When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie
True Blood 4.06 - “Wish I Was the Moon”
I’m actually glad I came to the show late, and had the experience of watching it on DVD, because that experience taught me that the first half of the season is all about setting up supposedly disparate plots, and the second half of the season always pulls them together. It’s a consistent structure, and the reason I haven’t become frustrated with the million storylines going on, despite temptation. It’s all starting to come together, and thematically, this episode was lovely.
The whole show is preoccupied with the issue of identity: the constructed identities that we show the world, and their relationships to the real identities that lie underneath. There is, for example, the entire character of Lafayette.
(A digression. I love the scenes at Fangtasia, and between Bill and Eric, at the beginning of season 2 very, very much, despite the Lafayette-torturing, because they are all about identity. Eric’s whole business model with Fangtasia is offering a supposedly safe place for humans to come gawk at the vampires, and in the club, he wears black and Pam wears dominatrix gear. So it is epically wonderful to see him and Pam after hours, him in his track pants and flip-flops, her in a lavender velour track suit, her doing his hair in a way that very strongly implies that this is a routine part of their relationship. It’s ripping the curtains back from the wizard; it belies Bill’s entire “I am VAMPYRE” schtick. And yet Eric is still an absolutely terrifying creature, inhuman and capable of ripping someone limb from limb and eating him. He is all of those things together; he is the sum of them. And then the conversation in the Forever 21 (perfect!) where Bill is performing the mundane task of getting Jessica some clothes, trying to influence her identity through her wardrobe--he doesn’t like what she’s currently saying about herself--and the whole hilarious gay misunderstanding, which doesn’t even begin to touch on their real relationship, which is entirely based on their identities as vampires, and Eric’s as sherrif of Area 5.)
So the episode is titled after a song about wishing to be someone/something else, and that is what some people are trying to do, but most of them are being more true to themselves than before: Jesus embracing his upbringing, Lafayette acknowledging his power, Tara introducing Naomi to Tara Thornton, Jason dealing with his potential werepantherness, Jessica loving being a vampire, Debbie convincing Alcide to run with the other wolves under the full moon.
Sookie is kind of a hard character to get a bead on, but I think one of her big arcs for this season has been discovering who she is outside of a relationship, and outside of her job. She’s also a sister, and a friend, and now a lover who’s made a choice with all of the information for the first time. When Bill first asked her what she was, she answered that she was a waitress; now she’s someone who’s tired of that question, someone who can’t be summed up in a word. She’s not a darling, either; the Eric of her dream in Dallas saw through that front. One of the fun things about the show’s setting is the sort of formalized roles that people have to undertake to participate in Southern etiquette.
I just adored Jason’s conversation with Jessica, and her description of how terrifying it was to be turned, and how much becoming a vampire has opened the world to her. It was lovely. And it was made possible because she is a vampire--because she gave Jason blood and knows when he’s freaking out, and also because the rift between her and Hoyt is a consequence of her bloodlust and clumsy attempt to fix a fight with her vampire powers. And Jason, trying in his own dim way to figure out what he is if he’s not a supernatural creature. I also loved Jason’s conversation with Sookie, her acceptance of who he is no matter what (after getting over the ridiculousness of WEREPANTHER, for crying out loud), her understanding that everyone has their thing, it’s just part of who they are, and most importantly, what seems like a new peace and comfort with her own ability.
Bill’s been juggling identities all season, thanks to his role as King. He always told Sookie that she connected him to his humanity. Lying to Nan about Eric, wanting to kill him, was a very vampire way of handling a rival. But in a wierd way, when Eric expressed such concern for Sookie, she ended up bringing Bill back from that brink, which is why that conversation worked for me more than it probably should have.
(Side note: Nan’s “See you at that tolerance thing” was awesome. She and Russell Edgington are the two opposing public faces of vampire identity. Both are deliberately constructed choices, and in both cases, what lies underneath is considerably more complicated.)
It even came out in Sam and Andy’s little argument, when Sam threatened to turn into a dog and bite him, and Andy threatened to call animal control. Those are both things that could happen, because of who Sam is, and because of who Andy is.
The two people who want to reject who they are, though, are not going to end well. First of all, Tommy. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. He hates himself, he wants Sam’s life but can’t handle it (aside from firing Sookie, which was hilarious and kind of justified). And then there’s Eric, who is horrified by everything he was, to the point of accepting death. Pam’s speech to him was particularly heartbreaking because everything Pam is is built on an Eric that doesn’t exist any more; her face is falling off and Eric is a stranger, and she has nothing. I subscribe to the line of thought that what Eric is now is a partial Eric; it’s part of what he is, under that constructed identity, the thousand years of vampirism. I also think that once he gets his memory back (which has to happen, because this puppydog thing is only going to be cute for so long), he’s going to have a hard time reintegrating all of those parts of his identity, and it’s going to be a very interesting struggle to watch.
I know a lot of people were disappointed with the sex scene between Eric and Sookie, but to me it made sense. For one thing, it strongly marked the difference in him now. For another, this version of Eric is absolutely terrified about his capacity for destruction; that’s what his dream of Godric was all about. There is no way he’d do anything but treat Sookie like something fragile that first time. I suspect things will get raunchier before it all falls apart because, you know, HBO.
This show is so terribly awesome, and so awesomely terrible.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/152589.html (
comments). Comment at either site.
I’m actually glad I came to the show late, and had the experience of watching it on DVD, because that experience taught me that the first half of the season is all about setting up supposedly disparate plots, and the second half of the season always pulls them together. It’s a consistent structure, and the reason I haven’t become frustrated with the million storylines going on, despite temptation. It’s all starting to come together, and thematically, this episode was lovely.
The whole show is preoccupied with the issue of identity: the constructed identities that we show the world, and their relationships to the real identities that lie underneath. There is, for example, the entire character of Lafayette.
(A digression. I love the scenes at Fangtasia, and between Bill and Eric, at the beginning of season 2 very, very much, despite the Lafayette-torturing, because they are all about identity. Eric’s whole business model with Fangtasia is offering a supposedly safe place for humans to come gawk at the vampires, and in the club, he wears black and Pam wears dominatrix gear. So it is epically wonderful to see him and Pam after hours, him in his track pants and flip-flops, her in a lavender velour track suit, her doing his hair in a way that very strongly implies that this is a routine part of their relationship. It’s ripping the curtains back from the wizard; it belies Bill’s entire “I am VAMPYRE” schtick. And yet Eric is still an absolutely terrifying creature, inhuman and capable of ripping someone limb from limb and eating him. He is all of those things together; he is the sum of them. And then the conversation in the Forever 21 (perfect!) where Bill is performing the mundane task of getting Jessica some clothes, trying to influence her identity through her wardrobe--he doesn’t like what she’s currently saying about herself--and the whole hilarious gay misunderstanding, which doesn’t even begin to touch on their real relationship, which is entirely based on their identities as vampires, and Eric’s as sherrif of Area 5.)
So the episode is titled after a song about wishing to be someone/something else, and that is what some people are trying to do, but most of them are being more true to themselves than before: Jesus embracing his upbringing, Lafayette acknowledging his power, Tara introducing Naomi to Tara Thornton, Jason dealing with his potential werepantherness, Jessica loving being a vampire, Debbie convincing Alcide to run with the other wolves under the full moon.
Sookie is kind of a hard character to get a bead on, but I think one of her big arcs for this season has been discovering who she is outside of a relationship, and outside of her job. She’s also a sister, and a friend, and now a lover who’s made a choice with all of the information for the first time. When Bill first asked her what she was, she answered that she was a waitress; now she’s someone who’s tired of that question, someone who can’t be summed up in a word. She’s not a darling, either; the Eric of her dream in Dallas saw through that front. One of the fun things about the show’s setting is the sort of formalized roles that people have to undertake to participate in Southern etiquette.
I just adored Jason’s conversation with Jessica, and her description of how terrifying it was to be turned, and how much becoming a vampire has opened the world to her. It was lovely. And it was made possible because she is a vampire--because she gave Jason blood and knows when he’s freaking out, and also because the rift between her and Hoyt is a consequence of her bloodlust and clumsy attempt to fix a fight with her vampire powers. And Jason, trying in his own dim way to figure out what he is if he’s not a supernatural creature. I also loved Jason’s conversation with Sookie, her acceptance of who he is no matter what (after getting over the ridiculousness of WEREPANTHER, for crying out loud), her understanding that everyone has their thing, it’s just part of who they are, and most importantly, what seems like a new peace and comfort with her own ability.
Bill’s been juggling identities all season, thanks to his role as King. He always told Sookie that she connected him to his humanity. Lying to Nan about Eric, wanting to kill him, was a very vampire way of handling a rival. But in a wierd way, when Eric expressed such concern for Sookie, she ended up bringing Bill back from that brink, which is why that conversation worked for me more than it probably should have.
(Side note: Nan’s “See you at that tolerance thing” was awesome. She and Russell Edgington are the two opposing public faces of vampire identity. Both are deliberately constructed choices, and in both cases, what lies underneath is considerably more complicated.)
It even came out in Sam and Andy’s little argument, when Sam threatened to turn into a dog and bite him, and Andy threatened to call animal control. Those are both things that could happen, because of who Sam is, and because of who Andy is.
The two people who want to reject who they are, though, are not going to end well. First of all, Tommy. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. He hates himself, he wants Sam’s life but can’t handle it (aside from firing Sookie, which was hilarious and kind of justified). And then there’s Eric, who is horrified by everything he was, to the point of accepting death. Pam’s speech to him was particularly heartbreaking because everything Pam is is built on an Eric that doesn’t exist any more; her face is falling off and Eric is a stranger, and she has nothing. I subscribe to the line of thought that what Eric is now is a partial Eric; it’s part of what he is, under that constructed identity, the thousand years of vampirism. I also think that once he gets his memory back (which has to happen, because this puppydog thing is only going to be cute for so long), he’s going to have a hard time reintegrating all of those parts of his identity, and it’s going to be a very interesting struggle to watch.
I know a lot of people were disappointed with the sex scene between Eric and Sookie, but to me it made sense. For one thing, it strongly marked the difference in him now. For another, this version of Eric is absolutely terrified about his capacity for destruction; that’s what his dream of Godric was all about. There is no way he’d do anything but treat Sookie like something fragile that first time. I suspect things will get raunchier before it all falls apart because, you know, HBO.
This show is so terribly awesome, and so awesomely terrible.
This entry was originally posted at http://danceswithwords.dreamwidth.org/152589.html (
comments). Comment at either site.