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AMC's Interview with the Vampire S02E07: "I Could Not Prevent It" does right by Anne Rice's vision and might just be the best series going.
Posted in: AMC, Review, TV | Tagged: amc, episode 7, interview with the vampire, iwtv, Review, season 2
Interview with the Vampire S02E07 Honors Anne Rice's Vision: Review
AMC's Interview with the Vampire S02E07: "I Could Not Prevent It" does right by Anne Rice's vision and might just be the best series going.
The penultimate episode of AMC's Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire Season 2, "I Could Not Prevent It," was yet another fantastic ride that kept us hypnotized from beginning to end. This episode really felt like a play throughout, and it was impossible to look away from the screen. For nearly an hour, this show became a reality all its own, and now it is maddening to have to wait a week to know what will happen with all these characters and this universe that is impossible to get out of my mind or stop caring for.
I first have to say that it feels great to fall in love with Anne Rice's works all over again in some newly unique ways. I remember being a teenager and this book being my first romance-slash-vampire novel and I have never been the same since. Talk about altering the brain chemistry. Anyway, this show has brought such a new life and perspective to the source material, and it has been enthralling, to say the least. Like… what am I to do with all these feelings for these characters and a story that is not real yet raises so many emotions?
So we are back to the Théâtre des Vampires, where Louis (Jacob Anderson), Claudia (Delainey Hayles), and Madeleine (Roxane Duran) are facing trial for the attempted murder of Lestat (Sam Reid). Well, this was an intense trial and just as I expect I was not ready for this. It was harsh, unfair, and just phenomenal writing with the way we jump between the past and the future, and the dialogue was just chef's kiss perfection. With a cast that delivers the magic in ways that feel both intimate and uncomfortably exposed, this episode represents some of the best that television has to offer.
While it was hard to watch, it was impossible to turn away. Once again we are faced with another series of events that was yet another unreliable memory of Louis: how Claudia was turned. Louis, ashamed, admits to Daniel (Eric Bogosian) to run with Lestat's version of how Louis manipulated him to make Claudia. Once again, though, Lestat is unpredictable— going off script so often – even apologizing to Louis while seemingly also taking responsibility for Claudia. What is Lestat's real end game? While his words regarding Claudia could seem noble in a twisted way, let us not forget that they were said in a time and place when Lestat knew he wasn't the target. He knew he was needed for the sham trial to work. Once again, I am always reminded of the time Louis said to Daniel that Lestat was, is, and will always be just for himself… a narcissist, as his gaslighting of Louis showed.
I would be remiss if I didn't address how Lestat handled that homophobe in the audience. While I was surprised at Lestat's control, I did like how he dressed him down like the true paper mache bully he was – leaving him silent to suffer his own guilt and shame. The toxicity of this relationship between Lestat and Louis just became more tangible as the story and the play unfolded. I am glad Claudia called them out and knows she is just another step in their twisted relationship, another hurdle. Claudia definitely stole the show and I love the reactions to her threats from the audience and from the Théâtre staff as well. I hope there is more to come and that revenge gets served as it should. That said, I am also happy she did get to feel loved and have a companion who picked her first. I think Madeleine brought a humanity to Claudia that I wish we had seen earlier. As Lestat says, she was another version of Leatat, but Lestat's blood nonetheless.
In an episode of highlights upon highlights, Reid's Lestat going off script and Santiago (Ben Daniels) pretending that he had any real control of the "trial" was a personal favorite. Once again, the trial was insanely brutal, and his pettiness toward Louis showed. I hate that Claudia was just a pawn in this game under laws created by someone who was only a year older than her when he was turned. I do have to say that Armand (Assad Zaman) did earn some redemption with that move that got Louis banished instead of killed. Not that it was much better, considering what they did to him – even Daniel knew to comment that he assumed that Louis wasn't exactly taken directly to Belgium. But Claudia and Madeleine's demise was much more heartbreaking than I expected – truly impressive considering it's an ending that fans of Rice's know is coming and have known for some time. and man I am angry and sad after watching.
Once again, Lestat's horror at the scene makes me wonder what his real agenda is at this point. I love him, and I hate him, and Reid does an amazing job bringing him and his flip-flopping, narcissistic personality to life. I cannot wait to see where things head with next weekend's second-season finale of AMC's Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire. I can't shake this feeling that a lot of folks – vampires and non-vampires – are going to learn firsthand that Louis has always been the vampire that Daniel should've feared from the start.
Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Episode 7: "I Could Not Prevent It"
10/10
The penultimate episode of AMC's Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Season 2 Episode 7: "I Could Not Prevent It," was yet another fantastic ride that kept us hypnotized from beginning to end. This episode really felt like a play throughout, and it was impossible to look away from the screen. For nearly an hour, this show became a reality all its own - making the case once again why IWTV is some of the best that television has to offer.
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