Truly, Madly, Deadly_ The Unofficial True Blood Companion - Becca Wilcott [63]
Tribute: Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler)
“She’s street smart. You know what I mean? She’s a single mother and she’s a survivor. She speaks her mind . . . I grew up with women like that, so I just wanted to honor those women.”
— Carrie Preston on playing Arlene Fowler
Arlene Fowler is the co-worker you take for granted because she does the job so well that you neglect to acknowledge how hard the work is. And it’s easy to look at some of her life choices and wonder how much of the bad stuff is of her own design, so you miss the chance to help make her life a bit easier, leaving her to do everything for everyone.
This is due, in large part, to chameleon actor Carrie Preston, utterly unrecognizable once she’s in costume and character. Preston delivers Arlene’s lines with the rapid-fire afterthought of a mother and ex-wife who isn’t accustomed to being heard when she speaks. She uses her outdoor voice, always to the point, sometimes shockingly. She’s the workhorse with little trust in sentimentality, who holds her cards close to her chest, making her just as complicated and layered as any of the non-human, or “enhanced” humans, in Bon Temps.
Where you’ve seen Carrie Preston: My Best Friend’s Wedding, Sex and the City, The Stepford Wives, Transamerica, Arrested Development, Law & Order, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Doubt, Duplicity, Private Practice, and on the arm of her husband Michael Emerson, best known as Ben Linus on Lost
1.09 ~ Plaisir D’Amour
Original air date: November 2, 2008; Written by: Brian Buckner; Directed by: Anthony M. Hemingway
Eddie: Comes a point in life when you realize everything you know about yourself, it’s all just conditioning. It’s the rare man who truly knows who he is.
Bill breaks vampire law to protect Sookie. Jason and Amy resort to drastic measures to get V-juice. Tara visits Miss Jeanette. And Bill turns to Sam to watch over Sookie.
This episode might be more aptly titled “The Measure of a Man,” double entendre intended. Breaking vampire law, Bill kills another vampire to protect Sookie. As he leaves with Eric for the tribunal, he asks Sam to watch over Sookie. Sam, having just given Tara money for an exorcism, steps up to the task. Jason, meanwhile, gets life lessons from Eddie, the vampire he’s holding hostage in his basement.
Yet it’s the women of the show who drive these plot points. Sookie has chosen to be with Bill, and accepts her fate. While she was displeased to be at Fangtasia under duress, she was the one who set the terms of negotiation and has never flinched from Bill’s side since committing to him. Tara accepts Sam’s money, but continues to set the pace of their relationship. Sam cares for Tara, but doesn’t have much to lose by offering her money. It’s a kind but ultimately selfish act; we give because it makes us feel good to do so. And Amy, who orchestrated Eddie’s kidnapping, endlessly informs, if not controls, Jason’s every move, not to mention being a surrogate-sister to Sookie.
While the men take action, it’s in reaction to their circumstances. They haven’t created the world in which they live so much as they’re stuck responding to it, the possible exception being Sam whose world is entirely manufactured. But that’s not to say it’s genuine. Bill defends Sookie because he must. They’re targets. If the threat was eradicated, his nights would be filled with reading and Wii. Sam is so intensely private and loyal that when he sees a damsel in distress he immediately falls into companion mode. Jason, even when he knows that something isn’t quite right, still allows others to fill in the gaps for him, assuming