Truly, Madly, Deadly_ The Unofficial True Blood Companion - Becca Wilcott [61]
Bill: It wouldn’t happen quite that way. The sunlight would severely weaken me and eventually, of course, I would die. But I wouldn’t burst into flames. Not right away, at least.
Jason’s girlfriend shows her dark side. Lafayette visits the vampire who supplies his V-juice. And Sookie uses her powers to help Eric catch a thief.
If anyone ever tries to say that True Blood is just a show “about vampires,” direct them to this episode, which beautifully explores the complexities of interpersonal relationships, vampire or otherwise. In the last episode, Miss Jeanette told Lettie Mae that her demon was gone and that she belonged to herself. This episode carries that over to ask, what if you want to belong to another? Do you relinquish your needs to satisfy theirs? And if the ends appear futile or the means unjustifiable, do you still take the journey?
Sookie and Bill are supernatural outsiders who can be themselves with one another. But as they get closer, she realizes they’ll never wake up beside one another, never eat together, and she’ll live in fear that if he’s ever caught in sunshine, he’ll perish. These aren’t just simple pleasures, they’re the rituals of most intimate relationships, which is why she dreamed about Bill bursting into flames while she ate breakfast. What hope of success do they have if they can’t share the simplest of things, the way Sookie once shared a piece of pie with Sam? When Rene and Arlene get engaged it just points to the larger struggles Sookie and Bill will continue to face, unable to legally marry even if they’re perfectly matched, exceptions noted.
When Sookie and Bill help Eric uncover the identity of the person who’s been stealing from Fangtasia, Bill and Sookie’s relationship evolves into a business partnership, Sookie tied to Bill, hence tied to Eric. While Sam may not be the answer, we still find ourselves asking if there isn’t another nice boy out there who can accept Sookie for who she is. We make sacrifices for the ones we love, so it makes sense that Sookie would choose to help Bill and his “family.” But is it possible that Sookie is using Bill as a surrogate for Gran? Remember, Sookie told Tara that she went to Bill when no one was there for her after Gran’s death. Save for a quick flash of her grandmother’s blood on the floor, we haven’t seen Sookie fully digest the murder. She could be searching for the same distraction as Sam and Tara, something to take her mind off life for awhile. If so, is the high she gets from sex and him feeding on her that much different from Jason using V-juice to reach a place of peace and clarity? Or Lettie Mae using religion to reach a place of God? Or, for that matter, Eddie using Lafayette to reach a place of self-acceptance?
Sookie flaunts her relationship with Bill, putting her work aside to gossip in detail about what it’s like to be with him, also forgetting she’d offered to babysit for Arlene. She’s in love, and happy, and so should be able to talk about their relationship. But as Bill warned Malcolm, if they flaunt their ways, there will be consequences. Some humans are out to kill vamps, and at least one more is out to kill fangbangers, which makes them both targets. For all Sookie has sacrificed, Bill can’t be there for her all the time, even if he wants to. Her choice to be with him brings her comfort but it takes away her safety.
Jason and Amy want to connect to something primal. Amy shows Jason his world anew, things he’s taken for granted. But she’s soon revealed to be a spin doctor, placing herself higher on the food chain than anything else. Though she told Jason he was wise, she ultimately uses him only for his brawn, convincing him to help kidnap Lafayette’s blood buddy, Eddie, a vampire who exchanges his V-juice for sex and companionship.
Eddie offers us a chance to see another side of Lafayette that’s less playful. We know he’s complicated, but now we can see he’s also manipulative. In the last episode, he told Sookie that people need to cross lines in order to live, but that for him that line ends with blood. As she