Writer: Alexander Woo
Grade: A-
This episode felt a little slow to me, but it left me with plenty to say, set up the major storylines of the season, and made me eager for the next one, so I'd say it did its job.
I’m assuming that Maryann is responsible for Miss Jeaneatte’s gruesome murder. The writer threw in a coy little joke there: Lettie Mae tells Tara, “There’s something evil out there that wanted her soul. You’re not careful, it’s gonna come for yours.” Maryann walks up right on cue. Very cheeky.
I also got the impression that Maryann deliberately entrapped 17-year-old Sam. For one thing, there was no reason for all that food to be laid out on the table in the middle of the night, not to mention that she just so happened to have appropriate clothing that fit him. And those stacks of cash? Way to easy to find. Had she not intended for him to find it, the money would have been in a safe.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around Jason’s Fellowship of the Sun storyline. I know that he’s wounded, that they came at him at a vulnerable time, that he feels like a bad person and desperately wants to be a better one, that he’s not terribly bright, etc. But how does he reconcile the fact that one of these people condoned Amy’s murder—given how much he loved her—and the murders of the other victims? Not to mention they’d be just fine with Eddie being murdered as well, and while Jason may not have loved Eddie, he at least liked the guy a lot. And oh yeah, his sister is dating a vampire. Maybe I’m just naïve, because I have never met anyone with this much of a lack of self-awareness.
Sookie was working the nerves as usual in this episode. I didn’t have a problem with her being upset that Bill didn’t tell her about Jessica and that he murdered Uncle Bartlett—I’d be upset, too! Her scandalized “Ew, that's what happens? Y'all are so nasty.” attitude about how Jessica was made into a vampire, however, had me feeling supremely annoyed. For one thing, newly-turned Jessica is sitting right there listening to how gross Sookie thinks she is. And how does she think her precious Bill was created?
I know Sookie's not the most self-reflective person, but if she doesn't take some time to work out how she really feels about vampires and decide where she falls on the spectrum of accepting them and loving Bill vs. thinking they're disgusting, her relationship with Bill is never going to work in the long run. It's like she's tried to put him into his own separate, singular category—"I don't love a vampire, I love Bill"—and then gets upset when he does something that ruins her fantasy and reminds her that yes, honey, he's a vampire (except, of course, when it's part of the sex...). I'm not saying she has to start fighting for the vampire cause or anything—there are "evil" vampires just as there are "evil" people, so I don’t think one cause is necessarily more worthy than the other—but she needs to stop trying to live in lala land with Bill.
(I’m assuming that this aspect of the relationship is deliberate, but because Sookie is so difficult for me to like already, I don’t find it compelling. Maybe I’d be more into it if she started asking more questions about vampire society and vampire law, with the intention of keeping an open mind and trying to understand where he's coming from. Then I’d feel like there was some positive momentum rather than stagnation.)
Her “What else are you keeping from me?” to Bill was also painfully immature. He’s about 145 years older than her (I think I did the math right), and she’s known him for a month. I’d dare say he’s keeping quite a lot from her, and for her to expect him to spill his entire brutally honest life story so early in the relationship is petulant and unrealistic.
Then there’s the conversation in which Jason says he hopes God will tell him why he had to take good people away, like Gran and Amy, and Sookie responds with, “But Jason, Amy was a V addict.” Shut the fuck UP, Sookie! Yes, it’s true, but saying it was insensitive and unnecessary.
All of that said, I don’t completely hate the girl. She had a couple of nice moments in this episode with Tara and Jessica, and I know she’s been through an incredible amount of trauma in a very short time, so I can cut her some slack. But all of the above sandwiched into one episode? There is no reason Sookie should have to be this difficult to like. It’s fine to have flawed characters, but they need to tone it down by half. I don’t want a perfect little Mary Sue for a heroine, but it’s getting to the point where I actively dislike this girl, and no amount of making excuses for her behavior is going to change that. There are plenty of examples of flawed female characters who are still likeable, or at least compelling. Just about anyone on Battlestar Galactica or Mad Men would be a good example. Or Veronica Mars, or Angela Chase. Or even Tara on this very show.
I have to admit that I was a tad thrilled with Sam telling Sookie off because I think a lot of what he said was true. However, she’d done nothing to deserve the tirade at that moment, especially since she was trying to make amends. It was actually one of her better moments in the episode. Still, I’m kind of hoping he won’t beg for her forgiveness, and maybe Sookie hearing those things about herself will lead to some positive changes in her character.
I loved pretty much everything between Bill and Jessica in this episode. The scene in which they tried to find a variety of Tru Blood that she could tolerate and wound up with a blood type cocktail was a very clever way of marrying mythology and character relationship. I feel like Sookie’s attempt at kindness with Jessica was sincere and manipulative at the same time, which is fine—layers like that make Sookie interesting as opposed to unlikable. Jessica seemed genuinely pleased with the attention, which I found poignant. The poor girl must be desperately confused and lonely.
The fact that Royce’s admission that he let some other kid blow him at camp was treated with such nonchalant humor is part of why I love this show. And the awesome ridiculousness of that final scene, wow! First of all, the entire visual ensemble—highlighting foil, hairdresser bib, track pants, and flip flops—was almost incomprehensibly inane, which made the terrifying display of brutality all the more potent. Of course, the beauty regimen aspect also makes Eric’s reaction to the silver seem a tad vanity-based, along the lines of, “You messed up my pretty face! DIE!!!” Ultimately, though, I think they were going for a lack of self-consciousness. Eric doesn’t need to wear black leather to be menacing, and he knows it. He plays the part in the club because it’s good for business, but he could care less about looking badass in his own dungeon.
I’m pretty happy about Lafayette being alive. I love him to pieces and would have been extremely bummed to lose Nelsan Ellis. I was concerned initially that the writers backed out on killing him off due to fan reaction, but the way that Miss Jeanette’s murder is woven into Tara’s relationships with both her mother and Maryann makes me think this was actually the plan all along, or at least a very effective retcon.
Though I enjoyed this episode, my biggest gripe is that I’m only looking forward to one storyline this season, and that’s Eric’s. Maryann is clearly evil, which means things are going to go badly for Tara and Sam—I’m intrigued, but I can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing these characters hammered by more tragedy. The Sookie/Bill/Jessica family unit could be interesting, but unfortunately, I can already predict that it’s going to give Sookie even more reasons to be an annoyingly judgmental twat. Jason’s Fellowship of the Sun plot feels trite and boring already, and it turns Jason into even more of a cartoon than he already was. Eric, on the other hand, is an enigma, and I’m really looking forward to how the writers are going to peel back those layers. It’s hard to imagine how they could possibly ruin his character. He was, in Skarsgård’s own words, a “glorified extra” last season, and he still managed to come off as interestingly complex. I love his relationships with Bill and Pam, so I’m excited about developments there. And while Sookie clearly intrigues him, he doesn’t dote on her, so that’s one less possible annoyance in the Sookie department.
Minor Stuff
-Bill recycles! Very cute.
-The dog that played Beagle Sam was so cute that I squeed like a little girl when I saw him. He even runs cutely!
-There were a lot of effective reminders of the first season in this premiere: Jason smelling his sheets in his grief over Amy, Sookie entering Gran’s room and trying to pack away her things, Sookie talking about how she feels about killing Rene. It’s important to remind us of what the characters have been through, particularly on a show like this, in which three weeks on the show is three months for viewers.
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