‘Interview With the Vampire’ Season 2 Ending Explained

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Interview with the Vampire.

As the curtain falls on Season 2 of Interview with the Vampire, the AMC series can feel confident about taking a sweeping bow. Showrunner Rolin Jones‘s adaptation of Anne Rice‘s seminal novel has more than earned its place as one of modern television’s greatest accomplishments. The sophomore season’s finale, “And That’s The End of It. There’s Nothing Else,” addresses both the immediate and long-term fallout of Armand’s (Assad Zaman) betrayal and Claudia (Delainey Hayles) and Madeleine’s (Roxane Duran) horrific deaths at the hands of the Théâtre des Vampires. The penultimate episode left its survivors in perilous conditions: does Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) get his revenge against the French coven? What happens to Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) after his sham testimony? Does Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) root out answers to the overarching questions that have hovered over the entire series, let alone survive his increasingly dangerous interview? And what the heck has really been up with Armand? Episode 8 has a lot to resolve but satisfactorily ties up loose ends while dropping some tantalizing hints about Season 3.

Interview with the Vampire

Based on Anne Rice’s iconic novel, follow Louis de Pointe’s epic story of love, blood and the perils of immortality, as told to the journalist Daniel Molloy.

Release Date

2022-00-00

Creator

Rolin Jones

Cast

Sam Reid , Jacob Anderson , Eric Bogosian , Bailey Bass , Assad Zaman

Seasons

2

Does Louis Get Revenge in ‘Interview With the Vampire’s Season 2 Finale?

When we last left Louis, the coven had murdered Claudia and buried him alive in a locked coffin. In the present day interview, Louis somberly recounts how he spent months screaming, sobbing, and starving, the latter rendering him too weak to escape. Armand, meanwhile, has been usurped by the coven’s replacement leader, Santiago (Ben Daniels), who seems to relish his newfound power. Armand’s punishment is belittlement and subjugation, a situation that must sting coming from his former followers. Being the schemer he is, Armand plays into Santiago’s ego by pretending to feel properly ashamed. Once the coven stops paying attention to his movements, Armand sneaks some of his blood inside Louis’s coffin, which restores enough of Louis’s strength for him to escape.

Properly enraged and delirious with hunger, Louis seeks refuge in an abandoned crypt. He feeds on any unlucky souls who wander past and frantically plans his revenge against the coven, scribbling an Arya Stark kill list of their names on the crypt’s stone floor. Armand contacts Louis via telepathy and urges him to flee Paris rather than try to rescue Armand — to which Louis shouts that saving his treacherous boyfriend from the coven’s clutches is the last thing on his mind. Nevertheless, Louis warns Armand to stay away from the theatre if he wants to survive.

Louis soaks everything he can reach with gasoline and telepathically lights it up on fire like a certain Fall Out Boy song. The inferno kills half of the coven; Louis’s knife skills and carefully laid traps do away with the rest. Santiago tries to escape through the sewers before Louis telepathically interrupts him with some deeply personal and ridiculing taunts about Santiago’s past. Suitably provoked, Santiago flies up out of a sewer grate — only for Louis to immediately decapitate him with one slice. The Théâtre des Vampires has fallen, the building burned to rubble along with them.

What Happens to Lestat After the Trial?

His revenge complete, Louis and Armand have a tense reconnoiter. Armand reveals that he’s been lying to Louis since the night the latter turned Madeleine into a vampire; the coven ambushed him, having scripted and rehearsed their “murder trial” months in advance. Armand vows to spend his very long life repenting for his cowardice. Louis coolly confirms what we already know: it’s impossible for him to truly forgive Armand where Claudia’s concerned.

Before Louis can leave France behind, there’s one loose end left. Armand leads Louis to where Lestat is hiding out inside his maker’s old lair. Lestat has been quietly reflecting on who he is and what made him this way, but Louis and Armand aren’t interested in small talk. They summon fire in their palms — and Lestat snorts, unimpressed. “I have the blood of Akasha in me,” he murmurs, which is Interview with the Vampire‘s first Season 3 Easter Egg, and a massive one. Akasha was the mother of all vampires; inheriting her blood makes Lestat nigh-invincible. Louis opts for the next best option. He passionately kisses Armand in front of his old love, condemning Lestat to an emotional death via eternal loneliness.

‘Interview With the Vampire’s Season 2 Finale Reveals the Truth About Armand

Having renewed their bond out of spite, Louis and Armand travel the world before settling in Dubai. As they recount those years to Daniel, they seem to extend an olive branch after Episode 5 kicked off their estrangement. Louis declares his story finished; Daniel announces, “End of session.” But Daniel, a master of specificity, isn’t quite finished. He starts calling out the blatant inconsistencies in Louis’s story, saving the kicker for last. If Lestat can telepathically control an entire room, couldn’t he have saved Louis’s life at the trial?

What at first seems like a cruel dagger to Louis’s heart becomes Armand’s downfall. Daniel hands Louis a copy of the coven’s trial script (courtesy of the Talamasca, and, surprisingly, Sam the vampire) complete with someone’s margin notes. Louis fumbles through the pages, realizing — with Daniel’s assistance — that Armand was part of the plot from the beginning. He directed the play with as much detail as any other production, then delivered the performance of a lifetime. What’s more, it’s Lestat who saved Louis’s life by psychically swaying the human audience. Armand didn’t lift a finger; he just took the credit and altered Louis’s memories to reflect the falsehood. Louis was meant to die alongside Claudia and Madeleine.

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Has ‘Interview with the Vampire’s Sam Reid Ever Played the Real Lestat? It’s Complicated

Reid also discusses whether Lestat really has revenge on his mind and why he’ll be “forever haunted” by Claudia.

A silent Louis leaves the table with a panicking Armand hot on his heels. While they argue in the other room, Daniel tries to gather his things and make like undercover Talamasca agent Rashid (Bally Gill), aka, scurry out of there. He’s interrupted when half of the ceiling crashes down around him, Louis having thrown Armand hard enough to half-demolish the room. For the second time in their lives, Louis orders Armand not to kill Daniel. Louis then promises Daniel ten million dollars, shakes his hand, and sincerely thanks him, tears shining in his eyes.

Louis and Lestat Reunite in the Modern Day

For the first time in at least 77 years, Louis returns to New Orleans. During a local tourist walk that just so happens to reference the Season 1 party where Lestat and Louis massacred the guests (with the tour guide blaming a ne’er-do-well named “Lesander Lioncourt”), Louis spots a vampire gathering rats off the street. Reminded of his early days, he follows the stranger into a dilapidated old house only to find Lestat pretending to play the piano. He looks ragged and wearied and conducts himself at a reserve. When prompted, Lestat reveals that he’s rehearsing for his upcoming musical tour (our second hint at Season 3), but has made New Orleans at home. He isn’t “enduring,” a term he previously used to describe a vampire’s baseline existence; he’s “living.”

Then, Louis and Lestat do something rare: talk honestly. Louis admits his past sins. He was selfish; he treated Lestat’s Dark Gift as a curse; he wanted Lestat to suffer because he was miserable. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Louis thanks Lestat for giving him eternal life. Going forward, his future is a blank slate opportunity for him to become a better person. Lestat, stunned, reveals that Armand psychically contacted him in 1973: the same day that Louis brought home a young Daniel and ran into the sun. He cries over Louis’s suffering, prompting both men to confess how much Claudia haunts them. Louis and Lestat embrace each other through their grief while the hurricane batters the house. Proving that Interview with the Vampire is indeed, as Lestat claimed in Episode 7, a love story, this volatile but eternally bonded pair don’t resume their relationship but still find reconciliation and forgiveness.

How ‘Interview With the Vampire’s Season 2 Finale Sets Up Season 3

Some time later, Daniel — wearing a new pair of tinted glasses — clashes with a TV news host while promoting his bestselling hot-off-the-presses memoir, Interview with the Vampire. Once the segment wraps, Daniel contacts Louis telepathically while removing his glasses — revealing eyes with a suspiciously vampiric sheen. After Louis left the Dubai house, Armand turned Daniel in an act of petty revenge. Neither have heard from him since. Daniel’s main concern, and Louis’s main problem, is the legions of vampires who want Louis dead for betraying his kind.

Sitting with his feet in the zen garden, Claudia’s yellow dress now hanging on one of the walls, Louis broadcasts a worldwide message to every vampire. He challenges them to a fight, but not without issuing a clear warning: “I am the night.” AMC’s Season 3 announcement confirmed that Interview with the Vampire will adapt the next book in Anne Rice’s series, The Vampire Lestat, wherein the titular character becomes a rock star. The last we saw Lestat in AMC’s universe, he was prepping for a tour. Name-dropping Akasha previews her major role in Rice’s third Vampire Chronicles novel, Queen of the Damned. Louis doesn’t contribute much to either of those titles, but Season 2, Episode 8 makes it clear that he isn’t going anywhere. And woe betide to anyone who tries to kill the night itself.

Both seasons of Interview with the Vampire are available to stream on AMC+.

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