Episode #27: “It Hurts Me Too” (aka 303)
In search of Bill, Sookie heads to Jackson, Mississippi in the company of Alcide, a werewolf bodyguard assigned by Eric to protect her. Jason is distracted from his police exams; Bud reaches the end of his rope; Arlene copes with unexpected news; Franklin charms Tara, and gets Jessica out of a jam; Eric bequeaths a gift to Lafayette. Haunted by visions from his past, Bill makes a surprising pledge of allegiance.
My thoughts on episode 3:
Of the three first episodes, this was the least awe inspiring one. The storylines just progressed, but nothing really stood out, except for that unusual ending (which I will get to). To me, this episode really was about getting to know more about some of the new characters, and what their roles may be coming up in future episodes.
Let me start off with the newest family to the show, which was Sam’s real mother, father, and brother. In the previous episode, Sam’s brother tried to kill him, and we found out that he told his parents that Sam had left town. Well, that wasn’t so, as Sam confronted his brother before returning home. The next day his new family came to check out his bar. Sam was surprised, but welcomed them by treating them to lunch. They seemed to take advantage of the situation by ordering all the drinks they could. For some reason, I don’t think this will be the last time they take advantage of him. They are definitely up to something, as you saw later in the show.
Tara, Tara, Tara…you sure know how to pick them. She just continues to run into one bad person after another. After being helped out by the mysterious vampire, whom we now know was Franklin, the troubled Tara had a one-night stand with him. She tried to keep it at that, but I knew that wasn’t going to be the last time Tara had a run in with him. As I said after episode 2, he was up to no good, and still was. For an unknown reason, he was searching for all the information he could get on Bill, and Sookie. To get the information, he was the one that helped get rid of the body for Jessica because wanted a favor in return. Jessica filled him in on who Tara was, and he paid Tara a visit. Tara tried to do the right thing, and not let him in, but he glamorized her. Come on now, what good is it not to invite a vampire in if they could just do a mind trick so that you let them in. Seems a little unfair to me.
As with the previous two episodes, there was another new character introduced to us. This time it was Alcide, who was sent by Eric to be Sookie’s bodyguard, as she visited Jackson, Mississippi on her search to find Bill. It appeared that the Vampire King of Mississippi was not the only one that had werewolf friends. Well, Alcide may not necessarily be Eric’s friend, but we learned that he had done business with Eric in the past. It is sometimes easy to forget with all these vampires, werewolves, and shape shifters running around that Sookie has the power to read minds. There were a couple of clear reminders of that in this episode, including Alcide’s test of Sookie’s ability to do so. They mentioned it there, and I agree it that will probably help the two of them communicate somewhere down the road. It didn’t take long for Alcide to come to Sookie’s rescue. In an unimpressive fight, he took on another werewolf that Sookie was trying to get information from. Hopefully for Sookie’s sake, he can put up a better fight than that. Also, I will throw this out there right now: anyone think Alcide becomes a third love interest for Sookie?
Speaking of vampires and werewolves, again we left off an episode with a show down between the two. You know I complained about the lack of action that we got to see with Bill’s run in with the werewolves, but was Eric’s run in any better? I would have to say it was better, but still not exactly what I was looking for. There was blood spilled, and we got to see the werewolf die, but I guess it was missing more of a fight. Also, I want to see him fight the wolf, not the human side of the werewolf. Hopefully at one point in the season, we will get to see an epic fight between vampires, and werewolves. Eric obviously had issues with a certain group of werewolves, and still knows more than he leads you to think he does, so I think he would be a good choice to lead this epic battle.
Let me stop pretending I will be writing for the show, and continue on with some other random thoughts. I couldn’t pick a favorite line of the night this time because I thought there were so many quick and clever ones. Really, if you stop paying attention for one second, you could miss one at any moment. As usual, Jason was at the center of several funny scenes. The scene where he was being quizzed for the police entrance exam, who didn’t see that coming, and was asked about the legal limit for alcohol. Also, the scene where he was dreaming that he was taking the exam. It was a great example of how you relate to part of your audience sometimes. He was looking at the test, and all he saw was Chinese writing. I know I have taken test, and felt as if it was in Chinese. Also, I like seeing the vampires show their fangs, and then put them away. A lot of vampire shows or movies just have the fangs appear and disappear, but this show actually makes a point of showing you it happen at certain times. I like that they decided to do that.
After Lafayette was told that he needed to get rid of all the V he had left, I was wondering if the show had just let that piece of information slide. Pam wanted him to get rid of it right away, but it seemed like days had already passed, and nothing happened. When Eric paid him a visit, I was happy to see that they didn’t overlook this storyline. Instead of getting mad at Lafayette, Eric rewarded him with a new sports car. Ok, maybe he didn’t exactly reward him. I mean, he now owes Eric a whopping $1.00 for the car. To me, it is funny when the vampires show how business like they can be.
The most important thing to happen in this episode was that Bill changed his mind, and decided to work for the Vampire King of Mississippi. Bill had a dream, where we saw at one point that he returned home to his wife in order to bury his son Thomas. His wife was surprised to see him, but that surprise turned to terror when she saw Bill cry tears of blood. She didn’t know if he was a demon, ghost, or something else. She actually shot him in the shoulder, and we got to see it heal in a couple of seconds. That was actually pretty cool. Lorena showed up, and made the point to him that humans’ lives would never be normal after their involvement with vampires. Bill had to use that good old Jedi-vampire mind trick on his wife to make her forget that she saw him that night. This gave us more insight on why Bill changed his mind about working for the King, and why he hates Lorena so much. In a strange turn of events, to say the least, he ended up sleeping with her at the end of the episode. It was strange because it kind of came out of nowhere, and was definitely strange because, at one point, he twisted her head around to face the floor. I thought he was going to kill her, however they continued to have sex. It was a sex scene that ranks up there with many of the crazy sex scenes in Nip Tuck.
After some highs and lows of three episodes, we now have to wait until July 11th for the fourth episode. There seemed to be plenty of interesting things to come in the preview. I think the season is just warming up for some really good adventures to come. Hopefully, one of those adventures will be a good vampire-werewolf fight. Please, I’m begging you True Blood!!!
Episode #28: “9 Crimes” (aka 304) Sookie goes to an engagement party for Alcide’s ex; Tara takes a road trip with Franklin; Eric’s search for Bill takes on a sense of urgency; Andy gets a promotion; Sam come to an agreement with the Mickens.
My thoughts on episode 4:
Episode 4 was a lot like episode 3, not a tremendous amount of action, but the storylines moved forward. That just seems to be the way it goes in Bon Temps. Let me get it out the way because I know you are tired of hearing me talk about it. There was still no epic vampire-werewolf fight, but I am still keeping hope alive.
Speaking of vampires and werewolves, the past episodes began and ended with them facing off. This episode started off with some drama instead, as Bill surprisingly called Sookie. It wasn't the call she wanted either because he cruelly broke up with her. He spoke to her in a way we probably never thought he would. Actually, Bill did a lot of things we weren't used to seeing him do through out the show.
The aftermath of the conversation led to an easy pick for favorite line of the week. Last time I couldn’t pick one line, but Sookie took the award this time with an assist from Alcide. Alcide said, "No matter how well you think you know somebody they can still turn around and kick you right in the nut sack." Sookie's response was "I don't have a nut sack!" While crying and being upset, she had to state the obvious. That was so good, it may be the line of the season. By the way, anyone like my prediction of Sookie and Alcide hooking up now?
I know they needed something for Sam to be involved with this season, but I am quickly getting bored with his involvement with his newfound family. They are obviously up to something. It looks like it may have to do with money because they told him they lost their home; however, that probably is too simple an explanation. I think the parents may be taking advantage of Sam’s brother, and his shape shifting ability. I know the mom can supposedly do it too, but we have yet to see it. Another disappointment, at least for this episode, was Jason. He has been the comic relief in a lot of episodes, but not this time. He didn’t say anything really funny. The only thing news worthy he did was pressure Andy into making him a cop, which we knew was coming sooner or later.
Last season a lot of creepy things happened, and there was something getting creepier as this episode went on. That something creepy was Franklin. What a sleazy vampire he is turning out to be! I was shocked that he actually bit Tara, but that was only the beginning. After returning to his motel room, where Tara was tied up, he taped a bouquet of flowers to Tara’s hands. She actually remained like that on their road trip, and even when they entered the King’s house. Then there was the weird conversation that he tried to make with Tara. I don’t know about that guy, but things are getting interesting because apparently he works for the King. I am eager to see what happens if Bill sees Tara there. The way he was acting, he probably would just let them eat her if they wanted too.
So once again True Blood fooled me with one of their dream sequences. They showed Eric hover down outside of Sookie’s window. I was all caught up in the coolness of the moment that it took me a minute to realize that Sookie was not staying at an apartment building, and that this was a dream. Damn them! See that is the cool vampire stuff I like seeing. Hopefully they will do that again. Speaking of Eric, I am really starting to like him. He is one badass vampire that always has the right thing to say. It was funny when he was saving Lafayette, and told the guy he was going to kill his “brother-cousins.” I also liked when he called Lafayette “RuPaul.”
What is up with these werewolves? I really didn’t understand the point of this “initiation.” So they branded Debbie, so what? Why did the King have to come on stage, and feed them all V in order to do that? Really, the only thing that mattered in that scene was that Sookie got a few more clues about what may have happened to Bill. Another thing, we saw the pack of wolves that were under the King’s rule, but we have yet to see Alcide’s pack. There has been mention of his pack several times, but we haven’t seen them. He keeps taking Sookie into the middle of these V driven pack of wolves with no back up from his pack. Hell, if we are not going to see an epic vampire-werewolf fight, then how about werewolves vs. werewolves? I’m just saying!
Oh Bill, how quickly times have changed. One minute you were proposing to Sookie, the next you were being driven away by wild werewolves. You went from serving the Queen one minute, to selling her out to the King the next minute. It looks like Bill has gone to the dark side. It seems to happen to all good vampires. They try their best to stop drinking human blood, but something always comes up to change that. What a feast he had along side Lorena, and the King. I liked how the blood was flowing out of the limo, but they should learn not to let their food go to waste. And wow, does Bill hate Lorena or what! First he set her on fire, then he about snapped her head off, and now he punched her so hard that she flew out of the room. The sad part was that she liked all of that. Bill’s biggest test was sensing that Sookie was in danger, but not going to her rescue. Let’s see how long that lasts. He may not be on the dark side for that long.
I have a feeling we are going to get some action soon. I don’t think Bill will be on the King’s team for long, and when he leaves the fun will begin. It will be interesting to see how Eric cover’s his ass, and tries to frame Bill for selling V. That won’t score him any points with Sookie. And Tara a vampire bride? I don’t know whether to laugh, or be scared. Let’s see what happens next week.
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