Interview with the Vampire – S03E06 – Montreal – Transcript

Interview with the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
Season 3 – Episode 6
Episode title: Montreal
Original release date: July 12, 2026

Plot: Lestat and Louis have reconciled and prepare for the former’s concert. However, Daniel leaks the incestual truth about Lestat and Sophia’s relationship, causing Louis to recoil, but he and Lestat eventually talk things out and proceed to meet the witch, Merrick Mayfair, who summons Claudia’s spirit so they can finally ask her questions and see how she’s fairing. Claudia’s spirit is revealed to be filled with rage, particularly directed at Louis whom she holds responsible for everything that happened to her, even revealing she thought about killing him with Lestat but chose not to because he was useful to have around. She appears in deep loneliness and pain, being unable to find or be with Madeline and tells both Louis and Lestat to never mention her name again and to burn her belongings. The seance proves to be troubling to the two, but also provides them with clarity on their relationship. As they sit down on a bench to contemplate and talk, they are distracted by Alex, before being attacked by Armand and Daniel, who proceed to cut off Louis and Lestat’s heads.

* * *

Transcript

Note for Students & Writers: This transcript is archived here for educational purposes, critical analysis, and screenwriting study. All rights belong to the original creators.

Previously on “The Vampire Lestat”… We were only planning to do one concert.

It has to sound like death approaching, like life emerging.

You need to be a vampire to hear it.

We want it. Make more.

What does he know about me?

That you died in 1794.

I knew her as Gabriella.

Lestat lays with his mother.

There’s one thing that I most fear above all else, and that is loneliness.

You take this feeling away from me, Louis. 52 years, I’ve watched you.

I want to be your maker, help you walk in the sun.

Plenty of brooms down the street at the Mayfair sisters’ home.

We played out scenes.

I called her Claudia.

Is it her?

You’re hurting him.

[as Claudia] I’m hurting Louis?

I carried her home.

I made you turn her.

Don’t know why I bother.

Never been about me!

You chose Lestat over her time and time again.

You cursed her into the darkness.

[gentle music]

♪♪

[children laughing] [bicycle bell rings]

♪

[static crackling]

You are listening to “The Failures,”.

Album 52, Side A.

[crickets chirping]

At the intersections of my many selves… the stutterer, the ape, the actor, the keeper, the tourist, the recluse, the rock star, the nesting dolls of identity… there is a period of stasis, a hibernation in shabby robe.

The autumn of 2025 was one of these periods.

At the time, I thought it a bow on the goodbye box of Lestat.

But here I am, dictating for you, still Lestat.

I was back in my halfway home of Montreal, back in hiding across the street from my vampire band, bizarrely back rehearsing a memorial show for myself and the vampiric ears

I had reworked the album for.

Two years to the day, we formed.

Now a dark, gifted quartet.

But Larry’s then mysterious suicide wove itself into our bond, and the Vampire Alex became the muted center of a haunted reunion.

[telepathically] Early risers like us are few.

You should take advantage of the head start.

City’s already swamped with vampires.

See you at rehearsal.

[indistinct chatter]

Hello there.

Me again, in a car, on my way to Moisant Field.

If you’re having second thoughts… and you should be having them… let me know ‘fore I pass security.

[laughs]

‘Cause if I get on that plane… [phone rings]

I was just listening to your voice message.

How was customs?

Still in it.

Oh, dear.

Gotta get on that global entry.

We still on for the midnight?

We are.

I have a driver waiting for you at baggage and a room at Auberge du Vieux-Port for your comforts.

You have dem items we discussed?

I do.

OK, then.

I’ma need two hours in the room alone.

Leave a key. [line clicks, beeps]

The album had fallen flat with mortals, but the songs quickly became a rallying for the disastrous movement, the Great Conversion.

And now 50,000 vampires were descending upon Montreal to hear me sing it live.

Lestat’s final gift to the Vampiress Gabriella.

Obligations met.

Good luck and fuck off, everyone, everywhere.

♪

The future, my new distraction.

Who next?

How next?

I was tying off loose ends, coming out of a coma, feeling alive.

Or maybe it was him.

I don’t think we should do this.

It’s a bad idea.

It’s a terrible idea.

Was the coffin uncomfortable?

Yeah, I don’t sleep in coffins much now.

It’s a Hastens. It’s not the coffin.

The coffin’s good.

We should cancel.

Cancel the dinner?

Not the dinner. Her.

Oh, the bad idea. Yeah.

Because we should cancel the dinner too.

That was your idea.

He’s come all this way for the concert.

Also a bad idea. Cancel that too.

50,000, Louis.

If it was a dozen coming, you should still walk.

I’m gonna cancel this.

Do you remember cornstarch?

Hey. Rue Royale doorstep?

Cancel the dinner. Cancel the reckoning.

Let’s stay inside and answer the begging doorbell.

Something wrong?

Drake dropped 50 songs today.

Oh, yeah. I saw that. [clears throat]

I liked him in “Degrassi.”

It was a show on cable, when there was still cable…

You know, if I woke up in a custom-built Hastens coffin, the first thing that I would say to my host is, “Thank you, Sheridan.”

[laughs] I’m not calling you Sheridan.

Clarence.

I prefer Lestat.

Lestat is dead. OK.

You gon’ get on that mic tomorrow and say, “We are the Vampire Clarence Oddbody.

Let’s make more”?

[chuckles]

It’s a bad idea.

It is a very bad idea.

But conversely… No, no, no.

A moderately good one. No, no, no.

No good’s gonna come of this.

I can feel it in my fingers.

There’s also a third possibility that nothing will come of it.

You know, these things don’t always take.

Sit around the table thinking that you feel a chill or somebody’s eye twitches.

And really, it’s a radiator or too much coffee, and nothing happens.

And then the witch or medium lays blame

on someone’s divergent energy. Maybe that’s it.

But, still, it is a fun night.

It’s the witch part of it. I don’t like witches.

I don’t get on with ’em.

And you reached out to the worst kind of witch.

Oh, Merrick is different.

She is not like the rest.

And her and the uncle, they’re the same.

How do you know the uncle?

We were in a book club for a moment.

[laughs] You were in a book club?

With Cortland Mayfair?

And Merrick too.

And Mayor Nagin.

And James Carville.

Everybody hated him.

[laughs]

It had been months since he called me in a panic.

And he had done his best to stay clear of the girl… Fraudia, as I called her.

But the wound hadn’t closed, and the bad idea evolved from texts and phone calls and connections

I maintained in New Orleans.

You know, we read your memoir in it.

Everybody loved Tom Anderson.

“Topeka!” [laughs]

That was my line, you know. I said “Topeka.”

Give me some credit.

It was clever doing it this week.

Everyone blending in.

♪ Oh, no, are you having a bad hair day? ♪

They gon’ kill half this city when you’re done singing.

It’s happening already. I didn’t start it.

Nah, you’re the face of it now.

Obey the Five Laws.

“Charlie Brown gets rocks” agrees with me.

Make more! Make more!

It’s the largest gathering of us in the history of the world, and they’re here to see me.

You could, for a moment, as a friend, say, “Look what you’ve done here.

Congratulations.” [phone ringing]

Hey.

Lem, we’re almost there. “Lem”?

Ooh, that is cozy. Tell them to keep it simple.

Lemmy, Lemmy, Lemmy. Lick me, Lem.

Yeah. [laughs]

OK. You too.

Oh, you too? What “you too”?

Miss you too, or love you too, or…

Are we really gonna do this?

I feel like I could just go on as I am.

Venmoing Fraudia.

I did it once, blocked her number.

And then you picked up when she called you from a new one.

I didn’t know it was her. You knew.

You absolutely knew.

She’s been dipped in the River Styx.

Probably dove in, swam the butterfly.

She’ll be angry.

Maybe Claudia would like a goodbye with you too.

Why are you being nice?

I don’t like it.

[sighs]

We could talk about the proximity of your restaurant to my home.

It’s… catastrophic coincidence.

Ah, Monsieur Pitt, very nice to have your attendance tonight.

Your guest has already arrived.

And Monsieur Lioncourt, such an honor.

Mr. Blackwood.

I see. Yes, this way, please.

[light hip-hop music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

♪

May we take your coat, Mr. Blackwood?

♪

[crowd muttering]

[applause]

Make more. Make more.

Make more.

Make more. Make more.

Make more.

Taylor and Travis. Congratulations.

Have you set a date yet?

Ah.

[“All Fall Down”]

♪♪

♪ I’m the little killer ♪

♪ I’m the lonely one ♪

♪ I’m the chill creeping up your spine ♪

♪ Telling you to run ♪

♪ I’m a hanging shadow ♪

♪ I’m a lost love ♪

♪ I’m the past and the future ♪

♪ The last of the sutures, the cooing dove ♪

♪ We’re the rock and rollers ♪

♪ We’re the good time ♪

♪ We’re the heart pumping blood ♪

♪ We’re the face in the mud ♪

♪ We’re this stupid rhyme ♪

♪ Bang, bang

♪ Bang, bang

♪ Bang, bang

♪ Bang, bang ♪

♪ Bang, bang

♪ All fall down ♪

♪ Burn the ground ♪

♪ All fall down

♪ Burn the ♪

♪ Bang, bang

♪ Bang, bang ♪

♪ Bang, bang

♪ Bang, bang ♪

♪ Bang, bang

♪ Bang, bang ♪

♪ Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang ♪

Please, turn Larry down.

And we were where?

I believe you were mid-antagonizing us about Hurricane Odette.

Testing to see if you two were listening.

Sitting across from each other, bonds re-bonding.

Odette, category 3.

What did you say to him after a 77-year ghosting?

I don’t remember exactly.

What did he say to you?

I couldn’t hear anything. It was a hurricane.

Yeah, I was just pretending to understand what you said.

Same.

Just did a lot of nodding.

You assholes.

I don’t have an ending for my doc.

Give me something.

[light piano music]

It was enough that he showed up.

♪♪

[laptop beeps]

That’s it? Yeah, sure.

I’ll just run credits over footage of Riddley gunning him down.

No “Where’s the trash go?”

I can see the poster.

“All Jarda Klapek wanted was love,” and slap it over a big herpes sore.

No big gotcha questions?

Now that you mention it, I do have one.

I knew we weren’t gonna get off that easy.

The fog of vampiric love, is that a thing for you, Louis?

Was love the reason why you and Armand never saw any of my gotchas coming?

I tried to respect you, Daniel.

I tried not to delve into your thoughts.

I appreciate that.

I appreciate you respecting my privacy, Louis.

Gotcha, smotcha.

We’re both here for the last mic hump and the end of the world.

Is the 3 out of 10 from “Pitchfork” easing the transition from niche rocker to dark monarch?

I gifted the Great Conversion an anthem.

It’s up to them, you, what’s done with it.

Christ sees the hammer and nails, says, “I forgot my keys to the car.”

Ugh, alarmists, the both of you.

And Sheridan Blackwood… dumb name… he’s going to do what after?

Rest?

Hmm.

I’ve been dreaming of forests.

Forests?

Hmm.

Every night this month of pumpkins.

I own a cabin right next to a forest.

And I walk a path nightly with paper and pen, transcribing birdsong.

I could do that for a decade.

From Iggy to birder.

[chuckles]

I grow bored, of course.

Slug my way back to the waking world.

Get a job plunking out Sondheim and Sakamoto in a hotel lounge.

You know anyone who owns hotels?

[door clicks]

Gentlemen, compliments of the chef, something he has been holding for this special evening.

An amuse-bouche.

Francine Lucien-LaChapelle.

She is, in fact, a distant descendant of the Lioncourt line.

Immigrés who came to Montreal in 1749.

A delicate, flowery flavor.

Bonsoir.

Mademoiselle.

♪♪

You still fanging Sofia?

I don’t know.

Maybe.

Why?

Has he met her yet?

I’m gonna meet her tonight, I think.

Sofia. He met her in the 1980s.

I can see her in those big shoulder pads.

[both laugh]

One has to ask, what is with the tan, Dan?

Did you indulge and overshoot your coffin again?

Sirs, Mr. du Lac, bon appétit.

[door clicks] I’m seeing someone.

What? Oh.

Ooh. Well…

The fog of love.

The tan of “whatever you want, sweetheart.”

[laughs]

To Daniel Malloy, our biographer, our documentarian, our shared ex’s abandoned offspring, all those things at once.

Ready to eat your own?

♪♪

He seemed off.

Dan? Mm.

Always.

He’s an awkward man.

He has that “you think you’re better than me” chip on him.

And we are.

It is exhausting to pretend otherwise.

I owed him an ending.

And it worked out for both of us.

You walking in probably just made the joint.

[horn honking]

Could you feel him trying to read our minds?

Mm-hmm. He got in mine.

[horn honking]

[“Cabbage” playing]

Oh, my God, Lestat! I love you, Lestat!

Oh.

Go on. No.

Give ’em a taste. Why not?

[fans singing indistinctly]

Arturo, would you mind?

♪ This is a song ♪

♪ For all the Beautiful Unwell ♪

[fans screaming]

♪ Be damage ♪

♪ Be cabbage ♪

♪ When the curtain drops, be baggage ♪

♪ This ain’t no goddamn crime of passion ♪

[fans screaming]

♪ Oh [screaming]

♪ Be broken ♪

♪ Unlovable ♪

♪ Be lost and irredeemable [horn honking]

[both laugh]

Fake Death Sheridan Clarence, you really have done something.

Congratulations.

Thank you for the Hastens coffin.

Hmm.

[laughs]

Can I ask you a question?

Yeah, I’ll risk it.

In Dan’s book, which I do not need to discuss… the book is not the point. We can discuss the book.

It’s not the point.

When you arrived in Paris, I was a spirit.

And I walked with you and Armand along the Seine.

And you also ate a photograph.

And was that your psyche churning up…

[chuckles] Uh, guilt.

Sharing a coffin, slitting your throat guilt, or you being in a garbage dump gone, or the other kind of gone guilt.

I didn’t know which.

Hmm.

Did you see me, too, those years?

[chuckles]

The songs might have shook loose a bone or two.

Ah!

This is it.

No, this is your thing.

All this shit I sense, but you never share.

No.

All that shit.

How many operas did you drag me to?

Those are wonderful memories for me.

And not once did you say, “Hey, Louis, I used to be onstage.” When you say dragged…

“I played a heartthrob named Lelio.

“Me and my ex-boyfriend started a murderous theater company together.”

I wanted to live with you like I had been dragged out of the bayou, gills to lungs, for you and you only.

Oh, me, you, Antoinette.

Oh, a voice I could fuck. I know. I know.

Actually, that’s not fair. She was a good time.

And the book’s prose reveled in making her smaller than she was.

Justice for Antoinette.

You made her cut off a finger.

Oh, she did that on her own.

She thought the gift would help her grow it back.

She was very impulsive. You dangled her.

To provoke you out of a depression.

[gentle music]

And then to punish. Why?

I have the blood of Akasha. No, it ain’t the blood.

It’s what you do with the blood.

♪♪

[both laugh]

Are you opening vampire gymnasiums next?

Vampire Equinox?

“It’s what you do with the blood.”

Why?

[sighs]

Because, Louis, I’m a monster.

Sludge!

[drums crashing] [feedback whining]

[whistles]

Lestat!

I’m fine.

That her?

That’s her.

You want to introduce me?

You’ll do fine.

I think that you are not understanding.

What is this? Exactly. Ciao.

Buona sera.

Hello, handsome man.

Sofia, right?

[laughs] The famous Louis.

The infamous Louis.

Everything he said is a quarter-half lie.

Oh, so also a quarter-half truth.

Mind if I sit with you and watch?

Prego.

Alex, play it.

[“Dancing with Myself” playing]

No, we need to rehearse.

Sing it. Snare.

Just sing. [sighs]

Sing it!

♪ On the floors of Tokyo-o ♪

♪ Or down in London town to go-go ♪

♪ With the record selection and the mirror’s reflection ♪

♪ I’m a-dancing with myself

He’s shy.

♪ When there’s no one else in sight ♪

It’s hard being him. [laughs]

♪ Well, I wait so long for my love vibration ♪

♪ And I’m dancing with myself ♪

♪ Oh, oh, dancing with myself ♪

You the one putting the show together?

One of many.

50,000 of us out in the woods together.

What could go wrong?

Yes, he said that you said you don’t think he should sing tomorrow.

Doesn’t matter what I think.

He’s gonna do what he’s gonna do.

Maybe you are the one who should not go.

And why is that?

They are coming from all over the world…

Dubai, Paris, Detroit.

You have many admirers, but also others.

♪ And there’s nothing to prove ♪

♪ And I’m dancing with myself, oh, oh ♪

I… I think he’d be hurt if I didn’t show.

I think he’d be more hurt if you were hurt.

♪ Oh, oh, oh-oh ♪

You should stand by me.

♪ Paso doble! ♪

I will protect you.

♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ♪ Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ♪

♪ Trap ♪

All right, enough of that. Let’s rehearse.

[“Brutal Love” playing]

♪♪

We’re trying to work out if we’re gonna do this one or not, Mr. du Lac, Mademoiselle Vecce.

Salamander here calls it a… what did you call it?

Dick salt. Mm.

And the Vampire Tough Cookie, she’s on the fence.

Sam does not get a vote. The Vampire Alex abstains.

So on the block, will it be chopped?

We are seeking brutal truth for a brutal song.

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ I can feel it ♪

♪ The pull on my thread ♪

♪ From a distant, restless hand ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ How I need it ♪

♪ Just to know that you’re out there ♪

♪ Pulling all you can ♪

♪ Show me that bitter star ♪

♪ I want it ♪

♪ Give me that brutal love ♪

♪ I want it all ♪

♪ I am the meteor ♪

♪ Above it ♪

♪ Writing your name in dust

♪ As I fall ♪

♪ Oh ♪

♪♪

Strings, you could do more.

[strings crescendo]

♪♪

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ I can feel it ♪

♪ Every atom like a planet on fire ♪

♪ Raging at the sun

♪ Show me that bitter star ♪

♪ I want it ♪

♪ Give me that brutal love ♪

♪ I want it all ♪

♪ I am the meteor ♪

♪ Above it ♪

♪ Writing your name in dust ♪

♪ As I fall ♪

♪ Show me that bitter star ♪

♪ I want it ♪

♪ Give me that brutal love ♪

♪ I want it all ♪

♪ I am the meteor

♪ Gliding ♪

♪ Writing your name in dust ♪

♪ As I fall ♪

You are listening to “The Failures,”.

Album Number 55, Side A.

♪ I’ll be fine ♪

♪ Get in line

♪ I’ll be fine ♪

♪ I’ll be fine

♪ Get in line ♪

♪ Get in line

[cheers and applause]

♪ Someone in trouble

♪ Like a star-crossed ♪

♪ Lover of mine ♪

♪ Of mine

I saw you on your phone. I was…

You were on your phone.

I was seeing how the restaurant did the rest of the night.

[chuckles]

It’s rude.

Yeah, it was.

You were great.

The show was great. You shouldn’t do it.

It’s a bad idea.

It’s 11:00.

We got an hour to decide.

Can I have a moment?

How did you two get on?

I’ll tell you in the car.

Ciao, bello. Ciao.

He liked Sofia.

He likes his phone.

[chuckles]

You left your scarf on my piano bench.

Marking your territory?

I stopped by to say hello.

You were in coffin.

I saw you had company.

So you left your scarf?

And small books for travel.

Have you packed?

I can’t pack if I don’t know where I’m going.

Cádiz.

Oh?

What’s in Cádiz?

A slumbering, drunken populace, a great wave of making more, a room with a view to watch it all from on high.

Does the room have HBO?

Armand’s in town.

I sensed that.

He’s going to try to disrupt things.

Oh, maybe I should bring him up onstage, put him over my knee, and give him five whacks for the five Great Laws.

Maybe I should…

Show Alex some affection. Avoid an appear…

He could use his mother.

I’ll have Arturo bring you to the hangar after.

Don’t forget to pack.

Back home, Arturo.

Absolutely, Mr. de Lioncourt.

[moaning]

I think we got to cancel.

What happened to the hour?

[moaning]

[chuckles]

What’s this?

How did you get that?

A link someone sent me.

A link?

This is on the internet?

[both moaning]

[clears throat]

Well, it’s obviously one of those fakes.

[scoffs]

Hey, cinema geeks, vamp-ophiles, and false-flaggers of the dark web.

It’s your boy, Daniel Molloy, back with another salacious clip from my upcoming documentary, “Interview with the Vampire Lestat.”

And so when did you first meet his girlfriend, Sofia?

In 1793, when Lestat and I formed the Théâtre des Vampires.

We all knew her then as the Vampire Gabriella, Lestat’s mother.

Huh.

Mm.

And so here he is, two months after his “murder,” taking a break from recording his posthumous album to bone his mom on the Bon Sasquatch studio couch.

[laughs]

Well, that’s your answer, then.

That’s obviously why Daniel was off.

He was sitting on this… sending on that… this AI deepfake.

Was that your mom I just met?

[somber music]

That was Sofia.

OK. Is Sofia your mother?

My mother is dead.

Let me… let me put it this way.

Are you hitting the same vagina you spent the first nine months of your mortal life in?

Anatomically, there’s the womb…

Stop the car. And there’s the cervix.

And there’s the uterus… Are you jumping the cervix?

[retches] Stop the car. My shoes!

It’s not one thing, Louis. [retching]

Stop the goddamn car.

[somber music]

♪♪

Louis! Louis!

Fuck! Fuck!

[sobbing] Louis.

You don’t eat where you shit, and you don’t come inside the door you came out of.

What on God’s savage Earth is there to talk about?

She was dying, Louis. I gave her the gift.

No. No, it’s basic. It’s fundamental.

No, it’s a complicated, multifaceted set of circumstances.

No, there’s no circumstance that leads to, “Oh, yeah, I can see how that would happen.”

You’re being very judgy.

“Come to Montreal. See me sing.

Hey, meet my friend with incestual benefits.”

This is all… all-time, Armand-level deceit.

Oh, do not walk away and… and… and say his name.

Do not compare me to him.

How is this any different?

This is a century-long lie.

You hung her portrait over our coffins in New Orleans.

It’s sick. You’re sick. We are unnatural beings!

And this… this is the half-human soul that you conveniently whip out whenever you want to win an argument!

What argument you got for fucking your mother?

It’s sickness.

Maybe the source of all your sickness.

But my God.

You… you… you call me out of nowhere…

Seek a professional!

And you say that you’re paying a girl to pretend to be Claudia!

You’re paying a girl to pretend to be Madeleine!

And what do I say?

Do I say that you’re sick, Louis?

Do I see sickness? No!

I spent a month and a half talking you back from unimaginable frenzy in the middle of my own fracturing!

I offer you room under my roof. OK.

I offer you the possibility of reckoning your crippling guilt.

[gasping] I offer you…

I off… [gasping]

OK. I offer you…

It’s OK. It’s OK.

It’s OK.

It’s OK. It’s OK.

It’s OK.

It’s OK.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. [breathing heavily]

It’s all right.

It’s all right.

It’s OK.

It’s OK. It’s OK.

It’s OK.

It’s OK.

[indistinct chatter]

[jazzy music playing]

♪♪

Ridiculous night.

So Sofia is your mom.

Gabriella was my mom.

Just…

Is now a vampire. Huh?

I’m just trying to reset here.

I’m just asking about her.

She was born in the wrong century.

Bitter life.

There was a closeness between us.

She was the only one growing up who showed me any kind of affection.

She was not a doting mother.

But I could picture a larger life outside of Auvergne because of her.

Well, the cousin that stuck his fingers in me also gave me a dollar.

Louis. Oh, sorry.

Go. Go ahead.

Nothing happened until she came to Paris, her blonde hair bone white, her body racked with disease.

She was dying.

Hours from it.

OK, I hear that.

So never before?

[muttering]

Your mother called you the devil.

Never had sex with me.

Then she blamed you for Paul’s death…

You get that getting with family’s gonna cross some wires in your head.

Which you then blamed on me.

I let it go. I took it back.

I was wrong. The blame. The blame.

If we can find the blame, if we agree on the blame, then it’s all mapped, the why we are, the why we do.

[scoffs]

I conduct the chaos.

She’s one of the many chainsaws I juggle.

A hill to climb, vamp or not.

Hmm.

Can you…

[grunts]

Mm?

♪♪

Mm.

[sighs]

[both laugh]

Did you… did you notice in the video that Daniel was in the daylight?

Mm.

The suntan.

I left my phone in the car.

Can you just check to see if it’s everywhere?

A week of ridicule, and then no one gives a shit.

What’s the matter?

That was Lestat.

Lestat is dead.

It matters to you.

Maybe.

I don’t know. I don’t know.

I am my own zip code of mess right now.

And I’m not proud of how I just was.

I’m sorry.

We should cancel.

We should probably cancel.

Hmm. Hmm.

♪♪

Or… I hope you don’t mind.

I steamed me a cup of tea while you was out.

Mm, please, make yourself at home.

Make yourself at home.

This Papa Legba’s make-do room of diablerie now.

Louis de Pointe du Lac, the Witch Merrick.

How do?

Great Mama Ernestine sends her regards, says the du Lac boys walked past her porch heads so high you wouldn’t know their money came from flesh.

[chuckles] Young, dumb, and mortal.

Called her Satan’s favorite whore.

Ought to be run out of Nawlin’ proper.

That would have been my brother, Paul, Paul du Lac.

Hear that, Great Mama?

It was the other one.

Have seats.

Feets outside the line.

Ah.

Thank you for your patience these past months.

There’s been some hard thinking about this.

All spirits can be unruly.

But those snatched out of life… a burned girl, a motherless monster, called up by her killers.

I didn’t kill her.

The implication, I believe, was giving Claudia the gift.

Oh, I thought…

I thought you were talking about Paris.

The implication there was that I killed her.

I didn’t say that. No, you implied it.

Personal items.

[soft piano music]

♪♪

Wrote in that.

Died in this.

Skinny.

Knees on cobbles, face bruised up, split like a peach.

Madeleine.

Sewed this dress?

Loved Claudia.

♪♪

These got it.

I can call with these objects.

♪♪

[exhales deeply]

Papa Legba, Virgin Mary, Angel Michael, Angel Gabriel, I cannot do this without your blessings.

Virgin Mary, Angels, Papa Le… you two together bringing a jinx, blocking the gate.

What happened to you tonight?

Well, we had a… A lot.

Move your chairs. 2:00, 10:00.

[chairs scraping]

Mary, Angels, Papa Legba.

I call on you, Lord of Blood.

I am Merrick Mayfair.

I call on you.

Open the gates.

You know my name, Papa.

All spirits that answer me, Son of Ham, Mama Yu, Baron Samedi, Blanc Dani.

I give you my blood.

Bring me to the spirit called.

Bring out the chasm the spirit Claudia called by the living, grand zombie.

I am Merrick Mayfair.

On my dead mother, bring her to me.

You find the one named Claudia and bring her out.

Shove her out.

I call the spirit Claudia and Claudia alone to come down, come out the chasm, and show yourself!

[eerie whispering]

Both: The fuck you yanking on me, you dumb bitch?

[glass shatters]

[gasping]

She a wild one.

That… was that her?

She did not like… mm.

She got rage going up, going down.

Get her back.

I’m gonna have to add to the envelope.

Find me a high-presentin’ dentist.

Yeah, yeah. Bring her back.

[breathing shakily]

[rattling]

Both: Couldn’t keep me on the wall.

Could you, Daddy Lou?

I’m Lestat.

Louis is over there.

Both: Didn’t think this through, did you?

I tried to go on without you.

I’m over here, Claudia.

They dragged me off the stage.

They ripped you away from me.

And… and I can’t let you go.

It’s there at the bottom of everything.

I wanted to blot that out.

I wanted to say the goodbye I didn’t get to say and tell you…

I hope you found a bit of… a bit of quiet.

Both: You back with him?

[somber music]

I’m… I’m sorry, Claudia.

♪♪

Madeleine made this.

Said I looked splendid in it.

That was her word. Splendid.

You hung it on the wall, the dress I burned in.

Meant to honor you.

Oh.

Oh, yeah, that’s what I want to be, car fuel for your self-pity.

Listen to your sad sorrys.

I’m dead.

Dead!

I know.

I know.

I had nights I wanted to join you.

I know. I know. I know. I know.

Running up on rooftops, ripping your shirt off like you a dirty movie.

I heard you calling me.

I didn’t call you, you dumb bitch.

I’d have tripped Armand on the stairs if I wanted you with me.

Here’s some truth for you, sad boy.

You weren’t even my favorite.

I liked him better.

He knew who he was.

You’re not even my maker.

You’re not even my blood.

That’s my maker.

I even thought about poisoning you instead of him.

You know why I didn’t?

‘Cause there’s a little etching on your rib cage, says you’re a slave.

I knew I could count on you to trail me, like a dumb dog anywhere I went, until I could ditch your ass for something more worthy of me.

Who the fuck are you?

Don’t even know you.

Yeah?

What about the thing you should be thanking me for?

Oh!

Yeah, he thinks it meant something to hunt Bruce down.

Read my little girl diary pages seven decades late.

You think I want not one, but two men I hate using me as an excuse for their bullshit?

All cry-face, reading my diary like it fucking happened to you?

Both: Get this into your nappy little head.

I hate you!

More than anything and anyone I have ever known, more than my dad that left me, more than my auntie that whipped me, more than Bruce that stuck it in me, more than the pack of vamps that seduced and burned me!

I hate you to the pit of all things.

Claudia.

Both: Burn the diaries!

Burn this dress!

Stop saying my name!

[thuds]

[piano key plinks]

And you, Uncle Les.

Yes? “Yes?”

Bring your malice.

Some joy I know, knowin’ is how good I humiliated you in New Orleans, how I ginned up the train for the slave here.

“Lestat said he’d do worse than rape me, Daddy Lou.”

[sobs]

Worked good, didn’t it?

The train, Antoinette, Tom Anderson, slit throat, took your Black queen and ran off with him across the ocean.

And shitty little bitch that you are, revenge swelled in your brain.

How long you rehearse my death, Antoinette?

Memorize your every line of that play just for fun, Mr. Anderson, and your little make-’em-ups not in the script.

Slit!

I’d have done the same thing if it were me.

Yeah, sat on my hands watching you char up to thunderous applause.

Only… only I wouldn’t have saved his ass and waited for a hug in a hurricane.

Dress on the wall.

Song on the radio.

Pay some broke witch a pittance to drag me out of my spidery-ass nowhere.

What about Madeleine?

You two hug it out for her too?

Hmm?

You two bringing her back in the cornstarch?

‘Cause I don’t see her here.

And I can’t find her there!

The one good thing in my bleak… [sobbing] Black life, and I don’t know where she is!

And I spend every fucking second of nowhere looking for her!

And where is she?

Why is she not here with me?

Madeleine! Madeleine! [rattling]

[crashing] Madeleine!

Madeleine!

[distorted] Madeleine!

Madeleine!

[sobbing]

♪♪

Hear me, those spirits that answer to me.

Close the gate.

Papa Legba.

Virgin Mary.

Angel Michael. Angel Gabriel.

[distant laughter and chattering]

[sighs]

Yeah.

Pretty much closes the door on that.

She spared us the ambiguity.

[laughs]

That moment, when…

“What about the thing you should thank me for?”

Yeah. Mm.

I didn’t know that was in me.

Got some work to do on myself.

It’s not something one did in the late 18th century, work on the self.

Or the early 20th.

What did one do?

Went on, went to bed, got up, punched a wall.

Sat on benches. Shared troubles.

Hmm.

[both sigh]

[distant violin music playing]

♪♪

She doesn’t have that.

No.

No Madeleine.

No rest.

I guess we just carry that.

Hmm.

Can I ask you a question?

Of course.

Did you think you were gonna get away with it, the Sofia, Gabriella thing?

[sighs]

That.

I don’t know.

I brought her on the bus.

I brought her to you, or you to her.

I hung her portrait in our room in New Orleans.

Excellent point in the heat of the fracas, by the way.

Thank you. [sighs]

Clearly, somewhere in the self-destructive scaffolding I house my heart in, I wanted it known.

But where I am a mystery to myself is why I wanted it now, the night before I go on stage, the hour before the witch arrives.

Why do I actively, manically pursue failure?

Hmm.

Maybe it’s just the vampire’s burden.

What do you replace death with?

What’s to live for if there’s no end?

Maybe it’s just how you keep your night straight.

I have some work to do on myself.

[gentle piano music]

♪♪

The songs are about me?

Most of them. Hmm.

You opened a restaurant three blocks from my house because…

Yeah. [laughs]

♪♪

If it was just the two of us again…

’cause, yeah, who else is gonna have us…

A trailer park.

Nevada, Utah, the desert.

Couple folding chairs.

Plant some flower boxes.

What blooms at night?

Evening primrose.

They got birds in the desert?

There’s birds everywhere.

Could be nice.

Could be.

♪♪

Thrift store Dracula peeping.

Alex?

♪♪

[footsteps approaching]

[flesh squelches]

♪♪

Listen to tracks from “The Vampire Lestat” wherever you stream music.

[“Butterscotch Bitch” plays]

♪ My head is rollin’ ’round ♪

♪ Will my toesies ever touch the ground ♪ [All shouting]

♪ Hang every rope, burn every witch ♪

♪ But you’ll never catch the butterscotch bitch ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ Bah-dah, bah-dah ♪

We should cancel. Cancel the dinner?

Not the dinner, her. Oh, the bad idea.

Yeah.

♪

Sit around a table thinking that you feel a chill or somebody’s eye twitches.

The idea of the seance is really wonderful.

This is not something you want to explore.

This is not something you want to know about and this is not somewhere you want to go.

I don’t like witches. I don’t get on with them.

Louis’ absolutely correct.

It’s a horrible idea.

And why do they do it?

Because they’re Louis and Lestat and they’re messy, and they can’t turn away from the messiest option.

You reached out to the worst kind of witch.

Oh. Merrick is different.

She is not like the rest.

And her and the uncle, they’re the same.

When I first got to New Orleans, the driver was like, “I’ll give you one piece of advice.”

He was like, “Don’t [no audio] with voodoo,” and I don’t.

I have a respectful distance from it.

Let’s be clear, I respect it.

[Laughs]

But I’m not getting involved with it.

Do you know what I mean?

We should cancel.

We should probably cancel.

[Indistinct conversations]

Shot, mark.

When I first got the seance scene, I think I was filming another scene.

And then everybody went around set and was like, Ah, episode six. We’ve got episode six.

And I’m like, “Oh, my God. Okay, whoa.

Claudia read it. Read it.”

Kept reading it and I was like, “This is amazing, and about time.”

He’s got it. I can call with these objects.

I’m still mourning Claudia. I’m still angry for her.

And it’s like finally she gets to say everything, get it all off her chest and give it to the two men she hates the most, hates but loves the most.

Bring out the chasm, the spirit, Claudia, called by the living.

We were all a bit starstruck, actually, because I was like, “Oh, my God, Claudia’s here.”

You hung it on the wall, Dress I burned.

But to honor you.

Yeah, that’s what I want to be.

Car fuel for your self-pity.

I went very deep and we did a couple of takes, and I was happy with them and everybody else was happy with them.

But I said, I still have more, so can we do more?

And Jane was like, absolutely. And we did.

And then, yeah, it was like a whole new level of anger.

What about Madeleine? You do hug it out for her, too?

‘Cause I don’t see her here!

The one good thing in my bleak black life!

When me and Sam sat in the chair watching Delainey, and we were like, “[Laughs] this is amazing.”

It’s a pretty rough sequence to shoot.

Very sad.

I thought I was gonna feel, like, defensive for Louis and for Lestat, but we deserved what we got.

For Lestat and Louis, this is one instance where they actually dealt with the problem, and I think that that’s a really cool thing.

It gives them closure in the sense that she absolutely hated them for what they did to her and for not putting her first, and she’s suffering in hell.

[Screaming]

[Screaming continues]

[Screaming stops]

♪

[Whistles] Lestat!

Is that her? That’s her.

Jennifer Ehle. She is amazing.

And Gabrielle is one of my all star favorite characters.

Want to introduce me? You’ll do fine.

I was star struck working with Jacob.

To see him walk on as Louis, I did feel, “Oh, my God, you’re Louis.”

Hello. Handsome man, huh?

Sophia, right?

I think Gabriella is threatened by Louis, And she’s also jealous as a lover.

He’s also another one of Lestat’s fledglings.

I mean, there are not many of us.

I think Louis just got a generally queasy feeling.

He’s not really on board with the, like, make more thing.

50,000 of us out in the woods together.

What could go wrong? Yes, he said that you said you don’t think he should sing tomorrow.

Doesn’t matter what I think.

He’s going to do what he’s gonna do.

I think “Brutal Love” ‘s such a beautiful song.

I remember when I first heard it, months before we started shooting.

I was like, “Wow, this is amazing.”

Where’s this going to go in this show?

How does this even fit?

And you do get the sense like not really sure who’s he’s singing it too. Is he singing it to Gabrielle?

Is he singing it to Louis? And then, you know, by the end he’s really singing that song to Louis.

It’s a kind of like, perfect anthem for their love story.

There’s that wonderful feeling where she is the most important person in the room, and suddenly she isn’t.

♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ I can feel it ♪

♪ Every atom like a planet on fire raging at the sun ♪

♪

[Indistinct conversations]

♪

Come on. [Applause]

Taylor and Travis, congratulations.

Have you set a date yet?

Molloy is perfectly happy to sit there at the restaurant, let them screw around with him in their obnoxious way that they are.

One has to ask. What is with the Tan Dan?

He could sit there and say, “Yeah, you can make fun of me all you want, and I look really weird with this sunburn.”

In terms of Louis knowing that something’s different, like, he looks like a lobster.

Ooh. The fog of love.

The tan of whatever you want, sweetheart.

[Laughs] I think Louis and Lestat are definitely not picking up on the hostility from Daniel.

Ready to eat your own?

They continue to bully him in the way that they always have, and I think that dynamic is less apparent to them than it is to him.

It is hugely shocking, the end of episode six.

There’s no sense, unless I’m crazy, that you can see it coming.

Thrift store Dracula peeping.

I was like, wow, we’re doing this.

We’re going to go there.

Our two protagonists, our two lead characters, we chop their heads off at the end of six.

We’ve got a whole episode left.

What’s going on? Alex?

I think there’s been so many little hints at it from the very beginning that Lestat’s going to lose his head.

But the fact that Malloy’s turned against Louis, I think for me that was like, whoa, that’s really shocking.

♪

♪

[gentle music box melody]

♪♪