The fourth episode ofInterview With the Vampirebelongs to Bailey Bass . Her Claudia is unlike anything we ’ve seen . She ’s not the five - year - previous of the book , nor the 10 - year old of the film . She ’s 14 , just far enough into pubescence to know that something is change , but not far enough along to know what to do about it . Claudia is an immortal little girl , always a youngster , never a woman , a maniacal character who is both develop and un - developed , a hunk of clay that never gets go off . I make love this rendering of Claudia , I truly do , she ’s wild and wonderful and I am excited to talk more about her . But first , before we get into her multitude of outcome , let ’s delay in with our old man , Daniel Molloy .
As we begin “ … The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child ’s Demanding,”he ’s stuck in Dubai , naturally , and as he ’s currently manage with the oncoming symptoms of Parkinson ’s , he ’s apprehensive about missing a treatment . Never fear ! Rashid has tapped his phone ( perhaps ? ) and Louis has paid an outrageous amount of money to have super expensive equipment and medical professional brought in to treat his almost X - swain , I imply , his biographer .
Nevertheless , Rashid see Daniel into a reading room ( with a whole inflorescence tree and actual floating bookshelves ) and this is where thing get interesting . The entire flashback portion of the show to date has been from Louis ’ point of view , but now , as Daniel picks up a small , ticklish journal with “ Claudia , 1917 , ” written on the cover , we ’re about to be catapulted into an entirely novel perspective .
Image: AMC
He then picks up the earliest daybook . Immediately , Claudia begins her narration . It ’s incredibly uninitiate , almost to the tip of being saccharine ; she describes how Louis saved her ( describe him as a Black Angel Falls ) and how Lestat ( the white backer ) turned her . The scene by the bedside where Louis win over Lestat to turn Claudia into a vampire is a feat of acting so incredible it should be studied . Here are two incredibly damaged work force who are simply using each other to go , while also knowing that they ’re hurting each other to do so . All this is communicated just with a few gestures and their eyes , and it ’s incredible . The motivation here are deeply fucked - up , as Louis is but endeavor to do something good and Lestat is attempt to control him into abide .
As Claudia is introduced to the mankind of the vampire and her unexampled caretakers ( Daddy Lou and Uncle Les ) , Lestat almost now becomes jealous of the bail bond that Louis and Claudia share . He step in quickly , taking the family unit — and Claudia — out for her first hunting trip . As Claudia walks off from the two vampires and towards her first target , Lestat says “ I ’m not certain about that pleated skirt , ” and I swan to god I would go to war for this mentally inauspicious French bottom . Louis , not to be outdone , reminds Lestat that “ it ’s chiffon , it has movement , ” and I to the full ascended into the astral sheet . The sequence is full of these off - the - cuff moments and jocularity , the humour cutting through at strange odds against all the slaying , coercive sexual urge , and general perniciousness in the air travel .
Claudia , unwilling to stamp out the drunk man at the spring , detect sweeter , more dangerous stone pit : a clean policeman . Someone who will be missed , noticed , and mourned . A error borne of her childlike intensity . When she demand more , Lestat remark that her teenage metabolism is lasting . The irony of Louis — a vampire who hates killing — having made by his demands a colossus who has no true moral ambit and no path to regulate her demands is a fantastic twist . She ’s not the five , or even the 10 - year - honest-to-god who can only be picked up and carted forth – she ’s just old enough to be rebellious , and shortly enough she is going to become everyone ’s job .
Image: AMC
I can not overstate the inherent , wonderful , absolutely absurd amount of humor that is woven into every part of this show . From Louis and Lestat fence in French as Claudia scribble in her journal to the visit to the funeral home to buy a coffin for Claudia ( her gasps of marvel as she jumps into a lush , pink - lined coffin is an downright pleasure ) , question With the lamia is wildly funny . The whiplash the writers take the audience on , between funny , aphrodisiacal , horrid , is perfectly remarkable . One of the gratifying scenes comes when Claudia spies Lestat climbing into Louis ’ coffin , whisper that he missed him .
After this we get a poignant here and now between Daddy Lou and Claudia as they speak about the specifics of love , secrets , and murder while larrup out on the bayou . There ’s a line where Louis mention that he “ pretend to wish girls ” and then seconds later he admits to “ trying to like ” the predilection of fish rakehell . He then says “ some killing has aftermath , ” trying to explicate how to tell apart between human intimacy and lamia kills . It ’s an almost - charming portrait of a family .
We ’re back to Daniel . “ For a kill machine , I kind of like her . ” Me too , man , what the fuck .
Image: AMC
Rashid , in this next setting , is praying . He ’s a Muslim , call to prayer five times a day , and he does so in the traditional way of life , on his knee , restate holy set phrase . And then he slips up . He speaks in a language that is not Arabic , and Daniel , as much of a bloodhound as any of the beasts he surrounds himself with , catches on , and asks where he ’s from . Rashid deflects , saying that Dubai is a child , and nobody is from here . Molloy immediately kick the bucket back to his calculator and in a barely - hidden leaflet ( Brooklyn Co - Op Finances > Household Help.doc ) makes notes about Rashid . He type “ What is his end secret plan ? ” and sits back . And I have to ask , Daniel , what ’s yours ? He beak up the second diary .
It ’s Claudia ’s 17th natal day ( sort of ) , she receive a gem that Lestat says he fuck off from a Marquis ( I might suppose this is a reference to his forefather , actually ) , and she call for how old he is . He ’s 160 , according to Louis ; 159 , according to Lestat . If she was turned in 1917 , when she was 14 , this conversation happen in 1920 , which would make his nativity twelvemonth sometime around 1760 , on the button what it is in the Holy Writ . Okay , grind explanation over , back to the episode .
Claudia holds the gem up to her neck and frown . She ask , “ When am I going to grow into this ? ” or else of answering , Louis simply says that he ’ll feel something in her size . They go see Nosferatu and can not contain their laugh , re - enacting the flick in their living room . And then , Louis ’ mother dies . Like every interaction with his syndicate , nothing extend well for Louis . His sister , Grace , ask for the mansion and Louis give way it to her .
Then we depart from Louis , and for the first time during our entire trip into the past , we truly do not have him in the prospect at all . Lestat , during a driving moral with Claudia , rent her to a lovers lane for a midnight meal . With all a baby ’s artlessness , Claudia does n’t sympathize what ’s happening in these cars . She check , enrapt , before eventually pull these human body aside , flapper garb and all . She turn 18 and decide , in a red dress and bead , it ’s meter for her to set about acting like it .
What ’s not say here is as powerful as what Claudia writes out in her diary . She ’s old enough to be a woman , to do adult things , but she ca n’t yet say what those things are . She want to be an adult , but she ’s still trapped in this 14 - year - old ’s soundbox . And she ’s not fool away anybody , even with her dress - up expression and composition . Not even Charlie , the nice world who trouble her from toss off three beggarly girlfriend across the street who are chaffer about her carrying out , is convinced she ’s anything but a child wandering the street .
She ’s seek for love , she ca n’t express it , understand it , but she wants it . “ I need to know what his knife tastes like . ” Then Charlie drives by her house and she maunder to herself “ if he look up , he likes you . ” He does , in fact , look up . And he drop blossom on her threshold as well . Louis demands to know who Charlie is , but Claudia blocks his telepathy . This is the first steer that something may be fracturing in the kin . Claudia has always been capable to take Louis and Lestat together , but now ? She ’s nigh 19 , and she ’s pulling by . And she ’s dragging with her the only train of thought that ’s keeping her family together .
When Claudia attempts to go on a date with Charlie , he turn her down kindly — she ’s young . She insists she ’s not , and only a few arcminute later , they cease up messing around in the back of his baby buggy . She might be 19 , but she ’s still a vernal vampire , and when she enfeeble Charlie she does n’t stop in time ; she leaves a stalk of a man . When she drags his corpse home and begs Lestat to turn Charlie , he delivers a harsh example . This suffering is why we never get close to mortals .
And then Louis shows up , ultimately , just ast the episode is ending . As Louis input on Claudia ’s talent , Daniel ( my BEST FRIEND , my brother , my family boy , my stinky soldier , my odoriferous cheese , my adept metre boy ) quip , “ like Anne Frank meets Stephen King . ” I know that Daniel has a death wish , but babe , please , endeavor to exist a few more episodes , I beg you just like , choose lifespan . I love this character so much , and the threat of violence is literal .
Daniel ask the obvious doubtfulness : where were these diaries during their first interview , in 1973 ? Louis , typically , deflects . He talks about the simple joy of being a father , how it made him feel beloved , how it quieten his demons . take back to the question , Louis explain that if you , as a parent , could take about every undivided fourth dimension and representative you failed your baby , would you share those moments with , and I cite , “ a brash immature newsman you meet at Polynesian Mary ’s ? ”
Daniel laughs , and I feel God in this Chili ’s tonight . Louis accept that Claudia might have felt like a Band - Aid trying to amend a broken marriage , and when we fall to her diaries seconds later , the graceful script quickly becomes rushed and furious . She underlines the unsuccessful person of her body , the unsuccessful person of immortality , the failure of her parent , and then Bailey Bass delivers some yarn that should be in the bally Met , it ’s that wonderful .
She name how much she hates herself , her horrifying fiend inherent aptitude , and as she yells at her diary , in penitentiary and ink , she launch the sunroof and lets the daybreak pelt down on top of the unused piano . She circle it , like a vulture , like she ’s coming to an savvy as her feet fight against the keys , making a softened phone . Staring at the shaft of sunlight , Claudia gravel her arm under the sun , her skin and flesh turning into dark , dusty sand .
This sequence is a cogitation in mania . We get a Claudia that is so unlike from the homicidal baby doll of the books , utterly change from the precocious 10 - year- old of the movies . She does n’t require an grownup to be her female parent , she require to be an grownup herself , and she was so confining to hitting puberty and becoming a woman , and instead of seek to take her to a hospital , Louis impetuously require that Lestat change by reversal her instead . The consequences of impulse echo throughout this intact episode , and in the next , it will break the kinsperson apart .
question With the lamia vent new episodes Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on AMC . Online , AMC+ is broadcast episodes one hebdomad early .
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