Monday, August 03, 2009

Are You There Godric? It's Me, Sookie

Well, although the pace of True Blood has been nearly glacial the past few weeks, it's still manages to pack the wallops here and there and thoroughly entertain. I loved that we opened up with Andy getting up from the ground and still yelling-chasing after the "PIG!"

I was most heartened this week to see Lafayette start to get some of his "pizzaz" back, and to see Tara at least start to slide pieces into place while she's not fully entranced. Not only are they cousins, but Lafayette and Tara have consistently been the smartest people on this show.


(I know, not so hard to outwit the likes of the Stackhouse siblings, but still.) Seeing Lafayette go right after Eggs in front of Tara was some good shit, and then Arlene confessing her "date rape" of Terry wasn't just good for laughs, it's definitely making Tara start to wake up. I know Sam warned her about Maryann earlier, but I wish he'd take this opportunity to really grab her and shake her to her senses to get her away from the freak.

This was, certainly, an episode about crazy bitches. Ever since Glenn Close boiled Michael Douglas's family pet, we've taken to calling stalkerish chicks bunny boilers, and they ran amok this week. Maryann actually killed and brought home a rabbit, trailing the blood across Sookie's floor.


And yet, this wasn't enough to completely awaken Tara. I don't know what sort of hash Eggs is slinging, but he's got his girl scrambled, alright. But then we also had Daphne trying to pull Sam to the dark side. There were a couple of unfortunate moments in these scenes, however. First, it was about five minutes of pure exposition, which was just weird. Second, it showcased Sam Trammell's acting ability, which was a stark contrast to the previous scene with Ana Camp's tiresome, uh, no pun intended, overly-campy delivery. That said, I did love Ana-Sarah Newlin's wacked out hair as she tracked down Jason and open fired upon him. She's a mortal, and I still think she may be the wackiest bitch they've got going. But let's not forget crazy Lorena, still pining for Bill. The oddest thing here isn't that she's so nasty and crazy, but that's she's still hung up on Bill. Bill!


And, in the crazy bitch department, I guess we can also include the sunny-side up Reverend Steve Newlin and his queeny, vamp-hating ways.


But it was overall a nice contrast. Just two weeks ago, the episode was titled "Never Let Me Go," and this week was "Release Me," and in the timeline of the show, I think this mighty change is only a matter of two days. No surprise all these guys (and Tara) want away from these crazy broads, but it was also Sookie who was literally imprisoned. Poor Sook, but I was glad to see bellboy Barry come to her rescue. And if crazy bitch Lorena hurts the poor dear schmuck Barry, I'll stake her myself!

I was particularly glad to see Hoyt and Jessica not only staying out of the fray, but continuing to bring the utterly awkward and adorable. Finally, they break out the joke as "Bleeding Love" plays as Hoyt's seduction number for his vamp girlfriend. And I do love Jessica, with Hoyt trying so hard to be gentle and romance her, and she just blurts out, "Just take off your pants."

Also a nice moment? Jason being dragged out in the woods to get killed, and he doesn't even know why, but as soon as the brute badmouthed Sookie, Jason got all sibling on his ass with "Don't talk about my sister!" and then kicked the shit out of the muscle!


I will say it again. He may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he is Jason fucking Stackhouse! He will have his pudding, dammit! And then he will defend his sister! Too bad he apparently gets shot for it. Fuck it. Maybe Godric will give him some of his blood. I know they mentioned it in this episode, but I'm still a little fuzzy on it, but I believe they said he's 2,000 years old, so his blood could heal Jason if that's true.

All I know is that Godric had better be worth the worry he's putting Eric through. Again, I think it's been mentioned that Godric is twice as old as Eric, but Eric is our resident super-vampire, and I do not like seeing him cry blood, damnit. That said, I do really like the contrast they've set up between Eric and Bill from the start, and seeing them with their makers really brings it all into sharp focus. Part of the reason Eric is so enjoyable is because he loves being a vampire. Bill sees it all as a curse that ruined his life, and sees his maker as a crazy fucking bitch, and is filled with self-loathing for the awful things he's done. Meanwhile Eric feels utter devotion -- quite possibly even worship -- to his maker and sees his vampirism as the ultimate gift and takes a lot of joy in vampiring it up. The oddest part? Though we've seen Eric, the bad boy, be completely manipulative and even Machiavellian and downright violently brutal, there's always a bit of a qualifier to his actions. He's just not nasty or evil. Whereas last week, we saw Bill, the good guy, do some truly grotesque and ghastly things.

All of this, of course, probably points to an ultimate Eric and Sookie pairing, which I don't really mind, as long as Sooks doesn't try to, ahem, defang the viking vampire the way she has with Bill. Then again, Eric will also have to get over his general distaste for humans and how "They certainly don't keep well." He is a funny fucker, alright. I wonder if he pictures putting Sookie in a refrigerator crisper to keep her fresh longer. But I can only tolerate him getting the cow eyes over Godric, not a girl.

As for things I really don't understand, though -- WHY must our Louisiana vampires be so pasty, while the Dallas ones aren't? I recall last season and how I thought we didn't have hot guys on this show. I've since seen Stephen Moyer (Bill) doing interviews, and he is, in fact, quite hot without the pancake makeup and bad hairdo. Alexander Skarsgard, even while being pasty white with red-rimmed eyes, is incredibly hot now that they've given him a haircut and D&G clothes. But then we meet Isabel and Stan, and they look -- human. They look great! Are they Mystic Tanning? Compare the difference between these first two and then Bill and Eric. What the fuck, right?


It can't be an age discrepancy, because I'm relatively certain at this point that Eric is 1,000 and Bill is under 150 -- and they're both the color of skim milk. I'm almost hoping they actually have the big "Meet the Dawn" barbeque and that Bill and Eric get just crisped enough to give them some color at this point.

Lastly, it wasn't just Turtle last night who was pulling off a Chuck Bass look. 2,000 years old, one of the pale ones, and he saved our succulent Sookie, but Godric was definitely Bassish.

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