Interview with the Vampire (Season 1), Episode 7 Recap & Ending Explained: The finale turned out to be a gala of twists and expressions of love far greater than we had seen thus far. Season 1 of Interview with the Vampire has ended with a cliffhanger that sets up another season to conclude the story. There perhaps could be even more but we will see how AMC decides. Anna Rice’s compelling source material saw a truthful adaptation, that was slightly off the mark initially. But with time, the episode got better and once Claudia was introduced in the story, the only way was up from there.
The big question that is answered here has Lestat survived Claudia and Lou’s plan. And what was the real betrayal in the end? Below is our recap and ending explained of episode 7 of Interview with the Vampire’s season 1, “The Thing Lay Still”.
Interview With the Vampire (Season 1) Episode 7 “The Thing Lay Still” Recap
Rashid has been a suspicious character from the beginning. His place in Lou’s life went unexplained – until the finale. We saw him in action at the end of episode 6 and he really seemed to have caught David’s fancy. So much so, that the beginning of episode 7 sees the journalist peruse him with his trained eye, trying to figure out his truth.
The action is subtly placed before the viewer and allows you to interpret the exchanges without too much hand-holding. Lou continues with the recap of his life as a vampire with Lestat. He picks up right from where he left off in the last episode – Claudia’s plan to kill Lestat.
Claudia’s Plan, Lou’s Reluctance, And Lestat’s Doubts
Despite the suggestion that Lestat’s immortal status means he could never be killed, Claudia was determined to make it happen. Daniel asks the same question that we have to Lou: how exactly would it happen? Lou replies there are plenty of ways that even an immortal like Lestat could lose his mortality. Fire was one of the tools and we will certainly catch the real one later on. Lu could never have mustered up the courage. He was either too much in love or knew better not to challenge Lestat.
Lou knew how powerful the vampire was and hence, it was perhaps a mix of love and fear (or the fear of how much he loved him, like that Michael Scott dialogue) that stopped him. But Claudia was fearless. Her youthful exuberance cleared the way for her to come up with a plan. Part of that was keeping Lestat in the dark by putting up a ruse and making Lou a part of that. It also allowed Claudia to work independently on the mechanics of how the plan will take place.
The part about the visits by patients with terminal illnesses is not fully explained in this episode. They often used to visit Lou’s house and that aroused doubt in Lestat’s mind. He saw it as an attempt by “someone” to conjure a conspiracy of fatal bearings for Lestat. He certainly could not figure out why that happened and neither can we. Well, fully, at least. This prompted Lestat to suggest moving away from the town and making a fresh start somewhere else.
Claudia tried to use this to her advantage and molded the plan around his possibility. In fact, it was Claudia who proposed to Lestat that they organize a big feast where they could thrive on people one last time before leaving the town. Lestat agreed, and Claudia picked the night of the Mardi Gras festival
Festivities Of Death, Blood, And Eternal Damnation
The festival is one of the highlights of episode 7. It stands for everything that the show initially promised to us. It took us back to the times that Lou and Lestat spent early in the season before Claudia came along. Tom Anderson, a city bigshot, attends the festival and is asked by Lou to coronate Lestat as the King of the Carnival Show. It might have seemed initially impossible but there is nothing that money and a few promises of favors that cannot move the unmoveable rock.
A deal is struck between him and Lou to do so. The next leg of the plan after Lestat’s fascination with the crown was to get him bloodthirsty. Both Claudia and Lou picked up a handful of people to start off why the festivities happened in Lestat’s mind – a grand blood feast that outdid any other feast they ever had. To make the plan even more believable, our infamous trifecta of vampires were on fast for almost four days before this festival to make themselves ready.
Another way to kill a vampire is for him to drink poison. That is the way that Claudia chooses initially. She chooses a pair of twins to make the distraction. One of them is pure and the other is poisoned. Antoinette Brown, who has been a fan favorite ever since making an appearance, makes a cameo part in the finale. As a surprise, Lestat has turned her into a vampire, despite his incessant suggestions otherwise.
Antoinette – Lestat’s Arrow In The Dark
Lestat had been wondering all the while about a secret conspiracy against him. He is after all the most powerful and sentient being among them all. He had turned Antoinette into a vampire to serve a purpose for him – to spy on Claudia. She had been tracking the young fledgling all along. He knew about the twins and the poisoning through Brown and was up to speed with Claudia’s plan. But like a game of chess, Claudia too had a surprise for Lestat up her sleeve.
She had also poisoned another person Lestat would not have suspected to be involved – Anderson. Lestat had attacked him before out of spite and finally began to show the symptoms. In one of the most compelling and frightening scenes of season 1, we see Lou put Lestat out of his misery. The exchanges between the two are something right out of Shakespeare and do tell a story far greater than that of just two vampires.
The Betrayal
Claudia killed Antoinette and burned her in the incinerator. The matchup was always skewed and perhaps Lestat even knew this. Maybe he wanted this to happen to see the look of betrayal on the face of the man he loved. But surprisingly, we saw that Lou was not ready to burn Lestta’s body. For some reason, he kept putting it off and there were many plotholes in his accounts that Daniel points out.
Our conclusion is that Lestat was very much alive. Lou could not kill him. He loved the man. And moreover, since his body was not in the incinerator, how do we know if he recovered thereafter using the years of knowledge and experience he has? We know about his limitless potential to be omnipotent almost entirely of his own volition. The ending also brought about the truth that was in equal parts shocking and much needed for a season 2 to happen. Rashid is the mightiest vampire of them all! His real name is Armand and we will see how the story originated below.
Interview With The Vampire (Season 1) Episode 7 Ending, Explained:
Who Is Lestat/Rashid And Is He Alive?
Claudia and Lestat definitely made a more interesting pair than Claudia and Lou. Their exchanges were always more interesting and revealed a lot about the story progression, whereas the latter was more tilted towards dramatic heft. The finale had one particular scene where these two were stationed in a theater. Their unruly disposition attracted the attention and rile of a young man, whom Lestat punished by making him slap himself.
So Claudia knew that Lestat had pride and he was vengeful. He was also very instinctive, despite the suggestion earlier in the season that he was more of a reserved and smart operator. Claudia used this very quality of his against him. When she saw him talk with Anderson, she noticed the latter’s mocking reaction and attitude toward Lestat and his character. It made Anderson a prime target for Lestat in the after-party, where he would attack the unwitting rich fool.
Claudia certainly saw this coming and hence poisoned him to have s safety blanket in case Lestat saw through her core plan. It was a backup to ensure that Lestat doe snot survives the night. This much poison should have ideally killed Lestat and we certainly thought so until the very last moments. But there is a surprise for all of us. Lestat is actually alive!
Fire is the only way to completely kill a vampire. Without putting him through it, there is always a chance he makes comeback and if he has the guile and brains of someone like Lestat, he is for sure coming back. Lou ensured that Lestat did not go through the incinerator. He somehow had an idea that this was a possibility and planned ahead. So the real betrayal perhaps might be Lou fooling Claudia into that he wanted to kill Lestat.
And maybe fooled himself too for having believed momentarily he would be okay with this. Not only did Lou not burn Lestat but he also stopped Claudia from doing so. It was indeed a love story for the ages. Daniel then explained the bits to us of why Lou left Lestat. In his mind, if Lou could have ensured Lestat would end up in a place where something else could drain the poisoned blood out of him, he would live. And that is exactly how Lestat would have survived the attack. David knew that Louis had intentionally left Lestat in the trunk, wishing he would be alive. His undying love for Lestat failed to make him kill the vicious vampire.
So are Rashid and Lestat the same vampires in different bodies? The answer is no. The possibility indeed was high until some of the endings gave it away. It seems like, when Lestat was alive again, he was seeking revenge. In that process, he perhaps somehow managed to kill Claudia, and in between these events, Armand came into the lives of Louis and Claudia. Whenever it was, Armand, being one of the mightiest vampires in the world, helped Louis defeat Lestat once and for all. Since then, Louis had found his one true love, i.e., vampire Armand.
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