REVIEW: ‘Interview With The Vampire’ Episode 3 — “Is My Very Nature That of a Devil”

Interview With The Vampire is off to a stunning start and Episode 3 is no different. Interview With The Vampire Episode 3, “Is My Very Nature That of a Devil,” showcases Louis (Jacob Anderson), his growth, and relation to Lestat (Sam Reid) in the present day versus when he first gave his interview to Daniel (Eric Bogosian) in 1973, but more powerfully his guilt. While Lestat has been pushing Louis to embrace killing and eating whoever he sees fit in New Orleans, Louis has turned away from that. Louis is restraining himself, attempting to live on animals alone. But by pending up more anger that mixes with his hunger causes Louis erupts.

Interview With The Vampire Episode 3 has a lot worked into it and yet, everything builds on the last. Lestat acts on his primal lust, an agreed-upon open relationship that Louis starts to explore. Louis begins to question if he’s enough for Lestat, while Lestat justifies seeking the pleasures of the flesh outside their relationship with the assertion that they will indeed be with each other for thousands of nights. The romance in the beginning of the episode is handled well, specifically in that it shows the layered relationship that Lestat and Louis have. They love, they hate, they respect, and they disrespect, but it all comes back to the same townhome at the end of the night. While the beginning of this episode features moments of boundary exploration that puts stress on Lestat and Louis’s relationship and explores romance, the ending of the episode is all about pain and rage, but most of all guilt.

Last episode, we saw Louis begin to process his rage towards the racist businessmen who have looked down on him and oppressed his growth. But when Louis’s success with the Azela is stamped out by new anti-soliciting laws, Louis understands that the success he has was what was allowed by racist men who reserved the right to crush him when they saw fit. And so, he loses it. He kills one fo the most prominent white men in New Orleans and in the process brings on violence upon his city and his community. Fire and blood, Louis thought he had power, but instead, he’s only left with guilt. He doesn’t have the leeway that Lestat has. While Lestat can kill a prominent opera singer because he sang off-tune, Louis can not kill a man who has ruined his business and was unbearably racist and homophobic towards him.

As a pair, Lestat and Louis are never and have never been on equal footing. Part of Lestat’s ability to manipulate his partner comes from this fact, and Louis’ constant reminder of how much he can’t control. This inequality in their experiences as vampires in this adaptation of their dynamic pushes this further and deeper. It’s a stark change to the story that makes the guilt and rage we see build up in Louis much more understandable. But at the same time, it also makes Lestat’s revelry in Louis’s violence all the more unsettling.

All of this setup and conflict leads directly into Louis’ “odyssey of recollection” that we see in the present-day interview. We see the differences in who Louis thinks Lestat is when he gave his first interview in 1973 versus who he feels his maker is in 2022. In 1973, Louis was angry, he hated Lestat, but in 2022, Louis is recalling his story romantically and more importantly bearing responsibility for his choices in their relationship. While Daniel wants to cast Louis as the abused, as the victim, Louis is adamant in showing every side of their relationship, including the “fucked up gothic romance.”

While this is a pivotal point for Daniel as an interviewer, it’s also a direct callout to the audience to understand that we are also seeing a different Louis than who may have before in the book or other interpretations. It’s a call for the audience to go on our own odyssey of recollection and to accept the changes made, since they are all ultimately, telling the same story even if it’s being told with differences.

Interview With The Vampire Episode 3 continues to tell a developed and dynamic gothic romance that consistently investigates race, violence, and love in equal strokes. With Claudia on the horizon, I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Interview With The Vampire is streaming now on AMC+ and airs every Sunday on AMC.