The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 Recap

The Vampire Lestat Episode 5, “New York,” rips the band-aid on the long-teased appearance of Akasha, Queen of the Damned (Sheila Atim), and Armand’s maker and guardian of Those Who Must Be Kept, Marius de Romanus (Christopher Heyerdahl). While the initial introduction to Lestat’s past is unnecessarily rushed, the payoff by the episode’s end, along with the outcomes of existing plot threads, ultimately provides some satisfaction.

Hot off his attempted murder at the hands of a crazed vampire-obsessed zealot, Lestat (Sam Reid) focuses on recording his “posthumous” album, putting his bandmates through the wringer in trying to capture a sound that not only transcends mortal ears but vampiric ones as well. In short snippets seen throughout The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 during these recording sessions, we see Lestat’s various muses. All play a hand in the music he creates, but only Lestat can truly see them, making it difficult for those around him to gauge what, in fact, he wants. 

While the bandmates struggle to catch up, the vampires Lestat surrounds himself with during these sessions anticipate his needs. His mother, still under the guise of Sofia (Jennifer Ehle), steps into the role of his former manager and legal representative. Sam Barclay (Christopher Geary) is also back in the picture, serving as the album’s sound producer, and is the one most in sync with the sound Lestat is aiming to capture. The divide between the vampires and human bandmates in the recording studio widens the longer the sessions go, culminating in a rather predictable request towards the end of The Vampire Lestat Episode 5.

Lestat hyperfocuses on his music, turning the album even further into an obsession.

This is in part due to the sound Lestat is hoping to cultivate. Instruments cannot sound like instruments. “It has to sound like death approaching, like life emerging,” Lestat exclaims to the drummer at one point, as his memory strays to when Marius unburied his prone sleeping vampiric self from his forced slumber. Such feelings are not easily imagined or encapsulated by the human mind, the idea of dying and coming back to life. It is a unique experience reserved for vampires (and some supernaturally adjacent creatures). The confusion is understandable.

Lestat tries to break down what each instrument will represent before his guitarist, Larry (Noah Reid), who is desperate to find his place to shine. Lestat labels him as his fragility, which is fitting, considering what happens to Larry at the end of The Vampire Lestat Episode 5. Lestat quickly snuffs out Larry’s hope, being dismissive again towards the guitarist before Larry storms off. To hammer the point home to everyone present, Lestat says, “Have some reverence. Kill me savagely.” That’s certainly one way to help the band channel their frustrations. 

For Lestat, this frustration with crafting music he genuinely cares about leads him to take extreme measures in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5. More specifically, a hilarious yet horrifying sequence where the band watches him burn himself alive to capture the sheer agony he wants vocalized in recorded form, with the particular song’s muse, Nicky (Joseph Potter), jeering alongside him.

Another song has him confronting his past childhood self, stumbling over the words from a book he’s reading. As memories flash back, Larry becomes an unfortunate recipient of Lestat’s wrath once more. When Lestat leaves them alone, Larry and his brother, Alex (Seamus Patterson), who has broken his sobriety, have a moment together. It’s clear that Larry is not doing well, and Alex’s attempts to cheer him up are not the greatest. But it is an unintentionally great setup for what is to come.

As for Louis (Jacob Anderson), who was once Lestat’s attempt at a cure for loneliness, his plan to have Regina (Delainey Hayles) pretend to be Claudia in exchange for cash is incredibly hard to sit through in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5. As uncomfortable as it is to watch, it shows us exactly how hard Louis is struggling with the prospect of his daughter being reincarnated into his life. And, for his part, Louis knows that this isn’t right, seen in the small flickers of emotion on Jacob’s face when things with Regina go off script.

In a more private moment between Louis and Regina on a paddle boat, he even goes as far as to tell Regina not to try to do Claudia’s accent. It’s pretty meta and a fun wink to both actors being Brits who are, or have previously portrayed, characters with distinct Louisiana accents. However, Regina not doing the accent also helps keep Louis from firmly believing in what his mind wants to be the reality. That is Claudia being back with him in the flesh.

Louis is crumbling the more he holds onto Claudia in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5.

When Regina asks him to freeze her, we finally get to see Louis start to break down, his face crumbling when he holds her hand. This facade, whatever it is, is eating away at him, and he knows it. This has him reach out to Lestat, begging him to come. The two meet, where Louis tells Lestat everything in his car, and his confusion and desire to hope that Regina is Claudia come through. He asks Lestat to verify whether Regina is Claudia, and Lestat obliges, tiredly.

Regina immediately knows who he is before Lestat cuts to the quick, pointing out that he knows she knows Louis has been out there for an hour, watching her. There’s no real sense within their initial encounter of what Lestat might be feeling outside of frustration for being pulled into this mess, that is, until Regina walks far enough away. With his hoodie hiding his face, Lestat’s own walls start to crack, tears quick to the eye. There is fear and uncertainty, which quickly shift to curiosity upon her return.

Lestat asks her why she’s still working at a diner if she’s being paid well by Louis. She emphasizes that it is to help establish some reality, which is fair considering the circumstances. There’s a certain affirmation and cockiness that Delainey Hayles puts on as Regina in this moment when she realizes, just by looking at Lestat and hearing Lestat try to protect Louis, that she does look like Claudia. This is quickly replaced by surprise and alarm when Lestat walks away. Whether or not she realizes the full gravity of what’s going on remains to be seen. 

Lestat returns to Louis, telling him that Regina is not Claudia. “Don’t see this person again,” Lestat orders, albeit calmly. “And next time someone tries to murder me, pick up the phone,” he says before leaving his former lover and fledgling behind to finish recording his songs for the day. It is a by-the-book recording montage that lends itself to one of the most vulnerable songs Lestat has sung so far, tied to his grief for Claudia, something that we’ve never wholly gotten to see yet.

The little touches of ash falling down on Lestat as he records, hinting at Claudia’s final remains, as well as Claudia accompanying him on the piano, say so much with so little. Yes, Louis lost his daughter, but so did Lestat, and her death still haunts him. This song is perfect and tells the audience everything we need to know about his feelings towards his daughter. 

The song, however, is a catalyst for Lestat to take the album in a whole new direction. This puts his bandmates in a hard place, but Larry sees the writing on the wall for him. He’s exhausted, and frankly, being the verbal whipping post for Lestat’s varying frustrations over the past two years has worn him down. So, to no one’s surprise, Larry quits. Which, for better or worse, may have been for the best despite his inevitable outcome by the end of The Vampire Lestat Episode 5.

Marius’s introduction into the series doesn’t leave much of an impact.

The remaining bandmates ask whether or not that means they are recording the album again, and Sam steps in, saying that it will be for “our ears only,” meaning vampires. The band is game for being transformed, but Lestat is rightfully hesitant. His blood is mixed with Akasha’s, and what that means is not what anyone is truly prepared for. “It will reward you with regret,” Lestat shares, beckoning them to follow Larry. Unfortunately, his bandmates are idiots and don’t actually care. But if they had ever met Akasha, they’d understand.

Interspersed throughout The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 are flashbacks to why he’s so intrinsically tied to music. The introduction of Marius in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 arrives quickly, with a confused Lestat, unburied and dragged to where the ancient vampire has stored Those Who Must Be Kept. Sam Reid plays Lestat here as rightfully confused, still despondent over his mother’s presumed death, and only desiring to die. Marius, as Akasha’s surrogate, has other plans for Lestat.

Marius, at least in this episode, seems to serve only as an expository tool, introducing Lestat and the audience to Enkil and Akasha, what they represent, and potentially filling in the bigger picture of the Great Conversion. Portrayed by genre favorite actor, Christopher Heyerdahl, who is no stranger to playing vampires, his Marius is slightly domineering and is a mixed bag of guidance. For whatever reason, however, the direction given has most of his lines coming out in hurried spurts. More time with the vampire might explain why.  

Marius readies to depart to who-knows-where, telling Lestat that he is worthy, words worth more than their weight in gold, before telling him to wait for Akasha to talk to him. Just as quickly as Marius comes into Lestat’s life, he leaves the vampire alone to guard over the vampiric queen, and the loneliness is crushing. Truly, it becomes a bit sad to watch as Lestat mentally deteriorates but still aims to keep Akasha informed of the world above, growing particularly excited about a scoop at one point.

Akasha’s presence in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 flashbacks is a slow-rising tide. She plays with the new words, whispering them in Lestat’s mind and drawing his interest and fascination. As Lestat postulates and mourns over his existence and his mother’s abandonment, Akasha listens and makes her presence known to him through movement. Whatever the connection between the two, they obviously feed off of one another, with Lestat stimulating whatever it is Akasha wants.

An undetermined amount of time passes, and it is soon New Year’s Eve at the turn of the century. Lestat is at his worst mentally, simulating awkward concerts and dinners with imaginary versions of his mother, Armand, Nicky, and his deceased cabbage siblings. Akasha taps along to the music, reminding Lestat to feed her with ashes, and the moment is intimate. However, the mood passes when the music stops, and Lestat is distracted by the ruined record. “I ruined your party,” he says with the most despondent expression. 

Sheila Atim is Akasha. That much is certain.

The Queen has other plans. In his distraction, she rises, beckoning him to come to her. He does, knowing yet not knowing what will come, and with a hunger that has been barely sated with the ashen remains of the dead, she drinks from Lestat. The effect of this exchange has Lestat reeling, literally floating in the air as Akasha waxes on in riddles. Of course, this is when Marius returns, taking on his best scolding paternal visage. “She was on the slab for centuries. It will take me years to get her back on it,” yells Marius, with the unspoken ‘why’ silent. 

Marius casts him out, muttering “unworthy” as Lestat scrambles up the stairs. This scene, in particular, is chaos fully harnessed for the story’s betterment. Marius’s rage and Akasha’s wonderment and spoken riddles, whilst Lestat tries to get his bearings, having not wholly processed the gravity of his blood exchange with the Queen of the Damned, is how chaos should be executed. It is a scene that, yes, is brief and quick, yet never feels hurried. 

Yet, as Lestat flees and the camera shakes, Sheila Atim truly has her metaphorical moment in the sun with her riddle-turned-proclamation by this scene’s end. References to the twins appear, but it is the oscillating swell of emotions that reveals the danger to come. Akasha becomes the embodiment of womanhood in this sense, once kept prone on a slab, moved around for the betterment and safety of vampiredom. Her preservation means the preservation of a race, but she is more than that. So much more. 

“I am the girl. I am the god. I am the voice. I am the soul. I am the night, and I can answer. I can arrange it. I can say rise, and I can say speak, and I am her, and I am she, and I, I, I, I am the answer,” she proclaims, her voice swelling with passion, with rage, with power. As Atim stares directly into the camera, pouring her heart into this moment of Akasha’s introduction to the audience, this is Akasha reborn. She had mighty shoes to fill, and this monologue in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 gives everything to soothe concerns. Thus ends our time in the past.

Pivoting to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), he is still reeling from the love confessions of his maker, Armand (Assad Zaman). While filming B-roll and interviewing strangers on the street, a creepy encounter with a man who repeats a conversation Daniel had with Armand not long ago shakes the fledgling vampire. Daniel rightfully calls out Armand’s BS attempt at communication, and the scene transitions into a park where the two have yet another much-needed conversation.

Daniel asks Armand to prove that his confession of love isn’t just another attempt at manipulation, which, to be fair, even after Armand lists the dates when he was present and guiding Daniel, can still be construed as such. Armand is constantly several steps ahead, so why not use this opportunity with Daniel to muddy the waters further? This comes out a bit when Daniel asks where Louis was, and Armand throws Louis under the bus, pointing out his calculated nature before pleading to Daniel’s need to have a parent.

The bond between maker and fledgling continues to be complicated for many in this episode.

The biggest bombshell he drops on Daniel in The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 is the truth about Sofia. That she is, in fact, Gabriella, Lestat’s mother, and that she is by his side once more. Daniel, despite wanting to know about Sofia, is distracted by something else Armand says. “Did you say walk in the sun?” It is a brief moment, but it opens the door to one way Daniel may grow to trust Armand just a tiny bit more in the future. 

The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 transitions to a conversation between Lestat and Gabriella, where Lestat asks why she left him. This question contains volumes, and her answers do little to rehabilitate her image. “You were a terrible mother,” Lestat proclaims, and Gabrielle agrees before driving the knife home, saying that in Spain, she didn’t need him anymore. This is a war of words, not just between mother and son, but between the fledgling and the maker. Yet, Lestat gets the upper hand when he realizes she needs him more than she’d care to admit.

In observing the dynamics among Armand, Lestat, and the people around them, it is easy to see why Lestat loathes Armand. In many ways, they are similar. The people whose lives they’ve touched always seem to come to ruin and inevitably leave either through distance or more permanent means. When Lestat called Armand a little gremlin in the last episode, sure, the description is spot-on, but it can also be applied to the former vampire.

In any case, Armand has to one-up Lestat on his ‘everything touches turns to crap’ vibes, which leads us to Larry. Poor Larry. He really was doomed from the start. At a subway stop, Larry is recognized by a fan of the band, who can’t help but gush. It’s, of course, a bad time to talk with Larry, who admits to the fan that he’s not involved anymore and he’s tired. Bad choice of words, Larry, especially since Armand is found sitting beside him.

Armand tells Larry that he does look tired and should get some rest. With the subtleties of a sledgehammer, you can tell he’s mindpushing Larry in his moment of weakness. Not hard for a vampire his age, but The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 ends with Larry walking into an oncoming train, with Armand watching on like the little gremlin Lestat called him out to be. It does beg the question of what Armand’s endgame is at this point, but that’s for the next episode to unveil. 

The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 finally opens the door to what Lestat has teased throughout the season: his connection to Akasha. Sheila Atim assumes the mantle that Aaliyah left behind, crafting a version of the Queen of the Damned that is striking in a new way. While the episode’s pacing still struggles with its jumps between storylines, they’re not as gratuitous as in previous episodes, and we see some emotional payoff across storylines that does satisfy. With only a couple of episodes left, there’s not much time to see this story to its end. 

The Vampire Lestat Episode 5 is streaming now on AMC+ with new episodes airing every Sunday on AMC.

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