Eric Northman
Eric Northman first appears in season 1 of True Blood when Bill takes Sookie to Eric’s night club, Fangtasia. Sookie seeks Eric’s help in finding a murderer in Bon Temps and clearing her brother’s name. Our first glimpse of Eric is him sprawled on his throne on a stage with Pam standing at his side.
Eric he is immediately interested in Sookie and promptly tries to get her away from Bill but fails as Bill establishes his ownership of Sookie. Eric and Pam escape minutes before the club is raided and we don’t see him again until season 2.
After discovering that Sookie is a telepath, Eric seeks her help when he goes to Dallas to search for his missing maker, Godric. They find Godric only to lose him again, permanently this time, as the ancient, weary vampire makes the decision to meet the sun.
Back in Bon Temps, Sam asks Eric for information on how to get rid of a Maenad. Eric doesn’t know but tells Sam that he may know someone who can help and goes to see the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne LeClerq. Bill is already there visiting the Queen and tells Eric that he knows that Eric made Lafayette continue to sell V to humans. What Bill doesn’t know is that Sophie-Anne has commissioned Eric to do this.
In season 3 it is Sookie who needs help from Eric as she tries to find Bill who has gone missing. Eric assigns Alcide, a werewolf, to protect Sookie as she travels to Mississippi in search of Bill.
Meanwhile Eric has his hands full in trying to save Pam from the Magister, who is searching for vampires selling V to humans. He visits Russell Edgington, King of Mississippi, and tells him that he must turn Bill over to the Magister or Pam will die. While in Russell’s mansion, Eric finds an old crown among some artifacts. The crown had belonged to Eric’s father, and now Eric knows that Russell killed his family a millenium ago.
Eric pledges his loyalty to Russell as he plans to take down the vampire who robbed him of his family. After Russell helps free Pam, killing the Magister in the process, he turns his sights on Sookie after discovering that she is part fairy. As he goes to get Sookie, Eric kills Russell’s lover, Talbot.
The Authority gives Eric permission to kill Russell. Knowing he could die as well he makes a will and leaves everything to Pam. When Sookie comes to see Eric at Fangtasia, Eric locks her up in the cellar, keeping her for when he returns with Russell. He convinces Russell that drinking Sookie’s blood will allow him to walk in the daylight, but he doesn’t tell him that the effect doesn’t last long. He handcuffs himself to Russell after they both drink from Sookie, and walks out into the sun with Russell where they both begin to burn.
Sookie saves Eric and he tells her that Bill was sent to Bon Temps by Sophie-Anne to bring Sookie back to her. He and Bill are banished from Sookie’s house.
In the fourth season, over a year has passed and Sookie has been in Fairy land. While she was gone, Eric bought her house to keep it until her return. During that time also, Bill has killed Sophie-Anne and become King of Louisiana.
There is a dangerous new witch coven that has moved into the area, and Bill orders Eric to disband them. When Eric confronts the cover, their leader, Marnie, puts a spell on Eric and he loses his memories.
Sookie finds Eric on the side of the road walking toward her house. She picks him up and takes him home to keep him safe after she realizes he doesn’t know who he is or who she is. During this time we see a very different Eric, one who is almost childlike, very vulnerable and very sweet. Sookie can’t help but fall for this Eric.
Eventually Eric’s memories are restored to him through Sookie’s fairy powers, and he and Bill manage to defeat Marnie and disband the coven. The season ends with Bill and Eric killing Nan Flanagan when she threatens to expose Sookie’s powers.
In season 5 Eric and Bill are taken to the Authority to face charges for Nan’s murder. They bargain for their lives by offering to hunt down Russell Edgington and bring him in. They are successful but Bill begins to fall under the spell of Lilith, the mythological vampire godhead. It’s a role reversal kind of season as we watch Bill become more ruthless and power-mad, and Eric becomes anxious to save him and get out of the Authority madness.
This season we also find out that Eric has a vampire sister named Nora. Eric is able to get Nora away from Lilith and the Authority, catch up with Russell and kill him just as he discovers the veil hiding the fairy world. As Eric, Sookie, Nora, Jason and others return to the Authority HQ to take down the vampire hierarchy, Eric and Sookie watch as Bill drinks Lilith’s blood, explodes, and then rises into a powerful, deadly new Bill.
In season 6 Eric tries to thwart Gov. Burrell’s plans to rid Louisiana of vampires. When he discovers that he is outnumbered and outgunned, Eric takes a different approach by kidnapping Burrell’s daughter, Willa, and turning her into a vampire, the very thing Burrell hates.
Eric and Tara turn themselves over to the camp where all the vampires are being held and experimented on, in an attempt to rescue Pam. While there, Eric discovers the truth behind the TruBlood production inside the facility. Each bottle is being injected with Hep V.
Eric is made to watch as Burrell injects Nora with Hep V, sending her to a slow death. He manages to get out, taking Nora with him. He goes to Bill and pleads for Nora’s life, but Bill can’t save her and she dies. Eric goes on a rampage. He drinks from Andy’s fairy daughter so he can enter the fairy world where vampire/fairy hybrid Warlow is tied to a tree. He drains Warlow almost completely, then heads over to Vamp Camp. He kills everyone in his path, releases all the vampires and finally holds Steve Newlin in the sunlight and watches as he burns.
Eric’s killing spree has not brought him the release from his grief that he seeks, so he flies off. When we last see him he is lounging in a chair reading a book, completely nude, on a snow covered mountain top. At the death of Warlow however, the sun-walking magic is broken and he begins to burn.
