True Blood – “I Got a Right to Sing the Blues” – review

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Since I’m already a day late with this, thought I’d try and keep it short and to the point.  Sixth episode, halfway through the season, and the big problem(s) of the new situation have hit a turning point.  No doubt there will still be one more layer of wrinkles to come in the next few episodes before the big conclusion, but for now we’re almost in the lull before the storm breaks.

In ascending order of interest to me:

Jason got the Cut Direct from Crystal.  Is it anything more than her being the fiancée of a drug-runner?  Not liking his new direction into bad abusive cop (though it’s funny that he’s doing it before he’s even a proper deputy) but I think the show just doesn’t know what to do with him.  Let him grow, and never mind if he’s still comic relief…the longer he stays exactly the same after having been through more and more craziness, the less real and less relatable he becomes.

Speaking of growing as a character:  Poor Lafayette, to get dissed after all when Jesus learned he was a drug dealer.  Well, Jesus was an upstanding citizen, and Lafayette, as we all know, is not.  I expect the show will continue its current drive toward blatant soap-opera-ism and bring him back like that’s not a big deal…but even if they don’t, I enjoyed the hint at vulnerability and sweetness in Lafayette.

Sookie saving Bill—of course Lorena was still going to be in the room.  Is Sookie going to finally manage to use her hand-magic on a vampire to get Lorena off her?  Or is it going to depend upon Alcide driving up in the car/running up in his wolf form to save them both?  Speaking of Alcide–how lame was it that he’s the white wolf?  Overplayed symbolism.  Also, found the discussion between Bill and Lorena kind of fascinating in this sense:  it implied a certain “in my own image” relationship between vampire Makers and their children.  God complex?  Or just a passing the “sins of the fathers unto the next generation” thing?  Either way, intriguing layer to the concept of Making.  And Bill did put it quite elegantly:  “My nature was never yours.”  Truth.

Queen Sophie-Anne’s agreement to Russell’s proposal was priceless:  “God damn it.”  Words of love if I ever heard them.

Tara beating the head off of Franklin.  Literally.  Holy shit!  That was hard-core.  That whole scene, really.  Tara might be crazy and fucked nine ways from sunrise when it comes to her perspective on the world, but girl is a survivor.  The way she bit Franklin—“you don’t have to ask me twice!”—and tore a hole in his throat, with the intention all along of making him so tired/replete/fooled that he’d sleep…damn.  And then taking an object and literally smashing his head in…double damn.  Unfortunately for Tara, there’s a triple damn in there, which is that she didn’t stake him, and we didn’t see him explode, and that means Franklin’s coming back for more.  Watch your step, Tara, girl!

Joe Lee and Sam’s mom running a dog-fighting scam.  We all knew there was something going on with them, and now we know.  Those scars on Tommy’s back are from fighting, yeah, but fighting because he had no choice, not because he was just a rabble-rouser.  I bet he’s as sweet as he seems whenever Sam talks to him alone, or how he was acting with Jessica.  A lover, not a fighter, which makes that situation even worse for him.  Poor kid.  Too bad they didn’t save that reveal/kidnapping (if you can call it kidnapping when it’s their own kid and they guilted him into agreeing to go, anyway) for a few episodes later, after Tommy and Jessica get a little more friendly.  Then they could just turn a pissed off starving newborn vampire on the dog-fighters and tear the whole circle up like they deserve instead of whatever Sam will actually accomplish with his revolver.  Yeah, he should’ve brought her along for the ride…then all he’d have to do would be to lock the doors behind them.  Will be interesting to see how that plays out.  Hoping it ends with the parents out of the way (dead, run off, arrested, whatever) and Sam able to give his brother a chance at a real life.

And finally the most compelling storyline of the episode and now the season.  Eric.  Oh, my God, I am LOVING Eric right now.  He is in full-on “I will stop at nothing for revenge” mode.  All his pledged (alleged) tender feelings for Sookie?  Didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell against his revenge ethos.  Playing a poof because he thinks that might get him closer to the King?  No problem.  Forswearing the Queen and pledging to King Russell to keep his trust?  Didn’t even blink.  I.  Love.  It.  Can’t wait to see him go all Viking berserker on the King’s ass.  The show better not pull any punches on that and make him like have to choose between his revenge and Sookie and choose Sookie.  No, he better pick revenge.  I wonder, though, if Pam being in the Magistrate’s hands will play into this, if he might have to choose between Pam—his favorite child—and revenge?

Oh, it’s just all so exciting!

One Comment

1. 

   Annie

   July 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm

   I think the Russell / Eric thing will continue to the end of the season. It’s such a great storyline because it pays tribute to the long lives the vamps had before the era of Sookie.

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