True Blood – “It Hurts Me Too” – review

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This week was kind of a slow week around Bon Temps.  It seemed like a set-up episode, where the happenings are small and mostly about maneuvering events to line up for bigger action a bit further along.  Also, my cable was out for the first 7 or 8 minutes of the show, so if something major happened then that I’m not mentioning, that’s why.

Sookie’s plotline had two parts, continuing the short arc from the first two episodes and setting up for the next short arc.  She shot Eric, but he killed the werewolf anyway, but not before she heard him think “Jackson.”  Eric had to tell her meant Jackson, Mississippi, which seemed a little bit of a stretch to me.  Everyone here knows Jackson, and can recognize a not-from-here accent.  Yes, it was funny for Eric to mutter “can’t you people tell the difference?” but it wasn’t believable.

Tara and the random not-friends-with-Bill vampire repair to a cheap hotel and have amazing sex following the incident with her beating up the rednecks.  Next day she gets a call to go to Eggs’ funeral, which Sookie paid for, so they make up and Tara agrees to move back in with her. 

Jessica had a funny run-in with the same vampire, showing her fangs at him only to have him flash hers.  I have to say, the more scrapes Jessica gets into, the more clear it is that Bill’s pretty shitty as a maker.  He really hasn’t told her anything about how to survive or protect herself or deal with the realities of vampire life—he’s a parallel to what her human parents were.  I’m glad she’s bonded with Pam a little bit, to have at least someone who can tell her what’s what in her new life.  So we learn that the new vampire is Franklin, but we don’t know who he is, who sent him there, or what he wants.  Only that it has something to do with Bill and therefore, Sookie, and therefore Tara who Sookie loves.  Can I just say that I’m sick of Tara getting used as a tool by these forces of evil?  Girl’s mind must be like a sieve these days.  Also is that going to be her entire plot point in the series, The Way Enemies Get to Sookie?  She deserves a better storyline than that.  And on the whole Franklin glamouring her to get invited into the house—isn’t that impossible?  I thought that was the one way vampires couldn’t use glamour?  Maybe that was never explicitly said and just seems like it should be against their natural laws. 

The main function Eric had after the fight and his hints at mooning over Sookie was to dangle “all the money [he] could make” in front of Lafayette.  Will be interesting to see if Lafayette can be tempted into working full-time for the vampires instead of just on the side, now that we know his situation with his mother.  Or will Eric find that out and use it against him?  At least we know why Eric and Pam keep coming to him, though—he’s “invaluable” because he’s discreet and knows people who know he’s discreet.  Yes, professionalism always pays.

Sam takes his leave from his folks, only to have them show up the next day at Merlotte’s for an awkward reunion.   Eventually he throws them out for letting his underage brother (not quite 20) drink.  His alarm goes off that night, and he finds his brother’s clothes in his office, which had obviously been rifled through.  Mayhap he should’ve listened to his foster mom when she said they were no good folk.  Unclear what was taken or what information his brother got, but of course it’s going to come back later.

After the meth lab take-down last week, Jason decides he’s going to be a sheriff’s deputy, only to keep having anxiety dreams about the test until he decides he’s not good enough after all.  Since Sheriff Deerborne quit after they find the handless decapitated body of Jessica’s kill that Franklin had disposed of, I wonder if Andy will make Jason some kind of back-door deputy that avoids all the bureaucracy?  I kind of feel like the show needs to make up their minds whether they are going to have character growth, or a realistic timeline.  Jason makes this tension clear, because I’m getting kind of tired of seeing Jason at loose ends—it’s only interesting and/or funny for so long, and then it just gets tiresome—but a guy like him maybe can’t get his head and his future figured out in 3 months.  They need to commit one way or the other, though.  What made me think of this is the reference to real-time with Arlene.  She gets herself to the OBGYN only to find out she’s about 10 weeks along—which means it’s Rene’s, not Terry’s.  But yet Jason never thinks about Amy even though she’s been gone less than those 10 weeks?  Either apply the timeline, or don’t, but be consistent about it!!!

Back to Sookie, who heads to Jackson with the werewolf Alcine who’s daddy owes Eric a debt so he got sent by the Sheriff to go with her.  She finds one of Cooter’s pack who was in the car with Bill but gets nothing else out of him before he gets rough and Alcine comes to her rescue.  The bouncer tells Alcine “She’s not worth it…Debbie”—meaning not Sookie but his ex.  Bouncer tells him Debbie and Cooter are getting engaged, party’s the next night…guess what he and Sookie will be crashing?  I’m actually kind of excited about that, because Debbie’s played by Brit Morgan, and I have been looking forward to seeing her as the werewolf girl since I saw that casting announcement.

The biggest development this episode was Bill renouncing Louisiana and pledging his fealty to the King of Mississippi, so the king will leave Sookie alone.  He calls off the hunt for her, which makes Lorena mad, but the king is more interested in keeping his promise to Bill than his promise to her.  The episode ends with another of Bill’s fantasies about killing Lorena—this time he drinks her blood and maybe rapes her (if he actually did was unclear) and then twists her head around a full 180 degrees, but she keeps talking.  Gruesome but creative at once.  I wonder if every episode will end with him having a similar fantasy?  And does that mean she will be the series regular who doesn’t make it out of this season alive (“alive”)?  That would be nice.  She is getting tiresome.  Her obsession with Bill has never been adequately explained, and her one-dimensionality does not make her an interesting villain.  So if all the show can do with her is keep having her get in the way and collude against Bill with anyone who’ll get into bed with her, then she needs to go.  Otherwise it’s just too predictable—oh, something’s going wrong in Bill’s life?  Lorena must be behind it.

So, long summary for a slow-on-the-action episode, I know.  Hopefully next week will be a little less talk, etc.

Check out a promo for the next episode of True Blood!

5 Comments

1. 

   Samantha Melrose

   June 28, 2010 at 3:00 pm

   Each time Bill attempts to kill Lorena he’s actually doing it. They revealed at the beginning of this episode that Bill really did set Lorena on fire. At the end of this episode I don’t think you can qualify what Bill does to Lorena as rape, if anything she’s the one in control. He’s trying to keep her away from him and continuously says no, but as his maker she has power over him and can control him. In then end of the episode she commands him to have sex with her. But I completely agree about her uselessness throughout the show. I’m just angry whenever she shows up in an episode. She’s a completely flat character and has no other desire besides wanting Bill. I really hope she’s staked soon.

   Reply
2. 

   disappointed

   June 28, 2010 at 3:09 pm

   This isn’t a review at all. You should call it a play by play synopsis. I found this site hoping for a critique or discussion of the more interesting twists the plot could take or intersting character developments.

   Reply
3. 

   Elena Nola

   June 28, 2010 at 3:15 pm

   @ S – thanks for filling that part in. as i said i missed the first bit, so i took it as his anger management fantasies.

   @ disappointed – where, exactly, are the plot twists and character developments in this episode? that was half of my point, that there’s nothing there to talk about yet. in my opinion. if you have theories by all means share–i’m happy to have a discussion!

   Reply
4. 

   gtry5

   June 29, 2010 at 1:15 pm

   I rather miss the black eyed orgies. I don’t look at the characters the same anymore and find it odd that the ones privy to that knowledge are able to act so normal about it.

   The new season has been fun as always but I feel it is setting things up a tad too much with so many flashbacks and sweet sweet memories.

   I’d lose interest if it kept up like this without a very impressive payoff – and an immediate one.

   The only show I watch as regular as I do this one is breaking bad.

   Reply
5. 

   Eli

   July 10, 2010 at 12:44 am

   These days, a plot twist is twisting a girls head backward while having rough sex. I am disturbed by True Blood’s recent special effects, which recalls the worst of Smallville (vampires zooming around, slo-mo bullets).

   Reply