Eric Northman continues to be the most compelling character on True Blood. Not only does he bring a natural charisma to every scene he’s in, but he has a genuine internal struggle going on. I am still unclear on where his true loyalties lie, and I suspect that’s because Eric, himself, is unclear. He first acts the stalwart protector of Sookie, warning her about Bill and refusing to give him over to Russell at Pam’s request. And yet, the episode closes with Eric heaving her over his shoulder like a sack of bread and locking her in his private dungeon. Is he planning on giving her over to Russell after all? Is he protecting her? Or is he just keeping her within reach while he figures out how to use her as a weapon? My vote goes to option #3. Of course I had to laugh at Sookie’s stupidity when she screamed, “I’m not some prisoner you can just lock up any time you feel like taking off.” She fled from a house where she was protected right into the arms of a serial murderer with a dungeon, and then dared him to use it. Well done, as always, Ms. Stackhouse.
I also enjoyed the scene where Eric leaves his life savings to Pam. We get to see both sides of the character. He genuinely cares about his progeny and wants to make sure she’ll be taken care of. But the very next second he behaves monstrously towards Yvette, calling her a gold digging whore, not that anyone actually cares about Yvette.
Sookie’s scenes with Eric continue to have far more heat than her scenes with her real life newbie husband, Stephen Moyer, a.k.a. Bill. I’m reminded of Joey Tribiani’s maxim in Friends, where he insists that when two actors are sleeping together off stage, they don’t have any heat left for their on-stage performance. Substitute screen for stage and you have yourself a Bill-Sookie romance. There are always a few lines of cringe-worthy dialogue between those two-this week they were, “It is not your blood I love. I love you. Your mind (insert joke here). Your heart. Your soul.” Real subtle writing.
We’ve heard a lot of references to Sookie not being able to trust Bill, whether it’s from Eric or from Sookie’s own subconscious. Eric repeatedly asks Bill to tell her the truth. My question is this: Is the big secret Eric’s referring to simply the fact that Bill was sent to Bon Temps to spy on Sookie for Sophie Anne Leclerq? Or is there more to it that we don’t know yet? Because if the former, I have no problem believing that Bill has subsequently developed genuine love for Sookie, or that he would easily be able to convince her of that fact if he simply told her the truth. His actions throughout the series have indicated his willingness to give his life for her. If there’s more to Bill’s “secret” than how he originally came into her life, I’d like to know what it is.
I wasn’t happy with the way a lot of the revelations were handled in this episode, either to us or to the characters. The episode’s very first line, “I’m a fairy? That is so fuckin’ lame,” bugged the hell out of me. After an entire season of buildup and frustrating teases about Sookie’s true nature, I wasn’t pleased that we entered the episode after the actual revelation. The whole scene felt rushed and expositional. “That is so fuckin’ lame,” had a bit of truth to it, though not because of the revelation itself, just because of the perfunctory manner in which it was delivered. I also felt that Jason’s confession to Tara was a bit rushed. “I shot eggs” felt like a statement that should have been left to sit for a moment. A little silence was called for. Instead Jason immediately began demanding a response from her. It felt unnatural.
Crystal and her fucked up family continue to annoy me. I’ve never liked the way I was expected to buy into her connection with Jason immediately, despite knowing nothing about her and the complete lack of discernible chemistry between them. And I’ve liked her less as I’ve gotten to know her. Her family’s backwards thinking epitomizes offensive Southern stereotypes. Lafayette’s declaration, “Dem fuckers is a whole new dimension of trash,” was both hilarious and spot on. I had to cover my eyes a bit when her father said, “You aint gotta love him. You just gotta lie under him and bear his children.” Again…subtle. Though, I did enjoy her transformation into a panther at the end of the episode. I just wish we had gotten there before episode 10. Too much of that plotline has consisted of vague references to what she is. At least we finally know.
I’ve always liked the character of Sam and enjoyed learning about his violent past. It explains both his beating of Crystal’s father and how he was able to buy the bar (though I could’ve sworn we learned in season 2 he got that money from Maryanne. Somebody help me out here?). I like the idea that Sam wasn’t always the great guy he now seems to be, and that he’s on a redemption journey. I hope the writers find something a little more interesting for him to do going forward, as his plot lines have seemed disjointed from the whole all season long. I’d also like to know what happened after his double homicide to turn him into the man we’ve come to know.
I continue to care nothing about Lafayette’s relationship with Jesus. It just strikes me as another outlet for the homo-erotica that has become a week-in,week-out staple of this show. Sometimes, as with Eric & Russell & Talbot, this feels germane to the story. Other times, as with Jesus or Russell’s encounter with the prostitute, the homo-erotica feels like it’s there for its own sake. Lafayette and Jesus’s V-trip was both incomprehensible and interminable. Lafayette’s ancestor was a shaman and Jesus’s grandfather was a sorcerer, do I have that right? I wish they had conveyed that more clearly and succinctly, or even better, not conveyed it at all. In any event, I don’t really care about any of it or see what it has to do with anything else in the show.
Hoyt and Jessica are sweet together, but I tend to believe she’s right that if he knew all she’d done, he wouldn’t want to be with her. And why did he run out of the bar? He asked her to look him in the eyes and tell him she didn’t love him. It seemed to me she wasn’t able to do that.
The scene between Arlene and Jessica is an example of the show dropping the ball on its original thematic goal. I get the sense I was supposed to side with Jessica when she told Arlene she didn’t like skinny, narrow-minded bitches. Yet, the very fact that Jessica unleashed her fangs and threatened Arlene while making this statement pretty much made Arlene’s point for her.
Those are my thoughts on "I Smell a Rat." I’m hoping against hope that the show gets more tightly focused in the season’s two remaining episodes.
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