Last Updated on July 6, 2026 by Angel Melanson
The Vampire Lestat band is back in the States. Lestat (Sam Reid) tells us they’re on the Devil’s Road to the End Times. They’re all happy they’re trending on social media, though Lestat says he later learned most of their viral hits were from bots funded by the Talamasca.
We get a demonstration of how, with a metric ton of coke on the bus, the band avoids arrest. When a state trooper pulls them over, Lestat telepathically convinces the officer to understand that the rock band needs coke to do their jobs, just as the officer needs his gun. Besides, an arrest would put the officer’s station “in jeopardy.” The officer leaves his bodycam recorder with Lestat.
VO: You’re listening to The Failures, Album 33, Side B.
Lestat tells us, “Louis du Lac, or Thomas Pitt, or He Who Licenses and Franchises the Night was more feared than wanted now, and he could do his business wherever he wanted.”
What Louis (Jacob Anderson) wants to do at present is sit in the coffee shop where English-accented Claudia lookalike Regina (Delainey Hayles) works. Regina remarks he’s been there three times in five nights and thinks he’s hitting on her, but Louis assures her he’s gay. Regina is mystified.
On the bus, Daniel (Eric Bogosian) is plying Lestat with ironic questions. “If vampires kill and Jesus saves, what does the Vampire Messiah owe the world?” Lestat’s response is as flippant as the query.
Bassist Salamander (Ryan Kattner) has written a song. Everybody on the bus corrects Lestat’s pronunciation of American place names. (He thinks it’s ridiculous that Worchester is “Wooster.”)
Daniel asks about “Sofia’s” (Gabriella’s) whereabouts. Lestat plays it cool, but he’d like to know where she is and has been texting her nonstop.
Unaware they’re still talking about “Sofia,” Daniel inquires about Lestat’s mother. Lestat says she went mad as Nicky did. He envisions a bloodied lover/fledgling Nicky (Joseph Potter) on the bus. Phantom Nicky says he was a great love, but not Lestat’s first.
Embellishing his phony-baloney tale of Gabriella, Lestat tells Daniel that his mother was vibrant as a mortal, but not as a vampire. She used the last of her energy to write him a note, requesting to be left to die in the daylight.
The band members are overjoyed by the return of guitarist Alex (Seamus Patterson). Lestat tells Alex he was missed.
VO: You are listening to The Failures, Volume 37, Side A.
Armand (Assad Zaman) finds Daniel in a bowling alley. Armand wants to read Daniel something he wrote. He’s only half a sentence into it before Daniel incredulously recognizes, from his own experience, this apology as amends from a 12-step program. Daniel blames Armand for ruining his life.
Decades before Armand turned Daniel on the flight back from Dubai, Armand could have killed young, miserable Daniel when he first learned about vampires, but Louis stopped him. Unforgiving, Daniel stomps out of the bowling alley.
Can it be that Armand is actually working the 12 steps? If not, what’s he doing?
At the diner, Regina tells Louis she Googled him (as Thomas Pitt) – he’s the 566th richest man in the world. Why is he so fascinated with her? She wonders if she reminds him of his sister. Louis, unsure what to say, starts to tell Regina about Claudia and the Interview with the Vampire book but gives up, leaving her a $1,000 tip.
In flashback, Lestat and Gabriella are at an inn. Gabriella is approached by a man who doesn’t realize she is the woman whose beauty he worshipped from afar as a youth. Gabriella tells Lestat she’s not a woman anymore; she’s a fever that comes by night and kills by morning.
At a party in the present, Lestat thinks Daniel is still angry about the fake interview and mocks him about what Armand’s reason could be for turning him. Daniel asks about when Lestat flew Louis up into the stratosphere and dropped him, causing severe though not fatal injuries.
Also at the party, Alex tells his brother Larry (Noah Reid) about someone he met at the 12-step meeting. This would be Armand. “He was like a god.” The guy got rid of all the anger Alex felt towards other people, including Larry.
In flashback, Lestat walks in on Gabriella having sex with a mortal man. Furious and jealous, Lestat rips the guy’s head halfway off, to Gabriella’s displeasure. Lestat says he could hear them through the walls. “And it annoyed me!” Come on, Lestat, how many times has your mother already told you that she wants to be free to be “annoying” with whomever she wants?
Lestat brings up Gabriella tending his wounds when they were mortal mother and son. He doesn’t say the words, but even then, she gave him manual stimulation. “I love you,” Gabriella tells him. Lestat is besotted. They have sex.
Voiceover (Guy Maddin): “You are listening to The Failures, Album 40, Side B.”
In the present, Lestat opens his coffin to find Armand standing there. Lestat says Armand has done more damage than the Queen. Armand announces he has found himself in conversation with the deepest regions of his soul. Lestat snorts that Armand has no soul, but lets him read his amends letter. Armand says that, knowing Lestat’s maker’s temperament, he should have led with patience and empathy.
“Instead,” Lestat says, “you used my lover as bait to draw my mother and me into your underground death orgy.” Armand agrees that this is correct and continues to read.
When Lestat had the idea for the Théâtre des Vampires, and they were sharing sex and blood, Armand assumed it meant a type of companionship between them that, for Armand, was mere wishful thinking. Armand is grateful for Lestat’s financial contribution to the theatre and “shamefully blamed your mother” for Lestat’s departure.
When he had the opportunity to be truthful about what Armand terms “the matinee performance” – Lestat interrupts with “an actual trial” – where Claudia was killed, Armand states he retreated into cowardice. Armand says at first he thought Lestat was torturing him with his silence for the rest of the century; now he knows the silence was richness of character.
Lestat corrects him. “No, it was torture. I knew it would eat you alive and tangentially make Louis miserable.”
Lestat is having a good time now, but he wants Armand to go away or kill himself. Armand starts to leave the rest of his written amends statement behind, but has one more thing on his mind.
Lestat guesses without telepathy – Armand wants him to stop playing music, because other vampires think they can live as Lestat does, kill and make more vampires, and the mortals don’t like it. Lestat suggests Armand attend one of his concerts.
At the diner, Regina, having read Interview with the Vampire rhetorically asks if Louis is “the one in the book” and knows she looks like Claudia. She describes the whole situation as “a lot” and “mental.” Louis has looked up Regina online. She has an OnlyFans page and an arrest record. He can help with money and clean up her record. Regina refuses, not wanting to be dependent on anyone.
Onstage, Lestat is shirtless, wearing pigtails and rouge. He holds up a copy of Interview with the Vampire, coyly says, “We are the tribute band spawned by that literary mountaintop.” He directs a spotlight on Armand in the audience.
Lestat tells the crowd, despite what they’ve read, he and Armand are friends. “He did a brave thing for me once. And I have grown to respect Armand and his staunch defense of the Five Great Laws.” Lestat continues: the band wrote a song for “you” (Armand) – maybe part of this is Salamander’s contribution?
The song makes fun of Armand’s love of rules, his gloominess and most of all his manner, which is depicted in the piece as borderline drag performance.
Let’s take a moment here. The song and its presentation are both inaccurate and phobic. On the first point, Armand has an androgynous look but is the opposite of flamboyant – if he were any more contained, he’d be in a jar. But more importantly, even if Armand came off like Frank N. Furter, the song and Lestat’s performance suggest this very state of being is a Bad Thing, worthy of ridicule. It’s wholly in character for Lestat to behave like a schoolyard bully, but not cool, dude.
Armand is open-mouthed with humiliation and rage. Daniel follows Armand out to the street, grabs him, and demands that he stop the voices Daniel hears. Armand says he hears them, too. Daniel commands Armand to get out of his head. Armand sounds almost regretful. “I am your maker, I can’t get into your head.”
Armand tells Daniel he’s in great danger being close to Lestat. The Great Conversion is coming, Lestat is going to lead it, “and get us all killed.”
Daniel wants Armand to admit that he already knew what was revealed in Dubai, but Armand says he was genuinely upset and “it was love,” then adds it wasn’t love for Louis.
Holy Dracula, Armand is in the 12-step program to get over his addiction to Lestat. Also wow, Louis and Armand spent over 70 years together, both just trying to hurt Lestat, while he was in a hole to hurt both of them. Vampires may have trouble maintaining relationships, but they excel at intricate grudges.
Lestat goes outside his hotel to sign autographs. A man in the crowd fires a gun, yelling Lestat can’t die because he’s a vampire. Lestat is hit but unharmed; human band manager Christine (Jeanine Serralles) is wounded.
Flashback to Lestat and Gabriella on a moonlit beach in Italy. Lestat refers to their mortal lives as “the cabbage years,” “cabbage” being a mother-son in-joke meaning “nonsense.”
Gabriella says they are now on the Devil’s Road. Lestat wants her to define evil. For Gabriella, it’s “Dante’s Hell … out in the world … an evil that answers goodness.” She mentions fratricide and infanticide, “all writhing on the ground, until no light remains … And we, the devils, rule. “
Lestat concludes, “As dark monarchs.” He’s up for it, cuts his hand and hers to mingle their blood in a pact, but Gabriella turns aside at the approach of edible humans.
In the present, Louis admits to Regina that he can’t stay away. She sort of apologizes for yelling at him last time, and he says it was his fault. She negotiates for 500,000 British pounds. Louis agrees. Regina promptly asks in Claudia’s voice, “What now, Daddy Lou?”
Evidently, Regina didn’t comprehend from the book that, while Louis felt himself to be Claudia’s protector, Claudia didn’t view him as her father. Also, for somebody who’s never met Claudia, Regina does a damn fine imitation. We can rationalize that Regina is good with accents and knows Claudia was from New Orleans, but maybe she should have experimented with a few words before nailing it?
Lestat, alone (except for the driver) on the tour bus, works on a song on the acoustic guitar, remembering (in flashback) waking up alone under a rowboat on the beach. Gabriella departed without a goodbye, leaving behind a lock of her hair and her necklace.
The bus stops. Gabriella enters, saying Lestat called her, and she came. Lestat says he’s heading home to Montreal. Everyone quit after the shooting.
Lestat accuses Gabriella of abandoning him. Gabriella says she was gone for a week, and finally snaps, “Grow up!” (You tell him, Mom!). Then she softens and says she was “with the voices.” She knows Lestat hears them, too.
Lestat is on the brink of tears. “Why did you come back? Why won’t you let me hate you?”
“He was beautiful,” the voices say. “Don’t burn alone. That’s for us.” These are Lestat’s fans.
Gabriella says, “You’ve been reaching them.” Lestat protests that he doesn’t want to reach them, but Gabriella insists, “Your music gives them communion.”
What words, Lestat teases us, did the “conspiring mother” use to persuade her “distraught son” to turn the bus around? Lestat begins to laugh. “You had to be there, I guess.”
Cut to Lestat recording joyously in the studio with the equally enthusiastic band. Gabriella is watching from the sidelines. Is Gabriella trying to bring about the Great Conversion via her son’s musical career? Time (and The Failures) will tell.
In summation, compared to Lestat, Oedipus was well-adjusted when it came to parental issues. Louis has an expensive Vertigo complex. Armand is carrying one of history’s biggest torches. Daniel is fed up with everybody lying to him and to themselves, and we can’t blame him.
The Vampire Lestat airs on AMC Sundays at 9 p.m. EST and PST. New episodes are available on AMC's streaming app at 3:00 a.m. EST/12:00 a.m. PST on Sunday mornings, with new episodes released weekly.
