Interview With the Vampire Season 2 Episode 5 Recap With Spoilers: “Don’t Be Afraid Just Start the Tape”

Last week on than the dream she’d hoped for and even as Louis and Armand got closer, Santiago and members of the coven conspired to not only usurp Armand’s power but prove that Louis and Claudia had broken vampire law as well. This week, instead of diving into what happened next in Paris, Daniel decides to revisit 1973 and finally get some answers about what really happened in the original interview.

Warning: Spoilers for Interview With the Vampire Season 2, Episode 5, “Don’t Be Afraid Just Start the Tape” beyond this point.

The interview continues with Armand and Louis explaining that they had things figured out but were unaware of Santiago’s plotting against them. Daniel makes a note of Louis’ syntax when speaking about the situation — how it turns into the third person as he’s getting close to something he wants not to get too close to. Rashid brings in a man named Malik who Armand is going to hunt as his dinner. It’s a game for Armand. Malik knows if he makes it to a specific location by evening, he’ll get a big payday. This man has no chance. Louis explains that Armand is never violent and Malik will be asking for death soon. Alone, Daniel starts to pick the interview up again but is haunted by his memories of the first interview so he takes the opportunity to pull up the original interview and when Louis doesn’t have a good answer for why Armand saves him, he starts digging into things.

1973. Louis brings Daniel to an apartment in San Francisco and shows him around, including the coffin in the bedroom. Louis offers him drugs and Daniel partakes. Daniel awkwardly moves to seduce Louis but Louis is not interested — thus answering Daniel’s question in the present of if the slept together. Louis wants to be interviewed. Daniel isn’t taking things seriously until Louis bares his fangs and terrifies him. Then the interview starts in earnest. In the present, Daniel wants to know what really happened. In 1973, Louis talks about Lestat. Daniel has gotten comfortable and at some point. Louis’ mood takes a turn and Daniel presses him for not appreciating the gift of being a vampire. He asks Louis to make him a vampire. Louis snaps and attacks him.

In the present, Daniel reveals he has enhanced audio of the interview that reveals Armand’s presence and the argument between the two vampires. Armand is mad that Louis was off on his own with someone else and revealing his nature. Louis tells Armand he’s boring and dull and suffocating and that spending hours with Daniel was more exciting than decades with Armand. Armand tells Louis that Claudia didn’t love him. Louis starts to lose his mind and says he hears Claudia calling to him and he runs out of the room. Louis doesn’t remember any of it. It turns out, Louis went to the roof and tried to kill himself by walking out into the daylight but Armand pulls him back. In the present, Louis starts to remember.

Louis is horribly burned and in agony. Armand has kept Daniel alive but is torturing him. In the present, Louis and Armand start putting things together. In 1973, Louis begs for Armand to leave Daniel alone but Armand ignores him to grill Daniel about what makes him fascinating because Armand wants Daniel to teach him how to be fascinating. Daniel realizes that Armand kept him there for four days and Armand was in a trance of sorts, reaching out to someone telepathically. Louis asks to be put back in the coffin. Armand asks if Louis is hoping that Daniel will publish a book and get Lestat’s attention and chase after him again. Armand tells Louis he knows where Lestat is and reached out to him. Armand facilitates a conversation between Lestat and Louis but does not tell Louis that Lestat loves him. Armand asks Louis f he’s atoned for what happened in Paris.

Daniel and Louis realize that Armand used the “rest” command on them both. Armand tries to lull Daniel into wanting death by telling him how pathetic his life will be. Daniel pushes back but Armand continues until Daniel gives in. Armand moves to kill him, but Louis stops him. Daniel is spared. Louis gives Daniel a pep talk of sorts, that puts in his mind that he is a bright young reporter and that he will remember that every time things get bad. For Daniel, the memory manifested as a drug addict who told him this before killing himself by fire but now Daniel realizes it was actually Louis. Louis fills in the rest. They gave him more drugs, messed with his mind, Armand removed himself from the memories and dumped in a drug den. Daniel points out that both he and Louis’ memories cut out at the same place and it is suspicious.

Armand returns, having eaten Malik. When Louis tells Armand they revisited 1973 while he was gone, Armand spins things that he saved Daniel on a hunch he might be useful later. Louis is no longer buying it.

New episodes of Interview With the Vampire air Sundays on AMC.