Recap / Interview with the Vampire (2022) S1E6 "Like Angels Put in Hell by God"

"It was an awkward time, but I loved Claudia with all my heart, and I loved Lestat with a wounded one."

Aired November 6, 2022

Lestat attempts to make amends with Louis. The vampire family decides to live together once more. In Dubai, Daniel has a shocking realization.

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Tropes:

• The '70s: One scene is set in 1973.
• '70s Hair:
  • Louis sports an afro in 1973.
  • The bartender at Polynesian Mary's has long, thick, wavy hair which is parted down at the center, which is typical for the era.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Lestat delicately runs the tips of his fingers along the top of Louis' hair as they nestle together in the latter's coffin. Because Lestat nearly killed Louis in the previous episode, he's attempting to prove to his boyfriend that he can be gentle and caring.
• After-Action Healing Drama: While Louis is recovering after being horrendously battered by Lestat, Claudia remains at his side to care for him instead of travelling to Europe like she had originally planned. Louis is so grievously injured that he can't even feed himself, so without her, he would've died of starvation.
  Louis: A few shattered vertebrae, a punctured lung... blind in one eye for five weeks. Two months, was it? [...] Excruciating pain was the proof I was still alive. [...] [Claudia] dedicated all her energy to my rehabilitation.
• Apology Gift: After Louis barely survived a violent thrashing from Lestat, the latter attempts to buy the former's forgiveness with expensive gifts, such as an extremely rare 15th-century antique book and a brand new Rolls-Royce. For over six years, this strategy is unsuccessful because Louis continues to ignore him, but Lestat then switches gears and records a love song entitled "Come to Me" that he penned himself. Louis receives it on Valentine's Day, and it finally provokes the reaction that Lestat had yearned for because Louis takes him back after a heated bout of hate-sex.
  Louis: For six years in all, these raw and desperate mea culpas came like the tide. And for six years, they were greeted with silence or fire. We burned more gifts than bodies in that decade, but they would not stop coming. And Lestat's relentless determination began to crack my considerable armor. Perhaps it was the modesty of the gesture. But in the spring of 1937, one broke through. He had written it himself in the music of the hour. His first composition in 100 years.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: After Claudia reads a collection of Emily Dickinson's poems, she hypothesizes that Dickinson was (or even is if she's still living) a vampire.
  Claudia: "I Felt a Funeral in my Brain." She also wrote one called "A Coffin Is a Small Domain." I mean, come on.
  Louis: Emily Dickinson is not a vampire.
  Claudia: How do you know?
  Louis: 'Cause she's dead.
  Claudia: How do you know?
  Louis: She got a grave. She got a tombstone.
  Claudia: So do you.
• Better Partner Assertion: Antoinette maintains that she's a worthier companion than either Lestat's melancholic boyfriend Louis or his Antagonistic Offspring Claudia because, unlike his family, she showers positive attention on Lestat and is grateful to be in his presence. She encourages him to leave Louis and Claudia behind in New Orleans and start a new life with her in another city.
  Antoinette: You don't need [Claudia], and you don't need [Louis]. They don't appreciate you like I do. [..] We should go away, Lestat. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Louis and Dr. Fareed Bhansali exchange their farewells in Hindi, which translates as:
    Louis: Goodbye, Dr. Bhansali.
    Bhansali: Until we call again.
  • It's extremely difficult to discern Lestat's explosive rant because his voice is drowned out by the radio at maximum volume, so this is the best guess: "Comme enfant, comme adulte, comme toujours, c'est de ta faute, Louis! C'est le résultat du compromis!" ("As a child, as an adult, as always, it's your fault, Louis! This is the result of compromise!")
  • Rashid's Latin phrase is "Trubidis rebus ad infinitum." ("With things that are noisy to infinity.")
• Break Them by Talking: On the train, Lestat taunts Claudia in a Tranquil Fury manner about her traumatic Implied Rape by Bruce, and she sobs throughout his pitiless speech, which ends with a death threat.
  Lestat: Well, you wouldn't talk of it. Louis insisted I not ask. I love our family, but the rules are "no secrets." Fortunate for our family, when I put my mind to it, I can hear the thoughts of other vampires at a very great distance.
  Claudia: Bastard.
  Lestat: He thinks of you often. Bruce.
  Claudia: (crying) Fucking bastard.
  Lestat: I couldn't agree more. What he did to you was in very poor taste. Could you imagine if something like that happened to you again? Louis would never forgive himself. Back in your cage, sweetheart. We endure each other for Louis' happiness. So come home and make him happy. Because if you try [to escape] again, Claudia, I won't snap your leg, defile your pocket, and zoom off on a motorbike. I'll turn your bones to dust.
• Burn Baby Burn: Louis outlines to Daniel that he and Claudia set fire to all of the Apology Gifts Lestat gave to them.
  Louis: For six years in all, these raw and desperate mea culpas came like the tide. And for six years, they were greeted with silence or fire. We burned more gifts than bodies in that decade, but they would not stop coming.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Louis ultimately takes Lestat back six years after the latter savagely attacked him, acknowledging that despite the pain his boyfriend had caused him, their "vampire bond" is difficult to break.
• The Caretaker: Claudia takes care of her older vampire brother Louis (she no longer wants to be treated as his adoptive daughter, and they are siblings in vampire terms) after he's clobbered to a pulp by Lestat. She even develops a vampire form of physical therapy to help Louis regain his mobility.
• Casual Kink: Lestat is revealed to be a masochist when it specifically comes to his boyfriend Louis because he's extremely turned on when Louis is physically aggressive towards him — with Lestat being naked and Louis is fully dressed — and injures him during sex. This thoroughly goes against Lestat's predatory, sadistic and domineering nature, so it proves how much he loves Louis that he feels sexual pleasure when Louis "claims" his body by inflicting wounds and humiliating him — Louis is after all hate-fucking Lestat in the home of Lestat's mistress!
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Lestat is noticeably agitated while smoking in the Ponchatoula hotel room, as he finds it difficult to deal with Claudia sniping at him and Louis' perpetual brooding.
• Comforting Comforter: After Daniel dozes off on the couch because of his medication, Louis orders Rashid to "Fetch a cover, would you? Let [Daniel] be warm with his dreaming." When Daniel wakes up some time later, a blanket is indeed draped across his torso. Eric Bogosian and Jacob Anderson discuss in the "Midnight Snack" special that it was a rare moment where Louis displays his affection for Daniel.
  Bogosian: It was very sweet, and then you go and you get the blanket and put it on me. It was nice, I felt taken care of.
  Anderson: I feel like Daniel and Louis reach a kind of nicer thing at that point.
• Content Warnings: The episode opens with a content advisory for domestic violence; in an odd case, it wasn't so much for the content of this episode but the one prior to it which caused a great deal of controversy for not including a warning due to Lestat brutally beating Louis in the climax.
• Creepy Doll: Voodoo dolls are inherently creepy, but when Claudia sees one that has been placed in front of her doorstep to curse her family, she picks it up, smiles at it, and pets its head. (Of course, she's a Serial Killer who collects body parts as trophies from her victims, so she would find voodoo dolls cute.)
• Dead Guy Puppet: After Lestat tears off the head of the train conductor, he moves its lower jaw to make it seem like the severed head is "talking" as part of his demented and impromptu ventriloquist act in front of Claudia.
• Death Glare: After Lestat notices the voodoo doll inside the circle of brick dust in front of his doorstep, he glowers menacingly at two women who are walking across the street while assessing if they're a potential threat to him and his family. One of the ladies is so spooked that she warns her friend, "Don't look [at him], Eunice."
• Decapitation Presentation: Lestat holds up the severed head of the train conductor he has just murdered so that Claudia can see it.
• Defenestrate and Berate: Although there's no berating because Louis is giving Lestat the Silent Treatment, his act of throwing his boyfriend's coffin out the second floor window of their townhouse speaks volumes.
  Claudia: No one here wishes to speak with you.
  Lestat: Well, I know [Louis is] upstairs. I can see his silhouette. Perhaps we should let him decide if he wants to see me or not.
  [Louis shoves Lestat's coffin out the window, which smashes on impact behind where Lestat is standing]
  Claudia: How's that for an answer?
• Desk Sweep of Rage: A wrathful Lestat knocks over all the chess pieces with a single arm swipe because Claudia doesn't want to continue their game.
• Disappointed in You: During their second chess match, Lestat (who taught Claudia how to play the game) is unimpressed by the strategy she has employed.
  Lestat: The Dutch Defense. Stonewalling again. You've become quite predictable, my sister, disappointment.
• Domestic Abuse: Lestat is abusive towards his mistress Antoinette. While they're in a Ponchatoula hotel room, his fangs have left behind two large puncture wounds on her neck, but he doesn't heal them with his vampire blood, so he's treating her worse than Louis after Their First Time (where Lestat put in the effort to mend the injury he caused). After Antoinette asks, "How am I supposed to make a career here?", Lestat abruptly puts his hand around her throat and replies, "I seek refuge from complaints when I visit you, dear." He somehow persuaded her to cut off her finger so that he can fake her death in order to win back Louis — who is Antoinette's romantic adversary — and for her trouble, she now has a maimed right hand that she must conceal with a glove ("That's what gloves are for," as he callously tells her). She then meekly says to Lestat, "I didn't mean to make you mad," which sadly illustrates that Antoinette is thoroughly under his thumb.
• Double Meaning: Lestat is looking at a dog when he says, "Back in your cage, sweetheart," but the person he's truly addressing is Claudia, who is a stowaway on a train heading to New York. He won't allow her to leave New Orleans because he's concerned about Louis' deteriorating mental and physical state, so he has boarded the baggage car to forcibly take her back home.
• Dramatic Shattering: Louis confronts Lestat about the song the latter wrote as a Valentine's Day present because he's so offended that Lestat's mistress Antoinette sings it. Louis drops the record in front of them to demonstrate his hatred of it and the disc shatters. (Please note that this is not an example of Vinyl Shatters because the scene takes place over a decade before large-diameter vinyl records were mass-produced, so the phonograph record is made of shellac.)
• Dream Sequence: Near the end of the episode, Daniel slips into slumber after receiving a levodopa transfusion, and he dreams about how he and Louis (and Rashid, as it turns out) first met at Polynesian Mary's in 1973.
• Driven to Suicide: Lestat recounts to Louis and Claudia that his maker Magnus had died by throwing himself into a fire.
• Eiffel Tower Effect: The San Francisco scene begins with Daniel lighting a cigarette in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Episode Tagline: This episode features the word "endure" no less than six times.
  Lestat: I have a capacity for enduring.
  Claudia: I'm enduring.
  Louis: And so I endured my way home.
  Lestat: We endure each other for Louis' happiness.
  Louis: You threaten a life which will endure 'til the end of the world.
  Claudia: I am done enduring.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Lestat, a merciless vampire, disapproves of rape, stating to Claudia that what Bruce did to her "was in very poor taste." However, this doesn't make Lestat any less evil than Bruce because he's threatening Claudia in this scene, and as terrible as her experience was with Bruce, Lestat assures her that what he'll do to her is worse. ("I won't snap your leg, defile your pocket, and zoom off on a motorbike. I'll turn your bones to dust.")
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: After Claudia tosses Antoinette's scorched finger into the fireplace, she slips on the dead woman's silver ring which features a big flower design (petals, stem and leaves) embedded with red gems on to her own thumb and admires its beauty.
• Faking the Dead: Lestat brings home a local New Orleans newspaper with the headline "Singer falls asleep smoking, found dead in her home" with a picture of Antoinette beneath it, and wrapped inside is her bloodied, singed, severed finger. He offers these items as proof to Louis and Claudia that he has fulfilled their stipulation that he murder his mistress if he wishes to be part of their family again. However, because Claudia has a habit of stalking Lestat and doesn't trust him, she convinces Louis to accompany her after Lestat leaves to go hunting (or so he claims). They both find out that it was all a ruse because Antoinette is still alive, and Lestat has secretly stashed her away in a Ponchatoula hotel where he continues to visit her on some nights.
• Fingore: Lestat has his mistress Antoinette cut off a finger to fake her death, as Claudia and Louis demanded her demise in exchange for Lestat being allowed to come home.
• Flashback Cut: There are two snippets from the previous episode when Louis recalls Lestat dropping him from the sky while he and Daniel discuss the cloud gift.
• Foreign-Language Tirade: Lestat reverts to his native tongue when he blusters at Claudia for not wanting to finish their chess match.
  Lestat: COMME ENFANT, COMME ADULTE, COMME TOUJOURS, C'EST DE TA FAUTE, LOUIS!! C'EST LE RÉSULTAT DU COMPROMIS!! ^note French for "As a child, as an adult, as always, it's your fault, Louis! This is the result of compromise!"
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The title sequence for this episode is slightly different than the others because it includes an upside-down Golden Gate Bridge◊ to indicate that there's a scene which takes place in San Francisco.
• Gay Cruising: In 1973, Louis and Rashid are at Polynesian Mary's (a gay bar in San Francisco) to pick up guys. Louis flirts with a 20-year-old Daniel, buys him a drink, and invites him to his apartment. Daniel accepts, and while his goal is to interview Louis, he adds, "I mean, if something happens, you know, I'm cool." Louis then asks Rashid if he would like to join them (hinting that Louis and Rashid sometimes share a man for a threesome), but Rashid declines with "No, you go ahead, have your fun," and presumably he seeks out someone else at the bar who is more appealing to him.
• Get Out!: Louis orders Antoinette to "get the fuck out" of her own home so that he and Lestat can have sex in her bedroom. She turns to her lover Lestat for support, but his eyes are transfixed on Louis, and since his love for his boyfriend far outweighs what he feels for his mistress, Lestat also commands her to "Leave."
• Gift of Song: Lestat pens the love song "Come to Me" as a manipulative Apology Gift to Louis after the former's horrific Domestic Abuse of the latter, which left Louis almost dead from Lestat's pummeling. Lestat arranges for the phonograph record to be delivered to Louis on Valentine's Day with the message "For Louis, My Muse!"
• Gilded Cage: Lampshaded by Lestat when he intercepts Claudia as she was attempting to flee to New York by train; he refers to their spacious, beautifully furnished home as a cage: "Back in your cage, sweetheart."
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Louis and Dr. Bhansali's farewell to each other is in Hindi even though the rest of their dialogue is in English.
• Gratuitous Latin: Rashid utters one line in Latin: "Trubidis rebus ad infinitum." ("With things that are noisy to infinity.")
• Hates Being Alone: Lestat discloses to Louis and Claudia that after Magnus had turned him, he had to figure out vampirism on his own because his maker had committed suicide, and it contributed to his abandonment issues.
  Lestat: No grand history of vampiric origins or physiology, no rules, no counsel. Just a sweeping hand to a pile of money and the sight of him throwing himself into a fire. And then I was alone. [...] It's why I don't particularly like being abandoned.
• Hollywood Giftwrap: The rare and pristine 15th-century copy of The Book of Hours that Lestat bought for Louis as an Apology Gift is presented in a gift box where the lid is easily removed.
• Hollywood Kiss: Averted with Louis and Lestat's Slap-Slap-Kiss / Reunion Kiss. The former sticks his tongue into the latter's mouth before locking their lips together,◊ so their actors Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid actually performed a French kiss on set, which is a rare break from the Hollywood standard of neat, pretty and romantic-looking closed-mouth smooches. Because this scene is about the Interplay of Sex and Violence, Louis and Lestat's kiss is meant to be filthy, desperate and lustful.
• I'll Kill You!: The Tranquil Fury variety occurs when Lestat warns Claudia that if she runs away from home again, "I'll turn your bones to dust."
• Implied Rape: Bruce's sexual assault of Claudia is alluded to, but not explicitly confirmed, plus Lestat uses a euphemism for rape, which is highlighted in bold.
  Lestat: Well, you wouldn't talk of it. Louis insisted I not ask. I love our family, but the rules are "no secrets." Fortunate for our family, when I put my mind to it, I can hear the thoughts of other vampires at a very great distance.
  Claudia: Bastard.
  Lestat: He thinks of you often. Bruce.
  Claudia: (crying) Fucking bastard.
  Lestat: I couldn't agree more. What he did to you was in very poor taste. Could you imagine if something like that happened to you again? Louis would never forgive himself. [...] Because if you try [to escape] again, Claudia, I won't snap your leg, defile your pocket, and zoom off on a motorbike.
• Internal Homage:
  • Similar to episode 1, Lestat is in a sexual situation with Louis and a woman, he asks "Do you like it?" about a piece of music that he composed, Louis then initiates sex with Lestat by kissing him, and there's neck-biting which leaves behind wounds.
  • Antoinette suggesting that she and Lestat leave New Orleans and move to "New York, Chicago, Los Angeles" is identical to what Lestat recommended that he and Louis should do in episode 5. Lestat rejects Antoinette's wish because he won't abandon Louis for any reason, which mirrors Louis declining Lestat's idea because he absolutely refuses to go anywhere without Claudia.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Louis barges into Antoinette's house, interrupting her and Lestat in the midst of sexual intercourse. Louis argues with Lestat, pushes his naked boyfriend to the floor, shoves him against the dresser (Lestat's expression shows that he's aroused being manhandled by Louis in this fashion), kisses him, grinds their hips together to initiate frottage, stabs Lestat on his left side with his vampire fingernails, and bites his neck. While eagerly embracing Louis, Lestat is grunting in pain and pleasure as the camera pans away. In the next scene, Lestat's face, neck, left ear and right arm are covered with scratches, bruises and bite marks — it's evident that he and Louis had rough, angry sex.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Louis storms into Antoinette's bedroom while she and Lestat are in coitus, with her on top. She immediately gets off Lestat and covers her breasts with her blanket. Louis orders her to leave. Lestat actually welcomes the disruption because he prefers his boyfriend over his mistress.
  Louis: Put some clothes on and get the fuck out.
  Antoinette: This is my house.
  Louis: Do I look like I care?
  Antoinette: Lestat.
  Lestat: [never takes his eyes off Louis] Leave.
• I Was Never Here: Dr. Fareed Bhansali was never at the penthouse apartment of the Al Sharaf Towers to administer a levodopa transfusion to Daniel Molloy, who has Parkinson's disease. When Daniel tries to engage him in conversation, he says, "I am not here."
  Daniel: That's the voice of Dr. Fareed Bhansali.
  Bhansali: That is not my voice.
  Daniel: He's the personal physician to the deputy prime minister and—
  Bhansali: And I am not here.
  Daniel: The vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac.
  Rashid: He's officially off the record.
  Daniel: NDAs signed by any and all who cross the threshold, eh?
• Jealous Romantic Witness: Antoinette is smoking a cigarette outside of her home, upset and quietly shedding tears while looking inside her bedroom window as her lover Lestat and his boyfriend Louis lose themselves in wild, spur-of-the-moment sex. Both men threw her out from her own house, so Lestat (who was in coitus with Antoinette before Louis broke down her door) is making it very clear to her that he's picking Louis over her.
• Lie Back and Think of England: By the middle of the episode, sex with Lestat has become a chore for Louis, so he chats telepathically with Claudia (who's in another room) because he'd rather think about anything else besides what Lestat is doing to his body. When the psychic conversation with Claudia ends, Louis then stares blankly at the ceiling and remains mostly unresponsive to Lestat's lovemaking.
  Louis: (in 2022 narrating to Daniel) The numbness remained, hardened somehow into a dissociative shell, a vessel of acceptance, tortured rationalization.
• Lingerie Scene: Throughout the Ponchatoula hotel room scene, Antoinette is dressed in 1930s-style lingerie in order to entice her lover Lestat.
• Love Floats: It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but while Lestat is making love to Louis on their bed, their bodies hover just above the mattress.
• Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Louis and Lestat impulsively engage in unbridled, angry sex inside the house of Lestat's mistress (Lestat and Antoinette were in the middle of sexual intercourse when Louis barges into her bedroom). Both men kick her out of her own home so they can have some privacy!
• Modesty Bedsheet: A naked Antoinette hastily covers herself with the bedsheets when Louis bursts inside her bedroom when she's in bed with Lestat.
• The Muse: On the sleeve of the phonograph record of "Come to Me", Lestat's first composition in a century, his Valentine Day's message is "For Louis, My Muse!" Louis is Lestat's Second Love.
• Muse Abuse: It's only after Lestat mangles Louis into a broken, bloodied heap that he's inspired to write his first song in a hundred years. The end result is "Come to Me", which Lestat gives to Louis as both a Valentine Day's present and an Apology Gift.
• Mythology Gag: This episode recreates an aerial shot from the Interview with the Vampire film of the San Francisco Ferry Building's clock tower.
• Nostalgic Music Box: During the first chess scene, Claudia attempts to wreck Lestat's concentration by pestering him about his First Love Nicolas while Lestat's music box from France is playing his composition dedicated to his beloved in the background.
  Claudia: Tell us about your first love Nicki.
  Lestat: Nicolas.
  Claudia: Louis said that you called him Nicki. That's the song you wrote for him.
  Lestat: 'Tis.
  Claudia: Do you write songs for all your lovers? I think this one might be better than yours, Louis. Does that mean you loved Nicki more than you love Louis?
  Lestat: Ignore her, Louis. She asks these naughty questions to gain advantage in the game. It won't work.
• Not Afraid to Die: Louis is tempted to kill himself after Claudia catches a train to New York, although he ultimately doesn't go through with it.
  Louis: I teased the sun that night in Jackson Square. Thought about the walking cane and pile of ash they'd find in the morning. But Paul had forever ruined Grace's wedding night, and I would not do the same to Claudia on the anniversary of her escape. If I was to join Dante's Wood of the Self-Murdered, it would be another night.
• Off with His Head!: Lestat rips the head off of a train conductor and plays with it like it's a ventriloquist dummy.
• "Open!" Says Me: Louis bashes the door down of Antoinette's house by kicking it open.
• Power Floats: Discussed when Daniel is curious about Lestat's flying ability and wants Louis to clarify the details.
  Daniel: [Lestat] could fly?
  Louis: Yes.
  Daniel: Like Superman?
  Louis: Not like Superman. Superman is a fictional character.
  Daniel: But in the air, with a "fuck you to Newtonian physics" flying?
  Louis: He said it was more like floating, arising at will, propelling in a direction by the decision. He called it "the cloud gift."
  Daniel: (to Dr. Bhansali) Hey Doc, did you know there's a flying vampire apocalypse coming your way?
  Louis: Most vampires do not possess the cloud gift. With a few exceptions, only the most ancient of us have it.
• Product Placement:
  • Daniel drinks two cans of Star Cola, a popular soft drink produced in the United Arab Emirates.
  • In 1973, Louis pays for his and Daniel's drinks at Polynesian Mary's with an American Express card.
• "Psycho" Strings: A discordant violin melody in a minor key underscores Lestat's Tranquil Fury at Claudia, whom he catches on a train bound for New York, for running away from home for the second time. His stony exterior belies his turbulent temper because he coerces her to go "Back in your cage, sweetheart," or else "I'll turn your bones to dust." Claudia and the audience never doubt for a second that Lestat will hack her to pieces if she doesn't obey him (especially when he has just lopped off the head of a train conductor).
• Queer Colors: In 1973, the bead curtains◊ at Polynesian Mary's (a San Francisco gay bar) are illuminated with pink, purple and blue lighting (otherwise known as bisexual lighting) as the 20-year-old Daniel approaches the bar stool. He's a regular at Polynesian Mary's (the bartender addresses him by his diminutive "Danny"), and his positive response to Louis' flirtation and invitation to the latter's apartment ("I mean, if something happens, you know, I'm cool") suggests that Daniel may be bisexual.
• Ready for Lovemaking: In the Ponchatoula hotel room, Lestat is lying naked in bed while waiting for his mistress Antoinette to join him, and it's implied that they have sex off-screen.
• Record Needle Scratch: Louis listens to Lestat's song "Come to Me" (which Lestat had sent to him as a Valentine's Day gift) on his gramophone, which features Lestat's mistress Antoinette as the vocalist. The tune isn't even halfway done before a fuming Louis removes the needle from the disc, grabs the record and storms out the door. After six years of giving Lestat the Silent Treatment, Louis is finally going to confront his boyfriend.
• Refuge in Audacity: Lampshaded by Louis with regards to Lestat's decision to have his mistress Antoinette sing "Come to Me", a song Lestat composed as a Valentine's Day Apology Gift for Louis.
  Louis: The audacity of it all was matched only by its sincerity. He had made the near-perfect valentine, with one flaw. [...] One perfectly premeditated flaw.
• Reunion Kiss: After spending six years apart, Louis demonstrates his willingness to take Lestat back by initiating an ardent kiss, which the latter readily welcomes.
• Rule #1: Louis and Claudia impose several conditions that Lestat must follow in order for him to be accepted back into their family. Viewers don't get to hear the first three requirements.
  Louis: Rule number four.
  Claudia: Kill Antoinette.
  [...]
  Claudia: I'm not your child anymore. That's rule number five. I'll be your companion, your sister.
  Lestat: It's not as simple as choosing a new family configuration. "Now I'm your cousin." "Now I'm your aunt." I am your maker!
  Claudia: But not my uncle or my daddy. I'm your sister or that's the door.
  Louis: Rule number six. No lies, and that includes lies of exaggeration and of omission. For instance, if you can fly, tell us you can fly.
• Running Gag: Dr. Bhansali's constrain refrain of "I am not here" is a source of levity in this episode. Even Grumpy Old Man Daniel can't resist showing off his acerbic wit at their so-called non-existent conversation.
  Daniel: That's the voice of Dr. Fareed Bhansali.
  Bhansali: That is not my voice.
  Daniel: He's the personal physician to the deputy prime minister and—
  Bhansali: And I am not here.
  [...]
  Daniel: Classic Stockholm, eh, Doc?
  Bhansali: I am not here.
  [...]
  Louis: Rashid, please play the song in question for Mr. Molloy and the doctor.
  Bhansali: I'm not here.
  [...]
  Bhansali: Pleasure never meeting you, Mr. Molloy.
  Daniel: He said to no one.
• Sarcastic Confession: In 1973, Louis deadpans "I'm a vampire" to Daniel, who grins in amusement because he thinks it's just a joke because (as far as he knows) vampires are fictional creatures, and being a journalism student means that he's being trained to be skeptical of people's responses. The vampire Louis laughs at Daniel's cute reaction (he's flirting with the attractive young man, after all), which further cements Daniel's belief that he shouldn't take the vampire comment seriously.
• Scream Discretion Shot: Claudia is startled by the sound of the train conductor screaming and the loud thuds as he's being slammed against the baggage car. It's only after Lestat kicks open the door that she realizes that he has ripped the man's head off.
• Serial Killer: According to Lestat, his maker Magnus was a serial killer who targeted young, blond, blue-eyed men with an athletic build.
  Lestat: His name was Magnus. He took me from my room in Paris, as I kicked and screamed. He kept me for a week, locked in a room full of corpses... some freshly killed, some bloated and black. But they all looked like me... my coloring, my physique. My own eyes staring back at me from rotting faces. He fed on me every night. And then he put me back in the tower with the look-alike corpses. I thought for sure I'd be one of them, but instead he turned me into this. [...] I cried. I called to God. I didn't want this.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: A fully-clothed Louis and a nude Lestat are immersed in violent foreplay, and the camera pans away from their frenzied reunion to a crying Antoinette smoking a cigarette outside of her own home.
• Silent Treatment: Louis doesn't speak to Lestat for six years after suffering a vicious battering from him.
  Lestat: If you want me to go away, just say so. I'll obey you. I'll leave your life forever.
  (Louis says nothing)
  Lestat: This silence is cruel. And you were never cruel, Louis.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Louis and Lestat quarrel, and it ends with Louis uttering "I hate you," to which Lestat replies "As you should." Louis then throws Lestat to the floor and slams him against the dresser before kissing him fervently, with Lestat responding in kind by wrapping his right arm around Louis' head to deepen the kiss.
• Smart People Play Chess: Lestat and Claudia's chess games are fundamentally about who is the superior strategist between the two of them. Lestat had previously won all of their matches, but then Claudia is finally victorious, and she interprets it as proof that she can now outmaneuver Lestat in the real world (i.e. liberating herself and Louis from his Gilded Cage). As showrunner Rolin Jones elaborates in the "Episode Insider" featurette:
  Jones: The chess scene is quite interesting, it's based off a very famous chess game called the Polish Immortal. Basically, it's a series of moves by one opponent that sort of lures in a person who wants everything in the world, wants to take everything, and [Claudia] can see this is the way into Lestat. She is slowly suckering him in. And she is wise enough to kind of look at the landscape and go, "There's only one way to do it, we have to kill him." She, through this chess game, sees it's possible. "We could do it, we can out-think him if we know his weaknesses." And she just needs Louis to be on board for it.
• Smart People Speak the Queen's English: Dr. Fareed Bhansali is a medical doctor who talks with a Received Pronunciation accent.
• Sore Loser: When Lestat loses his first chess game against Claudia, he throws a temper tantrum with a Foreign-Language Tirade and a Desk Sweep of Rage, which sends the chess pieces flying across the room.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  Lestat: Move your pawn. Finish the game.
  Claudia: Good night, Lestat.
  Lestat: (hits the table) FINISH THE GAME!!
• Talking in Bed:
  • Louis and Lestat do the vampire equivalent when they discuss Claudia's refusal to genuinely get along with Lestat (who had bashed Louis senseless in the preceding episode) as the couple settle in their coffin.
    Lestat: I am all sincerity and humility, I cannot wear it any longer.
    Louis: She's just stubborn.
    Lestat: She is a wall. The cliffs at Étretat.
    Louis: She's grown very protective of me. That's what this is. It's why it's hard.
    Lestat: She came back altered when she left us. There's a darkness in her that wasn't there before.
    Louis: Give her a little time.
  • In a Ponchatoula hotel room, Lestat and his mistress Antoinette converse about their relationship while in bed.
    Lestat: That's why I need you. You fortify me against [Louis and Claudia]. You're like me. You like to laugh.
    Antoinette: You make me laugh all the time. (kisses Lestat) We should go away, Lestat. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
    Lestat: You want to be a movie star?
    Antoinette: Well, now that I'm dead, I can be whoever I want. I've been working on a new name. What do you think of Marie Lepère?
    Lestat: Don't be ridiculous. There's no place for me other than New Orleans.
    Antoinette: New Orleans? You got me stashed away here at Ponchatoula, how am I supposed to make a career here?
    Lestat: (grabs her throat) I seek refuge from complaints when I visit you, dear.
    Antoinette: I know that, but promises were made.
    Lestat: And promises will be kept. (releases her throat)
    Antoinette: I am withering here, Lestat. Who's gonna hire a singer who don't sing, who's a cripple? (removes her glove to show her maimed hand)
    Lestat: (turns his head away) No. That's what gloves are for.
    Antoinette: I know. I didn't mean to make you mad. I love you, Lestat.
    Lestat: I love you, too.
• That Liar Lies: After Claudia and Louis discover that Lestat is still bedding Antoinette after he had promised them that he would kill his mistress, Claudia says to Louis, "He's the father of lies."
• Time-Shifted Actor: Daniel is portrayed by Eric Bogosian when he's 69 years old and by Luke Brandon Field when he's 20.
• Title Drop: This episode includes the Villain Love Song "Come to Me" where the title is sung ten times.
• Tranquil Fury: When Lestat confronts Claudia on the train, he seems calm on the surface and never raises his voice, yet aggression underlies his every word and gesture because he's incensed that she has abandoned their family once again. Although no physical violence occurs between them in this scene, Lestat is nevertheless dishing out psychological violence on Claudia in a conversational tone, which includes a death threat.
• Unfocused During Intimacy: A nude Louis and Lestat are having sex in their bed. However, Louis is distracted from Lestat's lovemaking because he's concentrating on his telepathic discussion with Claudia (who's inside her coffin in a different room). Lestat, who had been showering Louis' neck and chest with kisses, notices that his lover isn't in the moment, so he stops and speaks Louis' name to try to regain his attention. Louis then kisses Lestat on the mouth, but once Lestat resumes his amorous exploration of his lover's body, Louis remains visibly dissociated from the intimate act even after Claudia ends their psychic communication.
• Unkempt Beauty: After Louis breaks into Antoinette's house and intrudes on her and Lestat fornicating, Lestat has the option of either continuing to have sex with his mistress, who's perfectly coiffed and made-up, or have sex with his boyfriend, who's drenched in dirty water from head to toe after swimming the extremely polluted Mississippi River. Lestat unequivocally chooses Louis despite the latter's untidy appearance.
• Voodoo Doll: Some of the locals leave behind voodoo dolls at the center of a circle of brick dust in front of the doorstep of the vampire family's townhouse to curse them, believing that its residents are demons because they haven't aged in decades.
• Wham Shot: The final shot of Daniel's memory of how he first met Louis in 1973 at Polynesian Mary's is Rashid, who hasn't aged in 49 years, declining Louis' invitation to join him and Daniel at Louis' San Francisco apartment. In 2022, Daniel jolts awake, alarmed with "WTF?!" written all over his face because he realizes that Rashid is not a normal human being.
• Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: Louis and Daniel met in a San Francisco gay bar named Polynesian Mary's c. 1973. Louis and Rashid were there to do Gay Cruising.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: On Valentine's Day 1937, Louis reminds Lestat that Claudia is "coming up on 33." This is wrong because Claudia was born in 1903, so she's already 33 years old in this scene, and she'll turn 34 later in the year. Louis should've said "She's coming up on 34."
• You Are What You Hate: Lestat complains that "[Claudia is] an affected, self-absorbed, nasty little creature who's fooled herself into thinking she's smarter than she is," which is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Later, when Claudia purposefully leaves their chess game without finishing, Lestat launches into an angry rant, calling her "Spoiled, selfish, thankless. Heedless, disagreeable, obnoxious, repellent, unkind, spoiled to the core!" All of these adjectives could easily be used to describe Lestat himself.
• Zero-G Spot: There's a brief moment where Lestat and Louis levitate horizontally over their bed during lovemaking.

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