‘Interview with the Vampire’ Recap: ‘After the Phantoms of Your Former Self’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Two of ‘Interview with the Vampire’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Abusive relationships are often portrayed in violence. One partner hitting the other, beating them to a pulp, and so on. Especially in media. Often, the psychological aspects are left out entirely, focusing only on the physical aspects of the act. Seeing someone back handed ensures the audience understands that this relationship is abusive. How else are these types of relationships to be illustrated? Truthfully, abusive relationships don’t always contain physical violence. Mental, emotional, psychological, all of these types of abuse exist, and they are overlooked in media; thrown to the side for the more shocking displays of brutality. Yet, being physically hit isn’t always the case. Louis is very desperate to point out that he was a willing participant with Lestat.

Victims of abuse will often try to cover the abuse or justify it in many ways. It isn’t always the abuser’s fault, after all, they will take the blame. When in reality, they truly were just victims, unable to stop what was happening to them. The coping that comes along with being an abuse survivor leans towards the self-deprecating. Untreated trauma also produces similar attributes. Louis is no different. He takes a lot of the blame, although admits that Lestat had a hand in a lot of his behaviors.
He isn’t a killer, in the sense that he doesn’t enjoy the act of murder like Lestat does. However, he had no problem in killing people until 2000, when he stopped. It’s admirable, in a sense, to stop a bad behavior such as that. Being a Vampire seems complicated, filled with urges that are hard to control. Of which Louis claims to be a master of, now. Louis is just a product of his abuser.

Lestat hunted Louis, chose him, manipulated him, and we the audience see it all. How Lestat carefully gives just enough praise, just enough vulnerability, and knows all the right times to love bomb Louis; disarming him and keeping him complacent with the life Lestat is making them both live. Lestat will give Louis everything, so long as he willingly complies with what Lestat wants. He knows how to withhold information about this new life as a Vampire, knows when to inform Louis of certain traits and abilities. It’s control. It’s all about control. Lestat uses the guise of being lonely, desperate for companionship, specifically with Louis, to inform him that no one else could possibly be what he needs.

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​The irony is, Louis is also desperate for companionship, and most importantly, control. Louis is a Black man in Louisiana. Trying to contend with White Men in business and it only gets him so far. Being a Vampire and Lestat’s partner open new doors for him. Gives him that power he craves. Gives him control over his own life. Except that it’s not control over his own life. Lestat is still calling all the shots, still driving this train. Lestat isolates Louis from his family in a different way now. Louis cannot control himself, he’s a baby Vampire, a Fledgling, and yet he clings to the shreds of his humanity. The ultimate test comes when he’s left alone with his newest nephew.

Daniel is left for several minutes, obsessively asking if Louis ate the baby. All while they’re having dinner. Louis didn’t, as it turns out, and we’re led to believe that this was the last time he ever saw his family. While he claims to not kill people anymore, over the course of their dinner, he drinks a bag of blood in a wine glass, as a typical Vampire Trope. He then kills and eats an animal, draining it of its blood before Daniel’s eyes. And then, feeds from a living person. He doesn’t kill the guy, however, because he doesn’t do that anymore. While his snack does pass out as he leaves, he’s at least alive.

Louis is a victim. That doesn’t mean the victim can’t turn into an abuser themselves. He’s clearly toying with Daniel. Their history playing a large part in this meeting now. Either way, Louis wants his story told and told right. It’s interesting to see how Louis takes accountability for his actions in specific ways. Whenever he talks of his relationship and actions with Lestat, he’s quick to justify Lestat’s behavior, quick to take the blame by saying how he was willing and responsible for his own choices. Abuse isn’t just physical. Even away from Lestat, Louis defends him, still. Caught in the web. Stuck in his role. Unable to see past the guilted cage Lestat has put him in.

To Louis, Lestat was a first love. To Lestat, Louis is a possession. It’s a problem that isn’t going to go away.

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