Last week (review here), both Louis and Daniel reached a level of enlightenment that wasn’t all pleasant and set Armand off. Louis explored the difficulty of laying Lestat’s ghost to rest and Claudia’s struggle being the Theatre des Vampire’s little forever girl. However, Daniel struggled with memories that he can’t recall ever having and Armand being a part of them,
This week, Daniel took an opportunity to ask Louis about their first interview. Recounting the memories yields interesting reveals for both parties.
Let’s dive in!
Warning: It’s about to spoiler-y!
Armand Goes to Lunch
Louis and Daniel were lucky to get some alone time when Armand needed a lunch break. Daniel took this opportunity to ask Louis about their first interview from the seventies. He was ready to figure out his foggy memories and there was nobody better to ask about them than the vampire who’d nearly killed him in them.
This flashback was one I’ve been all too eager for since the start of the season. The show finally approached Louis and Daniel’s relationship, though fractured it may be. Louis showed a young Daniel his world: the coffin, his collection of drugs, his life, and all in an apartment in San Fransisco.
Of course, with constantly Daniel drugged out during this interview, it’s no wonder why things might’ve gone sideways for him. He’d lost his senses. Louis pointed out that on more than one occasion Daniel offered himself to Louis, taking all that Louis said as a joke. With a presumptuous ego, he also crossed a few lines he shouldn’t have. It was dangerous but Daniel wasn’t catching on to how dangerous Louis was.
Louis could only take so much before he had to flash his fangs at the journalist. This was a major highlight during the episode. There is something deliciously fangtastic about a vampire flashing their fangs. Look at True Blood and The Vampire Diaries if you must. It was humorous that Daniel asked if he was the Zodiac Killer. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zodiac Killer wasn’t a supernatural in this universe.
Into the Light of Day
As Louis continued to help Daniel remember their first interview, it became obvious that Louis was much more passionate during that time, especially regarding Lestat and Claudia. He popped his fangs more than once during the interview. The lack of reservation, like he has in the present, was so authentic. Something about Daniel brought Louis to life for the first time in a long time.
Unfortunately, such high passion eventually led to Louis literally ripping into Daniel and making a bloody mess. Granted, Daniel was pretty drugged up and begging for the bite, being ignorant, and desperate to be Lestat’s replacement, so Louis claimed.
Yet, that wasn’t the complete truth Daniel claimed. What was true was that Daniel had been attacked but because Louis was distraught and lost control. Louis had been looking for a reason to keep existing and thought it was through telling his story to Daniel.
Daniel shared a recording of the moments after his attack. They listened to Louis running up to the rooftop and out in the light of day with the intent of dying. Though it was done out of spite, Armand saved both him and Daniel from dying. Or so I’d believed at first.
Even Louis was surprised. The entire exchange between Louis and Armand was an emotional and heartbreaking one. Their relationship hadn’t been as dreamy as they’d been professing lately. Louis still mourned Lestat and Claudia and the empty space where they’d once been. What’s so shocking isn’t Armand’s true colors coming to the surface. It’s that Louis is in the same boat as Daniel. He’s struggling just as hard to remember this point in time as well.
Interview of Daniel
As I always suspected, Armand does have a sneaky and dark side. He showcased this with jealousy over Louis’s interview with Daniel and replaying Daniel’s tapes over and over. And, if you look back on how he helicoptered Louis in season 1 and how he has inserted himself into the interview during this season, it’s obvious much hasn’t changed. Reliving this part of the memory was excruciating for everyone: Louis, Daniel, and surely us the viewers. Armand is a stage 4 clinger with control issues.
Armand tortured Daniel by crawling through his head and replaying his worst moments and by having him squat as if sitting on an invisible chair while Louis begged for him to be let go. Daniel handled the traumatic memory with grit for sure, but it was clear he understood why Armand set him off so much in the present. Louis was a different story.
Instead of coming to terms that Armand wasn’t stable, Louis fell into the trap that Armand was ‘angry’ and that made what he did okay. That was truly tragic. Louis couldn’t see Armand as the toxic vampire he was. He made excuses for him!
Yet, still in a fit of jealousy, Armand further hurt Louis by telling him that Lestat was alive and then cutting the two off. Talk about toxic and dangerous.
Cleaning Up the Mess
The episode ended with not only a major reveal but a full circle for Louis and Daniel. It wasn’t Armand who saved Daniel as was believed. It was Louis. He’d offered himself back into Armand’s clutches in exchange for Daniel’s life.
Though this seems noble, it was a muddle of heartache for Daniel and Louis as they recalled the last of the memory. Though Daniel handled it with surprising grace, it cost I’m so much. For Louis, this was such a devastating betrayal that he’d originally been blaming himself for.
IWTV 2×05: “Don’t be afraid, just afraid” | Louis – Jacob Anderson, Daniel – Eric Bogosian | AMC
The realization that Daniel and Louis were given the same glamour is so striking because you realize the two didn’t have anybody before or after the events that took place in that apartment. Their shared connection had been much deeper than just an interview gone wrong and Armand knew it.
Distant Friends
This switched up everything we’d learned at the beginning of the pilot episode when Daniel arrived in Dubai. Louis had commented that he was never mentioned in Daniel’s memoir, but he had been. Daniel, from some distant inkling left behind after Armand flushed his memories, recalled Louis throwing himself into the light of day. He recalled him as the only memorable friend he remembered much of during his drugged-out days.
I couldn’t stand behind Louis mentality that Armand was kind and a romantic any longer. Actually, I haven’t stood behind that mentality since Armand was introduced. It’s a victim’s mentality that Louis doesn’t deserve to be in, especially after Lestat. I’m hoping that the season finale brings Louis into the light and he is set free of Armand.
What did you think of this week’s episode? Let’s chat in the comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
