Talamasca Series Premiere Explained — Anne Rice Connections & Crossovers

Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe expanded on Sunday with the two-part series premiere of AMC’s “Talamasca: The Secret Order,” which follows the titular organization previously introduced on “Interview With the Vampire” and “Mayfair Witches.”

We enter the story through Guy Anatole (Nicholas Denton), a promising young lawyer and an even more promising clairvoyant. With a job offer at a prestigious law firm, Guy’s future appears to be set, but his special ability earns him a more lucrative offer from the Talamasca. (Matching the firm’s salary is one thing, but throwing in Guy’s “true life purpose” as a bonus? You can’t beat that.)

Would he be so quick to accept the position if he knew that Jasper (William Fichtner), a vampire who oversees the Talamasca’s London headquarters, was secretly picking off operatives left and right? Probably not. But those minor details can always be ironed out at a later date.

Guy is specifically recruited by a Talamasca high-up named Helen (Elizabeth McGovern), whom we eventually learn has been keeping a close watch on him for most of his life, beginning with his off-the-books foster arrangement. While Guy’s strong work ethic deserves some credit, Helen has essentially orchestrated his biggest successes thus far, and there’s a warmth lurking beneath her need-to-know exterior.

“We’re going to learn more about Helen as the season goes on, but she’s like an onion, you have to peel one layer at a time,” co-showrunner John Lee Hancock tells TVLine. “Like a good spy, she holds her cards close to her vest.” (We get our first clue about Helen’s past in the premiere when she gets emotional over an old photograph of two young girls. Who could they be?)

Adds co-showrunner Mark Lafferty, “And it’s not just that she’s a spy. She’s a spy in a very particular world with a specific set of secrets that, were they to be exposed, could have catastrophic consequences for her and her personal life.”

Because of her unspoken involvement in his upbringing, Helen also feels a maternal connection to Guy. “She’s essentially been married to the Talamasca,” Hancock reminds us. “She has no spouse, no partner, no children. So when she was watching Guy from afar for all these years, one can’t help but think the she was probably in the crowd at his graduation or, who knows, even a soccer game. So he is kind of her son, though she’s obviously not afraid to throw him in harm’s way for the sake of the Talamasca. It helps that Elizabeth is such a warm, lovely person, both as an actor and as a human being.”

Helen introduces Guy to his first vampire, an eccentric 39- or 384-year-old (“depending on how you gauge time”) named Burton (Jason Schwartzman), who’s not exactly thrilled about the recent release of Daniel Molloy’s book from “Interview With the Vampire.”

Burton is eccentric, cocky and skeptical of Guy’s abilities, but once Guy picks up on his darkest secret — that the guilt he feels for betraying his own kind by working with the Talamasca makes him not want to be a vampire anymore — it’s a different story. Part-warning, part-threat, Burton reminds Guy that mind-control is a two-way street, then shares a word of advice about the Talamasca: “They’re lying to you.”

Hancock had previously worked with Schwartzman on the 2013 movie “Saving Mr. Banks,” and the moment he thought of the actor, Hancock was struck by the perfect fit. For Guy’s introduction to the world of vampires, the show’s producers wanted a character who didn’t fit the cliché mold one might expect from a bloodsucker.

“I didn’t want it to be cloaks and opera music and all that,” Hancock says. “He lives in a penthouse in the Dakota for God’s sake. It’s not a mansion in Bulgaria or something. And he’s fashionable. Jason asked me to tell him one thing about Burton that he didn’t already know, and I said, ‘He changed clothes five times in anticipation of this meeting.’ And he went, ‘OK, I’ve got it. I know exactly who he is now.’ And I think he just knocked it out of the park.”

Burton’s words about the Talamasca haunt Guy’s dreams, ultimately drawing him to Daniel’s book. And whose name does Guy find listed among the vampires’ alleged victims? His birth mother, naturally! Looking for answers, Guy attends one of Daniel’s signings, where the author explains that the Talamasca added Guy’s mother’s name to the book before it was published — and that she’s still very much alive. He even offers proof, showing Guy a recent picture of his mother before dropping his own friendly warning about the Talamasca: they’re using you!

On the topic of crossovers, Lafferty says, “Our approach from the start was to make this a grounded spy show that’s set in the Anne Rice world. We didn’t want to include anything just for the sake of having Easter eggs, but as soon as we started talking to [“Interview With the Vampire” showrunner] Rolin Jones and [“Mayfair Witches” showrunner] Esta Spalding, and then started working with Mark Johnson and Tom Williams who oversee the entire Anne Rice universe, we started to notice that there weren’t just opportunities — there were golden opportunities. If Daniel didn’t give Guy this information, he might not have agreed to work with the Talamasca.”

And Daniel is the first of several “golden opportunities” to appear in “Talamasca: The Secret Order.” Not only will Season 1 tease music by Lestat (Sam Reid) from the upcoming third season of “Interview With the Vampire,” but Episode 4 features the return of Justin Kirk as Talamasca agent Raglan James.

“There’s a thing that happens to Guy in Episode 4 where Raglan James sort of T-bones his story,” Lafferty teases. “Without what Raglan gives him, Guy probably wouldn’t do what he does next. We started to see so many good uses of so many of the characters from Anne Rice’s universe that we can bring in to really help our story. Fingers crossed, if we get to Season 2, that will continue.”

The second half of the premiere, which also premiered on Oct. 26, finds Guy settling in London as an official agent of the Talamasca. But he’s quickly thrown in the deep end, as the episode ends with Guy at a bloody crime scene… and the victim is his one-night stand from earlier in the hour! So, what’s going through his head as he jets off into the night?

“This is a lot for a guy that didn’t have a passport [two weeks ago], and now he’s in London and he’s in the middle of all of this,” Lafferty says. “It’s a lot to comprehend, and he’s just taking it one hot minute at a time, wondering if the whole thing is even real.”

Adds Hancock, “If there’s any doubt about Guy’s resilience, if I was in his situation, I would be so far back on my heels that I would have done somersaults out of the show long ago. He’s an everyman and it should feel like he’s grounded in our world. At the end of that second episode, though he’s running away from the crime scene, he’s not running away from the world that he’s entered into.”

What about you? Are you running away from “Talamasca: The Secret Order” after that premiere, or are you sticking around for more answers? Grade the new addition to Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe in our poll below, then drop a comment with your full review.