Interview With The Vampire 1X07: “The Thing Lay Still”

‘“The Thing Lay Still” is the last episode of season 1 of Interview With The Vampire. It is, however, definitely not the end of the road for this show. AMC+ renewed it for a second season before the first episode of season 1 even dropped. That’s how confident the platform was that this show was going to be a smash hit. And they weren’t wrong. It has garnered audiences of all kinds from near and far as the weeks ticked on. 

This season has not been without controversy though. However, it does appear now that the creators of the show were ready for adverse viewer reactions and planned for this all along. 

The domestic abuse and toxic queer relationship that played out between Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) did not sit well with a lot of folks. Many said that episode 5 was just too much for them to continue watching. As the season comes to a close, the data will reveal if they did truly walk away or not, but we can say with certainty that we are glad we didn’t (despite how difficult it was to watch what happened between Loustat). 

“The Thing Lay Still” is an epic full-circle journey that ties up all the unanswered questions that were scattered throughout season 1. Here are our thoughts on this chilling season finale of Interview With The Vampire.

Claudia

Claudia (Bailey Bass) wants Lestat gone from their lives. She knows just how toxic Lestat is and knows even better just how attached Louis is to him, despite the fact that the man knows his lover is anything but good for him (or them, or the world, in fact). And Claudia is not here to play. In “The Thing Lay Still” she is prepared to do what Louis can’t in order to protect him (and her) from the monster that is her maker. 

As Lestat begins preparations for their family to leave New Orleans, Claudia begins preparations to remove him from their lives altogether. Claudia decides they should have a ball to signify the end of their time in the city and it’s here at this party that she intends to take his life. Lestat is a smart cookie though, and despite Claudia communicating with Louis about the plan to end Lestat telepathically, Lestat is onto his darling daughter/sister. 

There is no doubt that Claudia is completely diabolical and if anyone can pull this off, it’s her. However, it takes one to know one, and Lestat is downright insane. The man didn’t make it this far through history without dipping his toes into the pool of the Evil and Crazy. Claudia is in over her head – or is she? 

The ball

The ball is quite a spectacle indeed. Claudia brings a set of twins with her to the party and introduces them to Lestat. She intends to poison one of them and trick Lestat into eating the poisoned brother. Except, Claudia doesn’t realize that Lestat seems to know what she is up to. 

Meanwhile, during “The Thing Lay Still” Louis is struggling with his desire for Lestat. Louis knows that Claudia intends to use the party to take the vampire out, and instead of helping, Louis spends the party fighting off his blood lust and whatever else is swirling around inside of him when Lestat is near. The toxic pull that Lestat has over Louis is astonishing, but it epitomizes classic victim behavior. Even though Louis knows that Lestat is not good for him, he can’t bring himself to stay away. 

Claudia thinks she has fed Lestat the poisoned twin, only to discover that he knows about her plan and has bested her. As shenanigans ensue and the vampires begin feasting on their party guests, Lestat reveals his knowledge of Claudia’s plan. For three seconds it appears that Lestat has out-maneuvered Claudia in her attempts to kill him, but Claudia – ever the vixen that she is – knew that he would be in the know, at least a little bit.

Because she is nothing but thorough (and maybe a little bit insane like her maker), she knew that he would be watching her plot his death. When it turns out that she actually poisoned one of the other guests and fed him to Lestat, and simply used the twins as a rouse, all hell breaks loose. 

Claudia did it. Claudia poisoned Lestat.

But it’s Louis that delivers the final blow. 

“I’m happy it was you, that you’re with me,” mutters Lestat as Louis embraces his body from behind and slits the vampire’s throat. Blood pours from the vampire’s neck at unimaginable levels.

Unable to bring themselves to burn him though, Claudia and Louis put Lestat’s body on the curb amongst all of the trash for the rats to feast on. 

Daniel

Daniel (Eric Bogosian) isn’t buying Louis’ retelling of events. As with his retelling of all the events Louis has shared with Daniel this season, in “The Thing Lay Still” Daniel thinks that Louis isn’t being honest with him. Especially now with so many pages of Claudia’s journal missing and gone. 

Daniel reveals a major flaw in Louis’ story about how they disposed of Lestat’s body. He points out that Louis sent Lestat’s body to the dump where there are dozens of huge, fat, blood-filled rats that a dying Lestat could feed on if he wanted to revive himself. 

And just like that, the entire premise of the full season of Interview With The Vampire and Louis’ retelling of events, comes unstuck. Daniel immediately positions Louis as a completely unreliable narrator and plants the idea that we can’t believe anything that he has shared with us at all throughout season 1. 

Have we been watching a lie? 

It would appear that, yes, we most certainly have. 

We learn very quickly that Rashid (Assad Zaman) is a vampire, and not a human like we were led to believe, and has most likely been manipulating Louis all along. So instead of being Lestat’s lap-dop, like we all thought, Louis is actually Rashid’s. 

Everything is upside down, we can’t believe or trust anything that we watched in season 1, and now we have to wait in agony for season 2 to air before we learn fact from fiction – if that is even possible at this point. 

Do we feel cheated? Not even a little bit.

Are we confused? You bet your ass we are. 

Do we think Lestat is alive? We sure as hell do. 

Do we have questions about Claudia? Yes, definitely. We think she is likely to return in season 2 as a villain. 

Can we wait until the release of season 2? Absolutely not. 

If everything we’ve learned about Lestat and Louis in season 1 is a lie, then perhaps the relationship that existed between them was not one based on toxicity. Perhaps the real toxic player in this whole story is in fact Rashid or Armand as Louis calls him at the end of “The Thing Lay Still”. 

We are very thankful that we persevered with this season and we are positively dying to know what happens from here on out. Interview With The Vampire has been nothing short of a wild ride so far. We hope that the rest of the world gets to meet these insane vampires as soon as possible. 

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Episode 7 of Interview With The Vampire, “The Thing Lay Still”, airs on AMC tonight. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!