‘Interview with the Vampire’s Physique Thief Easter egg may tease a serious plot twist – Cyber Tech

AMC’s daring adaptation of Interview with the Vampire has been bringing thrilling new dimension to Anne Rice’s 1976 novel, with loads of its personal dramatic adjustments. However astute followers watching Season 2 have been selecting up on how showrunner Rolin Jones’ model has been weaving in bits from different books within the late gothic horror writer’s 13-book Vampire Chronicles sequence, together with revelations made within the first novel’s sequel, The Vampire Lestat, and the sixth guide, The Vampire Armand. With episode 10 (the third of Season 2), Jones and his workforce have teased a jolting new chance that might convey into the fold one of many sequence’ strangest adventures: The Story of the Physique Thief (guide 4 within the sequence). 

This allusion begins when “No Ache” opens with ornery interviewer Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) on a lunch break at a sushi restaurant, the place the fish is so recent it is served nonetheless gasping for air. (“I am a fan of the non-wriggling gadgets. I ought to have stated that,” Daniel quips, urging the chef to silently chop off the pinnacle of the entrée.) That is when a curious new character butts into the dialog. 

Sitting a couple of seats away on the sushi bar, a smirking, bespectacled white man (Justin Kirk) in a enterprise go well with declares, “The perils of omakase. We cede energy to the chef. Undergo his whims, to his eye the fish market. A sequence of dangers.” However that is no small talker. This can be a new wrinkle for Daniel. And his title is Raglan James. 

Who’s Raglan James?

Throughout the TV present Interview with the Vampire: Half II — because the second season’s opening title card calls it — Raglan James is a mysterious undercover agent who is aware of rather more about vampires — and Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Armand (Assad Zaman) particularly — than even Daniel does. In “No Ache,” he makes clear to Molloy not solely that he is aware of precisely who the journalist/writer is, but in addition why he’s actually in Dubai. 

This well-informed stranger is with some intelligence company, although not Mossad. “I want. I might be higher funded,” Raglan snarked. “No. I work for one more watchful store, the title of which has not come up in your conversations with them… The title is Raglan James.” 

This title ought to make the ears of Anne Rice readers perk up, as Raglan was an important character in The Story of the Physique Thief. Extra particularly, Raglan James is the title of a con man with psychic powers that permit him to swap our bodies with others. Particularly, he needs to modify our bodies with the vampire Lestat. 

What occurs in The Story of the Physique Thief? 

Printed in 1992, this guide is about after Lestat responded to Louis’ guide by turning into an iconoclastic rock star (The Vampire Lestat) after which confronted off in opposition to the world’s strongest vampire (The Queen of the Damned). Although he is lived to inform the story, Lestat begins The Story of the Physique Thief scorched with ennui.

Enter Raglan James, who propositions Lestat with the opportunity of being human once more. In the event that they commerce our bodies — only for at some point! — maybe the world-weary vampire can reconnect to human marvel. Lestat agrees. However shocker: James has no intention of surrendering this preternatural vampire physique again to its proprietor. 

A lot of this Rice novel follows Lestat, feeble and human, desperately monitoring down the vampire Raglan to get better his physique. And to take action, he asks the assistance of a good friend within the Talamasca. 

What’s the Talamasca? 

Eric Bogosian performs human journalist Daniel Molloy.
Credit score: Larry Horricks / AMC

Within the books, the Order of the Talamasca is a secret society that displays supernatural creatures, together with vampires, witches, and werewolves. In The Physique Thief, Raglan claims to have been an alum. Plus, Lestat grows nearer and nearer with the present head of the group, David Talbot, in his quest to get his physique again. However what does any of that must do with Interview with the Vampire? 

Nicely, apart from the Raglan connection, episode three of Interview with the Vampire introduces a secret society that has been monitoring vampires (presently 1,600 of them), presumably for a while. When Daniel will get again to his laptop computer in Louis and Armand’s dwelling, he will get a message from “RJ,” which directs him to a brand new folder on his pc: Bibliotheca Talamasca. 

When Daniel opens it, a flood of recordsdata pour forth, alarming him and inflicting him to hit the escape key — drawing Louis’ consideration. Nicely, not less than Louis notices Daniel is uncharacteristically distracted. What lies on this folder will certainly affect the interviews as Daniel strikes ahead. However what’s Raglan James as much as? 

How will The Physique Thief, Raglan James, and the Talamasca issue into Interview with the Vampire?

Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Armand (Assad Zaman) get cozy.
Credit score: Larry Horricks / AMC

To Jones’ credit score (additionally an RJ!), AMC’s Interview with the Vampire sequence has taken main liberties with the supply materials, that means even Anne Rice devotees cannot be sure what is going to occur subsequent. With Season 1, the present dramatically modified its titular vampire, reworking Louis from a brooding 1790s white slave proprietor to a slick 1910 Black Creole brothel proprietor. The sequence additionally aged up little one vampire Claudia from 5 to 14, making manufacturing extra potential and permitting for extra mature storylines. With these shifts in time and character, many different new items have fallen into place, together with the surprising reveal on the finish of Season 1 that the loyal human attendant Rashid was truly the vampire Armand in disguise! 

Raglan’s introduction might imply a successive season may sort out The Story of the Physique Thief head on — with this smirking undercover agent drawing the ire of the undead as he swindles the Brat Prince. Or it might imply Raglan James will not be what he appears. With episode 10, Interview with the Vampire has already woven in plot factors from Lestat and Armand’s different books. So why not the core of The Physique Thief? 

Might it’s that James is definitely Lestat in a borrowed human kind? Might Lestat have infiltrated the Talamasca, promising his help however working towards his personal ends? Maybe this unassuming human kind can slink about Louis and Armand undetected? May it imply he is plotting some large vengeance … or one thing much more sinister? 

On one hand, followers may snarl on the thought of anybody however Sam Reid taking part in Lestat, because the Australian actor is deliciously feral within the position. However on the opposite, Reid’s Lestat Basic is already popping up all through the flashbacks. Not within the flesh, however as a bittersweet hallucination for Louis, taunting and tantalizing him in equal measure with want and remorse. So, the extra the merrier?

And who higher than Justin Kirk to play a vampire within the physique of a con man? The celebrated actor has awed audiences since 2004, when he earned an Emmy nomination for enjoying outrageous prophet Prior Walter within the HBO adaptation of Angels in America. Subsequent, he thrilled us because the unhealthy boy brother-in-law of Mary Louise Parker’s quirky vendor on Weeds. And most just lately, he introduced his distinctive model of subtle surliness to Succession as extremist presidential candidate Jeryd Mencken.

Kirk is a personality actor who relishes taking part in an advanced rogue. So, his Raglan James being Lestat in an excellent disguise makes a sure darkish sense. Within the episode, Daniel makes the remark, “I actually obtained to satisfy this man” as Armand recounts his first encounter with Lestat. Might it’s he already has? Will this be the sport Rolin Jones is taking part in with in Season 2? We’ll have to remain tuned to search out out. 

The right way to watch: Interview with the Vampire: Half II airs Sundays on AMC and AMC+.