"True Blood" Recap: Shit Gets More Real

Has it really been an entire week since I blogged? I suck. This week needs to be better! (Of course, KEL could blog too. She acts like she's been busy or something ...)

ANYWHO ... Sunday night's "True Blood" was the best of the season, hands down. We're finally really getting into the meat of the season. It's been quite a build-up, but it's starting to really, really pay off in big ways. I said, "Holy shit!" and "Oh my gosh!" out loud many times this episode, and not just because we got to see Joe Manganiello's ass in all its glory.

Jason runs over to talk Sookie out of wasting her fairy power, and soon they find themselves back at the fae strip club talking to Claude and the Claudettes. They tell her that they can use magical physics to channel what happened on the bridge to find out who killed Sookie's parents. But when we do, soon Sookie starts channeling the vampire, Warlow. At the end of the episode, the Big Bad Warlow appears to Sookie and tells her, "I'm coming for you. You are mine!" Ummm, eek.

Terry and Patrick also have a Big Bad coming for them, and Arlene convinces Lafayette (who drives back to Bon Temps with Ghost Jesus, in a heart-melting moment) to do a fake seance to convince Terry and Patrick that the smoke monster isn't after them. However, it backfires when the pissed-off Iraqi woman actually shows up to the party and tells Lafayette that Terry must kill Patrick, or vice versa.

Meanwhile, Alcide is gearing up for his packmaster challenge by having sex with What's-Her-Name, which, while great (because Joe Manganiello was naked, natch), is also disappointing because it should be Sookie! Eric. OMG. What are you doing to me?

Anyway, after the sexytimes, Alcide shows up, but forfeits when J.D. says that they're going to compete by tracking and killing a human. Alcide tries to intervene, which gives the college track star J.D. chose a chance to run away, but Alcide gets his ass thoroughly handed to him and probably would be dead if Martha hadn't stepped in and convinced J.D. that killing Alcide would tarnish the pack's reputation.

In more shifter news, the most shocking AND most hilarious thing of the episode, I think, was Luna shifting into Sam. Sam Trammell deserves a cabinet full of Emmys for the way he played Luna-as-Sam. Anyway, Luna shifts because she's epically pissed, and she can't shift back, and she knows she'll die if she stays in his skin too long. At least, that's as much as I can remember from the stupid skinwalker storyline from last season. Anyway, Sam comforting someone who looks exactly like himself was weirdly awesome. Sam confesses his love for Luna, and she turns back into herself, then promptly ralphs.

Sam wasn't just a comforter for Luna this episode, though. He interrogates the hillbilly he caught at the hospital until he tells him and Andy where they're hiding out ... with Jessica in silver! Yes, Hoyt's new buddies took the liberty of capturing Jessica (who played right into their hands - bad Jessica!) and told Hoyt to kill her. He didn't, of course, and instead he and Jessica dispatched of the remaining hicks and Hoyt escaped. (Jessica couldn't, because it was daylight.) Hoyt doesn't make it far, though, before someone (we don't know who!) sticks a gun in his face.

In other vampire news, Tara meets up with a racist, stupid bitch from high school and gets into it with the woman, earning her a scolding from Pam. At least, that's what she thinks ... until Pam takes her downstairs into their dungeon and glamors the girl into being Tara's own personal Mean Girl Meal. "You don’t know me that well. My mad face and my happy face are the same," Pam tells her before Tara starts to feed. I am worried about the pair of them - as much as I love their relationship, I think Eric is going to be pissed when he gets back ...

... Because Eric is now the mainstreaming champion of the Authority, apparently. Eric feels bad for their night of Lillith-blood-induced debauchery, and so does Bill, apparently ... until he decides to drink from a young woman Salome offers him.

Eric, meanwhile, tries to convince Nora that Godric didn't want them to eat humans, but Nora is unmoved, calling Godric a blasphemer. Eric looks genuinely hurt by the whole exchange, but it's nothing compared to the hurt on his face when his bromance partner Bill comes up with a great idea to hurt the mainstreamers and get vampires in charge - bomb the TruBlood factories. What a turnaround, huh? Eric used to be the shady one, with Bill on the straight-and-narrow, but Eric is feeling quite warm-and-fuzzy toward humans now. Crazy.

A few closing thoughts:

• Russell and Steve Newlin are an amazing pair. Seriously, their chatter was one of the highlights of the show.
• Sam Trammell is a gem! I almost want Luna to shift back into Sam just to see the way he walked.
• Is Bill actually going evil or just being opportunistic? And does it matter? If he comes to his senses, will he be able to live with himself?
• Does Alexander Skarsgaard have the best hurt puppy-dog face ever? (Answer: Yes.)

All I know is, I can hardly wait for next week!

"True Blood" Recap: Shit's Gettin' Real

There's a moment in every season of "True Blood" where shit starts to get real.

Sure, we've had some dramatic moments so far, but last night was the first time when I really got the sense that there will be some big shakeups before the end of the season.

So, it looks like Sookie might not be fae for terribly much longer, at least at the rate she's going. After she wakes up in the fairy strip club, Claude and the other fairy (Claudette? Claudulus?) tell her that she is using up her luminescence, i.e., the thing that makes her fairyish. She could be normal. Good for Sookie, bad for the viewers.

She and Jason have a touching brother-sister moment, when Jason makes Sookie breakfast in bed and tells her that she is not to feel guilty about their parents' deaths, because she never let him blame himself. It was about the sweetest we've seen Jason, even after he eats the bacon he had made for Sookie.

That night, Jason goes to see Jessica, to tell her what he'd found out about his parents death, but it's really not a good time - Jessica is feeding on a guy whose name she doesn't even know, and when Jason tastes his blood on her lips, he (understandably) freaks out. Jessica asks him if he knows the name of all the cows he's eaten. "What the fuck kinda question is that? I ain’t never fucked a cow!" he yells back before he calls her a fanger. She bites his neck, so he shoots her in the head - of course, bringing down the wrath of her guards but not actually affecting Jess much. I take it they're not going to get together again anytime soon? Jason leaves the mansion before Jessica's guards can kill him and sees a light show from over at Sookie's - she's blasting her fairy magic light into the sky in order to become a normal human.

In other news, even though my Alcide/Sookie hookup appears to not be happening (damn you, Northman!), we might get to see a naked Alcide sometime before the end of the season. His training session with his second, Rikki, quickly turns into a hot-n-heavy makeout session (he even growls at her! *fans self*), and it looks like it was going to turn into more until Marcus' mother, Martha, walks in. She says that JD promises he isn't on V, and that JD deserves to be packmaster because when her husband died he allows Marcus to be packmaster in his father's place. HOWEVER, Martha has to eat her words when she walks in on JD trying to give Emma some V. Will she help train Alcide now?

In other shifter news, Sam finds the box of Obama masks in the anti-supes shop and has a conversation with Sookie about being normal (this is before she starts shedding her fairy powers), and tells her that even though the man he wants to be doesn't want to be normal, it would be easier for the people he loved if he was normal. But the question Sookie asks - would they still see the hate, even if they were normal?

Speaking of hate, Hoyt has joined the hate group with his old pal Joe Bob and new friends Ray and Tyrese. Their conversation - about how hate groups are about the love and togetherness the members feel and how the "lamestream media" makes them feel inferior to vampires - is creepy, but it's also a real perspective on the anatomy of a hate group. Anyway, their plan is to kill Jessica for, essentially, date-raping Hoyt, since they're sure she glamored him into everything.

Also speaking of people with a lot of hate in their hearts, Lafayette went to visit Don Bartolo, Jesus' grandfather, and discovers he has Jesus' head, with stitched-up lips, in his house. He stitches up Lafayette's lips and begins to perform a ritual to get his family's magic back by having his wife drink blood from Lafayette's brain in order to pass the magic onto his unborn son. (Note: I am not squeamish - I laugh when people get staked on this show - but the mere MENTION of drinking blood from Lafayette's brain kind of made me want to throw up.) However, Don Bartolo was not expecting his wife to stab him repeatedly, then cut open Lafayette's mouth. I wasn't that interested in Lafayette's story before, but I REALLY am now.

There wasn't too much this week in the Terry/Arlene and Pam/Tara department. Tara is working the pole at Fangtasia (she looked SMOKIN' hot, by the way) when her mother walks in to show her disapproval. In true Tara style, she acts aloof, but later she tells Pam how conflicted she feels. Pam, in true Pam style, tells her that Pam is her mother now, and Tara won't remember her human mother in 100 years. Tara actually hugs Pam - who actually allows it! Aww, softening of their hearts!

Meanwhile, Terry and Patrick are waiting for the fire demon, and it comes and laughs at them and Terry almost commits suicide but Patrick convinces him that his children and stepchildren would want him to fight. But the real gem of this storyline is Arlene watching her wedding video. There were funny parts, like Jason getting distracted by a hot girl, and some parts that actually made me kind of sad, like Lafayette and Jesus looking so happy together. The whole thing was a great little moment. Holly walks in and convinces Arlene to fight for Terry, and tells her that maybe there is a fire demon after him.

AND FINALLY ... we have the most exciting part of the episode: the return of Russell Edgington, batshit crazy vampire!

OK, so, first things first: Roman is dead. That makes me sad, as, once again, I have nowhere to watch Christopher Meloni on my TV each week.

Russell hangs Eric from a column, then gets subdued by a silver net, and Eric and Bill are thrown into a cell together to think about things.

Soon, though, they're summoned to see Nora and Salome ... and Russell! They find out, of course, that Salome rescued Russell, surprising absolutely nobody except for Bill and Eric because they're a bit obtuse. (She had followed them when they went to free Russell.) Anyway, Salome explains some vampire-religion gobbledeegook that basically boils down to wanting to "share in Lilith's powers" at an initiation ceremony. "Never, you Bible-banging cunts," Eric snarls, but the less hot-headed Bill doesn't agree or disagree.

But Eric is no fool - he comes to the initiation and partakes in the ritual of drinking the blood of Lilith. (Another guardian does not, and he is not so lucky - Russell takes off his head.) Eric shrugs and whispers to Bill that they're vampires, and drinking vampire blood can't hurt them.

Heh. Cut to them all walking down the street in New Orleans, being the worst example of high-and-mighty, bloodthirsty vampires possible. Although, did you notice that Eric was giving Bill a piggyback ride? Kel (even though she hasn't been watching this season - bad Kel!) is convinced that Eric and Bill are going to get it on before the end of the season. I wasn't sure until tonight, but that piggyback ride convinced me. That, plus all of the smoldering glances and concern about each other, makes me think that it's going to turn the corner from bromance to romance before the final credits roll on the season. In fact, since Alcide/Sookie appears to not be happening, maybe I should start shipping Eric/Bill instead.

Anyway, I digress. The vampires end up at a karaoke bar, where Russell interrupts a bride-to-be singing "You Light Up My Life." Bwa ha, I adore Russell! Anyway, they freak out when they figure out who it is, and soon they're all snacking on unsuspecting guests. The vampires see a vision of Lilith, who blows a cloud of blood at Nora, who starts feeding again. The other vampires do too, but soon Godric appears to Eric and tells him to save his sister. To be continued ...

This week's episode was exciting, and I'm glad to see all of the stories continue to speed up. There were several episodes there that got a little slow, but things are really starting to happen now. I hope that things keep ramping up as the season gets closer to its finale, although I'm a little nervous about fitting everything in. We really need to continue to consolidate storylines in order to make things fit. Or, I'd be happy if we finished up a plotline, just because it would feel like we were getting somewhere.

Still, this season is definitely on the right track, and I'm excited to see what happens next week (I think I saw Bill riding on Eric's back again in the preview clip).

True Blood Recap: Dammit, Eric!

First of all, sorry! I've been dealing with some personal things, which are now back under control, and extra hours at work, so blogging was the furthest thing from my mind. But now I'm back!

Before we get into this week's fun, a quicky recap of last week: Sookie and Alcide were going to get busy, but then Sookie puked on Alcide's shoes. (Dammit, Sookie! He was taking his pants off and everything.) Bill and Eric ask for their help finding Russell, they go to a scary house with Alcide's employee and find Russell and a werewolf attacks Alcide from behind. Terry's war buddy gets killed by a fire demon they unleashed when they slaughtered people in Iraq. Jason obsesses over the news that his parents were killed by vampires. Lafayette and his mother sees Jesus' head, with the mouth stitched up. Jessica and Tara bond over being vampires, then fight when Jessica discovers Tara sucking Hoyt's blood. Sam goes to warn Luna about their shifter friends getting shot and both of them get shot by guys in masks.

OK, so this week ... I am really pissed off at Eric. One of the big things I really want to happen this season is for Sookie and Alcide to get together. Contrary to what you're probably thinking, it's not just because I would like to see Joe Manganiello naked (although I would not complain). It's also because Alcide needs to blow off some steam by having sex, and Sookie needs to have sex with a non-vampire. However, that's not going to happen, at least not right now, because Eric screwed things all up on that front.

OK, so Sookie, Alcide, Bill and Eric are at the house where Russell was recovering by feeding on humans, with the help of werewolves. As they're fighting, the Authority shows up to recover Russell and bring Bill and Eric back to headquarters ... but first, Bill and Eric have to glamour Sookie and Alcide. Bill doesn't really glamour Sookie (or she can't be glamoured because she's part fairy, or something), but Eric does glamour Alcide (but not before he heals one of his wounds in a surprisingly sexy way ... if I weren't so pissed at Eric I might 'ship the two of them!), telling him to forget where they are and everything that happened. He also tells him to protect Sookie with his life (THAT BETTER NOT BE FORESHADOWING!) and lose interest in Sookie to the point that she kind of repulses him. WHAT THE HELL, ERIC!? What an asshole move. Grr.

Sookie and Alcide go home, leading to a scene where Alcide wakes up covered under a ruffly pink comforter (hee!). Sookie helps him get back some of his memories of the night before, but he recoils at her touch. (Sookie immediately knows it's Eric's doing.)

BTW, The Authority rounds up and kills the humans that Russell was going to eat, which goes to prove what we already knew - the Authority is bad news.

Jason tells Sookie about their parents and about the fairy nightclub and Hadley being there, and they go together. Sookie questions Hadley and their newfound fairy cousin, Claude (YAY! CLAUDE!), and find out that their parents were killed by a vampire enticed by a bandaid with Sookie's blood on it in their car. Sookie tries to use her fairy magic and gets fairy magicized herself. TO BE CONTINUED! Gotta say, I love the fairy stuff, and not just because I love how they dance in their crazy fairy nightclub. I suspect most of the stuff going on this season is going to connect to this fairy story arch.

Tara and Jessica fight, and Pam breaks it up but tells Tara she's proud of her. Of course, she tempers her enthusiasm by telling Tara she's proud like a human is proud of a well-trained dog, but still. Jessica implores Hoyt not to continue his fangbanging ways, but he continues until a vampire who is sucking his neck in an alley gets shot by the same guys in masks that shot Sam and Luna.

Sam and Luna are in the hospital, worrying about Emma until Marcus' mother brings Emma to visit Luna. Emma, as a puppy, ran to granny's house when Sam and Luna got shot. Just gotta say, she's an ADORABLE werewolf puppy. Luna agrees to let Marcus' mom be part of Emma's life. Sam convinces Andy to let him help find the people who are killing supes, and when they go to the local anti-vampire store, Sam saves Andy when the desk clerk is about to kill Andy. Ahh, friendship and vigilante justice.

Terry breaks up with Arlene because of the fire monster.

Alcide challenges J.D. as packmaster, since J.D. was helping Russell and drinking vampire blood in return. His second is a sassy, hot woman. They are going to fight, eventually, and I wonder if Alcide and the sassy, hot woman are going to have sex eventually too. Hmm.

Lafayette visits his mother, because they both saw Jesus' head. Lafayette's mom is a great little side character. You can see why Lafayette acts the way he acts. Anyway, he's going to go confront Jesus' brujo grandfather.

Bill and Eric go back to the Authority headquarters, where they are hailed as heroes for capturing Russell, who is still, by the way, absolutely batshit crazy. Bill is really working the religious angle - to save his ass, he tells Eric. Eric is a bit more smartassy, but they still both get their iStakes taken off. They talk to Roman, who they are quickly discovering is just as crazy as Russell and the Sanguinistas, and just as fervent in his beliefs, and find out that Roman is planning to stake Russell rather than allow Salome to keep torturing him for information. Eric visits Nora, who is also quite fervent in her beliefs.

So, they're going to stake Russell, and I'm thinking, "No!" because we haven't gotten ANY super fun Russell craziness. I figured that Salome or Nora or somebody would sweep in and rescue him, but instead, Russell springs into action and stakes Roman! First thought: "OMG! AWESOME!" Second thought: "NO! Christopher Meloni!"

TO BE CONTINUED ...

I'm looking forward to the next episode, personally, because it looks like Russell is going to FINALLY be back to his old tricks. And who doesn't love Russell when he's at his strongest and most insane?

"True Blood" Recap: Finally!

After a crazy first episode of "True Blood" this season, we've had a couple of slow episodes.

This week, it started out that way ... but it didn't end up that way! This week, we finally got some payoff to all of the buildup that's been going on.

First and foremost, Sookie and Alcide made out! You have no idea how happy that made me. I was watching with my friend, Kat, who was in town for a visit, and we actually started to high-five each other.

Poor Sookie deserved some lovin' this week. People in Bon Temps are super pissed that Sookie got poor Tara turned into a vampire, and Lafayette is extra-uber-super pissed that Sookie told Alcide that she killed Debbie. This is a very, very bad thing, since Lafayette still has a nasty brujo demon inside him. The demon broke Sookie's car, so she crashed on her way home from Merlotte's. Thankfully, she bailed at the last moment and walked home to the comfort of her well-stocked liquor cabinet.

After hearing Sookie's confession in last week's episode, Alcide goes to visit Debbie Pelt's parents and tells them that Debbie is dead. However, he tells them that Marcus, the conveniently dead former packmaster, killed her, and that's why he killed Marcus. He cries that he really did love Debbie and he's sorry she's dead, then goes on his merry way ... over to Sookie's house! He tells a tipsy Sookie that he covered for her and the Pelts are satisfied, and soon they're making out! *squeal* Let's hope things go further next week ... even though I got to see a lot of Joe "Big Dick Richie" Manganiello in "Magic Mike" over the weekend, I could always use another eyeful! Also, Alcide really needs to get some ... he's so uptight! Some of Sookie's precious fairy vagina (thank you for that one, Pam!) could be just what he needs. And I'm pretty sure Sookie wouldn't complain about some sexy werewolf lovin' neither ...

Eric and Bill, by the way, get an eyeful of Alcide and Sookie - they're back in town to try to figure out who spilled the beans on Russell and get Sookie's fairy powers to help them find him - leading to an epically wonderful exchange:

Eric: Awkward time for a drop in, Bill.

Bill: Jessica mentioned Sookie had been having a rough go of it.

Eric: She seems to be recovering nicely.

Eric and Bill, I love you guys. More of their wacky misadventures, please!

Anyway ... the Debbie Pelt storyline seems to be concluding. In the same fit of honesty that made her tell Alcide about the dearly departed Debbie, Sookie also tried to turn herself into Jason who, of course, refused to arrest his little sister. Lucky for Sookie, Jessica was around the corner and heard the whole thing. She decided to take the initiative to glamour Sheriff Andy into forgetting about the whole Debbie thing.

Speaking of Sheriff Andy, his fairy tryst is paying off! The town judge, whose son Andy saved from a speeding ticket, invites Andy and Jason to his favorite spot in town, which isn't really in town - it's a strip club in the fairy realm! The judge and Andy go off to have a good time, and Jason sees his cousin Hadley, who assumes Jason is a refugee. Fairies are escaping the human world because, she says, vampires are going to eat them all eventually ... like they did to his parents. Cue Jason's Patented Dumbface (Oh, Ryan Kwanten, you are SO good at looking adorably stupid!). Hadley has to leave and go serve drinks, Jason and Andy have a fight with the fairy bouncers and soon they're back out on their asses in the middle of a field, about to get zapped by fairies. To be continued!

Speaking of vampires and family drama, we got heaps of both this week with Eric, Pam and Tara. Pam saved Tara from becoming a crispy critter in the tanning bed, much to Tara's chagrin, but Tara reluctantly follows Mama Pam back to Fangtasia, where Eric (Tara's vampire grandaddy!) confronted Pam over Russell Edgington's escape. While Bill and Tara had a heart-to-heart - mostly revealing Tara's annoyance at taking a bullet for Sookie and becoming a vampire - Pam told Eric she would die a thousand deaths rather than betray him.

The next night, Eric releases Pam from having to follow his commands as her maker, in order to keep her safe from the Authority and make sure his legacy lives on through Pam and Tara, and Pam gets Tara to drink from a human, despite Tara's reluctance to see them as food. Pam tells her that humans can't hurt her anymore, which is what Tara needs to hear. I think this will be empowering for her. However, I can't help but wonder if Tara, who has been kicked around by humans all her life, just might go a little Sanguinista on everyone's asses and endanger Grandpappy Eric and Mama Pam even more. I mean, Pam tells her: "This is who you are now. Top of the chain. No human can hurt you any longer. They’re yours to savor." Eeek. I'm pretty sure Roman has staked vampires for less than that.

We at least now know Roman will stake a Sanguinista if he needs to - as if we had any doubt! Roman tries to get information out of Nora about who is really leading the Sanguinista movement - he doesn't think she's a leader - and finally threatens the lives of Bill and Eric in order to get the info out of her. It turns out, it was the creepy kid vampire, Alexander Drew, who had sent out a video of himself draining a human to Sanguinista sympathizers. He tries to tell Roman that he was trying to infiltrate them, but before he's done talking, he's already a little pile of stringy blood 'n' guts. The other Chancellors, and the viewers, got the message - do not fuck with Roman.

There were a couple of other little subplots rolling along in there, too, that don't have the big payoffs yet. Sam's old shifter friends, minus Luna, invite him to run with them, but when he gets there, they're dead - shot through the head. Doesn't seem like vampires, fairies or werewolves would just shoot somebody, does it? Could we have some anti-shifter sentiment in town (that's a big plot in the books), or is someone supernatural trying to cover their tracks? And Terry and his war buddy, Patrick, go on the road to South Dakota to find their old war buddy Eller. Terry has a flashback to the Fourth of July when there was big shootout in Iraq and a whole family was killed. When Terry & Patrick get to Eller's bunker, he pulls a gun on them. Where are they going with this one?

The first half or 2/3 of this episode of "True Blood" was still a little slow, but the excitement at the end really made up for it. I'm thrilled to see where this season is going ... finally!