1.10 I don't wanna know
It's time for my new favourite show again. \o/
One of the things I've found about True Blood is that it gets increasingly amusing. It isn't a show that regularly makes me laugh aloud (though it *did* do so a couple of times in this episode) but I'm regularly smiling internally at the absurdity.
Also, every episode seems packed full of material. It's not always that a lot happens or a lot of time passes (when I sit back and think about it afterwards it's often a very short space of time in the actual timeline), but I always feel like there's a lot to, er, digest, afterwards. This episode was no exception!
So Sam's a shapeshifter. Intriguing! It wasn't quite a decoy dog, but he isn't a werewolf either. Seeing the flashbacks of his history made me 'buy' his story--I do not think he is lying about his powers, and clearly his life has been a very hard one. His foster family leaving him behind was particularly awful. I also no longer think he is the killer (but I did like that Sookie leapt to that conclusion because you would!). However there are still gaps in his history if what the detective said is true. I'm intrigued by those and getting glimpses into his journey has just made me want more.
As far as his powers go, there's some intriguing aspects there--he claims that humans are too complex. That's kind of hard to buy since their physical aspect is clearly no more complex than an animals--but perhaps he meant the behaviour patterns were too hard? it would be too obvious? Not being able to shapeshift into a human makes them much less threatening to other humans, so that does seem an important restriction.
I'm also interested in the fact that Sam feels it easiest to mimic dogs. Dogs are a good choice, as he says, but it seems like his affinity for them developed very early in life. Do all shapeshifters find it easiest to take a particular form?
Sookie had a tough episode. I found her anger at Sam out of proportion with what he'd actually done but it was also clear that everything was accumulating on her shoulders and she was lashing out at him for all the confusion and fear in her recent life. Secrets being kept by those close to her, at a time like this, would feel like even more of a betrayal than usual. Bill is gone, she's estranged from her brother, she has very few people to turn to, and is treated as an oustider at the party (though fair enough: she really was a buzzkill, huh? hee!). It's understandable but I guess I must be more sympathetic to Sam than I realised because I didn't think it was fair for her to take it out on him. It was a big deal that he told anyone, but Sookie evidently doesn't understand that.
Speaking of difficult times, oh wow, will Tara's life ever get any easier? I confess I was happy for her when her exorcism briefly 'worked', she needed her emotional burden lessened so desperately. Though I found her being BFFs with her mum kind of creepy! I was still angry for her that it was faked, though I thought it was a good twist. Faith and belief are powerful--and Tara wanted/needed so desperately to believe that there was something that could take away the pain in her life. Her vision was interesting--she 'killed' her child self, the self that was abused by her mother. I guess that's a dark twist on learning to love your inner child. ;)
Tara at the party was kind of painful to watch. She was so superficially pretty in her dress, but her behaviour was all ugly drunk (very well acted).
Amy is a confirmed psychopath. Wow. That 'I'm an organic vegan' speech was one of the amusing instances I mentioned above. But also totally psychotic. I'm glad she got caught out--I was really scared that Jason wouldn't see her true face. However, I'm obviously devastated that it ended in Eddie's death anyway--I really wanted him to get away. On the other end of the emotional spectrum, Jason provided my biggest LOL moment of the ep with his confession 'I think I lost the upper hand in the relationship'. Huahahaha, no SHIT!
I wasn't really on board with the whole 'tell women how it is' thing, but given that both Rene and Hoyt are actually lovely and not shits, it managed to avoid being completely objectionable. However I really don't think Jason needs that advice!
Amy liking Jason's simple, surface, WYSIWYG nature amuses me. It's strangely fitting for her vacuous form of psychopathy.
Tribunal
We finally learnt a lot more about vampire culture. Yay! And eeeeep, scary. The junkyard setting was very atmospheric. I really liked the Magister--he was so convincingly evil and while his little throne and staff thing were cliched, I liked that he was in a business suit. Hee! 'Back your shit down' was so wonderfully delivered as well. :)
Eric earned my respect by disclosing the truth about Longshadow fairly. Within his own code he isn't unnecessarily vindicative--that's good. I was amused by him saying that Bill was 'mostly' loyal, when it counted. I wonder when/where Bill has been loyal in the past?
And omg, I love Bill more and more! I was so totally 'in' his perspective in the Tribunal because it all seemed so alien, unfair and literally 'inhuman'. I loved that he at least tried to say that there were some vampires who did not think humans existed only to serve. Of course, the scene also served to show how impossible it is for him to resist the overall vampire culture on this matter. But I'm intrigued... how the hell do ANY of the vampires think this whole 'go public, live as equals' thing is going to work if they view humans as inferior?!
Bill having to turn that human was confronting but compelling.
I am quite honestly confused about what Sookie saw in the bar. Someone attacked her, but she also had vision flashes which looked like someone dying? But were they from the attacker or from the person dying? I thought someone was dying in the bar! But given that Sookie didn't mention that, I'm guessing now they were flashbacks?
And speaking of the weird and unexplained: PIG WOMAN?! *blinks*
The support cast:
- Terry was adorable telling Sookie that there were only no nasty surprises from him because she didn't really know him (hee! not what Sookie needed to hear). Double adorable for saying there were some dead people he wished were still around too. Awww, Terry!
- Rene and Arlene's engagement party was wonderful--it was great to see them having so much fun.
- The prize award of the episode goes to LaFayette for telling Jason some home truths. A big 'hell yeah!' to that speech about Jason thinking life is a game he always wins. But that line about not being next struck fear into my heart. I CANNOT LOSE LAFAYETTE! Just: NO!!!!
One of the things I've found about True Blood is that it gets increasingly amusing. It isn't a show that regularly makes me laugh aloud (though it *did* do so a couple of times in this episode) but I'm regularly smiling internally at the absurdity.
Also, every episode seems packed full of material. It's not always that a lot happens or a lot of time passes (when I sit back and think about it afterwards it's often a very short space of time in the actual timeline), but I always feel like there's a lot to, er, digest, afterwards. This episode was no exception!
So Sam's a shapeshifter. Intriguing! It wasn't quite a decoy dog, but he isn't a werewolf either. Seeing the flashbacks of his history made me 'buy' his story--I do not think he is lying about his powers, and clearly his life has been a very hard one. His foster family leaving him behind was particularly awful. I also no longer think he is the killer (but I did like that Sookie leapt to that conclusion because you would!). However there are still gaps in his history if what the detective said is true. I'm intrigued by those and getting glimpses into his journey has just made me want more.
As far as his powers go, there's some intriguing aspects there--he claims that humans are too complex. That's kind of hard to buy since their physical aspect is clearly no more complex than an animals--but perhaps he meant the behaviour patterns were too hard? it would be too obvious? Not being able to shapeshift into a human makes them much less threatening to other humans, so that does seem an important restriction.
I'm also interested in the fact that Sam feels it easiest to mimic dogs. Dogs are a good choice, as he says, but it seems like his affinity for them developed very early in life. Do all shapeshifters find it easiest to take a particular form?
Sookie had a tough episode. I found her anger at Sam out of proportion with what he'd actually done but it was also clear that everything was accumulating on her shoulders and she was lashing out at him for all the confusion and fear in her recent life. Secrets being kept by those close to her, at a time like this, would feel like even more of a betrayal than usual. Bill is gone, she's estranged from her brother, she has very few people to turn to, and is treated as an oustider at the party (though fair enough: she really was a buzzkill, huh? hee!). It's understandable but I guess I must be more sympathetic to Sam than I realised because I didn't think it was fair for her to take it out on him. It was a big deal that he told anyone, but Sookie evidently doesn't understand that.
Speaking of difficult times, oh wow, will Tara's life ever get any easier? I confess I was happy for her when her exorcism briefly 'worked', she needed her emotional burden lessened so desperately. Though I found her being BFFs with her mum kind of creepy! I was still angry for her that it was faked, though I thought it was a good twist. Faith and belief are powerful--and Tara wanted/needed so desperately to believe that there was something that could take away the pain in her life. Her vision was interesting--she 'killed' her child self, the self that was abused by her mother. I guess that's a dark twist on learning to love your inner child. ;)
Tara at the party was kind of painful to watch. She was so superficially pretty in her dress, but her behaviour was all ugly drunk (very well acted).
Amy is a confirmed psychopath. Wow. That 'I'm an organic vegan' speech was one of the amusing instances I mentioned above. But also totally psychotic. I'm glad she got caught out--I was really scared that Jason wouldn't see her true face. However, I'm obviously devastated that it ended in Eddie's death anyway--I really wanted him to get away. On the other end of the emotional spectrum, Jason provided my biggest LOL moment of the ep with his confession 'I think I lost the upper hand in the relationship'. Huahahaha, no SHIT!
I wasn't really on board with the whole 'tell women how it is' thing, but given that both Rene and Hoyt are actually lovely and not shits, it managed to avoid being completely objectionable. However I really don't think Jason needs that advice!
Amy liking Jason's simple, surface, WYSIWYG nature amuses me. It's strangely fitting for her vacuous form of psychopathy.
Tribunal
We finally learnt a lot more about vampire culture. Yay! And eeeeep, scary. The junkyard setting was very atmospheric. I really liked the Magister--he was so convincingly evil and while his little throne and staff thing were cliched, I liked that he was in a business suit. Hee! 'Back your shit down' was so wonderfully delivered as well. :)
Eric earned my respect by disclosing the truth about Longshadow fairly. Within his own code he isn't unnecessarily vindicative--that's good. I was amused by him saying that Bill was 'mostly' loyal, when it counted. I wonder when/where Bill has been loyal in the past?
And omg, I love Bill more and more! I was so totally 'in' his perspective in the Tribunal because it all seemed so alien, unfair and literally 'inhuman'. I loved that he at least tried to say that there were some vampires who did not think humans existed only to serve. Of course, the scene also served to show how impossible it is for him to resist the overall vampire culture on this matter. But I'm intrigued... how the hell do ANY of the vampires think this whole 'go public, live as equals' thing is going to work if they view humans as inferior?!
Bill having to turn that human was confronting but compelling.
I am quite honestly confused about what Sookie saw in the bar. Someone attacked her, but she also had vision flashes which looked like someone dying? But were they from the attacker or from the person dying? I thought someone was dying in the bar! But given that Sookie didn't mention that, I'm guessing now they were flashbacks?
And speaking of the weird and unexplained: PIG WOMAN?! *blinks*
The support cast:
- Terry was adorable telling Sookie that there were only no nasty surprises from him because she didn't really know him (hee! not what Sookie needed to hear). Double adorable for saying there were some dead people he wished were still around too. Awww, Terry!
- Rene and Arlene's engagement party was wonderful--it was great to see them having so much fun.
- The prize award of the episode goes to LaFayette for telling Jason some home truths. A big 'hell yeah!' to that speech about Jason thinking life is a game he always wins. But that line about not being next struck fear into my heart. I CANNOT LOSE LAFAYETTE! Just: NO!!!!