True Blood - Nothing But the Blood

What I liked about the beginning of the second season was some closing stories leading into fresh storylines. I was ready to see Sam move on from Sookie, and also Tara. He needed to have his own story that wasn’t necessarily romantically tied to other main cast characters. I certainly wanted his own story to develop further and Nothing But the Blood thankfully does that. Touched on in the previous season was Sam’s abandonment by his adoptive parents. They simply just left him. He was fending for himself when he happened across (as fate would have it) the palatial estate of Maryann (the naked woman with the pig that caused Tara to crash and also offered her that very same estate to rest, relax, and exhale). She understood he was “special”, while having sex with Sam when he was just seventeen. He sees her “tremor” and it (obviously) freaks him out. There’s also something *peculiar* about her. That question about where Sam got all the cash is answered in this episode as he just bags a lot of cash sitting comfortably in Maryann’s dresser drawer. So Sam believes he owes that back to her and this is the reason she has re-entered his life. She just giggles. The episode won’t tell us what she has in store for Sam, though. That is a carrot dangled for the future of the second season.

Tara gets some really good development in this episode. I do like where her character was going as it was totally away from Jason Stackhouse (the first season did that well enough as Jason and Amy’s love affair removed them from each other) and seemingly now Sam, moving directly towards Maryann’s supplanted hunk, Eggs (Mehcad Brooks). Maryann seems quite invested in their romance. Why? Even if Maryann does appear to be the next grand villain of the show, her critique of Tara’s mom is spot-on and bravura. Sized up and destroyed for being a horrible mother, Lettie Mae is certainly put in her place by Maryann. Michelle Forbes is really kinda awesome on this show. She’s one of those devouring presences, just dominating her space on screen and those around her just kind of go along for the ride. Poor Lettie Mae, after learning that the fraud that was the voodoo witch was found dead in detective Andy’s car with her heart ripped out, is obliterated by Maryann for what she has done to Tara. It is epic cool.

Andy is slipping into a drunken ass while trying to be some gumshoe hoping to solve the case involving the body found in his car. Sheriff Dearborne, bless him, returns with a rodeo trophy and can’t even celebrate because Andy is acting an asshole out of himself. Dearborne is put in the position of removing him from the case. Andy interrogating Tara harshly for no real reason besides her knowledge of the victim and her fraudulence towards Lettie Mae is certainly the catalyst in Dearborne dumping him. I don’t think anyone can blame Dearborne after Andy is a little tough on this elderly couple in the bar and grille just sitting at a table.

Then you have the usual melodrama of Sookie and Bill’s “one step forward, two steps back” romance that is equal parts euphoric and agonizing. Their lusty hot sex at the end of the episode where the two just leave a difficult confrontation over Bill killing her pedophile uncle (he left Sookie his inheritance, the sick fuck) and Sookie frustrated with him for not telling her is passionate and all-out…it looked quite unscripted and real. The tears down Sookie’s face as Bill tells her how she awakened in him feelings he hadn’t had in 140 years is potent, and the money she has no interest in (given to Jason because he actually liked Uncle Bartlett) ultimately worked into its own storyline certainly further builds upon this up-and-down relationship, all the peaks and valleys in every single episode it seems.

Jason now is edging towards the exaggerated Christian anti-vampire empire led by the Newlins, and of course being evangelistic in nature they demand a fee for joining their “camp”. Pray for the money and if Jesus so desires Jason will possibly receive the expected fee requested. Well Uncle Bartlett gets killed by Bill, and his body eventually turns up in a drink near his home, “killed by the predators in the area”. Jason is handed the cash by Sookie who wants nothing to do with that guy. Manna from heaven as Jason sees it. This is what Jesus wants is what Jason feels at the time. Yeah. 

Other alternating stories certain to produce some interesting developments include a new hire at Merlotte’s, Terry getting rid of gossipy women out of the bar when they upset Arlene, and Hoyt at odds with Jason over their differing opinions of vampires (and how they relate to women). Oh and Jason has sworn off booze and women, fending off a lady offering her body to him while Hoyt notices her lusty behavior.

Good launching pad for the second season.

 

Lafayette was kidnapped by a vampire at the end of the previous episode and it was hinted that perhaps he was the dead body in Andy’s car. Instead Lafayette finds himself chained in a basement. A redneck that gave Lafayette a hard time on his homosexuality soon arrives to be chained to a turning wheel, and his need to cleanse his soul through admitting all his sins wears out his welcome indeed. Then Eric walks down those steps at the end with plans to interrogate him over the fires that killed the vampire pack who visited Bill at his home, as Lafayette looks on in dread (Lafayette hides behind a brick wall when the door opens, understanding that something bad happens to those taken away, noticing the screams that often sound outside). Eric might just have some questions for Lafayette.