Gabriella Comes In Like a Wrecking Ball

Who is Gabriella on ‘The Vampire Lestat’?

Gabriella holds three places in Lestat’s life: fledgling, lover, and mother. The latter category is the record scratch in the tale or the “dirt in the sandwich” as he put it during their reunion. In “Detroit” she has no lines, but her text messages speak volumes about her.

She is ‘Toi’ on his phone, checking in but remaining aloof and deprecating. Gabriella tells Lestat that his music cured her insomnia, that at least she’s thinking about him, refers to him being stuck in the mud again, tries to get Lestat to ditch his band for her, and point blank asks about his expectations if she were to come to him like he begs her to.

Her messages are prone to being pithy whilst his are conversational and baldly honest when he’s feeling lonely. From the start there is a power imbalance despite their fledgling-maker connection. Lestat tries to persuade her to come to the hotel Dracula’s Daughter and admits to missing her. He texts that it’s been too long and nearly shares that he’s been struggling.

Later, in his desperation, he sends multiple messages including the telling, “I. Love. You,” before he gives up hope that she’ll come. But for the audience, the texts between them initially come across as present day communication with Louis despite the fallout from Daniel Molloy’s (Eric Bogosian) Interview with the Vampire, which prompted Lestat’s tour.

Louis Haunts ‘The Vampire Lestat’s Story

In my review of The Vampire Lestat, I mentioned that while Lestat is now in control of Interview with the Vampire’s narrative, Louis (Jacob Anderson) remains at the center of the story. He’s the catalyst for the creation of the eponymous band and the trigger by which Daniel tries to get Lestat to stop dodging his questions.

In the premiere, we learn that Louis isn’t answering Daniel’s text messages or telepathy. But the journalist and now documentarian knows that he’s stateside. He asks Lestat whether they’re talking again, but the vampire doesn’t answer. Instead he continues on texting ‘Toi’ in an exchange that invokes “Rome, Wisconsin,” a call back to season 1 when Lestat pokes at Louis for asking him whether he was referring to Rome, Italy as a potential travel destination for them.

Though Lestat disputes requesting Daniel as the filmmaker responsible for compiling what he refers to as the liner notes to the album that contains his story, it’s undeniable that the journalist was chosen because he wrote Louis’ flawed account of his vampiric life. It’s all a part of Lestat’s determination to tell the truth of his lived experience counter to how Louis portrayed him and despite facts being irrelevant and “feels” being everything in this day and age.

Daniel asks Lestat if he was a stutterer as a child, poking at the intimate detail Louis shared about his former lover. Lestat doesn’t answer. But in his frustration, he does say that Louis wasn’t in 18^th century Auvergne, that he didn’t threaten Claudia (Delainey Hayles) with rape on a train, and that it would have been impossible to be present when Donizetti composed “Don Pasquale” because he’d buried himself underground.

However, even when Louis’ name isn’t invoked, he’s the spark that lights this premiere’s fire. Louis’ the reason Lestat retreated to music in the first place because he neglected to tell him about the book.

How Lestat Found Out About Interview With The Vampire

The night Lestat learned of Interview with the Vampire’s existence, he’d been on a video call with Louis. He was sharing an unfinished song with a notable lack of confidence about its direction. Louis called it nice, to which Lestat responded, “Nice is a balloon.” But their conversation settles into flirtatious banter as Lestat tries to sell Louis on visiting Montreal, his new home.

As he does, Lestat is distracted by the sound of the band across the street rehearsing. Their name is Satan’s Night Out, and the song they’re playing will soon become the bones of “Black Licorice,” but in that moment Lestat was stuck on the instrumentation. Then he got a notification about Interview with the Vampire and the tentative reunion he and Louis were inching toward crumbled to pieces.

Louis knew about the book’s release for a month and said nothing. While Lestat’s reaction is played for laughs, particularly the sequence where he annotates the book and loudly denotes which sections are fictitious, he’s deeply hurt by its publication and Louis’ involvement.

But, as music is wont to do with Lestat, he’s pulled from his rage and hurt-fueled reading of Interview with the Vampire by a need to correct another musician’s compositional choice. He charged across the street to the band’s home and barged into their practice to show Larry (Noah Reid), the lead guitarist, how he should be playing his solo.

That night changed Lestat’s life. It was the genesis of an outlet that he’d use to take back control of his own narrative. The only problem was that he kept the band shuttered in, perfecting their sound for nearly a year and a half. By the time they emerged, humans had shrugged about the existence of vampires and came to believe the band was a cash grab, so it didn’t matter.

Lestat leaned into their dismissal. He used it to hide his true nature from humans whilst performing songs that spoke to the realities of vampiric existence and infuriated vampires around the world. However, his cover was blown thanks to a groupie named Baby Jenks (Ella Bellentine) and the Fang Gang, a Detroit coven with a homicidal devotion to the Great Laws.

Music Unleashes Lestat’s Muses And Prompts A Fang Fight

In Lestat’s view, the first truly great performance the band has happens after Larry once again refuses to play the tambourine during “Black Licorice.” Lestat complains about his violin having to compete with Larry’s guitar. He has every intent on murdering his band member on stage, but then his brain breaks and the music wraps itself around him.

He’s having a full on meltdown with the audience completely oblivious to what’s going on. They’re too busy having a good time while he has an epiphany. Lestat realizes that it wasn’t the band that was adequate, it was him. He was the one holding them back and with his muses set free, standing in the crowd as if they’re part of the show, The Vampire Lestat has a transcendent, foot stomping, scream-chanting, flow with the crowd that’s unlike anything he’s experienced while performing.

It’s intoxicating to the point of madness. When Baby Jenks hops on stage, blood full of drugs that will later knock Lestat off his feet, he drains her almost to the point of death. Dr. Fareed (Gopal Divan), who maintains that he’s not present, saves her but not before she smugly warns Lestat that his songs are going to kill him and that “they” are coming for him.

The extreme high he’s on carries Lestat through the red carpet at Dracula’s Daughter, the party being held there, and an interlude in the bathroom with Russ (Elise Bauman) and Tim (Dorian Grey) that later spirals into a hallway fight after Lestat’s romp with Baby Jenks, Dee (Amaka Umeh), and a bell hop in the elevator.

The unexpected action sequence puts into perspective how effective blood poisoning can be even with a vampire as powerful as Lestat. He rests on the ability of Akasha’s (Sheila Atim) blood to push him through any physically dire situation, not necessarily unscathed but at least with his undead life intact.

But were it not for Daniel and Sam (Christopher Geary), the very vamp who was a part of the Theatres de Vampires and the trial where Claudia (Delaniey Hayles) was murdered, Lestat would have been beheaded. They help him take down Russ, Tim, and the rest of the Fang Gang who are there to kill Lestat for breaking one of the Great Laws by revealing himself to a human.

However, Lestat had been selective in who he told. While his music was landing on the radar of his kind with mixed opinions on his pursuing fame openly as a vampire, he hadn’t actually disclosed to his band mates or the rest of the world that he’s not human. The band find out when he kills Tim right in front of them at the penthouse party that turns into a bloody scene when Lestat bursts through the door.

Lestat flees through the window using his cloud gift and winds up at a motel. His body is purging the drugs he took, which means there’s blood everywhere. He’s desperately calling for ‘Toi’ in his texts and finally she arrives, but she doesn’t just sit with him like he asked. No, Gabriella lets Lestat stutter through her name and watches as his attempt to adopt his suave persona quickly deteriorates in front of her.

She heals a cut on his cheek with her blood and then they share an impassioned kiss as Lestat, in his narration, defines what the audience is seeing and acknowledges what’s happening is not okay.

The Meaning Of You And Me, Me And You In ‘Interview With The Vampire’

The ‘Toi’ and ‘Moi’ thread between Lestat and Gabriella evokes what Louis told Claudia in Interview with the Vampire season 2 after they watched the female vampire they’d met throw herself into the fire. He promised that they would take care of one another and meet others of their kind. But also assured Claudia that if she were the last vampire on Earth, she’d be enough for him.

“It’s you and me. Me and you. You and me,” is a declaration that Louis’ ultimately not able to live up to as Lestat is the “ghost” between them. Later in the season, Claudia angrily calls back to what Louis said when he chooses to question whether Armand (Assad Zaman) threatened her. Claudia yells that she’d forgotten love makes Louis stupid.

There’s a similar element at play in The Vampire Lestat premiere except Louis is now the absent figure at the heart of a narrative triangle. He’s the reason for the tour, the writing goes out of its way to imply it’s him texting Lestat, and Lestat asks for ‘Toi’ to sit with him, an activity that generally comes with conversation, light banter, and understanding from Louis.

They’ve always been more than lovers, they’re best friends, and comfort was what Lestat needed in that hotel not sex (the fourth best way for vampires to stop thinking of the past). But what Gabriella provides is the latter.

For the viewer, the set-up for Gabriella’s reveal is a both a surprise and a disappointment. She’s not who was expected and the “You and me. Me and You.” of it all suggests that she will not be her son’s sole focus, that whatever she desires from him will fall short of what she wants because Louis is figuratively in the middle of them just like Lestat has been in the middle of all of Louis’ relationships.

New episodes of The Vampire Lestat air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and are available to stream on AMC+. Follow Sabrina Reed on Forbes for weekly coverage of the season and news about the business of TV.