The 411 True Blood Review: Episode 10 - 'I Don't Wanna Know'

Posted by Marilyn Yang on 11.10.2008

Important things happen in this episode. Bill goes to vampire court. Arlene has her engagement party. Sam tells Sookie his very obvious secret. Tara sees Jeanette. Jason and Amy still have Eddie. Lafayette makes a few appearances. If you're hoping for the usual gratuitous sex and nudity this week, it's not here. Yes, I'm disappointed too, but for different reasons.

We start this week's episode with the usual recap of previous events, and pick up right where last week left off. Sookie wakes up to a naked Sam at the foot of her bed, and screams. Sam tells Sookie that Bill asked him to look after her, and Sam had a something to tell Sookie. She then thinks Sam is the murderer, and runs into the bathroom, hops in the shower, and arms herself with what looks like a loofah or sponge. She peaks around the shower curtain, and sees our favorite recurring dog, who then turns into Sam. Sam swears to Sookie that he's not the murderer, but he is a shapeshifter. Sookie's response? "Shut the fuck up." Open credits. (Now, finally, it's completely out that Sam is a shapeshifter. This is great, because this is close to the end of the season, and people caught on that Sam was a dog since somewhere along episode three or four at least. I do like this opening better than last week's melting vampire.)

And right off the bat after the credits, we start off with Tara sitting by a fire in the woods with Jeanette the exorcism lady. Tara questions something Jeannette is about to put in her hand. Jeanette then derides her for questioning everything. "Why does it have to be $799.95? Why does it have to be in the woods? Why, why, why, why?" she mocks. I'm not a huge fan of Tara or her story line right now, but Jeanette really pissed me off with this. Mostly because if I paid nearly $800 for something, I would want to know exactly what I'm getting. And if I gave nearly $800 to a woman who lived in a trailer in the woods, maybe she should consider toning down her attitude. Jeanette spits in Tara's hand, and Tara calls her a nasty bitch. I guess that makes them even now. Jeanette tells Tara that demons travel through pollution and technology, and that's why she lives out in the woods. She tells Tara to rub the spit mixture in her hand on her face, being sure to rub around the eyes because that's the demon's doorways. She then hands Tara some nasty potion called snake juice (not made from actual snakes.) I have no interest in this at all.

Cut to a vampire being drained. Hello, Eddie. Eddie mutters Jason's name, but Amy's the one there. She tells Eddie to get his filthy mind off Jason, and what is it that the vampires say? Oh. "Jason is mine," she half-mocks. Eddie tells Amy that Jason is a good person, and Amy asks if Eddie's implying that she's not. I would think the answer to that one is obvious, what with her being the mastermind behind the plan to kidnap and imprison a lonely, overweight, gay vampire who spends his nights watching television. Amy goes on a rant about how she left college and a full academic scholarship to help a the first irrigation system for a Guatemalan village. Also, she is "an organic vegan, and my carbon footprint is miniscule." Let me pause here and point out the obvious. I don't think vegans would approve of fellow vegans taking V, what with it being blood and everything. Amy starts punching Eddie's arm because his blood's clotted. She goes to the desk to get some tape, and finds several empty bottles of Tru Blood. Amy gets as little freaked out, saying Jason hiding something from her (secretly nourishing Eddie) is basically lying, and they were above that. Eddie defends Jason, saying he did it to help, and that Jason loves Amy and thinks she might be the one. "You talk about me with him?" Amy asks. I get nervous because she's already hit Eddie several times, and now she has a glass bottle in her hand. Eddie tells Amy that if he dies, Jason could never forgive her, even if he wanted to. "He's not as evolved as you are," Eddie says. "No," Amy replies.

Sookie and Sam are outside on the porch, talking about Sam being a shapeshifter, or apparently they just refer to themselves as shifters. There may be thousands or tens of thousands of them. Shifting runs in the family, but Sam is adopted. He can turn into a cat or a bird, but flying is hard. Being a dog is easiest for him, but he needs a live model to turn into something. It's too difficult to turn into another human because they are complex. So far the only piece of information I find particularly interesting is that Sam was adopted, and his adoptive family never talked about his shapeshifting abilities. Also, Sam's shifting wears off in his sleep (which we noticed already), and he can't stop shifting when the moon is full. Sookie compares him to a werewolf, and Sam says werewolves are nasty and dangerous, and not to compare him to one. Sookie is a little surprised that werewolves exist, which I think shouldn't be so strange to her since she's dating a vampire and found her boss naked (and he can turn into a cute dog.) What else is out there? "More than you can imagine," Sam tells Sookie. She takes a seat on the steps, and wonders if a werewolf could have killed Gran. Sam speculates that it's possible. Sookie has a minor freak out moment, and in an effort to comfort her, Sam puts his hand on her shoulder, and she snaps at him. Sam thought Sookie would understand, because she's someone who has a secret too. Sookie says she doesn't hide who she is. Sam said he wanted to tell her for years. Sookie yells back that she kissed Sam, and knew he wanted to do more, but was he going to tell her before or after? She storms inside.

Back to Tara's exorcism. Jeanette is slowly circling Tara, muttering stuff. (Jeanette uses a cane.) Tara starts convulsing, and throws up a lot. Jeanette yells for the demon to show itself, and Tara starts hallucinating and sees a little girl walk towards them through the woods. It's a younger Tara. Jeanette hands Tara a knife and tells her to kill her demon, which can take any form and knows her weaknesses. The little girl says, "Please mama, don't hurt me." Tara makes a stabbing motion into her hallucination, and stumbles to the ground. The knife in her hand is now covered in blood. Tara cries, and Jeanette tells her the demon is gone.

It's morning now, and Jason is messing with his hair. Amy starts talking to Jason about how they need to talk about Eddie, and what they're doing with him right now is uncivilized. She explains Stockholm syndrome to Jason, saying all they need to do is get Eddie to love them, since he already loves Jason. Eventually Eddie wouldn't even need to be locked up. Jason compares this to having a pet. Amy says they could sell Eddie's blood when they need money. They could backpack around the world. This sounds civilized, for sure. Amy says she's going to the store to get Tru Blood for Eddie. They exchange sappy I love you's. Jason looks in the mirror and comments that he looks even better than he did yesterday. Let me note here that I'm a little surprised that Jason didn't get really defensive when Amy mentioned that Eddie already loved Jason. Also, I'm a little disappointed in Jason's narcissistic comment, since they were just starting to humanize Jason. Note that it's about one-fourth through the show, and we haven't seen Jason (or anyone) naked. My roommate commented that at the rate Jason's partial nude scenes are going, we could just start calling the show "Jason's Ass." Or maybe, "Unnecessary TNA." But we're in for a surprise this week, because there is no nudity or sex.

Back to Tara, who wakes up her mom Lettie Mae. They have a happy cry over Tara's exorcism. They decide to go out to celebrate. This would be nice and uplifting compared to everything else going on in the show right now, except for the fact that Lettie Mae at one point tells Tara, "I forgive you," which I don't really get. What does Tara need forgiveness for exactly? Sounding unconvincingly twangy and hating stupid people? Turning her back on her abusive alcoholic mother? Well...

At Merlotte's, Sam is hanging up paper lanterns for Arlene's engagement party. He asks Sookie to get another box, and she tells him she's busy setting up the bar (which consists of putting wine bottles on a table.) Sookie makes a big point to tell Terry that he's so sweet and it's great that there are no dirty secrets or surprises with him. Terry just tells her that she probably only thinks that because she doesn't know him. Arlene comes up and starts being a pain in the ass about how the lanterns should alternate in color (even though they're already hanging), and how they should hang a certain way, and everything should look like a debutante ball. I'm starting to suspect I will totally hate Arlene by the end of the episode. Sam asks Terry how he knew what Arlene wanted. Terry explains that he comes from an old family, and Sam has a flashback of when he was younger and the family's barking dog triggered him to shift into a dog in front of his adoptive mom.

Now Lafayette is on his couch watching a black-and-white movie. He sees a white guy in a suit walking up his driveway, and rips off the last of the wax on his chest. It's the senator from way out when. He needs some V, because he has a speech that night. Lafayette gets ready to give the senator some loving to ease his stage fright.

Back to Lettie Mae and Tara in the car, enjoying their celebratory meal. Lettie Mae says she's going to the DMV to get her license back tomorrow. She starts getting some indigestion, and Tara says she'll pull over to a drugstore to get some Pepto. Tara recognizes the clerk at the drugstore. It's Jeanette! Tara gets pissed, and threatens to call the cops. Turns out Jeanette just gave Tara ipecac syrup and a small amount of peyote. Jeanette gives Tara a sob story about how she has a son in prison, a son in Iraq, a diabetic daughter, and three grandchildren to take care of. Tara can't believe she thought she was cured, and thinks Lettie Mae will start drinking again once she finds out Jeanette was a hoax. Jeanette (or whatever her real name is) tells Tara maybe Lettie Mae doesn't have to know, and faith is a powerful thing. Tara storms away muttering the F-word. Did anyone notice Lettie Mae tossing crawfish shells over her shoulder? It was hard to tell if it was out the window or into the backseat (I would hope not the latter), but either way, I found it a little odd.

Now it's dark, and everyone's dancing at Arlene's engagement party. Her fiancee Rene has some moves. There's as live band, and everyone seems to be having a good time except Andy (who always looks a little uncomfortable anyway), and Sookie, who's sitting by herself. Terry walks up to her and says he'd asked her to dance, but he doesn't dance. Sookie tells him thanks, but crowds make her feel guilty for not having fun like everyone else. Then she feels guilty for feeling guilty. I don't feel sorry for Sookie. Terry says he's heard guilt is a useless emotion. Sookie says she wishes Bill was there. Terry says "There are some dead people I wish were still around too." He walks away.

Finally, we see the tribunal. Some young vampire fed on a human who already belonged to someone. He's in chains. His punishment is three months of starving until his fangs grow back. Someone yanks out his fangs, and there's a lot of blood pouring out of his mouth. The head of the tribunal is an older looking guy in a suit. He calls forth Eric, who has to bring in his murderer, Bill. Bill steps forward. They cut to the next scene. That's it? Come on. What the hell.

Jason is feeding Eddie. Jason is explaining that Amy wasn't a pyscho like Eddie thought, and they wanted Eddie to live with them. Eddie asks if Amy mentioned finding the Tru Blood Jason originally bought for him. (No, she didn't.) Eddie quotes Amy. Eddie tells Jason that Amy is playing Jason. Amy and Jason leave.

Lafayette is at Eddie's house trying to reach him. He realizes Jason has something to do with Eddie's disappearance.

Back at the engagement party, Arlene takes a breather and asks Rene to dance with Sookie. He tells Sookie he has nothing against vampires, but Sookie is a good girl and can do better basically. Sam cuts in on their dance, and he tries to call a truce. Sookie is mad that Sam hid the most important thing about himself from her, and also didn't tell her about his relationship with Tara. He finally tells Sookie he didn't tell her about the shapeshifting because he suspects this is how she'd react, and he was right. He storms off. Jason, Rene, and Hoyt are having a good time. Amy goes to get another beer. They ask Jason how he met Amy, and he admits they met at Fangtasia, but says he was only there because there was a band playing that he liked. Rene asks Jason if Amy is "the one." If she is, life is short. Jason tells Rene that he's never felt this away about any girl before, but he thinks he's lost the "upper hand in the relationship." Rene basically tells Jason to just take it back. Hoyt's annoying mom comes up and tells Hoyt to put down his beer. Hoyt takes Rene's advice and lays down the law, saying he plans on drinking six more beers, and a ton of tequila.

At the tribunal, Bill explains that Longshadow was choking Sookie. He tells the old vampire running the tribunal (I think they call him "Magister") that Longshadow was also stealing from Eric, and Eric asked for Sookie to be there. Bill tells the Magister that some people feel humans have more value. It pisses off the Magister, who says (as he thinks humans allegedly say), "Back your shit down." I've never heard anyone say those words in that order really, but okay. Bill starts to get a little huffy, but Eric gets him to settle down. The Magister sentences Bill to five years in a silver coffin, which would drive Bill insane. However, the Magister decides he's feeling creative...

Cut to the engagement party that I don't care about. Arlene, Sookie, and Amy are all sitting together. Arlene loves Rene because she can count on him. Amy gushes about Jason. Sookie says she wonders how people can trust each other these days, killing the happy mood. Amy says she loves Jason because everything about him is on the surface, and you never have to know what he's thinking. Sookie says, "That's because he's not thinking." Tara stumbles up drunk, and wearing a gaudy red prom dress from 2000. Actually, I think she's drunk, but she might just be stumbling because she's wearing heels. Sookie confronts Tara about her relationship with Sam. Tara retorts that at least Sam doesn't drink her blood. Sookie storms off. There's a lot of people storming off away from other people this episode, and it's starting to feel a little old. Andy finds Sam and starts questioning him again. Sam tells Andy that he was adopted, and then was on his own after he was 15. Andy says he wants to know what Sam was doing before he started buying property in Bon Temps and women started getting killed. Sam has a flashback of coming home to a near-empty house. Everything has been moved out except Sam's room. Andy calls Sam back to attention. There's no record of Sam's life before Bon Temps. Tara interrupts and spills a drink on Andy, and starts making out with Sam. It's not the heels, she's very obviously wasted. Tara pulls Sam away from Andy, and they head to his office. Sam pushes Tara away, and they have the same fight of "you're not the only one with demons, what do you want from me." Tara storms out of the office. Lafayette shows up and finds Jason. Lafayette is pissed because his supplier is gone, and worried that he'll suffer the same fate. Jason tells Lafayette he has nothing to worry about. Lafayette says Jason thinks life is a game, despite all the people who've died in Jason's life recently (Maudette, Dawn, Gran.) Thank you Lafayette, for actually bringing attention to the three murders that don't seem to concern most of the people in this town. Lafayette swears he won't be the next dead body, and storms off. Jason looks like he's trying to think.

Back to the tribunal. Bill owes the vampires a life. A terrified redhead is yanked out of a car trunk. She snuck out for the first time, and begs to be taken back home. She begs Bill not to let them kill her.

And back at the engagement party, Arlene asks Sookie where Sam is, so he can get some ice. Sookie says she'll get it, because "He needs a break from all this anyway." Arlene says sarcastically, "Thanks for having such a great time at my party." I'm having a hard time liking anyone on this show. So far in this episode alone, the only people I can tolerate so far are Eddie, Sam, and Terry. Sookie's getting buckets of ice from inside the bar, and the lights go out. Sookie has a vision of a girl in distress in what looks like something with tiles. She hides behind the bar, is grabbed by someone, and hides in the kitchen. There's a short game of cat and mouse, and Sookie narrowly escapes through an opening back into the bar area, where she collides with Sam. Sam almost leaves to investigate, but Sookie tells him not to leave.

Meanwhile, Tara is downing liquor and driving her car. She sees a woman in the road and swerves, crashing her car through a fence. Some creepy white lady walks off.

Amy and Jason get home, and Jason is yelling about how he shouldn't need Amy's permission for stuff. Jason decides to let Eddie out of his restraints, and actually pushes Amy away to keep her from stopping him. Amy stakes Eddie, and now I'm sad, because one of the more interesting characters on the show (that gets a decent amount of screen time) is dead.

Cut to the tribunal. Bill talks out of turn and says that if the Magister wants to torture someone, it can be Bill. Bill, um, backs his shit down. He has never made a vampire. The Magister tells him to make the crying redhead a vampire. There's a brief shot of her parents in the crowd. I don't think they look as terrified as I would be, but okay. The redhead's name is Jessica. Bill glamours her, but the Magister puts a stop to it. After Jessica struggles a little, Bill finally takes a few bites and drinks her blood. End credits.

The 411: I'm not unbiased in my reviews, since it's obvious I'm not really hooked on this show. Again, the pace of the show feels like a problem. I think too much time was spent on Arlene's engagement party, just so Sookie could get chased by the murderer for a few minutes. I think too much time was spent on Tara and Lettie Mae's story as well, but this could just be because it's my least favorite story line. Sam finally tells Sookie his big secret, but it's one that we've known or suspected for a while, so it's not that satisfying to have to truth revealed at this point. And honestly, I think Sookie is a hypocrite for being angry with Sam for keeping a secret from her. Sookie never told Sam about Uncle Bartlett. Granted, child molestation and the ability to shapeshift are not on the same level by any means, but the lesson is everyone has secrets, and Sookie should shut up. Jason and Amy's story is somewhat interesting, but Amy's weekly diatribe and/or hippie organic lecturing is getting old. I get it, Amy's a hypocrite and she's crazy. Eddie seemed to be the humanizing factor in Jason's life, and at least now I'm curious how Eddie's death will affect Jason in the last few episodes of this season. My biggest peeve this week is how in the previous episode it seemed like such a big deal that Bill had to go to the tribunal, and tribunal scenes this week were incredibly short. Bill's sentence will hopefully make for an interesting episode next week, but I'm getting sick of waiting and hoping for next week's episode to live up to the hype set up by the previous one. Also, points off for staking Eddie and not even showing the effects on Jason and Amy (other than some bloody goo on Jason.) We have to wait until next week even to see the inevitable fight that follows? Do the creators of True Blood think we enjoy not having any sort of follow through? Tidy up, please. I know some stuff has been resolved, but why bother giving minor characters like Terry (who I actually don't mind since he's not irritating) and Hoyt (remember when he wanted to try Tru Blood and bang Randi Sue?) more screen time if they don't have any pivotal roles in any of the many plots already going on?

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]