Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1 recap: “In throes of increasing wonder”

This article contains SPOILERS for Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1.

Louis de Pointe du Lac lives in 1910 New Orleans and meets and befriends Lestat de Lioncourt. However, Lestat hides a dark secret.

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The episode begins with an older man talking about how there are stories out there that have to be told; some things are just wrong that people need to know. The man is revealed to be an investigative journalist named Daniel Molloy, teaching an online class.

The scene shows Daniel watching his commercial, and he changes the channel. He works on a puzzle and then gets his mail.

He begins to open his mail but is interrupted by a call from his doctor. He then hangs up when he reads that the letter is from Louis.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1:  An interview with a vampire part two

Along with the letter come some tapes, which Daniel listens to. The recordings are a younger version of himself interviewing Louis, asking if he was always a vampire.

Louis, on the tapes, says he was 33 years old when he became a vampire. Daniel asks how it came about, but Louis does not want to give simple answers.

Daniel turns the tapes off and reads Louis’ letter. Louis has followed his career and congratulates him on all his professional and personal successes.

He writes that the passage of time has given him perspective, and he assumes the same might be true for Daniel. He suggests that they revisit their interview in a week in a setting that he chooses.

He offers Daniel his full attention and his life story. Daniel says that he told his editor he was meeting with the most dangerous man in the world, and he gave him two choices.

The editor, of course, did not guess correctly. Louis tells Daniel he’s grown old and wasn’t sure if he had remembered him since his book doesn’t mention their previous meeting.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Who’s interviewing who?

Daniel says that since his memoir was about drugs, humiliation, and self-pity, his readers wouldn’t believe him if he mentioned vampires. Louis mentions that Daniel has had some health concerns lately, to which Daniel replies that the whole planet is having a moment.

Louis responds that Daniel has Parkinson’s disease. He replies that Louis has his hangar at the airport, privileges on the Royal Meydan Bridge, and zero presence online.

Louis wonders if he’s hit a nerve. Daniel asks him what it costs not to have aged in half a century, have killer views in all directions, and anonymity.

Louis admits it costs quite a lot. Daniel says that only his family and doctor know that he’s sick, and he doesn’t like the one-way hack.

He asks Louis about how the sun is out there and where his coffin is. Louis replies that Daniel is standing in it.

He adds that he has to be careful who he lets in, and he puts his arm in the sun from the window, allowing it to burn a bit. Daniel says things didn’t end well last time, so Louis will forgive him if he’s a little nervous.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Truth and reconciliation

Daniel plays part of one of the tapes for Louis, where he says that he has forgotten what human life is like and doesn’t know the meaning of his own story. Louis moves quickly across the room to where Daniel is and turns off the tape.

He tells Daniel that was disrespectful and adds he wasn’t worthy of his story then. Daniel says that maybe Louis’ story wasn’t worth telling.

He has the tapes; he can hire a transcriber since Daniel doesn’t do puff portraiture anymore. Louis says that Daniel still got on a plane with an auto-immune disease in the middle of a pandemic.

Daniel says his voice is on the tapes, but he doesn’t remember it. He says that he asks all the wrong questions, that there are contradictions in Louis’ story that he never follows up on, and that it wasn’t an interview, but a fever dream told to an idiot.

He asks Louis why he wants to talk to him again and what’s changed. Louis says that the world, circumstances, and himself have changed.

Louis says he also finds the tapes lacking. Daniel says that he will ask the questions, and Louis will answer.

Anything that can’t be verified, he will send to his researcher. Daniel adds that he will write about Louis, but Louis gets to see it before it goes to print.

However, Daniel will get the final edit. Someone else in the room says that is not the agreement that Daniel signed.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Rougher things

Daniel says that he does his best work one-on-one, while Louis tells the other man in the room to check on Daniel’s room and tell Chef to make a meal for him. He thinks it’s best to start when their boy has had some rest.

Daniel tells Louis that he is not his boy, that he is an older man, and he’s ready to start. Daniel asks where they are, when Louis states his full name.

Daniel then asks how long he has been dead. Louis laughs and begins his story in 1910 in New Orleans.

He explains how he was the executor of the de Pointe du Lac family trust because he was his father’s favored son. However, due to his race, the only place he could do business was an area of New Orleans known as Storyville.

Daniel says that was the old red-light district. Louis says he ran a diverse portfolio of enterprises where the product was desire.

It came in as many forms as there were ways to move it. He owned eight out of the two dozen sporting houses on Liberty Street.

Louis says that he was a rougher thing then because he had to be to survive. According to Louis, you couldn’t look weak on Liberty Street.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Pulled a knife on his brother

A woman named Doris tells Louis that there’s trouble. He proceeds to go into one of his establishments to find that the Alderman is injured.

He tells someone to call for a doctor. The Alderman doesn’t want Louis to touch him, but he says he will regret helping him if he repeats himself and introduces himself to the Alderman.

A man named Finn says that there is another problem, a citizen priest is driving away business at one of Louis’ other establishments. It turns out to be Louis’ brother, Paul.

Louis tells him to go home, but Paul doesn’t listen. The situation escalates, and Louis ends up pulling a knife on his brother even though he doesn’t want to and telling him again to go home.

Lestat witnesses this exchange, but Louis doesn’t see him. Louis describes a breakfast with his family and says he loved Paul more than anyone else.

He explains that his business and his religion were at odds. He beat back any latencies within him with a lie that he told himself about how he was a red-blooded son of the South.

He maintained this lie by visiting a woman named Lily, who worked for the competition. This is where he finally meets Lestat, speaking to Lily in French.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Destiny in St. Louis

He translates what Lestat is saying for Lily and asks Lestat how he got the table. Lestat wonders how Louis got through the front door.

Lestat says he means it as a compliment that a man of Louis’ race has privileges there. Lily explains that Louis has his own business down the street, which gives him these privileges.

Lestat laughs, and Louis wonders what’s funny. Lestat is amused that Louis is named Louis.

Lestat says that Louis is the reason he bought a townhouse in the quarter, that he owes him everything, and he asks Louis to join him and Lily. Lestat says that he had intended to settle elsewhere but had heard music playing and gotten off the boat to listen to it better.

It was a few nights later when he witnessed Louis pulling a knife on Paul and decided to settle in New Orleans. Lily asks what Lestat said since he spoke French when referencing Louis and Paul’s fight.

Louis explains that Lestat said more than he should have. Lestat says he was going to settle in St. Louis and now he knows he was right, except the saint wasn’t a city but a handsome man with an agreeable disposition.

Lestat says they’re destined to be very good friends.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: The last bouquet of lilies

Louis and Lestat both try to get a room with Lily, but Lestat has more money, so he wins. Lestat says it was nice to meet Louis and that he hopes they meet again.

Louis tells Daniel that he wanted to murder Lestat but also become him. That he came there for Lily but left thinking about Lestat.

A man putting out streetlights gets attacked by a vampire. Mr. Thomas Anderson hosts a card game, and Lestat is there while Thomas talks about bodies having wounds and being drained of blood.

Thomas says there is a theory that a new kind of rat has come ashore. Lestat jokes that it is a rat of the six-foot variety that they call bureaucrats in France.

Louis arrives late to the card game, where Thomas introduces Lestat to him.

But Louis informs him they have already met.

Lestat says they met at a florist, both wanting the last bouquet of lilies. Thomas says that the Alderman has the title and deed to a property.

He wants to turn into a sporting house and that he recommended Louis be his managing partner for 10% of the profits. Thomas says that there are capital investors, and then there is labor.

Both have their seats at the table and asks Lestat if he agrees. Lestat says that he can only speak from his own experience and that things are different in his country.

Lestat tells Louis in his mind that the men are looking down on him, and he finds it appalling how men like Louis are treated in this country.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Hunter and unaware prey

Lestat continues talking to Louis in his mind and stops time around them. He asks Louis if he knows his value and if he suffers these indignities for some larger purpose.

He also gives Louis a card he needs while time is stopped and says that he thinks there are great opportunities in New Orleans. But in order to seize them, he’ll need protection from the wolves.

Once he restarts time, he says that labor wouldn’t be anywhere without investors’ capital. Louis says that Lestat wouldn’t tell him how he did it, stopping time like that.

Daniel asks if they started hanging out. Louis says that Lestat was in love with his city and wanted to know everything about it.

Daniel asks if Louis played docent to the gentleman vampire, and Louis replies that Lestat hadn’t yet revealed his vampire nature. Daniel assumes that they only met at night, and Louis says it was New Orleans, that days were for sleeping off the previous evening’s damage.

Daniel says it was the perfect cover for a vampire, and Louis says he’s racing ahead again. He should let the tale seduce him, just as Louis himself was seduced.

Louis says that for the first time, he confided his struggles to another man besides his brother Paul: Lestat. He says that he was being hunted but was unaware it was happening.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1:  Paul’s issues

Louis talks to his sister Grace. She says that she’s heard he’s been seen around town with a white man.

Louis tells her that Lestat is different. Grace wants Louis to bring him over for dinner so she can meet him.

He tells his sister that Paul got into his bed at night and wept for nearly an hour because he was upset about her getting married. Grace explains to Louis that her fiancé Levi, told her about a place in Gretna that takes in men like Paul.

Louis says that that didn’t work out well last time since Paul came out of the place worse than before. Grace says she worries so much.

Louis suggests she worry about her own life, being a bride, and what she will wear in London, Paris, and Florence. Grace is excited to receive the tickets for traveling from Louis, hugs him, and runs to tell her mother that she’s going around the world.

Grace’s fiancé Levi and Lestat come for dinner, where Paul gets upset when Levi refers to Paul’s mother as Mama Du Lac. Paul’s mother scolds him, and Lestat says he loves the bouillabaisse, which they call gumbo in New Orleans.

Paul asks Lestat about the nature of his relationship with Louis, and Lestat states they’ve been discussing investment opportunities.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: An ocean between them

Lestat then asks Levi how he came to propose to Grace. According to Levi, it’s a good story, but he doesn’t get to tell it because Paul interrupts to ask Lestat if he is one with Christ.

Louis tells Paul to shut up, but Lestat reassures it’s fine. He tells Paul that he learned about Christ in a monastery and wanted to be a priest, just like Paul.

Lestat says that he memorized both Testaments, the writings of Assisi, Aquinas, Erasmus, and all the other saints and scholars. His father did not think much of this education, so he and Lestat’s brothers pulled him out.

Lestat adds that between beatings, starvations and the failure of Christ to stop them, he forgot all of what he learned. Lestat admits that there is an ocean between him and Christ.

Louis yells at Lestat to stop doing what he’s doing.

He apologizes, saying that he is cursed with his father’s temper at times and that the rudeness is all his. Louis’ mother says that it’s alright, that the humidity does that sometimes.

She suggests that they should have some ice wine while Levi tells the story about him and Grace.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Get out of my head

While walking, Lestat tells Louis that he worries that his family has taken permanent offense at him. Louis responds that Paul likes picking fights and that if he had Lestat’s tricks, he would have done the same.

Lestat says that Louis must envy Paul, and Louis wonders why Lestat thinks that. Lestat replies that it is because of Paul’s liberty with his thoughts and how he has no shame in sharing them.

Lestat mentions a lie that Louis told earlier about leaving the opera early. Louis wept when the curtain fell, and Lestat wonders why he would hide that from his family.

Louis says that not everyone needs to know what he does. His family sits in judgment, though Paul is the only one to say it to his face.

Lestat asks Louis to come in for a drink, saying he got him a gift. The gift ends up being Lily.

Louis is nervous, and Lestat says there is no reason to be because the curtains are closed, and the servants are sent home. Lestat tells Louis, in his head, that he has been watching him for some time now, looking for his companion heart.

Louis wonders how he can get in his head like that. Lestat, of course, doesn’t answer Louis’ question.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Intimacy

Louis and Lestat get with Lily, but when she falls asleep, Louis and Lestat end up sleeping together. Lestat drinks Louis’ blood, but not enough to kill him, just enough to keep him fit.

Louis tells Daniel all about it, how unsettling it was because of the feelings of intimacy it awoke within him. Louis says you could be many things in New Orleans, but not an openly gay black man.

He vowed never to return and shut that night out of his mind, turning his attention to life as it was before. Grace and Levi get married, and at their reception, she asks her brothers to dance for her.

Together they do a tap dance routine. After the wedding, Louis and Paul go up on the roof to watch the sunrise.

Paul tells Louis that he should marry Hazel next, a woman with whom he was dancing too close. He asks Louis if he’s still doing business with Lestat, and he replies that it didn’t work out.

Paul is glad because he thinks Lestat is the Devil. He says that Lestat told him he was there to take souls and that he spoke to Paul without moving his lips.

Louis says that Lestat has tricks and that he will not see Lestat again.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Louis’ failure?

Paul asks Louis if he thinks Levi loves Grace enough because their sister needs a lot of love. Louis says that he thinks Levi does love her enough.

Paul tells Louis he loves him, and he responds that he loves him too. Paul admits he ate too much cake and walks away.

Louis calls him back, but Paul doesn’t come back. He, unfortunately, dies with Louis unable to save his brother.

Louis confesses that was the last sunrise he ever saw, which was the kindest thing the dark gift had given him. He tells Daniel that the vampire is bored, but the human was destroyed.

Their mother blames Louis for Paul possibly going to hell. At Paul’s funeral, Lestat shows up and is upset that Louis is avoiding him.

The two fight, but Finn shows up and shoos Lestat away. Lestat punches him as he’s being led away.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: A wilted Lily

Louis is left disoriented by Lestat ambushing him. He keeps showing up in Louis’ head, telling him to come to him.

Louis doesn’t want to go to Lestat and asks his mother if she wants him to walk her home. She politely declines and asks Levi to do it instead.

Louis doesn’t go to Paul’s wake because he doesn’t want to face his mother’s blame and his sister’s pity. He wants to grieve alone, but Lestat wouldn’t allow it, as he’s still trying to get Louis to come to him.

Louis asks for Lily but finds out she has died. She was found under the docks with no blood inside her.

Louis then heads to the church and talks to Father Matthias, telling him that the Devil is in New Orleans. He confesses his sins to the priest, ending with the fact that he laid down with the Devil and the Devil has roots in him.

He can no longer think of anything but Lestat’s voice and words, and he wants help from Father Matthias. Of course, Lestat shows up, kills the priest, and yells at Louis for humiliating himself.

Louis accuses Lestat of killing Lily, and he confirms that he did.

Interview With The Vampire season 1 episode 1: Throes of increasing wonder

Lestat tells Louis that he isn’t the Devil, that Louis is wrong about that, but he can give him death. He kills another priest who is fleeing the church.

Lestat tells Louis that all the hats he is forced to wear of the stern landlord, the deferential businessman, and the loyal son, are not his true nature. He adds that Louis must feel so angry as well as sad.

Lestat tells Louis that he can get rid of his sorrow. He offers to swap Louis’ life of shame for a dark gift and a power that he can’t imagine.

Lestat confesses his love to Louis and says that the home they barely had a glimpse of, frightens him as much as it does Louis. Louis tells Daniel that he can’t explain how much Lestat’s words disarmed him, how efficiently succinct and impenetrable his argument was.

Louis adds that he forgot himself and the barbaric scene that surrounded him because he was seen for the first time in his life. Lestat asks Louis to be his companion and who he is without apology.

Louis agrees. Lestat turns Louis into a vampire as he describes the sensations he experienced to Daniel.

He tells Daniel that he and Lestat sat in throes of increasing wonder for some time.

Why is Louis giving a second interview to Daniel? How will he adjust to being a vampire?

Let us know your answers and opinions in the comments below!

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