You were rude, but he crossed a line.
Artificial intelligence
crunching improbable data.
- I offer my apology
- How do you hide from the cloud?
On his behalf.
We should probably wait for him.
Probably.
He'll awaken when
the sun sleeps.
Your cell phones make you
slaves to your fetishes
and data retrieval is
primarily about profits,
so I suspect no one at Amazon
is trying to sell us blenders.
You kill, nightly.
And sometimes you've watched
that kill on the local news.
You've never been
easier to distract.
You're at the height
of wilful ignorance.
We exploit it. This is, was
Lestat's prophetic vision.
- Lestat de Lioncourt?
- Yes.
We were shadows
crouching behind stone
prior to his transformation.
I'm listening.
That's my job, right?
It was 1556 when the
Roman coven sent me
to lead the shambolic
Paris coven.
A face from the subcontinent,
French my fourth and
poorest language,
I had never led
anything in my life.
We called ourselves the
Children of Darkness.
We lived in squalor,
hunted in shame,
all in strict obedience
to medieval laws
put in place to protect
us from humanity.
And though I managed to maintain
a discipline and humility for
239 years as Satan's fool,
by the time Robespierre
was beheaded,
I was, by any measure, failing.
Our ways were finished.
We were embers on a waning pyre.
Lestat was the wind to scatter.
I really gotta
meet with this guy.
I felt his presence
before I saw him.
Sired by one of my
deserters, Magnus,
this was something new,
something I hadn't felt before.
The fourth of our
Great Laws was writ:
"No vampire shall ever reveal
his true nature to a mortal
and let that mortal live."
And here he was,
prancing and preening
in front of 500 mortals a night,
like some patronized,
tarted up dervish.
To hear Louis tell it
Lestat becoming a vampire
was a horror show.
That may be.
But he made a remarkable
recovery shortly thereafter.
How else could you explain
his hand feeding the audience?
How words came
out like canaries,
summer fruit in
the dead of winter.
They were all in love with him.
He had that effect on everyone.
- He
- Was a natural?
Entirely un-natural.
Using the Dark Gift for what?
His vanity? It was heresy.
I had to bring him under
my control by any means.
I followed him for weeks.
His rejections only inflamed me.
And the longer I allowed him
to exist outside the coven,
the more unsettled
my children became.
They watched in secret,
fascinated by his disregard
for the laws I told them
could never be broken.
He took a mortal
lover. More heresy.
I'd tolerated his
presence too long already.
I had to act or he'd destroy
what little I had left.
Lestat!
Lestat?
Nicky!
Uhh! Uhh!
Nicky!
Uhh!
You let it happen?
Yes.
You led him there, so
he could destroy it.
His words had been my
thoughts for half a century.
If it had come from me, they
wouldn't have believed it.
Hmm?
My children left.
They roamed the
streets of Paris,
wreaking havoc with mortals.
Some could not reconcile
the life I had made for them
with the life Lestat had
told them was possible.
They went mad, ended themselves.
The only thing that
kept me from the fire
were the old rituals.
Au contraire, Maitre.
Lestat.
That's it? You're just
going to end it there?
They went at it on the floor.
Armand taught Lestat
the Mind Gift.
And a week later,
Lestat was gone.
The question was how do
vampires hide from Google,
not how did Lestat
break his heart.
But because you were a good
listener, you got answers to both.
When he went to open the
theater the next night,
he was met by the
lawyer, Pierre Roget I.
Waiting for me with a trunk
full of cash and instructions
to cover the theater's
cost in perpetuity.
He abandoned Nicky. He abandoned
Armand. He abandoned the coven.
Lestat is, was, and will
always be, for Lestat.
Never say I love you
to a raging narcissist.
And I locked away those
words for another 150 years.
And then he arrived
and shattered that lock.
This is what frightened
me most about you.
He's in Copenhagen
working at a car factory.
He hates his maker, takes
the boat back to America.
He gets me on an El
train to Chicago.
I said outside of Chicago. He
said he didn't like big cities.
He gets me outside Chicago.
- A diner on the way to Gary.
- You find me in Springfield
Selling chestnuts outside
the train station.
By the train station.
He kills himself in Cincinnati.
What the hell do we
know about Cincinnati?
What do they know
about Cincinnati?
- What's he look like?
- They won't ask that.
- They will.
- It's been weeks, it's enough.
I'm finally working backstage
tonight, I don't wanna be late.
You're the one said
he was our maker.
I need this cold for myself.
Black wavy hair smile
crooks up to the left.
Buncha moles on his
crotch and thighs.
I don't need that.
Well, he didn't keep you
under floorboards for a week.
I don't know what
it is that you need.
I remember what I remember.
I pry to keep us safe.
You might be having
a good time now,
but there's danger if
they find out we lied.
Maybe not Cincinnati.
How about Shreveport?
Caddo Lake. My daddy took
me and Paul there to fish.
There's a drawbridge there.
He burned on the bridge.
Shreveport, Caddo Lake,
burned himself on the bridge.
Armand.
The door was ajar.
Uh If you open up the
windows and the doors,
you get a little breeze.
Cavalier. But I'm sure
you're being careful.
A-huh.
Maitre, welcome to our lair.
- Shouldn't you be in the lobby?
- I got three minutes.
Did I give you consent to
look me in the eye, Puce?
- No, Maitre.
- My fault, I was keeping her.
Have I been late once, Maitre?
Have you been early once is the
question I'd be asking myself.
How's she doing?
She's taking the
abuse in stride.
- I've never seen her happier.
- Mmm.
The coven has grand
designs for her.
You're drawn to portraiture.
Hides the cracks in the walls.
Show me where you go at night.
Unconscious death is
the fate of all mortals.
Up.
Up.
Up.
We are conscious
death, Rolf Wangler.
And that would
make you a groom.
Do you know what it means
to be loved by death?
No pain.
This is my favorite part.
No pain.
No pain.
No pain.
How does he get
'em to beg for it?
Eyes down, Puce, eyes down.
No pain.
No pain.
Did you fucking
sneeze at the end?
I tried to stifle it.
It's the bloody fucking
moment of quietus.
It's hay season.
It's not a farm, Estelle!
It still sounded terrifying,
Mr. Santiago. I got chills.
Of course you did
because I'm a
Fucking professional!
- Puce!
- Coming, sir.
You know, Clau, this is
what's called the wet room.
A hateful place. You
never get over the smell
and I'm glad to Garryduff
it's your job now.
Keep the sacrifice in there
till ten minutes to the stage.
- Mm-hm.
- This is the body box.
And this is the rat box.
You put your freshie
in the body box.
You close the lid.
You take the safety
off the funnel.
And, begosh and begorrah,
the rats do the dirty for ya.
Now on a Tuesday, this is the
body box and that's the rat box.
On Wednesdays, that's the
body box, this is the rat box.
Back and forth, back
and forth. Keep track.
These rats are smart.
They can go quiet.
You open up the wrong box,
they go running up the stairs
into the green room,
into the theater
and Maitre punishes
the entire coven,
which does not win you
friends and furain.
We had an incinerator at home.
- How'd that work?
- Throw 'em in. Watch 'em burn.
Hmm. Feels a bit German.
You can piddle a week before
you have to empty the bones.
This door leads to the sewers,
catacombs and various ossuaries
we've got hidden
around the underground.
- What are these?
- Burial vaults.
Coven members past. Mostly
heretics and law breakers.
- What are the laws?
- Not till the ceremony, Puce.
They found the heart!
Rats love hearts.
I walk a new part of
the city every night.
I try to get lost.
Somehow I always end
up back by the river.
The waters of the Seine,
contained and beautiful.
Mm-hm.
A vein winding through
the heart of Paris.
There's much talk of
your camera in the coven.
Is that right?
They say you're mad
in love with humanity.
Thieving their private
moments with light and shadow.
They pester Claudia about it.
They should ask me
if they're curious.
How could they when
you're so rarely present?
I saw enough theater back
home for several lifetimes.
- No offense.
- None taken.
Nothing worse than being
dragged around unwillingly
by a companion.
This was Bruce?
Yeah, Bruce.
- The opera-loving motorcyclist.
- Yeah.
You should talk with
Tuan Pham about cameras.
He's very learned. Perhaps
the two of you could
I'm not doing the coven.
Trying to save
you a sales pitch.
You got Claudia, she's
happy, I'm happy.
But me
- not much of a joiner.
- Mmm.
Yes, you have made
that clear enough.
So if that's why you're here.
It's not the whole
reason I'm here.
- No.
- No.
It's most definitely not
the whole reason he's here.
I like you.
I like you, isn't that obvious?
We really must work on
blocking your thoughts.
- Excuse me?
- Bruce.
- I sense him now in your mind.
- A-huh.
Maybe I'm guarding my
thoughts just fine.
Maybe I let you into
my head on purpose.
Oh, that's nice,
mon cher. Lovely.
Ha!
If we were the only
vampires in Paris
For a second I
felt like we were.
The coven is envious
of your independence.
It's a problem. You
outside looking in.
Your problem, not mine.
You want me, I'm here.
But I'm here, here.
In the streets, cafés,
the salons, the bars,
ripping hot jazz.
The whole place feels
like it's born again.
Everyone's asking, "What's
next, what's next?"
Not, "Where were you?"
Or, "Be careful."
I had enough of that back home.
I'm out here finding myself.
Then what room is
there left for me,
if you have not found yourself?
Hmm!
Oh, there's room.
We were circling each other.
I was putting him in a
very difficult position.
I was supposed to
be luring him in,
but the opposite was happening.
I started spending less
time at the theater
and more nights strolling
the boulevards with Louis.
The conversation was
easy and flirtatious
- And combative.
- And combative, yes,
but only in the most
stimulating ways.
Arguing as foreplay.
Some of my most
profound feelings
and thoughts were taking shape.
When my mind was
touched by Armand's,
I became deeply
excited and driven
to form new conclusions
about myself
and vampiric life
in the abstract.
- Something wrong, Daniel?
- Mmm
Oh, no. It's It's the,
um, the computer, uh
Something you were saying
made me think of, um
Think what?
Oh It's
It just flew out of my
head there. It's gone.
So where's Claudia
at this point?
How's she doing?
What What's she doing
at this stage of things?
How do you do it?
How do you get them
to accept death?
They'll never hear you in the
front row with your head down.
First thing I do when
I creak open the lid
is have a chat with my
scene partner for the night.
Muck about in their
heads, find their shame.
In short, an actor prepares.
See you on stage, Claude.
Who's Francis Naughton?
The best Iago to
walk the York Royal.
That was you?
And what was your
shabby life in Chicago
before the vampire Bruce
bit down on your wee neck?
I was in Springfield
selling little trinkets
at the train station.
- You were an orphan?
- You could say that.
And an orphan again.
We have that in common.
- I thought Maitre made you?
- And why would you say that?
Estelle told me you
were the youngest.
But you're also the strongest.
Figured you got the best blood.
No.
My maker lies in the
walls downstairs.
Maitre put him there.
Woodcutter, three minutes.
Thank you. Three.
- Sorry.
- Oh, don't be.
He deserved his death
and his blood was exquisite.
I'm a good mimic and I can fly.
- And you kill with panache.
- Hmm.
And your dearly departed maker,
what gifts did he bequeath
the moppet vampiress?
He taught me how to lie well.
You'll make a fine actor, then.
It's Louis who's
from Chicago, yes?
Just outside it. Gary, Indiana.
Stick with it, Puce.
You're almost there.
I'm evil, evil as any
vampire who ever lived.
I've killed over and over
and I will do it again.
Why does that make you
as evil as any vampire?
Aren't there gradations to evil?
Is evil a great perilous gulf
one falls into
with the first sin?
I mean, kinda. It's not as
logical as you're saying,
but it's dark and it's empty,
and I can't see
the bottom of it.
But if evil is without
gradation and it does exist,
this state of evil then,
only one sin is needed.
That's your argument.
Evil is the product of
the ability of humans
to make abstract
what is concrete.
- Jean-Paul.
- Armand.
- This is my friend, Louis.
- Bonjour.
Now, will you two
kindly shut up,
so I can hear the music, hmm?
Your argument
assumes God exists.
I don't know that God exists.
From what I saw in
the war, he doesn't.
Then surely, there are degrees
and variations to goodness?
The goodness of the
child which is innocence.
The goodness of the
nun who lives a life
of self-deprivation and service.
The goodness of the saints,
the goodness of the midwives.
And how is this evil achieved?
How does one fall from grace?
You little whore ♪
Come to me ♪
He'll never run his
fingers through your hair ♪
The way I do ♪
That's quite good, hmm.
You'll fumble each other ♪
Louis?
Impotent lovers ♪
I don't I don't know.
Maybe you're right.
There he is again.
Come to me ♪
I'm sorry.
And we were having such
a nice conversation.
I was with Bruce for 30 years.
"Bruce"?
How long are we going
to play games, Louis?
- Lestat
- Before you say it,
let me tell you a
little something
about 18th-century Armand.
- Lestat.
- Oh, dear.
- Finally.
- I'm tired of holding onto it.
Lestat was my
companion in America.
- And where is he now?
- Mm, still a bookbinder's wife?
- He knows.
- You know where he is.
I want you to say it.
I killed him and he
fucking had it coming.
- Well, that's debatable.
- I've known for months.
I've just waited
for you to say it.
And that means what?
You gotta kill me now?
What does that mean for Claudia?
- Did she help you kill him?
- Yes!
- No.
- You broke one of the Great Laws.
I don't know any Great Laws.
Lestat never told me shit.
- I told you I loved you.
- Go away!
- Calm down.
- And you said nothing.
Back to hell with you!
Louis
Even now, I'm still
the only one you trust.
Kill me again.
Go on, kill me again!
Show me the only way
you know how to love.
Aah! Uhh! Aah!
He was a loner.
Had fickle moods,
switched between 'em real fast.
We can take a night off.
Uh, you're probably right.
Probably let it go after
we said he burned himself.
No, we should do this. We should
be real careful, like you said.
Louis?
Three of us were a
little gang for a while.
The open road, roaming America.
Killing at truck stops, motels.
Till one day he set himself on
fire. Shocked the shit outta us.
Did it with a lighter.
Held it up to a rag
hanging out his gas tank.
Thought we'd be on that
road for a long time.
His last words were
"Had enough of
your gloomy faces."
Good.
Lestat could have said,
"Put your coffin on
a boat. Go to Paris.
There's a beautiful coven there,
I know cos I
fucking founded it."
But he said the vampires
out there are vicious.
I should tell you something.
And then I met the motherfucker,
and, yeah, Lestat was right.
It was better when
he broke my bones,
crammed me under
the floorboards.
I fought him, kicked him,
clawed him, bit him.
That was fine.
It was when he had me pinned,
and he'd tell me he loved me.
Before, during,
and after.
Before, during,
after.
That fucked me up.
One day he said, "Had
enough of your gloomy face."
Drove off on a motorbike.
Thought I might as well go
home, get Louis, head to Europe.
They're gonna let me join
the coven end of this week.
It'd be nice if you come.
I wouldn't miss
it for the world.
Excuse the interruption.
The lawyer for the buyer is
ready for the teleconference.
Uh, the lawyer?
It's about the Bacon triptych.
- Would you mind, Daniel?
- I'll take a piss.
A real cold cup of water there,
Rashid. I was really in it.
- Mr. Philips, yes?
- Hello.
This is the owner, Mr. Du Lac.
Mr. Philips.
Three Studies for Figures at
the Base of a Crucifixion,
witnesses to Christ's agony.
Mr. Bacon also referred to
these as the Three Furies,
punishers of human wrongdoing.
And the matter of provenance?
Is the buyer questioning
the authenticity?
The buyer wants it
for her husband.
She probably Googled what
questions she should ask.
The reverse on the right panel
is inscribed Petersfield,
which is near a
cottage Bacon worked at
during the gestating
years of the painting.
An X-ray of the Fury on
that panel would reveal
the face of a man, likely Eric
Hall, the owner of that cottage.
It's only had three owners.
The research is
basic but on you.
We have to run. Thank you.
I'll run it past my clients.
- Woodcutter!
- Who are you?
I am who you think
I am, woodcutter.
- Go away.
- The clock in your heart.
The gears have stopped meshing.
The vampires are real.
They're going to kill us all.
The vampires, they're real!
- They're going to kill us all!
- What is this?
He's disrupted the performance!
No, no, no, no.
Let him speak, Sam.
Look who's graced us
with his presence.
What an honor.
He's here in
support of the girl.
- Finish the performance.
- Gonna to kill you next.
Why don't you tell
us who you are?
- Did you read Le Monde today?
- I have not.
A mutilated body found in
a park three nights ago.
Crushed skull, puncture
wounds on neck,
chest and shoulder blade.
- Was that you?
- Of course not.
Because everyone was
in coffin by curfew.
Suppose we were to let you go?
And I don't see our girl here
at that particular park, do you?
Speak plainly.
You've had your
time to recruit.
It's not happening.
He will be the ruin of
us. Do what must be done.
Are you making demands?
The coven would like to know
what you intend to do with him,
beyond comping him a fifth
row center aisle ticket?
And do you speak
for the coven?
After the ceremony.
After she's committed
herself to us.
Then I'll do what must be
done. Does that satisfy?
- Did in my maker for far less.
- Does that satisfy?
It does, Maitre.
All respects.
No pain.
No pain.
No pain.
Puce! Puce! Puce!
Puce! Puce! Puce! Puce! Puce!
Your first night
over the footlights.
- How did it feel?
- Like home.
Come, I have something for you.
Sit.
What is it, Maitre?
It's a flea circus.
May it remind you of
your humble beginnings.
Would you have us?
Yes, Maitre.
Come.
The Five Laws.
Let youngest read
in the youngest.
The ceremony is
for members only.
Shall we have a walk?
The Five Laws.
Law one.
Each coven must have its leader
and only he might order
the working of the Dark
Trick upon a mortal.
Will you abide?
I will.
Law two.
The Dark Gifts must never
be given to the crippled,
the maimed or to children
- I'm gonna leave Paris.
- Where would you go?
I was thinking London.
If it's too large, maybe Dublin.
You left a body in the park.
More reason I should leave.
No vampire must
commit to writing
the history of the vampires.
You exposed us. Should I allow
the London coven such exposure?
No vampire shall ever reveal
his or her true nature
to a mortal and let
the mortal live.
You revealed yourself to the
law firm of Roget & Abert.
They do business with vampires.
No vampire may ever
destroy another vampire
except that the coven master
has the power of life and
death over all his flock.
"I will not harm you."
Those were your
first words to me.
"My maker was a
vampire named Bruce.
Who's Lestat de Lioncourt?"
Your first words to the coven.
And it is his obligation to
finally seek the destruction
of all those who have
broken these five laws.
Where are we going?
We're going to get lost
and end up back by the river.
Like all our walks.
Will you abide by this
fifth and final law?
I will.
A flea no more.
Take my head off if
you're gonna do it.
I saw what fire does.
I don't want to go out that way.
Any other requests?
Look after Claudia.
She doesn't need
looking after.
She won't be here very long.
What?!
You made her at 14.
A most turbulent chemistry.
Her mind, as fierce as it
is now, will not endure.
It will break apart in time.
You don't know her.
I don't have to.
I've seen it all before.
I've seen too much, Louis.
Surprise!
You didn't think
we were going to
leave you in the
wet room, did you?
You're a star, Claudia.
A new play for you
and the ladies.
'My Baby Loves Windows.'
I play your governess.
And I play your mother.
And I play the little girl?
You'll be their little
birdie for the next 50 years.
What did he call it?
'The Savage Garden.'
Why is it, Louis,
those with the most power
are often the weakest?
Don't give up on her.
Tell her she's beautiful.
Tell her that every morning.
You walked me home.
Did I?
That's my building over there.
Did he break you, Louis?
Are you broken?
No.
But I carry him.
And I don't know if I
if I can
The pain, the
You will.
I did.
You and him?
A century or so ago.
Yesterday.
What is time to a vampire?
You wanna come upstairs?
Are you inviting me in?
Depends. Are you gonna kill me?
I'm a fierce vampire trapped
in the body of a little girl.
I'm reminded of it every
night of my existence.
There's something broken in me.
Who am I? Am I my
history I have endured?
What is vampire life
but poor decisions?
What about you and
me? Me and you?
I want you. You
sure about that?
Unconscious death is
the fate of all mortals.
Up.
Up. Mark: "No Pain" is
the name of episode three,
and it is ironic because the
whole episode is about pain.
No pain.
No pain.
We jump back in
time with Armand.
What we get is
Armand's back story,
which pulls a little bit
from the vampire, Lestat,
which is the next book.
So that's obviously exciting
for our literary fans.
Our ways were finished.
We were embers on a waning pile.
It also gives us
an opportunity
to learn a little bit
more about the coven.
Gets us some Lestat in there.
And one of the best things
is that for a long time,
we get the Louis
version of Lestat,
and now we get the
Armand version of Lestat.
And how are they different?
And you watch Sam do that stuff,
and it's just exquisite.
Ah! Madame.
By this point,
we've learned that
who tells the story
is often more important than
how the story is being told.
How much of it is true?
How much of it is used to
paint Armand in a good light?
Lestat!
Tonight, we have a
little altercation
between two vampires
and a mortal.
Action!
So I'm gonna be hurling Lestat
up against that wall
just over there.
Levan, who's directing
this episode,
is detail oriented,
and he's a massive fan
of the books, as well,
so he understands where this
particular part of the story
fits narratively
in the next book.
What I felt was
important in this scene,
we have a time freeze
element that happens.
We're using people who are
good at standing frozen,
and we're using fishnets
to have dresses
It's very analogue,
which I like.
It's pretty impressive I think.
They've managed to
freeze some horses
in the background, so the horses
are being very well-behaved.
I get dragged on a rig,
which was really fun to do,
and it's difficult
to see all those
beautiful velvet wolf
killer coats get ripped up.
It's lots of stunts.
It's lots of French.
We've done a system,
we call it a slack line
and a nitrogen ratchet
to motivate our stunt
performer toward the wall.
We always take what's on paper
and try to make it
bigger and better.
As the scene progresses,
the anger and the
emotion increases
so the stunt becomes
bigger and bigger.
We go from a slide and a flick
to flying against the wall.
You're not the first
to attempt this.
I could give you the names
of four others who have.
And they're all dead, or undead.
The Talamasca is very important
to the Anne Rice canon.
The files have been placed
with proper encryption on your
comically vulnerable laptop.
It's almost like "Men in Black".
This is an organization that
oversees all of the demons,
witches, vampires,
all of this
unexplained phenomena.
Anne Rice's imagination
seems to be limitless,
and she's able to create a world
and then add another
world onto it.
So the Talamasca world
is it's just wonderful.
It's a wonderful foil to
the whole vampire world.
Louis, who we met
before he was a vampire,
he's almost like
an undercover agent
in a world in which
he can't be found out.
There is much talk of
your camera in the coffin.
They say you're mad
in love with humanity,
saving their private moments
with light and shadow.
So Louis is very tentative
and reluctant to join anybody.
Perhaps the two of you
I'm not joining the coven.
I think the coven, it's
a rejection of them
and what a vampire should
be and shouldn't be,
while Louis is always
teetering on ideas of morality
and who he is and what's
right and what's wrong.
He can't commit in the way
that they've committed
to their set of rules,
and that just
makes him a target.
I'm out here finding myself.
Then what is there left for me?
Oh, there's room.
Stick with it, Puss.
You're almost there.
Puss. Flea.
It's a horrible nickname,
but Claudia doesn't
take any of it in
because she realizes
what they're doing
in calling her
that, and it's flea,
meaning little, like,
bottom of the barrel.
They're gonna let me join
the coven end of this week.
It'd be nice if you come.
As an audience, everybody
roots for Claudia
because she demands
to be taken seriously.
Claudia is very intelligent,
so I wouldn't say she
completely changed herself.
I'd say she molded
herself to appease them.
But I think she's always
combating with being
a second choice for people.
So when she meets the coven
and all these vampires
are accepting her
into the coven,
she is fulfilled,
and she's found what
she's been looking for
a group of people
that put her first.
To finally be in the coven,
have an opportunity
to go on stage,
but to have to play a baby
just reinforces
all of the issues
that she has about
being taken seriously,
being respected.
You'll be their little
birdy for the next 50 years.
Being able to make
proactive decisions
about her own life,
it's a void that's
created for her
that she can never have that.
Shall we have a walk?
For all intents and purposes,
Armand is going to kill Louis.
I don't think it was
preempted that he might not,
because he feels
he has no choice.
His 200 years with the coven
is a lot more important
than this new person
who's coming to his life,
even though this person is
magnetic and making him feel
all these amazing new emotions.
I will not harm you.
Jacob: Louis's in shock
Those were your
first words to me.
In that moment.
And so, they share
a bit of their past
and a bit of their trauma.
What is it, Louis?
I think the cogs are turning.
Those who are the
most powerful
Their power dynamic.
They're often the weakest.
You want to come upstairs?
He doesn't have a way out
in the end, he chooses.
Are you inviting me in?
The choice in the end is
Depends. To pursue love
Are you gonna kill me?
To pursue this feeling.