Spoilers Below
This week on True Blood, we meet the King of Mississippi who feasts on organic vampire blood, Sookie and Eric have serious tension, Tara and Lafayette bond, and Sam finds his folks, among other things. Enjoy the discussion and add your own thoughts in the comments.
So Bill slaughtered a bunch of werewolves when suddenly the King of Mississippi shows up and takes him away. He wants Bill to be sheriff… and spill the beans on what the Queen has been up to. Who on earth is this dude and where did he come from? And why is Bill throwing fire at people?
LAUREN: There’s nothing that says, “You and I have beef,” like setting someone on fire. USE YOUR WORDS, BILL.
SALLY: I’m guessing after a lifetime of beef, words become unnecessary? Perhaps words have been tried for too long…
LAUREN: I do have to say that Bill is way more interesting when he’s not busy mainstreaming and drinking Tru Blood through a straw.
SALLY: Can I take a moment here to talk about how hilarious the food was in those scenes?! Because, it was awesome. I’m interested in what the gelato might taste like, though the bisque with rose petals can’t be too shabby. And the “organic” blood, donated willingly with no cruelty, love it.
LAUREN: Yes you may, because I have spent two seasons lamenting that vampires don’t have a foodie culture. I’ll bet vegans taste the best. But in all seriousness, how great was the King of Mississippi? That’s one serious actor relishing the opportunity to take on a high camp role. It makes a difference knowing that the cast is having as much fun making the show as I am watching it.
Sookie is still running around trying to find Bill, this time teaming up with Eric. Sexual tension meets genuine concern meets annoying “I’m still Bill’s” responses. How much did you love and/or hate this?
LAUREN: I love it when Bill and Sookie are separated. There’s just about nothing compelling about them staring at each other being in love. It’s nice, sure, but pales to the story when there is narrative tension.
SALLY: Not to mention that the sexual chemistry between Eric and Sookie is starting to reach new levels. I kept thinking to myself “please, just take each other now, DO IT!!!” Yes, vampire sex is just that important to me.
LAUREN: Vampire sex sounds good, but then you get to those fast-forward scenes where it looks like getting jackhammered by a ghost, and girl, noting looks less appetizing. Look, as long as Eric’s badassery isn’t diluted by the moony eyes phenomenon, we’re good. But I could also do with less jackhammer booty.
SALLY: Yeah, I was just going to say I could totally have done without the “oh Sookie, you are such a lovely person and I will be here to look out for you,” though I appreciate that it quickly turned into him owing her a debt.
LAUREN: That’s a cover-up. We’re going to get an admission this season that Eric is in LURVE with Sookie, and I will cheer.
In helping Sookie, Eric reveals that he knows about Operation Werewolf – they go way back and their leader is a vampire. Do you want to see more of these flashbacks or are you already over the werewolves?
SALLY: I am so totally ready for more werewolves! And there’s something I absolutely love about the True Blood flashbacks. They’re not quite as corny as the ones on Angel (remember those), but they’re still pretty ridonk.
LAUREN: I am too, but Nazi werewolves? I admit being a little skeptical. I shall reserve judgement until I know where this story is going, because REALLY? That said, have you noticed a class difference between the representations of vampires and werewolves? Vampires are the highbrow supernaturals, while werewolves are their lowbrow counterparts.
SALLY: Indeed, even in the way they attack. In one episode, Bill’s all seductively convincing this woman to let him in and smoothly doing what he’s gotta do. In the next, you have a cowering woman in a corner crying and then leaping to attack.
Meanwhile, Tara admits that part of suicide attempt is that the first time she was really happy, she was a zombie. Lafayette is obviously worried about her and says that they need each other to get through the darkness their mothers couldn’t overcome. What’d you think?
LAUREN: I think I love Alfre Woodard. She plays a nasty, racist, sick woman, yes, but damn she’s a compelling actress.
SALLY: Alfre Woodard! She’s such a great actress and I loved seeing her pop up!
LAUREN: And since I love the actors that play Lafayette and Tara, it’s cool to see their storyline begin to fill out. It’s an even darker turn for them. I’m irritated that they appear to be the only black family in all of Bon Temps, but hey, it looks like Lafayette may be getting a cute boyfriend.
SALLY: What I particularly like about their characters in this scene is how honest they are, so much so than other characters. Tara saying that she felt like the first time she was happy, she was a zombie, was such a great moment because it suddenly seemed that there’s something else going on there and not just her being heartbroken over Eggs. That was some unexpected depth! And Lafayette saying in his own Lafayette way that he values Tara and the two of them are basically the two musketeers was also quite nice.
Sam’s got drama of his own. He finds his family, but his brother is kind of an asshole and he doesn’t really know what to make of his parents either.
LAUREN: I’m loving Sam’s petulant teen brother, but kind of annoyed at how the Sam storyline is always a big departure from competing storylines until the end of the season. Like, in comparison with vampires and werewolves, nobody cares about Sam’s shifting until he’s a bull stabbing a maenad in the heart. There has to be a way to make Sam more interesting.
SALLY: In some ways, I feel they do even less with him than they do with Tara, which is just plain sad. You’d think that with his willingness to help, they’d actually keep him around more. Although I’ll take this storyline over “I love Sookie, Sookie please love me” any day.
Then there’s the Mystery Man. We see him looking through files on Sookie, he talks to Tara for a bit before going out and helping her beat up the jerks who were trash-talking her and Eggs. We also see that somebody moved the dead body as Jessica goes to cut it up into little pieces with a chain-saw – could he be the one that moved it? What’s the deal with this guy?
SALLY: I like to call him Mr. Boots. It’s fascinating to me how this show never fails to introduce a character that’s equal parts creepy and intriguing. And was I the only one who looked at him and thought “Forney?? He can’t be a vampire, he’s a librarian!”
LAUREN: He can be anything he wants. Yum. Any idea why Mr. Boots was up in Bill’s house looking at the secret file Bill has on Sookie? Also, WHY THE HELL does Bill have a secret file on Sookie?
SALLY: Yeah, um, can that be elaborated on?? Cuz that was weird as all hell, even for this show. Has he been into her since she was little? Cuz that’d be a bit skeevy, even for me. I can’t imagine, though, why Mr. Boots would be snooping around in there. Why the hell does everybody care so much about her? Sure, she’s got powers and yeah, Bill loves her and is his weakness and all, but come on already.
LAUREN: That’s a spoiler, I think. I won’t say any more about that except to say that it has to do with why her ancestors’ names are of interest to both Bill and Mr. Boots.
SALLY: Ooh interesting. But either way, I love Mr. Boots so I’m interested in seeing how in the heck this will turn out. Oh, and if there is really a vampire sex scene coming as the previews showed, then I’m already happy.
LAUREN: Is it messed up of me to be into his interest in helping Tara beat the shit out of the racist fucks outside of Merlotte’s? And what was that with the “THE SEX SCENE YOU CAN’T MISS” promos? All I saw was a sadsack Snoop Dogg video.
SALLY: Hahaha, it was before the Snoop Dogg video (which, can I say, was HUH-LARIOUS! Highlight of the evening!). But I totally hear you about him helping Tara out, and the fact that her violence turned him on… maybe I have issues.