True Blood Review: Y’all Need A Dead Body?

Tara (Rutina Wesley) proves herself to be the only sane character by doing the smart thing and getting the hell away from Bon Temps. Now that’s she’s returned to visit Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), we’re seeing even more that she made the right decision in staying as far as she possibly could from this crazy hell hole we can’t help but love. In the course of this episode she is ditched by her best friend because Sookie has to go deal with Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) invading her personal space, then after going with Lafayette and Jesus to another wiccan ceremony has another life or death confrontation who Eric who nearly kills her. Safe to say that Tara should be making less of these trips back, if I were her, may be never would be the way to go.  But then if she never came back then she’d have to be written off the series and we can’t have that now can we?

Jason (Ryan Kwanten) isn’t faring so well either as he remains chained to a bed in Hotshot, absolutely clueless as to why he’s being held captive. He tries to convince some of the younger members of the group to loosen the knot just a little. Timbo tries to help Jason out by licking the gash on his forehead, which must be completely weird for Mr. Stackhouse. He is almost rescued by Andy Bellefleur, when the sheriff arrives looking for V under the guises of needing it for “evidence”. Felton notices the same V-withdrawal mannerisms in Andy as he is experiencing himself, concluding that the sheriff will go once he gets some V. True enough Andy quickly departs with his drug as Crystal tries to hush Jason up.

Meanwhile in casa de Bill (Stephen Moyer), the king’s spy Katerina turns out to be his little snack and an extra something something as Sookie walks in on them after finishing up their amorous physical activity. Sookie had decided to get Bill’s advise after discovering that Eric is her new landlord and that he wants her to be his. She gets a big surprise in finding out though that Bill is now the King of Louisiana. For all of Bill’s declaration of feeling empty and alone while she was gone, he sure was keeping himself PLENTY busy if you ask me. Sookie acts on her better judgment for once and decides that she’d rather not know how Bill became king because whenever she finds out something new about him, she wishes that she had never known.

We finally find out how Bill became king in two flashbacks. First was in London 1982, Bill is at a punk rock club where he entices a bartender outside as a snack. Instead of draining him, Bill drinks enough to satisfy himself then glamours the man into forgetting (I have no idea what type of English accent Stephen Moyer speaks but I found it pretty funny that he’s playing an American southern vampire pretending to be English when he’s English in real life). Nan Flannigan from the AVL appears and she says how they need vampires like him who don’t believe that humans should be killed just because they are a vampire’s food source. She offers him the chance to become an operative working for an inner group in the AVL to infiltrate the monarchy system. Fast forward to the other flashback, there was no way in hell Bill could have defeated Sophie Anne on his own because she is more than twice his age. So he brings in AVL’s human swat team to finish her off with wooden bullets with a silver core. Right after that Nan proclaims Bill, King William Compton of Louisiana! Interestingly enough, Bill didn’t release the info that Sookie has faerie blood, but that could either be because of his lingering feelings of love for her or he has his own motives. It’s probably a little of both.

At Fangtasia, a group of anti-vampire protestors are picketing outside (notice the picture of Reverend Steve Newlin on a picket sign?). They decide to pick on Hoyt and Pam and Jessica are forced to stand by and do nothing because they are being filmed on a smart phone. As Pam (Kristen Bauer van Straten) says, “It takes the fun out of being a vampire.” Now they can’t just kick ass because the violent video would be uploaded to YouTube in a second and would do more damage to their already fragile mainstream image. But how awesome did Pam look in that all leather ensemble? We get to see more of Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and Hoyt’s (Jim Parrack) relationship as she throws another temper tantrum and runs of to Fangtasia by herself to eat the fangbanger who was coming on to her the last time she was there. I keep forgetting that she’s only 18 years old. Of course she’s going to do whatever she wants.

The next day Tara and Sookie have a short reunion as Sookie discovers more of the improvements that Eric made in her house. She got a new screen door installed, a new microwave, and a classy cabinet where Eric can spend the day in sleep. This infuriates her of course, but it makes me heart skip a beat! While Eric is calculating and manipulative, he’s actually helping her in a practical way by repairing things in her home that desperately fixing. The naysayers may point out that he’s trying to buy her, but still he’s not actually forcing her to do anything. He’s asking her to be his. Admittedly I am totally biased as I am rooting for those two kids to get together.

Sookie ditching Tara to confront Eric is completely selfish. It’s daytime and the vampires are still asleep, would it kill her to spend some quality time with her supposed best friend whom she hasn’t seen in a year? Shame on you Sookie. As I mentioned earlier though, Tara finds herself joining Lafayette and Jesus at Marnie’s coven gathering where the head witch decides that this week they are going to be raising a dead body. Cue in Eric in all his leather jacket and black tank top glory. Was that an entrance or what??

Let’s rewind for a quick second though, before getting to the wiccan meet and greet, Bill summons the sheriff over to try and convince him to sell Sookie back her house, or sell it to him. Eric refuses of course. The two continue to have a tense relationship as Eric subtly challenges his authority. Once the king informs him that they are dealing with necromancers, Eric’s expression changes as he understands the implications of this new development. I can’t wait to see the flashbacks to the inquisition to find out what sort of fun the necromancers had with the vampires back then.

Back at the Moon Goddess Emporium, Eric offers them an ultimatum to stop practicing and to cease their activities. Marnie refuses to take the deal and instructs her coven to join hands. With the quick reflexes of a vampire, Eric snatches Marnie (Fiona Shaw) and begins to drain her, prompting the other witches to start holding hands and chanting. Tara tries to help with an attempted staking of Eric but he’s to fast for her. This pushes Lafayette to join the other witches and then the magical spirits enter with their wind and light dimming powers. Marnie soon after begins to start chanting what sounds like Latin as her eyes have a golden glint to it and for a split second she flickers with the image of another witch. Is this spirit a former necromancer from inquisition times perhaps? After her chanting Eric looks dazed and confused as he makes his exit.

Sam in the mean time has been trying to get to know his fellow shifter Luna a little better. I’m hoping this works out as Sam needs a break and could use a good girlfriend, even for a couple of episodes. Luna has her own baggage as she confesses to their little circle that she had once shifted into her mother, who died while giving birth to her. Having a Native American background, she grew up listening to stories of skinwalkers, who were evil and would kill other skinwalkers to be able to absorb their powers and assume their likeness. Yeah, not exactly the most comforting thing to listen to as a shape-shifting child. Their therapy session is interrupted though by Tommy, who had secretly followed his big brother. Of course they would catch his scent! Sam chases after him and they try to start over, attempting to trust each other a little more every day.

Arlene is still convinced that little Mikey is evil like his father Rene. While staring at the baby, a vein collapses inside one of her eyes. This of course confirms Arlene’s suspicions that she’s given birth to a spawn of the devil and she storms of in hysterics. For the writers to lay even one seed of doubt that little Mikey isn’t just a baby is pretty brilliant. After everything that we’ve already seen so far, who says there’s isn’t room for an evil baby as well.

At the episode of the episode we finally see what happens to Jason. The Hotshot community does plan to have him be Crystal’s baby daddy, but with one giant string attached; he needs to become one of them, and by that a were panther. Unfortunately that storyline isn’t disappearing any time soon. Crystal and Felton change into panthers and start biting Jason, infecting him with their virus.

Sookie is driving home after an unsuccessful night at Fangtasia and who doe she happen to catch walking alone towards her house? A certain tall, Nordic, shirtless sheriff of course. And he has no idea who she is.

This week’s episode moved the major storyline pretty quickly with the vampires and the witches, Sookie and Eric, Jason and the were panthers. We still don’t know what will become of Sam and the other shifters, Jessica and Hoyt’s troubled relationship, Arlene’s possibly evil baby, Andy’s V addiction, and finally Tara. It’ll be interesting to see how Tara gets tangled up in the drama in Bon Temps, or maybe there’s more to her new girlfriend than we’re being told right now.

True Blood Season 4 Episode 2: You Smell Like Dinner (Originally Aired July 3rd, 2011)

Photos Courtesy of HBO