Interview With The Vampire: Lestat makes everything better in a spellbinding new episode

We're near the end of the second season of Interview With The Vampire and the show is on a mighty roll. Last week, when we saw that Lestat had returned to Paris to get revenge on Claudia and Louis, I immediately wanted to watch the next episode. That's the sign of a show that has its hooks in me, and "I Could Not Prevent It" only reeled me further in.

The Paris coven, led by Santiago, has discovered what Louis and Claudia did to Lestat back in New Orleans. Part of Santiago's strategy to secure control over the coven involves putting them on trial in front of a live audience of unsuspecting humans and passing it off as a play, a dementedly dramatic solution that could only be cooked up by this group of stimulation-starved vampires. You see what happens when actors live forever? They have to make up their fun, the more over-the-top the better.

And of course Lestat is more than willing to indulge in the dramatics. Santiago has prepared a script for Lestat to follow, while Louis, Claudia and Claudia's companion Madeleine sit immobile on stage "playing" the accused. This season has felt a little slower and more sedate than the first, partly because it's been missing Lestat's unpredictable magnetism. It makes up for lost time here. Actor Sam Reid struts across the stage, takes a break to terrify and shame a homophobe in the audience, runs through a hugely biased recounting on his relationship with Louis, and goes off script to show moments of real vulnerability. Good lord, it's good to have Lestat back in the flesh. He's a shot of nitro for a show that was already accelerating way past cruising speed.

I don't know what to praise most. The script by Kevin Hanna and Rolin Jones is as sharp as ever, giving us some new perspective on key events. The biggest revelation is that Louis was far more desperate for Lestat to turn a dying Claudia into a vampire than we'd previously thought; Louis either wasn't entirely forthcoming with Daniel before or had forgotten some of the details. And Lestat advised Louis of all the potential pitfalls of turning someone so young, but Louis wouldn't listen, begging on his knees for Lestat to try and save this girl and even attempting to turn her himself. Sometimes Louis can put up a wall that makes you think he's never had feelings, but this reminds us how vulnerable and human he can be, however long he's been a monster.

With a few exceptions, most of the episodes take place entirely with Theatres des Vampires; it really does feel like we're watching a play. There's a ton of energy radiating off every beat, and director Emma Freeman knows how to make the most of it. But it's the performers who bring it home. I have to give a lot of credit to actor Ben Daniels for toeing the line between campy and threatening as Sanitago, with a healthy dollop of insecurity mixed in. He's been a deliciously loathsome villain. Sam Reid crushes a moment where Lestat goes off-script and gives Louis an honest apology for dropping him from a mile in the air that time back in New Orleans. Jacob Anderson turns in another layered performance as Louis, who lays his soul bare at what he thinks will be the end of his life.

This is the final episode for Delainey Hayles as Claudia. I haven't always been sure why, but Claudia has always been hit or miss for me as a character on this show. But she makes an excellent showing here, remaining defiant in the face of certain death by kangaroo court. Before she and Madeleine are executed, Claudia threatens the entire audience with death from beyond, and she's so convincing they almost believe her. Even Roxane Duran gets a final moment to shine as Madeleine, who chooses to die with Claudia rather than join the vampire coven. The show did a great job of building up what could have been her underwritten character.

Episodes like "I Could Not Prevent It" highlight where the strengths of "Interview With The Vampire" lie: in its characters, their relationships, and in the performers. This episode takes place pretty much entirely in one room and may be the best one the show has produced yet.

Interview With The Bullet Points

• The show doesn't need special effects to be good, but what's there is terrific. The cinematics in the Theatres des Vampires are as evocative as ever, and the effect when Madeleine and Claudia turn to ash is grisly and sad.
• Armand, who's forced to sit and watch this farce after betraying Louis to Santiago, uses his powers to condemn Louis to "banishment" rather than death. Santiago relents, but only just; he doesn't kill Louis then and there, but he does stick him in a coffin in a wall and leave him to starve to death, which may well be worse.

Episode Grade: A

Interview With The Vampire reviews:

• Episode 201, "What Can the Damned Really Say to the Damned"
• Episode 202, "Do You Know What It Means to be Loved by Death"
• Episode 203, "No Pain"
• Episode 204, "I Want You More Than Anything in the World"
• Episode 205, "Don't Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape"
• Episode 206, "Like the Light by Which God Made the World Before He Made Light"
• Episode 207, "I Could Not Prevent It"
• Episode 208, "And That's The End of It. There's Nothing Else"

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