The Vampire Lestat Recap: Episode 7, “The Failures”

The Vampire Lestat wraps up the season with episode 7, “The Failures.” The season finale has arrived and it’s time to see what happens next after last week’s shocking cliffhanger. Here is The Vampire Lestat recap of episode 7.

The Vampire Lestat recaps and photo galleries:

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The Vampire Lestat episode 7 photo gallery

The Vampire Lestat episode 7 recap

The Failures, Album 57, Side A

We open in narration as Lestat (Sam Reid) recounts the final moments on the bench before his worldview shift. Literally. We see Lestat’s POV as his head tumbles from his body and falls on the ground. Then he dreams. 

He wakes up in a forest, in the sunlight. He’s still a vampire and he’s transcribing birdsong. The forest grows quiet and then suddenly a “murder of waiters” appear. One of them, Dee Pharma (Amaka Umeh), tells him not to fall behind. He can hear the noise of a city around him as he’s led to a table in a meadow with different versions of himself sitting there. There’s Young Lestat and Adolescent Lestat along with the abbot from Haute-Loire, who is sitting in his father’s chair. 

There are seven waiters but four people there, Lestat observes. 

Once seated, the room shifts to a dark dining room willed with people. “The light’s gone out of your blue eyes,” Magnus (Damian Atkins) says from the head of the table. The other guests all say “As if the summer days are gone” in response. The waiters remove the domes from the dishes for Course 187, The Soul. 

The other guests at the table are Gabriella (Jennifer Ehle), Louis (Jacob Anderson), Nicolas (Joseph Potter), TC (Sarah Swire) and a blast from the past: Antoinette (Maura Grace Athari).

Lestat is appropriately confused as everyone starts eating. TC starts a timer on her phone and hands it to Lestat.

Elsewhere, in a butcher shop, Armand (Assad Zaman) is going through his apology letter with Louis (Jacob Anderson). Louis’ eyes are fierce as he tries to talk, but he can’t. His vision is blurred as he groans. Armand persists, talking about his two “gross betrayals.” One was their relationship over the past 77 years. He chose Louis over the coven. The second was taking credit for Lestat saving him in Paris. The lie bound Louis to Armand, and even as their relationship developed, it wasn’t true. 

Louis, meanwhile, is struggling to talk and manages to say Armand’s name and that he can’t move. Armand continues, talking about the many boys Louis was with over the years and how he pretended to resent it when Armand was actually glad for it. Louis is rotated around the room to see his headless body reaching for him. Louis’ guilt, Armand says, made them even closer and gave Armand the space he needed to observe Daniel (Eric Bogosian). 

Did Armand love Louis, or was it more about his survival? Did he attach himself to anyone who helped him along the way? He could lead a coven for 400 years so clearly he knew what he was doing. He just got caught up in other things when Louis came along. And that is his “Armends.”

Armand hands Louis’s body a pen and tells his head that it’s his turn. 

Back at dinner, Magnus says he’s the maker and the chair of the meeting. He asks the fledglings to introduce themselves. Lestat asks about Claudia, and Magnus explains that she sent a message. She’s said all she needed to say and she’s not showing up. TC and Antoinette read her quotes and Magnus tells Antoinette to restrain herself. There’s no love between Claudia and Antoinette, clearly. 

Lestat is genuinely happy to see Antoinette. He asks if this means he’s dead. Antoinette continues typing (funny, because she is the only one at the table missing a finger). Lestat finds it odd that death means his father’s table in Magnus’ tower. Gabriella explains that this isn’t death, this is Lestat dying. They all take a bite of sausage as Magnus explains that this is the deliberation of his nightly failures as a vampire. 

Lestat wants to know how he died, and it’s Gabriella once again who says he’s not dead, he’s dying. Magnus admonishes him for wasting time, like he’s wasted his immortal life. This catches Lestat’s attention. 

Louis slams his fist on the table. “Could be nice,” he says. 

Lestat, in a flashback to the park, replies, “Could be.” Their hands touch. 

“Second time’s the charm,” Antoinette says. Magnus slams the table and tells her to keep typing. 

Lestat asks if they’re all there to judge him. “We are the failure finders,” Magnus supplies, explaining that “judgment” comes from God, Satan and even the Simulation. Lestat laughs, insisting that he’s not really there. He’s there, Gabriella confirms. And also in a bowling bag walking down the street, adds Nicki. They all laugh. Magnus adds that he’s also lying in a butcher shop.

Armand grabs a knife, telling Louis that they’re in a butcher shop that’s closed for the weekend because they’re observant. It’s November 1, All Saint’s Day. Everything is closed. And it’s daytime, which means no one can come to his rescue. Everyone who can help is sleeping. “Or otherwise engaged,” Magnus says, pointing at Louis, who starts gurgling again. This rattles Lestat. 

Back at the butcher shop, Louis writes “fuck you” on the paper. Armand hoped Louis would be ready to repent. He points out that Louis and his body have been apart for just over two hours, and if not for Lestat’s blood he’d be dead. This whole thing is being live-cast to a room of people in Budapest because Louis is so special. Fareed (Gopal Divan) is there, monitoring Louis’ status, analyzing them. Armands wonders if Fareed had been doing that all along in Dubai and on the bus. 

Armand moves to Lestat’s body and lightly touches his chest while he explains how he infiltrated Lestat’s bus. Louis wants to know where Lestat’s head is. “It’s with my companion,” Armand says. 

The bowling bag in question is placed on the counter at a bowling alley. Daniel is clearly a regular because the man who works there knows him and teases him about sneaking out before his wife could come after him. “Told me to take my head as far away from her body as I could,” he deadpans. He orders his bowling shoes.

Since Lestat’s body isn’t motivating Louis into the amends that Armand was looking for, he offers another enticement: Regina (Delainey Hayles). Louis starts moaning “no” as Armand wheels her out of the freezer. When she sees Louis’ head, she screams. 

Magnus talks of Lestat’s destruction of the Paris coven. Louis says it was impulsive and reckless while Gabriella calls it overdue. Not everyone is in agreement that destroying the coven was a bad thing, leading Lestat to wonder why Magnus is the chair. Magnus points out that he’s Lestat’s maker, but Lestat reminds him that they knew each other for a week. Magnus doesn’t know anything about him. When Magnus told him to ask for the Dark Gift, Lestat refused. “Consent is a 20th-century concern,” Magnus notes. 

Lestat doesn’t relent, reminding his maker that he lured him in, told him to scatter his ashes and then lit himself on fire. “I have two makers,” Lestat tells him. “You want Mommy in the chair?” Magnus asks. He tells Antoinette to note the change in chairmanship. 

As Gabriella takes her seat, the dining room changes into an elegant Italian villa. Gabriella asks Antoinette for the next item on the agenda. 

Back at the butcher, Louis tells Armand to let Regina go. Armand checks in with Fareed, who says Louis’ vitals are not great. As Louis begs for Regina’s life, Armand seizes the opportunity and tells Louis that things might change. He asks if Louis and Regina met by chance, as if the universe sent her to him. Or was Regina an idea that Armand concocted as soon as Louis threw him against the wall in Dubai?

Armand continues. He had a photo of Claudia and fed it into his iPad to find a body double. After finding a few possible matches, he settled on Regina. Money exchanged hands. Locations changed from East London to New York. Regina sobs, telling Louis that Armand told him he had a friend who lost his daughter. Armand says he arranged the times their paths crossed, making it impossible for Louis not to notice her. 

Armand quotes their first meeting together as we see it play over again. He says Regina saw his soul and started playing him. Regina apologizes and Louis asks Armand to kill him. Armand wants Louis to make amends, or he’s going to take Regina’s head and sew it onto Louis’ body. 

At the bowling alley, Daniel starts talking to Lestat. While Lestat might be smarter and possibly better looking than he is, at least Daniel made something of his life. Lestat was in a rock band. 

At dinner, Nicki says he Lestat gave him the gift instead of telling him he loved him. Gabriella corrects him, telling Nicolas that Lestat said he loved him all the time. They’re all interrupted by Daniel’s voice. Soon Daniel’s face is poking through the ceiling. “There’s a hole in your roof,” Louis says to no one in particular. 

“I only give a shit about Dan,” Daniel says. He says Lestat laughed in his face while they were on the bus. But now he’s spending his last hours in a bowling bag. “Blow me,” he adds before zipping up the bag. 

Gabriella warns her son that there’s a lot coming at him and he needs to be careful. Lestat moves to speak, but it’s muffled. 

Alex (Seamus Patterson) walks into the bowling alley wearing his mask. Daniel asks if Armand told him to come. When Alex looks over at the mumbling bowling bag, Daniel confirms that Lestat is in there. Daniel asks about Alex’s maker, Gabriella, and wonders if she gave him the “autism gift.” Alex says nothing. 

Armand checks in with Fareed. Louis’ vitals are waning. Regina sobs that she wouldn’t have done any of it if she’d know Armand was using her like that. She’s on a work visa. She had no idea. Armand says Fareed confirmed they could switch heads and it would work. Armand tells Louis he listened in on the seance and he thinks Claudia would approve of his little plan. Regina says they’re both doomed while Armand tells Louis that he’s known for a while that everything hinged on Claudia. 

As he talks, Armand toys with Louis’s body as it tries to grab him. Armand feels like Louis was his own Claudia. Louis isn’t convinced. Armand says he has over a hundred followers now and snaps his fingers at the goon standing guard, Nelson. He tells Nelson to rest and Nelson grabs a knife and cuts his own throat. Regina screams. As he dies, Armand says that Nelson was there to stop the Great Conversion and reinstate the Five Laws but Armand needed him to give him a ride. 

He unties Regina and tells her to rest. She picks up the knife and tells Louis that she really liked him and begs for her life as Louis and Armand watch. The knife gets closer to her skin. Louis asks for the paper. 

TC points out the venues that weren’t full on their tour while Gabriella says that Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. Lestat thanks her. The waiters and the dinner guests start quoting reviews of the concert, and then the room shifts and the table ends up in the recording studio. They’re joined by the tenor Lestat killed in the first season of the show after his performance of Don Pasquale. Gabriella asks for him to recount the events that led to his demise. Lestat stares at his mother as the song dedicated to his mother reaches a frantic pitch. 

Suddenly Lestat recalls the witch incident. Adult Lestat walks along with the other villagers toward the pyre. His oldest brother tells him not to fall behind. Gabriella approaches to take his hand, but she’s reaching for Young Lestat’s hand. 

Back in the quiet recording studio, with only Lestat and Gabriella, Lestat asks why she took him there when even his father stayed home. They can hear the preacher yelling. Gabriella explains that she wanted him to escape Auvergne. As the preacher goes through the charges against the young women, Gabriella points out to Young Lestat that the men were the ones to frame the girls for their own sins. The abbott tries to stop them but he’s the only one.

When charges are read for the young twins, who are Lestat’s age, he recognizes them. Back in the studio, Lestat reminds his mother that the girls played in their home. He knew them. Gabriella asks if Lestat stayed at home until he was 30. She wanted him to leave that place and was frustrated that he didn’t.

In a flashback, we see Lestat holding Claudia the same way she held him. Lestat made her watch the body burn the same way. 

At the bowling alley, Alex throws a ball as Raglan James (Justin Kirk) walks in and recites the current census number of vampires as the Great Conversion takes hold. There are now more deaths than births as a result of all the vampires. Daniel introduces Alex to Raglan, but Alex doesn’t say a word. 

When Daniel throws his ball, Raglan offers him some advice about his shot and admits he mentors a bowling team. As they talk, people dressed in black walk in. Raglan says that he purchased tickets for the big concert but didn’t get purchase insurance, so he wants the bowling bag. Daniel asks why Rashid isn’t there. He’s at the butcher shop, Raglan says. 

Headless Louis has managed to scribble out a letter but it’s not good enough for Armand. When he won’t apologize, Armand tells Regina to rest again. Louis admits he’s sorry that the love of his life isn’t Armand. Armand tells Regina to rest again and this time she cuts her wrist. 

Raglan explains that “they” have been planning the concert for a year and they want it to go forward. This is news to Daniel. The Talamasca came up with the idea of “make more.”

Louis is fading fast. But he won’t apologize. 

Raglan says there was a breakout room at the last G7 conference about vampires. It’s no secret they exist and there is a desire for their numbers to increase. While Raglan can’t see vampires running the world, he appreciates that their existence proves the existence of the soul. This gets Daniel’s attention. 

Back at the table, Marius (Christopher Heyerdahl) is seated across from Magnus and he says that Magnus chose Lestat to receive the blood and the first thing Lestat does is to give it to his mother. That wasn’t a bad decision, but giving it to Nicolas was as waste. “I was mad,” Nicki says, slamming down his knife. 

Armand is listening to Louis’ telepathic apology.

Raglan James says that it’s the soul fighting while the heads and bodies are separated. 

The timer has 20 minutes left as Marius talks about Lestat romping with his “rotten boy,” TC talks about a cat burglar stint with Gabriella.

Raglan takes the head and tells Alex he thinks they should open with “Big Boss.” As he turns to walk away, Daniel calls his name and Raglan sees that his fangs are out. 

Louis is talking to Armand about Armand’s troubled past and the things they didn’t talk about but Louis was aware of because of his former line of work. Armand turns off the cameras as Louis laments the fact that Armand was 12 when he was captured into sex trafficking. He needs a love “that will cradle” him. Louis is sorry that he was never the love that Armand needed. He saw the good in Armand. Armand weeps as he hears the telepathic words. When he recovers, Armand closes his eyes and rises. He goes to Regina while Fareed watches as he heals her wrist and tells her that bad things will happen if she talks. She runs away. Armand carves an A into Louis’ chest with his fingernail as Fareed talks about reattaching Louis’ head. It’s not his line of work, but he can do it. 

Magnus praises Antoinette’s acting as she and Marius talk about Lestat going to ground. Marius continues, noting that Akasha (Sheila Atim) chose him for the blood and made him a “godling.” Then he went to New Orleans, Louis continues, and gave the blood to a pimp “who lives to make him miserable.” He “Daddy traps” him and has a lot of sex with his ex. 

“The Soul!” the table says in unison. They take Lestat through the crescendo of his life and his failures while chanting “the Soul.” It becomes more and more intense, which only makes Letstat laugh as they get more and more heated. 

Bells are ringing as we see a flashback of Lestat’s life. Gabriella calls his whole life a failure. He laughs harder. It ends with scenes of Lestat and Louis together. The timer goes off and Lestat pauses it.

He jumps on the table and claps. The table turns into a catwalk. He has a microphone and the dinner guests are in the audience as Lestat says that everyone gathered there are people he feasted on. As he looks at one of his victims, a man he killed in Vienna at a Christmas market in the 50s, Lestat says he deserved better. Lestat remembers them all. Even “Black Licorice” is there and Lestat tells him he wrote a song about him. 

Nicki is playing his violin, leading Lestat to say that it was music that first kickstarted his journey. The dinner guests watch as he tells the crowd that they consider him to be a failure. Lestat doesn’t agree. “In the end, I think I was pretty fucking great!” Lestat says. “But if I failed, then that means I actually attempted something.” Which is more than he can say about those he loves the most. He looks at Louis and Gabriella and talks about how much he loved them. He glances at the timer. 3 minutes left. Alex and Salamander (Ryan Kattner) are there for the new song they’re going to play. 

Suddenly, the room gets quiet as Lestat realizes that his “snooze” feature is broken. Time’s up. He sees visions of his life with Louis. “I did my best,” he said. He knows he spilled too much blood. He sees Enzo, the Christmas Market guy, and wants to tell him he’s sorry for killing him. 

A man approaches behind him. It’s Paul (Steven G. Norfleet). He sits beside Lestat and leans close. “He has a hard time saying it,” Paul explains. He got it from their father and it doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Lestat, he just struggles saying it. Paul thanks Lestat for loving Louis the way he deserved to be loved. “I still wish you were a woman,” he adds. “Me too, sometimes,” Lestat agrees. 

A bright light shines from above them. “Wow,” Lestat says. Paul tells him it’s not that much when you get there. Lestat describes what he’s seeing as Paul gets a message. “Yes, ma’am,” he says, then he takes the phone from Lestat. 

The next thing we see is Lestat waking up on his tour bus. They’re in the forest, he says in narration, near the stage. Gabriella and Raglan James are there. He’s confused but he’s whole again. 45,000 vampires and 10,000 humans are gathered outside to hear him say “make more.” 

Still narrating over piano music, Lestat says that Gabriella was kinder than she was at the table. Raglan James explains that his operatives were at the park when Armand and Daniel attacked. Lestat now considers Raglan a friend. They followed Lestat and Louis’ bodies to ensure they were recovered. Salamander, TC and Alex are there, but Raglan doesn’t explain Alex’s role in any of it. 

When Lestat sits, we can see the scar on his neck. He’s trying to understand why they want him to perform, but then something stops him. Lestat gets up and runs to find Louis, who is waiting for him downstairs. They touch each other’s scars. Lestat says Louis told him what happened later, after the disastrous concert. Louis watches as Lestat yells at Gabriella that he’s not going to perform and get torn apart. He calls her a monster. 

Next wee see the reels of a recording device. Lestat inhales and admits he struggles to record because “everything feels off” in his living room. He wonders who his patron is and whether they hate him. He wonders if he failed at auction and the reels are returned unsold. “Am I talking to myself?” He turns off the recording. 

The Failures, Album 58, Side A

Lestat rises from the table. In narration he talks about the Queen and all the destruction. He opens his balcony door and mentions his contribution. As we see a destroyed city outside, he admits the fault was all his. 

All episodes of The Vampire Lestat are available to stream on AMC+.

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