After much play, Lestat hit his turn to find out. In episode 7, titled “The Failures,” when the decapitated Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) is tortured by the bitter Armand (Assad Zaman), Lestat is forced to face his own back. We finally see the long table teased all season in the opening credits.
Earlier this year, Reid came to Mashable’s studio to accept the award Say more Interviewwhere he spoke Claudia, Magnusmany more. Now, he and Mashable Entertainment editor Kristy Puchko have reconnected for an examination of Brat Prince’s fate.
Who Finds Failure at the Long Table?
At the head of the table sits Lestat’s creator, Magnus (Damien Atkins). Then around the table, her children, Nicolas “Nicki” de Lenfent (Joseph Potter), Louis, Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), Antoinette (Maura Grace), and her bandmate TC (Sarah Swire). But there is no Claudia (Bailey Bass).
As Lestat’s severed head dies, who are these figures? Are they the ghosts of loved ones? But how, while others are still alive? Are the words in his head? Something supernatural from the cruel garden?
“I don’t think so [Lestat] you know.” Reid told Mashable, “But you know they’re coming. The whole season is planned for this show. [In episode 1] Baby Jenks he says, ‘You know, they come to you.’ Who are they? Then Magnus in the car [in episode 3] it’s like, ‘At the long table, we eat your soul.’ So you know they’re coming – the long table is coming.”
He continued, “I think when Lestat gets there [at the long table]because [he is] supernatural being, there is a lot of room to accept many unknowns very quickly. That’s what Lestat is dealing with.”
“To me, as a character trying to understand these kinds of things,” Reid continued, “every framing device this season that Lestat accepts and admits to failure. This is a character who keeps shrugging off all the trauma he’s experienced and refuses to fully engage with them. You can see him cracking under the pressure and weight of it all.”
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Reid then referred to the season’s narrative, Lestat’s story told by him in a series of recordings he called “Failure.” He explained, “[Lestat] You are making this recording for someone very special, or anyone who benefits in the auction. But you know, I think he thinks he’s a certain person. And he explains to them what it was like at that time.”
Lestat plays at the long table in “The Vampire Lestat.”
Credit: AMC
Compared to A Conversation with a Vampirethe first two seasons, Vampire Lestat he has felt chaotic, jumping around in time and tone, Lestat being angry, laughing, angry, and contradicting himself. Reid said this shows Lestat’s choice to rebel against his past and psychological pain. “That’s why the episodes feel like they’re being beaten,” he said, “and why certain things seem to be fully investigated, because at the time he wasn’t investigating. [them].”
“Even at the long table you fight them, the Failure Finders,” said Reid. “These important figures in his life, the ones he loved the most or defined the most in his life, always told him he was a failure.”
Reid continued: “So, what are they? I mean, it’s open to a lot of interpretation. I think the main thing about the season, though, is to establish the concept of the soul. The soul exists in our world. So do these [Failure Finders] the souls of the people who exist? I don’t know. I think the long table version of these letters is superior. I mean, long table Louis is a loud, angry person. So I don’t know if they are real people. It may be the sum of Lestat’s guilt and shame that he bears, [showing] how he feels about himself. [That] it’s probably pretty accurate.”
“Take it as you will,” Reid said. “But I can say that it is more likely to be what is heard inside the body’s head [of Lestat]. That this is what he struggles with every day — that everyone thinks he is a failure. He thinks he is a failure in the eyes of the people he should have helped and loved the most.”
Reid continued to connect Lestat with his failures (and the Failure Finders) in the reveal of the season finale: the destroyed world, where he recorded his album “The Failures.” Reid said, “That leads him to admit that he is responsible for the destruction of the world.” He then quipped, “Then the decisions he makes after that, who knows, are for the future.”
What’s next for Lestat? Reid teased a few clues.
Vampire Lestat now airing on AMC and AMC+.
