Writer: Raelle Tucker
Grade: A-
My first impression of this episode was that everything I thought was building toward an interesting climax turned out to be… kinda boring and straightforward. That’s what I get for having expectations! (I should know better after the BSG series finale, sheesh.) But no, really, Raelle Tucker is better than that, and after a lot of thought and some fanwanking, this episode has grown on me considerably. (It also helps that the aspect I liked the least—Sookie’s over-the-top near-rape—was taken straight out of the book.)
Sookie started out in her usual self-absorbed twit mode—Hugo tells her he’s claustrophobic and is clearly beginning to hyperventilate, and instead of noticing and trying to calm him down, she starts obsessing over the hateful board games. However, I think it all came out in the wash considering that she almost got raped for trying to save Hugo after she knew he was a traitor. And this is what I’ve been bitching about since last season—balance. Obviously I’m not saying Sookie needs to almost get raped in every episode to make up for her self-absorbed tendencies (in fact, I'd like to see her a little less shit-on next season), but there should generally be a balance between Sookie’s obnoxious behavior and Sookie’s admirable behavior.
And to be fair, they’ve been doing a much better job with balancing her personality lately. I think she’s been more likable this season than in the latter half of the previous one, and she is growing on me. The first episode this season was the worst of all in terms of her characterization, but I think they’ve done fairly well since then. Even her attitude toward the vamp world has been getting some attention, and she’s been privy to some eye-openers, mostly thanks to Eric. (Although the next episode was written by Alexander Woo, who penned the season opener, so I’m steeling myself for some especially obnoxious Sookie behavior. I hope I’m steeling myself needlessly.)
Now back to that rape attempt. Anna Paquin gave a great performance, but it’s where I’d expect a lesser, much more predictable show to go—“Oh lookie at what hypocritical monsters extremists can be—they don't just want to kill vampires, they'll even murder and rape innocent humans!" Despite the visceral performances, it still felt cartoony and ham-fisted from a writing perspective. I do get that they needed something terrible to happen to Sookie so that Godric could save her, and it needed to be something that wouldn’t be over in 30 seconds, so they could have time for all the cutting around to various other characters, like Barry and Bill and Eric. Sookie is tiny and Gabe is ginormous, so a simple physical fight would have been over in 30 seconds or less.
Part of me wishes they could have written the storylines to intersect in a way that makes the near-rape unnecessary, but I don’t have any suggestions myself, so I can’t really blame Tucker (or Ball, or whoever was responsible for keeping that incident from the book). It was nice that Sookie still fought to save Hugo despite what he’d done, but I wouldn’t have held it against her if she’d just bolted out the open door and never looked back, but then we would have missed out on the awesome Godric entrance (and the Eric fakeout). And what an entrance it was. I’m curious what Godric’s story is going to be on the show, because saving Sookie from being raped made me sort of automatically trust him, and I’m guessing it might have the same effect on her. Not to mention, this guy is Eric’s maker, so Godric’s backstory is going to tell us a few things about Eric.
Did I forget to mention that Godric is fantastically pretty? Those head shots of Allan Hyde that made the rounds after he was cast didn’t do him justice.
And now it’s time for the over-analysis of Eric portion...
Eric’s conversation with Isabel was interesting on a few different levels. For one thing, we learn that Isabel isn’t as attached to Hugo as we might have thought, and certainly not as attached as Bill is to Sookie. There’s also the fact that Eric does question why Sookie is taking so long at the church, and Isabel essentially tells him that everything’s fine. Their exchange about Sookie seemed cutesy and ‘shipper-tastic to begin with, but there are a few more layers to it. At first, I thought it was odd that Eric would tell such a blatant lie to Isabel, knowing full well that he’d just called in Lorena and let her believe that it was because he wants Sookie. It’s okay for Lorena to know, but not for Isabel?
The distinction is that he simply didn’t exercise full disclosure with Lorena and he actually told Isabel what he believed to be the truth (with a dash of "though dost protest too much"). As I mentioned last week, he let Lorena come up with the idea that he wants Sookie, and he didn’t bother to specify that he wants her because she’s useful rather than because he’s into her the way Bill is. He was lying by omission, which is close enough to the truth for someone like Eric. We know that Eric absolutely does have an interest in Sookie, and that Bill and Sookie’s relationship intrigues him more than he lets on (judging from his wistful expression when Bill shared his blood with Sookie after Maryann attacked her). The thing is, given the bent of Isabel and Eric’s conversation, Isabel was asking about Eric’s personal interest in Sookie, not his interest in her as a useful tool or a sex object, so as far as he’s concerned, his denial (“I am not interested in Sookie”) is completely accurate. It will be a long time before Eric consciously acknowledges having an emotional attachment to Sookie even to himself, let alone to anyone else.
The other significant part of their conversation is the end, where Eric seems to decide that “nothing human” could have bested Godric. The next time we see him, he accuses Stan of murdering Godric, and then he CRIES. And if Eric is torn up enough to cry, and to tell Isabel and Stan to storm the church (where poor Sookie is!), I’d say that’s a pretty fair indication that Eric believes that Godric is dead and doesn’t give a fuck about anything, period. I think this may be where Tucker dropped the ball, though, because most of the viewer reactions I’ve seen focused on how Stan had a point that Eric was just kind of hanging around being cranky and doing nothing. There was much railing about Eric’s ineffectual plan because very few people (myself included) realized that Eric gave up after his conversation with Isabel.
As far as I can see, the initial plan was to keep Bill from fucking things up and to simply… trust Sookie. Which seems kind of stupid, really, but if that’s what Eric was doing, I guess it paid off in the end, even though he gave up. Sookie's not exactly brainy, but she’s loyal and stubborn, and despite her selfish moments, she can also be stupid in a very selfless way, like when she saved Bill from the Rattrays. We also saw her refuse to run back to Bon Temps with Bill because she’d given Eric her word. I’m not saying Eric knew all of those things, just saying that objectively, it’s not a complete impossibility that Sookie could do exactly what she did, which was find a way to get word to Bill and Eric. The idea of Eric having something akin to blind faith in Sookie’s tenacity is a bit ridiculous, but then again, maybe he’s got good instincts about people after 1000ish years.
When he and Isabel were lurking outside the compound, he was still generally operating on the “trust Sookie” plan. Isabel told him that Hugo, and thus Sookie, were okay. Thus he assumed that Sookie was going above and beyond what he’d asked of her, that she hadn’t found anything concrete and was still doing her best to help him, despite hating his guts, because she’s Sookie. He probably thinks she’s pretty resourceful considering the fact that she’s even still alive after the past few weeks with Bill. I can’t blame him for assuming she’s okay and is simply being her usual tenacious self and trying to work the plan to the max.
Somewhere between the conversation with Isabel and the later conversation with Isabel and Stan, he decided that Godric was dead, and he stopped caring about much of anything other than his own grief. And then he slept, and then he grieved, quietly and alone, until a wildcard named Barry popped up and gave him hope again.
Other Stuff
-This Bill/Lorena flashback took place after Bill had started to develop into modern-day Bill. But where did that change start? Was there a specific turning point, or was it simply a gradual change with no distinct beginning? Also, enough with the fucking flashbacks. I don’t want to see another one of these monstrosities unless it’s a flashback to a specific incident that caused Bill to start questioning his actions.
-I really wouldn’t have expected Bill to look so shocked and wounded upon finding out that Eric called Lorena and wants Sookie. It makes a bit more sense after thinking on it—he did stick up for Eric to Sookie, and Eric’s attempts to lay claim to Sookie have always felt as if they’re half-joking attempts to fuck with Bill rather than a sign of legitimate interest, so I suppose he might be disappointed to find out how far Eric is willing to go to have Sookie to himself.
-Hoyt being a virgin felt as predictable as Sookie’s near-rape. He and Jessica were still adorable together, though. Blood candles that smell like soup! I hope they’re not priming these two for something horribly tragic…
-Maryann is gross. “I slept outside last night and communed with my animal nature.” Ew. And not even so much the concept as the ΓΌber-pretentious, new-agey wording. As for, “Feeling sorry for things is just an excuse not to celebrate your own happiness,” she might as well have said, “Compassion is a useless emotion.” Which is a truly awful thing to say. Sometimes thinking about Maryann too much makes my insides feel dirty. I get the whole dark side of human nature thing, and that sometimes people need to go to that place in order to stay sane and whole. The thing about Maryann is that she forces her way in and exercises absolute control, which isn’t really allowing people to “lose control” or “explore their dark side,” it’s just “controlling people to do nasty shit without their consent.”
-The way Eggs dismissed Tara’s concerns and affectionately referred to psycho Maryann as “great” made me very suspicious of him again, and Lafayette’s assessment pushed me from tolerant right back to hating him.
-Good riddance to Daphne the exposition hog. I took most of Daphne’s expositing—various goddesses that Maryann is known as, Dionysius related to Satan—as Daphne’s own stupid hypotheses, or possibly some cultish BS Maryann fed her, rather than Tucker fucking up mythological facts.
-When Eric cried, I was immediately reminded of Dean Winchester's One Manly Tear, and then I remembered that Raelle Tucker was one of the better writer's on Supernatural. I think she's one of the better writers here, too, but I definitely felt like Eric was a little too Dean Winchester-esque in this episode. Nothing unbearable, he just seemed a little too woobified on a surface level, and AS just wasn’t given enough to do to get across the deeper, internal stuff that was going on with Eric—believing Godric was dead, grieving, etc. He’s a highly capable actor, but he can only do so much with an obscure line like “nothing human,” One Manly Tear, and a brooding expression. Also, Eric is a pussy compared to what I thought it would take to make him cry. I guess it's nice that they wanted to play it understated, but the casual placement--in a fucking hotel hallway with Stan and Isabel--kind of ruined any sense of gravitas it might have had. I think it would have been much more appropriate and profound at another time, like when/if Godric actually does bite it.
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