RECAP: ‘The Vampire Lestat’ Episode 2 — “Toledo”

After the rather explosive events of The Vampire Lestat Episode 1 and that final mic drop by Lestat (Sam Reid) at the very end, The Vampire Lestat Episode 2, “Toledo,” paves the way for answering questions surrounding Gabriella de Lioncourt (Jennifer Ehle) and the complexities of their relationship. However, some questions remain unanswered, and the complex web that the Talasmasca continues to weave around Lestat, Louis (Jacob Andersen), and Daniel Malloy (Eric Bogosian) grows more complicated. The latter might become a plotting issue depending on how the series progresses.

The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 has a long opening before going into its theme song. Sam Reid’s punchy narration takes us back in time to his youth in 1772 in Auvergne, France, where we see a manor-like estate. The aristocracy is in decline, and the de Lioncourt family is a prime example. Lestat is the proverbial runt and embarrassment of the family, possessing the aptitude for something intellectually greater, yet his stutter and his father’s distaste for the young Lestat in front of his elder brothers and his mother keep him rooted in place.

The introduction to Gabriella here in the past shows a woman of spirit. And while her accent comes off as overly exaggerated in certain points, Jennifer Ehle drips with venom. Her Gabriella mocks the Marquis (Peter Outerbridge) for his overinflated sense of self and sees what Lestat could achieve if only he could escape his family. The divide is already clear, both through the visual separation onscreen, placing Gabriella and Lestat on one side of the table, and the Marquis with Lestat’s older brothers, Augustin (Kaleb Horn) and Gregoire (Rhys Alexander Phillips), on the other.

Jennifer Ehle captures Gabriella’s cold visage in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2.

A few years go by, and now a teenage Lestat has grown to seek out theatre. His father chastises him, but Lestat is starting to bite back. The Marquis wants Lestat to conform, to give in to more masculine pursuits befitting his station rather than slumming it up at the theatre. It is in this exchange of words, and in the side conversation between Gabriella and Lestat, that a growing fear is punctuated: the idea of Lestat becoming a “cabbage” like the rest of his family, unthinking and uninspired, merely one of many. 

In the process of this constant push and pull between his mother’s and father’s desires, escalating to being held down by his brothers on the dining room table in an attempt to cripple him into submission, Lestat stares at his impassive mother’s face. “She had a cold beauty, like snow behind a thick, distorting wall of glass,” he observes, and through her influence and being trapped inside his familial home, he notes, he became hardened.

This shows itself once we reach the part of Lestat’s past in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2, when the great wolf hunt takes place. Sam Reid here plays Lestat as more subdued, his defenses high against his kin. In this scene, the people within the de Lioncourt domain have come to beg the Marquis for assistance against the wolves and to share their resources. Gabriella rightfully points out the Marquis and his elder sons’ cowardice and their refusal to do what needs to be done. Inspired by his mother, Lestat goes to take care of it.

There’s a double-edged sword to this act, narrates Lestat. On the one hand, if Lestat successfully kills the wolves, he will bring himself acclaim in the community. But if he dies, and likely what his mother would want given her gradual decline shown in these scenes in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2, Lestat will finally be free from his family. The line “I wanted the wolves to come. Until I didn’t,” sums up this feeling, even if the writing decides not to further explore this moment.

Needless to say, he does survive (albeit with some gnarly flesh wounds that are sensually treated by Gabriella while revealing her hopes and dreams with Lestat), but his survival comes with the news that his mother is dying. The gradual scene work and buildup of the relationship between Gabriella and Lestat stand out the most. Sure, it’s a much more condensed version of its source material, but the dependency that Lestat feels towards his mother—that ownership and fear of separation—is real. It makes his decisions all the more understandable by the episode’s end. If his mother should die, then the only person who was ever in his corner would be gone too.

Sadly, the wigs in the earliest flashback in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 are incredibly distracting. Most of the young men in the scene have hair that looks stiff and weirdly unkempt. While long hair was the fashion then for both men and women, given their station, one would imagine the men’s hair would be better kept. The issues are more noticeable for those wearing lighter-colored wigs, making it harder to hide imperfections in application and placement. Compared to Sam Reid’s natural hair in these scenes, the wigs are hard to ignore.

It’s safe to say that the relationship status between Lestat and Louis is dead.

From this point, The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 jumps forward in time, revealing that these past moments with his mother stem more from deeply buried memories than anything else. What Lestat wakes up to is his bandmates freaking out, for obvious reasons, about his vampirism, leading to a hilarious array of questioning and a great deal more patience from Lestat. It’s clearly not his first rodeo and goes about as predictably as one might think. While the band doesn’t entirely split up (they do lose their rhythm guitarist), tensions are high. 

After the band-only meeting, Lestat and Gabriella (who goes by the name Sofia in these modern times) take a moment to catch up. He has only seen her twice in the past century, something he clearly takes issue with. She reassures him by saying she wants to stay long enough to see him sing, but also to see “All the spit on the floor, the moist cavities.” She wants to know what has hypnotized her son into staying around. This prompts Lestat to take “Sofia” out to dinner, leading them to a strip joint where they hunt their quarry.

We see them travel via cloud gift in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2. The visual of their awkwardly floating bodies reflected onto the side of the building is impressive, before we’re in the strip club. The purple-tinted tone of the scene creates a sense of fantasy. Here, we see some unusually familiar faces. The actual Rashid (Bally Gill) from the Talasmasca is undercover, whether to keep an eye on Lestat or other vampires. Lestat also hallucinates his brother, which makes him question its meaning before he receives a phone call from his lawyer about meeting a hotel owner who wants to settle the damages Lestat left behind in Detroit.

It’s innocuous at first. Just business. However, nothing is ever what it seems in this universe, and in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2, he is haunted by the past in unexpected ways. But first, back to the hunt. Randy becomes the lucky prey, but the two have to wait for him to finish his escapades before going in for the kill. Lestat and Gabriella discuss his bedroom life and whether or not it is comparable to the intoxication that blood brings. She drinks from Lestat, reinforcing to the audience the intimate nature of this mother/son relationship.

The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 then shifts to a grey negotiation room. The hotel owner, Thomas Pitt, seeking reconciliation, is actually Louis. Louis’s lawyer and subsequent friends-with-benefits (Moses Sumney) go head-to-head with Christine Claire (Jeanine Serralles), who is confirmed in this scene to be sleeping with Lestat. The hotel damages are just a cover for Louis to ask about Lestat’s songs, calling them a cry for help. Lestat points out that Louis hurt him with what was said in Molloy’s book, but Louis refuses to take responsibility. 

It’s best to describe what happens in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 as a light domestic dispute. Lestat gets emotional, clearly still holding on to not just resentment over how he was depicted in the tell-all but also to Louis’s seeming indifference. The power imbalance between the two is different now, with Louis holding all the strings while Lestat bucks and writhes in despair. While their relationship was more romantic, it isn’t too dissimilar from his relationship with Gabriella. Lestat’s vampiric children overall have the upper hand over him.

Can Sam Reid just perform on stage forever? He’s so good in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2.

How Gabriella will respond to Louis’s hold over her son (and maker) remains to be seen. However, the curiosity and tension are visible enough when all three convene for Lestat’s nighttime performance in Toledo. Lestat only has eyes for Louis in the balcony, drifting towards him in an impassioned response before throwing his heavily annotated copy of Interview With The Vampire in Louis’s face. Gabriella notes her son’s distraction, but it’s unclear as of yet how that will play out. 

In the same scene in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2, Daniel Molloy converses with Louis, where it’s revealed that Louis is still mad at Daniel. Their conversation continues afterward at a restaurant, where we get some exposition of how Daniel’s documentary came to be. It’s also here that Daniel describes to Louis the strangeness of his connection with Armand (who is notably absent from this episode), and we realize that what he experiences is different from what Louis experiences with Lestat. That and Daniel doesn’t have the powers that his elders have.

Daniel points out that Louis hasn’t technically suffered as a result of the book’s publication. Louis counters that he doesn’t like the person he is in the book: “Passive, selfish, a liar.” He also notes that he and Lestat were slowly finding their way back to each other before the book dropped, but that relationship may be severed as a result. Then Louis drops a bomb. He’s seen Claudia, or at least a doppelganger of her. The monologue Jacob Anderson delivers is simple yet hints at just how much he misses his daughter. 

The heartfelt longing here in The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 is interrupted when Daniel mentions that his producers want to meet Louis. Of course, the documentary’s producers are Talamasca. Their reps? Rashid and Raglan James (Justin Kirk), who is all too keen to get Louis and us up to speed on their involvement in Dubai.

Whilst Louis is forced to meet with the Talamasca, Lestat and his mother are conversing after an extensive meal. Gabriella is fixated on Louis, wondering what he knows of her, and Lestat reveals the version of truth he’s imparted to him. After Gabriella ruffles his feathers, Lestat begins singing a song in French, and flashback visuals show how he turned his mother into a vampire and the subsequent destruction of their family.

We then pivot back to Roland and Louis. They then discuss the problems the Detroit coven has unleashed in Michigan, with Roland asking Louis to take care of it for them. Mostly because the Talasmasca can’t get involved, but Louis has a history of exacting carnage. Just as Louis is ready to walk, Roland mentions the vampire Bruce, the vampire who brutalized Claudia during her time away from her parents. This is just enough to stop Louis in his tracks. Thus, The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 ends. 

Gabriella’s transformation and joint massacre with Lestat is vampiric gold, but man, that wig…

Like any adaptation, The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 may be a prime example of how killing your darlings provokes more questions than answers. Lestat and Gabriella’s relationship is essential, and the focus on them in this episode is great. Crunching down their history to such a Cliffnotes version may prove more detrimental than not, if not for the storytelling, then for the fans of the source material. 

The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 maintains Lestat’s witty narration, infusing each moment with his distinct flair and snappy wordplay. The storytelling, though, and its pacing are struggling. Part of this is due to the consolidation of storylines, some of which are essential to Lestat’s characterization from the book. The inclusion of the Talasmasca towards the end also bogs down an already full episode, and frankly, is the weakest part. 

Even still, The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 entertains, and Sam Reid continues to slay it as Lestat. The rest of the cast is just as compelling, though Jennifer Ehle’s Italian accent may take some time getting used to. With the seeds of future plots sprinkled in, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the series plays out. 

The Vampire Lestat Episode 2 is streaming now on AMC+ with new episodes airing every Sunday on AMC.

Previous Episode | Next Episode