After last week’s frenetic episode, this week’s installment of “True Blood” — titled “I Smell A Rat” — calmed down the pace, as we make our final push towards the season finale.
First off, the writers don’t tease us by dragging out last week’s big question: What is Sookie? As many have speculated (and as spelled out in Charlaine Harris’ books), Ms. Stackhouse is part fairy — a development even she finds “f—king lame.” Bill explains that Claudine is afraid for her because every supernatural believes the fae race was wiped out of existence by vampires. Then, to borrow a phrase from Pam, he talks about blah blah, I love you for your mind and and not your blood, blah blah. For all his lovespeak, however, Sookie is vaguely aware that Bill is still not to be trusted — a sentiment that is echoed by dream-Eric and later again by real-life Eric.
Real-life Eric, meanwhile, is worried about dying the “true death” at the hands of an enraged Russell and draws up a will in which Pam is the main beneficiary. He also kisses Sookie after she comes to inquire about why she shouldn’t trust Bill, which was oddly unromantic, given the circumstances. Eric also refuses to turn Sookie over Russell, but after some goading from Pam, decides to use her as a tool to help save his own life. His first action? To lock her up in the basement dungeon.
Back in Bon Temps, Tara spits at the puddle of goo that was Franklin the vampire, after asking Jason to help her dig and bury the crazy vamp’s remains (which Jason, bless his heart, starts to do with his bare hands). Tara later thanks Jason by kissing him — only to have him tell her that he’s actually the one that actually shot Eggs. It’s not exactly the most opportune time for Jason to share this news, given that Tara is the on verge of a serious psychological breakdown, but he’s essentially been guilted into doing so by his sister. (Note to writers: Please give Tara a break. The poor girl has been through enough, and then some.)
Sam continues to chafe again being called a weakling all the time, and through drunken flashbacks, we learn he’s not new to sudden bursts of anger: back when he was a grifter, he was once double-crossed by his lover/partner and her secret lover/partner. In his dog state, he tracked down the duplicitous couple, made threats, and by the end of the incident, had shot dead two people.
Lafayette saves Crystal’s dad, who had been slugged by Sam last episode, by giving him two drops of V, which leads to two separate things: Crystal’s oh-so-thankful dad slaps his daughter for letting Lafayette and Jesus give him V, which inspires her to renounce her “whole new dimension of trash” family and show her true were-panther state to Jason (um, could the production not spare some more realistic effects?). The other consequence of Lafayette’s act was to make Jesus curious about drinking vampire blood. Cue the inevitable sequence of hallucinatory dreams — was Jesus’ dad a witch doctor? — and descent into addiction for the mental patient nurse.
To wrap things up, Terry once again proves he’s far too good for Arlene for embracing the fact that she’s not pregnant with his baby, while she frets she’s giving birth to evil incarnate and seeks advice from wiccan waitress Holly about “natural” ways of inducing an abortion. And even though Jessica thinks she’s not good enough for Hoyt, he ends up confessing his love for her. When she can’t speak, he tears off and punches a mouthy Tommy. Tommy in turn shifts into a pitbull and attacks Hoyt, before Jessica saves the day by flinging Tommy into the woods as if he were a rag doll and offering her blood for Hoyt to drink. Russell continues on his crazy train and stakes a male prostitute he pretends is Talbot.
In all, a fairly expository episode clearly setting up a big showdown for the finale.
Readers, what did you think? Were you surprised by the revelation that Sookie’s a fairy? How does Eric plan to use her? What is the significant of Jesus and Lafayette’s V-induced hallucination?
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