Truly, Madly, Deadly_ The Unofficial True Blood Companion - Becca Wilcott [91]
Encore: As Sam comes to Tara’s birthday party, we hear “Shake and Fingerpop,” performed by Junior Walker. Walker started his career in his early teens in the late 1940s, his signature wailing saxophone style garnering the attention of Motown Records; he signed with their Soul imprint in the early ’60s. His sound is also immediately recognizable to fans of Foreigner’s smash hit “Urgent.” Inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1995, Walker died the same year. The saxophone really is the star of this “Shake and Fingerpop.” It’s impossible to hear it and not picture Rutina Wesley breaking it down, showing off a sliver of what she had to do for How She Move. And with Walker’s sax reigning supreme, I can’t hear the instrument in a show with vampires and not think about another rowdy group party piped in by Tim Cappello on “I Still Believe” in The Lost Boys.
Tribute: Anna Camp (Sarah Newlin)
“I think [the writers] did a good job of showing that Sarah is not just this spiteful power-hungry woman . . . she’s definitely hurt and lost and looking for answers.”
— Anna Camp
Anna Camp lights up the small screen every time she appears as Sarah Newlin, the somewhat hapless wife of Reverend Steve Newlin, leader of the Fellowship of the Sun Church. While Steve is calculated in his measures, Sarah is a genuine blind follower, having given herself over to faith to the same degree that Jason Stackhouse salutes his awesome manhood.
But if you really want to see Anna’s blinding light shine bright, you must watch her in the Reflections of Light videos produced by the Fellowship of the Sun, where Sarah’s hair is high, and so is she, on love for her main men, God and Steve. Camp’s portrayal of Sarah’s spiritual devotion and pursuit of all things glorious is nothing less than the ecstasy Maryann Forrester pursues. The bruises may be fewer, but both women are vessels over which another entity has authority, and they know how to move those vessels. (See Sarah’s finger-lickin’ BBQ dance scene in “Shake and Fingerpop.”)
Anna Camp, I present you with all the pudding in the world, and a side of BBQ sauce thrown in for good measure, so you can get on with the real business of breaking Sarah out of her shell!
Where you’ve seen Anna Camp: Glee, The Office, Cashmere Mafia, Numb3rs
2.05 ~ Never Let Me Go
Original air date: July 19, 2009; Written by: Nancy Oliver; Directed by: John Dahl
Sam: [to Daphne] You’re a . . .
Daphne: . . . a shapeshifter, and damn proud of it!
In Dallas, Sookie gets to know another telepath. At the Light of Day Institute, Jason receives a reward. Eric reflects on the moment he was turned.
Despite all the time Bill spends proclaiming he’s a vampire, Jessica’s a vampire, Eric’s a vampire, we’re all vampires, he’s lost that edge that made him most intriguing from the earliest episodes of season 1. While Sookie and Bill have hit their stride in bed, the rest of us still need pillow talk. The underlying menace is gone, replaced with an existential brooding that he feels compelled to protect those he cannot control, relying on Sookie to make him feel like a man. And as their sex is tied to his feeding, it won’t be long before that’s just another domestic duty. Forcing monogamy on a vampire seems almost ludicrous, even if it sustains our sense of a romantic ideal. Conversely, a large part of this show’s success is precisely because it taps into alternative lifestyles. Bill and Sookie’s relationships does, however, work well in opposition to the crude orgies Maryann induces, further supporting that vampires are not entirely unlike humans in their pursuit of lasting companionship. In that sense,