BLOODY GOOD
Hoyt Punching Tommy
It’s basically already been said, but it should be reiterated. This was like the show rewarding me for sitting through all of Tommy, from his terrible angst to his classy “That gives me wood” lines. God bless you, Hoyt. -Z
Jason and Tara: BFF’s
Ok, so there’s a clear sexual undertone, but I always bought Jason and Tara as friends more than I bought Sookie and Tara as friends. An frankly, it was nice to see the two of them get some alone time to talk to each for the first time since, oh, first season. -Z
[I like Jason and Tara time, especially since it means less Jason and Crystal time. Still seems kind of short-lived now that Jason up and confessed to killing her last boyfriend --D]
Sam in a Suit
The show has always hinted at the idea that Sam had a cool backstory and it turns out (as Dennis explores below) his backstory is apparently everyone’s backstory. But it was nice to see him in something other than Merlotte’s duds, even if he was predictably clueless. -Z
Sookie and Eric Making Out
Ok, it’s pandering. But it’s pandering I can get behind. Even if it ended in even more violence against women/Sookie/next week Sookie will be saved by Bill again. -Z
Jason Not Being Stupid and Also Mean to Bill
Jason is one of my favorite characters, but particularly in episodes like this where it’s less about him being the comic relief or having some absurd dream about law enforcement and more about him being human. I like that Tara called him on his dumb act, that Sookie and him seemed like siblings who cared about each other, and that he shoved Bill out of his house. A little nuance goes a long way with Jason and it worked perfectly this week. -Z
[I feel like people tell Jason he's not as dumb as he looks every so often, and then he goes back to being an idiot. Maybe he really IS as dumb as he looks, and maybe Jason, and the writers, need to stop fighting it? --D]
Revelations!
Hey look, some stuff happened. Lots and LOTS of stuff. Jason told Sookie, then Tara he killed Eggs! Tara told Sookie she was raped! Arlene told Terry the kid ain’t his! Sookie’s a fairy! Crystal is a werepanther. This being the third to last episode of the season it’s probably about time some reveals finally started occurring (why they all had to happen in one hour and not spread out over the season is beyond me, but I’ll take what I can get). -D
Pam!
“Blah blah vampire emergency blah.” Oh Pam, you slay me. Get it!? Because she’s a vampire? Luckily Pam’s wittier than I am. -D
Hoyt Mans Up
Hoyt finally dumped Summer (considering he confessed he hated her last episode, that took a little long), reminded Jessica for the billionth time that he loves her just the way she is, and then punched a deserving Tommy in the face. Ok, so he ended up getting mauled by the bulldog version of Tommy, but even that got him closer to Jessica. Also, that might’ve been the last we’ve seen of poor Summer for awhile (though Jason DID love her biscuits), but at least she didn’t leave without calling Hoyt “Bear” repeatedly. Hoyt may not get a love of antiquing or dolls from his short-lived Summer relationship, but I hope that nickname sticks. -D
[Bear was a great nickname and her telling Hoyt was a "sexual person" was also choice. I'm all for Hoyt and Jessica 4evah! but I hope Summer's able to stick around. -Z]
Steve Newlin
Zoe and I have discussed before that it seems the shows finds it necessary to off the big bads on this show at the end of their seasons (Rene, Maryann, if I had to guess Russell), so it was nice to see Steve Newlin, season 2′s secondary antagonist alive, and still smarming it up in his cameo tonight. I wish Anna Camp’s Sarah Newlin could also return (she had better chemistry with Jason than, ugh, Crystal), but Camp was on Mad Men tonight instead. Those Newlins are all over Sunday night TV! -D
9021-gigolo
It was nice to see nu90210′s Michael Steger as Russell’s doomed prostitute companion. Considering I always thought Theo Alexander (Talbot) was on 90210 (he wasn’t) at least now an actual cast member from the CW spinoff has show up here. Steger’s Naveen may not be the male character going gay this fall on 90210, but well, he got to here. Though, I can’t imagine if he had on 90210, it would’ve ended so bloody (oh good, more blood puns!) unfortunately. -D
BITES
Flashbacks
In Entertainment Weekly’s review of True Blood earlier this season, it noted that “Flashback scenes just take up valuable time we could be spending in the present” and I think that’s grown even more true as this priority-confused season has progressed. This is the third-to-last episode of the season and you’re subjecting me to Old School Sam killing some people? Just like viking Eric and and the “good” old days of Bill and Lorena, no one cares. Get back to 2010 (or whatever year this time-confused show is in these days). Another reason I could care about Sam’s murdering past? See below -D
Everyone’s Super and SuperHomicidal
If this show has taught me anything this week, it’s that as it turns out, everyone on this show is supernatural in some way. Sookie turned out to be a fairy (and Jason is at least partially descended from them), Holly’s a witch, Crystal’s a werepanther, and apparently Jesus and Lafayette (and thusly I guess, Tara) are descended from sorcerers. Is there anyone on this show that’s not super in some way? And furthermore? Has anyone not killed someone or at least tried to? Jason killed Eggs and Franklin. Tara tried to bash Franklin’s brains in. Eric staked Talbot. Sam shot some flashback lame-os. You know why we don’t care about your secret past Sam? Because your secret is everyone else on this show’s not-so-secret secret too. -D
[Yea, like everyone's PTSD, this seems a bit much. Especially because by this point everyone's so used to this stuff that it seems silly that people work so hard to conceal it. I mean, how much of Hoyt's balls could Sam have saved by telling people him and his brother can become dogs? How much boring Crystal plot could we have missed if she had just fessed up to Jason right away? -Z]
Creepy Tommy
Zoe and I have thus far disagreed on Tommy, but this show sure isn’t making it easy for me to like him anymore. Sure Tommy always was a little bit screwed up, but I thought the whole thing was that Tommy actually had some good in him unlike his messed up parents? Now he’s stealing Arlene’s tip money and trying to tear Hoyt to shreds to get to Jessica? -D
[Having always found Tommy a bit creepy, I'm ok with this, but also bored. Like, for a show about vampires trying to integrate into human society there's a lot less "struggling against your darker instincts" than you'd think. It seems people like Tommy do that for half a second and then go right back to being dark. Meh. -Z]
Where’d the Confusing Vampire Hierarchies Go?
Not like I’m missing all the kings and queens and magisters and shadowy figures sitting in front of a television screen, but was there a point to all of Russell’s machinations? Now that he’s gone nuts, all he seems to be doing is killing gigolos. Once Russell had dreams of taking over the world, now he just dreams of his dead husband. That’s rough, Russ. -D
[Yea, I loooooooove me some Russell, but he was pretty meh this week. I guess it's hard to top last week's exit and I guess he needed to work through Talbot's death but come on! Let's have our head to head battle with him an Eric already. -Z]
Jesus and Lafayette Trip Balls
I love Jesus. I love Lafayette. I do not like the drug cam the way Alan Ball does. And while it was sort of nice to get some background, I mostly hated the exaggerated highness of it (I guess V is peyote now???) and frankly, I’m fine with Lafayette having some magic or whatever, but it’s dull to see it arduously explained. -Z
[Yeah, couldn't Jesus just have TOLD Lafayette that they both came from magic families? -D]
The New Mystery of Bill
Yay, much was revealed this week (finally!) Boo to the new “mystery” of why Sookie can’t trust Bill. Especially boo because it’s likely just: Sophie-Anne wanted him to procure you and also his creepy file on your family. We already know those things show! Why can’t you let people talk like people sometimes? -Z
[Yeah, seems to me anyone with half a brain could've figured out the rest of the Bill mysteries. Last I checked, unlike sweet, dumb Jason, Sookie actually had half a brain. -D]
Sam’s Two Rules
What kind of asshole bans dancing at his bar? What the hell, Sam!? -Z
Each week Dennis and I assemble a list of our favorite (and least favorite) moments for the latest episode of True Blood.