True Blood 2x08 Review

[iaria]

Timebomb

I really enjoyed this episode. It’s definitely going to be another that I consider one of my favourites. But the strange thing about it is that it really feels like a season finale – confrontation with a bad guy (Fellowship), another big bad wreaking havoc and leaving people imperilled (Tara/Eggs/Sam), relationship drama (Jessica/Hoyt), the end of a season long mystery (Godric’s disappearance) and a shocking end to the episode that leaves many main characters imperilled (Sookie, Eric, Jason). This has everything that makes a good season finale – one that would leave people going OMG and then freaking out and talking about it until the new season. ... which I’ve just realised is going to be a freaking ten month wait instead of the usual four. I’ll watch season three while it airs, and it will end in August, and then I’ll have to wait until next June – ie: ten months! – before season four starts. That is so unfair! Damn summer shows.

• So I don’t know that I’ve ever really understood this before but it’s so obvious: Sookie is fucking crazy. I mean I adore Sookie standing up for herself, I love her mad fearlessness and the way she doesn’t seem to know how to back down even in the face of something that can crush her like a bug. I love her. But, damn... she pushed and she pushed and then she kept pushing Lorena, and I mean I can’t blame her for being mad but this was definitely a situation where it would have been far better for her to leave with Bill rather than for her to stand her ground and confront what torments her. "Bill chose me. And yet you still won't give up. Don't you have any shame?", that was enough but then to end with "Go find someone else, you fucking bitch! You've lost this one!" when Lorena just threatened her, and knowing that Lorena is stronger than Bill, that no one else will intercede, and the consequences of the last time he did – and yet she still screams it at Lorena. Sookie isn’t stupid; she knows all this and has the smarts to put together anything she doesn’t, so – crazy. Hmm. I wonder if this – inability to allow someone to hit her down or stand in her way without a fight – is because of her childhood? Because she didn’t fight Bartlett, because her parents died, because she was always alone and never alone, and far too knowing for a child? Or just that she is so foolishly nuts. It could be that too. Oh, Sookie.

- What she really needs and what she acts like is like she is a person of power. Her ability does give her some power, some leverage, but not against a vampire that can slash her throat (or a maenad which claws that poison her), and so she needs power. She used her ability in the pilot to wrap a chain around a neck and squeeze and yet she hasn’t done it since, even as the danger increases and it becomes something she needs even more. That is the sort of thing that Sookie needs to learn and be able to do. If she’s going to keep playing in the supernatural sandbox, going to keep being crazy reckless with her words and fearless with her safety (especially when she should), then she needs to be able to back it up with power and strength.

• Sookie: He’s your Maker, isn’t he?
Eric: Don’t use words you don’t understand.
Sookie: You have a lot of love for him.
Eric: ...Don’t use words I don’t understand.

My favourite exchange in the episode, this was just so amazingly acted. I love it. This is the beginning of Sookie’s understanding of Eric. And Eric... oh, that last line kills me.

• The Sookie/Eric interactions were fabulous. I love them. I want so much more because they are one of the most interesting parts of this show for me. I love the concern between the two of them all over this episode, though mainly concentrated during the confrontation with the Fellowship. Sookie’s concern for him when they were caught and he was tied down, his concern for her that lead him to add her release to Godric’s for his sacrifice (Godric isn’t the only thing he cares about just the one he most cares about), her concern that has her immediately upon release leaving Bill’s arms to run and free Eric, and then finally his concern – in both voice and expression, in the intensity directed at her and his unwavering gaze – when he goes to her as soon as things have settled and peace is declared and asks “Are you sure you’re okay?” It was sincere. I love so much how his gaze does not waver from hers the entire time – even when Bill gets possessive and dismisses him Eric does not look at Bill, does not take his eyes from Sookie’s even as he starts to walk away. I love it.

Also his “Trust me” to Sookie at the church was great. I love those type of moments. And minutes later she maybe saves him from a stake and maybe not, and maybe saves him from making the mistake of disobeying an order from Godric but again also maybe not.

• Vampire stories have so much in common and the same or similar stories play out over and over in different canons so I don’t find it too weird that I am finding a lot of connections between Eric/Sookie and Damon/Elena. I hope the former plays out how the latter is so far because TVD is doing their particular version of this tale so very well. (At the same time while I see similarities between Bill/Sookie and Stefan/Elena, they are playing a similar story as well, they’re different enough that I’m not seeing flashes of Stefan and Elena in Bill/Sookie. With Eric/Sookie, however, I’ve now had multiple flashes of it.)

• “The bond between a vampire and his Maker is stronger than you can imagine. (pause) Perhaps one day you’ll find out.” – Eric. So okay this is perhaps mainly Eric poking at Bill about the Lorena situation, revelling in the chaos that he set in motion, but when he first said it in his intense voice and with his intense gaze that was not the first thought that crossed my mind. What crossed my mind was Eric saying ‘I want you to be mine and one day I’ll turn you, and you will be and you will understand and feel the strength of the bond’. I really love the idea of Eric at some point in the future turning Sookie, and of the Sookie/Bill relationship continuing, because there is just so much awesome complicatedness in that. It would be amazing to watch. I know a lot of people hate triangles, the pull and push and back and forth, but I love it – when done right, and when I care about the characters. And vampire triangles can be even more enjoyable.

• I loved this exchange:

Bill: Your contact with Sookie will cease from this moment.
Eric: Well, that’s hardly your decision.
Bill: Calling in my maker because you couldn’t win Sookie for yourself... is feeble and desperate, even for you.
Eric: (smiling) Are you picking a fight? I’d like to see you try.
Bill: She will never be yours. And there is nothing you can do. In this, you are powerless. Accept it.

I do have to shake my head at Bill because frankly his parting shot there felt like a taunt, a dare, a challenge and he should know better than to do something like that; especially to another vampire. Does he truly imagine that him proclaiming that Eric lost and is powerless would make it so? That it would make Eric believe it’s so and thus accept it and move on? Or course not! Bill just offered him Sookie as a challenge and Eric’s smile at Bill fighting back (oh so clumsily) shows so clearly that he is more than willing to accept it. Oh, Bill. Then there’s Eric’s smile – something we only very rarely seen and in fact I can’t ever remember seeing him smile so widely before. It’s a challenge and he is oh so happy to accept it.

And of course there’s also the ways that this whole thing reeks of foreshadowing because I know the canon this series is based off and I’ve read and seen vampire mythology before and Bill saying ‘she will never be yours’ can only mean that she will.

• “Let's be honest. We are frightening. After thousands of years, we haven't evolved. We've only grown more brutal, more predatory. I don't see the danger in treating humans as equals.” – Godric. ...and with that Eric’s entire world shifts, has been turned upside down, and I don’t think he even knows it or understands it yet. Godric is everything to him, his word and desires are what’s true and right, so to have Godric says ‘humans can be equals’ and ‘our violent ways aren’t good, aren’t what we’re supposed to be’ and to have Godric show understanding for humans fear, and compassion towards them (and for a vampire’s love for them), and to show/name Sookie friend – how can Eric’s world view after this not change? I mean it’s Godric saying and doing all this; so for Eric it will have to change because Godric is his template

Another thing here is that this can only make Eric’s interest in Sookie increase since not only did Godric send him off to save Sookie but then he calls her a ‘courageous and loyal friend’ and that’s not something Eric is going to forget. Sookie now has Godric’s express approval and support which means she is worthy of both those things. I can definitely see his interest in protecting her increasing.

• I really like Godric so it’s really too bad that he’s going to die. I already knew that Godric is going to die before starting the series but I find I really like him and I’d love to see him and Sookie interacting more. I don’t know when he’s going to die though. I thought he was going to go up in flames at the church but no. I’m actually thinking that he won’t be dying by Luke’s suicide bombing since he appears to be one of the most protected (as far as where he’s standing) but who knows.

• What I find really interesting about this whole thing is that Eric is a Sheriff the same as Godric which implies that he has the same amount of power. But you look at Godric’s nest – the large, gorgeous modern house full of tons of vampires (sophisticated and not) and then you look at Eric and his sleazy club and the two vampire followers and the crazy human and Eric just seems so much... smaller. Why doesn’t he have such a nest? I could see him in Godric’s place easily so why doesn’t he have something similar? Or is he purposefully keeping himself smaller than Godric?

• “I don’t like to be touched.” – Eric. Oh, that stood out to me. Does this mean we’re going to have Sookie touching him in the next episode? It has to proceed an increase in touching between him and somebody; of him finding someone that he does like to be touched by (and I vote Sookie).

• Something interesting though I don’t know if there’s any meaning to it: last season during grams wake Lafayette told Tara that all the leftover food was full of bad juju and that she shouldn’t eat it (and when she did that she would regret it). Now Tara is caught in what could be called some serious bad juju and a large part of Maryann’s thing is food and consumption. It’s been a part of it from the beginning and now it’s kind of hit its pinnacle with Tara (and Eggs) eating a soufflé made of Daphne’s heart. ...Ew. Poor Tara. I really, really hope that she does not learn the truth about that whole eating someone’s heart thing (and someone she knows at that!). It’s also making me think that the theory that the town’s folk ended up eating Nancy’s heart during one of those orgies is true.

• I loved how much Jason was all about ‘I love my sister’ this episode. When it comes down to it Jason is always going to be on one side: Sookie’s. His apology to Bill, and basically accepting Bill into the family, was great on his part but funny on Bill’s just because of how completely awkward Bill was about it. The hug was hilarious. That man needs more people to hug him.

• Jessica and Hoyt continue to be adorable but, man, poor Jessica, forever a virgin.

• It was interesting to see Sookie, and Jason, casually talking to various vampires at Godric’s nest. I mean it seemed like Sookie was making friends with one female vamp before Lorena showed up, and then at the end Jason was chatting up another, and it’s just interesting considering the vampires we’ve met, and they’ve interacted with, before this. Also at the end there was Sookie actually talking with Eric? Huh.