When asked who her favorite character in her books was she said Sookie (of course) but that she loves all her characters as each one is a part of herself. Other than Sookie though, she said her favorite characters were Amelia Broadway (a witch in the books that hasn’t been in the show) and Vampire Pam (played by Kristin Bauer). Charlaine also explained that Alan Ball’s intention with the True Blood series was to base each season on each book. So season one of the show is based on book one and season two is based on book two… etc. She continues, saying that Alan made it clear that the series would most likely take on a life of its own…

“Alan Ball explained that because Sookie wouldn’t be able to carry the entire series on her own, other characters would have to become more developed. Hence Lafayette not being killed in season one, even though he was killed in the first novel, Dead Until Dark. This also explains why the character Jessica Hamby played by Deborah Ann Woll was created and why Tara Thornton played by Rutina Wesley has become a main character in the True Blood series.”

The interviewer then asks Charlaine who her favorite character on the show is. She sweetly praised the entire cast but singled out Nelsan Ellis for his “brilliant” portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds (and it sure is, he is amazing). She also said that she couldn’t believe how tall Alexander Skarsgård, who plays the delicious Eric Northman, is. Alexander is a whopping 6’4” so he totally towered over Charlaine. She did say that he was one of the nicest actors she’d met. Hot and nice? Mmm mmm. Ahem.

When it comes to season three, Charlaine showed excitement over who might be cast in the role of Debbie Pelt, one of the main characters in the Club Dead book. She noted that Club Dead was one of her favorite novels and she looked forward to how Alan Ball would rework it for True Blood. Charlaine and Alan don’t communicate regularly about the series said Charlaine told but said that she was “okay with the liberties that Alan Ball has taken with the True Blood series because she looks at True Blood as its own entity.”

Then when asked about whom Sookie will end up with – Eric or Bill, Charlaine Harris devilishly teases us by answering, “Who says it’s going to be a vampire?”

Eeeee! So excited now!

- Moonlight

Related Reading:

True Blood Philosophy (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)

Motoring from McCloud

True Blood 2010 Wall Calendar

Plight of the Toothless Vampire

True Blood (The True Series, Book 1)

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2. ‘New Moon’ Interview and Video
3. Exclusive Interview with Participants of the Global Vampire Community Discussion

And what a song it is! To take a moment aside from the great sounds that accompany the show’s introduction, for a moment, focus on just the introduction. Between the spliced images of bar fights, nasty bits of natural biology, and the tangle of limbs that some of us pause to catch a nipple, there are a lot of interesting little tidbits of southern culture. The style of baptism in the river, the southern black church depictions, and the scenes of kids and adults in the south. Don’t forget the church billboard saying “God Hates Fangs” either. The show realistically depicts the world’s reaction to the existence of vampires on a small town scale, unlike what we often see in films where all the action is in big cities or foreign hyper-modern locales, with plenty of PVC and Spandex in every ensemble. Arlene and Maudette, are played by actresses who have the faces of women who got old too fast, and the show follows them through their lives as they deal with it. At this point in the show, the actors have settled into their roles, and wear their characters like a second skin, making this peek into an alternate, yet bizarrely believable universe, that much more enjoyable. Now back to the show!

We open back up on what’s known as “cop knocking” or, “Jesus Christ, the cops are here! Turn off the lights and sit on the floor!”, on a door; then Lafayette stumbles in, grabs a bat, and in a split second, Tara is inside, throwing things at him. Tara lays into him for selling V to Jason, and explains what she had to go through, while every man privvy to the scene winces in a collective visualization of agony that just might have given a few guys nightmares. Tara eventually calms down after Lafayette apologizes, and promises to go see Jason and make sure he’s okay.

Then the scene switches to Gran, cooking eggs while on the phone with a very irate woman, berating her for organizing Vampire Bill’s speech at the church, to her Civil War interest group, the Descendants of the Glorious Dead. Sookie walks in, and Gran, mindful of the girl’s sensitvity to the subject of Bill, pretends the conversation is vastly more pleasant. The conversation is cut short when the woman tells Gran she’s going to hell, and Gran cheerfully says, “Same to you,” –so we wonder, how much of that was for Sookie’s benefit, and did that sweet old lady just tell that wicked old bitch to go to hell? Sookie sits and starts eating breakfast, and right away, we can tell she’s still in a pissy mood. The two discuss Bill’s feelings, or lack thereof, and Gran tells Sookie that she should basically, think of the opportunity to know Bill as less of a curse, than a blessing.

Back at Jason’s, the recent invalid is rather graphically illustrating his hospital experience to Lafayette, with an Italian sausage and a meat thermometer; again, men around the world unite in visualizing some profound agony. Jason whines to Lafayette, while the sexy little piece of man candy reveals to Jason that Tara has been in love with Jason since they were little kids. Jason apparently had no idea, and goes on to express how horrible his life is, and blames it all on Lafayette and V. This sparks an educational drug moment, where Lafayette explains how to properly “use da shit”. After the Hunter S. Thompson-esque dialogue, Jason does some more V, this time with Lafayette as his coach; only one drop, on a piece of gauze, and Jason apprehensively waits for the effect.

Sookie, back at work, is talking to a smug Arlene, who says that the vampire bar was full of freaks, and “people from Arkansas”; if you don’t know what she means, then you’re from Arkansas, or too far north! Sookie tells Arlene that she won’t be going out with Bill any more, and Arlene, satisfied, moseys off while Sam moves in like Rebound Man, and asks Sookie out, while every head at the bar turns in their direction. Sookie agrees to go to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead meeting, and out for coffee with Sam, and then goes off to refill Detective Andy Bellefleur’s tea. Andy asks about Jason and Tara, and Sookie, who knows nothing about it, accidentally destroys Jason’s alibi that he was with Tara the night she was sleeping with Sam, also, the night of Dawn’s murder. Sookie overhears Andy referring to Tara as a “bitch” in his brain, and tells him to watch his mouth; before he can speak any of his suspicious thoughts, Sookie scoots off to refill his tea, and think of a way to reassure Andy that Jason really was with Tara that night.

While Sam is refilling the tea, Sookie goes off to talk to Tara, who is a bit chagrined about Sookie and Sam going out that night, but can’t say why, and won’t. Sookie asks about Tara and Jason’s “beautiful thang”, as Tara had previously referred to it, and Tara explains why she gave Jason an alibi. Sookie senses Tara’s unease about something; –no doubt screwing Sam the other night, –so she tries to peek at her thoughts, and is met with a steady stream of “lalalalalalalalalalalalalala” in Tara’s brain, before Tara storms off. Sookie follows and makes an attempt to reinforce Jason’s alibi, but Andy doesn’t buy it. After Sookie thoroughly emasculates the poor man, he pouts into his tea, looking like he could do with a big hug.

The scene changes over, and we’re watching cars pull into the church for Gran’s big meeting of the Descendant of the Glorious Dead. Maxine Fortenberry, much to the embarassment of her son Hoyt, puzzles over what to do with the giant cross in the front of the church, while Gran hands out programs to the townfolk, which includes even the mayor in its turnout. Bill waits in the kitchen, looking grim, with a bottle of TruBlood. While Gran reassures the mayor that Bill isn’t going to freak out and eat everybody, Hoyt is trying to pull the cross off the altar, before his mother brainstorms a new plan of attack. Sookie shows up with Sam, and they greet Gran at the door, while Bill, obviously fairly jealous, sits in the kitchen like a statue, listening.  Sookie drags Sam over to sit by Tara, the two previous bedfellows looking plenty awkward, as Jason wanders around outside, eyeing a tree like he’d either like to ahem, mate with it, or pee on it.

While Jason stumbles around outside enjoying the LSD-like effects of V, a group of obnoxious young rednecks come in and sit down, while making nasty little comments about the old people to each other, one making a comment about “bringing some shit”. Uh oh. Jason wanders in, still half in his own little world, and approaches Tara’s pew, eyeing a rivulet of sweat running down her neck like it was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen, giving the nauseating impression that he’d really like to slurp it up. Ewwww. The friends talk quietly, before Gran addresses the group in the church and we see that Maxine Fortenberry has tactfully draped the cross at the altar with the American flag. Gran, absolutely beaming, introduces Bill to the small audience, to meager applause, and Bill thanks her before excusing himself to remove the flag from the cross, and hang it once again. The audience is shocked when he doesn’t burst into flames, naturally.

While Bill addresses the audience about vampires living peacefully with humans, and segues into the discussion of his experience fighting for Southern Independence during the Civil War, the townsfolk whisper amongst themselves. The sheriff believes that Bill should be locked up for his past, and Andy points out that his cousin Terry Bellefleur, –Sookie’s co-worker who suffers from PTSD, –killed plenty of men in the war, but Bud Dearborn shrugs and says Terry should be locked up too. Arlene’s son points out how white Bill is, and Arlene states the difference between white and dead. Meanwhile the three obnoxious rednecks attempt to make a garlic press look threatening. In the kitchen, Hoyt and Maxine Fortenberry are setting out the food, when Hoyt spies the TruBlood in the back of the fridge. He decides he isn’t that curious after taking a whiff of it, and puts it way back in the fridge.

Out in the chapel, Bill answers a man about a friend of his in the war; Toliver Humphries, the man’s great-grandfather, whom Bill fought beside. Bill explains the sad circumstances of Toliver’s death, in which he attempted to rescue a boy who was wonded, screaming on the battlefield for help. Jason, still half off his rocker, pictures himself as the screaming kid, in Bill’s memory, as Bill finishes the story. The mayor, Sterling Norris, approaches with a picture he found, and asks Bill to confirm that it is in fact, an old picture of Bill and his family. Bill confirms that it is his family, and answers a couple questions about leaving them, and it’s obvious that it’s a painful moment for him, before he moves on to ask if there are any other questions.

After the meeting, Terry Bellefleur gives Bill a big, half-tearful hug, and states that “they’ll never understand”, before telling Bill to stay sharp, calling him ‘brother’, and taking off. I thought it was pretty sweet, since Terry is obviously much altered by his experience in the war, and was able to connect with Bill on that level. Gran takes Bill’s picture with the giddy Maxine and Hoyt Fortenberry, before Gran and Bill are approached by Sookie and Sam. Bill, much to the puzzlement of pretty much everybody, insists that Sam is “legally” still Sookie’s employer, which, the four manage to shake off after a round of weird looks. Despite being dead, Bill manages to still have plenty of testosterone, but before things can get any more awkward, Sam and Sookie take off for coffee, –Bill thinks that sounds, “delightful”.

Back at Merlotte’s, Hoyt is trying to convince Rene and a still hallucinating Jason to try some TruBlood. Jason meanwhile, is staring at a dreamy Tara in a nymph-like setting at the bar, before Hoyt jerks him out of his reverie and sends him off to fetch another pitcher of beer. Jason informs the two men that he loves them, rather tenderly, before grabbing the pitcher, and setting off to fully embarass himself at the bar with Tara, who immediately realizes he’s high. Jason lays on the hippy romance monologue thick like peanut butter on toast, and Tara half-heartedly attempts to brush him off.

At a coffee shop in town, Sookie and Sam share the last bite of pie in a scene so sweet it made my teeth hurt to watch. They start discussing the weird thought process of Sam, as well as his lack of a personal history, and all that. Back at the bar, the shit is about to hit the fan; Arlene takes a plate back to Lafayette in the kitchen. Apparently, the group of obnoxious rednecks from the church decided to go by Merlotte’s. Camou-guy claims that he doesn’t want a burger with AIDS on it, and after a short discussion, Lafayette proceeds to kick some redneck ass, leaving them with a friendly reminder to tip the waitress. Jason giggles and Lafayette shoots him a high-five before scooting his sexy black ass back into the kitchen.

Sookie and Sam leave the coffee shop, and after a short but sloppy make-out session, Sookie tells Sam that it’s a bit too soon for her to jump to another guy. Sam goes off on a quasi-parental tangent, before getting in Sookie’s face rather nastily; needless to say, the evening doesn’t end well. Sookie refuses to go home with Sam, and goes back inside to call a cab. Back at the bar, Hoyt tries to pick up a celebrating divorcee, while Rene remarks that the scene is like watching Animal Planet; more like the Jerry Springer show afterparty. Hoyt heads back to the table, hesitant to take up the lady’s offer to go home with her, when their drinks arrive. Hoyt tries a big gulp of TruBlood, and nearly gags on the big bottle of warm fake blood. Jason, still high and thinking way past practicality, explains the difference between the synthetic blood, and vampire blood. The men toast each other in their manliness, but the divorcee sees Hoyt drinking TruBlood, and turns ten shades of not interested.

Meanwhile, Bill, walking grimly back to his house, flashes back to seeing his family gathered on the porch. Sheriff Bud Dearborn and Detective Andy approach Bill from behind, and interrupt his little memory moment, wanting to ask some questions. Bill invites them in, and Bud and Andy hesitantly follow. Bill invites them to sit, without so much as a ‘Be careful where you sit guys, fashion criminals were having sex on that furniture not too long ago’; but I guess Andy and Bud aren’t the nicest guys anyway. I just hope neither one of them comes down with a case of acute interest in retro fashion, –the prospect of communicative bad taste is terrifying enough to have me on the edge of my seat!

Andy takes Bill’s offer for a nice warm can of Fresca, served after Bud gives him a good scolding for taking candy/soda from a vampire. Bud and Andy question Bill about the murder of the women, and Bill asks if either of them women were exsanguinated; drained of blood. Bill informs the two that there’s no way a vampire would just kill a woman, and leave her blood untouched; naturally, he shares this information as creepily as possible, with some sexual undertones that make the two southern cops squirm. Once the cops leave, Andy willingly leaving his pen, Bill resumes his flash back memories by the fireplace, the familiar iron toaster by the fireplace bring back thoughts of his first experience with a vampire.

Bill’s memory begins with him invading a “locked” cabin in the middle of the night after knocking and calling for assistance, by cutting through the rope holding the door closed. A woman levels a rifle at his head, and warns that she’ll shoot him, but she feeds him anyway. Bill explains how he got separated from his fellow soldiers, and lost in the wilderness, while the woman serves him toast with the big iron toaster. The woman describes the situation with a husband she believes was killed in the war, then cleans Bill’s wounds as he eats. When she comes onto him, Bill refuses her, for the sake of his wife and children. She tells him that, basically, she’s been feeding and screwing pretty much every soldier that’s knocked on her door, and Bill refuses her yet again, but lets her know that he isn’t judging her. But, when he tries to leave, the woman speeds over, extends fangs, and begins feeding on him.

Bill lays on a bed, half dead, while the vampire sits over him looking pink and healthy, looking around and noticing that hey, there’s quite a few dead and decomposing guys in the room with him. She convinces him to drink from her by telling him that it’s the only way he’ll see his family again; and he does see them again, but only for a few moments, while the female vampire who turned him explains why he can never see them again. Woo, what a bitch. Bill cries tears of blood, and follows the melodramatic, evil bitch off into the night, leaving his family behind forever. Back in the present time, Bill picks up the toaster, and smashes it against the fireplace a few times, but doesn’t manage to break it.

Back at the bar, Tara is taking out the night’s trash, and out by the dumpster, she hears something weird and goes behind the building, where Jason is rather energetically, nailing the horny divorcee. Tara, fully pissed off at Jason, pours trash all over the both of them and stalks off, while Jason resumes screwing the still horny divorcee. We switch over to Sookie, who is just now arriving back at home in a cab. She slips when she enters the kitchen, and turns on the light, to reveal her dead grandmother, in a pool of blood on the floor. That’s where they leave us; very sad. :(

Related Reading:

Sookie Stackhouse, Books 1-7

Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 4)

The Fellowship of Ghosts: Travels in the Land of Midnight Sun

The Sun Rises

Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx)

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The scene opens up on a young couple driving down a dark Louisiana road; we’re pretty much immediately made aware of their character. The girl is willing to give a handjob at the wheel, –very classy, and the young-ish preppy guy wears a polo shirt with his collar flipped up. The tres chic suburbanites suddenly slam on the brakes after spotting a sign “We have Tru Blood” outside a Grabbit Kwik store.  Inside the clerk, a tragic victim of 80’s fashion, is watching a small TV where Bill Maher is interviewing Nan Flanagan, a representative from the American Vampire League defending a major mainstream turn to rights for vampires, initiated by the Japanese inventing a synthetic blood beverage — Tru Blood.

Inside the store, the anti-trendy clerk does some shoddy stereotypical acting; he pretends to be a vampire in order to scare his customers/enemies, the preps! Once they laugh off his snarky little funny, they convene over a short-lived discussion of “V-juice” –vampire blood. When humans drink “V”, it has an LSD-like effect, as well as providing erotic enhancements. Naturally, the young prep wants some, no doubt to compensate for his shortcomings in all the ways his SUV cannot. A big man at the cooler, looking equally fashionable in his deer blind attire, casually peruses the store’s wares, only looking up when the clerk’s short, badly accented ruse is midway, and ends up behind the collection of lemmings at the register. A keen eye might notice the Tru-Blood under his arm, as he approaches. The V-juice sales spiel is cut to an abrupt end when our newest character asks them to leave only to be told “Fuck you, Billy Bob” to which he replies with a southern twang  “Fuck me.  I’ll fuck you boy.  I’ll fuck ya, and then I’ll eat you.”  His fangs drop and the two idiots are out of the store faster than you can say, “Oh my god, I broke a nail!”.  To the clerk he continues coldly, “You ever pretend to be one of us again, and I’ll kill ya.  Got it?”  Then he grabs his Tru Blood after paying, and in parting delivers a Clampett-esque, “You have a nice day now.”

With an introduction like that, it’s hard to misinterpret the general atmosphere of HBO’s new series Tru-Blood. Vampires are “out of the coffin” as our heroine Sookie Stackhouse likes to say, and the world is dealing with it in varied ways. The perfect theme song intro plays now, Jace Everett’s ‘Bad Things’; it’ll make you want to hop out of your recliner and get nasty right there in your living room, –and it’s a country song! Less than 4 minutes have passed and you know Alan Ball and HBO have another hit on their hands.  The setting is as wonderfully colorful as the characters.  They’re often over-the-top and cheesy but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

A truck drives into Merlotte’s bar and grill, one of the main hangouts in Bon Temps, Louisiana for the cast of characters revolving around an annoyingly naive and adorable waitress with an ability to read thoughts, Sookie Stackhouse.  The bar is owned by Sam who seems to have a bit of a crush on Sookie. We’re automatically introduced to Sookie, as she waits tables, trying to tune out the oh-so-charming thoughts of the Bon Temps natives. And next we me meet Tara; and here, we must hit pause, and head on over to Wikipedia to find out what the hell happened here. I know many of you are thinking; wait, who is that?! because a pilot of True Blood was leaked onto the Internet, and the Tara we originally encountered was barely black, and now we’re meeting someone totally new! The original actress was actually a woman named Brook Kerr; she was in the series “Passions”, and then was suddenly replaced at the last minute by Rutina Wesley. Her career moves forward with her appearance in a Kenny Chesney video for the song “Everyone Wants To Go To Heaven”. If you know why she was replaced, feel free to let us know, since so far, it seems to be a mystery.

When Tara is introduced, she refers to herself as “uppity”, a second before she slaps her poor, stunned boss, and if actress Anna Paquin was in fact a telepath, then she might have gone deaf from the collective, “What a bitch!” thought round the world. The over-the-top aggressive southern black woman role comes into play with Tara’s character, but we discover more of her history later in the series.  Inside Merlotte’s kitchen is Tara’s cousin, the cook Lafayette, a sassy gay, well-built black man.  We also meet Sookie’s brother Jason, a gullible, puppy dog type man slut, who has no trouble at all, ahem, burying his bone. This show features a lot of nudity as one of it’s recurring subplots is the controversy surrounding fangbangers, or people who have sex with vampires. In the middle of an invigorating session of southern fried screwing, Jason learns the girl he’s with, an older woman, Maudette Pickins, who looks a little “rode hard and put away wet”, has had sex with a vampire, when he sees the fang marks on her thigh. His attitude goes from slightly shocked, to curious.  She shows him the sex tape she recorded during the encounter; and wow, vampires really are fast, and in all the right ways! Instead of feeling upstaged, it seems Jason is kind of excited by the vamp’s “superpowers” and they re-create a little bit of the naughty action, though with a little less CGI and a little more dirty talk. But uh oh, Maudette winds up dead later, and of course Jason is the main suspect once the police discover the tape she made, much to his chagrin.

Meanwhile, there’s a swell of melodramatic, moody classical music, and we’re introduced to the vampire, Bill, Sookie’s soon-to-be main squeeze. Sookie’s thrilled with the prospect of waiting on her very first vampire, and has adopted a curious, interested attitude, as opposed to some of the various majority opinions we encounter in the series; such as those of the blood drinking, V users, the profit mongering drainers, the fangbangers, and people who think vampires are evil. A particularly nasty breed of white trash, Denise and Mack Rattray, move in on the vampire and simultaneously humiliate Sookie. A curious Sookie discovers that while Denise is convincing Bill she’s just a fangbanger, the couple actually plan to drain his blood and sell it. There’s a little inconsistency here; apparently, Sookie doesn’t like for Tara to use the “J-word” (Jesus), she herself exclaims “shit!” when she learns of the Rattray’s plan, and bolts off to save her new friend.

Out in the parking lot, they have Bill strapped down helpless with a silver chain and a tube running through his arm collecting the blood.  Sookie shows up in time to interrupt the assault with a thick chain.  She throws it around the man’s neck disabling him temporarily as he struggles to breath, grabs the knife quickly and confronts the woman.  But wait; where’s the strange woman in the shiny dress who runs off, that was in the unaired pilot? Strange that she’s missing, because it appeared that the chain suddenly tightening on its own, might have had something to do with the appearance and immediate disappearance of this bizarre individual. Oh well; in the aired version of episode 1, the figure is missing, and the audience is left to assume Sookie did it, or just be confused. Back to the some very pissed off white trash, the Rattray couple threaten Sookie, and leave quickly.  Sookie slowly removes the silver chain from Bill’s body, which has begun to painfully burn itself into his flesh. Amazed, Sookie does an Anne Hathaway “Shut up!” as she watches his wounds heal before her eyes.  In a weakened state, Bill asks her to remain with him a little while.  A dog seems to appear, checking up on Sookie and seeing things are all right, he heads back off again.  With sudden clarity, Sookie realizes she can’t hear the vampire’s thoughts. Some flirting transpires between them with some humorous dialog for several moments, including a laugh at the name “Vampire Bill.”  Before their moonlit tryst ends however, Bill catches onto Sookie’s unique nature, and asks her for the first time, “What are you?” in his intense, sexy voice, that manages to sound dangerous, despite his name, and situation. Sookie returns to the bar where Sam is waiting, practically pacing the floor, anxious to see that she doesn’t have so much as a bruised capillary.

While Sam rushes off to do… huh, what was he doing? –he thrusts a bar towel into Tara’s hands, and Tara helps Sam out at the bar, winding up with a job; convenient, since once she slapped her boss at ‘Super-Save-A-Bunch’, her emploment pretty much ended then and there.  Jason, after his potentially fatal romp with Maudette, shows up at the bar just before closing. Despite Tara’s obvious thing for Jason, he’s more interested in Dawn, who is busy wiggling around the bar before closing, and planning an evening alone.  Tara’s got an attraction to Jason, but Jason’s interested in Dawn and leaves on her heels to Tara’s dismay. It’s pretty easy to see at this point, that the series is going to have more lusty twists and turns that a game of ‘Strip Chutes and Ladders’.

Sookie’s home from work, and has a conversation with her sweet, and very southern belle-esque ‘Gran’. They both discuss Sookie’s meeting with Bill; sans the dangerous interlude, and it’s easy to see that Gran is without the prejudices of most of her neighbors, towards vampires.  After a brief talk, she goes up to bed, but Sookie is awakened shortly by a noise and sees Bill out on the lawn looking up at her with that, “Hey, I wanna eat you” smile.With her virginity in mind, no doubt, Sookie wraps herself in a robe and walks out to talk to him.  She says “Hello. I never thought I would be having sex with you.  At least, not so fast.”  Wow, well, apparently, virginity was the last thing on her mind! Bill removes his shirt, to reveal a more reassuring glimpse of manly chest hair. Isn’t it nice to see that he’s full grown, and isn’t sporting the usual Hollywood wax job? I sure thought it was nice, anyway.  But when Sookie starts to become a little more scantily clad, he responds, “Who said anything about sex?”  Uh oh! He licks his fangs, a sexy little preparatory movie before dinner, and Sookie awake with a gasp, realizing that her raging hormones were merely playing a trick on her; just a dream.

Jason is over at Sookie’s Gran’s house the next morning, and spills the gossip with Sookie about what happened at the bar, berating her for her role in the incident in the adorable big brother concerned man way. Next, they learn Maudette Pickins, the girl Jason had sex with was found strangled and dead. They talk inside at lunch about vampires, and fangbangers; Gran seems interested, in the weird way that old people like to learn about all things hip and trendy. Jason gets a little worried and upset.  Jason seems to think she was killed by the new vampire in town. Sookie wonders about Jason’s uneasiness at the prospect of Maudette’s murder, so she attempts to read his mind. When Jason gets angry, it’s easy to see that although he’s her brother, he has a few of the same misgivings about her mental state, that everyone else in town does. While at work on road construction, the police show up to question Jason Stackhouse about Maudette’s murder.

Back at Gran’s house, Gran discusses Bill with Sookie, and asks if Sookie might inquire if Bill, is willing to speak to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, a civil war descendants group that Gran belongs to, and Sookie agrees to ask if Bill shows up again.  At work, Sookie discovers that Jason was arrested from Lafayette and the skanky waitress, Dawn.  Bill shows up at the bar again, and the patrons’ minds are a’buzzing with concern, disgust, and shock at Sookie’s interest in the vampire, and his patronage. The romantic theme music plays once more, and there’s a short interlude, where Bill asks once more, “What are you?” of Sookie. And again, she tells him that she’s a waitress. She asks Bill if he’ll speak to her after work, and he agrees, claiming “delight”. Sam thororoughly scolds Sookie, as well, for her involvement with the vampire; of course, this only makes his attraction to her more obvious. Tara joins in, and Sookie escapes to the parking lot to wait for Bill. After work, Sookie waits for Bill outside the bar after work, and gets jumped by the Rattrays, who proceed to beat the shit out of poor Sookie. …and then, roll credits. So we’re left to think the worst of our poor heroine!

Related Reading:

Considering Alan Ball: Essays on Sexuality, Death and America in the Television and Film Writings

Helen Magazine October/November 2007 Lafayette Indiana Magazine, LaDonna Vohar, Vicky and Bill Bollock, Marsha Provo, Charlie and Judy Reynolds

Alan Young Show - Charity Masquerade Ball and The Mouse (2 Shows, Audio CD) Oldtime Radio Shows

Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder (Onyx)

Blood Justice (St. Martin's True Crime Library)

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