Writers: Kate Barnow and Elisabeth R. Finch
Grade: B+
I never quite believed that this episode’s opening dream was real, though I must admit I was afraid that it was. I was fairly certain, just from the Lynchian camera angles and the conveniently open door, that we were in dream territory. And then Eric was naked, and I found that very strange and convenient, as well. When she kissed him? “Ack! Gross! Emotionally inappropriate!” If that had been real, I would have been livid. The kissing turned overwhelming, unfathomable grief into a breathy, woobie romantic scene straight out of The Vampire Diaries, which is just fucking tacky. Even the fact that Sookie dreamed it is kind of tacky, but it’s in-character for her and Eric’s blood is making her hormones wonky, so I can give it a pass.
Ultimately, I loved the dream, because it made me think of how uncomfortable it must be for Sookie to have every positive emotion toward Eric turned into "Let's have sex!" by the side-effect of his blood. That’s how it felt to me—Sookie has compassion for Eric, and she tried to express that in her dream, but then the Eric blood twisted it into something erotic. Had Sookie been able to speak to Eric after Godric's death, I don't think she would have done, or even thought about, anything she did in this dream. She probably would have said that Godric was gone and touched Eric's shoulder, he would have flinched, and she would have said, "I'll leave you alone" and shown herself out. There would have been plenty of concern and compassion in that, and it would have shown respect for his vulnerability and personal space.
I think the fact that her confusion and uncontrollable blood-induced horniness turned her genuine compassion into a "compassion soothes the beast, and then it gets sexeh" romance novel moment disturbed her. She looked both turned-on and rather disgusted with herself when she woke up, and I don't think it was simply because she had another wet dream about Eric, but because her wet dream was a little emotionally twisted. I found the entire sequence very well-done and unsettling.
I also found the popping fang bit quite interesting. DreamEric’s pause before diving in was significant—he didn’t look ashamed, but rather as if he was displaying the fangs, giving her a chance to say no, which means acknowledging her power to say no. And instead of flinching away, she caressed his fangs. It seems that Sookie is becoming increasingly curious about vampires while Bill is retreating further and further into shame and discomfort, so it makes sense that her subconscious self would believe that Eric, who is not ashamed of being a vampire, would let her explore openly.
In any case, unless the show eventually indicates otherwise, I believe that her dream was not an echo of something that actually happened. I don’t think they’ve spoken since he left the roof. I’d guess his door was shut and he was unavailable to her when she came back from seeing Godric off, and either she went back to the hotel room and made preparations to leave (calling the front desk to get someone to help Bill into the travel coffin, etc.) if we started this episode the same day Godric died, or she cried herself to sleep, and by the time she tried to talk to Eric again, it was after dusk and he’d checked out and headed back to Shreveport.
I have a feeling that she’s embarrassingly eager to see Eric because of her promise to Godric to take care of him and the fact that his recent displays of emotion have made her unbearably curious. But I’m also guessing that by the time she, and we, see him again, he’s going to at least appear to have his shit back together. And I’m okay with that. I am, of course, painfully curious about what happened after he left that rooftop, but the rooftop scene was so gut-wrenching that I think it was enough, in a way, and I almost feel like he has a right to privacy now, even from me. I don’t want his every emotion laid bare. I want him to remain relatively enigmatic for a good long while yet, and being denied access to him here helped remind me of that.
Moving on…
Finally getting Tara back made me cry! I've missed her so much these past few episodes, so just seeing her come back to herself made me feel like a great weight had been lifted. I'm also relieved that she now has allies who love and cherish her, and Lettie May and Lafayette even accepted partial responsibility for what happened to her. When Lafayette hung back and let Tara and her mother hug, then gave her that shy little wave when she noticed him, he looked so adorable that even I wanted to give him a squishy hug right through the TV.
I’m not sure Bill’s glamoring power is enough to explain how Sookie was able to influence Tara’s mind, unless she and Bill’s powers sort of melded in Tara’s brain, but I thought the superpower teamwork was an interesting concept. I suppose it’s possible that Sookie used a deeper level of her power that she’d never tapped into before, and perhaps the white light she inadvertently used against Maryann was something similar. It’s also possible that Eric’s 1000 year old blood gave her powers a kick in the pants that Bill’s much younger blood never quite accomplished. Whatever the case, this seems like a setup for a Season 3 arc, much like they introduced Maryann near the end of Season 1.
As for Sookie's house, I am supremely squicked by all the nasty Maryann energy that place probably absorbed. I can certainly see Eric or a few repentant townsfolk offering to take care of cleaning and/or remodeling it, but I like the idea of Sookie and Tara cleaning it together much better. It would be a nice way for them to bond and get some healing done at the same time, especially since I assume they're still going to be living together.
Bill was actually competent and non-self-absorbed in this episode, which essentially means he was likable. He recognized and respected Jason’s capabilities, he thought of a way to help Tara, and he allowed himself to leave Sookie alone for a few hours in a dangerous situation. He even looked better than usual! It’s interesting that he was able to get in to see the Queen so easily… I’d think there’d be quite a waiting list and background check for that sort of thing, so he must already be acquainted with her. That idea puts his rebelliousness toward Eric into perspective…
I was actually right that Sam and Andy teaming up wouldn’t amount to much—they accomplished nothing but locking themselves into a walk-in refrigerator until Jason showed up! That whole “bumbling trio” storyline was absurdly entertaining. I found it hysterical that Jason used his brain to come up with a stupid plan that worked because it was aimed at stupid people. I guess that makes it smart, and it was a promising start for Jason!
My biggest gripe about this episode is that the black-eyed Maryann mojo felt inconsistent. Most of those affected were mindless, destructive zombies, but they were able to pull it together enough to hide in Merlotte’s to trick Sam? Tara was apparently not even at home in her own skull, but Arlene cared about busting up the top-shelf liquor, and Terry cared about Arlene getting hurt and had enough sense to boss the other mindless zombies around.* And they listened to him! Did Maryann appoint him as some kind of leader and make sure all the other zombies knew? Maybe that was mentioned and I missed it.
(*I can buy Terry's level of competence through the idea that he already learned to function in that mental space, or very close to it, when he was in the war. I’ve never been in a war, and the closest I’ve come is true-story docu-dramas ala Generation Kill, but even using that as an example, think about the things those soldiers said to each other, the things they did, how they had to go "somewhere dark" morally/mentally and stay there for a long time. There's a particular scene involving Colbert that really works as an example, but I can't for the life of me remember it! It's gonna drive me nuts now, but I don’t feel like trying to watch the whole miniseries again to find it...)
So far, Maryann has been all about feeding on the chaos of the out-of-control townsfolk, but only recently has she begun to seem truly out-of-control herself. Things are starting to unravel just a bit—Tara has been taken from her, and Sam escaped her retarded minions rather easily. She’s probably not accustomed to this level of resistance, especially not effective resistance (mounted by Jason Stackhouse, no less). I kind of love the idea of Maryann essentially Rumplestilskin-ing herself into oblivion—I think that might be even more appropriate than Sam and Tara destroying her.
Finally, I know the Queen’s house was only a snippet at the end of the episode, but I thought the lighting was very interesting. Most of the “vampire abodes” we’ve seen have been dark and moody—Bill’s house, Fangtasia, Godric's home, even the Hotel Carmilla had low lighting. But the Queen’s house was garishly bright, which tells me she has no shame in her perversions and wants to see everything that happens in her home in explicit detail.
Other Stuff
-It got dark awfully fast in this episode! It was daytime when Sookie and Jason were headed through Bon Temps on the way home and Andy and Sam had their hotel room talk, then suddenly it was night and Jason was calling the sheriff about the zombie people their driver had hit.
-I thought the kissing in the Sookie/Eric dream was okay. Better than the open-mouthed mauling from last week, certainly. It was all a bit precious, with the tear-kissing and little pecks, but it worked for a fantasy dream sequence with someone who probably doesn’t kiss like that in reality. Honestly, though, the fang-caressing was much more erotic than any of the kissing and pre-sex tumbling from either dream…
-Arlene having her back to the camera while calling Sam was a juvenile bit of writing. Viewers are going to know that she’s possessed simply from not being able to see her face—really, we’re not that dumb—so it’s not like the reveal was a surprise to anyone but Sam Merlotte.
-So far, the Sookie/Eric dreams are functioning how I thought they would. Sookie’s mind is romanticizing Eric in a way that reality can’t possibly live up to (though he can probably surpass it, in his own unique, non-sugary way…). The dreams are also titillating the audience and getting people arguing about how much of it is the blood, whether DreamEric is partially real, whether the dreams are sexy or gross, etc. I do hope we get some concrete answers on some of that, though, because fangirls arguing about breathy love scenes can get a little… overwrought. I’m in the camp that thinks the dreams are mesmerizingly gross, and that the writers intend them to be kind of gross even though they know many viewers won’t see the ick factor.
-I’m curious as to why ZombieTara actually responded to Lettie May’s prayer—she really seemed to recognize it and struggle to break free. I’m assuming it had more to do with familiarity than the power of the Christian God, but was the familiarity based on Lettie Mae’s religious background, or all the time Tara spent with sweet Adele Stackhouse?
-I'm really beginning to question the meaning of "The God Who Comes." I mean, the double entendre is pretty obvious considering what's been going on at the ORGIES, but really, the guy's taking a long time coming either way. And if this guy comes galumphing out of the woods in one of the next two episodes, I might just explode, though it certainly might explain why it’s taking him so long.
-Maryann’s comment to Sookie that “I daresay there’s nothing stopping him from leaving you cold” is quite intriguing. It could simply be a bad pun about Bill someday turning Sookie into a vampire, but there are very few wasted words on this show, so I tend to see it as an ominous foreshadowing of something a little less obvious.
-I am so intrigued by Bill/Stephen Moyer’s makeup. No, really! I usually don't pay much attention to it, so when people point out how horrible he looked, I kind of just go, "Oh yeah, he did look kind of blech, now that I think about it." But for some reason, in this episode, I found myself thinking, "Wow, Bill looks really handsome. His hair looks soft, his wrinkles are less prominent, and I'm not seeing pancake makeup..." And it's not just me who noticed. Very curious whether the shitty makeup was a deliberate characterization tactic that they were hoping no one would consciously notice, and now they've changed the makeup again to go along with his emotional state. Or whether the makeup just accidentally sucked, and they found a better foundation for him in this episode...
-The exchange between Bill and Sookie where Bill tells her that she can do more good for her friends by staying in Bon Temps, and she responds with, “You’re right. I left everybody before, and look what happened…” is so incredibly ridiculous. Granted Sookie seems to have some mysterious newfound superpower, but that wasn’t really part of the sentiment of that exchange. It’s true that the shit hit the fan when Sookie left, but that’s not because Sookie wasn't around to prevent it. The only reason Sookie could have helped is because she has the ear of vampires like Bill and Eric, both of whom accompanied her to Dallas! And at present, one of them is leaving and the other is holed up somewhere recovering from a great personal loss.
-Surely Jessica won’t kill Maxine. She was hungry and pissed off, but she seemed to have enough self-control left to be snarky, so maybe just a little snack?
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