‘The Vampire Lestat’ Ep. 6: The Reckoning Spares None

*This review contains spoilers for “The Vampire Lestat” episodes one through six*

After episode five took us back to one of the most important parts of Lestat’s journey — his first encounter with Akasha — episode six plants us firmly in the autumn of 2025. The scene opens on a gentler Lestat, still in hiding while working on the album, but in a softer mood than we’ve seen him in all season. He’s back in Montreal on Halloween night with Louis by his side, a perfect parallel to the same night two years ago when everything devolved into chaos.

A leisurely walk spent trading familiar banter reveals just how far the two have come since that infamous night. It feels simple when nothing else in their lives, or the show for that matter, has ever been simple. But these are the pieces of themselves they share only with each other. Of course, however, their relationship has never been one thing. As the episode progresses, they ride the waves of their familiar dynamic before dipping under the weight of a devastating reveal and long overdue confrontation. They come back together then part again in a shocking cliffhanger. This episode is a microcosm of their entire, tangled existence as companions.

Give Me That Brutal Love

The first stop on the loustat tour is a joint interview with Daniel. It’s such a strange picture, to see these three who have only ever interacted separately suddenly plopped in one room together. It quickly becomes apparent why Daniel should have avoided taking on a two-for-one interview. Louis and Lestat form a united front against Daniel’s relentless and even more agitated than usual questioning. There’s a tension brewing underneath the whole exchange that Daniel doesn’t do a good job of hiding, something likely to do with his newfound companion whispering in his ear. But though it may be clear to the audience, Louis and Lestat seem content to chalk it up to an inferiority complex on Daniel’s part.

They have their own probing to do in the car ride to rehearsal, anyways. What stands out about their conversation here is that we can feel that old banter settling in between them, but they’re also starting to address the uncomfortable things the book release stopped them from confronting before. Louis’s guilt that lingered with him in Paris, Lestat’s punishment through Antoinette. They skirt lightly around these small truths, offer them up amid the quips. But there’s still the whole Gabriella problem looming.

Two Very Different Loves

Louis and Gabriella’s first encounter is something I, and I’m sure many others, have been looking forward to for a while. Though I don’t get the high-octane car rescue scene from the books (yet), the show’s take on the meeting allows for a more gradual introduction to take place. With these two finally in one place, it’s never been clearer how differently they see Lestat. Every glance Gabriella throws Louis’s way is calculating. She’s assessing just who this person is to her son. She wants to know how much of a threat he poses to her hold on Lestat.

Gabriella sees Lestat as someone she can control, someone she can mold to her liking. On the other hand, Louis understands Lestat on a much more fundamental level. When Gabriella questions Louis about his hesitance regarding the concert, Louis tells her his opinion doesn’t matter. He knows Lestat will ultimately decide for himself and that he can’t sway him one way or the other. Compare this to the way Gabriella has been pushing Lestat full force through the tour and toward the concert.

There’s a confidence in Louis that Gabriella also does not have. Gabriella needs to keep her hold on Lestat at all costs. Louis can simply be there, knowing that Lestat will always come back. All the confirmation we need is given when Lestat starts singing “Brutal Love.” This is a beautiful ballad that, initially, could be for either Gabriella or Louis. But as Gabriella’s face falls and she’s slowly dropped from the shot, it’s clear Lestat is singing for Louis only. The song presents Lestat’s heart on a silver platter and, from the look on Louis’s face, his own beats right back.

At the same time, Louis being there, around Gabriella, is eating at Lestat subconsciously. Though he’s still not willing to admit the abusive nature of their relationship, we can feel him trying to push back. When he tells Gabriella that Alex needs her, what he’s really saying is that he needs his mother. He’s needed her since he was a child but he’s been given a twisted version of her love instead.

A Brutal Reveal

Lestat’s biggest secret comes out in the worst possible way, with Armand and Daniel at the helm of it all. Louis’s knee-jerk reaction is harsh, though born of shock not malice toward Lestat. Still, Lestat reads it as disgust, especially when Louis uses the word “sickness.” After just getting Louis back in his life, the thought that he might walk away is too much to bear. Pair that with the fact that he still can’t reconcile his abuse in his mind, and he spirals into a panic attack on the Montreal streets. This entire scene was one of the most vulnerable, devastating, and beautifully done scenes in the show for me. The shaking handheld camera following them onto the street makes you feel like you’re in the thick of it with them. And Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson’s once again prove how well they know these characters.

Louis goes from angry and disgusted, not at Lestat but the situation, to guilty as he sees Lestat break down. Lestat’s vomiting is his body’s visceral reaction to something he’s tried to bury for so long. Deep down, he knows Gabriella has abused him for years on end. Though he’s not ready to name it, his body responds to the horror of it, through the vomiting and the panic that sets in after. The hug that ends the scene is shockingly not in the script, according to directer Jane Wu, but I can’t imagine not having it.

It’s reminiscent of the season two finale, if not more devastating. In this moment, they’re offering each other a place to land even without understanding the depth of the other’s pain. In the bar afterward, it’s clear Lestat will still need time to come to terms with everything. But Louis’s apology and reassurance is something we’ve rarely seen come from their arguments in the past. Hopefully it’s the first step toward breaking that cycle.

Conjuring Up Claudia

With one confrontation out of the way, there’s another left to deal with. Louis and Lestat summoning Claudia pulls from Anne Rice’s seventh book in the series, titled “Merrick.” As expected, we meet the witch Merrick Mayfair herself, wonderfully brought to life by Sarah Afful. If Claudia was strong-willed in life, death has hardened her further. She blazes back with a vengeance, finally able to speak her truth to two of the people that wronged her most. Delainey Hayles puts on a tour de force performance in this scene. She channels centuries worth of grief and resentment into each scathing word. There’s the scorned vampire but there’s also the little girl who just wanted someone to see her, peaking out from underneath.

The saddest part of it all is learning that Madeleine isn’t there with Claudia. The one person who really did see her and wasn’t afraid to show it, ripped away from her too. This scene was a hard watch and certainly not the closure Louis or Lestat wanted. But it was the closure they needed. They both walked into that séance hoping to relieve themselves of some guilt or burden. They needed to hear Claudia tell them they were selfish, that the songs and the revenge against Bruce weren’t really for her but for them.

Moving Forward and Back Again

While I might have expected a break down after Claudia’s confrontation, I actually think their response is a step in the right direction. We catch back up with Louis and Lestat walking in silence, though we don’t know how long they’ve been going. In past seasons, we’ve seen Louis try to end his life over his guilt. We’ve seen both Louis and Lestat carry Claudia’s ghost with them this season. For them to break down again I think would be a disservice to Claudia. She tells them to stop saying her name, to let her rest without carrying responsibility for their grief. The fact that the two can accept her words and say they need to work on themselves is something new. It means all three characters might just be able to move forward.

The bench scene is another moment that harkens back to season one, when this pair would sit on the streets of New Orleans, sharing easy conversation. They seem ready to move forward now. They’re acknowledging the why behind their actions and they’re accepting just how entangled their lives are. These are two deeply flawed people, destined to orbit around each other for eternity. For a moment, they imagine a whole new life, just the two of them, and so do we as the audience.

But the spell is broken and Daniel’s hatred that Lestat once said would be watered in the sunlight later comes to fruition. It turns out to have been watered in the sunlight with a little help from Armand. This happening to Lestat was painted lightly on the walls of the season if you’ve been paying attention. However, Louis’s involvement came as a shock to me. We know based on scenes earlier in the season that Louis and Lestat still have a chance, but what happens in the space between life and death is still a mystery.