Interview with the Vampire (2022) s03e02 Episode Script
Toledo
1
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"The Vampire Lestat: After Dark"
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Previously on "The Vampire Lestat"
If you are hearing this now,
you must be
a very privileged individual.
Louis, do you know someone
called Daniel Molloy?
Uh
Never happened!
Absurd.
We're doing a rewrite.
As absurd as a documentary
about a rock band
posing as vampires
fronted by an actual vampire.
Is it true you were
a stutterer as a child?
The name is Raglan James.
Mr. Molloy would like
to stay alive, Rashid.
Got me wondering
what it'd be like,
ride with others,
hunt in a pack.
Hmm. The Tooth Team.
The Fang Gang.
I assume a privileged
individual such as yourself
enjoys a little dirt
in their sandwich.
So I serve it to you now
Are you for real?
How it felt then.
Fledgling.
Lover.
Mother.
You are listening
to "The Failures,".
Album 8, Side A.
If you're still listening
after the
Oedipiphany of the last hour,
welcome back.
I've been fondling my thoughts
since the last album,
and I believe there might be
value added in illuminating
the why and how I became me
in the light
of said Oedipiphany.
You've weathered
the Freudian storms.
And yes, that boat is a penis.
And yes, that ocean
is my mother's vagina.
Kiss, grope, aftercare.
Onward.
Picture Auvergne, France, 1772.
Picture the dingy seat
of the Lioncourt family
at the fag end
of a thousand years
of aristocratic decline.
Picture my five dead siblings,
Aristide, Marie, Jules,
unbaptized, and Faustin,
garden gnomes guarding
the undulating domestic bliss
of our great hall.
The boy possesses
an ability to envision
the unseen, the holy.
He would be well-suited
to the monastic house
at Haute-Loire.
And what will you get
for this favor, hmm?
A silk-lined cassock?
Nothing, Monseigneur.
I see goodness in your son.
Are you a good boy, Lestat?
Answer your brother, Lestat.
I-I
D-d-don't
D-d-don't.
Kn-kn-kn
Kn-kn-know.
No, he doesn't know.
My son, the hiccup,
the next Pope?
We can mend his affliction.
Pope, as befits
his rank and station.
Titles won on the blood-soaked
fields of France.
Siege of Compiègne.
Battle of Coutras.
In time, he would learn
to find consolation
in philosophy.
What is the course of studies
at Haute-Loire?
Aristotle, Erasmus
I asked the question.
Aristotle, Erasmus, Aquinas.
Cicero, Alberti, Bruno.
The innkeeper tells me
he brought these "actors"
back to the inn,
buys them a sum of wine
beyond obligation.
Half the village there,
waiting for me to pay.
Tenants asking me this.
Tenants!
Escape was not an option
for Gabriella Vece.
The Marquis had promised
her preservation
and delivered her ruin.
On stage with whores
and whore masters.
He wants a taste of the theatre,
you tell him to bed one of them.
You don't open the wagon
and join up!
I was impressed into s-service.
She sacrificed her youth,
squandered her intellect,
and paid a midwife
to nick her in the womb
so he couldn't
humiliate her anymore.
Held his hat
in the square like a beggar.
Like an actor.
Better a gong farmer
than an actor.
Better an actor than a cabbage.
Look up from your book
when you speak to our father.
-Cabbage.
-Cabbage.
Cabbage.
It was our little joke,
the cabbages
the cabbage heads
with cabbage brains
and cabbage wives
all speaking cabbage.
At least there would have
been some honor in it!
The Lioncourt name,
covered in his shit again.
Love nothing, do nothing,
change nothing.
Sit and suffer.
Am I suffering?
Is Gregoire?
A question for the philosophers.
Can a cabbage suffer?
One hour on stage,
an hour of not this place,
its dampness and dimness
and your pockmarked wife
and Gregoire jamming his cock
into servant girls
like he's saucing pork!
Cabbage.
-And Lestat speaks
-Cabbage.
A verse with players in a wagon.
Cabbage.
Say "cabbage"
one more goddamn time.
C-c-cabbage.
Break his legs!
You will hunt the land as we do.
You will marry your worth
and have children
who will shame you
the way you have shamed me.
She had a cold beauty,
like snow behind a thick,
distorting wall of glass.
And I grew hard by example.
But now the wolves,
they are taking our sheep,
so bold now
they have lost their fear.
Another one stolen today.
A puddle of guts
where sheep used to be.
They will snatch our babes soon.
There have been wolves
in the hills since I was a boy.
Magnificent animals.
The wolves are causing
trouble, father.
It's a famine now, seigneur,
from here to Versailles.
What do they want us
to do about it, huh?
Nothing.
Sit there on your titles
while you fumble
to find your pricks
from under the awning
of your stomachs.
Piss off!
Keep coughing, huh?
Seeding the nothings you wed,
bearing more nothings
who will inherit nothing!
Not funny, brother.
Put the gun down, Lestat.
-She's with child.
-Hey!
Put the gun down, Lestat.
The wolves will move on.
We ask your protection
as our seigneur.
We would like you to share
some of your bounty
on your table.
Hey, go home!
There's nothing more
we can do here.
But be men!
She meant to kill me
with the challenge.
Better a quick end
than watch me surrender
another decade,
watch me join the cabbages.
And what was this life?
The good in me lost
at the monastery.
Wait.
My sense of wonder abandoned
in a traveling player's wagon.
Go.
I wanted the wolves to come.
Until I didn't.
He refuses food.
He refuses care.
You killed five wolves
by yourself?
Eight,
not five.
Tore apart my horse.
My dog.
Eight.
Do the wolves look worse?
There's a mob came yesterday,
again tonight.
They wish to worship you.
Your father
and your brothers bent
with shame.
Come down.
You'll enjoy it.
From room to room,
slaughtering the three of them.
That's what I dreamt
when I killed the wolves,
Mother.
You know what I dream?
I'm drinking wine.
So drunk, I strip off my clothes
and bathe
in the mountain stream naked.
I go into the village
Into the inn,
and I take into bed
any man that comes.
Crude men, big men,
old men, boys,
taking them one after another,
and feeling
some magnificent release in it,
no thought of your father
or your brothers.
In that moment,
I belong
to no one.
Except for me.
I'm dying.
I won't survive the winter.
Mother.
Finish it.
He has a mob to bless.
Mother?
Mother!
Mother!
Mother?
Would it help
you mouth breathers
if I said it slowly?
Unilateral nondisclosure agreement.
I don't think an NDA gives you
legal clearance for murder.
What murders?
There were eight bodies
in that hallway.
You think you'd be
on this bus right now
if we left eight bodies
in a hallway?
I saw them too.
Oh, and the drug mule
contributes
-a complete sentence.
-Social media coordinator.
Check your contract.
It says "cocaine whore bucket."
I know what I saw, lawyer.
I saw a guy kill another guy
-Vampire. Vampire.
-Right in front of me.
What the killjoy
second guitarist
may or may not have witnessed
was one vampire
acting in self-defense.
But he signed a unilateral,
which is a one-way street
that I control.
Suitcase bomb.
-Where are we?
-Buckeye State.
Do you have the fire gift?
-Oh, my God.
-Yo, what?
This again?
What the fuck?
How did I get here?
-Sofia.
-Sofia?
Forgotten my name already?
Oh, hello, Sofia.
I'm sorry, are we just, like,
not gonna talk about last night?
Are we are we not gonna talk
about, like,
the year and a half
of weird bullshit
that you've been
putting us through
On top of the fact
that you can fly?
And you didn't feel
like that was
-at all important to tell us?
-You set things on fire
-with your mind!
-Been up all day,
and we've got, like, a shit ton
list of questions, man.
Like, what else can you do?
Yeah, like, where do you
put the bodies?
Don't answer that.
And when was the last time
you talked to Armand?
I could have hung it up
there, too, I guess.
But we sounded
really good in Detroit.
And there were another
thousand beautifully unwell
to serve in Ohio.
And she had come
a great distance
to comfort me.
And, um, you are being
very patient
regarding the "vampire incest" factor.
And I do appreciate it.
Do you guys play baseball,
like in "Twilight"?
-One at a time.
-Yeah!
What do you do with the bodies?
-Don't answer that!
-One at a time, please!
One at a time.
I'm a little killer ♪
I'm a lonely one ♪
I'm that chill
creeping up your spine ♪
Telling you to run ♪
I'm the hanging shadow
I'm the lost love ♪
I'm the past
and the future ♪
The last of the sutures,
the cooing dove ♪
We're the rock and rollers ♪
We're the good time ♪
We're the heart
pumping blood ♪
We're the face in the mud ♪
We're this stupid rhyme
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
Bang, bang
All fall down ♪
Burn the ground ♪
All fall down
Burn the ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
Bang, bang, bang, bang,
bang, bang ♪
Fabulous. Moving on.
Do you kill people?
I sleep, I think, I sing,
I contribute to local economies.
-Do you kill people?
-I drain people.
What is the difference?
Don't have to kill when I drain.
I do it on stage every night.
The small cup.
How many people
do you kill a night?
How many people?
This is what I have Fareed for.
Yeah, that's also why
you have a body double.
You tell them.
He gets most of his blood
from the farm.
-Most?
-The farm?
It's like a blood bank.
People donate, and they're
handsomely compensated.
It's all highly ethical.
They tap college burnouts
and addict-run bingo games.
Cash-only, no questions.
Well so you're
a vampire too?
Three of us, nine of you.
Out and proud.
-Three? Three? Three?
-Three.
Hi, name's Daniel.
I'm a Taurus
on the cusp of Aries.
I prefer AB negative.
Who's your maker?
Have you tried RHnull?
Only 45 people on the planet
possess it.
Only nine active donors.
Tell me all about it, babe.
Hey, hey, look hey,
this isn't a goddamn joke.
Band-only meeting!
Your client failed to back up
security promises
of protecting those
like my client
I understand the panic.
You saw something that
you didn't want to acknowledge.
But willful ignorance is
sleep in a giant's hand.
-Willful ignorance?
-Oh, come on.
Have you ever seen me
in the light of day?
Armand is a day-walker.
Did you help me
hose off my Mustang
at a self-service car wash
in Spokane?
You said that was a deer.
As D-E-A-R
as any KFC night manager
has a right to be.
-Oh, God.
-OK, so you do kill people.
Vampires have been among you
your entire lives.
We've been a part
of the ecological landscape
for thousands of years.
How do we know
you're not gonna kill us?
You've been in my band
for over a year and a half,
and nothing has happened to you.
It's not your band.
It's our fucking band.
Jesus Christ,
you're such an asshole.
In fact, you've all been
protected numerous times
without being made aware of it.
-What?
-What we're doing,
the confessional nature
of the songs,
performing for mortals,
the insights
into vampiric desires,
it's all
It's all sacrilegious
to vampires.
-What?
-It's not a worry.
I have the blood of Akasha
in me.
Sorry, what the fuck is Akasha?
What is important, and what
we should be celebrating,
is what we did
onstage last night.
Are all of your songs
about this guy "Lewis"?
We were raw and nasty.
"I was afraid
of losing you."
Transcendent.
Excuse me?
"And I lost you."
You know.
It's Louis, not Lewis.
And the "you"
you are referring to
could be one
of two dozen paramours
I've pompoir'd
over the centuries.
OK, sure who's the villain
sneaking up from behind
with the knife in his hand
and a mouth full of lies?
We were beyond epic last night.
"I pulled the knife
from my cane,
and I held it up
to Lestat's throat."
And that is what
we are all scared about.
-"I want to stay in bed."
-Can we do it again?
-Can we do it nightly?
-"Eating black licorice."
Is that about
sucking Lewis's dick?
"Black Licorice" is about
the first kill I made
-after Louis and I reconciled.
-That's it.
-I lived
-I'm calling the cops.
54,554 days
before I met
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
You kill people.
I'm people.
We're people.
And so was I.
No vampire was born a vampire.
Eff this.
Eff you.
We quit.
Come on.
Larry?
They don't want to speak,
but being a vampire,
I can tell you
what they're thinking.
Would you like to know
what they're thinking?
"1,500 when we started.
20,000 followers now.
"He killed
the sound technician in Denver
that muddied my solos
on purpose."
And he is glad
that I killed him,
except I didn't kill him.
I merely fired him, Larry.
Fate's Entourage,
the Brooms, the Tits,
the Dime Store Darlings,
Bukkake Ice Helmet,
and four others
that are not as good
but just as successful.
"If I don't hit it now,
I'm gonna marry the bum
"and have a baby.
"Thin Lizzy sucks.
We'd sound better
with one guitar."
-I don't think that.
-Yeah, she does.
Salamander, "Another one
of Alex's vegan",
"straight-edge,
bullshit mood swings.
He'll find a meeting
and be back tomorrow."
Dude.
And I make it a rule never
to sleep with my band mates.
TC was talking about Larry,
not you.
You are the best pure musician
we have, other than me.
So take your time, Alex.
Process it, as they say.
But think thrice
before running to the police
or sharing in one
of your anonymous groups,
not if you value your life
or your brother's.
You are listening
to "The Failures,".
Album 12, Side B.
There's a dearth of privacy
on a vampire rock tour.
The bus, shared hotel floors,
roadies transporting coffins,
et cetera.
And as front man,
you're encircled
by those who invariably
want something from you.
Now, my mother,
Gabriella Vece, rest her soul,
was a complicated hang.
But my fledgling,
the Vampiress Gabriella,
was anything but.
And with the band at sound check
and Jarda playing billiards
on the other side of town,
she and a less
pharmaceutically challenged me
found an evening to catch up
and kill time.
And there was simply no one
in the garden more effortless
in killing time than her.
Why were you in Chicago?
I wasn't.
I was glamping in Húsavík.
You're lying.
My maker called for his mama,
and I came
and came and came.
-Yeah, about that.
-I know.
We really shouldn't.
We need to make a pact
if you're gonna stay.
Up to you.
I want you to stay.
A pact, then.
-Hmm.
-Hmm.
Companionship
without the "com."
We need a new lie.
Weave a basket
and fill it with bullshit.
I missed you.
We met in Italy, of course.
Mm.
The Ambrosian Carnival,
of course.
Of course.
And we wore
the same costume, of course.
And raced across
the Piazza del Duomo
to see who would
slap each other first.
And then you unmasked me
and, well, this face
I recognized myself in it.
Yeah.
See, it comes back around again.
Mm.
How long are you gonna stay?
Ah
I saw you two times
last century.
It's not
an unreasonable question.
Long enough.
Long enough for what?
-We-scuse me.
-Long enough to see you sing.
For you to show me Muncie,
Wilmington, food courts.
We-scuse me.
I want to play cornhole.
-We-scuse me.
-The rust on the Rust Belt?
All the spit on the floor,
all the moist cavities.
I want to know
this paese grasso.
How it hypnotizes my son
for a century.
We-scuse me.
Can I take you to dinner, Sofia?
I would love that.
We thank you.
In a glass corner
of a glass building,
a group
of building glass salesmen
were closing a sale of
a substantial amount of glass
sold to a company
in yet-to-be-tariffed Germany.
There was to be
ritualized saturnalia
in both countries that night.
And we invited ourselves
to the one closest to.
A study commissioned
by the Centers
for Disease Control
on rates of depression
in mid-size American cities
ranked Toledo
number two on their list.
Heads are down in Toledo,
which makes it a fine city
to travel via the cloud gift,
which was Gabriella's
preferred mode
of motor transport.
Why take so many cars?
Triumph is a dark road, Sofia.
And each man must find
his own exit.
The worst reveal themselves
through time and negroni.
Nine at the indoor
golfing range,
seven eating seafood towers
at the Chop House,
five crapped out at the casino,
And then there were three,
all tippling by the time
we plummeted back down
the backside of Chubbs,
a bar con tetta
blocks off the Maumee River.
Our hunger propelled us inside.
And we watched as the
remaining items on the menu
marinated themselves
in the pole-ravaged sweat
of sex-positive, sex-cynical,
sex-stipulated dancing.
They had closed their deal,
and we would close ours.
We watched them, watched them.
And only sometime later
would I understand
we were being watched as well
by those who were always there,
a curious tangle
of hunters and hunted
that warm spring night.
And then it happened again.
Are you a good boy, Lestat?
An unamusing muse.
Was this the first soldier
over the wall
the Oracle Jenks
forewarned me about,
or the last fumes of Detroit?
If you're ever homesick,
there's a classy Italian place
on Adams Street.
-Do they have spaghetti?
-Yeah.
Do do you work here?
Oh, go on about the
-Oh, the
-Tell me more.
The waitresses,
they gotta sing
-Lover.
-Where are you?
-I'm with Sofia.
-I don't want to know.
You have to do a sit-down
with Thomas Pitt
and lawyer tomorrow.
That's your job, lover.
I'm doing my job, motherfucker.
No more.
We have a pact now.
What?
Who's Thomas Pitt?
The owner of the hotel
you defiled in Detroit.
His lawyer says he's a fan
and would appreciate
an exclusive fan experience.
-Do I have to fuck him?
-Yes.
Call an Uber, go to coffin.
-Carol! Carol! Carol!
-Fine.
Thank you, Carol.
Do you work here?
Wait, did
did I already ask that?
You really have to understand,
the Vampire Gabriella,
when she wasn't
free-soloing a mountain
or stirring a singing bowl
in some dreary village,
she was good company.
Even as you're being
out-monstered, out-bantered,
it feels good,
like watching blood
down a staircase feels good
or finding a party invitation
in your victim's pocket.
Well, I mean,
that doesn't happen anymore.
Damned e-invites.
But being with Gabriella
is like
like like
Ah, predatory spirit.
A good candidate
for the Great Conversion.
Uh, Randy, last man standing.
Loves glass.
Also knows somewhere inside
that he does not love glass.
I'm starving.
Shall we take them both now?
One each?
I want to share mine with you.
So we wait.
We wait.
Do you have a lot of sex?
I'm a rock star now.
Of course.
Do you like it?
Like you do the blood?
It's never like the blood.
We couldn't help ourselves.
We rode the edges of our pact.
-Hi.
-Hey.
Just leaving the Chop House.
-You OK to drive?
-Yeah, yeah, of course.
-Daddy!
-Hey, kiddo.
-What are you doing up?
-I can't sleep.
-Back to bed.
-Listen to your mom.
I'll give you a kiss
when I get home.
OK.
I love you.
OK, bye.
You are listening
to "The Failures,".
Album 15, Side B.
Estimates
on the structural damage
are still being calculated,
so the figure we've put forth
was based on comps the engaged
architectural firm provided.
Comps?
For a hotel hallway massacre?
Comparable damages
to comparable spaces.
I'd like to add a line
for cascading glass.
The parking structure below
had a fleet
of vehicles lacerated.
These cleanup numbers
are made up.
The cleanup numbers in this case
are mostly going towards
silencing witnesses.
This is not
my first clown rodeo,
Grace Jones in Gucci.
Insult received as compliment.
Anyone who won't take a
couple thousand in an envelope,
you guys do
the mind-wipey thing.
So you can take that line item
and hold it
over your vampire bidet.
We could have done this shit
over the phone.
According to Mr. Pitt here,
your client's the one
who called this meeting.
He did no such thing.
You stole my personal physician.
You hired my biographer.
You trashed my hotel.
I didn't know
it was your tacky hotel.
The Detroit coven
trashed your hotel.
I've heard the songs.
The songs are not about you.
It feels like a cry for help.
So I flew in because I care.
Oh, just as you cared
in your book.
We've been through all this.
The fact that you insulted me
page after page
after page after page
Take it up with Molloy,
who wrote it,
or the Talamasca,
who published it.
And why are you employing
Sam Barclay after Paris?
He's paying down his debts.
Oh. Bottom line, Louis.
-All sins negotiated.
-Sam didn't get on a boat.
Hey, we're here to litigate,
-not relitigate.
-Sam didn't memorize lines.
No, he did not direct a play
and then come home canoodling
with one of its victims, did he?
Who did that, I wonder?
Repeat the name.
-That would be Armand?
-Armand!
Santiago, I could understand.
At least he had a presence.
But Armand?
I'm happy to discuss Armand,
if you think
that would help you, Lestat.
Is it true that you had
a second home
-in Sausalito with him?
-We did.
Did you take turns driving
across the Golden Gate Bridge?
-Who held the wheel harder?
-Yeah.
Writing numbers
on each other's backs
and pretending
to guess 'em wrong.
I bet.
-I bet!
-Come on, Lestat.
Very specific detail
to pluck out of thin air!
Va te faire foutre!
Are we taking minutes of this?
I think we can
wrap this up dispassionately.
Yes, let's try and circle
back to the particulars.
Are you two fucking?
Yes.
Ha!
"Companion enough for yourself"
era over?
He's not my companion.
He's a great lay
and emotionally unavailable.
You doing her?
Yes.
Petite, surprising,
and can perform
what most metropolitan draining
systems could only dream of.
OK.
Are you enjoying
this exclusive fan experience?
I am.
Christine,
could you please provide
two tickets to Mr. Pitt here
and his esquire
for tomorrow night's show?
One will do.
Lemuel doesn't enjoy your music.
I do like
your merchandise, though.
Healthy margins, considering
the size of your tour.
That's why I own 40% of it.
-Of my merch?
-45%.
45? My bad.
I'll look into it.
I was afraid ♪
I was afraid ♪
I was afraid of losing you
Then I lost you ♪
Oh, I cried
and I cried and I cried ♪
Sounding a little thin
without Alex.
Larry likes it.
Everyone else is freaked.
Lestat and his hostage squad.
Get me a shot
of his latest friendo there.
Copy that. Where?
The Cougar Milanese
in the crowd.
Got her.
No, no, no, no, not her.
The one standing in judgment
of the Buckeye goth.
-The one from the bus?
-Yeah.
OK, now go up from her
to the balcony
and get me a frame
of pretty green eyes again.
OK, got him.
Who is this guy?
He is the story.
Oh, I could sleep
for a hundred years ♪
Mr. du Lac,
what brings you to Toledo?
You're looking younger, Daniel.
Monocytes and Mounjaro.
I'm still pissed.
Want to brawl it out
in the alley after the show?
All right.
Mr. Molloy?
What the fuck
are you doing here?
Oh, I, I tried
to write you ♪
The prettiest song
in the world ♪
But I got distracted
Oh, and I didn't ♪
Oh ♪
Oh, why, why, why
do I have to feel? ♪
This pain ♪
It's too much,
it's too real ♪
Call comes in
from some Hollywood asshole
asking me
whether I want to write
the movie version of the book.
I'm like, blow me.
Lose my number.
Calls me back a week later.
What about a documentary?
I'm like,
Louis won't even talk to me.
He says, not Louis,
Lestat, the white guy.
Old friends talking around
the small betrayal
that kept them apart.
And I know what you're thinking.
"He wasn't there."
But this is my hour.
And when tertiary figures
appear in it,
I will be speaking for them.
Daniel, Mr. du Lac,
anyone I feel
is important
towards understanding
how I woke the Queen
and unleashed
her wrath upon the world.
I am everywhere.
And rest assured,
it comes with less whining
than their attempt.
Did it happen
in a bar with a view?
I say it did.
How are you taking to the gift?
You enduring?
I'm all right.
Vampire loneliness,
I get it now.
I've taken up bowling.
And I have this weird thing
that happens where, suddenly,
everyone around me disappears,
like the rapture has come,
and I
you know
I feel him.
Armand?
Yeah.
That happen with you and Lestat?
No.
Oh.
Sounds weird.
Look, I-I'm sorry. OK?
I-I should have asked you
before I published.
I'm-I'm-I'm sorry.
I would have said no.
I can't fly.
I can't start fires.
All I get is
the low-hanging balls gift.
I wanted something out of it.
I'm glad the book
worked out for you.
Didn't do too much damage
to you.
Or whoever you are, Thomas Pitt.
Hotels, bars, mall, retail.
I saw money on the table.
You read it?
You liked it?
I didn't like me in it.
Passive, selfish, a liar.
And not
the "lying to myself" kind,
a fucking liar.
The writing's good.
Hard read.
He didn't like the part
about Claudia and him
on the train.
Yeah, we were
finding our way back again
when the book dropped.
It hurt him.
I called one of my daughters
the first month dead.
Called her again
during the book tour.
Hung up, hung up.
Probably the right move.
I saw Claudia.
In New York,
coming up the subway.
Claudia?
Someone someone who looked
like her,
but in her 20s,
if she'd made it to her 20s.
Saw her come up.
I watched her turn the corner.
Happened to be going
in the same direction,
kinda, sorta.
I-I saw her walk into a diner.
And I couldn't help myself.
I go inside.
I grab a booth.
It's not her.
She's not there.
Chased a ghost, I guess.
So I order a donut and coffee,
you know, just to pass.
Then she comes out the back
in a uniform.
It's not her.
This one's got
a different walk and accent.
I'm not in her section.
I walked out.
Don't eat me for this, Louis.
Uh, my producers
want to meet you.
Rashid?
Rashid, Daniel Molloy,
Raglan James,
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
We all worked together in Dubai.
Burj Al Arab,
now HavenMed
Senior Care Headquarters.
Said I'd introduce you.
They got me on retainer.
Mm-mm.
Not cool, Daniel.
We argued about this cover.
What does he know about me?
What did you tell him?
That you died in 1794
of consumption.
A mercy saved you
from the peasants' revenge
on our family.
I only ever saw
the aftermaths
your slit throat slow to heal,
your rotting roof
and bathrobe stuck to skin.
An aloof poetry behind the eyes.
Uncanny beauty.
An elusiveness.
Come, go, yes, no.
I see why you gave him
a daughter.
I see why you took her back.
And we were having
such a good night, Sofia.
And now we're not?
Forget I said it.
Your father's tongue.
My tongue.
And Italy never made
a Baudelaire.
We should head home
to the tower.
The night is young.
We travel so fast.
We could be there in an hour.
My mother.
I'll race you back to the house!
Mama! Papa!
There were eight people
on the ark
Noah, his wife,
his three sons,
and their three wives.
Eight people.
And now, somehow, 8 billion.
At some point
in your privileged family tree
is the thing
we are discussing now.
And familial relations
were not a standalone crime
in the 18th century.
And she was dying
when she came to see me.
Fuck it.
It's different for vampires.
That's it.
Distribution of fentanyl
for half of Michigan,
operation of an unsanctioned
and unsanitary farm
from their home,
and, in a surprising labor
of ambition,
managed to take down the MISO
power grid the other night.
Not the pneumatic tube
the upper floor wants
to receive.
So Real Rashid is really Rashid?
That's his actual name?
Ah.
I em-pha-size
the first syllable.
Rah-shid. Rah-shid.
Do you have a preference?
No.
I have a plane waiting for me.
This coven in Detroit,
they were the ones
responsible for the damage
to your property.
I'm insured,
and, uh, I knew that already.
They tried
to decapitate your love.
What's the ask, Mr. James?
We would like you
to take care of our problem
in Detroit, Mr. du Lac.
No.
One, we're understaffed
and overworked,
the exponential growth
in your numbers
not helping matters.
Two, the shop's
protocols of engagement
limit our roles in these
kinds of operations.
We clean up,
we don't make the mess.
And three, you're extremely
skilled at dispatchment,
Mr. du Lac.
Paris, Dubai.
How many in Dubai, Rashid?
-31?
32 if you count Agent Talbot.
No great loss.
None of us liked him much.
I only kill those
who come for me first.
The coven leader's name
is Killer.
Tell Vampire Sam
I'm gonna need him
in Vegas and Reno next month.
Been tracking him since 1925,
a coffin offloaded
from a boat out of Copenhagen.
I don't care.
Went by a different name then.
His name was Bruce.
Bruce.
Mm.
I believe your Claudia spent
a few nights with him once.
Hmm?
Listen to tracks
from "The Vampire Lestat"
wherever you stream music.
Evening, Dan.
Happy to be here.
Give me a million
more screams ♪
Nicolas de Lenfent.
Lestat.
What are you doing in Paris?
Give me a million
more screams, ha ♪
Your mother?
I want you to love me
enough to give it to me!
Anybody but us ♪
-How did I get here?
-Sofia.
Sofia?
Forgotten my name already?
Hello, Sofia.
Within this context
of the failures,
the first big failure was
the failure of his family unit.
Are you a good boy, Lestat?
Answer your brother, Lestat.
As a kid, his mother
was the only person
in this very hostile environment
who sort of showed him
any sort of affection.
When they first knew
each other as humans
and Gabriella
was Lestat's mother
300 years ago,
they lived in a situation
where neither of them
had any agency or power.
She had a horrible relationship
with her husband
and was deeply unhappy
and lonely.
There's a lot that you learn
about who Lestat is
when Gabriella, his mother,
shows up.
Now the wolves,
they are taking our sheep.
They will snatch a babe soon.
Go home!
There's nothing more
we can do here.
But be men!
She knows that if anybody's
gonna get up at that table
and try to solve this problem
with the wolves,
it's going to be Lestat.
The killing of the wolves
is connected intrinsically
to Gabriella.
Gabriella is saying,
go out and be something.
This is Lestat's moment to be
like, "I'm gonna do something.
I'm gonna make something
of my life,
and I'm going to go out
and kill them,
even if I die."
When Lestat kills the wolves,
he's 30 years old,
and in Gabriella's mind,
he's been at home longer
than he should have.
From room to room,
slaughtering the three of them.
That's what I dreamt when
I killed the wolves, Mother.
That is a shared desire
between the two of them,
and then that's given him
enough impetus
to get out
and go and do something.
He goes to Paris.
Turns into a vampire.
His mom's dying.
Turns his mom into a vampire.
Once Gabriella is
turned into a vampire,
they both want to go back
and kill them,
and now they can.
She can now live the life
she's always wanted to live.
And vampirism liberates her.
I was absolutely drawn
to Gabriella's
absolute love
of being a vampire.
For her, it is almost like
a finding of herself, I think,
or certainly the only time
in her life
that she has had
autonomy and power.
Do you have a lot of sex?
Of course.
Do you like it
like you do the blood?
-It's never like the blood.
-They love each other.
I mean, they're mother and son,
and they're lovers.
I mean, and they're fledgling
and maker,
and, I mean, they have a super
complicated relationship,
but they're the only people
still alive
that both knew each other
when they were human.
I think that's really important.
It's like, you know me,
who I really am,
you know where I came from,
you know
what my fundamental drive is.
And you remember me
as a human being
before I was this other thing.
So, they're deeply connected,
and it's toxic, but, you know,
everything's toxic
in vampire world.
You stole my personal physician.
You trashed my hotel.
The Detroit coven
trashed your hotel.
-I heard the song.
-The songs are not about you.
It feels like a cry for help,
so I flew in because I care.
I think Louis is being
a complete troll in that scene.
He gets off on making Lestat
angry, I think, to some extent.
Did you take turns driving
across the Golden Gate Bridge?
Who held the wheel?
Writing numbers
on each other's backs
and pretending
to guess them wrong?
I bet.
I bet!
It's a really fun scene.
It's a real attack,
and he knows
he's gonna rile him up.
It was quite strange
to go from being this,
like, very strong,
centered vampire
to being just sort of petty.
Christine, could you please
provide two tickets
to Mr. Pitt here
and his esquire
for tomorrow night's show?
Just one will do.
Lemuel doesn't enjoy your music.
As petty as he's been,
I think Louis is looking forward
to seeing Lestat's show.
I was afraid,
I was afraid ♪
I was afra-a-a-id ♪
I'm losing you ♪
He's also impressed.
This is what he should
have always been doing.
A lot of his songs, you don't
really know who they're about.
Could be about Louis.
Could be about Nicki.
Could be Gabriella.
It's very on brand for Louis
to think every song
is about him.
And then on another level,
I think there's probably, like,
a gossipy side of Louis
that's like, "Who is this about?
When did this happen?
Who was that?
Who is he? Who is she?"
Could be about
just the fact that
why does he have to
feel in general?
Because he is a very
emotive character,
and he kind of gets totally
riled up in his own emotions,
and he'll ride them.
So, I think that can be
a frustrating thing.
I mean, he's obviously doing
a very intensely
power-thrusting version
of the song
and intentionally ignoring Louis
until he can't anymore.
Oh, I, I tried to write you ♪
The prettiest song
in the world ♪
But I got distracted ♪
When he gets the book
and he sees
that it's all scribbled
and scrawled,
and I think it's when the guilt
really starts to creep in.
This is the first time
they've had a little
private moment about it.
Louis has that kind of effect
on Lestat,
that he, you know, will get
so angry that he'll freeze time
and fly up to him
and sing in his face.
Yeah.
Oh, why ♪
Why, why do I have to feel ♪
This pa-a-a-a-in? ♪
It's too much, it's too real ♪
Watch
"The Vampire Lestat: After Dark"
on AMC+ or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Previously on "The Vampire Lestat"
If you are hearing this now,
you must be
a very privileged individual.
Louis, do you know someone
called Daniel Molloy?
Uh
Never happened!
Absurd.
We're doing a rewrite.
As absurd as a documentary
about a rock band
posing as vampires
fronted by an actual vampire.
Is it true you were
a stutterer as a child?
The name is Raglan James.
Mr. Molloy would like
to stay alive, Rashid.
Got me wondering
what it'd be like,
ride with others,
hunt in a pack.
Hmm. The Tooth Team.
The Fang Gang.
I assume a privileged
individual such as yourself
enjoys a little dirt
in their sandwich.
So I serve it to you now
Are you for real?
How it felt then.
Fledgling.
Lover.
Mother.
You are listening
to "The Failures,".
Album 8, Side A.
If you're still listening
after the
Oedipiphany of the last hour,
welcome back.
I've been fondling my thoughts
since the last album,
and I believe there might be
value added in illuminating
the why and how I became me
in the light
of said Oedipiphany.
You've weathered
the Freudian storms.
And yes, that boat is a penis.
And yes, that ocean
is my mother's vagina.
Kiss, grope, aftercare.
Onward.
Picture Auvergne, France, 1772.
Picture the dingy seat
of the Lioncourt family
at the fag end
of a thousand years
of aristocratic decline.
Picture my five dead siblings,
Aristide, Marie, Jules,
unbaptized, and Faustin,
garden gnomes guarding
the undulating domestic bliss
of our great hall.
The boy possesses
an ability to envision
the unseen, the holy.
He would be well-suited
to the monastic house
at Haute-Loire.
And what will you get
for this favor, hmm?
A silk-lined cassock?
Nothing, Monseigneur.
I see goodness in your son.
Are you a good boy, Lestat?
Answer your brother, Lestat.
I-I
D-d-don't
D-d-don't.
Kn-kn-kn
Kn-kn-know.
No, he doesn't know.
My son, the hiccup,
the next Pope?
We can mend his affliction.
Pope, as befits
his rank and station.
Titles won on the blood-soaked
fields of France.
Siege of Compiègne.
Battle of Coutras.
In time, he would learn
to find consolation
in philosophy.
What is the course of studies
at Haute-Loire?
Aristotle, Erasmus
I asked the question.
Aristotle, Erasmus, Aquinas.
Cicero, Alberti, Bruno.
The innkeeper tells me
he brought these "actors"
back to the inn,
buys them a sum of wine
beyond obligation.
Half the village there,
waiting for me to pay.
Tenants asking me this.
Tenants!
Escape was not an option
for Gabriella Vece.
The Marquis had promised
her preservation
and delivered her ruin.
On stage with whores
and whore masters.
He wants a taste of the theatre,
you tell him to bed one of them.
You don't open the wagon
and join up!
I was impressed into s-service.
She sacrificed her youth,
squandered her intellect,
and paid a midwife
to nick her in the womb
so he couldn't
humiliate her anymore.
Held his hat
in the square like a beggar.
Like an actor.
Better a gong farmer
than an actor.
Better an actor than a cabbage.
Look up from your book
when you speak to our father.
-Cabbage.
-Cabbage.
Cabbage.
It was our little joke,
the cabbages
the cabbage heads
with cabbage brains
and cabbage wives
all speaking cabbage.
At least there would have
been some honor in it!
The Lioncourt name,
covered in his shit again.
Love nothing, do nothing,
change nothing.
Sit and suffer.
Am I suffering?
Is Gregoire?
A question for the philosophers.
Can a cabbage suffer?
One hour on stage,
an hour of not this place,
its dampness and dimness
and your pockmarked wife
and Gregoire jamming his cock
into servant girls
like he's saucing pork!
Cabbage.
-And Lestat speaks
-Cabbage.
A verse with players in a wagon.
Cabbage.
Say "cabbage"
one more goddamn time.
C-c-cabbage.
Break his legs!
You will hunt the land as we do.
You will marry your worth
and have children
who will shame you
the way you have shamed me.
She had a cold beauty,
like snow behind a thick,
distorting wall of glass.
And I grew hard by example.
But now the wolves,
they are taking our sheep,
so bold now
they have lost their fear.
Another one stolen today.
A puddle of guts
where sheep used to be.
They will snatch our babes soon.
There have been wolves
in the hills since I was a boy.
Magnificent animals.
The wolves are causing
trouble, father.
It's a famine now, seigneur,
from here to Versailles.
What do they want us
to do about it, huh?
Nothing.
Sit there on your titles
while you fumble
to find your pricks
from under the awning
of your stomachs.
Piss off!
Keep coughing, huh?
Seeding the nothings you wed,
bearing more nothings
who will inherit nothing!
Not funny, brother.
Put the gun down, Lestat.
-She's with child.
-Hey!
Put the gun down, Lestat.
The wolves will move on.
We ask your protection
as our seigneur.
We would like you to share
some of your bounty
on your table.
Hey, go home!
There's nothing more
we can do here.
But be men!
She meant to kill me
with the challenge.
Better a quick end
than watch me surrender
another decade,
watch me join the cabbages.
And what was this life?
The good in me lost
at the monastery.
Wait.
My sense of wonder abandoned
in a traveling player's wagon.
Go.
I wanted the wolves to come.
Until I didn't.
He refuses food.
He refuses care.
You killed five wolves
by yourself?
Eight,
not five.
Tore apart my horse.
My dog.
Eight.
Do the wolves look worse?
There's a mob came yesterday,
again tonight.
They wish to worship you.
Your father
and your brothers bent
with shame.
Come down.
You'll enjoy it.
From room to room,
slaughtering the three of them.
That's what I dreamt
when I killed the wolves,
Mother.
You know what I dream?
I'm drinking wine.
So drunk, I strip off my clothes
and bathe
in the mountain stream naked.
I go into the village
Into the inn,
and I take into bed
any man that comes.
Crude men, big men,
old men, boys,
taking them one after another,
and feeling
some magnificent release in it,
no thought of your father
or your brothers.
In that moment,
I belong
to no one.
Except for me.
I'm dying.
I won't survive the winter.
Mother.
Finish it.
He has a mob to bless.
Mother?
Mother!
Mother!
Mother?
Would it help
you mouth breathers
if I said it slowly?
Unilateral nondisclosure agreement.
I don't think an NDA gives you
legal clearance for murder.
What murders?
There were eight bodies
in that hallway.
You think you'd be
on this bus right now
if we left eight bodies
in a hallway?
I saw them too.
Oh, and the drug mule
contributes
-a complete sentence.
-Social media coordinator.
Check your contract.
It says "cocaine whore bucket."
I know what I saw, lawyer.
I saw a guy kill another guy
-Vampire. Vampire.
-Right in front of me.
What the killjoy
second guitarist
may or may not have witnessed
was one vampire
acting in self-defense.
But he signed a unilateral,
which is a one-way street
that I control.
Suitcase bomb.
-Where are we?
-Buckeye State.
Do you have the fire gift?
-Oh, my God.
-Yo, what?
This again?
What the fuck?
How did I get here?
-Sofia.
-Sofia?
Forgotten my name already?
Oh, hello, Sofia.
I'm sorry, are we just, like,
not gonna talk about last night?
Are we are we not gonna talk
about, like,
the year and a half
of weird bullshit
that you've been
putting us through
On top of the fact
that you can fly?
And you didn't feel
like that was
-at all important to tell us?
-You set things on fire
-with your mind!
-Been up all day,
and we've got, like, a shit ton
list of questions, man.
Like, what else can you do?
Yeah, like, where do you
put the bodies?
Don't answer that.
And when was the last time
you talked to Armand?
I could have hung it up
there, too, I guess.
But we sounded
really good in Detroit.
And there were another
thousand beautifully unwell
to serve in Ohio.
And she had come
a great distance
to comfort me.
And, um, you are being
very patient
regarding the "vampire incest" factor.
And I do appreciate it.
Do you guys play baseball,
like in "Twilight"?
-One at a time.
-Yeah!
What do you do with the bodies?
-Don't answer that!
-One at a time, please!
One at a time.
I'm a little killer ♪
I'm a lonely one ♪
I'm that chill
creeping up your spine ♪
Telling you to run ♪
I'm the hanging shadow
I'm the lost love ♪
I'm the past
and the future ♪
The last of the sutures,
the cooing dove ♪
We're the rock and rollers ♪
We're the good time ♪
We're the heart
pumping blood ♪
We're the face in the mud ♪
We're this stupid rhyme
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
Bang, bang
All fall down ♪
Burn the ground ♪
All fall down
Burn the ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
-Bang, bang.
-Bang, bang ♪
Bang, bang, bang, bang,
bang, bang ♪
Fabulous. Moving on.
Do you kill people?
I sleep, I think, I sing,
I contribute to local economies.
-Do you kill people?
-I drain people.
What is the difference?
Don't have to kill when I drain.
I do it on stage every night.
The small cup.
How many people
do you kill a night?
How many people?
This is what I have Fareed for.
Yeah, that's also why
you have a body double.
You tell them.
He gets most of his blood
from the farm.
-Most?
-The farm?
It's like a blood bank.
People donate, and they're
handsomely compensated.
It's all highly ethical.
They tap college burnouts
and addict-run bingo games.
Cash-only, no questions.
Well so you're
a vampire too?
Three of us, nine of you.
Out and proud.
-Three? Three? Three?
-Three.
Hi, name's Daniel.
I'm a Taurus
on the cusp of Aries.
I prefer AB negative.
Who's your maker?
Have you tried RHnull?
Only 45 people on the planet
possess it.
Only nine active donors.
Tell me all about it, babe.
Hey, hey, look hey,
this isn't a goddamn joke.
Band-only meeting!
Your client failed to back up
security promises
of protecting those
like my client
I understand the panic.
You saw something that
you didn't want to acknowledge.
But willful ignorance is
sleep in a giant's hand.
-Willful ignorance?
-Oh, come on.
Have you ever seen me
in the light of day?
Armand is a day-walker.
Did you help me
hose off my Mustang
at a self-service car wash
in Spokane?
You said that was a deer.
As D-E-A-R
as any KFC night manager
has a right to be.
-Oh, God.
-OK, so you do kill people.
Vampires have been among you
your entire lives.
We've been a part
of the ecological landscape
for thousands of years.
How do we know
you're not gonna kill us?
You've been in my band
for over a year and a half,
and nothing has happened to you.
It's not your band.
It's our fucking band.
Jesus Christ,
you're such an asshole.
In fact, you've all been
protected numerous times
without being made aware of it.
-What?
-What we're doing,
the confessional nature
of the songs,
performing for mortals,
the insights
into vampiric desires,
it's all
It's all sacrilegious
to vampires.
-What?
-It's not a worry.
I have the blood of Akasha
in me.
Sorry, what the fuck is Akasha?
What is important, and what
we should be celebrating,
is what we did
onstage last night.
Are all of your songs
about this guy "Lewis"?
We were raw and nasty.
"I was afraid
of losing you."
Transcendent.
Excuse me?
"And I lost you."
You know.
It's Louis, not Lewis.
And the "you"
you are referring to
could be one
of two dozen paramours
I've pompoir'd
over the centuries.
OK, sure who's the villain
sneaking up from behind
with the knife in his hand
and a mouth full of lies?
We were beyond epic last night.
"I pulled the knife
from my cane,
and I held it up
to Lestat's throat."
And that is what
we are all scared about.
-"I want to stay in bed."
-Can we do it again?
-Can we do it nightly?
-"Eating black licorice."
Is that about
sucking Lewis's dick?
"Black Licorice" is about
the first kill I made
-after Louis and I reconciled.
-That's it.
-I lived
-I'm calling the cops.
54,554 days
before I met
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
You kill people.
I'm people.
We're people.
And so was I.
No vampire was born a vampire.
Eff this.
Eff you.
We quit.
Come on.
Larry?
They don't want to speak,
but being a vampire,
I can tell you
what they're thinking.
Would you like to know
what they're thinking?
"1,500 when we started.
20,000 followers now.
"He killed
the sound technician in Denver
that muddied my solos
on purpose."
And he is glad
that I killed him,
except I didn't kill him.
I merely fired him, Larry.
Fate's Entourage,
the Brooms, the Tits,
the Dime Store Darlings,
Bukkake Ice Helmet,
and four others
that are not as good
but just as successful.
"If I don't hit it now,
I'm gonna marry the bum
"and have a baby.
"Thin Lizzy sucks.
We'd sound better
with one guitar."
-I don't think that.
-Yeah, she does.
Salamander, "Another one
of Alex's vegan",
"straight-edge,
bullshit mood swings.
He'll find a meeting
and be back tomorrow."
Dude.
And I make it a rule never
to sleep with my band mates.
TC was talking about Larry,
not you.
You are the best pure musician
we have, other than me.
So take your time, Alex.
Process it, as they say.
But think thrice
before running to the police
or sharing in one
of your anonymous groups,
not if you value your life
or your brother's.
You are listening
to "The Failures,".
Album 12, Side B.
There's a dearth of privacy
on a vampire rock tour.
The bus, shared hotel floors,
roadies transporting coffins,
et cetera.
And as front man,
you're encircled
by those who invariably
want something from you.
Now, my mother,
Gabriella Vece, rest her soul,
was a complicated hang.
But my fledgling,
the Vampiress Gabriella,
was anything but.
And with the band at sound check
and Jarda playing billiards
on the other side of town,
she and a less
pharmaceutically challenged me
found an evening to catch up
and kill time.
And there was simply no one
in the garden more effortless
in killing time than her.
Why were you in Chicago?
I wasn't.
I was glamping in Húsavík.
You're lying.
My maker called for his mama,
and I came
and came and came.
-Yeah, about that.
-I know.
We really shouldn't.
We need to make a pact
if you're gonna stay.
Up to you.
I want you to stay.
A pact, then.
-Hmm.
-Hmm.
Companionship
without the "com."
We need a new lie.
Weave a basket
and fill it with bullshit.
I missed you.
We met in Italy, of course.
Mm.
The Ambrosian Carnival,
of course.
Of course.
And we wore
the same costume, of course.
And raced across
the Piazza del Duomo
to see who would
slap each other first.
And then you unmasked me
and, well, this face
I recognized myself in it.
Yeah.
See, it comes back around again.
Mm.
How long are you gonna stay?
Ah
I saw you two times
last century.
It's not
an unreasonable question.
Long enough.
Long enough for what?
-We-scuse me.
-Long enough to see you sing.
For you to show me Muncie,
Wilmington, food courts.
We-scuse me.
I want to play cornhole.
-We-scuse me.
-The rust on the Rust Belt?
All the spit on the floor,
all the moist cavities.
I want to know
this paese grasso.
How it hypnotizes my son
for a century.
We-scuse me.
Can I take you to dinner, Sofia?
I would love that.
We thank you.
In a glass corner
of a glass building,
a group
of building glass salesmen
were closing a sale of
a substantial amount of glass
sold to a company
in yet-to-be-tariffed Germany.
There was to be
ritualized saturnalia
in both countries that night.
And we invited ourselves
to the one closest to.
A study commissioned
by the Centers
for Disease Control
on rates of depression
in mid-size American cities
ranked Toledo
number two on their list.
Heads are down in Toledo,
which makes it a fine city
to travel via the cloud gift,
which was Gabriella's
preferred mode
of motor transport.
Why take so many cars?
Triumph is a dark road, Sofia.
And each man must find
his own exit.
The worst reveal themselves
through time and negroni.
Nine at the indoor
golfing range,
seven eating seafood towers
at the Chop House,
five crapped out at the casino,
And then there were three,
all tippling by the time
we plummeted back down
the backside of Chubbs,
a bar con tetta
blocks off the Maumee River.
Our hunger propelled us inside.
And we watched as the
remaining items on the menu
marinated themselves
in the pole-ravaged sweat
of sex-positive, sex-cynical,
sex-stipulated dancing.
They had closed their deal,
and we would close ours.
We watched them, watched them.
And only sometime later
would I understand
we were being watched as well
by those who were always there,
a curious tangle
of hunters and hunted
that warm spring night.
And then it happened again.
Are you a good boy, Lestat?
An unamusing muse.
Was this the first soldier
over the wall
the Oracle Jenks
forewarned me about,
or the last fumes of Detroit?
If you're ever homesick,
there's a classy Italian place
on Adams Street.
-Do they have spaghetti?
-Yeah.
Do do you work here?
Oh, go on about the
-Oh, the
-Tell me more.
The waitresses,
they gotta sing
-Lover.
-Where are you?
-I'm with Sofia.
-I don't want to know.
You have to do a sit-down
with Thomas Pitt
and lawyer tomorrow.
That's your job, lover.
I'm doing my job, motherfucker.
No more.
We have a pact now.
What?
Who's Thomas Pitt?
The owner of the hotel
you defiled in Detroit.
His lawyer says he's a fan
and would appreciate
an exclusive fan experience.
-Do I have to fuck him?
-Yes.
Call an Uber, go to coffin.
-Carol! Carol! Carol!
-Fine.
Thank you, Carol.
Do you work here?
Wait, did
did I already ask that?
You really have to understand,
the Vampire Gabriella,
when she wasn't
free-soloing a mountain
or stirring a singing bowl
in some dreary village,
she was good company.
Even as you're being
out-monstered, out-bantered,
it feels good,
like watching blood
down a staircase feels good
or finding a party invitation
in your victim's pocket.
Well, I mean,
that doesn't happen anymore.
Damned e-invites.
But being with Gabriella
is like
like like
Ah, predatory spirit.
A good candidate
for the Great Conversion.
Uh, Randy, last man standing.
Loves glass.
Also knows somewhere inside
that he does not love glass.
I'm starving.
Shall we take them both now?
One each?
I want to share mine with you.
So we wait.
We wait.
Do you have a lot of sex?
I'm a rock star now.
Of course.
Do you like it?
Like you do the blood?
It's never like the blood.
We couldn't help ourselves.
We rode the edges of our pact.
-Hi.
-Hey.
Just leaving the Chop House.
-You OK to drive?
-Yeah, yeah, of course.
-Daddy!
-Hey, kiddo.
-What are you doing up?
-I can't sleep.
-Back to bed.
-Listen to your mom.
I'll give you a kiss
when I get home.
OK.
I love you.
OK, bye.
You are listening
to "The Failures,".
Album 15, Side B.
Estimates
on the structural damage
are still being calculated,
so the figure we've put forth
was based on comps the engaged
architectural firm provided.
Comps?
For a hotel hallway massacre?
Comparable damages
to comparable spaces.
I'd like to add a line
for cascading glass.
The parking structure below
had a fleet
of vehicles lacerated.
These cleanup numbers
are made up.
The cleanup numbers in this case
are mostly going towards
silencing witnesses.
This is not
my first clown rodeo,
Grace Jones in Gucci.
Insult received as compliment.
Anyone who won't take a
couple thousand in an envelope,
you guys do
the mind-wipey thing.
So you can take that line item
and hold it
over your vampire bidet.
We could have done this shit
over the phone.
According to Mr. Pitt here,
your client's the one
who called this meeting.
He did no such thing.
You stole my personal physician.
You hired my biographer.
You trashed my hotel.
I didn't know
it was your tacky hotel.
The Detroit coven
trashed your hotel.
I've heard the songs.
The songs are not about you.
It feels like a cry for help.
So I flew in because I care.
Oh, just as you cared
in your book.
We've been through all this.
The fact that you insulted me
page after page
after page after page
Take it up with Molloy,
who wrote it,
or the Talamasca,
who published it.
And why are you employing
Sam Barclay after Paris?
He's paying down his debts.
Oh. Bottom line, Louis.
-All sins negotiated.
-Sam didn't get on a boat.
Hey, we're here to litigate,
-not relitigate.
-Sam didn't memorize lines.
No, he did not direct a play
and then come home canoodling
with one of its victims, did he?
Who did that, I wonder?
Repeat the name.
-That would be Armand?
-Armand!
Santiago, I could understand.
At least he had a presence.
But Armand?
I'm happy to discuss Armand,
if you think
that would help you, Lestat.
Is it true that you had
a second home
-in Sausalito with him?
-We did.
Did you take turns driving
across the Golden Gate Bridge?
-Who held the wheel harder?
-Yeah.
Writing numbers
on each other's backs
and pretending
to guess 'em wrong.
I bet.
-I bet!
-Come on, Lestat.
Very specific detail
to pluck out of thin air!
Va te faire foutre!
Are we taking minutes of this?
I think we can
wrap this up dispassionately.
Yes, let's try and circle
back to the particulars.
Are you two fucking?
Yes.
Ha!
"Companion enough for yourself"
era over?
He's not my companion.
He's a great lay
and emotionally unavailable.
You doing her?
Yes.
Petite, surprising,
and can perform
what most metropolitan draining
systems could only dream of.
OK.
Are you enjoying
this exclusive fan experience?
I am.
Christine,
could you please provide
two tickets to Mr. Pitt here
and his esquire
for tomorrow night's show?
One will do.
Lemuel doesn't enjoy your music.
I do like
your merchandise, though.
Healthy margins, considering
the size of your tour.
That's why I own 40% of it.
-Of my merch?
-45%.
45? My bad.
I'll look into it.
I was afraid ♪
I was afraid ♪
I was afraid of losing you
Then I lost you ♪
Oh, I cried
and I cried and I cried ♪
Sounding a little thin
without Alex.
Larry likes it.
Everyone else is freaked.
Lestat and his hostage squad.
Get me a shot
of his latest friendo there.
Copy that. Where?
The Cougar Milanese
in the crowd.
Got her.
No, no, no, no, not her.
The one standing in judgment
of the Buckeye goth.
-The one from the bus?
-Yeah.
OK, now go up from her
to the balcony
and get me a frame
of pretty green eyes again.
OK, got him.
Who is this guy?
He is the story.
Oh, I could sleep
for a hundred years ♪
Mr. du Lac,
what brings you to Toledo?
You're looking younger, Daniel.
Monocytes and Mounjaro.
I'm still pissed.
Want to brawl it out
in the alley after the show?
All right.
Mr. Molloy?
What the fuck
are you doing here?
Oh, I, I tried
to write you ♪
The prettiest song
in the world ♪
But I got distracted
Oh, and I didn't ♪
Oh ♪
Oh, why, why, why
do I have to feel? ♪
This pain ♪
It's too much,
it's too real ♪
Call comes in
from some Hollywood asshole
asking me
whether I want to write
the movie version of the book.
I'm like, blow me.
Lose my number.
Calls me back a week later.
What about a documentary?
I'm like,
Louis won't even talk to me.
He says, not Louis,
Lestat, the white guy.
Old friends talking around
the small betrayal
that kept them apart.
And I know what you're thinking.
"He wasn't there."
But this is my hour.
And when tertiary figures
appear in it,
I will be speaking for them.
Daniel, Mr. du Lac,
anyone I feel
is important
towards understanding
how I woke the Queen
and unleashed
her wrath upon the world.
I am everywhere.
And rest assured,
it comes with less whining
than their attempt.
Did it happen
in a bar with a view?
I say it did.
How are you taking to the gift?
You enduring?
I'm all right.
Vampire loneliness,
I get it now.
I've taken up bowling.
And I have this weird thing
that happens where, suddenly,
everyone around me disappears,
like the rapture has come,
and I
you know
I feel him.
Armand?
Yeah.
That happen with you and Lestat?
No.
Oh.
Sounds weird.
Look, I-I'm sorry. OK?
I-I should have asked you
before I published.
I'm-I'm-I'm sorry.
I would have said no.
I can't fly.
I can't start fires.
All I get is
the low-hanging balls gift.
I wanted something out of it.
I'm glad the book
worked out for you.
Didn't do too much damage
to you.
Or whoever you are, Thomas Pitt.
Hotels, bars, mall, retail.
I saw money on the table.
You read it?
You liked it?
I didn't like me in it.
Passive, selfish, a liar.
And not
the "lying to myself" kind,
a fucking liar.
The writing's good.
Hard read.
He didn't like the part
about Claudia and him
on the train.
Yeah, we were
finding our way back again
when the book dropped.
It hurt him.
I called one of my daughters
the first month dead.
Called her again
during the book tour.
Hung up, hung up.
Probably the right move.
I saw Claudia.
In New York,
coming up the subway.
Claudia?
Someone someone who looked
like her,
but in her 20s,
if she'd made it to her 20s.
Saw her come up.
I watched her turn the corner.
Happened to be going
in the same direction,
kinda, sorta.
I-I saw her walk into a diner.
And I couldn't help myself.
I go inside.
I grab a booth.
It's not her.
She's not there.
Chased a ghost, I guess.
So I order a donut and coffee,
you know, just to pass.
Then she comes out the back
in a uniform.
It's not her.
This one's got
a different walk and accent.
I'm not in her section.
I walked out.
Don't eat me for this, Louis.
Uh, my producers
want to meet you.
Rashid?
Rashid, Daniel Molloy,
Raglan James,
Louis de Pointe du Lac.
We all worked together in Dubai.
Burj Al Arab,
now HavenMed
Senior Care Headquarters.
Said I'd introduce you.
They got me on retainer.
Mm-mm.
Not cool, Daniel.
We argued about this cover.
What does he know about me?
What did you tell him?
That you died in 1794
of consumption.
A mercy saved you
from the peasants' revenge
on our family.
I only ever saw
the aftermaths
your slit throat slow to heal,
your rotting roof
and bathrobe stuck to skin.
An aloof poetry behind the eyes.
Uncanny beauty.
An elusiveness.
Come, go, yes, no.
I see why you gave him
a daughter.
I see why you took her back.
And we were having
such a good night, Sofia.
And now we're not?
Forget I said it.
Your father's tongue.
My tongue.
And Italy never made
a Baudelaire.
We should head home
to the tower.
The night is young.
We travel so fast.
We could be there in an hour.
My mother.
I'll race you back to the house!
Mama! Papa!
There were eight people
on the ark
Noah, his wife,
his three sons,
and their three wives.
Eight people.
And now, somehow, 8 billion.
At some point
in your privileged family tree
is the thing
we are discussing now.
And familial relations
were not a standalone crime
in the 18th century.
And she was dying
when she came to see me.
Fuck it.
It's different for vampires.
That's it.
Distribution of fentanyl
for half of Michigan,
operation of an unsanctioned
and unsanitary farm
from their home,
and, in a surprising labor
of ambition,
managed to take down the MISO
power grid the other night.
Not the pneumatic tube
the upper floor wants
to receive.
So Real Rashid is really Rashid?
That's his actual name?
Ah.
I em-pha-size
the first syllable.
Rah-shid. Rah-shid.
Do you have a preference?
No.
I have a plane waiting for me.
This coven in Detroit,
they were the ones
responsible for the damage
to your property.
I'm insured,
and, uh, I knew that already.
They tried
to decapitate your love.
What's the ask, Mr. James?
We would like you
to take care of our problem
in Detroit, Mr. du Lac.
No.
One, we're understaffed
and overworked,
the exponential growth
in your numbers
not helping matters.
Two, the shop's
protocols of engagement
limit our roles in these
kinds of operations.
We clean up,
we don't make the mess.
And three, you're extremely
skilled at dispatchment,
Mr. du Lac.
Paris, Dubai.
How many in Dubai, Rashid?
-31?
32 if you count Agent Talbot.
No great loss.
None of us liked him much.
I only kill those
who come for me first.
The coven leader's name
is Killer.
Tell Vampire Sam
I'm gonna need him
in Vegas and Reno next month.
Been tracking him since 1925,
a coffin offloaded
from a boat out of Copenhagen.
I don't care.
Went by a different name then.
His name was Bruce.
Bruce.
Mm.
I believe your Claudia spent
a few nights with him once.
Hmm?
Listen to tracks
from "The Vampire Lestat"
wherever you stream music.
Evening, Dan.
Happy to be here.
Give me a million
more screams ♪
Nicolas de Lenfent.
Lestat.
What are you doing in Paris?
Give me a million
more screams, ha ♪
Your mother?
I want you to love me
enough to give it to me!
Anybody but us ♪
-How did I get here?
-Sofia.
Sofia?
Forgotten my name already?
Hello, Sofia.
Within this context
of the failures,
the first big failure was
the failure of his family unit.
Are you a good boy, Lestat?
Answer your brother, Lestat.
As a kid, his mother
was the only person
in this very hostile environment
who sort of showed him
any sort of affection.
When they first knew
each other as humans
and Gabriella
was Lestat's mother
300 years ago,
they lived in a situation
where neither of them
had any agency or power.
She had a horrible relationship
with her husband
and was deeply unhappy
and lonely.
There's a lot that you learn
about who Lestat is
when Gabriella, his mother,
shows up.
Now the wolves,
they are taking our sheep.
They will snatch a babe soon.
Go home!
There's nothing more
we can do here.
But be men!
She knows that if anybody's
gonna get up at that table
and try to solve this problem
with the wolves,
it's going to be Lestat.
The killing of the wolves
is connected intrinsically
to Gabriella.
Gabriella is saying,
go out and be something.
This is Lestat's moment to be
like, "I'm gonna do something.
I'm gonna make something
of my life,
and I'm going to go out
and kill them,
even if I die."
When Lestat kills the wolves,
he's 30 years old,
and in Gabriella's mind,
he's been at home longer
than he should have.
From room to room,
slaughtering the three of them.
That's what I dreamt when
I killed the wolves, Mother.
That is a shared desire
between the two of them,
and then that's given him
enough impetus
to get out
and go and do something.
He goes to Paris.
Turns into a vampire.
His mom's dying.
Turns his mom into a vampire.
Once Gabriella is
turned into a vampire,
they both want to go back
and kill them,
and now they can.
She can now live the life
she's always wanted to live.
And vampirism liberates her.
I was absolutely drawn
to Gabriella's
absolute love
of being a vampire.
For her, it is almost like
a finding of herself, I think,
or certainly the only time
in her life
that she has had
autonomy and power.
Do you have a lot of sex?
Of course.
Do you like it
like you do the blood?
-It's never like the blood.
-They love each other.
I mean, they're mother and son,
and they're lovers.
I mean, and they're fledgling
and maker,
and, I mean, they have a super
complicated relationship,
but they're the only people
still alive
that both knew each other
when they were human.
I think that's really important.
It's like, you know me,
who I really am,
you know where I came from,
you know
what my fundamental drive is.
And you remember me
as a human being
before I was this other thing.
So, they're deeply connected,
and it's toxic, but, you know,
everything's toxic
in vampire world.
You stole my personal physician.
You trashed my hotel.
The Detroit coven
trashed your hotel.
-I heard the song.
-The songs are not about you.
It feels like a cry for help,
so I flew in because I care.
I think Louis is being
a complete troll in that scene.
He gets off on making Lestat
angry, I think, to some extent.
Did you take turns driving
across the Golden Gate Bridge?
Who held the wheel?
Writing numbers
on each other's backs
and pretending
to guess them wrong?
I bet.
I bet!
It's a really fun scene.
It's a real attack,
and he knows
he's gonna rile him up.
It was quite strange
to go from being this,
like, very strong,
centered vampire
to being just sort of petty.
Christine, could you please
provide two tickets
to Mr. Pitt here
and his esquire
for tomorrow night's show?
Just one will do.
Lemuel doesn't enjoy your music.
As petty as he's been,
I think Louis is looking forward
to seeing Lestat's show.
I was afraid,
I was afraid ♪
I was afra-a-a-id ♪
I'm losing you ♪
He's also impressed.
This is what he should
have always been doing.
A lot of his songs, you don't
really know who they're about.
Could be about Louis.
Could be about Nicki.
Could be Gabriella.
It's very on brand for Louis
to think every song
is about him.
And then on another level,
I think there's probably, like,
a gossipy side of Louis
that's like, "Who is this about?
When did this happen?
Who was that?
Who is he? Who is she?"
Could be about
just the fact that
why does he have to
feel in general?
Because he is a very
emotive character,
and he kind of gets totally
riled up in his own emotions,
and he'll ride them.
So, I think that can be
a frustrating thing.
I mean, he's obviously doing
a very intensely
power-thrusting version
of the song
and intentionally ignoring Louis
until he can't anymore.
Oh, I, I tried to write you ♪
The prettiest song
in the world ♪
But I got distracted ♪
When he gets the book
and he sees
that it's all scribbled
and scrawled,
and I think it's when the guilt
really starts to creep in.
This is the first time
they've had a little
private moment about it.
Louis has that kind of effect
on Lestat,
that he, you know, will get
so angry that he'll freeze time
and fly up to him
and sing in his face.
Yeah.
Oh, why ♪
Why, why do I have to feel ♪
This pa-a-a-a-in? ♪
It's too much, it's too real ♪