It's official: I hereby relinquish my "Bill Compton Recycles" T-shirt and am replacing it with a black, tight-fitted "Team Eric" ribbed tank. Eric is manipulative. Sly. Deceitful. Cunning. A womanizer. Vapid. And ... incredibly intoxicating. Look, people, I'm being stifled by BillBoredom! Aren't you? His whines and longing stares cast at Sookie are driving me absolutely crazy. This is not the set of Twilight.For the first time ever, I found myself "shooing" Bill off screen so I could watch Eric and Sookie interact. Overlooking what this says about my grasp on reality, this is a profound shift in my True Blood paradigm.
Now, look: In the long run, perhaps Bill is the one for Sook. If I had things my way, they'd end up together down the road after Bill gets his mojo back. What's the fun of dating a vamp if said vampire is about as suave as a wet blanket? So I totally support letting Sookie have some fun with Eric. After all, she's only ever been with Bill. Yes, Eric has a crap ton of checks in the "con" column, but check out this pro—he truly feels genuine, heart-stopping love. That scene on the rooftop this week, where he bids adieu to Godric, was more real than anything I've watched Bill deal with since we met. That's love. It was pure, chaotic, messy, heart-breaking love. What else can a girl ask for? I'll take that with a side of, you know, murderous tendencies, as long as the killing is justified. Lately, Eric just seems so better suited to Sookie's zest and zing. And the sight of their flawless blond highlighted heads bent together in a sexy embrace? A welcome change of pace for this blogger. Besides, what else can the guy do but save her live time after time? Bring on Sookie/Eric, if only for the hope that it'll bring the fight back in poor beleaguered Bill. (Oh, and note to wardrobe: can we get him some snappier threads?)
So Luke carried out Steve Newlins wishes and the bomb actually went off. Of course, I should have guessed the exact opposite of what I thought would happen (situation: diffused) would actually happen (bomb: goes boom). The "before" shot of Godric's pad, looking very much a shoo in for the next P. Diddy white party, was a bloody, gory, gooey mess after Luke executed his plan. And what's this? Bill is outside when the bomb goes off, leaving Sookie unaccompanied? Tsk, tsk, Bill. You should know better. Eric throws himself on Sookie to save her. His "help me I'm dying" plea was so ridiculously contrived I can't believe Sookie didn't see right through it. All I could think about was Squints faking his death to steal a kiss from Wendy Peppercorn in The Sandlot. Same thing happened here, just, you know, with the added elements of chest sucking, silver and copious streaming blood. "I sucked his chest!" Sookie says. "What is wrong with me?" Bill is so not a fan. Eric's a vamp; he'd heal up so quick that silver would pop right out. Now Sookie, post-Eric-blood-ingesting, shares a newfound connection to him, and Eric, some of him being carried inside her, now has a sort of vampire GPS in place,swimming through Sookie's veins. Bill warns Sookie that she might begin to feel sexual attraction to him. Sookie is totally, "As if," but unless you're living under a rock, you know what's coming.
Now that Jason has seen the light, he and Sookie seem to be coming 'round to each other again. They shared a nice moment in the hotel room, and I was glad for that. But then there was ... the dream. Sookie. Eric. Naked. Hawt. You can't deny how great the two look together. Dream Sookie tells Dream Eric there "is love inside him," and Dream Eric tells Dream Sookie that "this is just the beginning." When she wakes up, back to reality—She's in bed with a sleeping Bill. The juxtaposition between the two scenes was incredible. Eric was all things warm, sexy and fiery; Bill was all things .... zzzzzzzz.
When Sookie hears that Godric is going to commit suicide, she is quick to do something about it. Why must she always have to save someone? Can't she just chillax and be a hot chick in love with a vampire? At least for one day. Bill's "Sookie, you're so tender hearted" made me gag a little.
So Sookie goes to Godric on the roof, and the scene was one of the most moving I've seen on True Blood. As I already mentioned, Eric's emotional breakthrough was fantastic. I fell for him so fast I thought I jumped off that roof. But even more awesome was Godric's sheer adulation at the fact that upon his death, here was a human, crying for him. "In 2,000 years, I can still be surprised. In this, I see God." Tissues, please! I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly why Godric had to die. I understand he's passed the sheriff reigns on to the dazzling Isabella, but Ann Coulter ... oops, I mean Nan Flanagan ... fired him, not sentenced him to death, right?
In Bon Temps ... more of the same. Hoyt, incapable of saying the word "hymen," takes Jessica to meet his momma at Merlotte's. It, of course, does not go to plan—"I simply object to a girlfriend who will kill you and eat you. I think that's reasonable." Not a bad point. So it's not surprise that Mamma Hoyt is impervious to Jessica's lilting charms and manages to send her away crying after she says Jessica will never be able to give him a baby. That's it for Hoyt, who says he ain't never coming home again.
Meanwhile, at Sookie's, Maryann is up to more of her evil. Anyone else think Maryann's storyline is getting a little tired? She's evil, she manipulates human feelings, she cackles, repeat. This week we saw the "morning after" effect of the Tara/Eggs smackfest. I genuinely feel Eggs is good; he seems so bothered by what's going on with him. Tara, too, of course, but it's driving me nuts that neither of them has the good sense to kick Maryann to the curb or get someone else to do it. Does fear root them under her roof? (Let's not forget: it ain't "her" roof. It's Gran Stackhouse's. And when the only Stackhouses left come back to Bon Temps and get an eyeful of what Maryann has been doing, I have a feeling a badass eviction notice will soon follow.) Lafayette is getting agitated about what's going on with Tara, so he and Tara's mom steal her from Sookie's while she's in all her black-eyed glory, but not before they're each handed a beatdown.
As all of Bon Temps has now found itself completely under Maryann's spell, except for Andy B and Sam, who shifted out of jail in the form of a fly, Maryann has complete control. But for how long? Bill, Sookie and Jason (and Eric?) seem to be beating a path back to Bon Temps. They better hurry, too—there's only three episodes left before the season finale, which is sure to leave heads just a spinnin' in its wake.
To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed by this episode, aside from the Sookie/Eric angle. i can't expect every episode to rock so hard, but here's hoping next week really delivers. —amy kates
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As an FYI, today I stuck my nose in the first book of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, Dead Until Dark. I've pulled said nose out to write this blog, and fully intend on puttin' it right back in when I'm through. It's very interesting. I like it a lot, although the differences are striking. Reading it is making me want to watch Season 1 all over again. If you can get past hearing the whole book told to you in Anna Paquin's heavy Bayou accent, it's a fun read, and lets you fall in love all over again with what originally sold you on the show: Sookie and Bill. My friends tell me it gets even better when I get to Book 3. However, I'm not so sure I want to read the books ahead of the upcoming season. Ruin the surprise that waits for me behind every mossy Southern oak growing in the Bon Temps cemetery? No thanks.