TRUE BLOOD

Season Two, Episode One

“Nothing But The Blood”

Written by Alexander Woo


(Warning:  Spoilers abound from this point forwards)


The producers of “True Blood” make good use of cliffhanger.  Season One’s episodes without exception ended on one, including the finale.  Now, with Season Two underway the audience gets to see how the show meets, fails to meet, or exceeds our expectations.


Not everything is a surprise, although plenty turns out to be.  The body in Andy’s car is not Lafayette, but Miss Jeanette – the so-called “healer” who swindled Tara and her Mom out of thousands of dollars (although, since Lettie Mae did dry up, was that a swindle?).  Exactly who might be the killer who tore Miss Jeanette’s heart out shapes up to be the mystery of this season.  One of several, as it turns out, and we’ll just have to see how interconnected they all really are.


Miss Jeanette’s death, it turns out, is bad news for lots of folks, not least Detective Andy.  Who wants to find a dead woman in their car, after all?  Especially if you’re a local police detective still smarting over a very public misjudgment, and trying to wash away the sting of it with lots and lots and lots of beer.  Detective Andy is a fine example of a quality this show explores with great finesse – irony.  Yeah, he’s an arrogant snob of sorts, but it is also true that when Vampire Bill explained his own logical (and, as we learned, correct) theory about the murders it was Andy who listened and found them compelling.  Likewise, one can hardly blame him for looking at Jason Stackhouse with suspicion – it seemed like every victim save one was an ex-lover of his, and the boy even confessed to the crime!  Yet despite all this, and his overbearing manner, Andy earns more than a twinge or two of sympathy.  He’s not a caricature, but a person.


Lafayette, meanwhile, is chained up in what sure looks like a dungeon.  Nor is he alone, but soon joined by one of the rednecks he beat up weeks back.  Poor Lafayette is more than a bit upset, is in fact sinking in depression and what one suspects he’s never done much of before now – contemplation of his life. 
One would expect in most programs that this would lead to some soul-searching, to turning over a new leaf, to a turn towards the better in his life (providing he survives).  Me, I’m not so sure.  This is not a show that goes where one expects all the time.


One the other hand, some conflicts are almost too obvious for words.  Vampire Bill hasn’t been a father for something like a century and a half.  Now he’s saddled with a teenage vampire!  This is not going to be a relationship without explosions, not least when Bill insists she change her clothes so she won’t look like a “slattern.”  When he tells her what the word means, Jessica’s reaction is “Awesome!”  From there we can pretty much tell that when she meets Sookie it’ll be an event.  Sure enough, the girl interrupts an intimate moment by walking in wearing nothing but a towel!


What could have been a comedy of errors, thought, turns into something deeper (well, maybe the comedy of errors happened, but we didn’t see it).  Sookie is upset, not so much because a teenage girl is going to be living in Bill’s house, nor that he turned this girl into a vampire (which would have been my bet – although under the circumstances he had little choice).  No, she has the more adult reaction of realizing Bill has lied to her.  Yeah, he sees it as trying to protect her.  In his time, that might even have made sense.  But not to Sookie.  She demands to know what else he has been lying about and he lies – says “Nothing.” 
Most impressive is how Bill is clearly lying yet we can believe that Sookie would believe him, or at least try to.  And we know this will blow up in his face (as it does) just as we know that it won’t be too long before Sookie lies to Bill (life is like that – and I feel real secure in that prediction).


Frankly, Vampire Jessica seems one of the most interesting newcomers to the cast of characters.  Already we’re getting hints that she’s much more than the whining teenage slattern-wannabe.  She’s the one who presses a great big button in Sookie’s soul marked GUILT because Jessica’s turning was because Bill saved Sookie’s life.  Yet she doesn’t go on pressing that button.  She even tries to do what Bill insists – namely, taste all sorts of different combination of the blood substitute True Blood to find something doesn’t taste too bad.  It is also a nice touch that Bill takes the time to do so, trying his best to be a good dad. 
That Jessica goes along is also something of a clue about her home life while still breathing.


Last season, it seemed pretty obvious to me that either Jason (slutboy with the heart of gold but brain of tin) or his friend Hoyt would meet and hook up with Jessica.  Or both.  Right now my money is on Hoyt, because he’s shy and because Sookie’s nice but stupid brother is getting involved in the rabidly anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun.  He doesn’t seem to particularly realize their main agenda, but is smart enough to lie to Sookie about which Church he’s spending time with.  Along those lines, Jason meets Reverend Steve Newlin and his wife – a slick pair of televangelists preaching the word of human superiority.  The Reverend’s father, step-mother and younger sister were killed in a car accident widely believed to be a murder last season.  During a television debate, he says “Who stood to gain by my father’s death?”  The obvious answer to that question is in his mirror.  But right now, I’m suspecting his wife.


We also learn a little bit about Sam’s past with Mary Anne.  Precisely what she is remains a mystery (something to do with Ancient Greek mythology maybe), but we do see in flashback their meeting.  A teenaged Sam slipped into her home through the pet door to get some food and valuables to steal.  This tall beautiful woman interrupts him, and ends up taking his virginity.  Mary Anne also gets to tell off Lettie Mae, telling that self-righteous ex-drunk (notice how ex-drunks sometimes get that way) exactly what many of us wanted to say.  The lines themselves were almost stilted, but Michelle Forbes carried it off (the cast of this program is excellent).


All sorts of things are set up by episode’s end.  Sookie learns the uncle who molested her as a child is dead, leaving a small inheritance.  She gives the money to Jason, who uses it to attend a Leadership Camp for the Fellowship.  Meanwhile, Sookie confronts Bill, rightly believing he had something to do with her uncle’s death.  He does not lie this time, but affirms how much he loves her.  The make-up sex that follows looks intense, and makes one wonder about a real-life couple doing stuff like this in front of a camera.  The fights, those might be therapeutic, but sex scenes with your actual significant other – might not that be just incredibly awkward.


We also learn that Lafayette’s captor is none other than Vampire Eric – and when another captive turns out to have a silver cross which he uses to attack the undead Sheriff, Lafayette gets a graphic view of what happens when a vampire is wounded and angry…


To be continued in Episode Two.



 
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