‘Interview With the Vampire’s Most Devastating Scene Is Also Infuriating

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Interview with the Vampire Season 2, Episode 7.

AMC’s Interview with the Vampire continues to leave the audience spooked, heartbroken, angry, and everything in between, thanks to its dazzling performances and complex characters, especially when the penultimate episode “I Could Not Prevent It” aired just recently. The show is known for its dark themes and gore, but in this episode, audiences are taken on a whole other rollercoaster ride as they are sucked back into old memories, all the while discovering brand-new information. The episode also had perhaps one of, if not the most devastating scene in the entire show so far, which is the cruel death of the vampire Claudia (Delainey Hayles). But Claudia is more than just her death, which is why it is not a surprise that a lot of people call it unjustifiable and that she deserves better than her fate.

Who Is Claudia de Lioncourt, and How Well Do We Actually Know Her?

Claudia de Lioncourt (first played by Bailey Bass) first appeared in Season 1’s “Is My Very Nature That of the Devil.” She gets trapped inside a burning building after a fight broke out. When nobody seems to hear her, she nearly succumbs to the fire. But then suddenly, Louis (Jacob Anderson) scoops her up and saves her. Claudia is badly burned and is on the verge of death, but Louis convinces his maker and lover, Lestat (Sam Reid), to turn her. Not long after, the 14-year-old becomes a vampire and joins the vampire duo, essentially making her their daughter. They live, laugh, love, and hunt together. However, as years pass by, it becomes apparent just how dangerous it is to turn someone as young as Claudia a vampire. As Claudia explains in one of her journals — journals that would be important in Season 2 especially — though her mind continues to age, her body does not. People still regard her as a little kid with no knowledge of the world. She tries to appear older by wearing formal clothes and developing certain mannerisms, but they don’t always work. This, in turn, causes Claudia to rebel and grow hatred towards her vampire parents.

In Season 2, Claudia becomes stronger and smarter. After “murdering” Lestat, she and Louis travel in search of other vampires. They end up in Paris, where they encounter the Théâtre des Vampires — an all-too-mysterious coven with a long history. Claudia, finally glad to see a group of somewhat normal vampires, joins the coven. However, the members aren’t entirely fond of Claudia, and while they did let her in, she is subjected to ridicule by doing servant tasks and, most especially, forcing her to relieve her past by playing a naive little child. Along the way, Santiago (Ben Daniels) snoops into her and Louis’ apartment and finds her old journals, eventually learning what the duo did to their maker, Lestat, the co-founder of the coven. In theater fashion, they stage a “trial” disguised as a play, with Louis, Claudia, and newly-turned Madeleine (Roxane Duran) in the middle of it all.

Claudia is one of the main characters in Interview with the Vampire. But with Claudia having a lot of screen time — and considering her impact on the show — people might assume that they now know her pretty well. However, how the audience knows Claudia is merely only through her journals and how she is described by Louis and Armand. She is not present in the interview; therefore, she is not able to tell her side of the story, and now that she is dead, no one might ever truly know, making her case even more tragic and unforgivable.

Related

Who Are the Talamasca? ‘Interview with the Vampire’s Secret Society Explained

This secret organization has a complicated history (and members).

Claudia’s Death in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ Season 2 Is Impactful and Angering

The penultimate episode of Season 2 is mostly set in the theater for the “trial.” The coven members charge Claudia and Louis for breaking the great laws of vampirism, especially their attempted murder of Lestat. Throughout the episode, they are put through agonizing pain, and whenever they speak up, they get disoriented. Lestat finally comes on stage, surprising the two. Their maker dazzles the human audiences while he tells his side of the story, from his upbringing to his toxic relationship with Louis. And despite Claudia’s hateful relationship with Lestat, he says that he sees herself in him. So, when the verdict comes, and Claudia takes it with incredible bravery, Lestat looks proud and almost in awe. However, for the viewers, her death is still very much heartbreaking and unreasonable. Another reason why Claudia’s death affected a lot of people is because of the fact that even though she’s been roaming the Earth for quite some time, life for her has barely started. For years, she’s spent so much of her life with Lestat and Louis, she hasn’t been able to create a life separate from them. Claudia even continuously expresses how she has always been a second option to Louis.

Claudia’s death is especially cruel because, right before the “trial,” she as making a life of her own, this time with her new companion Madeleine. The two were about to start a whole new adventure, going to different places and simply living their lives. Finally, Claudia can detach herself from Louis. Because even though Claudia and Louis have been a team for years, it doesn’t diminish the fact that he has mistreated Claudia, much like any other vampires she encounters. The world is so cruel to her that right when she finally gets a taste of freedom and genuine love, they rip it away from her by killing her in one of the worst ways possible for a vampire, which is by sun exposure. In a morbid yet somewhat relieving way, she can now rest without anyone hurting him ever again. On the other hand, her death is wrong for some. Her plan to kill Lestat does have a good reason, making the viewers see Claudia as a morally gray character like a lot of other vampires. Claudia is one of Interview with the Vampire’s most complex characters, and her death will definitely catapult the show into yet another devastating turn.

The last episode of Interview with the Vampire Season 2 airs on Sunday and previous episodes are available to stream on AMC+ in the U.S.

Watch on AMC+