True Blood Review – “Beautifully Broken”

When we left off last week, Bill Compton had managed to heal himself by feeding on an old woman, only to later find himself surrounded by ferocious werewolves.  Tara continued her downward spiral despite Lafayette’s best efforts to keep her sane, Jason’s guilt over killing Eggs was eating him alive, and Sookie walked in on Eric giving the business to a new Fangtasia dancer.  This week, we find out what the werewolves want with Bill, as well as just where Sam came from.  No gay dreams this week, but we did get a surprising flashback scene with Godric and were introduced to a new vampire in Bon Temps.

Keep reading for the full review.  As always, there will be spoilers.

It feels like once every seven episodes or so, we get to see Bill’s bad ass side – and this was one of those episodes.  Having recently fed and at full strength, it appears as though the werewolves aren’t much of a match for him.  One werewolf lost his ear to Bill, but he was lucky – severed limbs and corpses could be seen scattered on the ground of the Mississippi woods.  The fighting comes to a halt when the Vampire King of Mississippi (VKoM) himself appears on horseback and orders his wolves to stand down.  I was surprised as Bill to see that werewolves were working for a vampire, an idea I certainly didn’t consider beforehand.  Coot – the biggest, meanest werewolf – is emerging as one of my favorite characters, and I was somewhat disappointed to see the VKoM bar him from attacking Bill.  The VKoM displays his authority by shooting an anonymous werewolf, killing him instantly.  I guess the old silver bullet approach works in the True Blood universe, eh?  Anyhow, the VKoM invites orders Bill back to his mansion where he will explain to Bill just why he’s been abducted.

One of the things I have always loved about True Blood is the attention to detail and the creation of a fully-realized world in which vampires and other supernaturals live.  It’s little touches like blood sorbet – served to Bill, the VKoM, and the flamboyant Talbot during Bill’s discussion with the VKoM – that help make the show so great.  Gimmicky?  Maybe, but I dug it.  The VKoM offers Bill a job as a sheriff in Mississippi, and in exchange he asks for Bill’s help in convincing Queen Sophie-Anne to marry him.  The VKoM suggests that he knows that Bill has secrets with regard to the Queen and then, out of nowhere, Lorena appears.  I’m guessing that Lorena somehow knew about Bill’s knowledge of the Queen’s dealings; why else would she be there?

Bill chucks an oil lamp at Lorena, setting her ablaze.  To be honest, I didn’t really dig this part – for one, vampires can move incredibly fast.  Lorena couldn’t dodge that throw?  Secondly, Bill would attack his maker while dining with the VKoM?  How is that OK?  And while Lorena is up in flames and screaming her head off, everyone’s cool with this?  Did she die?  Because last I checked, murdering another vampire carries a pretty strict penalty – Bill was on trial for killing the bartender at Fangtasia, remember?  Hopefully this gets cleared up next episode because right now, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Meanwhile, Lafayette does his best to save Tara from herself and takes her to a hospital – not to commit her, but to show her what she’ll be like if she continues down this road.  Lafayette and Tara visit Lafayette’s mother, who is pretty clearly the most hateful human being not named Tara.  Later on, Tara drinks alone at Merlotte’s when she is approached by a new vampire named Franklin.  Franklin later comes to Tara’s aid when she attacks some rednecks for pissing on the spot where Eggs dies.  Franklin seems to get off on Tara’s fury, and it looks like he and Tara will be forming some sort of relationship moving forward.  Likely, it’ll be a weird one.  While I don’t hate Tara like many viewers do – I do think she’s an interesting character – I will concede that at this point, there isn’t much she brings to the show.  I’m not saying she should be written off; I just hope she’s not a vehicle for introducing a new character.  If Franklin helps explore Tara further, great – but if it’s just another subplot, well, no thanks.

Of course, Tommy turns out to be Sam’s brother, and Sam successfully finds his biological family.  It turns out that Sam’s mother, too, is a shifter, as is Tommy, and it’s a hell of a lot to deal with for everyone.  I think it was a great touch having Tommy’s animal of choice be a fighting pit bull to show how rough and tough of a kid he is.  When he raced Sam, did he purposely lead him into the road to try and get him killed?  It sure looked like it.

Not much more developed with Jason and Andy and the guilt and the fame, but I always enjoy the scenes with Jason and Sookie.  Maybe it’s because I’m close with my sisters, but there’s something about Jason and Sookie together that I’ve always thought is very sweet.  It’s nice to see that no matter how f*cked up things get for the two of them – and they have been through a lot – they still have each other for support.

What did develop with Jason and Andy, though, was Jason tackling a drug dealer as part of a raid.  Of course, he was ecstatic, like a little kid who had just hit his first home run.  Right before that, Jason saw a mysterious woman in the woods.  Who is she?  Or rather, what is she?  Guess we’ll find out.

Jessica seemingly has a big problem, as the body she drained is now missing.  Looks like her advice from Pam isn’t going to help too much.  I do like how drinking blood for a vampire is a lot closer to sex than it is to feeding.

The meat and potatoes of this episode was Sookie’s relationship with Eric and Eric’s experiences with werewolves.  Eric and Godric, it turns out, posed as SS soldiers in World War II while hunting werewolves.  The werewolves weren’t Nazis – thankfully, because I want to root for Coot (heh) and rooting for Nazis is totally unacceptable – and Eric explained that the ones that may be hunting for Sookie are vampire blood-fueled and extremely dangerous.  It’s clear now, to everyone, that despite Godric’s advice, Eric’s emotions have gotten the best of him and he’s obsessed with Sookie.  You have to give the guy credit for putting it all on the table and asking to be invited in for hardcore sex, but I think it’s obvious he wants more than a quickie with Sookie.  The episode ends when Eric senses a werewolf inside Sookie’s home (who must be hunting her in order to put pressure on Bill).  Eric readies himself to fight just as Sookie fires a (presumably silver) bullet.

One last thing – I’ve suspected for a long time that Terry is supernatural and likely a werewolf.  He’s got a lot of dark secrets from the war, is an excellent tracker, and dogs seems to love him.  I’m calling it now that he’s a “reformed” werewolf.

Overall, I didn’t think this episode was nearly as good as the premiere, but being that it’s just the second of the season, there’s a lot of setting up to do.  The Lorena thing really kind of irked me, that’s for sure.  What did you guys think?

P.S. – I really liked Sookie saying “Sookieeehhhh” like Bill does.  Nice that the show is self aware.

P.P.S. – Snoop Dogg, you broke my heart.  Really, dude?