True Blood 2.1: Nothing But the Blood

By Teresa Jusino

TRUE BLOOD IS BACK! Which means that my four housemates and I will be seeing a lot more of each other, as this is the one show that is guaranteed to bring all of us together.  Season Two started off with a bang – and this recap/review CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS.

You have been warned.

Season One ended with Sookie and Tara finding a dead body in (Detective) Andy Bellfleur’s car, and “Nothing But the Blood” begins with the discovery of the victim’s identity.  It’s Miss Jeanette, the woman who gave both Tara and her mother “exorcisms.”  She’s not just dead; she’s really, really dead.  Her heart’s been ripped out of her chest and she’s frozen mid-scream.

As Sookie and Tara deal with the police, Bill is at home with Jessica, the girl he turned vampire in Season One.  She is not happy with the way that Bill is playing dad and giving her all sorts of rules to follow (like recycling!  With all those Tru Blood bottles he goes through, it’s nice that he tries to be green!).  She’d much rather be eating someone.  Later, she makes her presence known to Sookie before Bill has a chance to mention her existence, leading Sookie to trust him a little less.  She trusts him even less when she finds out that he’s also kept from her the fact that he killed her uncle.

Meanwhile, Lafayette is chained in Eric’s dank, underground lair with some other people looking completely disheveled and horrified, but trying the best he can to hold himself together.  He is apparently being held there awaiting judgment for a crime committed against vampires, which he learns when he watches Eric rip apart a fellow inmate.

Ever since being bailed out of jail by the Fellowship of the Sun, Jason’s been reading up on the Fellowship’s teachings and seemingly becoming more and more convinced.  Now, he’s on his way to “church camp” to be trained as a leader, and he’ll be using the inheritance Sookie refused from her dead uncle to get there.

Tara is still living with Maryann…and flirting with Maryann’s other houseguest, Eggs.  She isn’t the only one dealing with Maryann, either.  Sam has a history with her as well.  When he was 17, he stole money from her and she took his virginity, which some might call a fair exchange?    Their interaction in this episode leads us to believe that she wants more from him than just money, or sex.

For a more detailed summary, visit the True Blood website.

Season Two of True Blood is amazing right out of the gate.  The scope of the series is getting broader, and every character is being given thorough attention, as are their relationships to each other.  Including The Fellowship of the Sun in a more central way not only allows Jason to be more complex, but brings dealing with vampires into the world outside Bon Temps.  We’re also beginning to see more clearly the non-mainstream attitude among vampires that was hinted at in Season One.  Eric is clearly taking justice into his own hands when it comes to defending his own, and the clash between mainstreamed and non-mainstreamed vamps is coming to a boil.  Even Bill, the Mainstream Vampire poster boy has trouble reconciling his desire for humanity with the ease with which he can kill.  And as we discover by the end of this episode, finding out that Rene was the serial killer last season doesn’t mean that Sookie Stackhouse is through with violence or dead bodies.  As sadistic as it might be, we wouldn’t have it any other way!  “Nothing But the Blood” was enthralling, fast-paced, and insanely hot.

Highlights:

Sookie and Bill
HOW HOT ARE THEY?!  I mean, seriously.  First of all, there was their amazing sex scene (my roomies and I are coining the True Blood-specific term bloodballing.  Tell your friends.), which isn’t available online, so you’ll have to settle for this; but there’s also the fact that there’s alwaysalwaysalways this frisson between them, even in regular conversation.  (So, it should be no surprise that Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer have been dating in real life, huh?)  Most importantly, though, is that they are dealing with and working on their relationship the way a normal couple would.  There are ups and downs, fights and making up, but you get the sense that they’ll always find their way back to each other.  I look forward to watching their relationship evolve.

Royce, the “AIDS Burger” Redneck
OK, he was a douche to Lafayette last season.  But he provided this episode’s best comic relief.  His hilarious confessions to a captive Lafayette had me rolling!  I’m sorry he’s dead now…

Jessica
Best line?  Sookie asks if she and Bill slept together, and she says “Eeew, old!”  Priceless.  Deborah Ann Woll is a young actress to keep your eyes on, and her performance in this episode was great.  Watching Jessica’s humanity fall away bit by bit is already proving a fascinating journey.  Will she feed on her family in episode two?!  I can’t wait to find out.

Maryann
From telling off Tara’s mother in the most coldly civil and direct way possible, to beating her manservant for cockblocking Tara and Eggs and screaming No one needed towels!, to her mysterious interest in and history with Sam, Maryann is proving to be the most fascinating character on the show.    She seems way too invested in getting Tara and Eggs together, and in her flashback with Sam she started doing this weird, supernatural phasing thing as they had sex.  Sexual energy is key with this one, it seems.  Also, as she was lounging with Tara and Eggs, she discussed the fresco on the wall behind her pool, saying that the Greeks thought their gods more accessible than people do today…

My call? She’s an old goddess.  During her flashback, my mind immediately went to the Bilquis scene at the end of chapter one of the novel, American Gods, where she’s living as a prostitute and devours a man in her vagina.  OK, so she didn’t devour Sam in her vagina – he’s not human anyway – but there’s something about the way she alluded to human relationships with their gods coupled with her interest in Tara and Eggs coupling and how she behaved during sex with young Sam that gives me that impression.

Thoughts, Fangbangers?

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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so.  As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is a founding member and editor of The Revolving Door Commune Blog, as well as a comics writer at PopMatters.com. She’s currently at work on a collection of short stories as well as writing a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which is set to debut in early fall!  As a geek, Teresa loves all Star Trek, Lost, Fringe, comics, and anything Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Neil Gaiman ever touched.  She is also an aspiring fangbanger.  Get Twitterpated with Teresa, or visit her in The Red Room.

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