Hello again True Blooders, and I hope you are all enjoying the Fourth of July weekend! While the premiere episode last week felt like catch-up as we try to sort out what changed in Bon Temps over the year Sookie missed, this episode felt like the real season premiere. While last week there were only hints at future plots and storylines to come, this week the ball started to roll. Also, my rule of thumb is that it’s not a real episode of True Blood unless there’s a gratuitous sex scene, so check that one off your bingo chart. The cliffhanger last week involved Eric and a naked Sookie, and was left on kind of a rape-y note, so let’s start there.
Despite Eric’s portrayal as the resident badass vampire of northern Louisiana, he’s got a heart of gold, even if it doesn’t beat. So naturally he doesn’t force Sookie into doing anything that she wouldn’t want, but he does propose an interesting offer along with offering some important words of wisdom. The offer is a tad reminiscent of what a pimp might say to a prostitute, arguing that she needs protection and he’d take care of her in exchange for essentially blood and sex. Not exactly the most romantic way to ask a girl out, and definitely a departure from the Eric portrayed in the books, but it works in the show. After all you need a way to differentiate the growing horde of suitors after our dear Sookie. More importantly was the point Eric brought up about how there are two Sookie’s, the faerie and the human. I mentioned in my last review about how important identity was going to be this season, and this perfectly introduces what I believe to be Sookie’s identity crises for the season. Now that she knows what she is, how is it going to define her? Remember Sookie from the first season? Sweet, polite, and naïve, to a fault at times. Compare that to the Sookie that we saw at the end of the third season, gleefully pouring down the remains of Talbot while Russell watched in terror. Big difference. She’s going to need to either embrace the faerie side or reject it, and now that she’s seen what faeries really look like I’m not sure which she would choose.
Up next is Bill, and his ‘head of security’ Katerina, who appears to have quite the job description. Infiltrate witches, screw your boss, feed your boss, all while managing the horde of snipers hiding in the trees outside. Hope the benefits are good. Back to Bill, we get to see more of him in this episode and how he’s changed. As a character Bill has always been struggling between his human side and his vampire side, but I’m assuming after Sookie left the vampire and now vampire king side was the more attractive of the two. He appears to be living it up quite a bit now, my prediction is that Sookie will throw a wrench into things once again. Until then he’s living it up and apparently playing the field. The two flashbacks of the episode focus around him, the first revealing a previously unknown tie with Nan Flanagan, the second revealing how he defeated Sophie-Ann. I need to address the former first, simply with a holy crap. So first we find out that Bill was sent to Bon Temps to spy for the Queen, but before that he was sent to the Queen to spy for the AVL? We’re dealing with the vampire 007 here. At this point I’m just going to assume that anything Bill says is a lie, wrapped in another lie. And then he lies again to Nan Flanagan about Sookie and whether or not she’s special. That one is going to come back to bite his ass, and probably with a wooden bullet. Which brings us to how Sophie-Ann died. Pretty low blow if you ask me, hiding snipers in the house. This also seems to be Bill’s fighting style, trickery and deceit. Remember how he tricked Eric into the cement last season? At this point Bill is in the running for the next super villain in the show. As soon as Sookie asked him for help with her Eric problem, I knew Bill was going to ‘misinterpret’ her request as a way to try to get rid of him, again. Luckily witches aren’t as predictable as cement.
When Eric goes off to deal with the witch problem, a series of interesting things occur. First off, it appears again that Lafayette is going to be the catalyst in coven, providing the necessary power to tap into something far darker then they can without him. Second, something appears to be possessing Marnie. I have yet to find a good freeze frame, but I have seen various theories on the Internet that this could have been the return of Maryann from the second season. I have a slightly different theory. In the books the main evil witch is Hallow Stonebrook, and was a very different character then the Marnie we see on TV. Possibly this is Hallow, possessing Marnie? Just a thought.
Back at Fangtasia the Fellowship of the Sun protestors are out in full force. One of the signs that they are holding says ‘Where is Steve Newlin?’ Good question. The Newlins were one of my favorite parts of season two, and can easily continue to play an important role in the broader storyline of vampire hatred. I hope we find out what happened to him and why he’s been out of the spotlight. In the meantime his horde of followers are making sure to provoke and then videotape every vampire that they encounter outside of Fangtasia. I imagine these guys as the True Blood version of the ‘God Hates Fags’ protesters. TB is always topical, even when it’s presenting a fanged version of our modern day society.
I really like the idea of the shifter support group, but not too much has come out of it yet. Sam and Luna are clearly soul mates at this point, and I actually like Luna as a character. She had an interesting moment by the campfire, foreshadowing what I believe to be the main shifter storyline this season. She claims that she can shift into a human being. Up until this point Sam had told us that humans were too complex, but she explained that in a bedtime story that her father had told her as a child that shifters could shift into humans when they’ve killed another member of their family. Her mother died in childbirth. Leaving her with not only a creepy father who hasn’t heard of ‘Goodnight Moon’, but also the ability to shift into her mother. And of course who is secretly listening to this whole conversation? Tommy, Sam’s brother. Will Tommy decide that human shifting is something that he wants to do, and that he has to kill Sam? That would be my guess, because the bullshit conversation that followed about just wanting to reconnect with his brother did not seem very genuine to me, especially when he’s conning Sam be pretending to still be injured from the gunshot wound to get more money for ‘physical therapy’.
Over in Hotshot trouble in brewing, letting Jason know that no good deed goes unpunished. A V addicted Felton and Crystal have tied Jason to a bed and have a plan, but not the kind that Jason normally likes. Crystal has taken quite a turn from her role in the books, originally it was just supposed to be Felton who kidnapped Jason and attempted to turn him into a were-panther out of jealousy. Crystal is now joining in, and the reason has been changed to that she needs to make a were-panther baby and her cousin can’t seem to knock her up. In the books a bitten were was different from a full blooded were, more of a half human half panther situation, not sure if they’re going to go this route in TB. The cost of the CGI would probably be too much and there’s a chance it might just look strange. Regardless, Jason has gotten himself in quite the predicament, again, and needs to learn in the future not to stick his dick in crazy.
Stray thoughts before we wrap up. Bill mentioned to Sookie that Eric has friends in high places. People who have read through the books might be able to venture a guess at that, but besides that I have no idea who he could be talking about. Not sure if this will be brought up again in this season or not, but I am intrigued. Also I’m not sure where the Arlene and her evil baby storyline is going, but it makes me love Terry that much more for the way that he deals with the situation. Also that’s a damn cute baby they found.
Our cliffhanger and patented WTF moment for the night comes the repercussions of Eric’s encounter with the witches. Despite the coven chanting scary things in foreign languages and the lights dimming, Eric managed to leave relatively unscathed. He was obviously freaked out judging by the expression on his face, which I believe is a first for the Eric. After he leaves he somehow ends up shirtless and walking on the side of the road, where Sookie drives by him. He doesn’t recognize her because he has lost his memory. This scene is the only one so far in this season that was pulled directly from the books. I told my boyfriend this and he was shocked, I don’t think most people realize just how different the two are. Even then the dialogue wasn’t the same, and judging by the previews for the next episode will continue to deviate from the books. Not that this is a bad thing, in the books amnesiac Eric was something of a sick puppy, but according to interviews Alexander Skaarsgard has said that he plays him as vulnerable but still dangerous. I actually am pretty excited for this change; it keeps things interesting when there’s a sense of danger, which is pretty evident when Eric at the very end of the episode wonders why Sookie smells so good. Let’s see how long it takes him to figure out that she might taste good as well.
Thanks for all the comments, I hope you liked my review, and I’ll see you guys again next Monday!
Favorite Quotes:
- “It’s not that I don’t appreciate all the licking, cause I do. But I’m more of a Band-Aid kinda guy.”
- “This is no way to treat your new landlord.
- “You bought my house, the house does not come with me inside it.”
- “Well then I seriously overpaid.”
- “Let these good people practice their constitutional right to be fucking idiots.”
- “Your snipers didn’t mention you had company.”
- “I’ve never been accused of being overly light before.”
- “Fucking Thatcher. That cunt could drive the Pope to drink.”
- “Mother fucker. He built himself a cubby. He built himself a cubby in my house.”
- “That’s the calming influence of that Asian pussy at work.”
- “You better not be lying to me. She did. Look what happened to her.”
- “Now go clean yourself up. You’re covered in Queen.”
- “Did I miss something? Are we girls now? Did we join a book club and read some queer chick-lit memior and are bound together by estrogen or sisterhood some other feminist drivel.”
- “Shame for you then. He pulls good string.”
- “If Marnie so appreciative how come Marnie don’t talk?”
- “If he aint part of the baby making, what’s he getting naked for?”
- “Why do you smell so good?”
