As The Vampire Lestat barrels toward its Season 3 finale, Episode 5, titled "New York," delivers one of the series' most emotionally raw moments. The episode finds Lestat (Sam Reid) confronting his past failures as a maker when he meets Regina, a paid companion who eerily resembles his former fledgling Claudia (Delainey Hayles). But it's in the recording studio where the vampire truly bares his soul, crafting a song that becomes the season's most difficult—and most personal—track.
In an exclusive interview with ShowtimeSpot, both Reid and series composer Daniel Hart revealed that the Episode 5 song "Stained Glass Eyes" was the hardest to get right. Hart explained that the track, which Lestat writes about his memories of Claudia and her death in Season 2's penultimate episode, underwent a grueling creative process. "It's the only song of the batch that is in Season 3 where I rewrote it from the ground up three separate times—different music, different lyrics, fully formed demos, fully fleshed out," Hart said. "I turned one in, and Rolin was like, 'I think that's not quite right.' The second version, completely starting over, completely new ideas, completely different music style, different lyrics. I finished it, I listened back to it, and I was like, 'I think that's completely not right.' The third time, I finally found what I was looking for."
For Reid, the challenge wasn't just compositional but deeply emotional. The actor noted that director Levan Akin suggested shooting the sequence like a music video, but Reid was determined to avoid making it feel like a musical theater number. "We shot that like we would have shot a scene, and that is kind of trippy, to be singing a song while doing that. So, it was sort of like, 'Oh my God, how am I going to get my mind around doing this and not make it feel like a musical, as well? Like, make it feel justified?'" Reid shared. He called the "Stained Glass Eyes" sequence "one of the bolder choices of how the show ended up being," a high bar given the series' penchant for dramatic twists.
The song's impact extends beyond Lestat's personal journey. In the episode, Lestat's band is initially resistant to the track's departure from their established sound, but he overrules them, deciding to scrap their existing album and rerecord everything using "Stained Glass Eyes" as the template. This creative pivot sets up a major shift for the season's musical arc, especially after Armand (Assad Zaman) eliminates the band's lead guitarist, Larry (Noah Reid). The song becomes a catalyst for change, both for Lestat and the album itself.
Reid admitted that revisiting the moment is still difficult for him. "I sort of watch that with my eyes closed a little bit," he confessed, underscoring the raw emotion embedded in the performance. For fans who have followed Lestat's journey through the series, the song serves as a poignant reflection on his greatest failure as a maker and a turning point in his artistic expression.
For more on the episode's other standout moments, check out our coverage of Sheila Atim on Akasha's Bond with Lestat and That Epic Monologue in Episode 5. And if you missed the return of Claudia's doppelgänger, read our recap of The Vampire Lestat Episode 4 Brings Back Delainey Hayles as Claudia's Doppelgänger.
New episodes of The Vampire Lestat air weekly on ShowtimeSpot. Stay tuned for more exclusive insights from the cast and creators as the season reaches its explosive conclusion.
