Recap 308: True Blood “Night on the Sun”

Sookie: “If I knew what was best for me, I would have fallen in love with somebody like you.”
Alcide: “Back atcha. It’s too bad we’re so stupid, huh?”

Now, Eric. Was that fair? What did Talbot ever do to you?

Eric finally took off that blood-spattered pastel sweater (and a lot more), symbolizing his transformation from gay undercover sycophant to bloodthirsty Viking avenger. (I could tell it was coming when Eric almost couldn’t bring himself to slam Godric, even for the sake of his masquerade.) So did we finally get the real Eric back? And who is the real Eric? What was that message to Sookie via Hadley all about? Yes, Russell is coming for you (and he certainly did), but is Bill actually a danger to Sookie? After he just saved her life again? Twice?

Bill said he wants Sookie to marry someone else and have babies and a normal life. As if she could. Probably the most normal guy she could stand to be married to is a shifter like Sam or Alcide, and giving birth to puppies might be problematic. I wasn’t surprised that Sookie took Bill back already, though, because as far as I know, Alan Ball isn’t listening to me about the Bill/Sookie relationship being a bore, wild bloody sex on the floor or no wild bloody sex on the floor. If they’re still together at the end of the season, I’m going to bang my head against a wall.

Anyway, moving right along.

There was a really big family theme going on in this episode. My favorite was Bill and Jessica training together in Bill’s house and teaming up to save Sookie from the weres. (That werewolf/vampire fight at Sookie’s house was quite cool.) The Bill/Jessica relationship has acquired the lovely flavor of the relationship between Eric and Pam: genuine deep affection and respect uncomplicated by romance. And I’m glad we finally found out why Jessica won’t see Hoyt any more. I don’t think Hoyt would agree. Especially with the alternatives that have been throwing themselves at him lately.

Tommy has taken the name Merlotte. That was a nice way to acknowledge what Sam just did for him. Sam couldn’t bring himself to forgive his mother, and I really get that. She seems to have the supernatural version of battered wife syndrome and I feel sorry for her. Up until the point where she allowed her younger son to be victimized as well, anyway.

Alcide said that Debbie burned down his sister Janice’s hair salon. Man, could Debbie be any badder? She even quoted the Big Bad Wolf when she kicked Sookie’s door down: “I’ll huff and I’ll puff…” Debbie is turning into one of my favorite characters, sort of the werewolf parallel of Franklin. And now she’s got a little Joker action going on. Time to break out the clown makeup.

Speaking of which, I’d hoped that Franklin would be back by now, and I definitely thought he’d show up for real in Tara’s shower. If Tara is having sexy dreams about him, that means his blood is still active inside of her, confirmation that he’s still “alive.” Right? Talbot said that he couldn’t get Franklin’s brains out of the guest linen, but that doesn’t mean he’s dead.

Let’s see, what else? I don’t have a lot to say about Jason’s new and important love affair and his Fellowship of the Sun commando raid into Hotshot, other than I think he just made some seriously freaky enemies. Plus, Crystal came to him for protection and he left her alone? Seriously, Jason. Get a brain.

Bits and pieces:

— I love Russell. He’s so happily despicable and he certainly deserves everything Eric is about to do to him. But I do feel bad for Talbot, who never did anything to Eric’s family. Bad Eric, no biscuit.

— Lafayette is powerful? How? That can’t be a throwaway line on a show like this. Ruby Jean did mention vampires and witches. And her dear Lala definitely isn’t a vampire.

— The Norrises are obviously shifters. Interesting how we haven’t actually seen them shift yet, huh? They’re setting up a surprise there. And hey, no book spoilers in the comments, please. 🙂

— Nearly everybody in the cast cried. Bill, Jessica, Debbie, Tommy, Sookie, Hadley, Hoyt, probably Tara (she was in the shower so it was hard to tell). Bill’s in particular made him look like he should have been working under the big top. Maybe he and Debbie could do a clown act together.

— Arlene’s dream about Rene and the baby didn’t surprise me. I just wonder what she’s going to do about it. I don’t sense a happy ending approaching for Arlene and Terry.

— If Eric was telling the truth, it’s been a long time since he was with another vamp. He prefers humans, doesn’t he?

— Gran’s house got trashed again.

— I think every member of the cast should be wearing dark red clothing with an darker red abstract pattern or figures on it; they’d save a fortune in dry cleaning. Have you ever seen the cast of a television show get covered with blood as much as these guys do?

— The True Blood “post-mortems” they’re running after the episode are really funny. This week’s was “A Vampire’s Guide to Surviving a Werewolf Attack.”

Quotes:

Talbot: “You can’t buy your way out of everything!”
Russell: “Of course I can. This is America.”

Russell: “What’s up, pumpkin?”
Debbie: “They killed my Cooter!”
Best line in the episode for a second week in a row. Last week it was “Vampire burrito? For me?”

Jason: “What he did to you, that’s domestic… something.”

Tara: “Maybe he can flirt some sense into that girl because logic sure as hell ain’t working.”

Arlene: “That Tara. She’s all bark… well, she bites, too.”

Sam: “Who’s this?”
Arlene: “This is Holly, your new waitress. Don’t sleep with her.”
Holly was rather creepy looking, and knew Arlene was pregnant. Could it be that she’s not a normal human waitress? Are there any normal people in Bon Temps?

Talbot: “I’m bored. Take off your clothes.”
I’d give quite a bit to be able to say that to Eric Northman and actually have him do it. Of course, if he killed me afterward, that would be a drag.

I really enjoyed this one. Four out of four blood-spattered pastel sweaters,

Billie Doux
Reviews by Billie Doux