True Blood, 1x08, "The Fourth Man in the Fire"

Episode Title: The Fourth Man in the Fire
Writer: Alexander Woo
Director: Michael Lehmann
Originally Aired: 10/26/2008
Grade: A

Despite some bumps in the previous episode, I really felt for Sookie at the beginning of this one, when she was back at home, sitting at the table, trying not to think of all the death in her life, and then scrubbing the mud off the floor to do something mindless and physical. Her cruel and uncharacteristically selfish comment to Tara about how Gran is dead and at least Tara has someone to make her breakfast is somewhat understandable given what she’s going through. Sookie spends so much time putting up mental blocks to avoid the thoughts of others that she ends up doing the same to her own thoughts and emotions, and sometimes at times like these, they force themselves out.

Amy continues to be creepy. The sycophantic behavior, the need to justify everything as “natural,” the junky vibe. Yes, Amy, I’m sure you know that Jason is wise and all the other people who have known him most of his life really don’t know him at all. She’s a manipulative sycophant, to be sure. And it’s not just with Jason—she has a desire to impress and be liked by pretty much everyone she meets. She is not kind and selfless; she’s a needy black hole. She’s also manipulative, and I’m betting that she’s so “nice” to everyone partly because she knows that people who like you are easier to manipulate. And to add yet another layer to Amy, I don’t think she’s even self-aware enough to realize that she’s doing most of this. Sure, she babbles a lot of hippy-dippy nonsense that makes her sound like she’s totally in touch with who she is, but it’s all clearly a bunch of bullshit that she puts out there to hide herself from herself, and from other people.

As for Eric, he certainly enjoys being Bill’s superior and utilizing his authority in ways that seem aimed to make Bill feel itty bitty, but he’s not a violent, stupid thug. They obviously have a history, which we know nothing of yet, but so far as we’ve seen, Eric has never so much as hit Bill, nor ordered anyone else to do so. When Bill wasn’t answering his messages, he didn’t go break down Bill’s door and order his thugs to trash the place. He didn’t lay a hand on Bill. He just lit some candles, played some music, and got nekkid in the bath. “I’m naked in your bathtub listening to girly music and you’re standing above me, but I have all the power here,” is one hell of a way to exhibit authority.

Favorite line in the episode is Sam’s easy-to-miss “Drunks like talking to the animals” about the gator head he got to put over the bar. Just… what? I don’t know if that was in the script or if Trammell just ad-libbed it, but I almost spit out my chocolate milk.