Season 2 is sadly over, but left us all wanting more.  The show happily tied up every loose end it had, even if it took it’s sweet time doing it.  The twelfth episode, “Beyond Here Lies Nothing”, was a very powerful close.  After turning everyone in the town upside down, it was all made right again, in just under an hour.

Mary Ann is dead, which I’m sure made many fans of the show happy.  In the book, she is never killed.  But in the book she also didn’t have as big a part to play in Bon Temps.  The maenad, Calypso, shows up only twice, once to hurt Sookie as a message to Eric Northman (her employer), and the second time to visit an orgy she inspired and kill them all with a madness.  Of course, she only kills several people instead of almost killing the whole town.

The death of Mary Ann was very fitting because of how much more was going on with her character.  Mary Ann was the character from the book times 10 and on crack.  She messed with everyone!  Sookie, Bill, Sam, Tara, LaFayette, Arlene.  It made sense to kill her off, instead of letting her just choose to walk away.

This episode also had a great cliffhanger.  Not as intense as last season, which ended with Sookie and Tara screaming bloody murder.  This season left a half way engaged Sookie wondering, “what has happened to Bill?”.  Along with everyone watching.  Now anyone who has read the books, knows who took Bill.  But do we actually know?  The show has taken an increasing amount of liberties with the material that it is inspired by.

In the books, Eric is not selling “V” for the Queen.  Could he have “taken care of Bill”?  The Queen also was none to thrilled about Bill knowing anything.  She clearly has the means to kidnap Bill.  Let’s see, who else.  I suppose the Fellowship of the Sun has to always be a suspect in vamp-napings.  But not many other people come to mind, but the one who is responsible in the book.  STOP READING if you don’t want to know…

That the person who kidnaps him in the book is none other than Lorena.  To be honest, I’m really not to worried about them changing this up.  Lorena was prematurely introduced in season 2 for 1 reason and 1 reason alone.  So that people wouldn’t think, “who the hell is this!?”, when she shows up to randomly abduct Bill.  Which was a really good idea.

Now that it’s over, I can definitely say that season 2 was better than season 1.  I can’t wait until season 3.  And not to mention the next installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series is due out in May 2010.

“Humans are shockingly susceptible to just about every form of thought manipulation.”

In the latest episode of True Blood, the stackhouse siblings finally return home, only to find their small town ravaged by the chaos of the maenad controlled populous.  Sam is a living sacrifice on the run, Tara is possessed beyond reason, and Sookie’s house is overrun by a powerful creature.  Finally all our stories are running back together now that everyone is in Bon Temps.

This episode was only 44 minutes long.  44 minutes! Every other episode this season has run from 52 minutes to 57 minutes.  So a full 10 minutes missing off the end of my show did not go unnoticed!

This episode starts with the only Eric moment of the entire episode.  Sookie, on her long drive home, is napping in the car.  She dreams of consoling the maker-less Eric, now that Godric is gone.  A very hot scene, thank goodness, because now Eric is back and Shreveport, and won’t be seen until someone has a reason to get him or go to him.  But hopefully he’ll be in the two last episodes, helping get rid of the maenad with Bill and Sookie (like in the book).

The funniest moment of this episode was Jason Stackhouse posing as “the god who comes”.  Using a gas mask, flares, and a spotlight, and assisted by a drunken Andy Bellafleur, Jason convinces the crowd of Mary Ann followers that he is the god they are capturing Sam for.  When Terry Bellafleur points out that he doesn’t have horns, Andy gets a branch and Jason pretends to grow them.  It’s hilarious!

The maenad, Mary Ann, is up to all sorts of things this episode.  When we first sees her she is building a giant… thing, maybe an alter, in Sookie’s front yard.  Eggs and Carl are helping her decorate it with meat, flowers, vegetables, feathers, and who know what else.  It is disgusting!  You can hear the flies buzzing around and the next thing on Mary Ann’s list to add, is organs.  Yuck!  Also, I guess Carl is as crazy as Daphne, because he seems to be going along with the insanity with no “black eyes”.  Unlike Eggs.

***Spoiler Alert***

She also has a very interesting altercation with Bill and Sookie.  When Sookie comes over to see what has become of her house, Mary Ann attacks her, and Sookie realizes that she is what attacked her in the woods.  When Bill bites Mary Ann, he becomes violently ill and throws up her blood (which is black by the way).  When Mary Ann gets a whiff of something special about Sookie, Sookie shoves her away with her hand, which glows brightly and shoots out light (and I think it shocked Mary Ann, electrically).  This is very interesting because there are all sorts of possibilities for what happened: a.  this is some sort of power connected to her telepathy that only works on Mary Ann.  b.  it only works on Mary Ann because she had her poison via the clawing.  and c.  it is connected to Sookie’s “heritage”, since she is 1/8 fairy. (which we find out in book #8 From Dead to Worse).

The development of the conclusion of this season is finally starting to unravel.  But will Mary Ann’s fate stay with the book?  Or will it be rewritten for the show?  In the book, she is an all powerful maenad, who basically has to be coaxed to leave, since she cannot be killed.  But in the show she is much more involved in the lives of the people she is effecting.  So, do they kill her off? Could be.

Next weeks episode is “Frenzy”, and is as always on Sunday night, 8:00 pm cst Sunday on HBO.

“I Will Rise Up,” the ninth episode of the season, followed right in line with the rest of the season as another amazing episode.  The episode begins with “the Luke-inator” standing in the middle of the Dallas vampires’ house.  Outside, Bill tells Lorena it’s over, once and for all, and she heads off.  Seconds later the windows explode, along with some of the vampires.  Bill races in to look for Sookie, to find Eric Northman has thrown himself in front of her, protectively.  Eric tells him to go after the humans who attacked them.  Which he does, and the credits start as Bill bites into a guys neck.  This episode is probably the best hour of plot direct from the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  From the attack by the fellowship, to Sookie standing with Godric (Godfrey in the book) as he meets the sun, and a whole lot of Eric, this was possibly the most exciting episode for readers.

However, the closer the show gets to the book, the more it deviates in detail.  As if it would be such a horrible thing to actually give a couple line for line, blow for blow scenes, from the book the entire show is based off of.  Oh well.  Before the opening theme song even begins, there’s already a lot going on.  In the book, the fellowship actually surrounds the house and opens fire.  They inflict just as much damage as the suicide bomb, and the end result is the same.  The other differences, after the opening credits, are a little larger in impact on the story.  The “biting the bullet” scene, from Living Dead in Dallas, was a scene that I wasn’t holding my breath about.  I really wanted to see it happen, and thought of it as a very pivotal scene in the series.  But thankfully so did the writers of True Blood.  In the show of course, it’s silver shrapnel, not a bullet that Sookie has to suck out of Eric.  Big whoop.  In the book, Sookie sucks out the bullet for Eric, and then Eric, no doubt turned on by her bloody lips, grabs her and kisses her.  Then sends her off to find Bill, who Sookie doesn’t even know is alive or dead from the attack.  On the show, Bill first checks on Sookie and then is told by Eric to get the people who attacked them.  He does and then after biting the guy he catches, lets him go.  Then he comes back to find Sookie sucking her second piece of silver out of Eric’s shoulder.  Something she is very proud of, since she thinks she has just saved Eric’s life.  Bill of course lets her know she has been duped by the mischievous viking.

Then Godric sends everyone to the Hotel Carmilla, where Bill and Sookie discuss the consequences of the blood exchange.  Everything in that conversation is pretty well matched with the book, except for the part about Sookie being sexually attracted to Eric because of it.  That’s never mentioned (at least not from this first blood exchange).  Now back to Bill and the attack by the fellowship.  Bill Compton never comes back to check on Sookie, he’s to busy wreaking bloody vengeance on the attackers, and killing, what I assume is more than one of them.  When Sookie (after kissing Eric *sigh*) goes to look for him, he is coming back from doing this.  She is of course, none too thrilled with her vampire-boyfriend’s lack of level-headedness.  She (big difference from the show here) leaves Dallas on the spot and basically considers herself broken-up from Bill.  The two don’t reconcile until Sookie sees Bill out with Portia Bellefleur  (who is trying to get Bill to help her break into the maenid-controlled sex parties in order to clear Andy of Lafayette’s murder) and gets quite jealous.  But eventually they reconcile.  I really bet this is all throwing anyone who hasn’t read the books for a loop.

Meanwhile, in Bon Temps, Tara and Eggs wake up with the bruises of a night of “Hunter’s Souffle.”  While reminiscing and regretting their recent black-outs, the two get an emotional lecture from Mary Ann on control versus chaos.  She gets very preachy and thinks what they are experiencing is actually a higher state of consciousness.  She talks about the “fake civilization bullshit” falling away and people losing themselves to unite with their god. It’s actually quite compelling and pumped with passion by Michelle Forbes (playing Maryann).  Later, Lafayette, who is back to his bold bad-ass self again, is shocked when Tara turns up at Merlotte’s covered in those bruises.  He rightfully flips out and Eggs tries to attack Lafayette, but just ends up smacking Tara (again).

In Dallas, blissfully ignorant of their text bound dopplegangers, Sookie and Jason Stackhouse talk about being the only family they have left.  Jason feels like the Newlins preyed on his desire to be liked for something other then his “athaletics, good-looks, and sex abilities.”  I really enjoy the bond between brother and sister in the show, and if anything it is something that I wish had been in the books.  In Jason-related plotlines down the road, it will possibly add depth and emotion to the situations to a larger extent.  In a bit of comic relief, Sookie and Jason flip across the Newlins, whose marital problems are really coming across on t.v.

In Bon Temps, Hoyt asks Jessica to meet his mother.  Hoyt (a character in name only in the books) and his mom have it out later, when he tells her he wants her to meet vampire girlfriend (and eternal virgin) Jessica.  His mom is making him what looks like a grilled cheese sandwich with potato chips in the middle (yum?)!  And Hoyt calls his controlling mom out on her hateful ways.  Apparently she hates Methodists, Catholics, African-Americans, people who don’t take care of their gardens, people who park their trucks on the lawn, ladies in red shoes, people with too many kids, checkered-curtains, cats, dogs, bait, and every girl Hoyt has ever liked.  Wow.  Later on, Jessica does get to meet Hoyt’s mom, who arrives twenty minutes late.  The tension begins to build and finally some heated words are exchanged between the two women.  Until Hoyt’s mom lands a low blow by reminding Jessica she can’t give Hoyt children.  Jessica is crying blood before you know it, and Hoyt storms out saying he’s never coming home.

“This is the beginning.” Sookie has a steamy dream sequence, where her and Eric lie in bed together.  They pillow-talk about what type of vampire she would make (something almost completely absent in the books, I blame the Twilight madness for this topic being injected into True Blood).  As they talk, Lorena taunts Sookie and tells her she has already let Bill go.  As Sookie keeps wondering where Bill is while she’s wrapped around Eric, Eric says “This is the beginning.”  Very, very interesting.  This not only speaks of what is to come on the show, but is oddly reminiscent of where the last Stackhouse book leaves us.

So, next Maryann, who is insane about finding Sam, looks for him at the jailhouse.  When she doesn’t find him, she releases all the prisoners, who are all there because of her influence over them anyway.  Maryann doesn’t let Sam’s disappearance keep her down though.  She and Eggs and Tara are having a chaos-filled game of strip-poker, when in storms Lafayette and Tara’s mother to rescue her.  Tara attacks her mom for her sudden sober concern (and I really felt like the women had it coming for all the crap she pulled in season one).  But before you know it Tara’s choking her mom, and Lafayette is kicking Eggs, and then Lafayette scoops Tara up, and makes a break for it.  They get away, but you can tell if Maryann isn’t worried about you escaping, you’re probably not out of the woods yet.  Maryann finishes up the episode by storming (literally) into Merlotte’s, referring to herself (I think) as a god, and demanding Sam be brought to her.  Yikes.  Good thing that Sam has chosen to bunk with Andy Bellefleur, the only person crazy enough or sane enough to be on his side.

Finally, back to Dallas.  In the books, Godric (Godfrey) is a vampire who like to kill (among other things) children.  Godfrey is disgusted with himself, and decides to commit suicide.  He embraces the fellowship, since they agree with him and want to help him “meet the sun”.  Sookie, grateful for not being raped by Gabe, goes to watch and be with Godfrey.  She cries and he says “That’s nice.  Someone to cry for me at the end.  I had hardly expected that.” True Blood does a lovely interpretation of this.  While getting lectured by the blond vampire from the news, it comes out that Godric let himself be taken by the fellowship and had no intention of stopping them from killing him.  He doesn’t fight to keep his position as sheriff, and instead says he will make amends for the lives lost.  Only Eric realizes what Godric means.  After Godric leaves, Bill punches Eric, for creating the blood bond with Sookie, at kinda of an inappropriate time (what with Eric’s maker suicidal and all).  Eric doesn’t even seem to notice and is only upset by Godric’s decision.  Sookie tells Bill she wants to go to Godric.  She says she’s just “gotta be there,” even though Bill is resistant to the idea and clearly doesn’t like what all has happened in Dallas.  On the rooftop, Sookie finds Eric and Godric arguing.  Eric is furious, sad, and the performance by Alexander Skarsgård is brilliant.  He threatens to keep Godric alive by force, but Godric says it would be cruel and that “we’re [vampires] not right.”  Eric begins to cry as he begs Godric not to do it (it’s a six-foot-tall swede weeping openly, you don’t see that every day).  When he finally accepts the decision, he tries to stay and meet the sun too, until Godric commands (as his maker) him to leave.  Sookie tells Eric she’ll stay with him.  Godric says it won’t take long at his age for the sun to kill him (a small nod at the survival of Bill in the sun).  They talk about God and forgiveness briefly.

Sookie:  Are you very afraid?

Godric:  No. No, I’m full of joy.

Sookie:  But the pain…

Godric:  I want to burn.

Sookie:  Well, I’m afraid for you…(begins to cry)

Godric:  A human with me at the end, and human tears.  2,000 years… and I can still be surprised.  In this, I see God.

Sookie:  Goodbye, Godric.

Sookie watching this remorseful vampire meet the sun loses nothing in the translation from text to screen.  The emotional impact is even greater, and the inclusion of Eric in this plotline (in the books Godfrey wasn’t Eric’s maker) gives the audience a glimpse at something in Eric that is good and loving.  Something the show hadn’t demonstrated at all yet.

Next weeks episode is “New World in My View”, and is as always on Sunday night, 8:00 pm cst Sunday on HBO.

My first question about that is: How can I possibly have been ign’ant enough to think Jason might have actually been killed?  The answer: I don’t know anything about guns or paintball.  If I did, I assume I would probably have been immediately cognizant of the fact that Sarah was obviously wielding a paintball gun, and that the worst Jason might suffer was a nasty ball-whackin’.  Which, this week, he did.  I laughed out loud when Sarah told Jason he was worse than Judas, and Jason innocently and with no sarcasm replied, “Why?  What’d he do to you?”  Ah, the glory.

Jason gets more good moments throughout, including: clueing Steve in that he’s explored Mrs. Newlin’s meat cave; posing as a Rambo-esque vampire hunter; not quite knowing how to take Godric’s benevolence toward him; and being threatened by Eric with severe reprisals if he should fall off the v-wagon.  Ryan Kwanten is customarily brilliant in all of these scenes.

Speaking of Eric, and of customary brilliance, Alexander Skarsgård is also pretty awesome in a number of scenes, not the least of which is that threatening of Jason; it’s clear that he’s basically just kinda fucking with poor Jason, and that makes me chuckle.  Skarsgård also gets some big laughs during a scene in which he pretends to be human, adopting a whiny redneck accent.

Most of all, Skarsgård shines during his scenes with Godric.  It can’t be easy to play imperiousness and subservience at the same time, but Skarsgård pulls it off.  It makes sense for the character, too, since it’s obvious that Eric draws great strength from his fealty to Godric.  However, this does beg a question: If Eric is that subservient to Godric, why is he in Louisiana instead of by his master’s side?

Until I get an answer, I’m not going to worry about it too much, and to whatever extent my brain needs to fill in that blank, it’s going to do so by assuming that Godric has sent Eric to Lousiana so that he has someone he can trust in that state.  Godric certainly does seem to be a fellow with a plan.  He comes off here as a sort of vampire Gandhi, which, frankly, is a fascinating idea.  Godric consistently seems to be trying to build bridges between vampires and humans.  He tells Lorena that she “is still a savage, and I fear for all of us — humans and vampires — if this behavior persists.”

It is at this point in time, of course, that another savage shows up, strapped with a silver-protected bomb, and blows up the whole house.  Well, who knows, maybe this week, they did kill Jason, and Sookie and Bill and Eric and Stan and Godric and whoever else was in the vicinity.  That’d be pretty wild; you’d never see it coming, that’s for sure.

Elsewhere in the episode, we see Sam and Tara suffering thanks to their elationships with Maryann.  She has dumped Daphne’s body in the freezer at Merlotte’s, and framed Sam for the murder; as for Tara, she’s cooked Daphne’s heart into a big old nasty meat pie and served it up to Tara and Eggs, who choke it right on down without a hitch and then promptly begin slapping the shit out of each other as foreplay.

There are also a nice couple of scenes between Jessica and Hoyt.  Hmm … how to put this …  Well, you see, as it turns out, thanks to vampire regeneration abilities, Jessica regrows her hymen after every time Hoyt pops it.  Now, I guess from Hoyt’s point of view, it’d be kinda cool for your girlfriend to remain forever a virgin, but Jessica doesn’t seem to be too pleased at all, and I can’t say I blame her.  This particular relationship continues to be one of the best things about the show.

Continuing to be one of the worst things about the show?  Bill.  Sorry, ladies who are fans of Bill, but this guy is a bit of a stick in the mud.  Which, I guess, makes me Team Eric.  So sue me.  The fact is, Stephen Moyer is just not all that great an actor; he seems to be especially bad at indignance, and Bill spends a LOT of time being indignant.  I don’t dread seeing him, or anything like that, but I don’t think he adds a great deal to the show.

I’m also not yet entirely sold on Allan Hyde, who plays Godric.  I definitely like the character, and he’s been quite effectively used so far, but I haven’t made up my mind yet as to whether that’s entirely due to quality writing/directing or not.  If so, then I fear Hyde may turn out to be another stick in the mud.  But really, I haven’t seen enough yet to make a call on that one way or another.

Other notable moments:

*     Gabe’s line to Godric immediately before having his neck snapped: “Godric, it’s me.”  Okay, now what does that mean?  Godric spends the rest of the episode going out of his way not to kill people, and it seems out of character for Gabe to appeal to Godric by playing up their relationship as (supposed) captor and captive … so what exactly is going on here?  I have a feeling there’s more to this business than meets the eye.

*     Here’s a great exchange between Sookie and Eric.  S: “[Godric's] your maker, isn’t he?”  E: “Don’t use words you don’t understand.”  S: “You have a lot of love for him.”  E: (pauses for a moment, then says “Don’t use words I don’t understand.”  There is more chemistry by far between Sookie and Eric than there is between Sookie and Bill.  Can I start some sort of petition for Skarsgård to be cast as Captain America?  Marvel missed the boat already on casting him as Thor, but they might yet be able to compensate for it.

*     Lorena starts to feed on Barry, but then stops and asks, “What are you?”  So, what is Barry?  I assume readers of the novels already know this, and I assume it’ll come back into play in the series, so for now, I’m not too concerned.

*     Mostly-nekkid Hoyt to Bill, who has discovered him doing some spelunking with Jessica: “I don’t know what you heard, but those were screams of pleasure,” he says, almost confidently.  Ah, Hoyt.

*     Lorena’s confrontation with Sookie is sorta like something you’d see on General Hospital, only with more interventions from vampires over 2000 years old.  A terrible scene, but in a delicious sort of way.

*     Lafayette was horribly underutilized in this scene.  Why do I suddenly get the feeling that his storyline from the earlier part of the season was some sort of setup for season three?

In the last episode, we finally got a glimpse (outside of one flashback) of Eric’s maker Godric.  Godric is a 2,000 year old vampire who was very young when he was “turned”.  He looks almost exactly as the book  describes him, or specifically Godfrey (the actual name of the character he seems to be).  He is young and covered with blue tattoos.  He doesn’t have his blond hair, which has probably been declared Eric’s thing, and his personality matches too.  Very gentle natured and almost quiet.  In this episode, we discover Godric in the basement of the fellowship (just like in the book).  However, he is successfully saved by a group of his vamps.  So where does this go now?  In Living Dead In Dallas Godfrey (Godric) is self-imprisoned and helps Sookie escape, only to stay behind.  In the book he is a murderer and pedophile who wants to kill himself as penance.  Now, True Blood leaves me wondering if they will get back on track.

There has been a steady increase in screen time for Alexander Skarsgård.  This has been prompted (obviously) by an increase in Eric Northman’s involvement in the life of Sookie.  The show has launched itself into the realm of the third book by introducing Lorena, and are soon to go as far as the fifth book with the presence of Sophie-Anne, the Queen of Louisiana (played by Evan Rachel Wood).  Eric and Sookie don’t really begin to rub off on each other, so to speak, until the third book.

The total gross out moment of the episode, Daphne’s heart.  Need I say more?  Poor Daphne, the shape-shifter who betrays poor Sam, is in turned stabbed by Eggs at the behest of Mary-Ann.  Mary-Ann, it turns out, is keeping the hearts of her victims and feeding them to her… minions, Tara and Eggs.  Carl was mysteriously absent this episode.  I’m surprised that he didn’t partake in the heart-pot-pie.  And it was gross.  G-R-O-S-S! Right from the careful culinary craftsmanship of Mary-Ann slicing it down for her feast, to Tara slicing into the “hunter souffle” and it bleeding, to Tara and eggs feeding each other the fleshy bits. Ewwwww!

All in all, it was a great episode, definitely my favorite of the season.  Be sure to tune in next week for “I Will Rise Up”,  8:00 pm cst this coming Sunday on HBO.

It has taken me a while to finally sit down and review these last few episodes of True Blood.  Partly because of the loop that I was thrown in after the fifth episode “Never Let Me Go”.  In this episode LaFayette returns to his job at Merlotte’ s, Sam found out that Daphne was a shape shifter, Mary-Ann attacks Tara (through Tara’s friends) after almost getting kicked out of Sookie’s house, and Barry the bell boy quits his job to avoid Sookie.  All in all it was a pretty standard episode, standard being remarkable of course.  However, in the very last moment of the show, who should show up?  Bill’s maker Lorena!  This was quite a shock, because up until this point, the liberties taken by the show had been fairly straight forward.  A change here, an omission there, a couple extras thrown in.  But the arrival of Lorena jumps us forward to the third book while firmly standing in the middle of the second book.  What the hell?!

Another change is to the character Godric.  Godric is a good character in the books.  The show has thrown Eric’s maker into the mix of traits.  This is fine with me, since Eric’s maker is only mentioned once in the 9th book, so it’s really not a huge change.

The sixth episode “Hard-Hearted Hannah” was the most over the top sex episode of the season so far.  This episode features sex in a murder scene (with one of the victim’s still bleeding out), a church balcony, and a maenad inspired orgy.  Not anything to bat an eye at in the True Blood world, but it would definitely get an R in the theaters.  Lots of nudity, lots of noises, and lots of positions (especially in the orgy).

In this episode one of the first things we find out is how Lorena got there.  It turns out she was invited by Eric.  Eric finally is starting to slowly reveal the feelings that linger below the surface.  Very exciting for the members of Team Eric.

Over the course of the sixth and seventh episode, we get more incite into the relationship of Bill and Lorena.  In the sixth episode they are a happily depraved couple, killing and screwing like young vamps in love.  But in the seventh episode Bill is suddenly sullen at the idea of all the endless violence.  So sullen he threatens to kill himself rather than stay with Lorena.  The flashbacks are pretty good at fleshing out Lorena’s character.  The one thing that didn’t make much sense, was the radical turn around that Bill makes in his attitude towards Lorena without an explanation of why.  A highlight to these flashbacks was some singing by Stephen Moyer of the song “Heard Hearted Hannah”.

Sunday nights episode “Timebomb” promises more Stackhouse antics in Dallas.  8:00 pm cst Sunday on HBO.

Hah-hah!  Made you look!

2×3, “Scratches”

This episode is the best of the first three for the season … which is a good sign for how this season is going to go.  No sophomore slump in evidence, that’s for sure.

The episode starts off with a standard bit of Sookie/Bill contentiousness, in which Sookie gets mad at Bill and storms off.  This time, though, she gets mauled by a werebull, or a minotaur, or some such beastie.  What the hell is that thing?  Other than creepy, I mean.

Roll credits, and can I take this moment to mention that this show’s opening credits sequence NEVER gets old?  Because it NEVER gets old.  The credits sequence seems to be something HBO puts a bit of emphasis on as a general rule; many of their shows have awesome credits (such as The Sopranos, and Deadwood, and Six Feet Under, Carnivale, Big Love, Rome, and so forth), and that’s something that seems to be a bit of a dying art-form over on the networks.

Sookie gets taken back to Fangtasia, where a healer of some sort is called in to treat her.  Her life is saved, but apparently not by much.  There is an interesting shot in which she starts screaming in pain, and we cut to Jason, bolting upright out of his sleep and screaming.  This is revealed to be a dream sequence, but I still can’t help but wonder if the editing there is significant.  Can Jason somehow sense when Sookie is in pain?  It’d make a sort of sense; they are siblings, after all, and since she’s got some extraordinary abilities, there’s nothing that says he can’t, too.

Speaking of Jason, well, Ryan Kwanten continues to be one of this show’s most V of MVPs; the dude steals every scene he’s in.  This week, he’s got a great one at a Fangbangers Anonymous meeting, or whatever that support group is.  Jason is such a moronic, imbecilic character … but what he lacks in book smarts and common sense, he makes up for with a kind of emotional honesty and an (apparently) innate, if underused, sense of goodness.  He’s not above fucking up in those areas, of course, but he’s got enough niceness about him that he can barely tolerate these meetings within the context of the Light of Day message of intolerance toward vampires.  Seeing Jason defend Bill — whom he himself once hated — as being an apparently good match for his siter is just touching; and he is right on the money morally when he points out that his best friend, a human, did things as bad as or worse than the things these people are accusing all vampires of representing.

What makes this a great scene is that it’s not played overbearingly.  Like many of Jason’s scenes, it’s played for broad comedy, and that allows subtle drama to emerge from it.  So far, it’s a beautifully conceived and executed storyline, and I’ll be honest: if that’s all the show was, I’d still happily tune in every week.

Sookie’s overnight convalescene at Fangtasia leads to her learning that Lafayette is chained up in the basement, and this leads to Eric manipulating her into agreeing to go to Texas in search of Godric, the missing vampire … in exchange, of course, for his setting Lafayette free.  I’ll confess that I’m a little disappointed that that’s how Lafayette managed to get out of the basement, but I’m more than willing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt, and see where this all ends up going.

My favorite scenes of the episode — Jason Stackhouse and his holy-rollin’ homies notwithstanding — were the scenes involving Jessica and Hoyt.  I’ll just admit this right up front: if it meant I got to put her to the penis, I’d be happy to let Jessica drain off a bit of my blood with her teeth.  No prob, babe, ouch, ouch, ouch, cool, now sit on this for a few minutes.

Wow.  I almost offended myself there.

Putting her bonerliciousness aside for a moment, Jessica really is a wonderful character, and Deobrah Ann Woll is just great in the role.  I don’t know what Jessica’s intention are when she strolls into Merlotte’s — does she just want to be out of the house, or is she on the prowl and looking to draw some real blood? — but it’s clear that she’s utterly charmed by Hoyt’s feeble-yet-gently-persistent pursuit of her.  She’s never been allowed to be chased by a boy, and she’s clearly knocked out by the thrill of it the very first time it happens.

This episode was written by co-producer Raelle Tucker, and I’d be curious to know how much of the Jessica/Hoyt storyline is hers.  Compare the scene between the two once they take the party back to Bill’s house — “I’ve always wanted to see where Vampire Bill lives,” Hoyt says, with that goofy sincerity he’s always got — to any scene in Twilight between Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and tell me True Blood doesn’t do a better job of portraying the burgeoning romance between two young people.  Go on, do it, so I can call you names and accuse you of having had a rhesus monkey for a father.

I’m no Twilight hater, like so many are, but I think the movie is almost entirely lacking in subtlety and charm when it comes to its romance.  Compare that to here, when Jessica breaks out, reluctantly, in a smile when Hoyt tells her to not be ashamed of what she is.  That Hoyt, man, he’s kinda smooth once he gets going.  He’s played by Jim Parrack, whose career thus far has mostly consisted of being a day player on various television episodes.  As Hoyt, he’s been doing quiet but excellent work since the first season, and I’m happy to see him get some juicy material.  I’m sure that means he’ll get killed at some point, but perhaps he’ll at least get to verify the drapes’ shading prior to expiring.

Speaking of Maryann’s place, not that we were, what the hell is that in Carl’s soup?  I’ve got a bad feeling about what that is and where it might have come from.  Why do I get the feeling that Carl occasionally grows horns outen his head, and lopes through the woods in search of blondes wearing Daisy Dukes?

Back in Texas, Jason gets invited to join the Newlins for dinner, and Steve, upon hearing what Sarah has cooked for dessert, tells him that Sarah must think he’s pretty special.  “Really?” Jason replies, as if the idea hadn’t occurred to him.  “Well,” Steve says, without an apparent hint of knowledge of the word “entendre,” “Sarah doesn’t whip out her pudding for just anybody.”  Ah, now that’s a delicious scene.

Speaking of delicious scenes, Tara finds herself smack dab in the middle of a near-orgy at Maryann’s, and she’s not too happy about it.  I continue to be more or less uninterested in this plotline, except when Michelle Forbes is on the screen; then, I’m very interested.

The episode ends with Sam, who is about to leave town, getting sidetracked by a run through the woods with his doggy friend, which ends in some skinny-dipping.  He’s surprised by Daphne, who is also apparently looking for some in-the-water cavorting.  She takes her shirt off, and we see that she’s got scars on her back that are the same as the cuts Sookie got from the werebull.

OOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!  Pretty good end to a good episode.

2×4, “Shake and Fingerpop”

I’m sure that title must mean something, but I’ll be durn if I know what it is.

The episode beginds with a great scene in which Jason, returning to his dorm from dinner with the Newlins, gets punked by Luke, who has the other campers on the ground covered in ketchup, pretending to be vamp victims.  Jason, unamused, takes umbrage, and then takes the educational high road, preaching to the other campers about how vampires are not a joke, but are very dangerous creatures.  He’s accompanied by some amusing faux-martial score by Nathan Barr.  He gets to sock Luke in the nose, which is funny, and gets to angrily whip off his clip-on tie, which is hilarious.

This episode was written by series developer Alan Ball, who hasn’t personally written an episode since 1×3 last year.  Good to see him in the captain’s seat again.  He’s got some great dialogue between Jason and Luke later in the episode.  We come in in the middle of the conversation, and hear Jason, who is stuffing a waffle into his mouth, say, “I don’t know who Lazarus was, but he sure as hell was not the first vampire … everybody knows it was Dracula.”

Later in the conversation, Luke warns Jason, menacingly, “One thing you can be sure of: God will make sure evil gets punished.”  Jason, nonplussed, jaw-droppingly replies, “Oh yeah?  Well, explain Europe to me.”  Luke, unsurprisingly, can’t, and Jason leaves secure in the knowledge that another round has gone to him.

At some point during all of this, he also gives Luke his definition of evil: “Evil,” he says, “is makin’ the premedicated choice to be a dick.”  Never has a “c” taken the place of a “t” to such comic effect.  I’d be willing to bet that all across Hollywood, writers go to bed at night wishing they could get paid to write dialogue for Jason Stackhouse.

Back in Bon Temps, Vampire Bill — Hoyt calling him that cracks me up every time, because it’s so bizarrely sweet — is barking mad to find what appears to be Jessica feeding on Hoyt.  Turns out she wasn’t, though; they were just making out a little bit.  It’s another winning scene for this little subplot.

At the coroner’s office, in a rare instance of this show putting both William Sanderson and John Billingsley to work (E.B. Farnum Meets Dr. Phlox), we find out that Miss Jeanette’s heart had been removed while she was still alive, and that she has some big ole scratches on her back.  (Why do I get the feeling that I know what was in Carl’s soup last episode?)  One of my occasional frustrations with this show is that it has two fine actors like Sanderson and Billingsley, but doesn’t do much to find good work for them to do … or any work at all, most episodes.  Hopefully, that’ll change at some point.

Another piece of evidence for my Carl-is-the-werebull theory: when Maryann’s group scares Tara at Sookie’s house, she is watching a program about a bull-run gone wrong.  Can’t be an accident.  Probably also not an accident that Carl brings a wedding cake.  Maryann is obviously trying to engineer the relationship between Tara and Eggs; for what reason, beats me, but I’m sure we’ll find out, and probably in some fucked-up fashion.

The Jason/Sarah relationship gets furthered a bit this week.  He has a bit of a reverie about her at one point while she’s cooking ribs, and later, after she and Steve have made Jason a soldier in their “army,” Luke and the rest of the fellas seem amusedly convinced that she’s on the prowl for his dick, and they sound as if that’s not exactly an uncommon occurrence.  Sure enough, we end up getting a scene in which she comes to Jason’s new room in her house, wearing a nighty and looking like she could supply cream for a city’s worth of Starbuckses.  It leads nowhere … not this week, at least.

Thing is, I’m thinking ole Steve wants to taste Jason’s dick almost as bad as Sarah does.  I’m sure we’ll find out one way or another.

The Fellowship of the Sun is into more than stifled adultery, though; it’s apparently also into hiring cast members from Breaking Bad to kidnap humans who assist vampires telepathically.  Or at least that’s what I take away from the scene in which Dean “Hank Schraeder” Norris tries to abduct Sookie.  Vampire Bill comes flying out of his (hilarious) air-travel coffin and puts a stop to all this real quick.  The sight of Jessica’s coffin rolling onto the ground while she’s trying to figure out how to exit it is also hilarious.

The three of them have arrived — via Anubis Air — in Dallas, and stay at a vamp-friendly hotel which shows fanger porn via pay-per-view.  That’s awesome.

Intercourse With the Vampire: The Sexual History of Vampires — awesome. 

His First Fangbang (“Who will he choose?”) — awesome. 

Co-Ed Chowdown (“real fangs,” “hot vamp-on-vamp action”) — awesome.

I’d've titled one Cold Snatch and Hot Beef.  Or Cold Rod and Hot Boxes.  Something like that.  Maybe Bleed On it, Bitch! I’ll stop now.

Room service will bring your hot readheaded vampire ward a human with the bloodtype of her choice.  But oopsie, the room-service waiter, Barry, is apparently just as telepathic as Sookie, and runs off once they both realize it.  God only knows where that will go.

In other developments, Tara finally brews up some coffee for Eggs, by which I mean she lets him fuck.  Rutina Wesley steadfastly refuses to show us her boobs, which I kinda admire, but that’s only the non-perv side of me, so only about twelve percent; the other 88% wants to see ‘em.  Maryann seems to grow more powerful during this, and the guests at her party start smearing pie on their faces and eating dirt, so that’s kinda weird.

At that same party, Sam and Daphne make out a little bit, and Daphne tells him, “I know what you are.”  She takes him by the hand and leads him out of the room, but we don’t find out what any of this means.  I’m starting to like Daphne; Ashley Jones is kinda like a hotter version of Kathy Baker, and Baker was pretty hot to begin with.  There’s that 88% again.  The other twelve says that Daphne needs to develop a bit more as a character before it is going to get too interested, and that’s fair enough.

Bill questions Eric a bit about why he’s so attached to the missing Godric, and Eric says that Godric is a powerful, kingly vampire.  Twice as old as he is, is how he puts it.  Now, this interests me a bit.  Eric, if I’m not mistaken, is about 1000 years old.  That would make Godric roughly 2000 years old.  Earlier in the episode, Jason and Luke had some dialogue about the possiblity that, since Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and commanded people to drink his blood, Jesus might have been the first vampire.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Jesus live a bit more than 2000 years ago?

Could be a coincidence, I guess…

“Shake And Fingerpop” begins with Jason at his Fellowship of the Sun camp ground.  Luke, “the Lukanator”, pranks his former friend by jumping him and posing as a vampire.  He bloodied Jason’s lip in the process, officially crossing the line from friendly prank into mean prank.  Jason took the opportunity to punch Luke in the face before going off into a holy war campaign speech.  Thus beginning the fourth episode of season two.

In this episode of True Blood, we finally start down the path from the novel Dead Until Dark.  Sookie and Bill go to Dallas, on assignment to find the missing vampire Godric.  Jessica tags along to Dallas, which is a departure from her non-existent self in the book, but makes for some fun parental bonding time between her and Bill.  Bill teaches Jessica how to glamour people and almost has trouble reversing the process after Jessica has too much fun.  The “training” of Jessica is sure to be some of the silliest material for the show.  On a show as dark and graphic as True Blood, a source of comedic relief, alongside Jason’s “blond moments”, is never unwelcome.

LaFayette is finally back on his feet, so to speak.  LaFayette was finally released from the Fangtasia basement in the last episode, but was sporting a bullet hole in his leg and several bite marks.  However, an impromptu visit by the luscious blond Eric, and his 1,000 year old blood, takes only a minute to not only heal him, but send him into cartwheels and a ridiculous dance medley of grinding up against furniture! It was pretty hilarious.

Mary Ann finally reveals her big secret towards the end of the episode, when she begins to transform into the creature that attacked Sookie.  Mary Ann only does this after being energized by the gluttony and debauchery of Tara’s birthday party.  The new waitress with the huge scars (much like Sookie’s injury’s), revealed that she knows “sam’s secret”.  Sam’s number one secret is his shape-shifting ability, but who knows if that’s what she knows or not.  However, if it is, how would she have found that out?!  Mary Ann possibly?  Some thing to learn in future episodes.

The next episode is “Never Let Me Go” and this time will thankfully not take two weeks to get here.

The 2nd episode of True Blood was delightfully more exciting than the 1st in my opinion.  The 1st episode was a great starter episode, but the 2nd really started to reinvest us in the new troubles of our Bon Temps residents.  Since I’m really comparing the episodes to the books, I didn’t have a lot to say about this particular episode.  There is almost nothing in the episode to compare to the book.  Simple changes in the 1st season and the opening of this season, have created a Sookie Stackhouse alternate reality of sorts.

The story of LaFayette was cut short at his death, and since his death has become the death of Ms. Jeanette, his entire story from now on is completely new to fans of the books.  This is probably because of how popular his character is.  I’m more than happy to go along with this, not only because I’m a huge LaFayette fan, but because it gives me something new, that’s not in the books to look forward too.

The other change from the 1st season is the death of Long Shadow.  Originally, the hero that swoops in to save Sookie was Eric.  Whether Eric saved her out of a selfish desire for vengeance against the vampire who had stolen from him, or other reasons, is debatable.  But one thing is for sure, the Stackhouse universe has been completely transformed (at least in these first 3 episodes) by the presence of Jessica.  And Jessica wouldn’t even be here if they hadn’t changed Long Shadow’s murderer to Bill, who created Jessica as part of his punishment for killing another vampire.  So, Sookie running around with Jessica to help her deal with her new vampirism and meeting her folks, is all very entertaining, but does nothing to advance the plot of Living Dead in Dallas.  Better news is that Eric is finally showing up enough to keep me happy.

The 3rd episode hits the ground running with the attack on Sookie.  Finally, something inspired by the books!  I say inspired by the books because it seems that is the only way to watch the show.  The show not only adds but subtracts and makes far too many changes to actually be directly written from them.  It’s more like the show was written by someone who had read the books years ago and tried their best to recall as many bits as they could.  But “Scratches” finally finds some familiar territory for the book fans.

Sookies attack is a great interpretation of the book.  The way it’s shot is very suspenseful and it’s a great way to keep the attacker’s identity a mystery.  The injuries are wicked gross, especially when Dr. Ludwig starts digging around in them!  I was disappointed by the healing process.  Dr. Ludwig sprinkles something on Sookie that makes her skin burn and smolder, and the doctor finishes off the cure by having Bill give Sookie some blood.  This is a huge and fairly distressing departure from the book.  In the book, Sookie’s poisoned blood is drained by Eric, Bill, Pam, and Chow.  Followed by a transfusion of human blood.  I suppose the reason this is so distressing to me is this is the first real glimpse at how much Eric wants Sookie - and Bill’s jealousy over the whole thing.  As long as they make up for the specifics with something else that gets the same point across, I’ll be okay.  I was just hoping they would do it sooner rather than later.

The last thing I have to say is how great the Jason Stackhouse plot line is.  I love his story, especially this season, because of the much needed comic relief Jason ussually provides.  Ryan Kwanten does a great job, and his southern accent masks his Australian one flawlessly.  I think this plot line with the Fellowship of the Sun is a great addition.  Jason Stackhouse has almost nothing to do until the fourth book, and giving the viewers a more in depth view of this extremist church is a great idea.

The next episode “Let’s Take a Trip Together” is July 12th, at 8:00 pm cst Sunday on HBO.