True Blood: Hard-Hearted Hannah

True Blood knows how to handle a flashback! Though we’re only halfway through, things are definitely coming to a head with Tara getting closer to figuring out Maryann, Sam confronting the woman he probably fears the most, Jason to knowing who the Fellowship really is, and Eric and Sookie to uncovering what happened to Godric. Our questions haven’t been answered, but our interests have definitely been piqued, and I don’t think I can get any more excited than I was at the end of tonight’s episode. So here’s how it went down.

SPY TIME

Sookie teams up with Hugo, Isabelle’s human lover, to infiltrate the Fellowship of the Sun. After a little “what’s it like” bonding, he shares that Isabelle won’t even entertain the idea of turning him, which he’d like to do before he gets all old and hunched over. Our Sookie’s not so keen on the idea that there would be a time when Bill wouldn’t love her no matter what, but what they do agree on is that, on their mission, Sookie’ll do the listening and Huge will do the talking.

Hugo and Sookie finally arrive at the Fellowship, but we know our girl, and whenever she’s never well, she just can’t keep her mouth shut. But if there’s anyone who can play a vampire hater and still look sweet and innocent, it’s our Sookie. And Steve and Sarah welcome her with open arms.

Or so we think. Steve starts talking about a lock-in that’s supposed to be oh-so-spiritual, but what they’re thinking is that they know exactly what she is, and it sounds like they have a plan for what they’re going to do to them. Before they can get away, they call Gabe, the big, buff, boot camp man as back up, and they grab them.

DOWN SOUTH IN DALLAS

Eric calls Lorena to help him handle his business. He just doesn’t think that Bill can help him with his mind on Sookie, and he knows that the power of a maker is a strong bond, one that’s hard to break. The lady looks like she doesn’t take no for an answer.

We see a flashback to sometime during the Prohibition days, Bill and his sinuous maker, Maria, find a rich couple they like. And this is definitely not the Bill we know today. This one is just as bad as his maker, all about sex and blood and killing viciously without a care.

In present day, we see how strong that bond is when Bill can’t even escape her to help his beloved Sookie when she’s in trouble.

THE LOTTERY

Jason and the Lukenator are charged with building a platform made for assassinating a vampire in front of a crowd. (It reminds me of this short story The Lottery that’s so creepy that you can’t help but love it. Sort of like True Blood.) It’s clear from this meeting that Sarah is a little upset about their bathroom wash time, and if Jason isn’t already a little messed up over it, he’s even more so after she lashes out at him. He asks Luke about his conservative ways: no sex before marriage, no adultery, no sex with vampires or dudes and especially not vampire dudes. And this sets Jason’s thoughts onto abstinence.

Once they’re done, Jason finds Sarah crying over what Steve did to Sookie and Hugo. He thinks it’s about their affair, but she confesses that Steve isn’t the man she thought he was and that he’s using all of them to start a war with the vampires. She tries to kiss him and a whole lot more (Hello, you’re in a church and married Christian lady!) But she’s all: God’s commanded me to it to you right now and right here. Only Jason would continue to fall for all this. He just wants a purpose, poor boy!

MENAGE À MANY

Maryann is a bitch without her hot shower in the morning. When the hot water heater at Sookie’s house breaks down, Tara and Eggs have to take a road trip to pick up the part. On the road, Eggs realizes he knows more about the area than someone who can’t ever remember being there should.

They find a field where some demonic looking things seemed to have occurred, but Eggs knows he remembers something and that something bad happened. But the bad doesn’t stop there because when they arrive back at home, they find the place trashed, follow a clothing trail to a field, hear some drums, and see Maryann doing her supersonic gyrating, apparently the ring leader of some crazy mass town orgy.

ROMP AND REVENGE

After a late night pool table romp, Daphne shares with Sam those mysterious scars on her back. We know what they came from since Sookie almost died from the same attack earlier this season, but we still have no idea who or what Maryann really is besides pretty damn scary. They go romping through the forest, but this time Daphne’s a pig. (I didn’t know shape shifters could choose to be more than one thing.) They come across Andy who remembers the pig from somewhere, and so do we- from one of Maryann’s crazy parties, but Daphne quickly dismisses it.

She leads him to a part of the forest where he can hear the drums, and he’s snatched up. I was always wary of the girl, but to just lead the man who seems like her kindred spirit to his possible death? Maryann is gooooood. She places a bull head (a fake one) on Maryann as she begins chanting, and I suppose that’s how she does her transformation. And then we see Carl holding a large knife, and all Sam can do is fight and scream to no avail.

SIDE NOTE

Lafayette is confronted by Andy about disappearing for two weeks and killing the woman who ripped off his mom and cousin. He gets so in his face, screaming about locking him up, that Lafayette collapses to the floor and imagines it’s Eric threatening him. The cute thing is that Terry, who we know has some issues of the mind from war, is there to help him. Later on, Lafayette is visited by Eric’s right hand lady Pam, who tells him that he’s back in the business of V.

And elsewhere, Hoyt’s mom puts a wrench in his new tryst when she disconnects his cell phone. Apparently, no good girl would ever call a boy at all times of the night. It makes him so angry that he can’t keep in the fact that his new girlfriend is a vampire, which is enough to give the old lady a heart attack! To appease for the fact that he left Jessica feeling all lonely and discarded in Dallas, Hoyt appears on her hotel step with flowers and kisses galore.

Didn’t I say that this was one of those peak episodes? Phew! It looks like all of our favorites seem to be in the heart of trouble. How will they get out, and will they all get out alive? I hope so, though it wouldn’t be a drama without a little bloodshed from the ones we love, right? Until next week!

Season 2, Episode 6: Hard-Hearted Hannah (originally aired July 26, 2009)

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Photographs courtesy of HBO and IMDbPro