Truly, Madly, Deadly_ The Unofficial True Blood Companion - Becca Wilcott [84]
Tara is also struggling to figure out what she needs and where she stands in her newfound family. In her case she’s not used to taking without giving. Even though she doesn’t trust Maryann’s generosity, she’s directionless. Eggs believes you have to say what you want, out loud. Moving in with Sookie would allow them to reconnect as family, but it’s still not the independence she’s seeking. Maryann knows Tara wasn’t raised with any guidance, using any doubts Tara may have to control her with ease. That shot of Maryann leaning against the bar is incredible. She just has to look at Tara and the girl is incapable of speech. Tara. That’s quite a party trick.
Instead of Tara’s caustic nature from season 1, we get a chance to see her in more understated scenes — notably with Eggs and Sookie — and it shows just how bright and thoughtful she really is. Before, she deserved good things but didn’t know how to ask for, or appreciate, them. Now that she can, she has good reason to question Maryann’s motivation, but it’s at the risk of losing every comfort she’s never had. Her scene with Sookie shows just how far they’ve each come. They’re mature women compared to the beginning of season 1, each deciding what’s best for herself. It’s also nice to see Rutina Wesley continue to play a range outside of reactive anger.
Nelsan Ellis also delivers a powerful performance. Lafayette, the man with a plan, is humiliated and broken. In his fight to survive, he bargains, prepared to cheat death by asking to be turned, which would enslave him to Eric for eternity.
The chain around Lafayette’s neck is akin to Jason’s Light of Day ring of honesty, requiring them to speak the truth if they know what’s best for them. However, Lafayette learns that there’s no guaranteed reward for spilling everything he knows. And as Jason wrestles with guilt and flashbacks of Eddie being staked, will he share his past in order to cleanse his sins? He hasn’t been a winner in a long time. Jason’s story in particular could be seen as a metaphor for religious organizations that boast their ability to “de-homosexualize” gays and lesbians. To reveal his true nature would be to risk his new community, purpose, and to give the upper hand to Luke, his Andy-like nemesis.
As Sookie listens in on Maryann’s thoughts she hears a foreign language. Maryann is focused on the word “bacchus,” the Greek god Dionysus. Dionysus inspires people into states of ecstasy, engaging all impulses, especially sexual. In this state, they lose self-control, often hunting down and devouring the flesh of animals and humans alike. Miss Jeanette was missing her heart, and Maryann proves to be ravenous at Merlotte’s. Is she the killer, or is the killer one of her minions? As the entire bar, save for Sam, writhes to music, her ability to persuade any human to do her bidding opens up most of the town as possible suspects. As Jane Bodehouse’s eyes black over, we remember some of Miss Jeanette’s last words to Tara before her exorcism, that the eyes are the windows to the soul. We remember the little girl who came from the woods, her eyes also blackened over. What we took to be hallucination now seems more real. In which case, we have to ask, did Tara really kill a child?
Another big episode with big implications for the characters. Father figures, or lack thereof, will be an ongoing theme this season. Most of the main characters are fatherless: Sookie, Jason, Sam, Tara, Eggs. And while we’ve heard that Lafayette has a mother, there’s been no mention of his father. Vampire Bill may well be the only present father figure, guardianship so forced upon him that Jessica’s very conception was played