'The Vampire Lestat’ Episode 1 Deep Dive

Summary

House of R: ‘The Vampire Lestat’ Episode 1 Deep Dive

June 9, 2026 | The Ringer | Hosts: Joanna Robinson & Mallory Rubin

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Episode Overview

This kickoff House of R deep dive explores the highly anticipated premiere of AMC’s newly rebranded “The Vampire Lestat” (formerly “Interview with the Vampire” Season 3). Hosts Joanna and Mallory discuss the episode “Detroit,” unpacking its themes, explosive changes in tone, narrative structure, and the influx of rockstar energy—and, naturally, ample Anne Rice lore. Amid their signature wit and warmth, they honor Anthony Stewart Head, reflect on storytelling perspectives, and joyously debate the episode’s decadent, chaotic style.

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Main Themes and Episode Purpose

• Reinvention & Rebrand: This season relaunches as “The Vampire Lestat,” shifting the narrative focus and inviting newcomers while still rewarding long-time fans.
• Art, Memory, and Reliability: With Lestat as the new narrator, the show leans into questions about the reliability of personal histories, artistic legacy, and the impulse to “correct the record.”
• Performance—On and Off Stage: From literal stadium rock to emotional spectacle, the episode interrogates authenticity versus persona.
• Intimacy, Loneliness, and Legacy: Lestat’s yearning for connection and recognition—through love, music, sex, and violence—is dissected with humor, pathos, and the ever-present shadow of his mother.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Emotional Opening & Honoring Anthony Stewart Head

• Buffy’s Giles: Both hosts share heartfelt stories on what the actor and character meant to them and the wider community (06:18–13:03).
  • Mallory: “One of the strange things about loss when it’s a public figure…you feel this grief, and you see that other people who love that fictional universe, who love the performance, feel that way too. And there’s something shared about that.” (08:32)
  • Joanna: “I so relate…finding a guiding light family figure inside your faculty is something I really, really related to as a teenager.” (09:33–10:46)
• Community Grief & Celebration: The two reflect on the power of fandom in mourning and celebrating together.

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2. Context, Book Lore, and Series Trajectory

• Newcomers & Book Context: Mallory confesses she’s show-only, brings fresh perspective; Joanna offers book passages and lore.
• Rebrand Insight: AMC’s decision to retitle is both a marketing move and narrative reset (18:22–22:11), bringing in new audiences for “the most anticipated show of the summer.”
  • “There is something about the rebrand that’s an opportunity… You’re going to want to go back and watch the first two seasons. It’s just too captivating.” – Mallory (20:12)
• Meta Commentary: The hosts muse on networks, algorithm-driven buzz, and streaming bumps (“Netflix effect”).

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3. Shifting Narrators: From Louis to Lestat

• New Voice, New Style: Lestat’s narration delivers a fractured, non-linear, often unreliable account; hard to follow at times, but intentionally so (23:40–28:41).
  • “When Louis was our narrator… he’s like, ‘Let the tale seduce you, just as I was seduced.’ And Lestat’s like, ‘Where was I? Was I fucking in the elevator? Was I fighting upstairs?’… he’s chaotic.”
  • “Can you trust your own account because your own memory is deeply flawed?” – Mallory
• Media & Memory:
  • Daniel Malloy is now a filmmaker—not just a journalist—with Lestat both narrator and subject trying to “correct the record.”
• Reliability Play:
  • “Is an omniscient narrator more reliable and accurate? Or are we now just getting the unreliable emotional encapsulations of Lestat about things he wasn’t even witness to?” (30:42)

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4. Musical Numbers and Meta-Fiction

• Rock Opera Storytelling:
  • The episode features three original songs: “Long Face,” “All Fell Down,” and “Black Licorice.”
  • Songs are crafted collaboratively; inward-looking and referential, they echo and lampoon Lestat’s emotional state and creative ego.
  • Discussion of the fictional band: “There are multiple moments… where… with Longface especially… does this suck? And I thought this was very smart, because… it allows for us to track some sort of musical progression.” (37:00)
• Performance as Confession & Seduction:
  • Lestat’s onstage persona mirrors his internal need to be known and adored—“Lestat wants all of these people to listen and adore him, but he wants Louis to hear that song. He knows he will.” (40:58)
  • “He could have been an actor… To be the front man, to be the person crafting the lyrics… and then expressing them in this public way. Music… is so personal and internal. But the desire is to forge something that other people can put their own experience onto.”

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5. Visuals, Structure, and Episode Execution

Opening Montage & Flash-forwards (45:06)

• Grisly Hints:
  • “Louis is hobbling on a cane, missing at least part of his leg. Armand has lost an eye. Lestat is nowhere to be seen.”
  • “Consequent global catastrophe. Worrying the Failures, the regretful dead and the traumatized still alive. And the very specific attempted extinction of the Y chromosome…” (45:26)
  • Lestat’s signature wit: “No, that would suggest a level of self-importance that even I’m not comfortable with. But upon reflection, yes, I made a contribution.” (45:53)
• Auction Scene:
  • Mortals and immortals vie for Lestat’s estate, port, and “decanter of blood”—setting up mysteries and rivalries (46:31–50:38).

Detroit, Night One (50:38–59:34)

• Rock God Introduction:
  • First shot: Lestat’s hand in a spotlight, glassy fingernails wrapped around the mic (“The only consistent indication that I’m not human is my fingernails…”).
  • Reflections on the contrast between the book’s 1980s optimism (“the value of human life was greater than it had ever been before”) and the show’s dystopian 2025 (“the value of human life has never been more arbitrary”). (52:35)

Tone and Direction

• Filmic Style:
  • Immediate shift in aesthetics from previous seasons; frenetic, bold, consciously disorienting (“a declaration of intent—pay attention!”).
• Humor Amidst Horror:
  • “This is a hysterical episode of television… the jokes are just like often tossed out, mumbled away… You only catch them on like the second or third [watch].” – Joanna (31:04)

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6. Character and Relationship Analysis

Lestat de Lioncourt

• Yearning, brattiness, narcissism, insecurity, artistry
• “I want millions. And that’ll top up that heart of yours. Billions… then why you always gotta make it so hard for someone to give it to you?” (Baby Jenks to Lestat, 86:17)
• Scars as ongoing vulnerability and reminder of his humanity (62:02)

Daniel Molloy

• Still “the dickhead journalist,” now a vampire, now a filmmaker
• “He was always such a dick and always found a way to position himself even when in the room with a vampire who could destroy him at a moment’s notice.” – Mallory (75:27)
• Uses old interview tricks (“Did you stutter as a child?” x3)

Supporting Cast

• Noah Reid as Larry, music supervisor “Salamander,” and the real-life rock band
• Christine the lawyer, D? Pharma (band’s drug/SM manager), Dr. Farid—all seemingly in the know of Lestat's real nature (70:09–71:41)

The Band

• Their arc from skepticism to horror as they learn Lestat’s true nature

Gabriella

• Lestat’s mother, lover, and fledgling.
• “Fledgling, lover. Mother. So to be clear, because she’s a fledgling, that means he made her—so that’s his mom, Gabriella, who he also fucks, who he also turned into a vampire.” (123:25)

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7. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Storytelling and Memory

• “Is this how you actually saw me? Is that actually what you thought my interior life was like?” (33:09)
• “Songwriting is one of the main ways in which he, Lestat, stays connected to humans.” – Daniel Hart, as paraphrased by Joanna (35:44)

On Performance and Ego

• “Give us the five stars… Billions, nay, billions. Tune in.” – Mallory (39:26)

On Modernity

• “Facts are irrelevant, frugals are everything. … And the value of human life—it has never been more arbitrary. David, Freddie, Prince, Rogers—they’re all gone. And the lights on Tay Tay’s era has dimmed. … It’s my era now.” (53:20–53:43)
• “The dark, dreary industrial world has finally submitted to automation. Laborers stand in their doorways, hitting their pipes as their children half pipe…” (52:36)

On Humor

• “Absolute shit, Edward Cullen. Fuck you, glitter vampire.” – Joanna on the “glittery” Lestat (67:38)
• “I think those [glasses] are pretty hip, and I think being a nerd is pretty hip.” – Mallory (05:15)
• “We went beat by beat for the prior two trailers. So check out those pods if you haven’t yet. They’re waiting for you. Great news.” – Joanna (04:26)

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8. Favorite Segments and Timestamps

06:18–13:03 — Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) Tribute

23:40–38:00 — Narration, Storytelling, and Reliability

50:38–54:18 — Detroit, Night One / Lestat’s Debut

86:10–89:00 — The Lovers Painting, Trust Fund Babies, iPad Louis

91:30–94:00 — Bookstore Scene, Halloween, Armand References

102:35–104:23 — Lestat’s Breakdown, Muses & Musical Trauma

109:45–114:45 — Fang Gang Fight, Vampons, Drug Sequences

117:47–119:23 — Immortal Erection, Hierarchy of Vampire Pleasure

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Book Spoiler Section (starting ~2:32:30)

Clarifies:

• The presence of Raglan James (Justin Kirk) is likely Lestat in mortal form (“Tale of the Body Thief” twist), with cues in the acting, body language, and cutaways.
• Baby Jenks’ book storyline—potential signposts for regional vampire plotlines and Claudia flashbacks.

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Closing Notes

• Recurring Segments: Expect “Wigwatch™,” drug metaphors, and “immortal erection” merch jokes.
• Schedule: House of R Vampire Lestat recaps drop Mondays; more to come, including book spoiler sections and special guest coverage.
• Upcoming: Watch for continued analysis of music, lore, and burgeoning vampire/dragon/alien/hallucinatory chaos as AMC’s Anne Rice universe rolls on.

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For Fans & Newcomers Alike

“Detroit” offers a vibrant, wild, and ambitious new chapter—packed with spectacle and subtlety alike—for this goth saga. As always, Joanna and Mallory keep the conversation as sharp as Lestat’s teeth, as rapturous as his audience, and as welcoming as an immortal’s Pride party.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Hello, welcome to a very spooky episode of House of Our. I'm Joanna Robinson. Joining me today, our very own tough cookie on the drums, it's Mallory Rubin.

[A]

Joanna, never, never play two nights in Detroit.

[B]

You never know what's going to happen. You might, might end up with a broken orbital bone. Listen, it's the Vampire Lestat time. It is Interview with The Vampire Season 3, aka the Vampire Lestat. We're here to break it down for you with book context. We'll do a book spoiler section. We'll talk about the music. We'll talk about the fashion. We'll talk about all of it right after this.

[A]

This episode of House of R is presented to you by target. For 30 years, Pokemon has shown that adventures are better together. And Target is calling all trainers to the celebration.

[B]

That's because there's something for every era of fan in the Pokemon in Target limited time collection.

[A]

Thought you found them all after the first drop. Think again.

[B]

Drop 2 just landed. Featuring life sized Pokemon puzzles and an instant print digital camera.

[A]

The entire collection is in store and online. So check it out now.

[B]

Explore [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by Weathertech. Buying something for dad usually goes the same way every year. Guessing, second guessing, ending up with something that collects dust on a shelf. Here's a better idea. Weathertech. It's the kind of gift he'll actually use. Weathertech offers unmatched vehicle protection from floor liners and seat protectors to the cup phone and cargo liner. And no, a gift card isn't a cop out. It's just practical, like Weathertech. Skip the guesswork this year. Visit weathertech.com to get your Father's Day gift today. Just really quickly, I just thought in honor of the absolute bi icon that is Lestat de Liancourt. Happy Pride, everyone.

[A]

Happy Pride.

[B]

What a perfect show for us to cover during Pride month. So I love it. Here we are. Here we are. Per game reminders.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

The end of this week, we're starting with vampires.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

We're ending with aliens.

[A]

Question mark. We'll find out.

[B]

It's Disclosure day.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Are you excited? I am. Okay.

[A]

I'm very excited.

[B]

We're talking about Disclosure day at the end of the week. Very excited about that. We have seen it. Yes, we'll be talking about it. This is the first episode of the Vampire Lestat coverage, but it is not the last because I have bullied the entire team into covering the Vampire Lestat week to week. And they're all doing it with joy in their hearts.

[A]

Yeah, genuinely. It's gonna be great.

[B]

We've got another Nolan episode coming up with another very special guest that we're excited about.

[A]

We're trying to squeeze one more in before Hot D starts, and that will leave us with just one.

[B]

Just Oppenheimer left after that before the Odyssey, Dark Knight Rises, then Oppenheimer, then it's Odyssey time.

[A]

It would have been funny to flip those and do Oppenheimer and then end on Bane. Just to really keep the bit going.

[B]

Just to like revisit your whole. Your five year long agenda.

[A]

Yeah, it's longer than that. It's just five years on this podcast.

[B]

Five years, as far as I know. House of the Dragon.

[A]

That's right. Soon. I can't believe it. I can't believe it's June. Very excited.

[B]

It's very exciting. We're gonna have an incredible summer because we're doing vampires and dragons. And guess what? Spoiler alert. Incest for both.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Exciting, exciting stuff.

[A]

A lot of movies coming out.

[B]

Supergirl, Odyssey, Spidey. Spidey. A two and a half hour long Spider man movie.

[A]

It's exciting.

[B]

Very exciting. Before we get into. Oh, and we do want to apologize. I know. We know that there was like a final House of the Dragon trailer that was dropped.

[A]

Yes. I was in Sweden.

[B]

Mallory was in Sweden. She was off the hook. And I did not have it within me to try to find, like, the two remaining producers stateside to record a solo pod.

[A]

Almost the entire team was in Sweden. So it was. We had locked in programming six weeks before that trip. It was very, very difficult, genuinely, to make late stage adjustments. But great news. We did full breakdowns of the prior two trailers. So if you're like, what do you guys think of the trailer?

[B]

Those pods exist.

[A]

We really loved the most recent trailer. There's a quick update. We thought it was great. Our hype level was already high. It's even higher now. Great. We went beat by beat for the prior two trailers. So check out those pods if you haven't yet. They're waiting for you. Great news.

[B]

Where can folks find all of those things, including discovering what I'm wearing on this podcast?

[A]

I mean, this is a very normal

[B]

thing that I've done in a very normal. In honor of the vampire lesat, normal work clothing.

[A]

Now, I had been treated. I will answer your question about where people can find it. But I had been treated to a glimpse via text message, which was resplendent and majestic. But nothing could have prepared me for the absolute Majesty of seeing you in person, bedecked in full for the Vampire Lestat, your most anticipated show of the summer. You look like a rock goddess now. You always. It's always giving. Rock goddess.

[B]

I'm not sure that that's. We've got.

[A]

You've done something different with your hair.

[B]

My hair is different.

[A]

It's just incredible.

[B]

And my hair is different. But the nerdy glasses are still here, and I'm not sure the vampireless out would be caught differently.

[A]

I think those are pretty hip, and I think being a nerd is pretty hip. Let me just throw that out there. Yeah.

[B]

Where can all the hip nerds find us?

[A]

Here's what I'd recommend. Follow the Pod. Follow House of R on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch full video episodes of House of R on Spotify, Incredible. And the Ringerverse YouTube channel, so follow that as well. Also, newish Instagram. Tick tock at House of Our Pod. It's popping over there. Follow along if you haven't yet. We've been having a blast. You can see Joanna's get up today on the video episode of the podcast, but also there will be some glimpses on social media, for sure.

[B]

Mallory has procured some props for us.

[A]

Well, I knew you had, like, a whole custom fit, so I said, what can I do? And then Rush ordered some plastic, very cheap fangs that I'm sure will, like, destroy our mouths as we take a picture. And then hopefully we can heal in time for the disclosure day pod. So that's what I would recommend. And of course, the inbox is always open. Hobbitsanddragons Gmail.com, send us your emails on vampirelessat Hot D disclosure day. Nolan, Anything, Everything. All of it.

[B]

Before we get into more of the vampire Lestat, we wanted to take a moment to talk about a person who's very important to us who just passed away. Anthony Stewart Head, who played Giles on Buffy Vampire Slayer, among many other things. When he passed away, I got the number of messages I thought I would get from people who know that I am a lifelong Buffy fan, but also the number of people who are like, is Mallory okay?

[A]

I love him.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, we both love Giles. We want to honor him. We got these beautiful stickers from Jacob, who works on the show, brought us these My Heart Belongs to Daddy Giles stickers before Anthony Stewart.

[A]

He.

[B]

He got them for us before Anthony Stewart had passed away. But we have them now. Talk about Giles and. And what this means for you.

[A]

So when my flight landed from Sweden. I returned to the United States of America, landed in lax, and, you know, you're loading your phone, how many messages will load, how many won't load, how many have I missed over these 22 hours of travel, et cetera? First alert I saw from multiple people our thread with Carlos and Arjuna. First thing Adam had texted me about was all. It was all the news. So that was just like, you know, you let out an audible gasp. Very sad, very awful. We've had the pleasure now of covering four seasons of Buffy together. We're still in the midst of our watch. And as you know, as the Bhad Bhabies know, I have just fallen so completely in love, not only with Giles, but with Anthony Head, because it's just such a completely captivating performance and it's obviously just like, tremendously sad. I think one of the, you know, one of the strange things about loss when it's like a public figure, right, somebody who you, as a viewer, a listener, whatever the case may be, a reader, have a deep attachment to, is that you feel this grief and you see then that other people who love that fictional universe, who love the performance, feel that way too. And there's something shared about that. And then, of course, you see what the loss means to everybody who knew him. And that was just so, you know, it's deeply sad, it's very moving. But there is, of course, an element amid the despair of, like, celebrating. Celebrating the impact that he had on everybody. And so to see the. The tribute posts from all of the members of the cast who not only loved him, but clearly learned so much from him, to see what a formative figure he was in shaping their young careers and lives was, like, pretty remarkable to get to see.

[B]

Yeah, I think it was Sarah's post that really, like the same as when Nick Brendan passed away. And it was Alyson's post that really walloped me. Sarah's post really, really hit me hard. And, yeah, I'm thinking about Sarah Michelle Gellar and Allison Hannigan and James Marsters and David Boreanas, who were all of varying ages. And Sarah had been doing soaps for a while, but this was like her stepping into another level of something entirely. And the rest of them just like, you know, an early major project for them, for David Boreanas, his first acting project. So for them to talk about him as this guiding Giles figure for them on set in addition to everything else. And then I was just thinking a lot about Giles and what he meant to me. I think I've talked a lot about how I was the exact same age as Buffy when I was watching the show. And I don't have a great relationship with my parents. And it was definitely fraught when I was a teenager. And so I so relate. Of all the things, there's a lot that I don't have in common with Buffy. But the ability to find that sort of guiding light family figure inside of your faculty is something that I really, really related to as a teenager. And so just how important it was to see an example of the ability to find that kind of parental guidance and care and love, even if you can't, you know, even if your dad sucks and your mom is busy at the gallery a lot. So, you know, it was. That's Buffy, not me. You know, it was. He's very, very important. And I love how much you love him. And I've loved, you know, rediscovering him with you has been wonderful. And, you know, between. You haven't even met Michelle Trachtenberg's character, but between Michelle Trachtenberg and Nick Brandon and Anthony Stewart Head, it's just like, a lot of loss inside of the Buffy community recently.

[A]

So I was thinking about that. Knowing that dawn awaits in season five, even though I don't have experience that. God, that's just. Yeah. Tremendously sad. Thank you for sharing that with us.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

I know how much you. I, you know, I saw your post about the. The photo that was like your.

[B]

My desktop photo.

[A]

Desktop photo throughout college. And I've obviously texted you right away just. Cause I know what a, you know, seismic and central presence he was in your life for so long and continues to be. And like, just knowing how everybody has their own relationship to that character and the performance, but how much he means to so many people. And I love what you just said. And, you know, it's been one of the really great things to cover. Obviously. I just have, like, a tremendous crush on Giles, and he's very powerful in many respects. But, you know, one of the things that's been such a joy to cover and to think about as I've watched the show for the first time is, like, the impact that he and Buffy have on each other and the way that they teach each other and the whole Scooby gang and that Giles is this mentor and this guide and this stalwart, but also he has as much to learn and they're shaping him in turn. That's just been such a rewarding way to think about those relationships. Relationships that can help kind of like root you throughout your life and guide you throughout your life. And the idea that, like, somebody who you're meant to learn from, like, one of the things you can just learn is to, like, embrace your ability and your sense of purpose and then figure out what you want to do with that. It's just such, like an empowering. An empowering thing. So it's been really, really, really great to. To get to spend time with Giles and, and with this performance and God, it's going to be sad to boot up season five.

[B]

So thank you to all the Buffy fans who have been watching along with us. We'll be back probably towards the end of summer, maybe in August with Buffy. Season five is the plan. So the rewatch continues. We just have some dragons and other vampires to get to in the meantime. Speaking of, I just want to shout out, I watched the Tony Awards last night because that's exactly the kind of person that I am. My favorite awards show and the Lost Boys musical really did quite well at the Tonys. And so it's vampire season, baby.

[A]

Wonderful.

[B]

We get a, you know, a vampire hunter slayer reference inside of this episode. Spoiler warning for this episode. Yes, most of our. Almost all of our discussion today will be confined to what happens in this episode. Informed by context from the books the Vampire, Lestat and Queen of the Damned, not to mention Interview with Vampire, but no direct spirit. And I'm relying on Mallory to, like, sort of curb my impulses there if she wants to.

[A]

I have no book knowledge in this case. It's an interesting experience. It's fun to be, you know, and I guess if anybody is checking out this pod for the first time and didn't hear our gift exchanges, you know, this, to you, is a. This is a sacred text, a big part of your life for a long time. The show has been your.

[B]

One of your seminal death.

[A]

Indeed. You've been there from minute one for the show. I had not. Not read the books. I had not seen the show. And I consumed seasons one and then two subsequent holidays as part of our gift exchange in the annual tradition and just loved the show. I thought it was just sensational. The writing is like God Tier. The performances are wonderful. I really thought both seasons were excellent. I thought season two was, like, spectacularly good. I still have not read any of the books, and so that is obviously different to how I typically am covering text on this pod, but I'm kind of looking forward to it a little bit, actually. There's something very different about, you know, thinking of the experience exclusively through the lens of what I am consuming inside of each episode. So I did have a moment, as you know. Cause I said it on the pod a week and a half ago right before sweetie. I was like, should I read? Should I realize? Kind of too late at that point, honestly. But maybe one day I still will, but I have not. And, you know, I'm already looking forward. Like I said, after the season two gift exchange, I'm already excited to rewatch the show and spend more time with it kind of again and again. Because especially just the richness of a rewatch.

[B]

It really, really does. And even this episode, we'll talk about it, of course, in depth. But I appreciated it. Every subsequent watch I did of this episode, I appreciated it more. So we'll be doing book context. I have some book passages to read today, et cetera, et cetera. But we will do a brief book spoiler section at the end. Mallory has given me permission, and we had a long back and forth about this, but she has given me full permission to spoil her about some, like, future book stuff that I know the fans are really eager to talk about as it pertains to this episode. So we will be doing a book spoiler section. You will hear an audio cue.

[A]

Carlos has yet to decide which audio cue.

[B]

Will it be a saucy guitar riff? Will it be a, like, Dracula?

[A]

Like, what about just the sound of,

[B]

like, sucking blood sucking something, you know?

[A]

Plenty of options presented in this episode of Television alone.

[B]

All right, let's go bottle. Let's do a vodka bottle. Did you enjoy the flash of the literal vodka bottle that we got during the sex montage later?

[A]

Incredibly important. Yeah.

[B]

So book context, for the most part. Book spoiler section at the very end. We'll. We'll warn you before we do that.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Quick facts. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. I'm not gonna go through the whole list, but I'll just say Interview with Vampire came out in 76. The vampire Lestat, which is the main source text for this show, came out in 85. Queen of the Damned, which is sort of also seeded into this season. 88. Tale of the Body Thief. 92. And then we get Memnoth, the Devil. 95. The Vampire, Armand. 98. I don't know. On and on and on and on up through 2018 was the last one. I don't know what the plans are. Like, that depends entirely on ratings and contracts and stuff like that. I don't know that I've heard. Maybe he has. And maybe you guys can email [e-mail] Rollin Jones has talked about how far into the series he wants to go, but I think he's planning to go at least up through book four, which is quite exciting. Okay, this show, the Vampire Lestat, a rebranded season three of Interview with the Vampire. Yes, AMC Sunday nights. But it's got that AMC really fun, annoying midnight drop on Saturday. So by the time you wake up on Sunday, plenty of people will have watched the episode. It airs on AMC on Sunday nights. Seven episodes set in 2025 and the 18th century and some unspecified future date, you know, wherever else we may go. And it picks up not too long after Interview With a vampire season two concludes, at least in the 2025 timeline. And as I mentioned, based on both the Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. Any questions, comments, or concerns about what I've said thus far?

[A]

No, I don't think so. Do you have a sense of, like, how many people are watching in real time? How many people have AMC plus. Right.

[B]

It's a great question. I mean, we got emails. When I woke up, we had emails from people who had already watched the episode. And that's when I realized that it was a midnight Saturday drop. And I was like, yeah, I don't know. Like, the, the subreddit is buzzing. But like, my algorithms are all messed up and I'm just getting served. Like, like, as far as my algorithm is concerned, this is the biggest show that has ever existed. And I know that's not the case, so. But people are excited.

[A]

I, I, yeah, I really like Hope because I have a editor working on the Internet, SEO brain. Like, no, don't rebrand your show. Kind of like, of course, reflexive recoil. But, and I say this with nothing but admiration for the first two seasons of Interview with the Vampire, which again, you got me to watch and I thought were excellent. There is something about the rebrand that's an opportunity to say, like, come in. Now, ideally you go and you catch up on the product two seasons. But if you haven't, like, you know, a lot of they're out on the Sam and Jacob are out doing the GQ friendship test interviews. There's the EW cover. Like, they're all over Instagram as well. The concert. So Variety releasing the songs.

[B]

Variety did publish an article about this, about how this is like AMC's approach is just sort of like. And I because my algorithm is what my algorithm is. There was some backlash I saw from the fandom being like, why are you promoting the show so much more vigorously now that it's like a white lead versus when Jacob Anderson was the lead of the first two seasons. That's what my algorithm was serving me, was that frustration. But I, you know, and that's a perfectly valid response, but I see it as the show is amazing, but it's not finding the audience, the massive audience that certainly AMC hoped it would when they spent all that money on it, on the rights to Anne Rice's Immortal universe. The Mayfair Witches show isn't doing as very well. The Talamasca show, I think, did not really hit as well as they wanted to. So, as you say, this is a real opportunity to say, come in. We have this really flashy rebrand and try to welcome people in to the universe. And I understand what the timing looks like for fans who feel frustrated by it. But, like, as someone who wants this show to just keep going, I want as many people to know about it,

[A]

to know about it, discover as possible. And then the hope is, like, if you sit down to watch this episode, to watch Detroit, and it is your first experience with this AMC adaptation, with this version of this universe, you're going to want. There is, I think, no chance you could watch this episode and not want to go back and watch. The first two seasons is just too captivating and the performances are too, like, there's just something, like, kind of rapturous about being in the world. So that's the hope, right? And, like, we'll see. It'll be interesting to track over the course of the season. My algorithm is less centrally oriented around the vampireless act than yours is, but it has been making its way into my algorithm. So that has been exciting and fun to see. And it gave me a real. Just like last week while not sleeping for a solid week in Sweden.

[B]

Yeah, it was.

[A]

Every time I saw something on my Instagram feed, I was like, fuck, yeah, let's go. Like, the more people who know how wonderful this is, the better. And I completely, I hear, you know, where was this before? And, like, again, hopefully everybody goes back and discovers the excellence in the first two seasons as well.

[B]

By the way, I'm sure the people who make the show are like, yeah, amc, where was this entire huge effort? And I think AMC was hoping that the brand of the quality of the show and the brand of Anne Rice's universe would be enough to, like, push people. But AMC plus is a subscription service that, like, not everyone feels like they have the luxury to subscribe to. There's the whole, like. And AMC went through this before with Breaking Bad. There's the whole, like, post it's on Netflix bump that, you know, you can see where it's like, okay, I watched and I think it was like three or four seasons of Breaking Bad that hit. Yeah, Netflix. And then all of a sudden it was like the biggest show. And everyone was like, well, I have to watch this season live. So I will subscribe to amc. And that is certainly what they're.

[A]

I watched the first two seasons of Interview with the Vampire on Netflix and now I have.

[B]

Netflix is a real thing, so we're hoping that is what will happen here. Let's go now to our opening snapshot.

[A]

Delightful.

[B]

Okay. Episode one, Detroit. Most, though not all the episodes this season appear to be named for stops on the tour. So that's fun. We spent two nights in Detroit as you talked about Bad idea. We'll talk about it. Directed by Craig Zisk, who also directed, among other things. Don't be afraid to start the tape. My favorite episode of Interview with The Empire Season 2.

[A]

Unbelievable.

[B]

My favorite episode of television that came out that year. Just an incredible episode. And so incredible. He takes on a really challenge in this episode. There's an immediate change of tone, an immediate change of style, you know. So this, like, reinvention that you're talking about is not just in the name, but in the entire sort of ethos of the show. Yes, this episode written by the showrunner Rolan Jones and Hannah Moskowitz. Just a few table setters before we get into the deep dive. I personally find myself, and as you know, I love accent work. I love Sam Reid. I mean, hard not to asla stat. I find myself in desperate need of closed captioning this season. The, you know, the score, the rock score, the rapid fire patter of this show, the, like, really funny jokes that are just almost tossed away often by Sam Reid. The accent, which I love, Sam Reid's Australia, by the way, of, you know, France accent. I'm a big fan of it. But he's now our narrator.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so it's not just Lestat when he's talking, but all of the narration is no longer Jacob Anderson's very clear narration, but there is this accented narration and then there's just like rock and roll chaos going on.

[A]

So.

[B]

And I'm old, so I mean, same, you know, and when Jennifer E. Lee shows up and she's doing a very special accent as well. And so, like, this is a closed cap for me. Closed captioning required experience. And I will say a lot of the initial reaction That I saw on the subreddit last night was people saying I couldn't really understand what was going on sometimes.

[A]

So because of the subtitling, need for subtitling, or the moving through time or the LSD hallucinogenic aspect, maybe all of the above.

[B]

And I think, I think that's like. I think that's a very. I think that's a fair response. I love this episode. Did you like this episode of Television?

[A]

I did. I really enjoyed it. I had a great time with it. I did have a few. I needed to watch it more than once to like fully. And I watched it the first time without subtitles, just to kind of like take it in in full, you know, right away. We open with the opening credits. They're fun, they're funky.

[B]

It was.

[A]

I liked it as kind of like a declaration of intent, which tracked very well with what came in the episode. This like our version of kind of an lsd.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Hallucinogenic kind of experience. And also just to signal, this is a new thing, this is the next. The next chapter, the next iteration. But also was a little bit of a signal of like, pay attention. Right? They're gonna be. And then you have the introduction. In short order, we're moving through time. You know, we'll go through the entire episode, like you said, in sequence in chronological order. But we open with the auction, we move back to Detroit, we move back further from there to the Halloween formation of the band, which is like a prior timeline, obviously. We're glimpsing a ton of stuff from the past, these moments from Lestat's history.

[B]

Beyond that, especially at the end when Lestat is tripping, that he, like he. As a narrator. And I want to talk about this, you know, like when Louis was our narrator in season one and Daniel, eager journalist that he was, was like, you know, and that sounds like this. And let's get ahead and all this sort of stuff like that. And Louis in season one says, Racing ahead again, Mr. Malloy, let the tale seduce you. Just as I was seduced. Right. He's like, I'm gonna tell this slowly and in order. And Lysat's like, where was I? Was I fucking in the elevator? Was I fighting upstairs?

[A]

No, that didn't happen.

[B]

Yeah, that was later. You know, like he's chaotic, sort of add and then like, you know, further impacted by the drug trip style of narration is a non linear style. How do you. How do you feel about that?

[A]

I love it. I think that it is maybe there is a beat of Acclimation, that is required. But I think we will be rewarded for acclimating.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Because there is like. And, you know, we'll hit these in context as we go. But there are multiple, like, deeply prophetic harbingers throughout the episode.

[B]

Signs and portents.

[A]

Signs and portents. And I would also say portents and signs.

[B]

Wow, that's a call.

[A]

That's an in joke, folks. You gotta check out five years of our other pods to understand what that means. This sense that all of these horrors and atrocities await. You know, Daniel coming in along with Sam from the theater troupe. Incredible stuff. To help in the fanging hallway fight. One of the examples. And love the way Lestat was like, you know, Daniel, he really. He saved me. And that was great. But, like, if he hadn't, maybe all of these other people would have been okay.

[B]

Was that good for humanity at the

[A]

boy, you know, that's. That's not great. And there are other notes earlier as well, so it kind of, I think, heightens and enhances that. Even just the auction, this estate to give away, there's this, like.

[B]

Well, several of our main characters are grievously injured. Yeah. And also, like, is he dead?

[A]

What's going on with Kyla's dad? If this stuff is being sold at auction for these price points, et cetera. And what has happened that he is clearly, like, a key driver of. So that is very interesting. But I think, because we talked about this a little bit in season two and this is delving even deeper into this kind of core impulse and how the text is structured. The question of who is a reliable narrator? Who is the author and arbiter of history? Can you trust another person's account of your experience in your life? But also, like, can you trust your own account because your own memory is deeply flawed and that is just inherent. And the longer you're alive, presumably the harder it becomes to hold on to any strand of your experience. So the fact that this, for Lestat, it's, like, fractured and messy and there's exciting pops of color. And then he'll say, like, this is sort of the fun that I like to sing about in my song Long Face. And you're like, we. But part of the reason to write the song is to, like, there's a therapeutic, cathartic act of creation and conduction

[B]

and birthing of memory. Yeah, that's a big part of, you know, his freakout that happens actually before he drinks the drugged blood. But that freak out is a huge indicator for what this process is for Lestat in the book and here in the show, which is just sort of like, you know, Louis proclaims to remember things, but there were things that he didn't know about. And also things that, because he's not a human, but like, has a, you know, a flawed man, like brain, you know, is going to be informed. And the show's constantly engaging with that. Informed by his own biases or self edits or whatever the case may be. And for Lestat in this situation, it's so interesting because, you know, the format is replacing. Daniel Malloy is writing a book. That premise with Daniel Malloy is directing a movie. And inside of that, Lestat is narrating the failures. This project that he has pressed into vinyl that's at auction that we're listening to with like edits to be taken out later. Also still in there. Also there's the great song project, the album that he's working, like, all the music he's creating. So there's these various expressions of artistically, how do we encapsulate a life, how do we tell a story. But he is sort of characterized as omniscient narrator in the failures sequence. Which means the show gets to follow characters outside of scenes that Lestat was present for. Right. So we could presumably follow Louis a bit this season or. Or Daniel when he's not with Lestat or what is Armand up to or all these other things without Lestat having to be there. So when you make it an omniscient narrator, does that make it more reliable and accurate? Or are we now just getting the very seemingly unreliable emotional encapsulations of Lestat about things that he wasn't even witnessed to.

[A]

To me, I think it feels like more likely to be the latter because that's part of, I think, what the, like the thesis of the. And how it's adapting. This is like interested. And again, I don't really have the frame of reference for how central that

[B]

is in the book.

[A]

But this idea like Lestat saying, okay, one of my. First of all, this is a hysterical episode of television.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Like.

[B]

And again, the jokes are just like often tossed out, mumbled away.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you only catch them on like the second or third.

[A]

So I'm. You're. You're cracking up. There is such a wry wit and like the humor that is simultaneously, you know, and again, sort of for the character 265, definitionally like eternal and universal in a sense and then hyper attuned and specific to the moment that he's chronicling. That's all Great. I think this idea of like, okay, the stretch where he goes the bookstore scene was so funny. Just like Chef's Kiss, wonderful. He's back at his flat scrolling, you know, fact checking in real time. This account, when a super fan at the concert comes up to him after to get him to sign the book, he scrolls. He doesn't write his name, he scrolls. Lies, right? So this idea, the compulsion to correct the record to me for list, very relatable, right? In general, like, oh, that's that I'm misunderstood, right? This is a very human impulse for the immortalist act. But the idea to say, like, I am misunderstood in a public fashion, I am misunderstood by the person who's supposed to understand me the best. So I will correct the record in a way that of course misunderstands everything else just through my lens and like, with my thumb on the scale is perfect. And so the idea to do it simultaneously through the music itself, like even the name failures. Well, what are the failures? The attempt to be a rock star or the stories that he's chronicling or fail. And then the documentary to bring in Daniel to say, like, okay, the way that I will. And a very fun like, you know, I heard you request to me, like, it was absurd, right? The idea that like the one person who can undermine the sanctity of the interview with the vampire text is the author of it. That there will be like a sanctioning and there's a more like valid quality to Lestat's tale if Daniel is there to help author it. There's such a conscious engine driving those choices that as a result, how can we expect the account to be reliable?

[B]

Accurate?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[B]

It's interesting, obviously, like, what we do as podcasters is a mere drop in the bucket compared to like the Rockstar Listat. But it is such a weird thing to have a semi, semi sort of like public facing job. And occasionally things like get surfaced to me from the Internet that are just completely untrue about me that people say with such conviction. And I'm like, where did you get that conviction that you're like, well, Joanna feels this way or Joanna did this or Joanna. And I'm just like, that's just like, not true, not true. And I don't refute it because it's just sort of like, what's the point? But it's such a weird space to be in. And again, this is like a very small fraction of like this. No one's ever written a book about me, obviously, but, like, why would they But. But it's such a fucking weird experience that people speak with such certainty, absolute untruths about you. And, like, for. For Lestat, are there things that are factually untrue when he's like, my hair never fucking looked like that. How dare you? Or whatever the case may be. But then there's also sort of, like, characteristically, is this how you actually saw me? Is that actually what you thought my interior life was like at the end of the day? Last thing I want to talk about before we get into sort of this more chronological thing is the overarching idea of musical numbers is storytelling. Right? So this is. Daniel Hart gave this great interview where he was talking about the creation of the songs. And we get three songs in this episode. Specifically, Long Face, which was the first one that they released. All Fell down, which is on the opening credits, was also on a couple trailers. And then Black Licorice, which is the song that he has the, like, freak out during and has the big violin solo. This is what Daniel Hart said. Songwriting is one of the main ways in which he, Lestat, stays connected to humans. In season three, humans write a lot of songs about love, and we write along a lot of songs about loss. And Lestat has loved a lot and lost a lot. The songs feel very specific to Lestat now. And he talked about the process of it, how he was, like, in the writer's room from the beginning of the season and how he was writing the. He wrote the songs, the music and the lyrics, but collaboratively with Roland Jones, who is the showrunner, he would, like, come in and say, like, offer up ideas for lyrics that would be references to things that happened in previous seasons. Or he's just like, Roland Jones has just been thinking about the psyche of Lestat for, you know, maybe his whole life, who knows? You know? And so he's just sort of like, inside his head. And then with Sam Reed as well. Like, he's like, I collaborated with Sam Reid, who's, like, been playing this character for so long. And so I just think that, like, I. I love these songs. Not everyone is loving the songs, but I love these songs. And I just think that, like,

[A]

I.

[B]

I just think the opportunity to sort of pour over lyrics and. And try to, like, really parse what's going on here. One of my favorite things is black licorice. Where. Means exactly what you think it means is one of the recurring lyrics in that song. So what. What could that mean? A lot of people think it means Louie's dick. You know, that could Be what it is. But, like, it's just fun to get to parse and explicate these lyrics and have this extra added layer of ability to crawl inside of a character like Lestat.

[A]

Right. I love this. First of all, if anyone has not checked out the incredible fictional bands episode that you did last week, treat yourselves. Wonderful stuff. And like the whole discussion of fictional bands, obviously, but the opening stretch on kind of like, what is required to do this. Well, and the potential. It's funny. Cause I had been thinking too about the comedy comp. And then obviously you all talked about that. There are multiple moments in this first episode where. With Longface especially. But in general, there's like, it's incorporated into the text, this lamp shading of like, does this suck? And I thought this was very smart. Because there's enough. First of all, it allows for us to track some sort of musical progression. Maybe that's gonna be in the venue size. You know, One of the moments that really made me chuckle was the tour bus. Can't wait to discuss the setup of the tour bus. The tour bus driving through downtown Detroit past Ford Field. And Daniel's like, this is where the Detroit Lions play. So it's an NFL stadium. This is like a huge stadium, right? He. I think he quoted like 60,000 seats. But the face tattoo, jelly roller in there. And you're like, at an 800 seam venue. You know, so there's that aspect of it. How big is the, like, the band's stature, the celebrity, but also just what is the quality of the music. And if you watch the first episode and you think the music is incredible, then you get to be enraged on Lestat's behalf.

[B]

But if you.

[A]

You don't feel that way about it, then there's cover to say. It's very clever. Allow your relationship to the music to evolve over the course of the season. It's super small, and they've been doing

[B]

that in the entire lead up to this as they've released these musics. These musics, as they've released these songs, they all come with these fictional lighter notes written by Lestat where he's just sort of like, Daniel Hart. What a hack. This sucks. Are you kidding me? You know, so like, the. The. Does Longface suck? Being like, text of the episode is really funny, I think also all of the, like, Daniel Malloy skipping the concert and saying, like, I just spotified T Rex. You know, same thing. And I love T Rex. So I'm like, yeah, no wonder this music's working for me. T. Rex One of my favorite bands. But, like, you know, just talking about, like, how derivative. If you think it's derivative, a character in our show thinks it's derivative. If you think it sucks, a character in our show thinks it sucks. You know, if you think it's funny that Lestat is playing such small clubs, we can talk about it. I think it's for budgetary reasons, but we've invented story reasons why. Yeah, we've rented story reasons why. That's true. You know, and so I think that's just like. I think they've thought of everything and covered it from every angle.

[A]

And in terms of just the choice to present. And obviously, I understand that this is. This is canon. This is from the text. But to present Lestat as a person literally taking center stage.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right. A musician. Now, this is what we'll talk about. The scene where Baby Jenks discuss the. The yearning tendrils, the need for millions, nay billions.

[B]

Right. Will that top up your heart? This is like, how do people listen to a podcast? For me to feel.

[A]

Billions, nay, billions.

[B]

Tune in.

[A]

Give us the five stars. You know, this, like, just makes perfect sense. Right? The idea that Lestat is a character who needs to be in the thick of things, needs to have people looking at him, needs to be in front of the microphone under the spotlights. Couldn't be us, you know? Needs everybody not just to look at him, but to know what he thinks. That's the extra element of it. That's like.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And adore him and worship him and chase him down. And I loved the like. Well, it's the description. Like the body burlesque. Right? This idea that he is embracing, the fact that he can play with. Okay, is it true? Is it a lie? I know. We'll talk about that more as we go, but just that in general, like, okay, he could have been an actor.

[B]

He was.

[A]

Yes. He could have pursued fame in all forms. And he has, and he hopefully will continue to. I don't know. Music. To be the front man, to be the person crafting the lyrics and then expressing them in this public way. Music. And I have never written a song, but I have listened to many.

[B]

Would you like co writing credit on Santa Came on a Dragon? Apologize.

[A]

I would never deign to claim credit, but I'm happy to consume it. Incredible stuff. The act of songwriting has always struck me as this fast. It's so personal and internal.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You are putting down these innermost thoughts, but the desire is to. To forge something that other people can put their own experience onto.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so, like, Lestat wants all of these people to listen to it and adore him, but, like, he wants Louis to hear that song. He knows he will. And so that is embedded into the act of creation is I will share my innermost thoughts and desires, but I know that you will be there to receive them.

[B]

And I think, you know, one of the runners in this episode is this text exchange that he's sharing with someone. Moi, etoi, me and you. And the whole time, you know, plenty of us think it's Louis. I thought it was Louis.

[A]

I definitely thought it was Louis. I thought it was Louis.

[B]

But I was watching with someone who knows the books better than I do, and she's like, I think this is a fake out and it's gonna be Gabriela. And then it was. And I was like, oh, damn, gotta read these books. And I have since. But you won't fool me again. But the remoteness, the chilliness that we get from Gabriella in just this episode, the sort of like, I'm here, I'm suffering the toxic sexual relationship when he needs, you know, mothering inside of this moment. That hole in his heart, you know, that needs topping up. Like, this is a right off the bat, early explanation for why Lestat is the way that Lestat is. Because his mother is the way that his mother is. And that is literally his mother who we meet at the end, just in case you were like, oh, did he literally mean mother? Yes.

[A]

I have some questions.

[B]

Gabriella is his mother and his lover and his fledgling Sally. Sounds great. This episode is brought to you by target. All right, drop two of the Pokemon in target 30th celebration collection is finally here, including limited edition pennants and life size puzzles of your favorite Pokemon.

[A]

We've got the Pikachu puzzle and it is just over a foot tall. Adorable.

[B]

And our Psyduck pennant. That's going up on the wall.

[A]

Now that Drop two is out in the world, it's your time to discover all the other exclusives in the Pokemon and Target limited time collection.

[B]

Calling all trainers.

[C]

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[A]

Sundays at 9, exclusively on AMC and AMC. I am the Vampire Lestat. I'm a rock star now. I'm a little too little. I'm a moon. From Anne Rice's immortal universe comes what Vulture calls the most momentous event in fictional rock history. Thousands of fans love you.

[B]

I want millions.

[A]

It's my era. Anne Rice is the vampireless dot. All new Sundays at 9, exclusively on AMC and AMC Stream.

[B]

Now, should we get into the deep dive?

[A]

Let's do it.

[B]

All right, so as you mentioned, we open with all of these ominous hints of what's to come. Right. Louis is hobbling on a cane, missing at least part of his leg. We see, like, a prosthetic ankle, so we don't know how much of his, you know, lower extremities are missing. Armand has lost an eye. Lestat is nowhere to be seen.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And here are some of the quotes we get.

[A]

Great.

[B]

Consequent global catastrophe. Worrying the failures, the regretful dead and the traumatized still alive. And the very specific attempted extinction of the Y chromosome. So these are the hints we have. There's some kind of global catastrophe.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Many people died. And the people who live through it are scarred.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And they tried to kill all the dudes.

[A]

It's worrying it's not great. It's such a doomed note to start on. And this is kind of like the brilliance of the show and the way that it is crafted and scripted because you go right from that line. And I am not saying that the attempted extinction of the Y chromosome across continents was all my fault into the signature humor of. No, that would suggest a level of self importance that even I'm not comfortable with. But upon reflection, yes, I made a contribution. And it's just like that's the show

[B]

in miniature to me. Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

So, yeah, that opening auction, first of all, that sideboard was sick.

[B]

Oh, my God, it was beautiful.

[A]

Can you imagine? Were you more interested in the port?

[B]

Absolutely not. The port or decanted blood?

[A]

Sounds right. I'll take the port. You could take the blood. We could go in Havzi's sideboard.

[B]

Oh, my God. What do you think? I definitely think we could outbid the entire Talamasca for sure. So there's port. The blood of Lestat. Right. The decanted blood. We should note that that is incredibly potent. Powerful shit that, you know. No wonder there's a bidding war here. Fun fraught looks between Louis, between Armand, and between Raglan James, who's here, who we met in the previous season, played by the great Justin Kirk here representing Moscow. Always a joke. The fire stunt.

[A]

Yeah, that was good.

[B]

The Banksy move from Lestat. Incredible. Bratty pissing people off. And I just love how, like, delighted Louis is by this move from Lestat. Loved it.

[A]

Fantastic stuff.

[B]

We talked about this sort of idea of the omniscient narration, but I just wanted to add to that idea of sort of like, who's telling the story and under what sort of level of reliability or authenticity. We talked about this a little bit in, I think, our summer hype, but this idea of, like, we're meeting the real Lestat kind of for the first time ever on the show despite spending two seasons with him. Because every time we've seen him, with one exception before now, has been either Armand's recollection or Louis recollection. Not just the sort of, like, dream ghost version that we meet in season two, but like every, you know, with the fuck Ass Bob haircut and no scars on his chest. Like, every version of Lestat we've met has been a recollected version of Lestat. Right. Except for in the end of season two when Louis goes to New Orleans. Then we're outside the story that he's telling Daniel, and that's like, the real Lestat. But That's Lestat, who's, like, broken down and humbled and stuttering and upset and all this sort of stuff like that. So Lestat, in his full, you know, brat princess. This is our real introduction to him. And that's so exciting for a character that we already love and a performance we already love. But it's like, here's the real me. Do you still love me?

[A]

Right. Well. And I love. As you know, I love stories like this, like the Affair,

[B]

Rashomon or the equally important Showtime series, the Affair.

[A]

Oh, God. Great stuff. I mean, it wasn't, but I enjoyed it. Which aspects of this true, or at least Lestat's version of himself are, like, more flattering and which will be less flattering? Like, when someone else holds an image of you in their mind or their heart, is it cruel? Is it charitable? Is it both? When is it one or the other? And what sort of, like, messy blend? I think that's gonna be, like, really interesting and fascinating to track. And also, just like with Louis Armand and Raglan there, you know, we end. We leave that sequence without knowing who won the bid.

[B]

Yeah. So who's listening to this? Right? Yeah.

[A]

And, you know, it's very fun to know that Lestat is speaking directly to that buyer. Right. You know, commentary on their wealth and the choices they've made about how to spend their money. But, like, okay, is it. Is this purchase being made out of a desire for, like, proximity and closeness to someone who is maybe, like, gone missing? Is it out of a desire to, like, know and understand, glean intel? Is it a desire to protect? Right. To keep this information out of other hands, Some combination? I have no idea. Looking forward to finding out. Really intriguing opening note.

[B]

I will return. This is the scene I'm most excited to return to in the book spoiler section. So we will talk about in the book spoiler section. Okay. But there's a lot of fun stuff happening here for people who have read the books. Okay, we go now to Detroit, night one. This is the Long Face performance.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

It's spring 2025. The voiceover lets us know we're in the second Trump administration with the. A great nation was making itself great again. Again, the show rules so good. This is, like, an adaptive change that I think is really interesting because in the book, the vampire Lestat awakens. He's been underground, like, sleep, you know, in a long sleep.

[A]

Sounds great.

[B]

And he's awakened into the 1980s by music. Music wakes him up hearing the, like, sort of loud rock music of the time. Delightful is sort of like what brings. And he's like, what's all this? What's happening in humanity? And he's like, delighted by what he finds. And so there's this passage from. There's like this prologue, and then we get into sort of the autobiography backstory stuff, but this prologue where he's talking about waking up and finding his band and his assessment of the 80s. And it's really interesting because I'm like, is this what Anne Rice thought of the 80s when she wrote this book? Quote, the simplest people of this age were driven by a vigorous secular morality as strong as any religious morality had ever known. The intellectuals carried the standards, but quite ordinary individuals all over America cared passionately about peace and the poor and the planet, as if driven by a mystical zeal. Ah, the 20th century. Ah, the turn of the great wheel. It had outdistanced my wildest dreams of it, this future. It had made fools of grim prophets of ages past. I did a lot of thinking about this sinless secular morality, this optimism. And then here's like the key. This brilliantly lighted world where the value of human life was greater than it had ever been before. When you compare that Lestat waking up to the world and he's like, you know, very Jack Skellington. What's this? What's this, you know, like, what's happening here? Compare it to Lestat later talking to Daniel.

[A]

Yes. Yeah.

[B]

And he says, the dark, dreary industrial world has finally submitted to automation. Laborers stand in their doorways, hitting their pipes as their children half pipe in their drained, empty swimming pools, drugstores locked up baby formula and shaving cream while Sachs ate Barneys. And someone told everyone that Lululemon, I believe that's how he pronounced it. Lululemon was sexy. Facts are irrelevant. Frugals are everything. And here's the key quote. And the value of human life, it has never been more arbitrary. David, Freddy, Prince, Rogers, they're all gone. And the lights on Tay Tay's era has dimmed. Fire coming down the hill, watery moving in on Nantucket. No more safe spaces. It's my era now. So this list just reads the modern world to filth. And so I just find that direct opposition of the value of human life has never been more arbitrary versus the value of human life was greater than it had ever been before in the 80s. And I'm curious if this is like. I mean, I think it would be really hard to have a character in 2025 look around America and say, we're really doing Great.

[A]

Doing great and things are fine.

[B]

Is this just reflecting the realities of the culture right now, though? I think plenty of people would look around the 80s and say, what the fuck is going on here? So like, is that just sort of like the people who are writing the show are like, hey, man, we couldn't do this wonder celebration, so we did this really fun and funny, like reading 2025 to filth. Or is there something more interesting to you, Mallory, as a non book reader, to like a Lestat who's not, you know, excited and inspired by the world, but is like frustrated and disdainful of the world?

[A]

Yeah. An interesting question. I think, like, this felt right to me for a few reasons, I guess. I think what you already said, like, it would just be even in a show I love, I think like disqualifying to say, like, here we are in this moment in time and everything's great. There's a way maybe with a really like hedonistic, narcissistic character that you could position it as like, I am unaware of the plight and turmoil around me. That would be a commentary of a different sort. I think that would actually be like a valid way to show structure of the show.

[B]

But

[A]

what does it mean to be immortal and what does it mean to have lived for nearly three centuries? I think if you are a character who, even if you've spent a chunk of that time buried underground and you miss certain things, as she reminds us in this episode, and I'm sure it will again and has before, you've lived a lot of life. Right. And for Lestat, I really loved the conversation with that. Can we call them conversations? The exchanges. Yeah. That baby Jenks said to him about like, you're like a, like wet clothes in a coin up dryer. You know, this idea that on the one hand he is a character who has experienced, directly experienced and witnessed more of history than almost anyone. Yes. Anyone around him in any room he's ever gonna be in. And also who finds himself caught in these loops where no matter what is happening around him, he has these patterns that repeat, including this like, need to be adored, need to be loved, and also like a capacity to love deep in turn. Right. So that's really interesting. Like what is constant for him and what is shifting and how is he responding to the world around him. But I think like a character who considers, who simultaneously has like a lot of insecurity and doubt and shame and also considers himself so superior a God to look around in like the digital era and say, like, gods aren't Swiped just was perfect. I thought, like, that was great. And so, you know, so much of black licorice, like the TikTok references and things like that. Like, what would it be like to have lived for all this time and then look around and just see everybody staring at their phones instead of, like drinking up, literally or figuratively, the deliciousness of life around them? I just think it's really interesting. I'm curious to see what feels like it varies, maybe city to city, place to place, like, how much are the spots he's in, actual characters and the way to like, yeah, Detroit.

[B]

I think Detroit is a fascinating choice. This is no shade on Detroit, but like, Detroit for a long stretch was like being used in every sort of, like, horror movie as a stand in for sort of like a crumbling American city. Obviously, like an industry town that had its industry sort of cut out from underneath it. One of my favorite vampire stories, Only Lovers Left Alive, is set in a really crumbling Detroit. And so I think Detroit, as emblematic of that moment we're finding ourselves in the American experiment, is really interesting. And I think that specifically when Lestat in the book talks about what he loves about the 80s, he talks about, among other things, sort of the sexual hedonism and the gender fluidity of the world that he finds. And he's just sort of like, how exciting bisexuality is, you know, is being celebrated. Men have long hair again and are wearing fun fashion again. And, you know, like, all the dreariness of the more conservative decades that I live through are gone. And we're in this, like, hedonistic celebration. And so for TV Lestat to say, to mention David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Prince as like, these three people. Who are these three sort of like, you know, pantheon of rock royalty, specifically in that sort of like, gender fluid, queer space as, like, they're gone. What has taken its place. Is that era over with the absence of those titans inside of our world? A question worth asking. Is there room for a Lestat to step in? What's to say? Who's to say? The first shot we get of Sam Reed because Lestat is not at the auction. So the first shot we get of Sam Reed in this series is the hand coming out into the spotlight grasping the microphone. And I was wondering if this was a book reference, because in his prologue to the Vampire Lesat, Lesat says, the only consistent indication that I'm not human is my fingernails. It's the same with all vampires. Our fingernails look like glass. And some people notice that. When they don't notice Anything else? And so to see his nails, those unusual le press ons that they make all of the vampire characters wear wrap around the microphone. Obviously, inside the show, they've got strange eyes as well. That's another indicator for us. But, like, to be, like, here and inside of this, as you mentioned, this really fascinating. He's a vampire pretending to be a human pretending to be a vampire. This sort of, like. Like, performative vampirism charade. I think it's so interesting to start with this, like, undeniable indicator that, like, this is something inhuman is grabbing the microphone here. I loved it.

[A]

Fantastic.

[B]

What'd you think of the scars? Like, how did you think he looked? What do you think of the scars on his chest? Of everything we see here? What do you think?

[A]

I mean, obviously, we had been exposed to this, you know, in the trailers. We got to see the first. The release of the first images, the first glimpse at Comic Con last summer, when I got to, like, feel you quiver beside me. Real time with anticipation. Very, very meaningful experience, you know?

[B]

He looks unbelievable.

[A]

It's like it takes zero effort to convince yourself that the throngs would show

[B]

up to, like, not millions, not billions, but thousands.

[A]

800 would fill that venue every night to just watch him, and that when he, you know, crowd surfs, they would delight in touching him and that they would be so enraptured and swept up in the experience that they wouldn't notice as he levitates back on stage. Which was another fun detail because of that, like, kind of, like, you know, collective delusion. Even though a lot of the people there are there because they're true believers. Right. Like, who believes, who doesn't? Who is easy to trick and deceive? Who is even paying attention? That's, like, an interesting thing to ask about people in that room. Just sort of like, where we are as a society more broadly. It was interesting to think back to, like, Santiago in season two. And, you know, all of the things that they were doing on stage were real, but they were counting on the audience believing it was a trick. Want to be fools?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

On our minds, for many reasons. The prestige, which I know you'll bring up later, like, that's just really fun as a commentary about, like, what people are, like, ready to receive and how. So I love that. And, yeah, he just. He looks believably like a rock star.

[B]

Yeah. Also, I mean, like, the filmmaking in the sequence when, like, the whole world flips upside down, you know, so he's crowd surfing, but, like, the whole vision is flipped the godlike adoration, you know, his self proclamation that he is a God. And you have this, like, you know, him Christ, like, you know, sort of stretched out on top of the adoring throngs here.

[A]

Naturally, I named the band after myself. Great.

[B]

So good. The scars on his chest, I think, are really interesting because, you know, no mention of the scars on my chest either. When he's talking to Daniel about sort of the accuracy of Louis Depiction, we get a couple mentions here. Yeah, you kill some wolves and fall in love is a line. I killed a pack of wolves when I was immortal. I'll most likely tell you about that later as I let it define me for a time. It's so funny it.

[A]

To find me for a time.

[B]

Killed me. It's so funny because that's making fun of the book. Like, that's. That's. That's the show that loves the book but is making fun of how often Louis thinks of himself as the wolf killer. But so here are these scars on his chest from this, like, traumatic experience that happened when he was still mortal. And I just love that they're here. They're. They're absent from Louis Depiction, perhaps because, like, oops, they forgot to put him on his chest in season one. But then it just, like, becomes like a plot line. They're absent from the depiction, but it's this constant reminder that Lestat carries of his once pervious flesh. Like, his vulnerability is immortal. The first line of the book, the vampire Lestat, is, I am the vampire Lestat. I am immortal, more or less. And so I just think him walking around with this reminder of his vulnerability is an interesting part of that character.

[A]

I love that. And it's interesting to think, like, did Louis not share that? Did Daniel not consider it worth mentioning? Right. There are, like, a number of different potential explanations. I like your idea that maybe they just didn't have the prosthetic scars ready to go. That's a fun, fun, fun thing to think about. But they can cover it.

[B]

And they can cover why his hair looks different. You know, like, they can just cover a bunch of stuff by saying, like, it was an unreliable narrator, you know, or there's, like, you know, a more deeply psychological reason to skip.

[A]

Then you see his. You see Gabriella show up again and, you know, he's in tatters right after the fang gang fang fight. Wonderful stuff. And, you know, that sequence is a good reminder that, like, vampires can be.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Destroyed. Right. And killed. And, like, so when he. When we're, like, forced to confront the fact that he is in this really perilous state. Then we see his face. It's all cut, it's all swollen and, like, then she. God, can be swiped, I guess, moves her finger over his cheekbone and just heals it. And it's like, yeah. So then the scars, you really. I think even if you don't have the context of the book, you understand that they must have come from a different. A different time, which was. Yeah, all of the wolf mentions throughout were very tantalizing.

[B]

I loved it. We opened with Longface, Schitt's Creek's very own Noah Reed.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

This was Patrick himself.

[A]

Absolute thrill for me as a real Schitt's Creek lover, but a Patrick lover in particular. The second I saw him. Adam and I were talking about this last night because I was like, did you clock immediately that it was Patrick? Because with the beard and a different hairstyle, it took me a minute, but there was like, there's something so cherubic and recognizable about his sweet face. And I was like, am I suddenly just, like, thinking of Tina Turner for tending to specific reason? You know, I'm thrilled that he's here. And I love the discussion you all had on the pod last week about filling the band with musicians. Musicians shout out the moment where we can see Salamander, the bassist, in the background of a shot just getting a blowjob in the middle of a crowded room.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Wonderful stuff. Also, when Lestat charges across to the band for the first time, he's like, more frequent showers, maybe. It's wonderful.

[B]

So funny. We meet Larry, Alex Salamander, who's a show creation, but is, as I mentioned in that previous podcast, played by the literal music supervisor of the show. Great stuff. And TC Tough Cookie as the band Satan's Night Out, Satan's Night Owl, Satan's Night out. Who become the vampire Lestat.

[A]

We get that.

[B]

And I talked about this on the previous podcast.

[A]

We get that.

[B]

LaMarcia's riff, the beginning of Longface, which I absolutely love, which made me think of the Beatles, but also, like, you know, of course Lestat, French boy that he is, is like, we're gonna put La Maciers at the beginning of our hit song Longface. Does it suck? I don't know. Does it suck?

[A]

What do you think?

[B]

What do you think? Does it suck? I love it.

[A]

Thank you for the feedback. It was so good.

[B]

Yeah. So, like, eventually, we will see in night two of Detroit. Don't stay two nights in Detroit, but in night two to Detroit, we will see you Know, like ghosts in the audience, essentially. But here we've got, like, more immediate threats. The camera crew is there. Two members of the fan gang are there.

[A]

Tim and Russ.

[B]

Yeah. Did you think Russ looked a bit like Kara Swisher?

[A]

Oh, I see it. I didn't think that. But now you're saying, loved it. Wow.

[B]

And then the fan who's clutching Daniel's book is also in the audience here. Right. And then Lestat just lays out AMC's season three marketing plan. Like Beat for Beat quote. We dropped songs on the streams and booked intimate venues to induce what Jen Snooze called fomo. They came for cosplay, left converted, and I baptized them the Beautiful Unwell. And yes, you can buy a beautiful unwell baseball cap on the AMC store.

[A]

Baseball cap. I like it. Makes me want some Tarek Skubal commentary while they're still in Detroit. Maybe some, though I would need them to move forward.

[B]

I definitely know exactly what you're referencing here. One of the best.

[A]

Yeah, One of the best Pittsburgh pitchers in baseball. Currently, a big topic of conversation is where will he get traded? Will it be dreaded outcome for the rest of baseball fans, the Dodgers or the Yankees? Does another team have a chance of getting in there?

[B]

Do the Orioles want him?

[A]

They can use them. Okay.

[B]

Not their year.

[A]

No, it is. I think it is their year. Oh, we've been doing well. We've been doing well. I mean, currently at the moment of this recording four games under.500, but only a game out in the wild card, folks. The American League is a mess. Anything could still happen. Been doing well the last couple weeks. It's all happening.

[B]

I just want to shout out the glitter on him.

[A]

Great.

[B]

Absolute shit. Edward Cullen. Fuck you, glitter vampire. I don't care for Twilight and I care a lot about this glittery vampire. Is that bloody precum on his pants as he, like, says, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming. At the end of the. He's thrusting and then we zoom in. Yeah. This little, like, stain starts to spread on the front of his pants.

[A]

I think. Definitely. I think the fact that we cut back to it multiple times in a close crop made it undeniable. Just a deep and abiding appreciation for this show and the way that it's crafted. And just shout out to the panel,

[B]

to the visual effects department, the practical effects department, the costume department.

[A]

I mean, that goes right into a little draining both ways. You'll have to guess who gets the fang and who gets the vodka. Bottle. And yes, yes, it's a vodka bottle. So just a very dick centric stretch for Lestat. And who are we to complain?

[B]

Not I. The documentary inside the Failures project reveals itself as soon as we're off stage. We're in the black and white view of the camera. And that's a fun cue for us, is like, we know now what's documentary footage. What's not with the black and white sort of handheld that we get in the hallway. And again, this is another directing challenge. Cause you're making the show and then inside the show, you're making this documentary at the same time.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

It's a really fun way to include Daniel Malloy in the story because he's not in the book the vampire Lestat. And they're also finding ways clearly, to include Louis. And Louis is not really in the vampire Lestat. So I would not want a season without Eric Boghossian and Jacob Anderson. So I think they're just incredibly smart. I think the documentary is taking the place not just of the Lestat writing his own autobiography, which is what he does in the book, but also as part of his launch as a rock star career. He says to his lawyer, Christine, like, fetch me the greatest filmmakers from around the world to shoot me some music videos for MTV. And it's just sort of like that's not really TRL's not really happening. Not that it was in the 80s, but like, you know, we're not really like a music video unless you're Taylor Swift, really, or a few other Sabrina Carpenter. Like, we're not really in like a music video centric time in our musical careers. I think it's Spotify streams. The Swedes did not ask me to say that. Speaking of it, Christine's here. Welcome to the show, Laura. Christine, what did you think of her?

[A]

Very intriguing and tantalizing introduction.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The Corvallis paperwork exchange. She has just an amazing dick pills line. Lesat has that moment where he's like, should I just go up and fuck her? There's a number of little nuggets throughout the episode that she's kind of a background and tangential figure throughout the episode, but in a way where I think you're like, okay. A person who is in the room for this many meaningful moments is gonna have a larger role to play, I assume. So I'm intrigued.

[B]

Who knows he's a vampire and who doesn't know that he's a vampire? Right. Because, like, the band doesn't know until the end of the episode that he's actually a vampire. But Christine certainly seems like she knows and I think it's interesting. Like his entourage here we have lawyer Christine. We have D? Farma, who is a show invented character, but really fun, especially when she's doing her affirmations facing the wall at the end of the episode. Incredible. And Dr. Farid, who we met in season one, is. Is here as part of the entourage among some other people who are taking various showers inside of the tour bus and stuff like that. But I think it's really fun to have this entourage around the band and these various characters to flesh out the world here. I also love the phrase he uses here when he talks about the documentary. He says bootless errand, which is not a phrase that I was aware of, but is a great, beautiful, evocative phrase. And I don't know, I just love discovering new language.

[A]

Same.

[B]

That's great.

[A]

And even, like, one of the things I love about the show, you have the capacity to discover new, beautiful phrases.

[B]

Great.

[A]

Also, you can hear a phrase that you've heard a thousand times that could sound like the first time you've heard it. Like when sat in the same stretch was like, I've seen a rough cut of the documentary. Truthful and daring. Just something about the way he said it was so specifically lean. I just. It was great. Oh, oh. And this is also where he says, maybe this is why this is set in 2025. To go back to your prior prompt, specifically so that it had to be a contemporary story so that we could hear him say, redit, redit, redit. Score.

[B]

I think an ongoing unbelievable, you know, section we should do in these recaps is like Lestat pronunciation corner because Radit is so good.

[A]

Incredible.

[B]

But nothing tops Lulu Lemon for me. Yeah, that was really funny. But, like, Radit was very good.

[A]

Radit was on the board.

[B]

This is where we meet Yarda Kloppet, who is a show invented character. The double.

[A]

So good.

[B]

Lisat, were you also thinking about the prestige when we met him?

[A]

Yeah, in part because of the, like, you take one of the most handsome people alive and you just make them look kind of astonishingly douche.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like something's a little off with the teeth. And then like also just the first glimpse and then, you know, because, you know, like, you forgot a contact. So something looks like really uncanny about his face. His hair is different. We get the line for the narration. This is another way for Lestat to prop himself up. Right. Like he's three inches shorter. You know, it's all. It's all very good. But then that question of just like, well, okay, so he. They're sending him out so that he can be photographed. Those photographs will then be uploaded to redeet, but it is to provide cover so that Lestat could be a vampire and go suck people dry and kill legions and be undetected. But, like, will there be a more specific reason to have that character in the show other than explaining how his nights go?

[B]

Yeah, as I mentioned, it's not a book character. So, like, there are already some fun, which we didn't talk about in this brother section. There are already some fun theories about what. Why they came up with this guy and what he's doing here. And I think the show is always thinking, which I really admire about it in the long term. So, like, casting someone like Justin Kirk to play Raglan James, who shows up for two scenes in season two and one scene thus far this season, but is a character that matters. And so they're like, we want to cast Justin Kirk as that character in the hopes that we get to the point in the story where it matters that Justin Kirk is playing that character. And for someone like Lestat, seeding in all of his musical stuff in the earlier seasons, when we see him, like, playing the piano, playing, like, the New Orleans jazz in season one or his opera music critique in season one, you know, like, he is this. Like, when he freaks out about the. The atonal notes that he's hearing from Satan's night out across the street. They're lucky he didn't kill them because he killed people who displeased him musically in season one. So I just like that they're always planting these seeds because they have the shape of the foal narrative, and they're like, let's not cause problems for ourselves down the road. And so like this. To me, I think if. If the fan theories are right is an elegant solution for something coming down the road. But we'll talk about that.

[A]

Interesting.

[B]

The Contessa versus the useful idiot.

[A]

Contessa was historic. That was so good. So, so, so good.

[B]

Daniel is the fucking best.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Eric Boghossian's so good. And how do you feel about vampire Daniel versus human Daniel differences? Are you seeing, like, what are you enjoying here?

[A]

I think part of what I love about Daniel in this form is that he feels completely the same to me in a way that it feels exactly right. Like, he was always such a dick and always found a way to position himself even when in the room with a vampire who could destroy him at A moment's notice. Even when he was facing his, like, health challenges, right? Even when he's like, okay, okay, you brought my laptop. Part of. And I like the. Really liked the phone call between Louis and Lestad. Louis and Leston. I didn't know about the cloud because, as you recall, I was like, what about the cloud?

[B]

I burned the laptop.

[A]

It's just, you know, the fact that, like, Daniel is a character who always thinks he's the smartest guy in the room and can. It's like this guy was made to be a vampire. He was made to navigate life in this superior fashion. I really liked, you know, the exchanges where Lestat has that, like, moment where he's just basically like, you know, when you finish, like, working through your transformational trauma, Daniel's like, I don't have any. And I believe both either. Neither. All like, that he's full of shit. And of course he does, because how could you not? And part of the way he navigates life is to say, I'm good, dude. Like, focus on your own shit. And then he's going through his version of that. And of course, when we got to see, like, his. His. His flashbacks and his trauma, like, realize what, you know, horrible things he. He had suffered through. We learned a lot about Daniel in season two through that lens. I also believe that Daniel is like, I'm fine, and I have no trouble adapting to this, like, new life because it's a life I was always meant to live and for decades have maybe wanted to live. Just a great. Just a treat.

[B]

I love your point about, like, the fact that. That, you know, he spent so much time masking, like, his Ms. Symptoms. You know what I mean? Just sort of, like, hiding that he was going through this, like, painful health crisis sets him up for someone to hide these things that are going. He's going through. But, like, if you think about someone like Claudia or even Louis, this idea of, like, the first. The first few years of being a vampire, very hard. You know, emotionally tumultuous, among other things. And so, yeah, he's out there giving

[A]

interviews, you know, on the, like, nightly news. We saw at the end of season two how well that was going.

[B]

Not great. I do want to read this passage in the book because I think what's so interesting about this idea that, like, we'll talk about this more when we do our disclosure day pod, but I think this description of how people reacted to a book purporting that vampires are real, it felt so accurate to me of just sort of like, they Looked down at their phones and said, huh? And kept scrolling. God will not be swiped. But, like, you know, I was just sort of like, yeah, you know, that's kind of. Because didn't the government say there were UFOs like, two years ago? We were all kind of like, huh.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Interesting. It just, like, kept going. I feel like that happened. So anyway, this is this idea that Lestat that, you know, in. In Anne Rice's version, the book comes out, people think it's fiction, right? But it. It's an opportunity that Lestat sees that Louis has presented him with, to sort of come out in a certain way. Like, come out of the shadows. Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is the quote from the book. And it didn't matter that they didn't believe it. It didn't matter that they thought it was art. The fact that after two centuries of concealment, I was visible to mortals. I spoke my name aloud, I told my nature, I was there. But again, I was going further than Louis. His story, for all its peculiarities, had passed for fiction in the mortal world. It was safe as the tableau of the old in Paris, where the fiends had pretended to be. Act. Pretending to be fiends on a remote and gaslit stage. I'd step into the solar lights before the cameras. I'd reach out and touch with my icy fingers a thousand warm and grasping hands. I'd scare the hell out of them, if it was possible, and charm them and lead them into the truth of it if I could. So, like, it's interesting because in the book, Lestat is, like, upset with Louis, of course, upset with the depiction of the book, but he's also like. But also excited about the opportunity, this presentation, for him to, like, live more. His more authentically true self.

[A]

Right.

[B]

To a degree. He's still performing vampirism, but it feels closer to him than anything he's been able to do before, to be his authentic self and flout the fourth law of vampirism. What do you think about this?

[A]

I'm interested in this. The idea that this would be kind of a constant push, pull, and a struggle, you know, that you would want to be able to live, like, openly, freely. This obviously, of course, makes sense and is a very, like, potent commentary for various people and. And navigating circumstances in life in different moments in time. I think also the idea that, like, people who are inside of your community being the ones to say to you, like, you shouldn't do this. Like, I liked the moment when Lesat was like, it's 2025. You know, like, if we can't, like, live freely and open and be who we are. Yeah. What are we doing? And so, of course, that also felt like a reason to say, like, you know, to have the MAGA reference where, like, there is so much progress in society and like, a real progressive embrace of, like, identity, and then that is surrounded with people who want to, like, tell you not to be who you are, which of course is, like, horrible and deeply lamentable. So Lestat as a character who is navigating his version of that feels like, really appropriate. It. I, you know, I, I think also just in more that even just like a more kind of core level, like, you're not going to tell me what to do in any respect. You're not going to tell me what to do. Just feels like a, like a central strand of, of DNA. Part of why I'm really interested in his mother entering the story. Like, what is that dynamic? But then if we think and, you know, we have this through line of these, these texts, and I, like, you definitely thought it was Louis. I had a voice in my head that was like, do they want us to think it's Louis? We see this iPad fight with Louis, and that was in the past, and then he's gone out to do this thing and kind of like craft his own story in a moment in time where Louis narrative is really dominant. Would they be texting? Would they, like, be on a break? You know, maybe it's not, but I was like, like, it's probably Louie, like, that kind of yo yoing back to each other feels like they're a relationship. But then there was that moment where, like, because we see, you know, the, the, the, the. The common technique of like, popping the text bubbles on the screen.

[B]

Right?

[A]

But then there's a one stretch where we're looking at his phone screen. First of all, that treated us to the incredible like, oh, let me find exact exactly what it was. And you are far from the things of man. And then his reply is, New Jersey. No, no. It's just incredible stuff. But the message he doesn't send is, it's been too long. I need you. I'm struggling. And he deletes the I'm struggling part.

[B]

That's very Shane Hollander of him.

[A]

Quite, quite. But so the idea that, like, part of Lestat's relationship to the world and the people around him is to say, I am undeniable and, like, you will regard me. And then part of it is like, I have to delete this text because Just like everybody else, Mortal, immortal, whatever.

[B]

I can't ask for help.

[A]

I don't know how. And I don't always even know when I need it. And sometimes I do know I need it, but I don't know how to find it. And so, like, this all just feels, like, very, kind of potently entwined.

[B]

I love that. Yeah. And, I mean, obviously they're trying to, like, lead us down that road because the texting is happening when Daniel's like, have you heard from Louis? You know, and so, of course, we're meant to be like, oh, he's hearing from Louis right now, but he's not telling Daniel.

[A]

And all Daniel's like, you won't reply to my text. He doesn't engage, even with my telepathy. But that. That's interesting, too. It's like, is Louis. Because at this moment in time, you'd be inclined to think Lestat maybe doesn't want to talk to Louis. And Louis would be like, I'm sorry, but if Louis's not answering Daniel, well. Because he just like, you weren't supposed to publish this. I burned your laptop. Yeah.

[B]

Your laptop.

[A]

For a reason, and your apology is not sufficient. So they're all just kind of mad at each other because of the book? Or is there something else?

[B]

Empire drama, the literature. Delicious. Daniel, as you say, same as it ever was. Like, still employing some of the same journalistic techniques, like the repetition of questions. Did you eat the baby? Did you eat the baby? Did you eat the baby? Here we get the rule of three. We get, did you stutter as a child? Three times in this episode? And it's funny the second time, and then it's really funny the third time as a sort of. I just tore a bunch of vampires heads off their bodies. Like, did you stutter as a child? You know?

[A]

Well, and I think especially because Lestat is. He really prides himself on being the one to, like, kind of. He's the puppet master in any conversation. Like, the Joey Chestnut moment in that exchange is very emblematic of, like, no, I'm gonna disarm you, not the other way around. But when Daniel first asks the did you stutter? Question, we can see and Daniel can see, and Claude, it hit. So then, of course, he's gonna keep poking that wound because he knows the wound is there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

As always, I have notes on Daniel's journalistic practices, but I know you do. He's observant.

[B]

He's observant, and he's like. This is like his version of the Hunt. He's on the hunt for blood. And the blood is like your emotional truth and he will find it and suck you dry. The. What do you think of the take? So like the frame narrative of the Failures, you know, the narration that we're listening to.

[A]

Yeah,

[B]

we get this sort of like reminder of it constantly of like you're listening to, you know, Diss two, side B of the Failures. The voice here is Canadian filmmaker Guy Madden. I don't know why I'd be curious why they picked that voice. He's credited as the voice of failure. But what do you think of this like intermittent interjection reminder of. You know, we're not cutting back to Louis and Armand in their, you know, in Dubai.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But we are getting these constant reminders that the story we're watching is a story we're being told.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is that useful to you or how do you feel about it? Or does it feel distracting? How do you feel about it?

[A]

I didn't think it was distracting. Yeah, I think it like kind of connects to what we were talking about earlier. Just about the non linear nature and whose account we're hearing and where are we in time. And even that like opening note of would begin in the middle. Just like we're not. We're not on solid ground and we don't have sure footing. The thing that we have is a reminder that we don't have sure footing,

[B]

which is its own anchor.

[A]

Effective. Yeah. As a way to just say, like, all right, you're. We're the wet clothes too. Like, we're spinning too, you know, which I like.

[B]

We are the wet clothes too. All right. Montreal. I am he. He is me.

[A]

Yeah. This was amazing.

[B]

I just want to note so one thing. On, on, on in Lestat's apartment here, among other gorgeous prints. Yeah, absolutely gorgeous. Among other pieces of art around. He's got a print or the real thing. Who's to say? Looks too small to be the real thing, actually of Magritte's the Lovers, which is a very famous painting of two people with sort of like sheets wrapped around their face and they're like kissing each other, but their face is like shrouded in these sheets. And it depicts like sort of this inability to actually like connect with someone. Right. Like what are the things, what are the barriers between people as they strive for intimacy? And it. And it made me think of this later when Baby Jinx is on the ceiling. A normal sentence I just said, why are you so sad? Thousands of fans loving you. I want millions. And that'll Top off that heart of yours. Billions. Then why you always gotta make it so hard for someone to give it to you? Right? So good this is Lestat's problem is, like, how much he wants intimacy, but how much he's just sort of wrapped up in that sheet anyway and can't actually connect with people.

[A]

And isn't this just the experience of being alive folks? That's undead. We're alive. Or undead real. Like Chuck and the pie maker vibes. And you know what? You're just Saran Wrap. Saran Wrap.

[B]

Yeah. But Magritte did it. First.

[A]

I want a version of the famous painting that is pushing daisies.

[B]

Fan artists, you have your task. Lestat says he's eating trust fund babies. Fucking trust fund babies. Which is very different. The Lestat we meet in the Anne Rice book. I don't need to read this passage. But like, he has adopted a Dexter esque. A serial killer who only kills serial killers ways where he's like, I'm only eating evil people. I'm only eating bad people. I'm on the hunt for people who have done evil things and are unrepentant about it. And that's who I'm eating is the listat. That is not. No, no, no. There's no indication that that is how this version of Lysdat is moving through the world, which I think is interesting.

[A]

Good eating from Louis on the iPad. Wonderful. Also, the Just like bringing Louis in via iPad here so that he can listen to the. Before he gets the nice as a balloon and then the balloon's popping. Wonderful.

[B]

Who among us has not been, like, entrapped by an iPhone?

[A]

Like, who has not accidentally given a thumbs up or like a zoom meeting when you did not mean to give a thumbs up?

[B]

Or you write huge and the phone's like, huge. Is that what you write?

[A]

That happens to me a lot.

[B]

I know. What's up with that? Some of us just, like, dramatic gaps, marks, you know, um, we get the bookstore scene, which is amazing, which they released before the season started. I'm pretty sure that the bookseller here, the book clerk here, is who's talking about how much she loves Armand is a reference to a fan who posted like, a very viral TikTok about going to the Louvre and skipping right past the Mona Lisa to go see Armand's painting at the Louvre. And I just think it's a really sweet tribute to a fan to, like, sort of write them into the show. I think that's really sweet.

[A]

I love it. Real Deborah. Ava, like, are we sure the Mona Lisa is good? Hax finale stuff there as well.

[B]

Hax finale. Great.

[A]

Very emotional.

[B]

Very good.

[A]

Very emotional. Yeah. I'm sad that show's over. It's nice when a show can, like, end and say the thing it wants to say at the end. Beautiful stuff on the bookstore scene. I've told you before in our gift swap pods that my husband Adam, who has read these books, unlike yours truly, thinks that the show is, like, one of the. Which he had not watched it either. We both watched it. Because you just thinks it's, like, one of the best things on TV and adore. I, like, almost had to pause the episode to be like, are you. Are you okay?

[B]

Like, do you need a minute?

[A]

Do you want to become a member? No, thank you. Which was a snare glass.

[B]

No, thank you.

[A]

No, thank you. This is great stuff. No.

[B]

Yeah. He's in full tantrum mode, like, from the moment he finds out of the book, you know, all through this Montreal sequence known as Safe Booksellers, the trick or treaters who show up as characters from Interview with a Vampire. The. So, like, your camera's not period accurate. To the little Louis there.

[A]

The allergies are delusional.

[B]

Toss. Yeah. To the little vampire Armand.

[A]

The Armand through line. Like, the booksellers talking about how Armand is so much more interesting and wonderful. And the trick or treater, the tattoo in the fame fight at the end, it's like constantly being surrounded by people who are like, the person you resent is like, my true north. And I think you're the way that

[B]

Arstat was like, like, in the midst of this fight, holding his own or fucking up or whatever, but, like, feeling a certain kind of way about it. And then as soon as he sees that tattoo, he's just like, are you fucking kidding me?

[A]

Unbelievable.

[B]

Then we get the Lestat ranting, as you already mentioned, like, as he's going through the book. Is this what it looks like when you go through your text? Do you also use multiple highlighter colors and tabs and underlines as you annotate?

[A]

I do like to highlight, you know, lines when I'm reading for POD Prep specifically. And also just for pleasure, I like to mark of passage color coding. I save for Pod Prep documents. That's for the Google Docs of the spreadsheets.

[B]

And you are prodigious.

[A]

I do love a color code.

[B]

We're doing a rewrite, so good.

[A]

Great stuff.

[B]

Lilo. Not Har Harlequin is a reference to the role Lestat was playing on a very significant Night in the past. We saw him as a harlequin in Armand's recollection. But I love the fact that Armand is like he was playing a harlequin and like Lestat is so offended that he got that so wrong.

[A]

Wrong.

[B]

Mallory, as an editor, how do you feel about Daniel's master? We get a snippet of Daniel Malloy's master class and he says, your editor is your priest. How did you feel about that?

[A]

Do you feel seen sources are your Sherpas, which, like all of these things are true, but I don't think Daniel believes them.

[B]

No.

[A]

Daniel Malloy has never once taken a note from an editor. I feel sure. I feel sure in the Google Docs era, Daniel is like the hits X instead of check on the track attraction

[B]

just recently rejects every single change all the time.

[A]

I feel sure.

[B]

I agree with you. The fact that, I mean, I love the. I love when he breaks in. You already mentioned breaking into play the guitar over Larry's attempt to play the guitar. He plays the note that he thinks he should be playing, snaps the car, but then. But then says, I'll replace it in the morning. You'll get a replacement in the morning. But the vision of. And this actually made me think of Josh. The vision of the vampire Lestat clutching a bowl of Trick or Treat candy. The vampire Lestat, incredible.

[A]

I thought of the Giles candy bowl too.

[B]

Who did he go to? The CVS himself and pick out this assortment of. It was a pretty good assortment of candy. And I love that, like, Lestat is going to be rude to children.

[A]

He'll take whatever I can give you.

[B]

But he did buy the candy and he did answer the door when they came knocking.

[A]

Incredible response to first seeing them, like, oh, hello. So good. The peanut allergy kid. So we, you know, it could be any number of things. It could be Snickers, it could be peanut Ms. Looked like there were some peanut M&MS. Mini packs in there. But the kid is like, I'll take a Mounds now. As you know, Mounds, one of my favorite Halloween candy options. So I was like, this guy gets it about Lestat. Then he screamed at the children and told them their allergies weren't real. And I was like, I have some notes. But purchasing the Mounds.

[B]

No, I think he got the top tier candy. I saw some Reese's product in there. Like he was really doing it.

[A]

Great stuff.

[B]

The hotel's called the Dracula's Daughter and they carry vampons.

[A]

Vampons. Incredible. Oh, my God. Soak up your dark gift with vampons.

[B]

Is that your tagline? Yeah.

[A]

What's yours?

[B]

I love it.

[A]

Oh, God.

[B]

Drain the tension away with ampons. With vampons. Oh, man. Lestat. Okay, so we get this. Like, that's why these movie producers hired you. Daniel Malloy, vampire slayer. They said you requested me. Who are these movie producers? Who is making this movie? Why are they making this documentary? If it wasn't Daniel's idea, whose idea was it? Is it Lestat's idea and he's sort of, like, moving from behind the scenes? Or is the Talamaska making a documentary? Like, who's doing this? Who's the they?

[A]

So inside this episode, I think we're, like, meant to believe that Lestat is trying to engineer all of this so that he can get his. He can commit to the record, his account and he can have his direct one through his songs. And then the one that Daniel has, like, added this extra degree of credibility to Elena.

[B]

Liner notes.

[A]

Liner notes. It would be really interesting if it was Talamaska or some other body that was seeking some level of control. And, like, you know, one of the things, obviously, we have the fanging, we have the. Justin Kirk's character is here. Obviously, Daniel's here. We have various figures, even just in the auction, the line of, like, you know, this. This note about discretion and the implication

[B]

we weren't here and I didn't know.

[A]

And, like, whichever organization you represent, this kind of little moment to remind us there might be all these other, like, figures and shadowy bod. So all sorts of possibilities. But, like, I liked that there was the return of the kind of, like, structural apparatus of hearing the different voices, you know, who are saying, like, the Fourth Law and all this. And he's not even, like, writing about us. He's writing about himself, which we got a very memorable and kind of instantly iconic version of in the season two finale with Lulu leading to him leaning forward. It's like, I own the night. I was like, oh, my God.

[B]

He's like, come get me.

[A]

Incredible. So for Lestat, for us to get a version of it there, it's like just these reminders. There are all these other forces out there who have the thing that they either want or they want to protect and preserve and shield. So there could be any number of answers at this point.

[B]

There's also. When Baby Jinx is on the ceiling.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

She's like, they're coming.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And I don't know. First of all, I don't know if that Baby Jinx is meant to be, like, real in some way.

[A]

Right.

[B]

How Prophetic. Are the prophecies here when she's talking about, he'll die, he'll die, he'll die bad. Like, I don't. I don't know. Like if that's. If we're meant to take that as, like. As law. Right. Because, like, it's like a hallucination. Or is it actually Baby Jinx? But baby. What the fuck does Baby Jinx know? You know, at the end of the day? And then when she says they're coming, does she mean the Fang Gang or does she mean some other they? Right. You know?

[A]

Right. She's got that interesting tattoo on the back of her neck. Yeah. The line about like, I'm getting married, but I'll never forget you. And this like. And then he has the honey trap line. So there's. Yeah. What does she know? And is she connected to.

[B]

Yeah, I think she's what I've determined after watching the episode a couple times. I mean, there's clues from the books and whatever, but this is not a thing that that character does in the book at all. The Baby janks character who's 14 in the books and they aged her up. But, like. Cause that she's there and she takes all those drugs intentionally so that Lestat will bite her. So that Lestat will be incapacitated on drugs. Drugs so that the Fang Gang can him up.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So when he says honey trapping Baby Jinx, that's what he means, that she was there to, like, drug him by proxy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Back at the Dracula's Daughter. Yes. Home of vampons. I can just see it, you know, those, like. I mean, especially when you're in an LA hotel. The, like, weird offerings they have at the Mini. At the, like, Mini bar.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Where they're like, here's five kinds of lube.

[A]

Yeah. Oh, well, I mean. Or Vegas.

[B]

Oh, I've never been to a Vegas hotel.

[A]

Oh, boy.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Well, you could either go to a Vegas hotel or I could just send you an incredibly memorable clip from the most recent season of Drive to Survive as part of my ongoing pursuit to get you to watch Drive to Survive.

[B]

How's it going?

[A]

Where George Russell. Not. I mean, not well, because you've yet to watch a single second of it.

[B]

But I did text you about Lewis Hamilton's dating.

[A]

Yeah, you did. So another podium for Louis this weekend.

[B]

Step in.

[A]

He finished second. Great stuff. Kimmy won again. Five wins in a row for Kimmy. Mercedes is running away with it. Another DNF for Lando. Tough times for Papaya Hive. And every F1 fan is not a Mercedes fan. Very tough. But there's a great drive to survive scene where George Russell and Toto Wolf, the incredibly accomplished and handsome team principal of Mercedes, are discussing the intimacy kids offering springs at Vegas hotels.

[B]

Fantastic.

[A]

Great stuff.

[B]

Lestat here, the Dracula Sadhgart, is playing sad boy guitar and still texting his mom, who's also his lover and also his fledgling. As we hear those international voices sort of behind him, they're talking about Lestat's need for the limelight and how this breaks the fourth, fourth great law. We already got this from Armand in season two because when Armand was talking about first meeting Lestat and seeing him play not the harlequin in the theater and Armand's like, both has like a massive boner for Lestat and thinks he's the hottest thing ever and is also like, what the fuck? Amran at that point was like living grubby in the shadows. And he's like, what are you doing up here on stage? And this is a quote from that season two episode. The fourth of our great laws was writ. No vampire shall ever relieve his true nature, Reveal his true nature to immortal and let that mortal live. And here he was prancing and preing in front of 500 mortals a night like some patronized tarted up dervish, using the dark gift for what? His vanity. His vanity, it was heresy. So that's the same like Lestat's stage career, you know, at that point in in history and his stage career now as it ever was, to a certain degree, that sort of like longing for affirmation and adulation. And he will break whatever vampire law he needs to, to get there. There's a blackout.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Is this a supernatural blackout? What do you think?

[A]

So the text we get about this is the rapture has descended upon Detroit. Seems reasonable to assume that there is some vampiric cause behind this or connection to this, especially given like the Fang gang, the regionals, Tim and Russ. The regionals was hysterical.

[B]

Really funny.

[A]

Real like top tier diminishment from the stat there, you know, I'm international, I'm global. You're regional. Tough.

[B]

Local talent trying to make a name for themselves.

[A]

They kind of go out of their way to like outline the local geography and like, you know, you want to see a real vampire bar and come to this town and we've got our feeding farm beneath the floorboards and just this sense of like, what is. But then of course, Leatt is moving also. Just loved in the text his descriptions of where he was Using European cities that have American core. That was really great. But yeah, it's. It seems like there's a supernatural cause to this, right? Must be.

[B]

Stay tuned to find out. Okay. Detroit, night two.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Black licorice. We see Lissat playing the violin. This is a key aspect of his musical journey, if you remember from season two. And he talks about. I think he talks about Nikki in season one, but Nikki who is like his first paramour who we met in the flashbacks in season two. Armand sort of kidnapped him from the street and then they took him to his creepy little den and they all fed on him and stuff like that. Nikki is Lestat's first love and he was a violin player. He died as they talk about in season two. And Lestat teaches himself violin, like tribute to Nikki or whatever. But him playing the violin is a key part of. It would be ridiculous. Ridiculous to have Lestat the rock star and not have him play the violin. And I just think I love the way that Daniel Hart has incorporated it into this song and hopefully some of the other songs did it to you sound like the police song. Da doo doo doo da da da da.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is what I say to you.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I mean, I think Lestat would be the first to admit that that was an inspiration here.

[A]

Great stuff.

[B]

Then we have this breakdown. What like what did you make of this breakdown that happens before the drug blood? Like what we get, we get a description which I can read or not, but like there is no comp for this in the book, so I can't really explain it. So what was your impression of what was going on? That other than his like tambourine based frustrations at Larry, what's going on? That Lestat has this pick up the tambourine breakthrough moment.

[A]

I did not like totally understand what was going on here. I think that, you know, the way that the embrace at the end, because he's seeing, you know, his various muses, as he calls some of these key loves and figures and people who he's had a connection to across. Across time and then lost across time. And the like my music wrapped itself around me like a jungle snake constricting its prey. And a lifetime of blood bartering, overwhelmed Poral lo muses appeared in my mind and in the now around me. Memories taking their turn. Blood in, blood out. Hammering away at the performative vampire Persona I had welded into armor. The armor cracked. We love a wear it like armor kind of thing.

[B]

Great.

[A]

The bridge buckled. The bonafide vampire emerged center stage. It was I who had been Adequate. It was I who had been holding us back. And now, exposed in the raw, under the white hot lights, my bandmates began to feed. And that sand I had been grinding them for finally unleashed a euphoric grindiness spilling into the crowd, into their bodies, enveloping the venue. I did not understand what caused that. I thought that the sentiment expressed was really interesting, but I didn't quite understand what the trigger. Me neither was in this, like, I'm not mad about combat over, like, who gets this solo, and then he kind of falls to his knees and is in this, like, state. This. Yeah, I didn't. I wasn't totally following that.

[B]

I was reminded of when Louis is turned in season one, episode one, and this is how he describes it, the blood. It came as a dull roar at first and then a pounding, like the pounding of a drum growing louder and louder to. Some enormous creature was coming through a dark and alien forest. A huge drum. And so I was thinking, like, when it was like the jungle snake wrapped itself around me, I was thinking about that, like, alien forest line. But I don't have, like, a great explanation for what's going on here. I'm not mad about it. I just don't really fully understand it. But this idea of, like, he gets these flashes, right? We see Luke as we first met him in the audience, you know, like Louis, season one. In the audience, we get flashes of things, scenes we'll surely see in more depth as the show goes on. But we see characters like Magnus, who is his creator, or Nikki or Gabriella, et cetera, his mom, et cetera, his lover, his fledgling. For the Lestat. In the book, this was like, sort of a stated intention for why he was doing this music tour in the first place and why he was writing this book is I wanted my band and my book to draw out not only Louis, but all the other demons that I had ever known and loved. I wanted to find my lost ones, awaken those who slept as I had slept. Fledglings and ancient ones, beautiful and evil and mad and heartless. They'd all come after me when they saw those video clips and heard those records, when they saw the book in the windows of the bookstores. And they'd know exactly where to find me. So that version of the slide is intentionally drawing out who's out there. Ghosts in his memory or physical, actual ancient vampires who might be sleeping around the world. What can his music woke him up. What can his music wake up as he goes forward?

[A]

Well, I guess there's like, a little bit of That. I mean, there is a version of reading this where it's like, Lestat is just as big of a Patrick from Schitt's Creek fan as we are. Like, you know, and he's like, I

[B]

have never thought of that Tina Turner song the same way again. Simply the best portrayal of the MC in Cabaret. You changed my life.

[A]

Who among us. You know, the idea that he's been saying to Larry, pick up the tambourine, put down the guitar, let me shine. And then because Larry has like, stubbornly, in a very Lestat esque way, refused. And he's like, this is my moment. I will.

[B]

Larry's like, I used to be the front man of the band, by the way.

[A]

And Lestat knows that and has like remarked many times throughout the episode on his jealousy, right? Like that he wants to strangle him. Like, the way he wants to strangle that he's choking the neck of the guitar and he wishes that it were his neck. The idea that he kind of like has to, for a second, very organically stop resisting and just sort of succumb and then is like swept up in the power of not just the music, but the. The way that the crowd who has assembled is actually swept up in it too.

[B]

I don't even know if the bands.

[A]

Yeah, the rendering, like, totally captured that. But I think that idea tracks.

[B]

Yeah, I love that. Honey Trap And Baby Jinx, we've already talked about her. Anything else you want to say about this, like, overdosing Baby Jinx on the ceiling, Trainspotting baby moment that we get inside of this episode?

[A]

This was just all really entertaining and good, you know, the close up of the cocktail, the drug cocktail tabs on her, on her tongue. Obviously we get a number of like, incredible lines from Lestat describing this cocktail blend right inside of his blood after. I particularly liked the callback to, like, when he's basically like, you know. Yeah, a vampire of my stature should be like a little bit more on. On guard for the blood poisoning stuff. But, like, I have fallen.

[B]

I have once again fooled me.

[A]

Once was. Was so great. I liked when he goes in and. And goes into the locker room or the locker room, the dressing room, and it's like, who's od? Every hand is this off. Oh, man, it's really good.

[B]

D, to be clear, when Dan, when Daniel walks in, he sees D snorting coke.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

D's role. And Roland. Roland Jones has said this about the role she plays in the band. She's either the social media manager or the way they get Their drugs. So essentially, Daniel walks in, sees her snorting cocaine, and then he. We see later that he has bitten her. So, like, that's how he can have some cocaine is by biting, drinking her blood that's full of cocaine. So that is a role that D Pharma fulfills inside of the entourage. So she certainly seems to know that vampires are real.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And Christine does. So it's really just like. And the doctor. Dr. Farid certainly does. So it seems to be just the band that is in for a bit of an awaking at the end of the episode, but seems like maybe they

[A]

should have noticed too.

[B]

Well, in the book, he tells them, and they're like, that's hilarious. You think you're the vampire Lestat. We get it, dude. You're a vampire. And then they're like, oh, you're actually a vampire. Wow, wow, wow. But, yeah, De and Daniel just being, like, raising their hands was really funny. The overdosing, all the profound things she says to him on the ceiling. But yeah, there's just, like, comedy wrapped inside of, like, incisive psychological commentary and wrapped inside of, like, a prophecy.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Of death.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

This is some great fantasy television. Loved it. Immortal properties. So the event, the party that takes place at the hotel that leads up to the fang gang fight at the Dra. At Dracula's Daughter.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

There's a step and repeat that the band and then eventually list out in his pink silk blouse and pink corset, giving them the pussycat is what he

[A]

says it, which is I'll give the paps my pussycat. Iconic.

[B]

Incredible. Are you gonna say that next time someone makes you when you're a moderator.

[A]

Moderator.

[B]

Step on a step and repeat. I hate a step and repeat.

[A]

I mean, we have been talking about purchasing some suits too.

[B]

So, okay, when we get our, like,

[A]

not my color, but our full suit.

[B]

Glam on. You can pull it off the pink silk. I don't think so.

[A]

Definitely.

[B]

But the. The seven repeat. It says Dracula's Daughter the name of the hotel, and then it says Immortal Pride. And this is not a book thing, so I don't know what this is, but it feels like something, you know? Is this the they?

[A]

Oh, yeah. I like it. Right.

[B]

And who is.

[A]

Who is that? Just a cover for another thing. What are you more excited to track throughout the season? Immortal properties or vampon usage? Vampon usage or Wigwatch TM with Joanna Robinson. TM for Baby Lestat.

[B]

Wigwatch is gonna be a little tough this season. I love you show. I love this show more than any other show. I have some wig question. Oh, God. You mentioned the drug lines. The drug line that I love the most was when he says MDMA and lsd. The Torvill and Dean of hallucinogenics. Torval and Dean are British ice skating duo from the 1980s. And it's just like a very specific I word. Searched it in the book just in case it was like something that he talks about in the book that's set in the 1980s, but it's not. It's just sort of like the writers are really fun, funny. The Torval and Dean of hallucinogenics.

[A]

Fantastic.

[B]

Incredible. Daniel still trying to get his what did you make of this scalpel conversation, baby? James calling list out the scalpel. He's like, put it on the T shirts. Very Mallory ribbon. Put it on the merch.

[A]

He's just like us.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Does he actually have merch? Unlike us? You've already said that. The answer to the question is, yes,

[B]

he does have merch. I did buy a T shirt.

[A]

Oh, delightful. Maybe I'll buy one too. You know, I love merch. Um, I liked this description and I like. It felt fitting that he embraced that description because there's, like, part of the scalpel is. You know, I feel equipped to say this as somebody who had never seen a second VR but has watched two seasons of the Pit. Precision, right? Precision. The deliberate, intentional cut. But I think also that's. That's how Lestat is embracing and positioning the label, I think. Obviously, obviously, like, when you hear it, as a viewer of the show, it's.

[B]

I.

[A]

What I see in my mind's eye is just like a knife, a carnage, like a knife cutting through and all the damage that you can do. So it feels like a. Another version of this. Like, well, wait, how are we seeing ourselves? Who are we telling people we are, what do they see, etc. But put it on the merch. It's just great stuff. Also, like, when BB Jinx. This is just real, like, baby jinx poet stuff. He has the heart in his mouth and he's like, do you want to fucking, like, yeah, bitch. So good.

[B]

Very band aid of her, I think. But, like, I think that also just, like the way that, like, again, the writing of the show just, you know, scratches some itch inside of my brain that I love so much. Like, when we get the whole eco urinal thing and learning about vampire, you know, anatomy and how. How, like, the blood urine. And he's like, never told you about that, did he? You know, all that sort of stuff. Yeah, but he's like, we Chardonnay it. And all three vampires had their glass of chardonnay ready to, like, throw it. I don't, you know, Hobbits and dragons, gmail.com. why Chardonnay, cousin? Like, why is that the.

[A]

Got to rewatch sideways, see what notes are in there to apply to this lesson.

[B]

Peter Noir. Yeah. So like the Chardonnaying. But so like when he says, what would the scalpel do between this, that and basically, it's like some people in the oven, but like in the. In the oven, in the elevator.

[A]

But like, he'd also fuck people in an oven.

[B]

He's like referring to himself as the scalpel immediately. He's like, adopted this branding. And then he's like, I'll Chardonnay these regionals. You know what I mean? Like, the way that he's just like picking up the specific language of the scene that he is careening in his drug induce haze. Careening through is just fantastic. The cuts that we get in this drug, you know, like he's dancing in the club and he's. He sort of like shakes his head down and shakes it back up and he's on stage and then shakes it down again and he's in the club or when he's like spinning, there's like baby Jinx. But there's also Louis in his, like, I just poisoned you, you know, New Orleans wig and stuff like that. So just sort of like those glitches in time and glitches in place were just really fun for me in terms of that, like self edit on the Failures vinyl.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Editorial wags of an insane person. Note to self edit that out in the final version. So what do you make of that? Like, what do you make of this is not the final version of the film, like someone forgot to take out. And then why would Lestat. He certainly said plenty of other insulting things about Louis, like depiction of him. So why would editorial wags of an insane person be beyond the pale and not want to make it into the mix there? You know, I. I mean, it's funny.

[A]

Hysterical. I read that as even Lestat clocked that that was. He was telling on himself. Like, it's too. It's. He's describing himself and so it's too uncomfortable. Like, you don't want to give your audience a reason to think that about you. Right. So editorial. These are the editorial wags of an insane person. It's like anyone hearing him say that is going to say, that's what you're doing. These are the editorial wags of an insane person. I do think the fact that. Note to self edit that out in the final version that it is in there is. You noted that gets the theory brain going of like.

[B]

Well, does that mean he.

[A]

Did he just forget? Did he forget There's a lot going. Is he not around to edit it out? Interesting.

[B]

All right. In the lead up to his scrap with the regionals, Lestat mentions the queen's blood a few times.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then later he says imf. International Monetary Fund. Imf. Freezing your accounts because. Because you have the blood of a patricidal queen inside of you. I don't think this is spoilers say because he's talked about this in season two, he says to Armand and Louis, I have the blood of Magnus in me. That's his maker. Magnus burned. I have the blood of Akasha in me. And in reference to Armand, he says he doesn't know who that is, but we do. That's the Queen of the Damned. Akasha, the Queen of the Damned. The name of the second book. And so when he says I have the blood of the queen inside of him, he's talking about Akasha. Right. Who has been patricidal queen.

[A]

Right. In the show.

[B]

Yes. Has been cast in the show. Yes.

[A]

Exciting, exciting.

[B]

Akasha. All right. What the queen's blood does, we can all find out together. But you know he has it inside of him. All right. After party on the asshole floor.

[A]

So good.

[B]

You mentioned this incredibly random line that Christine gets, but I just love it. I'm so. I'm scoring dick pills and Mogadishu for a UN Peacekeeper when in walks Stuart Copeland of police fame wearing a Korean mouthful of air ammo. Christine, you icon. I want to hear all of her stories. Incredible woman.

[A]

Unbelievable.

[B]

I love that line. And it's just like a random throwaway line that they wrote for Christine. I just think it's. I love this show so much.

[A]

So good. Will we get like a theater of the absurd. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Like Christine. Accounting.

[B]

Christine's POV of an episode. I would love that.

[A]

That would be amazing.

[B]

I would love that Hierarchy of vampiric pleasure from Lestat. This was historic murder, then draining, then the petit coup, the little sip, then fucking baby James D. And a bellman in the elevator. That's the hierarchy. Do you think Lestat should put immortal erection on the merch as well as the scalpel?

[A]

Talk about merch. I would buy.

[B]

Yeah. Lestat, immortal erection.

[A]

I have an immortal Life. And I carry with it an immortal erection. And I am not ashamed of it. Sex is fun. Like the fun I sing about in long veins. It's the extra beat and it just seals it. It's so, so, so, so good. Does that song suck when you back on it now? It does suck. I have some residuals coming in, actually. Incredible. And like, this was a really. This was great because the description is like, you're just like. You have a feel yourself smiling as you watch this and listen to it. The cuts to the elevator sex scene and the.

[B]

Then like, there's like a subliminal weird cut. There's a cut to the vodka bottle.

[A]

Yes, there's. And there's a lot about it that seems, like, thrilling and very sexy. And then there's a lot that seems really tiring. And then later, he's like, my sex legs, like, I can't fight the bang gang. I'm like, yeah, that looked exhausting. I know you pushed all the buttons, but there was, like, a lot going on. It's just all very great. But another way to say, you know, like, Louis, when he's talking about Louis like this, it tipped around vampire sex, didn't it? You know this like, well, what are you gonna get from me that you didn't get from him? You got the urinal sequence. Now this and then carnal pleasure, since is essential to a vampire survival if only to keep time's baggage from burying you. So again, it felt like like a little microcosm of the show where there's something like really kind of hot and. And fun and like a night out at the club about the sequence. But then there was something really, like, poetic about it, like, why do you do these things because they feel good, but also to distract yourself for just like eight floors of buttons from thinking about how miserable you are.

[B]

Well, and we get this in. In among all the, like, sexual flashes that we get of, like, Nikki, etc. Etc. We get like a flash to a fight that he and Louie had in New Orleans. And so it's just sort of like when he says, like, to distract you from. Right. It's like, this is the pain that he's trying to avoid. So let's just. Just like, marinate in the pleasure instead. The Fang Gang.

[A]

Tooth team.

[B]

The Tooth Team.

[A]

Tooth team Might have been my so good. Might have been my favorite about Tooth Team.

[B]

So good. Also, like when le at the urinal and Tim is like, making a snide remark about Russ being non binary, like the they them, and he's like. Ah. But still, it is respectful, like silence at a urinal. Yeah, I just thought that was really good. Incredible. Um, but here comes Daniel Malloy and Sam the Vampire, who is Daft Punk, I guess.

[A]

I guess.

[B]

Enter. They get a great, like, low camera, sort of, like, heroic Enter. And they. You know. And then Daniel gets to drop his iconic line, and then he just gets to, like, fuck up a bunch of people, and we get to see Eric

[A]

Bosian decapitated with, like, a string. Yeah, wonderful. Really, really great.

[B]

And then. Were you a stutterer as a child?

[A]

This was a really fun action sequence. We love a hallway fight.

[B]

We do.

[A]

We love a hallway fight.

[B]

I love that Lestat has that line about something, like, constraining architecture. Some, like, confining architecture, dragging his face,

[A]

like, to knock the drywall off the wall there. That was really great. But I like that it's, like, mixed in with the action and all of the intentionally disorienting cuts. We have this, I thought, appropriate and right bit of narration from him. Like, there are plenty of things that he says that are sort of. You're like, okay, like, sure. But you know when he's like, I was just singing my songs and fucking my food. Like, what are all. What about all these other people? Like, what did Louis do? Like, this book, it wasn't on me. I didn't do this. I didn't put this out into the world in the first place. And, you know, it's always nice when we have an excuse to think about either Port Noise Complaint or Tommy Norris fucking an omelette in season two of Landman. So thanks for that, Lestat. Thanks. Thank you always.

[B]

But, you know, you love talking about porno.

[A]

I sure do. And Landman, Two of my favorites. Two sacred texts collecting fledglings like they

[B]

were L. What was better, Lul or Le Booboo?

[A]

Oh, just I. For me, Redid was the best. But, like, they're all just fantastic. But, yeah, he's like, louis outed us already. Why is everyone mad at me? And of course, we know that they were all mad at Louie, too, but I just.

[B]

It's. It's a.

[A]

It's a good note. And then, of course, the way he's, like, mocking their platitudes. Platitudes. Their self importance, their sense of self importance. Before he's just completely undone by the tattoo and then rescued.

[B]

Really, really good. What does this mean? And once you reveal yourself, you have to be on all the time and remember every face you've ever met. And everywhere you go, everyone Remembers the thing they said to you in the room that you share there.

[A]

And we can basically, we get, like, a moment, a beat of, like, all these people now know that this is who I am. So, like, is that, like,

[B]

on all the time? Once you reveal yourself, you have to be on all the time.

[A]

I mean, it. It's. Yeah. I don't know, maybe like, just tracking them, making sure they don't reveal more to other people than you reveal. Like, are these all people that he has to kill now that he has to eliminate?

[B]

Or do you have to perform vampirism in a certain way? Do you now feel the burden of having to, like, be the vampire le. Because you've revealed yourself as a vampire? Yeah.

[A]

To live up to a certain image.

[B]

Blood. It's funny because I'm a vampire. All right. One more ominous portent for the road, as you mentioned. But then maybe more of the world would still be alive if Dan had not rallied his army downstairs. Also, shout out to the stat calling him Dan, which is not something Louis ever did. It was Daniel.

[A]

Amazing.

[B]

And he's like, dan, Dan. I think it's fun. A hotel in Windsor, Canada.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And in conclusion, incest.

[A]

Yes. Yep.

[B]

It's not much a reveal, I guess. I know it's common gossip now. The first thing one thinks about when my name comes up. I assume a privileged individual such as yourself enjoys a little dirt in their sandwich. Fledgling, lover. Mother. So to be clear, because she's a fledgling, that means he made her.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So that's his mom. Gabriella.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Who he also fucks.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Who he also turned into a vampire.

[A]

Will this. You don't have to answer this question because hopefully this will be clarified in the canon of the show in time. Did they. Were they fucking before they were vampires? Or is the idea that, like, once you become a vampire, you are removed from yourself society. Yeah. In a way that would make this a little less daemon. The Harry Harrell dreaming about eating out his mom. Or Jimmy and Boardwalk actually fucking his mom. Spoiler. Or any other wonderful bit of Sunday night prestige TV incest that you might want to reference. We could go with Rome, though that's siblings, of course, not a parent child. That's a more limited text, thankfully.

[B]

Thanks for this complete rundown of incest on hbo.

[A]

I definitely, at one point during House of the Dragon run, for sure made like. Like, just a. I was alarmed to be able to make a pretty long list.

[B]

Just off the dome, off the D. Let's add the vampire list.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Tune in to find out.

[A]

Okay. So I. I'm. I'm expecting clarity on that front. Will we get it? I don't know. I hope so. But, yeah. This was a. You know, this was a surprise to me.

[B]

Here she comes. Jennifer E. Lee of Pride and Prejudice fame or anything else that you prefer to think the original Callan Stark on Game of Thrones. From the. From the lost pilot. That's right. We should say the stutter returns.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

As soon as he sees his mom, the stutter comes back. And we heard him stutter at the end of season two when he was talking to Louis. Right.

[A]

So.

[B]

Yeah. And then they fuck. So that's the vampire Lestat. Anything else you want to say?

[A]

Seems like a perfect place to end the episode.

[B]

I think we really did it.

[A]

Or the non. Spoiler section of the episode, I should say. Let's go to the. I can't wait for episode two.

[B]

Oh, I know.

[A]

So excited.

[B]

I know. Sunday. So these episodes will. Our episodes will come out on Mondays. That's right. So that's exciting. Book. Spoiler section. If you don't want to know what you don't know, leave. Okay. This is what I'm so excited to talk to you about.

[A]

Okay. I feel like I caught something on Google that I didn't understand that might be this. Oh, does this have to do with Justin Kirk? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I was like, I don't know what this means at all. And I'm just.

[B]

I don't want to wait for Joanna to spoil me. Not the Internet.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

All right. The Tale of the Body thief.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Lestat and Raglan James switch bodies.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so when. How.

[A]

Why? So that. So Lestat Isat is bored, and Raglan

[B]

sort of tricks him into doing this.

[A]

Okay, so we should be assuming based on that that the. The Raglan at the auction is actually Lestat.

[B]

You don't have. That is not automatically.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But based on the timeline, however, if you go back and rewatch that scene based on that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Every. Basically every time they say the vampire Lestat, the camera cuts to Justin Kerr and he's like. And he's like, who, me? Yeah, he. He's walk. He walks up the aisle with his head. Head, like, tilted up in a very Sam Reed way, and then he twirls on his foot around in a very Sam Reed as Lestat way. I not only think that that is Lestat in Justin Kirk's body. Yeah. But I think Louis knows that that's Lestat. Based on the looks that Louis gives to Raglan inside of that scene.

[A]

He should Be able to, like, sense him. Right. Based on their connection and, like.

[B]

Well, but because he made him. They don't have, like, the psychic connection necessarily. So, like. But should Armand be able to tell? Does Armand know, you know, et cetera, et cetera? I don't know, but I definitely think that. So I do think Lestat is in the room. I think Lestat could not resist showing up to his own funeral, essentially. But he's in a mortal body. That's a mortal body. Even though it's the personality, heart, mind of Lestat. Okay, so the tale of the body thief is sort of about Lestat trying to get that body, body. And no vampire will turn because of the events of what happens in Queen of the Damned, which I don't need to get into. But, like, no vampire will turn him in that body to a vampire. So he's Listat as a mortal. Okay, so is he after that blood? Because he can use that, his own blood, to turn himself, I think.

[A]

Oh, interesting. But then will he be in Justin Kirk's body forever? He can't get Sam Reid's body back? Or is this why we have this?

[B]

Don't we have a double? But the double is because Lestat is put into a. I. I have not read this book. I've read. I read two books in the last couple weeks. I did not read Tale of the Body Thief. My understanding is that he gets put into a different mortal body. And I think the reason that they have put Sam Reed in this double body is so that they can. And he'll, like, fix his teeth and, like, grow his hair out.

[A]

He'll get some Invisalign and the little perm.

[B]

And so that they can have Sam Reed playing Lestat and not have to, like, cast another person to play him.

[A]

His eyes will change once he becomes a vampire.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Solved it.

[B]

Solved it.

[A]

Great.

[B]

But it's really.

[A]

I mean, what about the three inches?

[B]

Oh, it's gonna be tough.

[A]

Well, he's. Sorry, he's packing a vodka bottle elsewhere. He's got plenty of inches to spare.

[B]

That's just really fun, this idea that Lestat is actually in that scene. And book readers know, but non book readers or people who aren't Googling around don't know, you know, in terms of, like, faces in the crowd while performing.

[A]

Yeah,

[B]

that's how Magnus turned Lestat. Like, he came to. He would come to Lestat's performance and sit in the audience and stare at him. And he was, like, enraptured by him and his performance. So this idea of seeing a face in the crowd is a very. Like, his original trauma, sort of, because it was quite traumatic. He described it in season one, how he was turned, and I presume we'll see it in this season. But, like, his transformational trauma. His transformation trauma. But yeah, Magnus was a. Was a face in the. The crowd. And the way he described, like, the long face, I don't know if that's necessarily about Magnus, but it's similar to the way it's described in the book. The sort of the dark pits of his eyes and the way his face is. And Lelio. He is performing as Lelio when Magnus comes to the theater to turn him. So that's very specific to his origin story, his trauma inside of that.

[A]

What about the wolves?

[B]

The wolves? He killed eight wolves when he was immortal.

[A]

Just put this.

[B]

And he wears. He wears a coat that has wolf fur on it. The wolf killer coat.

[A]

Not nice.

[B]

And Magnus calls him wolf killer. I think he might refer to himself as wolf killer as well. But Magnus calls him wolf.

[A]

That sounds like Lestat. Hot.

[B]

The killer tattoo.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, we got that. Real, like, look at that.

[B]

Okay, so in the books, Baby Jinx is a vampire. Already at 14, she's a member of the fang gang. Okay, she's not a vampire. Herit. Because Lestat would know she's immortal, a mortal. But perhaps she's about to be transformed.

[A]

Okay,

[B]

killer is Bruce, who is the vampire who assaulted Claudia.

[A]

Oh, so, okay. Oh, okay.

[B]

Is that plotline going to be brought into here as the regional vampires? Is that how we. Because I know Delaney's in this season, the actress who plays Claudia, so I assumed. I thought it was be, like, flashback. Right. But, like, how are they going to use her? And then is that a way to get, like, Louis into this story? You know, because of his feelings about that and stuff like that. But, like, so her, like, I'm getting married. Like, it feels very like the gorgeous Buffy vampire slayer. Like, is she going to get married to Bruce? And is that going to be the continuation of that. Of that story?

[A]

Ooh, disturbing.

[B]

Yeah. Should I not have ended on that note? Remember how Justin Kirk is probably Lestat? That's so fun. And again, that's why you cast Justin Kirk for that role, so that you can get a character who can study Sam Reed and do his mannerisms, but as Justin Kirk? Really fun. Love it.

[A]

Sad. We only have six episodes left.

[B]

I know. I don't know how much of Queen of the Damned we're gonna get this season. As you said, they've Cast the actress.

[A]

So will that just be. It's like, will that be the reboot brand for, like, next season? We'll get, like, an introduction.

[B]

Queen of the Damned season, or. And then are we going to get a tale of the body Thief season? Are they just going to do each book as a season or what? I don't know.

[A]

What if they start putting Cole in a Star wars story after all of these rebrands?

[B]

And Rice's immortal universe presents. Yeah. The Dam Colon, Star Wars Story A And Louis story.

[A]

I love it. I love that.

[B]

Um, all right, well, we did it, so. What.

[A]

What a joy.

[B]

I'm really excited to do this show with you.

[A]

Same. I can't wait.

[B]

I'm excited to overheat in this coat every day.

[A]

So will you be. What's the strategy?

[B]

My wolf killer coat.

[A]

Are you taking it like. Is it joining you on the commute? Are you keeping it here? No, it'll.

[B]

It'll be over there by the furry that we made Kai wear for the prestige TV podcast. It'll be here waiting for me.

[A]

I would say, like, aren't you afraid that it could be, like, someone could abscond with it? But the fact that the furry remains

[B]

still there for months on end.

[A]

The furry, which is Shrek, we put it on our. Our. Our little rack of. Of murder. I would never dare to mess with the set deck.

[B]

I don't think anyone wants this code. I don't think anyone's stealing it.

[A]

Absolutely wonderful.

[B]

Thank you so much. I love it. Goes all the way down to the floor. Okay, thank you. To.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Jacob Cornette. Thank you for the Giles stickers. Carlos Shiraboga, Scott Lee, Our genera. Dinneron Squad.

[A]

Our own fans.

[B]

Anyone else? Our own fang gang. Thank you so much. To vampire Piers.

[A]

Yeah, sure.

[B]

To vodka bottles.

[A]

I mean, yeah, quite.

[B]

To Torval and Dean and to Valerie Rubin. We'll see you soon.