‘The Vampire Lestat’ episode 7: What will happen next?

By the end of The Vampire Lestat episode 6, titled “Montreal,” the eponymous anti-hero (Sam Reid) and his on-again-off-again lover Louis (Jacob Anderson) have been decapitated, after having been ambushed by the now-in-cahoots Daniel (Eric Bogosian) and Armand (Assad Zaman).

Are they dead? Certainly not, right?

So, what could Interview with the Vampire creator Rolin Jones have up his sleep for the finale of Vampire Lestat‘s first season? Critics were only given episodes 1 through 6 for review. So, we’re speculating from here.

Here’s Mashable’s predictions of what will happen in episode 7 of The Vampire Lestat.

Lestat will be put on trial this time.

Armand and Larry share a glance in “The Vampire Lestat.”
Credit: AMC+

Armand has been in the shadows this season, lurking around Lestat as he goes on tour. Sure, he’s surfaced with some AA atonement chatter to some that he wronged. But Lestat is right to suspect there’s more to his reappearance. Little does he realize Armand has become the sponsor of bitter bandmate Alex (Seamus Patterson), who had described the ancient vampire as a “god” to his late brother, Larry (Noah Reid).

Armand pulls some theatrics to get his fledgling Daniel back on his side. And together, all three ambush Louis and Lestat. But why? A retrial is my guess.

Lestat is gearing up for a concert, where vampires around the world will convene to hear the album he made for their ears. I speculate that Armand will use this same stage to get his revenge on Lestat. As he sees it, Lestat stole control of the Théâtre des Vampires trial to save Louis. So, this could be his chance to turn the tables, making Lestat’s audience his new congregation.

“Armand told the truth” has been a motto that’s appeared throughout the season, driving Lestat batty. So, I predict episode 7 will be him outing the truth by forcing a wounded Lestat to finally answer Daniel’s burning questions. What else might we learn?

What really happened on the train with Claudia?

Delainey Hayles as Claudia and Roxane Duran as Madeleine in “Interview with the Vampire, “Season 2.”
Credit: Larry Horricks / AMC

When Lestat first reads Daniel’s Interview with the Vampire, he’s outraged at the suggestion that he’d threatened to rape Claudia (Delainey Hayles) when she attempted to run away again. Even fans bristled at this reading of the scene from Interview with the Vampire Season 1. In comments sections, they argue that Lestat was saying terrible things like rape could happen in the world if she sets out alone again — not that he’d do that to her.

Here’s what Lestat actually said in Season 1: “What [Bruce] did to you was in very poor taste. Could you imagine if something like that happened to you again?”

In an interview with Mashable, Sam Reid, who plays Lestat, said of this scene being presented as the Brat Prince threatening his daughter with sexual assault as punishment, “He’s blindsided by that. I think it’s a very painful thing.”

Reid then added, “We’ll see Lestat’s version of the train scene before the end of the season.”

In episode 6, Claudia’s spirit scoffs over this train scene. She admits she cried to Louis that Lestat threatened to rape her to manipulate him against their shared maker. “Worked good, didn’t it?” She laughs.

Episode 7 will be Lestat’s chance to share his point of view of that scene at long last.

What really happened to Nicky?

When Lestat sits down for Daniel’s documentary in “Toronto,” he shares a story about how Nicky’s mental health only deteriorated after getting the dark gift. In flashbacks, Nicky chops off his own hand, asking Lestat to cut off the other. Meanwhile, Gabriella laughs and Armand watches in silence.

Lestat then tells Daniel:

“Gabriella went to coffin, leaving us and Armand. I told Nicky that I loved him, from the first seconds I saw him in Paris. That I was drunk with his love. I was engulfed by it. Your maker will tell you I was being kind, but in the moment, the words were true. I think.

I remember the light. Fireplace reflecting gold onto his face, onto his bare arms. But I would not look at the wound. I could not. I, um, I couldn’t do it. But I watched as Armand pushed him into the fire and made sure he stayed there with a poker in his chest. Nicky had a bemused look on his face as he burned. And his mouth formed into a circle. And he made only one sound.”

Then Lestat lets out a low, prolonged moan.

Notably, the flashback cuts off before showing any of these events. So, I suspect at the trial, Armand and Daniel will gleefully, self-righteously rake Lestat over the coals for the details about this part of his story. And the truth of Nicky’s death will come out.

What will Akasha do?

Akasha sleeps in “The Vampire Lestat.”
Credit: AMC+

Readers of the Anne Rice books have an inside track here. But Jones may make his own spin on that narrative. So, rather than pulling from Queen of the Damned, the third of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, we’ll look back to what was said at the auction, which opened Season 3 and seems to bookend The Vampire Lestat.

When describing the Lestat-centric lots on the auction block, the auctioneer calmly refers to “consequential global catastrophes” that Lestat kicked off. Then, in his early narration of The Failures, Lestat himself says, “I’m not saying the attempted extinction of the Y chromosome across the continents was all my fault. No, that would suggest a level of self-importance even I am not confident with. But upon reflection — yeah, I made a contribution.” 

Within this season, we’ve seen in flashback that his speaking to Akasha (Sheila Atim) roused her from her stone-like slumber once before. Surely, his concert would have done the same — so why not his trial?

Sounds like she’ll rise again, taking down a slew of men in particular, but also possibly the vengeance-seeking Baby Jenks (Ella Ballentine)? Perhaps she’ll slay Daniel, who Baby Jenks foretold would “die bad” back in episode 1. Maybe Akasha, Queen of the Damned, is to blame for Armand’s eyepatch and Louis’ limp in that aforementioned auction? But will she come for Lestat or kill him?

Will Lestat die in The Vampire Lestat?

Unlikely! For one thing, we haven’t come to the catastrophe yet. And since Lestat refers to it on The Failures, he’ll have to have survived them to record his recollection of them. So while he’s not in the auction at the opening, he will survive the end of this season into the “future seasons” that Reid teased in his Mashable interview.

The Vampire Lestat is now streaming on AMC and AMC+, with new episodes each Sunday.