Sam Trammell on Merlotte’s, Becoming Mayor, & Sam/Sookie and Sam/Nicole

In the hubbub of the True Blood season 6 finale, we missed this interview with Sam Trammell over at Vulture. In the interview, Sam talks about Arlene bringing dancing to Merlotte’s Bellefleur’s, Sookie approaching Sam about their future together, taking up with Nicole, and the big changes ahead for Sam in season 7.

I still have trouble saying Bellefleur’s. I keep wanting to call it Merlotte’s.
I know, it had a good ring to it. But you know what: There’s dancing! Did you see that? Did you notice the fluorescent lights on the outside that say “Dancing”? Which is a reference I made in season two, when I said, “There’s no dancing in Merlotte’s.” That was when the maenad Maryann got everyone all hyped up and they were dancing in the bar, and I came back and I was very unhappy that people were dancing. The writers were very keen to remember that and have Arlene put that sign out there. I loved that part.

Sookie came by the bar in the previous episode to see if she had a future with Sam. She said that she thought they’d always end up together. Was that a nod to the last book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries, Dead Ever After, because Sookie and Sam do end up together in the end of the series?
Oh, right. She ends up with me. I’m not totally sure if it was a nod to the books, or more than that … I would say it’s whatever the opposite of what serendipitous is — really bad timing — because I had just found out that Nicole was pregnant. And then basically the one person who I’ve loved since the very beginning of the series, the one that’s kind of stayed with me, having her come at that point? The one point I couldn’t and wouldn’t be accepting of it? Sam finally gets the thing that he wants, or the promise of it, and it’s a moment when he can’t have it, when his head is furthest from it. It’s great irony. I think it was more than just a nod to the books. I think Sookie was probably really having those feelings.

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