REVIEW: ‘Interview With The Vampire’ Episode 9 — “Do You Know What It Means To Be Loved By Death”

The last episode of Interview With The Vampire Season 2 left Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) in Paris, with Lestat’s ghost (Sam Reid) riding along. In Interview With The Vampire Episode 9, “Do You Know What It Means To Be Loved By Death,” Paris sucks for Claudia. However, Louis de Pointe du Lac loves Paris, the mother of New Orleans. It’s not as racist as the United States, it’s beautiful to behold, and ultimately, he feels at home after years of having nowhere but a hole in the ground to go.

While Louis wanders the city streets with a camera in hand, Claudia withers away. She is alone again. But not for long. The core of Interview With The Vampire Episode 9 is all about Paris vampires. More specifically, this is where the Théâtre des Vampires finally makes its appearance. When Louis draws the coven’s ire, he also catches Armand’s (Assad Zaman) eye.

This is a pivotal episode in setting up a path for both Louis and Claudia to walk, separate from each other. For one, the Paris coven and Armand are artistic, familial, and high camp. Their shows are a level of whimsical that is only cut by their macabre endings and the live feeding on stage. Each vampire in the troupe immediately has an identity, but none more so than Santiago. Played by Ben Daniels, Santiago is charismatically sexy, effortlessly funny, and another reminder that this remains one of the best adaptations of any work.

It’s Santiago’s whimsy and delight that pulls Claudia in. The ritual of familial feasting solidifies what Caludia has been yearning for since she and Louis killed Lestat. She has wanted a community, a family, and vampires to be there for her, to heal her instead of hurt her. And here, with the Théâtre des Vampires, she gets it.

Claudia is fierce but so far this season, she is vulnerable in her loneliness. And as Armand comes into Louis’ life, she refuses to be left alone again. Louis may be her brother, but he will abandon her for his lover and that is a fact she refuses to let go.

On that note, Interview With The Vampire Episode 9 is also the moment that we get to see the Vampire Louis and Armand’s meet-cute. Yes, that’s exactly what it is and how it is portrayed to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian). Enamored with each other at first sight, Armand’s ability to lower Louis’ guard is sensual in a way that speaks beyond anything physical. Here, in this episode (in Paris), they are not lovers yet. But their courtship is smoldering, with the chemistry between Jacob Anderson and Assad Zaman nearing the heights of last season.

The only difference here is that Armand and Louis seem to come in on equal footing. While Lestat approaches Louis to control him and pull him from despair (that he caused), Armand approaches Louis on an apprehensive but equal footing. Between the two, there is a better understanding of equality, even as the episode switches focus to the present—where Armand begins to fill in the story as Louis speaks, playing off of each other as they rebuild memories of the past. Not only that but offering witty banter that only couples who have loved each other for a long time can do.

However, Interview With The Vampire Episode 9 doesn’t just show the seeds of new love being sewn; it continues to display Lestat, echoing through Louis’s life. The founder of the Théâtre des Vampires, Lestat de Lioncourt’s picture hangs in the coven’s quarters. A shrine to the man that Louis and Claudia killed, casting a shadow on everything and every relationship that can be formed.

While the last episode showcased how Lestat’s ghosts clung to Louis’s conscience, this episode uses Lestat’s presence in Louis’s heart in a different way. When he sees Lestat’s picture, he has to make sure that he’s dead. To do this, he meets with Lestat’s attorney and receives a box with a last love letter, a goodbye. As Sam Reid moves around a seated Louis reading the letter, the guilt that hangs in the atmosphere and on Louis’s face is painful. Despite his abuse, the way in which Lestat bids Louis to live a life free of guilt or burden pulls into focus why this one taking of a soul was the only one that felt like murder.

An electric episode that captures the depth of production and costume design that the series has to offer, Interview With The Vampire Episode 9 is a perfect and emotionally resonant episode.

Interview With The Vampire Episode 9 is streaming now on AMC+, with new episodes every Sunday.