Everything that exists imagined itself into existence. HUH?
So Sunday’s episode didn’t have a whole hell of a lot happen when you look back on it. What it did offer, however, was plenty of exposition and epic dialogue to help set up what is sure to be a giant glorious explosive season finale full of tears and Grecian garb galore.
Series creator, Alan Ball, penned the episode that provided us a bit more information about the nature of supernatural creatures, specifically of Maenads and how our favorite came to be.
The episode opens up to reveal Sophie-Anne, Louisiana’s Queen Vampire, feeding off of the inner thigh of her Southern Belle human (who we later learn is Sookie’s cousin, Hadley). Sophie-Anne, played by Evan Rachel Wood, is approximately 1,100 years old and seems to display a regal sense of confidence in regards to her place in the world (understandable of a Queen, I suppose). When Bill arrives, he inquires about how to kill a Maenad (“A Maenad? in Bon Temps? That’s Random” - amazing).
Instead of offering everything she knows up front, Sophie-Anne dances around the subject, playing a game with Bill. The “game” theme ends up becoming a through-line for Sophie-Anne in the episode. You get the idea that she is a perfect hybrid of a young adult and a wise elder and her confidence in both is what makes her such an interesting character. She doesn’t display any sense of urgency or fear as if she knows exactly what is going to happen well before it comes to fruition. The more I watch this show, the more evidence I throw into my “Stephanie Meyer is void of original thought” file. This isn’t to say that I don’t have a calendar counting down the days until New Moon is released, though. I am also dealing with the fact that I’m a morbidly obese 14 year-old girl on my own time, so I don’t need any feedback regarding this matter.
The most interesting tidbit of information that Sophie-Anne offers (other than the eventual steps to take to kill a Maenad) is when she says the following:
“Everything that exists imagined itself into existence.”
Vampires, werwolves, maenads, shifters, whatever the hell else is bound to show up - blame evolution..? She goes on to explain that Maryann is immortal because she believes she is. The idea of evolution playing its part into the creation of all of the supernatural characters is fascinating while also causing me to go cross-eyed from an overwhelming tidal wave of confusion. Before I try to sound scholarly and go into my own theories about where this is going, I’m going to wait until I get some more information - so stay tuned… (Do you see what I’ve done here? Suspense. Now you’re forced to come back).
When we get our first look back to the apocalyptic chaos in Bon Temps, we get a bit of the aftermath of Maxine Fortenberry’s Jessica-induced hickey. Hoyt burns Jessica like whoa and leaves with his mother. From this, we get one of the best moments/screen shots ever. Jessica’s maniacal display of emotions, complete with blood-dripping wonky eyes and a nice red flavor-saver gave us our “bitch is ‘bout to go ape-shit” moment of the night.
Later, back at Hoyt’s house, his mother, temporarily freed from her constraints brought on by having a son, unloads a heap of shit onto Hoyt. Not only did he find out that his father killed himself and may have been a closeted homosexual (he just liked to dance more than most other men), but he also got an earful about how bad Maxine wanted to go out, get drunk, and nail some dudes. On top of that and during her gift preparation for the god who comes, she also dropped something about not having the heart to tell Maryann that she isn’t going to get what she wants when he comes - HUH? How does Maxine have insight into what will happen from the pending ritual? NEED MORE INFO!
Over at LaFayette’s, Tara begs Sookie, Lettie Mae and LaFayette to let her go help Eggs, laying on the guilt about how much hell she’s going to bring if something bad happens to him. Solution? Obviously use some furry handcuffs to secure her to the coffee table. While Sookie and LaFayette go outside keep watch, Lettie Mae stays inside to get a world of Christian guilt laid on her by Tara. Tara promises to forgive her for EVERYTHING she has done if she helps her get out to go to Eggs. Well it’s no surprise that Lettie Mae is dumb enough to do it, but who knew it would be as badass as wielding a gun and sending LaFayette into a PTSD-induced fetal position?
And now for the next amazing moment of the episode: Eric as a hallucinatory drag queen. Getting shot, being mentally connected to Eric and having a gun in your face apparently wasn’t enough for LaFayette. As Lettie Mae is holding him back at gunpoint, her monologue quickly shifts to an imaginary monologue from Eric dressed in Lettie Mae’s clothing. While the monologue didn’t necessarily reveal anything, the actual connection between a vampire and the human they let drink their blood is taken to an extreme. There is also another thing about this that seems to have been touched on - I wondered why Sookie didn’t really have sexy dreams about Bill - this may be because when Sookie first tasted Bill’s blood, it was to save her life and not under the pretense of Bill giving it to her as a means to claiming stake to her. This is why Sookie and LaFayette tasting Eric’s blood has a different effect: because he allowed them to drink it and is consequently connected to them in some mental capacity. Anyway, Sookie uses the small amount of wit in her brain and throws a tiki ashtray at Lettie Mae’s unsuspecting head. LaFayette grabs her gun and the two of them start to make their way to confront Maryann and help Tara.
While this is happening, Bon Temps’ Three Musketeers (Jason, Sam and Andy) are cleaning up the bar and discussing Sam’s power and their next steps to bringing normalcy back to the town.
“I read a book about this. This is Armageddon. This is the oral history of the zombie war…Sometimes you need to destroy something to save it. That’s in the Bible…Or the Constitution”
Other than this quote being generally amazing, there is one line that stood out - not to me - to my viewing partner who is currently reading a book called “World War Z: The Oral History of the Zombie War.” I’m not reading it so I can’t draw too many parallels, but the general concept is that it is a collection of interviews of people involved in a fictional Zombie War that took place in a previous novel. I’m sure I can dig more up about this at some point, but kudos are due for the connection.
While they talk, the three are interrupted by Arlene’s children, who look like they arrived straight from an escape from Miss Hannigan’s orphanage. Sam agrees to take them in and go get Maryann-defeating advice from Eric at Fangtasia while Andy and Jason go on their divine mission to save the town - against Sam’s advice.
In Maryann’s Fern Gully, Tara arrives to help Eggs and is predictably cornered by Maryann. Before she can have her way with Tara, Maryann explains that Tara is was the catalyst that eventually brought her to Bon Temps. Apparently when Miss Jeanette performed her seemingly fake ritual on Tara in Season one, Maryann showed up in the form of a black-eyed younger Tara (OH!) and was summoned when she finished the ritual. While I don’t completely comprehend the nature of the ritual summoning a Maenad, I still had to take a moment to collect the pieces of my mind that had blown all over the walls. When Maryann discovers that her convulsions no longer turn Tara, she goes to her backup plan - a good ol’ punch to the face. Needless to say, she gave Tara some black eyes (do you see what I’ve done here? It’s a pun. Take as much time as you need to recollect yourself and I’ll continue).
Jason and Andy, after a fantastic conversation that essentially buries all hatchets between the two, head to the Sheriff’s Office to load up on ammo. They’re met with some local crazies under Maryann’s influence - most notably the ‘soft’ woman running through the grass and the Sheriff, who take a HILARIOUS dump in his pants (as evidenced by his cackle).
Sam take Arlene’s kids to Fangtasia and has a fantastic run-in with Ginger, who’s countless glamours have made her dumber and jumpier than ever. Once inside with Eric and (pause necessary for the following explanation) Pam, complete with an 80s inspired up-do and corresponding sequined jumpsuit that projectile vomited fierceness all over the otherwise dull Fangtasia, Sam pleads for Eric’s help in gathering information about destroying a Maenad. Eric decides to take Bill’s route and head to get some information from the Queen via the skies. Wait, Eric can fly?
Back in the Queen’s day room, Bill continues to plead with Sophie-Anne to let him leave as long as she has offered everything she knows about Maenads. She doesn’t end up giving up the juice until Bill has fed from a delicious human and joined in a game of Yahtzee, naturally. When he gives his final plea, Sophie-Anne finally unloads everything she knows about Maenads (silly creatures) and their “god who comes.” It turns out, Maenad’s are delusional supernatural creatures that constantly revise methods and recipes (meat tree or hunter’s soufflé, anyone?) in hopes that Dionysus will come, despite the fact that he never does and never will. What the Maenad seeks is essentially to do enough for their god to come and then be granted death by him - the one thing they are immune to. From the information, Bill deducts that in order to destroy Maryann, they will have to go forward with her ritual to get her to the point that she lets down her immortal guard in order to be killed - by someone other than the god who isn’t coming. Whew.
One thing to note here - Following the spoiler that Sophie-Anne may have sent Bill originally to Bon Temps to seek out Sookie, the introduction of Hadley as Sophie-Anne’s human may have given us a clue as to how Sophie-Anne knew about Sookie and her powers (or potential powers). Hadley kind of seemed like a wide-eyed girl that would divulge too much information without realizing it andmay have unintentionally introduced Sophie-Anne to a very powerful creature.
Finally, we get back to one of the creepier scenes in all the episodes of True Blood - Sookie returning to her house among a plethora of black-eyed freakshows. When she first arrives, she meets the hilarious crazy-toothed woman in the foyer. As she turns around, she one-ups the creepy factor by not only displaying her black eyes, but also the top of one of her fingers that she had just jovially cut off as a gift for “him.” She continues in and sees a Gollum lookalike stroking an umbilical cord in the sink and is then forced to the ground to spoon with Mike.
While this is happening, LaFayette runs into Maryann and Carl. LaFayette manages to fire off a shot, only to find Maryann Matrix-ing the shit out his efforts by deflecting the bullet…into Carl’s head. Well, at least he won’t be around to bother anyone with towels anymore. Maryann, of course, brings LaFayette to the dark-eyed side and is reminded that he is a cook (needs more soufflé).
Sookie manages to get away from Mike, thanks to the help of a nearby frying pan, and heads upstairs. Before treading into Gran’s room, we get our second drag moment of the evening as someone is having their way with one of Sookie’s dresses. Sookie enters Gran’s room to find Tara and Eggs breaking everything in site. When she tries to stop them, they forcefully urge her not to mess up the creation of the nest. The final moment comes with the reveal of a giant dinosaur-like egg in a nest on the bed and the introduction of LaFayette with dark eyes.
So the finale is in 2 weeks (WHAT? TWO? @#*$^!) and is going to (hopefully) offer a lot of answers and intense drama. Some of the general questions that are posed currently:
How can Eric fly?
What is the giant nesting egg?
Who, if anyone, is going to die or be sacrificed in order to kill Maryann?
What is Sophie-Anne’s overall interest in Sookie?
When will Pam grace us with more amazing outfits?
How am I going to live without Maryann following her inevitable destruction?
Remember a millennia ago when you started reading this and I told you that not much happened in this episode? Well it seems that I verbosely proved myself absolutely wrong.
