I began reading Charlaine Harris’ “Sookie Stackhouse” novels shortly after finishing season one of True Blood. The check-out girl at Borders warned me that the series and the books only had a few things in common. “The books aren’t as sexy,” she said.
As if that’s why I wanted to read them…
Uh huh…
Dead Until Dark, the first book of the “Sookie” series, was almost exactly like season 1 with a few exceptions. Tara wasn’t there, Lafayette had a brief appearance, and because the story was told exclusively from Sookie’s point-of-view, there was no way to spend time with Eric, Bill, or Jason unless Sookie was hanging out with them.
Personally, I found the books refreshing because of Harris’ style, which is whimsical and reads more like a detective novel than a horror story. Sookie is engaging, fun, positive, and conflicted by her choices. Anna Paquin has done a terrific job of recreating this unique character on the screen.
The second book, Living Dead in Dallas, also provided the template for season 2 of True Blood. Again, the show held close to the general plot – with the major exception of Jason’s adventures among the ranks of the Fellowship of the Sun. Events involving Maryann, the maenad, were extended for the show after feeling almost anti-climatic in the novel.
So, with season 3 on the horizon, and spoiler nuts looking for inside scoop, it seems like we could stand to learn a lot by checking out book three of the series, Club Dead.
Club Dead begins with Sookie learning that her lover, vampire Bill, has been kidnapped (which is where season 2 ended). Supposedly, Bill had been on a mission to Seattle, Washington on behalf of Louisiana Vampire Queen, Sophie-Anne LeClerq, but Sookie discovers that Bill lied. He had been called to Mississippi by Lorena, his maker.
Bill’s involvement with Lorena mostly revolves around a project he was working on for Queen Sophie – a database of all known vampires in the western hemisphere. Lorena, we discover later, is aligned with the King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, who covets this database.
Sookie is determined to find Bill and enlists Eric’s help, but Eric is afraid of starting a vampire war between the Louisiana and Mississippi vampires. They devise a plan in which Sookie goes undercover in the vamp community to learn of Bill’s whereabouts.
To aid Sookie, Eric sets her up with one of Shreveport’s werewolves, the sexy and headstrong Alcide (pronounced Al-see) Herveaux. Alcide pretends to be Sookie’s boyfriend as they go to an upscale vamp nightclub in Jackson, Mississippi called Josephine’s, but known to insiders as “Club Dead.”
A lot of stuff goes down at Club Dead. Sookie encounters Russell Edgington and learns that he has Bill under lock and key at his mansion. She is attacked by a werewolf bounty hunter named Jerry Falcon, and she meets Alcide’s psycho-hose-beast ex, Debbie Pelt. After an eventful evening, she and Alcide return to his condo – he owns one in Jackson because of business dealings in his non-were life.
The next day, Sookie and Alcide discover the dead body of Jerry Falcon – a werewolf bounty hunter – in Alcide’s closet. They go to great lengths to cover it up.
Afterwards, the duo return to Club Dead and are attacked by members of the Fellowship of the Sun, including Reverend Newlin. Sookie takes a stake and saves Russell Edgington. She is taken to his mansion, bringing her closer to Bill. While there, she discovers that Eric has infiltrated the ranks in disguise and he gives her his blood to heal her quickly.
Sookie learns of Bill’s whereabouts on the Edgington estate and looks for him during the daylight the following day. She finds him and manages to rescue him, killing Lorena in the process. As she tries to put him in the trunk of a car to make her escape, though, she is ambushed by Debbie Pelt, Alcide’s ex, and shoved into the trunk with Bill. This leads to a rather scary moment when Bill wakes up, hungry and not quite himself. He attacks and rapes Sookie.
Sookie escapes and enlists the help of Eric to get home. Along the way, they are attacked at a gas station. Then they are attacked again when she gets home by werewolves looking for revenge for the death of Jerry Falcon. Eric and Bill – back to his old self – kill the werewolves and save Sookie.
The book ends with a terrific scene in which Sookie, tired and defeated, rescinds her invitation to both vampires.
Obviously, because of the way season’s 1 and 2 of the series have progressed, a lot of the details of this book will not be used. Lorena’s motivation for kidnapping Bill is one of the first causalities in that Bill is not working on any sort of vampire database.
In addition, I am skeptical of the show using the Jerry Falcon storyline, mostly because in the novel it involves an appearance by a vampire called Bubba, who we learn is actually Elvis Presley (but he was turned wrong, mostly due to the drugs in his system at the time he was turned, kind of like fetal-alcohol-syndrome, but for young vampires). Bubba killed Falcon to save Sookie because Eric had ordered him to keep an eye on her.
Here’s what I expect the series to keep:
1. Lorena and Edgington working together as the kidnappers. The novel does not paint Edgington as a heavy villain – he seems to tolerate Lorena more than anything else in an attempt to get what he wants. In the show, though, I fully expect that he will be much more shady and villainous.
2. Debbie Pelt’s co-dependent relationship with Alcide and her hatred towards Sookie. In book 4 of the series, Dead to the World, Sookie kills Debbie in self-defense and I can see the writers pushing that plot point into this season as a substitute for the Jerry Falcon murder. And, in keeping with the novels, Eric will be involved in helping Sookie cover up this murder.
3. Sookie will have to fight with Lorena, and will slay her.
4. Sookie will realize that Bill was with Lorena sexually, and will not be able to forgive him. She will feel betrayed by him, but she will not know who to turn to.
5. Alcide will fall in love with Sookie, just as every guy on the show seems to, but his relationship to Debbie will keep Sookie from doing more than flirting with the idea.
6. At Club Dead, Sookie will be attacked by Reverend Newlin personally. After the events ending season 2, I think this will be revisited. The Fellowship was discredited in the aftermath of the conflict with the vampires. In the books they begin to rebuild their following, though, but not before Reverend Newlin makes this petty attempt at revenge.
What will befall Lafayette? Sam? Tara? Jason? Jessica? Those are some of the bigger surprises awaiting us in the new season of True Blood.
One thing we can be sure of, though, is more sex.
Not that I watch for that reason…
