TRUE BLOOD: Mr. Doggett Smells "Dinner"
TRUE BLOOD
Season 4, Episode 2 “You Smell Like Dinner”
The title of this week’s episode says it all. This week we get a chance to resolve some loose ends from last season, walk down memory lane with Bill Compton and delve deeper and deeper into the abyss with the new Wiccan coven looking to raise Cain (more on that later) in Bon Temps.
Jason wakes up to find himself tied to a bed with someone licking him. What probably used to be a normal Saturday night for him is not what it’s cracked up to be now. This is whole new level of weird as one of the backwoods young cretins is licking the bleeding wound on Jason’s head. Before he can persuade the youngin to untie him in walks Felton who is back from whatever rock he was hiding under. Watching these two have a conversation is like watching Moe and Curly debate the Big Bang Theory. You can actually feel your IQ drop.
The silver lining for Jason is that Crystal came back too. He wants to be with her. She wants to be with him. But …. And there’s always a but. She has a duty to continue the blood line and Felton is shooting blanks. So she worked out a deal to have Jason father her child. Only catch is that Jason isn’t one of their turns-into-a-panther kind. At first it looks like we’re about to be subjected to a bizarre three way with Jason and a couple of panthers. Thankfully it only involves Crystal and Felton in panther form chowing on Jason as he helplessly screams.
Sookie is none too pleased about Eric’s declaration to own her. Given a chance to explain himself his offer actually makes sense. He wants to make Sookie ‘his’ just as Bill once did. This would put her under his protection because surely once word got out that Sookie has the Holy Grail of blood every vamp in the greater Bon Temps area and beyond will be knocking at her door. He could offer her protection from such unwanted attention. His speech was delivered with caring and compassion and you truly do believe his motivation. Even so, I couldn’t help but picture him making the same offer to a shop keeper to keep them from being robbed. Total shakedown but Sookie still wasn’t biting.
Bill relieves his mole from her undercover duty in Marnie’s coven. Based on her report from last week he feels it’s no longer safe for her to return. Instead she’s been ordered to bed rest and by bed rest I mean a romp in the hay with Bill. It’s good to be the King. Unfortunately Bill falls victim to Sookie’s sense of terrible timing. Upon her return to the Compton household she has guns pointed at her by Bill’s security forces, learns that Bill is now King of Louisiana and sees that Bill has moved on when she realizes he was sleeping with Katarina whom he introduces as part of his security. Yeah, right, Bill. None of this stops her from asking him to help with her Eric problem. Even as King he admits there is not much he can do since Eric has friends in very high places.
We are then treated to Bill flashing back to London in 1982 where we see Bill doing his best Sid Vicious impersonation and clubbing it up on the hunt for food. Unbeknownst to him, he is being watched by Nan Flanagan as he feeds on a helpless bartender in a back alley. She compliments him on his resolve not to kill his food and offers him a job as a secret vampire spy to disrupt the Monarchy so that vampires could come out and live in the open. We also learn that THE Louis Pasteur is the not only the one who invented synthesized blood but is also a vampire himself. Knowing what we already do about Bill Compton it was absolutely no big shocker that he takes the job.
What was a surprise was the fact that we were given another flashback to show how Bill actually became King. If you remember last season Bill and Queen Sophie-Anne were about to throwdown at Bill’s place. He had nothing to lose since Sookie dumped him. Sophie-Anne tosses Bill aside like the much younger and weaker vamp that he is. This brief slapdown didn’t phase him because no sooner could the Queen make her next move Bill is flanked by armed gunmen with laser sights and wooden bullets with silver cores. In a hail of bullets, and a big splash of blood, the Queen is no more. Bill needs a new rug but no more Queen. Before you could pick up your jaw and say “What just happened here?” or “Who were those guys?” in walks Nan who dismisses the gunmen. She asked Bill what was so special about Sookie. H doesn’t hesitate to lie to her and says that the Queen put him up to investigating her but that he found that she was nothing special. This was sufficient for Nan and she dubs him the new King and gives one of my favorite lines of the night. “Go clean yourself up. You’ve got Queen all over you.”
Sam tries to woo a member of his shapeshifting social group. Luna is a beautiful but troubled loner that doesn’t let anyone in. That is, until Sam turns on the charm. During one of their late night campfire sessions she finally tells her dark secret. Turns out that while shapeshifters have the ability to turn into any animal they want she has actually changed into her mother that died giving birth to her. This definitely intrigues the rest of the group as they thought this was an ability that was impossible. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to see more of this later in the season.
Bill summons Eric to his house for a new assignment. He fills Eric in about the existence of a new coven in town that needs to be dealt with. Eric deems this below him and says he’ll have Pam take care of it. This doesn’t sit well with Bill who wants his Sheriff to deal with it personally. After Bill explains that they are necromancers and have already raised a dead bird he suddenly has Eric’s full attention. Evidently if they can raise the dead then they can control the dead which means they could control vampires. This is not going to be good.
Hoyt gets his butt kicked by some religious fanatics outside Fangtasia while defending Jessica’s honor. Of course, he doesn’t get much in return for his troubles as he only opens his mouth and offends Jessica himself. Go figure. A peeved Jessica heads to Fangtasia to blow off some steam and find some poor sucker to feed on.
Andy is still tweaking but manages to finally score some V when he serves a warrant out on the hillbillies. Under the pretense of taking the V as evidence he gets what he came for and leaves not knowing the trouble that Jason is in nearby.
Arlene gets into a staring contest with her baby and loses when a blood vessel bursts in her eye. Claiming the baby did it too her she loses her mind and storms out leaving Terry to take up the parenting slack once again.
Surprisingly Tara shows up in Bon Temps to see Sookie. I didn’t figure she would make an appearance until episode 3. Her reunion with Sookie is short lived and mostly involves Sookie complaining about Eric and his attempts to take over her life. Tara has a much more eventful reunion with Lafayette and Jesus when she joins them on their trip to a coven meeting.
The members of the coven are quite excited by their success in raising a dead bird last week. Never mind that the bird was only revived temporarily it was still revived and that’s what counts. So they ask what they should raise next. To everyone’s surprise Marnie declares she wants to raise a dead person. This catches everyone off guard and their responses are quite comical. This scene quickly becomes my favorite scene of the season thus far. Again, with impeccable timing, Eric appears in the doorway to fulfill the need for a dead body. He lets them know in no uncertain terms that they are not to reconvene ever again and their witch shenanigans are to come to an end. Everyone in the room, especially Lafayette who has had his own run-ins with Eric in the past, quickly agrees. That is, everyone except Marnie. She wants to know what’s in it for her. Eric answers this retort by sinking his teeth into her witchy neck. The coven quickly grab hands and start chanting in hopes that some witch miracle will get him to stop. The coven members, and us viewers, soon realize that there is more to Marnie that we’ve been shown so far. Eric stops in his tracks and Marnie’s face flashes back and forth from her own to a younger, dark haired mystery woman. By the time the chanting is over Eric has fled only to be found later by Sookie. He’s wandering the streets with no shirt and apparently no memory.
This was a much better episode than the premiere because we’re finally getting some meat to these new story lines. While we had a couple of questions answered from last season it’s the new questions that drive us to want next week to hurry up and get here so we can find out what’s going to happen.
I’ll admit that the whole witch coven idea sounded kind of lame at first but after their encounter with Eric tonight I’m definitely digging it and ready to learn more about Marnie. She is way creepy and looks to make the reign of King Bill a very bumpy one.
With Eric having no memory just how safe is Sookie going to be now? He surely doesn’t remember offering to protect her and he owns her house so I’m thinking she is going to wish she had taken him up on the offer when she had the chance.
Now that Felton and Crystal have enjoyed a Jason feast will he become one of them? All of the Stackhouses, with the exception of Jason, seem to have some sort of ability. Will this lead us to finding out what his is?
So many questions. Is it Sunday yet?
