True Blood Guide, Season One: “Sparks Fly Out” with Commentary from Alan Ball

Spurned by an exasperated Sookie (Anna Paquin), Bill (Stephen Moyer) ends up winning over Adele’s (Lois Smith) church audience with his vivid recollections from the Civil War, though Andy (Chris Bauer) and Bud (William Sanderson) remain suspicious. Sam (Sam Trammell) tries to make the most of his opportunity with Sookie, though she’s clearly not ready to commit. Ignoring Tara’s (Rutina Wesley) rebuff, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) convinces Jason (Ryan Kwanten) to give vampire blood, aka “V juice,” another shot. Alone at home, Bill remembers the painful wartime incident that changed his fate forever.

Bill talks about life during the civil war.

Written by Alexander Woo; directed by Daniel Minahan.

ALAN BALL: I love that episode. That’s one of my favorites of the first season. I think the Bill flashback is a really key insight into who he is. It also establishes the sexual tension that exists between Sam and Sookie, and then there’s Jason’s sort of otherworldly experience. And when Bill talked about the Civil War… I love Steven’s performance. He really is a man who has a different set of manners, and a different way of acting and behaving then the contemporary characters.

Her grandmother’s death and a lot that Sookie goes through – that’s all in the books. There’s a great moment in one of the books where it’s New Year’s and all the waitresses at Merlotts are saying what their resolutions are, and Sookie says, “This year I’m not going to get beat up!” And she says it totally seriously, and everyone looks at her like, “Oh my god!” And it’s so funny and at the same time, so horrifying! That’s in the third or fourth book, and by that time she’s been beat up so many times. On the show, she’s always getting knocked around quite a lot, but Anna loves it. She loves that stuff. She’s, like, “Do I get to have a blood capsule?” She loves it. (SciFiTVZone.com)

Sparks Fly Out airs tonight in the UK on Channel 4.