This article contains spoilers forInterview with the Vampireseason 2 episode 7 and Anne RicesVAMPIRE CHRONICLESnovels.
The verdict is in.
The implicit danger of the approach is subtle, undeniable, and unique.
There is nothing screening or streaming like it.
You should watch it right now (or later onwhen it eventually arrives to Netflix).
I Could Not Prevent It yanks the rug from expectations and accepted truths.
The power structure of the Coven and Theatre des Vampires is ruptured.
Further flaunting conventional wisdom, most action happens on a static stage setting.
Any pause can mean death, but increases suspense.
Dangerous Timing
Lestat ghosted season 2 for six episodes, a treacherous gambit.
The anticipation of the legendary vampires arrival is a major reason I Could Not Prevent It excels.
Every player is hiding something, consistently vulnerable and eerily exposed.
Claudias childlike appearance conceals a mature woman.
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Santiago is not merely ambitious and self-serving.
He is grieving and rightfully and righteously spiteful, robbed of a companion for crimes now laughed away.
He maintains disparate motivations, and intentional miscommunications.
Santiago is also a force to be reckoned with whether upstaged at the theater or the TV screen.
Daniels gift of maintaining multiple points of focus provides the audience with a central ring of the circus.
Lestat owns the stage before he hits it, tossing his pinstripes at the overhead plank.
This affords visual surprises in a one-location set, like the uniformed heckler posturing for brethren-in-arms.
Hayles barely tames Claudias feral core.
Anderson plays a brilliantly unhinged version of Louis during the season 1 recreations which accommodate Lestats contradictory testimony.
The most effective moments condense undying romance in ever-troubled times.
Series creator Rolin Jones modernized Rices story, freeing sexual subtext into open expression.
Louis and Lestat run hot.
Even in the most unlikely circumstances, they express unspoken obsessive devotion.
The Eyes Have It
The episode resonates with the audience because the cast connects intimately on camera.
Lestat doesnt cross an ocean for his daughter.
Claudia is a leaky dinghy in her vampire parents stormy romance.
AMCs adaptation doesnt explore the tragic vampires relationship with Madeleine, a surrogate familial anomaly.
Claudias final eye contact with Lestat will linger through eternity.
It is reconciliation, love, trust, and a call for help from a child to a parent.
During her defiant departure, Lestat looks like a proud father.
Claudia is the best of the vampire Lestat, and by acknowledging this, he reevaluates the past.
Lestat never recovers from the death of Claudia in the books.
Who Doesnt Love a Good Courtroom Drama?
In Dubai, Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) refers to a preserved copy of the script, TRIAL!
The Treacherous and Unnatural Crimes Of the Vampires Louis and Claudia (And Their Fledgling Madeleine!).
The play was rehearsed in advance, off camera.
During performance, Claudia silences an increasingly bloodthirsty audience with a crucial correction: Its not a trial.
The theatrical court is introduced as a lie.
The trial is fixed.
The accused are props.
This asserted contradiction skewers how the performance is perceived.
There is no defense attorney.
Playing the prosecutor, Santiago wears a judicially powdered white wig.
This might seem absurd unless Sam is Samuel Beckett who wroteWaiting for Godot.
Lestat apologizes for using the cloud gift to drop Louis into a two-kilometer fall.
Real pretty, you dropped him like an egg from an airplane, Claudia interjects.
You apologize, and all is forgiven.
Can I cry and say that Im sorry, too?
This is reasonable, but can never be.
Preordained, the rebuttal brings the episode to a new level.
It captures Rices overall intent.
Rices initial inspiration, the perennially precocious vampire based on her own lost daughter, makes a memorable exit.
Genre-Defining Horror Moments
I Could Not Prevent It presents a wealth of iconic visions of horrific artistry.
A special notation should be made of Madeleines giving the finger to the crowd when sentenced to death.
Claudia sets up the seasons definitive horror moment with a friendly warning.
Granted as a final request, Claudia asks a spectator in an upper row to remove his hat.
I now know all your faces, the condemned promises.
If there is an afterlife, I am going to come back and fucking kill all of you.
And if there isnt an afterlife, Im still going to find a way.
These would be famous last words, but Hayles is saving her voice.
The instantly iconic visual is the most theatrical.
What Motivates Lestat to Testify?
In the books, Lestat is coerced to testify.
He comes for vengeance, and changes his mind.
Lestat is not a planner.
He acts on impulse, but never intends to let Louis die.
His testimony sets records straight, while upending due process.
Lestat, the hurricane, blows away rules, going off-script to keep tension brewing on all participants.
Lestat also treasures Louis.
Who Do We Believe?
Molloys book must confirm the existence of vampires through the point of view of an immortal being.
His aggressive interview style is a means to pull the truth out of a reluctant subject.
The interruptions keep the trainwreck of the memories and the freewheeling series on track.
Daniels annoying adherence to the narrative provides the final touch to the masterpiece of the installment.
From the ultimate truth, he uncovers the doubt.
We learn what Daniel understood.
Louis is not a reliable narrator.
The reluctant vampire revises stories, and is aided by Armand, another untrustworthy primary source.
Armand is as much a trickster as Santiago.
Even Armands coercion of the crowd to choose banishment is a trick.
Belgium turns out to be a two-by-seven-foot box.
Through forced perception, Lestat appears to twist events, memories, and the audience to his favor.
When Louis instructs Daniel to use Lestats version of events, it upsets every element of trust.
That is how it happened, Louis says.
I didnt think it at the time, but yeah.
Daniel doesnt know what to believe.
Louis keeps the lack of faith, explaining, This is Lestat.
This is what he does, over and over until you dont know what is real anymore.
The very doubt instilled by the murderous sociopathic enigma of Lestat elevates the episode to inexplicable heights.
The Interview with the Vampire season 2 finale airs Sunday, June 30 at 9 p.m.
ET on AMC and AMC+.
