Unfortunately, the vampire Armand does not appear in episode two of The Vampire Lestat. And yet, his presence hovers intensely over the narrative as we finally spend an honest moment with his fledgling, Daniel Molloy. In the first couple of episodes of The Vampire Lestat, Daniel is in fine form. He busily needles at Lestat with an icy humor and a sharp tongue, guzzles blood from a hookah, and overall drips with snark and disdain as the tour’s resident lovable menace to society. Absolutely, though there’s not a trace of transformation trauma on Daniel. No sir. He loves being a vampire. But in episode two, we get a brief moment where Daniel’s walls drop, and we see a brush of what’s underneath, something yearning and vulnerable. And for Daniel, much to the delight of Devil’s Minion shippers, this The Vampire Lestat moment comes courtesy of Armand… Or at least the impact of the vampiric bond that lives between Armand and Daniel. And yeahhh, to us, the way Armand and Daniel’s maker/fledgling connection manifests couldn’t be more romantic.
It’s hard being a vampire whose maker has abandoned you. Doubly hard when you broke your only vampire friend’s trust to publish a book about his life, and inadvertently caused yet another breakup for him. But the good thing about vampiric life is that it tends to be long. And Louis begrudgingly agrees to speak to Daniel again in The Vampire Lestat episode two. Only, we bet he wishes he didn’t when Daniel starts to wax poetically about his bond with Armand, the vampiric equivalent of girl talk, we suppose… Except this time it involves Louis’ manipulative ex, who lied to him for over 70 years, so it’s not surprising he’s not too thrilled about the topic. We, however, are seated.
“I have this weird thing that happens where suddenly everyone around me disappears, like the rapture’s come… and I… You know, I feel him.” Daniel confesses to Louis, suddenly stripped of his cackling shrewdness and draped in wide-eyed helplessness. And phew, we have to hand it to Eric Bogosian, who plays Daniel; the delivery of these lines is absolutely crushing. For me, a person invested in this romantic relationship, it stabs me right in my heart. Daniel’s obvious loneliness, the hesitant way he clearly wants to talk about Armand and their bond, but has been locking away the thoughts, even from, especially from, himself—all of that comes flooding to the surface in this brief moment. And the incredible skill it takes to make us feel every bit of Daniel’s vampiric infancy, the way he’s lost, looking for an anchor that isn’t there, we cannot say enough about it.
Also incredible is the deadpan, unimpressed way Jacob Anderson’s Louis delivers, “Armand?” in response to Daniel’s confession, making me briefly cackle. But Daniel presses on, self-depricating and wry, asking “Yeah…That happen with you and Lestat?” Louis confirms it didn’t. (“No. Sounds weird.”) And they move on. But I’m still stuck in that moment.
There’s a lot to unpack here. Of course, according to Louis in Interview with the Vampire season one, all vampires are connected to their makers in an intense, emotional way, and vice versa. Louis, not immune to poetic maker whims himself, describes his own connection with Lestat in the following gorgeous way. “The vampire bond. There is no human equivalent… It’s a bond that can never fully be severed. A bond like that makes you believe there are only two of you on the planet. Freedom and chastity wrapped in one person.” And, in season two of Interview with the Vampire, it’s implied that after Louis transforms Claudia’s companion, Madeleine, into a vampire, she can sense his feelings, and he can sense her presence and absence. While in both cases, a powerful tie exists, it does seem like Louis’ great love for Lestat makes his bond with his maker even stronger and more affecting.
Which leads us to Armand, Daniel, and the case of the missing universe. Because even though Louis notes his bond with Lestat “[makes] him believe there are only two of [them] on the planet,” we guess he means that figuratively, not literally. Whereas Daniel seems to be indicating he’s experiencing… an actual falling away of reality that leaves only Daniel and the feeling of Armand in existence, when Armand isn’t even there… That we know of. That feels like a pretty powerful bond to us. A bond of love, we might extrapolate? If it’s magnifying the impact of the maker/fledgling connection even beyond where Louis and Lestat’s bond lives, taking it into completely new territory.
We don’t yet know exactly how Daniel was turned in Interview with the Vampire, and it sounds like we may not know for certain until season four. We also don’t know whether fan theories based on Anne Rice’s books, which speculate that Armand and Daniel fell in love when Daniel was young, only for Armand to erase those memories at some point, hold any water. What we do know is that we can’t imagine anything more beautifully romantic and deliciously toxic than the whole world turning to nothing, leaving only Armand and Daniel in it, as a reflection of their vampiric bond. Inject it. Put it in my veins.
Weirdly, I’m reminded of Wanda and Vision from the MCU, who were meant to be the romantic heart of the franchise. And though I personally didn’t really super resonate with their love story, even I could see their most intense line was point-perfect. In Avengers: Infinity War, Wanda has to destroy Vision, and as she does, he tells her that she doesn’t have to worry about him because, “I just feel you.” In a sense, it feels to me like Daniel isn’t really feeling much of anything at this point, but sometimes he just feels Armand.
All of this just over the ephemeral vampiric bond between Armand and Daniel, and the pair haven’t even shared a scene yet in The Vampire Lestat. I know I speak for many people other than myself when I say, “and then what happens?”
The Vampire Lestat releases at 9 pm ET/PT on AMC and AMC+. You can also read The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice today as you wait for the next episode of the series to arrive.
Rotem Rusak is the Editor-in-Chief of Nerdist. She is ready for Devil’s Minion to become canon so one of her ships can finally sail.
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