In a significant flashback in episode four of The Vampire Lestat, “The Devil’s Road,” we see a major life milestone moment in the personal development of Sam Reid’s Lestat. And it explains so much of his later behavior with so many other characters, particularly his fledglings, Louis and Claudia. Episode four shows us the first time his mother, Gabriella, picked up and abandoned him for years and years. This left a hole in his heart that he always tried to fill with the love of others. Particularly, his great love, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson).
Gabriella Abandons Lestat in the 19th Century
In one of the 19th-century flashbacks, we see Lestat and Gabriella on an unnamed Italian beach. They have finished picking off a group of sailors, and they decided to take cover from the morning sun. They dig holes in the sand, and flip over two lifeboats for protection from the sun’s rays. But when Lestat awakens the next evening, he turns over the boat next to him, and finds that his mother/lover has already left. He knows that this time, shes gone for good, leaving him all alone. This leaves him despondent, feeling totally abandoned by the woman who gave him life, and whose life he saved in return when he gave her the Dark Gift.
This leads to a depression that causes Lestat to bury himself in the Earth for nearly a century. In Anne Rice lore, a vampire can essentially cease drinking blood and lie in the ground for an unlimited amount of time. But the longer they stay in that state, the more difficult it is to climb back up to life. They consider it a form of death and eventual rebirth. They can telepathically hear the world around them, but they take all that information as if in a dream state. Lestat does this until the early 20th century, which brings us to season one of Interview with the Vampire.
Based on things that Gabriella has said so far, while under her guise as “Sofia,” she did come back to see Lestat here and there over the last few hundred years. Apparently, she nursed him back to health after the assassination attempt by Louis and Claudia in season one. But then, it’s evident that she disappeared again for a very long time. It’s unclear how long Lestat went without seeing his mother by the time the pair are reunited in The Vampire Lestat. But it seems to have been decades at least. Gabriella simply does not need Lestat the way he needs her.
How Lestat and His Mother Parted Ways in the Anne Rice Novel
In the book, the rupture between Lestat and his mother unfolds over time. The two travel the world together for a decade, but even then, Gabrielle would vanish for days, then weeks, then months at a time. She much preferred hunting in nature to living among human civilization. For her, she would prefer to kill a wild bear or elephant than a regular human. In the novel, she and Lestat did not kill their family together. Lestat’s brothers died in the French Revolution, and his father, Gabrielle’s husband, escaped to New Orleans. She kept this news from Lestat, who, enraged, told her to leave him forever. Gabrielle does not see Lestat again for nearly 200 years, reuniting with him at Lestat’s San Francisco concert.
This event in Lestat’s life left a permanent mark, and informs so many of his bad choices in later years. He clings so hard to Louis, largely because of feeling abandoned by his mother. And also, the disaster with his first love, Nicholas, informed a lot of that as well. But if Gabriella had not abandoned him, he may have never embarked on a trip to America, and settled in New Orleans. A lot of Lestat’s bad decisions can be traced back to that evening on the beach in Italy.
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