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line “white as snow” was changed to “bright as snow” to remove any connection between race and sin, and the suggestion that white is pure, while black is not. While True Blood, overall, doesn’t delve deeply into race politics, this episode provides the image of a captured and humiliated black man in chains who watches as Eric dismembers another man, limb from limb. Nothing is as pure as it seems. Maryann’s oasis is shrouded in a cloud of pot smoke; the Newlin’s message of hope is wrapped in self-agenda; the one person who knows Sam best is the one person he’s most terrified of; Uncle Bartlett’s money paves (or pays) Jason’s way into a community of bigots; and the reciprocal flow between Sookie and Bill may connect them deeper to one another, but it’s at the risk of severing all other ties to family, friendship, and community.

A photo in Bill Compton’s home, presumably of his Civil War bride. (Jodi Ross, courtesy of The Vault www.trueblood-online.com)

The foyer in Bill Compton’s home. (Jodi Ross, courtesy of The Vault www.trueblood-online.com)

2.02 ~ Keep This Party Going

Original air date: June 21, 2009; Written by: Brian Buckner; Directed by: Michael Lehmann

Maryann: [to Daphne] [Y]ou care about doing a good job. Now you just keep on caring, and one day you’ll be the best at what you do. That’s my advice.

Sookie and Bill argue over how to “raise” Jessica. Jason excels at the Light of Day Institute. Maryann casts a spell over the customers at Merlotte’s.

To paraphrase Bill, the characters are caught in the grip of overwhelming transformation, doing what they can to get back to their humanity. And every step of the way, there’s another challenge or person putting up roadblocks. The writers toss us a bone when Bill and Sookie say they shouldn’t get used to fighting so they don’t become “one of those couples” — they don’t want us to wonder why they bother with one another — yet we had to know that their trials wouldn’t be over.

Eric is shown as truly monstrous, his strength and psychotic focus further dividing him from humanity and even Bill as one of his own kind. Similarly, at the shinier, happier Light of Day Institute, Steve Newlin’s maniacal optimism presents the perfect companion to Eric’s mission of self-preservation. Their hair says it all. They’re the two most coiffed characters in the show — they don’t groom to blend in. They’ve each been chosen to watch over their flock, enforce the rules, and recruit anyone who could help their cause. (Eric needs Sookie and the Newlins need Jason.)

By comparison, Bill looks like a garden-variety, middle-of-the-road conservative. While he tries to remember Jessica is not just a new vampire but also a teenaged girl, Sookie steps in as a surrogate caregiver, talking Jessica through her first experience of crying blood as if it’s her first period. She’s literally going through “the change,” not just physically but emotionally. When she attacks her father, it’s not simple revenge but symbolic of a young woman who is tired of being defined by others’ perceptions of her. Bill arrives in time, glamouring Jessica’s younger sister, Eden, into inviting him in, a reminder to Jessica that while he may not be her father, he is a patriarch of sorts, able to make the rules wherever he goes because of his powers. When Bill tells Eden (named after a place of peace and bliss) that he can make the worst of it go away, we know that he’s planning to glamour her. But Bill will have to learn what every parent must eventually: that we can’t protect our children from everything forever.

However, in Eric’s home, Fangtasia, Bill’s influence is barely felt. The scene in which Bill is caught between Sookie and Eric (deciding whether or not she’ll go to Dallas to help retrieve Godric, Sheriff of Area Nine) is further evidence of his struggle to come out of the coffin and stay out. He’s more often than not caught between a rock and a hard place. By trying to refuse Eric’s bid to have Sookie travel to Dallas, Bill thwarts Sookie’s ability to arrive at her own decisions independently.