The Vampire Lestat just did the unthinkable, dredging up a righteously angry spirit from the past while seemingly killing off the AMC show’s popular leads!

**Spoilers for The Vampire Lestat Episode 6 “Montreal,” now streaming on AMC+**

The Vampire Lestat Episode 6 “Montreal” ends with Lestat (Sam Reid) and Louis (Jacob Anderson) being decapitated by Armand (Assad Zaman) and Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) with the help of Lestat’s disaffected guitarist Alex (Seamus Patterson). The scene is not just shocking because it suggests the series leads have been killed off, but that Lestat and Louis have just reached a sort of catharsis that might have led to them rekindling their romance in a better, less toxic way.

That’s because Louis and Lestat manage to reach into the great beyond to summon the spirit of Claudia (Delainey Hayles) for one last talk. (Well, technically the witch Merrick [Sarah Afful] is the one who channels Claudia, marking just the latest instance in which one of Anne Rice‘s many, many beloved characters find themselves in AMC shows.)

Instead of being a positive reunion, though, Claudia lays into her “fathers,” revealing her utter hatred of them. It’s an intense sequence that The Vampire Lestat stars Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid gushed over to DECIDER earlier this year.

“It was remarkable,” Jacob Anderson said.

“It was great. It was so much fun,” Sam Reid said. “I mean, we’ve just got to sit back and just enjoy it, really. I mean, it was just wonderful to see Delainey let rip like that.” 

“That felt cathartic,” Anderson said — in contrast to the end of The Vampire Lestat Episode 3. “That was like a catharsis for, I think, all of us in different ways. And for the characters.”

“Yeah, it’s a great scene and it’s so great that that Claudia does get her final say,” Reid said. “She does get to say how it actually was and how she actually feels and that she hates the two of them. She absolutely hates them. And that is canon. I mean, that is straight out of the books.”

Reid went on to say how “confronting” the scene is to experience, both as an actor in the scene and for audiences watching at home. “But that’s the story,” Reid said. “And they have to live with that and they have to carry that.”

Except maybe they don’t have to live with it that long. So are Louis and Lestat really dead in The Vampire Lestat?

The Vampire Lestat Episode 6 Ending Explained: Are Louis and Lestat Dead?

Well, it sure looks like it will be impossible for Louis and Lestat to survive getting decapitated, but we know from this season’s cold open that Louis will at least be present at Lestat’s estate auction. So Louis at least is not dead. And there’s a good chance that Lestat will somehow survive, too.

In Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat, Louis and Lestat are attacked by vampires who are pissed off about Lestat exposing the world of vampires to mortals and Gabrielle (Jennifer Ehle) saves them. The AMC show is far from a one-to-one adaptation of Rice’s books, but our best guess is that Gabrielle will save the day. Then, we expect the events of the next Anne Rice book in the series, Queen of the Damned, to be set up. In fact, the show keeps teasing that, yes, Akasha (Sheila Atim) will awaken and cause great havoc in our world.

Of course, anything could happen in next week’s The Vampire Lestat season finale.

The Vampire Lestat season finale will be on AMC and AMC+ next Sunday, July 19.