The latest episode of “True Blood” had its definite high points and low points. Low points would be the Jason being held hostage and gang raped in Hotshot plot. Jason’s relationship with Crystal was tumultuous in the books, and Jason was held captive in Hotshot for a while in the books, but the situation did not lower to this level of horror. With this plot, I think Alan has gone too far. It is so far off the deep end that I can’t even applaud him for showing a man in this type of danger instead of a woman. It’s just disgusting all around. The high point of the episode for me was, unsurprisingly, Eric with amnesia. Alexander Skarsgard played the change in his character beautifully. I love the sometimes nervous, sometimes mischievous little boy elements he has bought out in this iteration of the character. His interactions with Sookie are an absolute delight to watch. I can only hope and beg Alan Ball that this plot will remain mostly in tact from how it was in the books. “Dead to the World” is my favorite book in the series, and Eric with amnesia and his resulting blossoming relationship with Sookie is pretty much the reason why.
The episode picks up pretty much right where the last one left off. Sookie has found Eric by the side of the road in the middle of the night. She’s pretty offended and freaked out when Eric keeps talking about how good she smells and wanting to know what she is. At one point, she tries to drive off and leave him, but he uses his super vampire speed to catch up. Eric finally manages to get the point across to Sookie that he has amnesia. He vaguely remembers that the witches chanted at him, and he remembers what Marnie looks like, but that’s it. Sookie says she’ll help Eric deal with the problem, but there will be absolutely no biting. That just made me laugh. When Sookie brings Eric home, the adorableness really starts. He’s covered in mud, and after being chastised by Sookie, Eric cautiously inches his way around the carpet.
The Wiccan coven are trying to deal with the aftermath of what they did to Eric. Tara and Lafayette are most adamant that the coven has gotten themselves into major trouble by messing with Eric. Marnie can’t remember what she did to make Eric run off, but she seems pretty proud of herself. The group considers Tara and Lafayette’s suggestion that they come clean to Eric and/or Bill immediately, but the rest of the group isn’t very enthusiastic about the idea. Lafayette is the biggest advocate for begging for mercy from the vamps. Tara’s just pissed that she somehow managed to get herself mixed up in vampire badness again within hours of returning to Bon Temps.
And now I’m going to get the most annoying plot of the episode out of the way all in one go. Time to take a deep breath. Over in Hotshot, Jason is chained to a bed and he has a fever. This is because he is undergoing the process to turn into a werepanther. We the elder panthers tell the kids the story of Ghost Mother and Ghost Father, the founders of the werepanther species. They are essentially trying to turn Jason into a new Ghost Father. Andy tries to call Jason and is very frustrated when he gets voice mail. Andy is feeling in need of his second V fix of the day. His behavior has really gotten out of control, and he ends up getting into a bit of a fight with Sam because of it. Near the end of the episode, Jason wakes up to find Crystal having sex with him. All the other women of Hotshot are gathered by the door. It’s really creepy, and it’s apparent that they’re all hoping it’s their turn next. The sooner this plot ends, the better.
Back in vampire world, we see a Youtube video of a vampire attack. It’s pretty apparent that the vampire was set up. This vampire has a meeting with Bill about the issue, and Bill shows no mercy. The vampires have a law that being caught attacking on video or film automatically means the True Death. Bill is no going to let this vampire escape that fate. The vampire gets a bit of a stay of execution when Jessica stops by to see Bill. She’s feeling guilty about feeding off that random at Fangtasia, and she wants Bill’s advice for how to deal with it. First Bill wants to make sure Jessica wasn’t filmed or photographed- he doesn’t want to have to sentence his progeny to the true death. Then he says that Jessica should tell Hoyt what happened. He pretty much threatens to tell Hoyt if Jessica won’t. Jessica takes Hoyt’s advice, and when it goes badly, she makes the rash decision to glamour Hoyt into forgetting her confession. Clearly Jessica has never watched “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” season 6. Making Tara forget a fight sure didn’t work out so well for Willow. In other Bill news, he has begun a relationship with Portia Bellefleur, which seems kind of pointless.
Sookie calls Pam to tell her what happened to Eric, and Pam comes running. She says that Sookie needs to keep Eric safe from the witches. Sookie isn’t thrilled about that prospect, but she says she’ll do it if she’s paid. Alex Skarsgard is really on fire in this scene. He’s devilishly happy when he finds out that he has tasted Sookie before, but then he’s upset when he finds out it was against her will. Pam thinks Bill is the mastermind behind what happened to Eric because he told Eric to go to the coven. Oh, and there’s some more adorableness when Sookie has to coax Eric down into his hidey hole for the day. Once Eric is safely to ground, Sookie pays a visit to Alcide. She wants to know if Alcide will take in Eric, but as soon as she makes her request Debbie appears. During the year Sookie was in Faerieland, Debbie apparently sought treatment for her V addiction, and now she and Alcide are back together. I’m not sure if I entirely believe her. Sookie’s not keen to spend much time with Debbie, so she says she’ll take care of Eric herself and leaves.
There’s definitely some weirdness going on at the Fortenberry house. A creepy, beat-up doll keeps showing up at Hoyt and Jessica’s house, and it looks like Momma Fortenberry is responsible. We see her ordering another doll from a home shopping channel, and it’s apparent that ordering from home shopping is something she does quite often. While she’s on the phone, a man comes to the door, and Tommy talks to him. The main claims to be a prospector who wants to buy natural gas rights from Momma Fortenberry. Tommy pretends he’s her son and essentially says they might be interested. It looks like Tommy is going to try to negotiate the deal without Momma Fortenberry’s knowledge. Tommy brings the plan to Sam, proposing that they can both make money off of it, but Sam’s not having it. He says that if Tommy doesn’t tell Momma Fortenberry about the prospector, he will. Naturally, Tommy is not pleased. Oh, and Jessica ends up giving the creepy doll to Arlene’s baby, which I found pretty hilarious.
Despite what the rest of the coven thinks, Lafayette thinks he, Tara, and Jesus should go to Fangtasia and say that Marnie is responsible for attacking Eric. Tara’s not especially keen on the idea. She’s afraid of getting too mixed in with vampire stuff again. That doesn’t stop Lafayette, though. While Tara is at Merlotte’s trying to convince Sookie to intervene with Eric on the coven’s behalf (Sookie covers brilliantly and says Eric’s gone missing) and flirting with Sam, Lafayette abandons the Merlotte’s kitchen and takes off for Fangtasia. Tara and Jesus soon follow, and they find that Pam is really, really pissed off at Lafayette. Tara and Jesus promise Pam that they can bring her Marnie. If they succeed, Pam won’t hurt any of them. Marnie herself is conducting some sort of strange ritual, begging the spirit that allowed her to attack Eric to possess her once again. She spills a ton of her own blood in the ritual, but it doesn’t seem to work. There is this strange woman sitting on a bed in another room though.
Sookie gets home from work to find that Eric has left the house. She doesn’t have much time to be troubled by that, though, because Claudine pays a visit. Claudine wants to try again to take Sookie back to Faerieland, but Sookie’s not having it. And then Eric superspeeds his way into the scene and kills Claudine. He looks up at Sookie like a little boy who just made a huge mess. My reaction to this was pretty much “Damn you, Alan Ball!” I really don’t understand why he had to change Claudine’s storyline so much from the books. I always found Sookie and Claudine’s friendship to be fun. And of course it had to be Eric who killed her. Because Eric is always evil in the show’s world. Sigh. I’ll stop my rant now before I seriously bore you (one, maybe two) readers.
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