Hi anon, thanks for the question!

So, the laughter Lestat does, this is actually a piece of characterization borrowed from book!Lestat, i’m pretty sure Sam Reid has talked about it. In the books, Lestat himself admit to this habit of his, this mocking laughter he does in the worst possible moments, and that he doe it. I read this moment as him not exactly mocking Louis’ sentiment, but the question itselt, but of course, Louis has no way to know it.

This whole episode is not so much about Lestat and Louis’ failure at having an open relationship, it is about Lestat reacting in the worst possible way to Louis telling him he does not want to kill humans anymore. Lestat knew Louis was struggling with his nature as a vampire (just watch his reaction and his words in the tenor scene) but him flat out refusing to kill anymore is a blatant rejection to his nature as a vampire, which Lestat reads also as a rejection of him and their relationship.

Everything he does in this episode is motivated by this imo. It only escalates from here but this is how it starts.

It’s also why Lestat is so satisfied at first in their last scene in this episode and proposes that this day could be their anniversary. He doesn’t see Louis’ guilt at the riots; he sees it as Louis finally accepting his nature as a killer. He is, of course, wrong again because Louis did not accept his vampire nature so again, trainwreck from here again.

Antoinette in this episode doesn’t really mean anything to Lestat other as an amusement and a tool he can use to provoke Louis in any way he can.