The end of Interview with the vampire second season had quite a twist as a flash forward showed the audience that reporter Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) had been turned into a vampire by the vampire Armand (Assad Zaman), sometime before or after publishing his interviews with Louis and Armand as a book We don't know exactly how and when this happened. It seems to be an act committed more out of spite towards Daniel than out of love. However, Armand making Daniel a vampire has its origins in Anne Rice Chronicles of vampires series of novels.
In the novels, Daniel Molloy doesn't even have a proper name until the third novel in Rice's series, The queen of the damned. In the 1976 novel interview with the vampire the young reporter was simply called “the boy”. At the end of that first novel, she ran off, Louis tapes in tow, hoping to find Lestat. In book two, The vampire Lestatwe learn that the boy had the recordings transcribed and published as the book Interview with the vampire. A newly resurrected Lestat discovered that his name and much of his life was exposed to the public for mortals, passing it off as fiction. Still, we never learned what became of the young reporter until Rice's third novel.
“The story of Daniel, the Minion of the devil or the boy of Interview with the vampire“ from Queen of the damned
In the decade of 1988 Queen of the damned, we learned that the nameless boy went looking for Lestat after his fateful interview with Louis in San Francisco in 1973. Now we had a name of his own for him, too: Daniel Molloy. Lestat was asleep at the time of Daniel's search, and did not find the undead French aristocrat. However, the vampire Armand finds Daniel searching for Lestat, during a time when Armand made New Orleans his home. No other vampires lived there, as Lestat had long gone to sleep. Armand had “cleansed” the town of any younger vampires. No one else dared to call New Orleans their home at the time, as it was Armand's territory.
Scanning Daniel's thoughts upon meeting him, Armand discovered that this young mortal knew his name and true vampiric nature, and was fascinated. He began to chase him, and no matter what city or country Daniel ran to, Armand would find him. At first, she casually threatened to kill him if he ever published his book. However, he continued to allow her to live for her own amusement. Then something unexpected happened. After years of cat and mouse, Armand came to love the mortal Daniel. Even so, he consistently refused to give her the dark gift, no matter how much he asked.
Daniel, Armand and the island of the night
Many years into their relationship, Armand decided to become “incalculably rich”. Using his knowledge of where the ancient treasure ships were at the bottom of the ocean, he recruited Daniel, now considered “the devil's henchman,” to help him obtain wealth. All while sleeping during the day. With this fortune, Armand, using forged documents that Daniel helped him create, bought an island off the coast of Florida. Armand turned it into an entertainment and shopping paradise that only came to life after dark call The island of the night.
On the island of the night, Armand and Daniel lived for years. Daniel had everything he wanted, the finest clothes, the newest cars, everything except the thing he wanted most: to become a vampire himself. However, when Daniel's life was in danger, in one of the many instances where he would run from Armand, the 500-year-old vampire gave him what he wanted and turned him. As Armand feared, however, making Daniel a vampire would only serve to drive a bigger wedge between them.
Daniel and Armand at AMC's Interview with the vampire
All we know from the AMC series is that sometime after Daniel revealed to Louis the truth about Armand and how he planned to leave his Paris coven. run it together with Clàudia, turns Daniel into a vampire out of spite. But when did this happen? We don't know yet. Did the two have a relationship similar to the one they had in the books? It seems like there isn't enough time for this intense love/hate relationship to happen off-screen. Unless there's one more wrinkle in this story, they're waiting for it to fall on us.
We know from episode five of the second season, that Armand met Daniel in 1973, interrupting Louis almost killing Daniel. Not only did I find it, but about to kill him, and erased his memories of the event. However, she clearly had a fascination with Daniel, and it's possible the pair had a relationship decades ago. One that Armand erased from his mind. There is a limited series announced coming from AMC called The island of the night. Could this series involve, at least in part, Armand and Daniel together? There are many ways this relationship can go, and we're eager to see how Interview with the vampire tackle this fan-favorite relationship in the future.
