Finally, the tape starts in Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Episode 5, “Don’t Be Afraid, Just Start the Tape.” When it starts, the tape reveals a lot, filling in the gaps and answering many questions.
It is an essential episode that changes everything in the relationships and our understanding of the dynamics.
Events take place in Dubai and San Fransisco circa the 1900s. We reunite with a Young Daniel Molloy, who doesn’t know much but is sure he is a natural journalist.
Finally, it becomes clear how he is connected to the vampires and why he treats them as he does.
Luke Brandon Field and Eric Bogosian share the character, but he is virtually indistinguishable in both eras. The younger version, however, has some differences that explain a lot about him.
Contrary to Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Episode 4, this episode is quite character-centric, and the relationships only come second.
Louis
How can Jacob Anderson rock every era of Louis with such a small effort?
When we meet Louis in San Fransisco, he is still young (duh!) and sexy. He is even sexier because of his vampiric nature.
He spends his days in the coffin and nights looking for boys. The second marriage has gone stale. It becomes clear that Louis is either mentally sick or really hates himself and will seek drama for the sake of it.
What attracts him to Daniel is the human in Daniel. He had lived a shitty life, but that had taught him honesty. If you suck, Daniel will tell you that you suck and make no apologies for it. Well, unless you unsheath your fangs.
Sex is a tool for him to get what he wants most: an escape from his terrible existence.
He loves being alive, but he hates it too.
Hearing Louis bitch about his life with people who have loved him, his superhuman strength and immortality, he can’t help but scold Louis.
He pokes at a wound before he catches himself, and the vampire jumps out.
Louis has always prided himself in being a different vampire who won’t harm innocent humans, and the thought that he might have killed Daniel was enough to send him running into the sun.
Armand
There’s nothing Armand loves like taking care of Louis. It makes him feel wanted and valuable, and their love makes everything worth it.
But it is hard to live with someone who hates themselves or can’t move on from the past.
Even if you indulge their sexual appetites by letting them screw any guy willing to follow them home, they won’t ever feel satisfied.
The episode peels back the layers of a couple tired of pretending and brushing the other’s shortcomings under the rug.
Yes, Armand is boring. And yes, Louis is destructive.
Suffocation by the world’s softest beige-est pillow.
Louis
Nothing lets a couple go off on each other, like a verbal argument where they lose control and become unburdened.
I love a screaming match like the other viewer, and it seems Assad Zaman loved it, too.
Episodes in Season 2 have allowed stars to shine, and Interview with the Vampire Season 2 Episode 5 is Zaman’s. It is easy to discount him, given that his stoic and reticent character doesn’t give him the leeway to go all out.
In a few scenes, he wins the audience over.
Making Armand the Bad Guy
By the end of the tape, Louis and Daniel have made some headway. They’ve realized that they are in the same boat as far as Armand’s lies go.
Armand edited their brains, but for different reasons.
He withheld Lestat’s message to a barbecued Louis.
But one can understand why he would do it. He wanted to keep Louis to himself because he had nothing without the coven and Louis. This kind of existence makes a vampire jump into a fire.
It becomes clear that Louis and Daniel have sided against Armand, but his crimes are not enormous.
He was Louis’ fixer and just fixed one more thing that caused his lover pain.
I preserve your happiness even when you can’t or don’t.
Armand
The only questionable thing was feeding Daniel a bogus and awful script for the rest of his life. Ironically, even with Louis’ intervention, Daniel seems to have gotten there by himself.
Judging by these actions, he is not guilty of much, and if anyone tried to make him the bad guy, it would fail epically. There needs to be more.
‘Interview with the Vampire’ Changes
This episode reveals a lot. It connects the past and the present, making it easy to invest in the story because we now know the whole story — well, at least part of it.
What remains is why this interview with the vampire is happening and why it is happening now. What do any of them stand to gain by revisiting the past?
Is the present that tranquil, or is it the best performance since Baby Lulu’s first show at the Theatre de Vampires?
Louis, blink twice if you’re being held hostage, honey! Or go to bed if you’re still looking or Lestat.
Rating: 9/10