The McGuffin Review: True Blood Season Two, Episode Two

Posted by Cory Johnson on 06.27.2009

Jessica cons Sookie into risking everything, including Bill. Plus Jason goes to camp, and Maryann gets everyone moving, and what does Eric want with Lafayette?

Eric, covered in the blood of the redneck he just killed, tosses a bloody tendril of an arm towards the (still chained) Lafayette, hitting him squarely in the chest. Eric warns Lafayette that he’d better not be hiding any silver. Lafayette protests that he is not that stupid, but Eric disagrees. Eric asks if he has blood in his hair; repeating the question until a stunned Lafayette answers yes. Great exchange:

Eric: Too bad, Pam is going to be pissed.
Lafayette: Who’s Pam?
Eric: (looking directly at Lafayette with the COLDEST stare) Why? Did you want to meet her?
Lafayette: (with a complete look of horror and “did I really just say that” expression) No, no no, I’m good.
Eric: Well, you’re going to.

Eric unchains Lafayette and warns him not to try anything stupid as he leads him by the collar upstairs…because he is still hungry. And we are just getting started with the best song Chris Isaak never wrote-“Bad Things” by Jace Everett.

In bed, Sookie breathlessly announces that this was their first bout of make-up sex. Bill wonders how it compares to “you-thought-I-was-dead-sex”, which Sookie also approved of, but doesn’t want to have to go through again. Bill, in a very smooth moment, tells Sookie that he doesn’t want to be one of those fight and make-up couples. Um, I know it is pillow talk, but isn’t that all these two do? Sookie ruins the tender moment by realizing that she was probably being pretty loud with Jessica in the house. Bill breaks out the old-timey words again, saying that Jessica would have had no compunction about letting them know if she had heard them.

DICTIONARY MAN SAYS: Compunction: a feeling of uneasiness or anxiety of the conscience caused by regret for doing wrong or causing pain; contrition; remorse.

Sookie scolds Bill for being so tough on Jessica, because she is just a teenager, but Bill snaps that she is a VAMPIRE, and at her age, she cannot understand the changes occurring within and at times she will have no impulse control. Sookie turns the list on him, asking exactly how that is different than being a teenage girl. Bill snarls back asking if he should just spoil her. Sookie goes all southern belle on him, telling Mr. Bill Compton not to get sarcastic with her, as what he is doing is not exactly working either. Sookie points out that they just agreed not to fight and here they are fighting. Bill playfully disagrees, saying that this isn’t a fight. Sookie takes the bait, saying it is a fight. Bill tells her to prepare to be made up to. They start to kiss and Sookie climbs Mt. Bill to start round two and to prove that she is the hottest woman on TV today.

Pam chides Eric for getting blood in his hair, forcing her to cut it shorter, Eric has his hair in foils…and I hate that I know that. Eric asks Lafayette to stick up for him, but Lafayette tells him that he will tell him anything he wants to know. Eric wants to know what happened to Eddie (the vampire that Jason and Amy killed), but Lafayette has nothing to tell him. Eric calls him a liar and sics Chow on him for half a second before Lafayette gives up Jason. Pam and Eric speak in a weird foreign language, debating killing Jason, but Eric decides that Sookie is too important to them. Eric asks Lafayette about V buyers in the Dallas area. Eric says that an old and powerful vampire named “Godrick”, has gone missing and his blood would be very valuable. Lafayette knows of one buyer [e-mail], but he hasn’t been touting any new product. Eric orders Chow to take Lafayette back to the basement for giving them useless information.

On the bus to leadership camp, Jason meets Luke McDonald and they bond over past football. Luke has been trying to get to the leadership conference for three years. Luke gets a little jealous when Jason says that he decided to go to leadership conference two days ago, and that he met Steve and Sarah (leaders of the Fellowship of the Sun). Luke and Jason agree to bunk together before they break into anti-vampire camp songs.

Tara confronts Eggs in the yard, because she realized that she doesn’t know anything about him. After stalling, Eggs admits that he: has no job, was living under an overpass, and was in prison for drugs, armed robbery, and assault. Tara looks crushed and vulnerable under her hard stare.

Sookie watches Jessica’s parents plead for the return of their little girl on TV. Sookie immediately goes into gran’s room and looks at an old picture of gran, Tara, and herself-all smiles.

Jason gets his silver ring at the leadership conference. Sarah addresses the followers, saying that today is the day that light will begin to shine on them.

Tara arrives late to work, Sam notices and starts to grumble…until he notices that Maryann is with her. Maryann sits down, ready to order. Sam tries to get Maryann to leave, but she points out that she was kind enough to forgive a $100,000 loan, so he needs to at least let her buy herself lunch. Maryann orders practically everything on the menu.

Over the strains of “God Blessed Texas”, Jason and Luke have turned into rival at flag football, trading vicious tackles (they are screwing up flag football). Jason wins and crowd surfs as Steve and Sarah notice.

At Merlotte’s, Sookie asks Tara to take a break with her while Daphne cannot write her orders down legibly.

Lafayette spies the dead redneck’s shiny metal hip replacement sticking out of his dismembered leg (thanks to Ben Piper for pointing out how significant that conversation was). He gruesomely frees the replacement joint and uses it to break out of his chains.

Tara teases Sookie, calling her a step-mom to a vampire. Tara does wonder if life at Maryann’s might be too good to be true. Sookie asks Tara to move in with her, hoping that this might just be the kick in the butt she needs to move on after gran’s death. Their conversation is broken up by the sound of thunder, but it is just Daphne dropping a huge serving tray of food right onto Sam’s feet. Sam swears at her and Tara warns Sookie to get out while she still can. Maryann stops Sookie on her way out and calls her very special. Sookie starts listening to Maryann’s thoughts, but they are in an ancient tongue and MALE. When Sookie can’t place her accent, Maryann tells her she is from Cape Cod. After Sookie leaves, Tara tells a suddenly icy Maryann she doesn’t know if she will move in with Sookie.

Lafayette tries to bust out of Fangtasia, but the door is locked. The old barmaid shows up out of nowhere and holds Lafayette at gunpoint. Lafayette tells her that she won’t shoot him…just as she shoots him in the leg! The barmaid apologizes and hands Lafayette a dirty towel to try and stop the bleeding.

At leadership camp, a singer who looks suspiciously like LeAnn Rimes, sings in a very dirty way about staying pure. Steve announces a role playing game, where they will pretend to interact with a vampire sympathizer. Jason gets picked to be the good guy, while Sarah will play the sympathizer.

At Bill’s, Jessica runs up to Sookie, saying that she just saw her parents on TV. Jessica then launches into a perfect impression of Bill telling her that he is going out to run an errand and she just kills it. Her impression is so good that Sookie has to try to keep herself from laughing at least twice. Jessica cries over her family and is shocked to discover her tears are made of blood. Sookie tries to empathize with Jessica, telling her about gran and how she likes being in gran’s room. Jessica asks Sookie to drive her to her parent’s house, so that she can just see them and say goodbye. Sookie tries to back out, but consents when Jessica cannot stop crying and she realizes that Bill would never take her. Sookie lays down the rules-Jessica stays in the car, they go and get Jessica a change of clothes, and they don’t mention this to Bill.

Bill is shopping for Jessica. The saleslady feels his cold skin and realizes that he is vampire, and immediately starts trying to entice him. She offers to model a short skirt for him in the dressing room, but Bill declines. Eric arrives with his new short hair and while he discusses his hair with Bill, the saleslady has this huge light bulb go off, suddenly realizing that Bill and Eric are gay (basically that it is not her). Her dismissive, relieved look and “oh-thank-god” sigh are perfect. Eric says that they need to talk.

Jason really gets into the role playing game. Sarah puts in fake fangs and Jason screams, grabs a handy American flag, breaks the flagpole in half, and goes to stab Sarah while flashing back to Amy killing Eddie. Steve starts to clap, as does the rest of the crowd, while Jason suddenly comes back to reality and starts apologizing to Sarah for, you know, threatening/almost killing her.

At Merlotte’s, Terry is about to snap when Arlene takes over for him. Arlene yells at Daphne to ‘pick up, dingy’ and tells Terry that Daphne is not working out. Terry wonders why so much food is going out to table four. Daphne is clueless about where table four is until Maryann calls her out (has she been sitting there eating all day?).

Sam tries to get Detective Andy to stop drinking, telling him to suck it up. Andy is drinking because he was pulled off the case. Sam, noticing dancers in the bar, ruefully states that he didn’t want to create a bar where people got asked to dance. Andy says that he was once informed that he looked like an epileptic on meth when he danced, and he hates dancing. Maryann does not hate dancing, and she starts dancing and shimmying all over the bar, with the bar patrons dancing after her like she was the pied piper.

Eric wants Sookie to find him find Godrick. Eric asks Bill’s blessing to take Sookie to Dallas. Bill will not give it. Eric reminds Bill that he can simply take her, as he and Sookie made a deal at Fangtasia. Bill still will not consent to putting Sookie in this kind of danger. Eric warns him that he played this poorly and walks away.

Outside her parent’s house, Jessica watches for her family. Sookie, overwhelmed with the grief feeling Jessica’s loss, apologizes and takes all the blame for Jessica becoming a vampire. Jessica doesn’t blame Sookie, but notices her sister and runs immediately to her front door at vampire speed. Sookie chases after Jessica, but she has already knocked. Jessica has a tearless (thanks to Sookie’s reminder) reunion with her mother and little sister. Jessica asks her mom to invite her in, which she does over Sookie’s protest.

Eggs arrives at a dancehall, er Merlotte’s, because he has to tell Tara that he wants to be with her and he refuses to pretend otherwise. Maryann tells Andy that he is going to dance with her, which he does since tonight is his last night drinking.

Luke yells at Jason in the bathroom, calling him a joke and serving notice that “day two belongs to the Luke-a-nator”. Yep, that’s what he said. Jason keeps thinking about Eddie.

Sam notices that his entire bar has turned into a dance club, even Tara and Andy (who really does shake like he is having a seizure. Sam pulls Maryann into his office, blaming her for what is happening and screaming at her that this is his bar, his town. Maryann closes her eyes and starts to vibrate. Sam immediately turns into a dog. Maryann warns the dog that she can do this anytime, and he had better understand who is in charge here if he wants to keep his secret.

Sookie yells at Jessica for completely screwing her over. Jessica’s Sister Eden brings them sandwiches and sadly notes that she is not pretty like Sookie. Jessica’s dad arrives home and hugs his girl tight, then starts to yell at her for what she put her mother through. Jessica tells him to go get his belt, then pops her fangs and tells him that she will be ready this time.

Chow and Pam watch over Lafayette and wait for Eric. Eric asks if Lafayette would like the vampires to kill or to let the leg finish him. Lafayette wants them to make him a vampire and offers to go-go dance at the bar. Lafayette says that he has low moral character and that he can almost glamour people now, then tells offers to serve as Eric’s bad-ass vampire. Eric decides to take it under advisement, then bites Lafayette with Pam and Chow.

Jessica unleashes a lifetime of anger on her parents, calling her mother dumb and her father abusive. When she looks at her little sister, she decides that the abuse has to end and pushes her father against the wall. She almost bites him when Bill breaks the door off its hinges, commanding Jessica to stop and tells Sookie to shut up. Bill glamours Eden into inviting him in, which she does. Bill yells at Sookie to get out, telling her that this mess is all her fault. Bill grabs Jessica’s father and bares his fangs….as we fade to black!

Analysis
The writers and directors do a great job of wringing the most of out every scene and every line of dialogue. This episode did a good job of combining horror, mystery, self-exploration, drama/relationships, comedy, and character study. The real triumph is that this show combined all these elements with expert pacing, so that no single element overshadowed the others.

Not all elements of the show work. The Jason plotline this season feels very tired and worn out. Yes, religious fanatics are the worst, and yes, they are incredible scammers. I understand that they are going for parody here, but we get it already. The only way to make the Fellowship of the Sun more obviously transparent would be to have Jason have sex with Sarah and/or have Steve hit on Jason.

Anna Paquin’s Sookie is one of the most unique and amazing characters on any show today, and Paquin deserves all of the praise she is getting right now. Sookie could very easily turn into a lame cliché, but Paquin brings such subtlety, depth, and integrity to the character that she is simply fascinating to watch. Sometimes Sookie is annoying and sugary-sweet, but always true to her inner-self and her own moral compass.

Things I Wonder
So Pam really has nothing to offer, does she? That build-up was awesome…the follow-through was not.
Chow is just designed for a lame “Chow time” line, isn’t it?
Maryann is a witch? That’s it? Why does she care about dancing?
How great was Jessica’s impression of Bill? I just about died.
Eggs is kinda pathetic, isn’t he?
When did Anna Paquin become the best actress on TV?
Why does Eric care about the sheriff of another area?
Is Lafayette in danger is getting old fast for anyone else?
Is there more to Daphne than just being a horrible waitress?
Sam could not be more helpless, could he?
Where does Tara go from here?
Will they just turn Jason into a vampire killer already?
Why is Maryann eating like a horse?
Arlene and Terry are cute, aren’t they?
Is there any way that Bill and Sookie make it as a couple, is there?
Is Bill going to glamour or kill Jessica’s family?
How long until Bill finally forgives Sookie for this?
Andy is going to find Miss Jeanette’s killer, isn’t he?
How great was that dance Andy was doing?
How is Sookie going to help Eric find Godrick? For a sheriff, he needs some methodology.

Thanks for reading. As always, comments, feedback, and emails are always appreciated, Please let me know what you like and what you didn't. I will be back next week with True Blood, Episode Three. Do yourself a favor and check out NURSE JACKIE and WEEDS on Showtime. Until then, this is Cory, keep watching.

The 411: Great episode that featured a little of everything....and did almost all of it well. Sookie and Bill continue to have an incredibly complex, yet impossibly hot relationship that keeps building to something. The revelation of Maryann as a witch was a little disappointing, but we still know nothing of her plans. Lafayette pleading to become a vampire was a great plan and it could really turn into something great. Jessica is very interesting character who provides a great balance to Sookie. Great acting, rich characters, and a amazing plot make this a great episode.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]