Interview With The Vampire Season 1 Ending Explained

Interview with the Vampire season 1 is a riveting story with a sensational ending that delivers shocking twist after twist. Based on The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice, the show revolves around Louis de Pointe du Lac’s life as he recounts it to dying interviewer Daniel Molloy. Lestat de Lioncourt, an irresistible vampire, turns Louis into the undead. As Louis adjusts to his new life, he explores his sexuality with Lestat, and they fall in love. The show thoroughly documents Louis’ life, with commentary provided by Daniel Molloy, the more he learns about Louis.

Interview with the Vampire portrays a rich cast of characters in Louis’ life. The show also has a wide viewership—so much so that AMC has already renewed Interview with the Vampire for season 3. However, season 1 covers Louis’ life in New Orleans, focusing on his early days as a vampire. Louis and Lestat’s romance is nothing short of tumultuous and toxic, and the season finale is a culmination of their entire dynamic, leading into a showdown that ends Louis’ time in New Orleans.

Do Louis & Claudia Kill Lestat? Interview With A Vampire Season 1 Ending Explained

Claudia Learns How To Play Lestat’s Game

Louis and his adoptive vampire sister, Claudia, enact a plan, primarily led by Claudia, to kill Lestat after the horrors they endured at his hands. Claudia purchases laudanum and arsenic to poison one of the humans that Louis would drink from, which would effectively poison Louis. At first, it seems like Lestat caught Claudia and Louis in their plan, but little did he know that Claudia anticipated this. Therefore, she had another secret plan enacted that completely ambushed Lestat, portraying that Claudia finally learned how to create a conniving scheme the way Lestat would.

Interview with the Vampire foreshadows Claudia finally beating Lestat at his own game in season 1, episode 6, “Like Angels Put in Hell by God,” when she beats him at chess at last. Claudia knew that she and Louis would have to kill Lestat if they were going to live their lives. New Orleans is not safe for them anymore, and there is no realistic way for Louis and Claudia to move forward without Lestat hindering them. Lestat would never change his toxic ways, and Louis and Claudia want to live on their own terms.

Is Lestat Really Dead?

Interview With The Vampire Season 1 Ending Suggests He Might Not Be

Despite Claudia and Louis’ success in killing Lestat, Louis cannot burn his body to ensure that Lestat cannot be revived. Instead, Louis and Claudia send out his body with the trash, knowing that Lestat’s body will end up at the dump, where Lestat has plenty of rats to feed on. Louis and Claudia do not necessarily ensure that Lestat will survive, but they give him an honest chance by leaving it up to fate. However, Louis and Claudia would be long gone from New Orleans, signifying that even if Lestat survives, he is dead to them.

How Claudia Beats Lestat At His Own Game

Claudia Tricks Lestat & Antoinette

Claudia’s scheme to kill Lestat was so well-planned that it even had a twist. The narrative suggested that the plan was to poison one of the human twins so that Lestat would drink their blood, transferring the poison into his system. However, Lestat anticipated this plan because a third secret party spied on Louis and Claudia. While Claudia and Louis planned the evening, Claudia thwarted Lestat completely by secretly poisoning another human she knew Lestat would want to kill because of the human’s jab at Lestat.

Claudia had come to know Lestat so well that she could finally anticipate his choices and beat him at his own game. Even with Lestat’s secret third party on his side, he was no match for Claudia, who had learned to outsmart him. The payoff of this scheme was incredibly satisfying, since now Lestat no longer held power over Claudia or Louis. The scene is an excellent final performance from actress Bailey Bass, since Interview with the Vampire ultimately had to recast Claudia for season 2.

Where Did Antoinette Go After Lestat Faked Her Own Death?

Lestat Turned Antoinette Into A Vampire

Interview with the Vampire season 1, episode 7, “The Thing That Lay Still,” reveals that Antoinette, Lestat’s second lover, is alive. When Lestat returned to live with Louis and Claudia in season 1, episode 6, “Like Angels Put in Hell by God,” after three years away, Claudia only allowed him back home if he agreed to certain conditions; one of them being that he had to kill Antoinette. The season 1 finale reveals that Antoinette never died—Lestat faked her death and turned her into a vampire instead. The finale also reveals that Antoinette has spied on Louis and Claudia.

However, Claudia and Louis were one step ahead of Lestat and Antoinette. When the poison began affecting Lestat, Antoinette became distracted, which allowed Claudia to stab Antoinette with a fire poker, which subdued her until Louis and Claudia were able to burn her body in the incinerator, which permanently ended Antoinette’s existence. Antoinette only dies when Louis and Claudia defeat Lestat and leave New Orleans, indicating that Lestat will never change his ways—Louis and Claudia will have to leave him.

How Do Louis & Claudia Leave New Orleans?

The Mardi Gras Party

As part of the plan to kill Lestat, Louis and Claudia throw a huge Mardi Gras party as the setting for his death. However, they also had the party to say goodbye to New Orleans and leave that chapter of their lives behind. Louis and Claudia threw an extravagant event to symbolize the city’s vibrant energy, beginning with a lavish parade, followed by a masquerade ball, and finally, the immortality event that they would use to kill Lestat. Once Louis and Claudia had burned all the bodies necessary, they drove to the port to board a boat for Europe.

Louis had also tricked the human Anderson, buying him a ship with many coffins—the perfect cover for Louis and Claudia to cross the Atlantic Ocean safely. Louis and Claudia tied up all loose ends they had in New Orleans. When they drive away for good, it symbolizes the beginning of the next chapter of their lives in Europe. Lestat had believed they were leaving New Orleans for Buenos Aires the entire time, but Louis and Claudia had other plans. Louis and Claudia even let Lestat believe that leaving New Orleans was his idea, another trick they had pulled from Lestat.

The Real Meaning Of Interview With A Vampire Season 1 Ending

Louis & Lestat’s Goodbye Sets Up The Twist At The End

The heart-wrenching ending of Louis de Pointe du Lac’s life in New Orleans sets up the final twist of Interview With The Vampire season 1—Rashid, Louis’ human servant, was under disguise the whole time. Rashid’s real name is Armand, a 514-year-old vampire Louis proclaims as the love of his life. It seems that Louis has achieved the peaceful love he had been looking for since his early days as a vampire. This twist is also the perfect way to end season 1, given that present-day circumstances will differ because Armand is no longer just Rashid, the human servant.

Louis and Daniel are about to enter a new phase of their interview with higher stakes, which also mirrors Louis and Claudia’s narrative in the 1940s. Interview with the Vampire has already made significant changes to Armand’s character, suggesting that ending season 1 with his formal introduction might have several meanings. One idea suggests that Armand might represent the everlasting, stable love that Louis could not find with Lestat. This idea would also coincide with Daniel Molloy’s belief that Lestat was Louis’ abuser.

However, not much is known about Armand’s personality as a vampire. Furthermore, the narrative often proves Daniel Molloy’s theories wrong. Armand might be worse than Lestat, which introduces a second idea—Louis is trying to replicate his love for Lestat in his relationship with Armand. However, Louis cannot find another love like Lestat. Regardless, the ending of Interview with the Vampire season 1 leaves many unknown variables in the air in both the present and past narratives.