‘Interview with the Vampire’ Recap: ‘The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child’s Demanding’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Four of ‘Interview with the Vampire’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.

A child is not a fix for a marriage. As Daniel pointed out, Claudia was not a Band-Aid for Louis and Lestat’s s*hitty marriage. Despite what either of them tried to make her. Louis did find Claudia half burned and on the verge of death, begged Lestat to save her, turn her like he did Louis. Claudia wasn’t intended to be a fix, Louis just wanted to have saved one person from that night. The night he caused riots and burned down the town. Claudia did get saved, as much as a 14-year-old can be. Turning her has consequences. Ones that neither Louis nor Lestat are ready for. Making Claudia a teenager instead of a child was a much-needed change from her original conception. Especially with what gets brought up later. Teens have impulse control issues, hormones rampaging their systems, and an insatiable hunger for more than just food.

Claudia is a fascinating character. She is the combination of Lestat’s blood lust and Louis’ sensibility. She hunts with abandon, takes what she wants, is brutal in a way neither of them expected, but delights Lestat with her viciousness. Louis tries to dissuade her, tries to contain her. Claudia is oblivious to much of the inner workings of their family dynamic. She knows Daddy Louis and Uncle Lestat are romantically involved. She even asks how it works between them. Yet, she doesn’t question further. She says Louis is her favorite, but she knows she’s more like Lestat. Somehow, they work.

They work very well together for 5 years. Containing a baby vampire, one that’s also a teenager, forever frozen at 14, would have its own challenges. Somehow it works. Claudia is a cover for the deeper issues between Lestat and Louis. Hiding the cracks and flaws with her distracting antics. Learning to hunt from Lestat and chastise Louis for his own tastes. It is something that keeps the family going. Everything is bright and shiny and happy with Claudia around. Until it isn’t. Until Louis’ mom dies, until the tense family reunion at her Wake. Until Claudia realizes she’s 19 but still looks 14. Then Claudia falls in love. Instead of killing three racist young women, she meets a young man and falls in love. In the heat of the moment, things get carried away.

Heart break is one of the hardest pills to swallow. Even more so when you kill the person you love on accident. Claudia is more than distraught and there’s nothing to do. Nothing to console her. She is forced to watch as the love she had for such a short time is incinerated, turned to ash before her very eyes. Louis doesn’t approve and Lestat doesn’t care. The cold-hearted truth is they’re not humans anymore. Lestat has made that more than clear this whole time. He just doesn’t know how else to prove it to them. It’s the biggest contention between them all. That is until Claudia takes things into her own hands. Saved by Devils and called an Angel by the man she loved. Claudia waits until morning and presumably throws herself into the sun beam created by the skylight above the piano

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​Why bring Claudia up now? Why share her diaries? Why offer this glimpse into their life? Louis hadn’t brought any of this up at their first meeting. He’d never shared so openly. Why now? Louis claims it’s because he didn’t want to admit to all of it. After all, reading your child’s diary to find out you weren’t they parent you thought you were, is a painful truth not many would want to see let alone accept. Not to mention the pain she had been put through. They took a 14-year-old child and turned her into a vampire without her consent. Not that either of them likely had consented either. That’s not the point. They forced a way of life onto her without consideration. Lestat knew that she would be stuck at 14, with all that encompasses being 14. He still turned her anyway. All because Louis asked him to.

Claudia is the one who loses the most in this story. No matter how it’s spun. Claudia is a consequence that neither Louis nor Lestat will never admit to. Lestat continued to treat Claudia as if she was a normal baby vampire, trying to mold her into his image without recourse. Louis who blindly thought he could keep Claudia innocent, gentled her. Both seeing her as the daughter they could never have, a child Lestat didn’t even want.

Claudia was a pawn in a game she had no idea was being played. Just a piece to be used, a prop to be played with, and nothing more.

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