Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 5 of Interview with the Vampire.
After a gloriously decadent exercise in slow burn tension lasting one-and-a-half seasons,Interview with the VampireSeason 2, Episode 5 finallyreveals what unfolded during that original 1973 interviewbetween Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian,Luke Brandon Field). CreatorRolin Jones’s adaptation ofAnne Rice’s novel hinges upon its cast of unreliable narrators. Some are duplicitous by nature, others unintentionally, but every vampire’s account is biased. Nothing can be consideredan unassailable fact. Cue investigative journalist Daniel Molloy’s role as the deducer of facts, a human being playing the audience’s translator and surrogate.
Ironically, as the series has teased for 11 episodes, Daniel’s hazy recollections force him into the unreliable narrator troupe against his will. Episode 5 confirms suspicions thatArmand (Assad Zaman)tampered with Louis and Daniel’s memories during the pair’s first encounter, a fact further complicating both the interviewer and the interviewee’s “odyssey of recollection.” Like the rest of the AMC series, Episode 5 spotlights two subjective, damaged perspectives instead of full objectivity. Yet Daniel and Louis’s separate points-of-view find common ground for the first time — and, therefore, consensus. Episode 5’s revelations complicateInterview’s alreadytwisty and twisted relationships, and offer a surprising outcome:Louis and Daniel’s newfound commonality cements them as this Gothic tale’s most satisfyingly compelling duo.
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.
Louis and Daniel’s Relationship in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Subverts Expectations
Interview with the Vampire’s Shakespearian dramatics might peak with Louis, Armand, and Lestat de Lioncourt’s (Sam Reid) impassioned love triangle, but Daniel and Louis’s relationship emerges as an unexpected highlight. Their development, woven into the series' DNA from the start, is ever-evolving. Unlike Rice’s novel and the 1994 film, where the young Daniel Molloy is an agency-less framing device to facilitate Louis’s story,Eric Bogosian’s Daniel actively contributes his own demons, motivations, and hard-learned wisdom. When Season 1picks up 49 years after their first meeting, Daniel’s not an inexperienced boy enthralled by a supernatural being. He doesn’t hang off Louis’s every poetic phrase. This is a cynical, skeptical, and combative journalist equipped with a bloodhound’s nose. He pries out the truth, poking holes through Louis’s inconsistent claims. His honed instincts read between the lines.
When not calling out nonsense when he sees it (and givingInterviewits driest jokes this side of hallucination!Lestat), Daniel ensnares Louis with traps as layered and painful as a field of land mines.No one else in Louis’s life has the intuitive awareness or the bravery to confront him like Daniel does. Their interview becomes a duel. With every psychological riposte or fresh scar, the immortal vampire and the 60-something human subvert a seemingly obvious power imbalance. The lines between predator and prey blur. Although mostly confrontational, at their best,Daniel and Louis are equals.
The ‘Interview With the Vampire’ Series Makes Daniel Complex
Daniel exhibits similar tendencies in 1973. Even when he’s chasing a heroin high amplified by his giddiness about Louis’s vampiric nature,he’s a reporter to his bones. Louis mourns the cost of his immortal existence; Daniel singles out that point from hours' worth of conversation, and argues it. In Daniel’s mind, Louis’s Dark Gift lets him experience the world uninhibited. The reporter accidentally reveals his vulnerability by asking Louis to turn him, an impulsive and ignorant move that tears downDaniel’s casual, lighthearted facade. But even though Daniel fears death as much as any human, he’s unique. He challenges when others cower.
Those sharp qualities continue to fascinate Louis five decades later. According to Armand, Daniel was the only human Louis invited home for sex without seducing or killing. Instead,Louis makes an emotional connection. A joyful camaraderie replaces the initial sexual attraction. When was the last time Louis truly laughed with someone? When did he speak his truth, feel seen, or be reinvigorated by having his limits tested? He’s intrigued and stimulated by Daniel because he’s different from everyone else in Louis’s life, vampire or human.
Luke Brandon Field Dissects His “Tough” ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Episode
Field also discusses why Episode 5 was meant to feel like an off-Broadway play, the scene that took him by surprise, and more.
By piecing together their fractured psyches in Episode 5,the modern-day versions of these characters evolve from adversaries to allies.Interview with the Vampirealready laid the breadcrumbs for this transformation bymaking Louis and Daniel narrative foils. As of 2022, they are two desperately lonely men caged by their minds in more ways than one. They were lonely in 1973, too, but the decades only increased their displacement and guilt. Both are traumatized survivors and perpetrators of wrong, even if Daniel’s flaws are common human fallacies compared to Louis’s sins. And both have faced death — the threat of it, and a desire to take their lives.
Louis and Daniel Are Narrative Foils
In 1973, Louis, the abnormal vampire who clings to his humanity, responds to Claudia’s (Delainey Hayles) name by running into the sun. He approaches the second interview like an extended suicide note. Daniel carries dark psychological ghosts even before his failed marriages. His younger self romanticizes an immortal existence and festers with repressed self-hatred, but resists Armand’s brainwashing; he won’t be coerced into an early death. By 2022, he’s a renowned writer presented with his greatest scoop yet, and a chance to fill the gaps in his memory — while staring down aParkinson’s disease diagnosis. Approaching 70 years old is fearsome enough, but Parkinson’s erodes physical control, emotional elasticity, and memory, all of which Daniel prizes. Meanwhile, Louis grows more powerful with age. In broad strokes,the two could hardly be more different. That balance, and where they overlap, allows for fusion.
Armand preys upon that vulnerability. He weaves poison into Daniel’s mind by exploiting his worst fears. Just like the Théâtre des Vampires performances, Armand wants Daniel to submit before killing him; he knows Louis will overhear his words and remember the routine. Louis has already listened to Armand torture Daniel for days, physically confined to his bed and barely able to think through the agony of almost burning to death. The same Louis who never intervenes when those he loves, like Claudia, are hurt,begs Armand to spare Daniel’s life. As Armand sinks his fangs into Daniel’s throat, Louis somehow drags his charred body outside the bedroom. He orders Armand to let Daniel live,knowing his lover will obey,
Then, kindly, Louis orders Daniel to live. IfLestat described vampirismas constantly “enduring,” then Louis engraves into Daniel’s soul the words that keep this human enduring. It’s a form of hypnosis. Still, the current Daniel realizes Louis ensured his survivalbeyond that 1973 San Francisco apartment. Louis, in turn, remembers that the dwindling flame that is his human empathy still flickers. They sit side-by-side with their bare feet in the sand, reflective, relieved, shaken, and empowered by discovering their mutual truth. The distance between them, emotional and physical, has shrunk. A bridge exists instead of being divided by a table. More than ever, Daniel and Louis are operating on the same wavelength. They understand each other. It’s a rare feeling, and a necessary change.
Louis and Daniel Becoming Allies Makes Sense for This Version of ‘Interview With the Vampire’
Indeed, change is one ofInterview with the Vampire’s recurring themes. Armand wants these men to remain as they are, either at a metaphorical “rest” or by embracing death. By repairing their memories, Daniel and Louis reject stagnation. AsSeason 2 approaches its final three episodes, the interview dynamic hasn’t just shifted once again, but reversed;Louis and Daniel are now united against Armand. Book readers canpredict the major plot beats, but what happens next in the present timeline is anyone’s guess. After Episode 5, there’s one certainty: Louis de Pointe du Lac and Daniel Molloy make one hell of a team. It’s in their natures, and asInterviewphilosophizes, it’s impossible to deny nature.
New episodes ofInterview with the VampireSeason 2 premiere weekly on Sundays and are available to stream on AMC+.
