Writer: Brian Buckner
Grade: A-
Despite only having essentially one scene at the beginning of the episode, Eric occupied a great deal of my thoughts. Setting Lorena on Bill is quite an intriguing move and raises a lot of questions about Eric’s motives and his overall plan. For one thing, when did he call her? Vamps have super-speed, so I suppose it’s possible that he called her right after Sookie agreed to infiltrate the Fellowship of the Sun. She still got there awfully fast and wouldn’t have had much time to stew over her decision, but I think that scenario makes the most sense in terms of how far ahead Eric is planning his moves. (And sadly, we’ll probably never know when he called her.)
Even more importantly, why did Eric bring Lorena into the picture? I don’t know that Eric’s motivations will ever be laid bare for us to see in their entirety, but I think it's pretty well-established that his motives and goals are generally varied rather than singular. Eric let Lorena make the assumption that he’s after Sookie, followed up with claiming she’s more than human, then avoided revealing more by distracting Lorena with the information that Bill loves Sookie. We didn't really get to peek over his shoulder and see all of his cards, so I don’t think it’s safe to assume that wanting Sookie was his primary motivation (though it was certainly one of them). He clearly wanted Lorena to know that he and Bill think Sookie is something special, but I think that was mostly to rile Lorena up so she’d stop asking questions. It’s in his best interest to reveal as little as possible, so he’s not going to stop and say, “Well, actually, that’s only part of it. See, the more important thing is…”
Another motive could be that Eric predicted Sookie would screw up and get caught, and he needed Lorena around to restrain Bill from charging in and fucking up his carefully planned rescue operation. Surely Eric could restrain Bill himself, but he’s probably got more important things to be doing than hanging around in Bill’s hotel room waiting for him to flip out over Sookie being in danger.
It’s also worth pointing out that if Eric hadn’t brought Lorena in to put a leash on Bill, Bill would very likely be dead-dead, which is a much more permanent break in the Bill/Sookie relationship than just setting Lorena loose on Bill. Eric had no way of knowing when Sookie would get caught, so if it had happened during the day, dumbass Bill probably would have rushed headlong into the sun in a frenzied attempt to get to Sookie, just like he did when Rene tried to kill her. Eric’s no dummy, so I’m sure the thought occurred to him, and as much as he may want Sookie, I’m not convinced he wants Bill dead (yet).
As things stand, Sookie was captured after dark, but Lorena’s presence probably still saved Bill’s life, or at least prevented him from raising the alarm at the FotS. I suppose it's possible that Bill could have made it to the FotS compound, single-handedly fought off all of their attempts to defend themselves against him, rescued Sookie, and made it back to wherever before dawn (super-speed!), but it seems unlikely to me. Granted I think it would have been hilarious to see the FotS incapable of fighting off one single pissed off vampire, but in his frenzied state, I'm not sure Bill going to rescue Sookie wouldn't have ended up as a senseless suicide run.
Not really trying to defend Eric or make him seem nicey nice (though Eric may do just that when it comes time to explain things to Sookie), just pointing out that if he hadn’t done anything, Bill would probably be a goner.
So here’s what I’ve got: Eric predicted that the spy would sell Sookie out to the Newlins (or that Sookie would just plain get her stupid self caught), and he brought in Lorena to physically restrain Bill from a) charging in too soon and making it all about rescuing Sookie rather than Godric, and b) dying a permanent and pointless death. And of course, there’s the added bonus that bringing Lorena into the picture could drive a wedge between Sookie and Bill.
Here’s where I’m getting hung up: With Sookie captured and Eric not allowing Bill to rescue her, she seems entirely useless. She can’t poke around looking for Godric, she can’t communicate anything back to Eric and Bill. If Eric was relatively certain she’d get caught, what was the point of letting her go in the first place? I suppose Eric could simply be planning to play the big hero himself, but that seems too simplistic.
Hopefully it will all make sense within the next couple of episodes, because I definitely think Eric is working a plan that only he knows all the moves to. I can’t wait to see whether he’s bitten off more than he can chew with pissing off Bill and bringing Lorena into the picture, or whether his scheming is just that good.
Luckily, even if his entire plan isn’t made explicitly clear, the writers and Alexander Skarsgård have a sort of delicate synergy going on right now, the result of which is that everything Eric does makes sense simply because I can assume he knows things, and is up to things, that I am not aware of. He’s like an iceberg—you only see a tiny fraction on the surface.
(And yes, I’m aware that I just wrote almost 1000 words analyzing a fictional character as if he’s a real person. The writers and Skarsgård must be doing something right, eh?)
As for who the traitor is, my bet is on Hugo for now. All that “forever and forever” nonsense Sookie overheard him thinking seemed cartoony and excessive and reminiscent of Tara thinking “lalalalala” to keep Sookie from reading her thoughts in Season 1. It’s also rather pathetic (but not surprising) that Sookie didn’t notice this herself…
Speaking of Sookie, aside from being her typical dippy self (didn’t think Hugo’s thoughts were odd, hadn’t thought about aging in a relationship with a vampire, totally sucked at being undercover), she was fairly tolerable. (I think Buckner writes Sookie as more balanced between endearing and irritating than some of the other writers do.)
Bill and Lorena’s flashback really got me thinking about the true nature of vampires. When I first started watching the show, I decided that vampires are, well, vampires, and there wouldn’t be much point to getting huffy about the morality of their actions. I still feel that way, to an extent—I’ll admit I give the vamps way more free passes for their actions than I do the humans, because the genre has programmed me to think they’re naturally tweaked toward the dark side, i.e. they kind of can’t help it—but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s really that simple in the True Blood universe.
So far, I haven’t seen a vampire commit an atrocity that a human wouldn’t also be capable of committing (superpowers aside). I even tend to believe that Rene’s actions were probably much more horrifying and cruel than anything Eddie ever did, and maybe even Jessica, for that matter, although we can’t be sure how far she went when she was staying with Eric.
So what is the basic nature of a vampire? Are they really that different from humans? Does turning into a vampire automatically insert a vicious, sociopathic streak in a very literal sense, like some switch in the brain gets flipped? Or are vampires simply what most humans become when you give them eternal life and superpowers and force them to feed on human blood? The latter option is what I’m currently leaning toward—it’s harsh, but it’s also probably more interesting to explore than the usual “becoming a vampire makes you automatically evil” nature of most vampire lore. I mean, Jessica wasn’t automatically evil. She was scared and wanted to go home, until Bill made it clear to her that she was a vampire, and then suddenly she was like, “Awesome, when do I get to kill people, because I have a really long list?”
I have to say that I’m glad Lafayette is still absolutely fucking terrified of Eric. I love me some Eric, and it’s definitely sad to see Lafayette in his current state, but I don’t want to see Eric’s actions swept under the rug. Of course, I also don’t want Lafayette to live in such fear and anxiety for the rest of his life, so I’m very curious where the writers are going with that relationship and with the PTSD. It probably goes without saying, but Terry comforting Lafayette and trying to give him a way to cope with his PTSD episode was lovely.
(As an aside, Skarsgård’s Eric/Andy hybrid gave me a giggle fit. He really nailed Andy’s facial expressions, to the point where it made him look like a completely different person. So there I was laughing, and then thinking, “Uh, wait, this scene is sad! Why am I laughing?! I suck!” I laughed even harder on the second viewing, too… But that bizarre schizophrenia is part of what I love about the show. Two of the funniest lines, and the best visual gag, were part of one of the saddest scenes of the episode.)
I was really having a hard time following what was going on with Maryann in this episode. I got the impression that she has a hold over Egg’s mind and can influence his behavior and thoughts, i.e. the previous episode when he backed Maryann up about the wealthy client coming home, clearly told her about Tara loving Gran so much, etc. It also seemed like Maryann’s hold on him lessened when he “got out of her range,” so to speak, on the little trip with Tara in this episode, which led to him getting flooded with feelings and memories that would normally be suppressed. What I couldn’t figure out is why Maryann went from being adamant about Eggs not accompanying Tara—I assume because she knew her influence over him would wane—to caving and letting him go with her.
And why can Maryann suddenly control Tara? Because in the previous episodes, it seemed like she couldn’t and had to work to get Tara and Eggs together as organically as possible. She even had to influence Tara's coworkers, rather than Tara herself, to get Tara to let her stay in Sookie's house. Maybe giving in to Maryann’s desire to move into Sookie’s house created a chink in Tara’s psychic armor? Because I didn't understand how Tara went from stoned and freaked out to participating in the orgy, black eyes and all. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be confused, or if I’ve just missed some really obvious clues.
I’m beginning to wonder if Sarah Newlin is Steve’s “magician’s assistant.” I’m not sure if she knows this was her role or not, but even if she did, how much did she know? How much did Steve tell her, and how much did she figure out on her own? I wondered all along how Steve could be so blind to the attraction between Jason and Sarah, to the point where it seemed to be willful blindness, but it seems like he was using them both to distract each other from figuring out what he was really up to. Or something like that.
I couldn’t help but be appalled by Jason and Sarah having sex, not just because she was manipulating him into it by saying God wanted them to, and not just because they were in a church, but because Jason’s sister is now a prisoner in the bowels of said church. Sookie was probably sobbing in a dark room somewhere while Jason and Sarah were screwing right over her head. They’re so close to a reunion, and neither of them knows it.
Quotes
Andy: “You weren’t on any damn gay cruise! And if you were, you woulda come back with more pizzazz, not less!”
Terry: “What the hell, Andy?! Back when we were kids and we used to play cops and robbers in Meemar and Pappo’s backyard, you always used to make your arrests with dignity!”
Jason: “Jason Stackhouse: Abstinent.”
Lukinator: Sounds good, don’t it?”
Jason: “Not really.”
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