Last week’s True Blood Season 4 premiere feel a bit incomplete to you? I thought so too… thank goodness episode 2 acts as a follow through for all of episode 1’s set up.

As with every episode, this one had a bunch of story lines, so I’m going to do my best to break it down.

The Backwoods of Hotshot:

After getting hit over the head and locked in the freezer, Jason found himself tied to a bed in a creepy backroom in Hotshot. Although, let’s face it, all the rooms in Hotshot probably look like that. When he wakes up he finds Timbo (the incredibly talented Dane DeHaan) licking the blood off his forehead. This would be weird, except it’s True Blood and this isn’t exactly the first time someone is Renard Parish has woken up to find someone licking the blood off their head.The one chance  Jason has at being saved – Andy showing up in Hotshot – is quickly taken away when Andy is given the thing he came for: a vile of V. Oh Andy… Later, Felton and Jason’s sort of girlfriend, Crystal, come in. Seems they are back in town and Crystal would like to make a baby to help keep the town of Hotshot going. Unfortunately for him, Felton is firing blanks, so Crystal turns to Jason. But in order to keep the bloodline going (and by bloodline, I mean werepanther bloodline) Jason needs to just do one tiny little thing – become a werepanther. So they shifted to panthers and bit him in order to change him. Ouch.

The Kingdom of Louisiana

King Bill (still weird) is busy dealing with the witches.  Thanks to the mole he has in Marnie’s coven, Bill has discovered that Marnie has figured out how to control the dead – not a great thing for the Vamp community. Bill thanks the girl for her hard work – you know, by having sex with her and drinking her blood – and right in the middle of that, Sookie steps onto his property. She is promptly greeted by a swat team acting as Bill’s security detail. I love that Sookie gets sassy with them when she shows up. She goes in, finds Bill and the girl (eye rolling commences for Sookie) and asks for help with this whole “Eric owns her house” debacle. (We’ll get to that more later) He says he will see what he can do, but isn’t sure there is much. She asks how he became king, but changes her mind, reminding herself that every time she learns something new about Bill she is disappointed. Turns out this Bill becoming King thing is a long time coming. Back in the 80s in England (oh the guyliner!!) Bill is discovered by Nan Flanigan, and she realizes he may be a great leader in their future plans to mainstream. She put into motion the events that lead to Bill taking down Sophie Ann. Speaking of, when we last saw the Queen, she was fighting Bill. That fight lasted approximately 4.2 seconds before that swat team I mentioned stormed in and took out Sophie Ann with a slew of wooden bullets. Tada! King Bill. (I have thoughts on this for the book readers – Check it out at the bottom.) Back in the now, Bill asks Eric to give Sookie the house back (that’s a no) and also to get take care of the witches….

Merlotte’s Bar & Grill

Before we get to Sam, a quick check in on the proud parents. When Sookie meets Michael, Arlene is desperate to know if Sookie “hears” anything in that evil baby brain of his. Of course she doesn’t – it’s a baby. Later in the kitchen this storyline suddenly gets a little more interesting. While having a stare off with the baby (I think she is trying to see the evil), blood vessels pop in Arlene’s eye, and it seems that cute adorable baby did it. At least that is what Arlene thinks. Terry doesn’t buy it, but that baby suddenly seems a lot more creepy. Sam meanwhile is trying to “get to know” one of his shifter friends a little better – Luna (Janina Gavankar). She is the quiet one in the group, but thanks to Sam she opens up. We discover her mother died giving birth to her, and in the past she has shifted to look like her mom. Wow. (In case you were curious, this is not part of the  normal shifter capabilities) Before we can learn much more, the group sniffs out another shifter nearby – Tommy. He saw Luna and Sam kissing earlier and Merlotte’s and needless to say the boy was curious. He tells Sam he wants a relationship. Awww. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Eric Northman: Viking Landlord

As you may have guessed, Eric is not so keen on Sookie’s idea of him selling the house back to her. Although her sassy responses do amuse him.  He points out that there are two Sookie’s now – the sweet waitress who wants to ignore all the supernatural things within her and around her. And the other Sookie – The BAMF Faerie who goes toe to toe with Vampires and Weres like it was just another part of her day. That’s the girl he admires (loves) and if either Sookie wants to survive, that’s the girl she needs to become. The next morning, Sookie finds Tara in her driveway, at first hidden in a hallucination (or was it?) of the evil Faerie queen. They have a nice moment – it’s nice to see them back together. But when they get inside, Sookie finds a new door, a new microwave and best/worst of all – a state of the art sleeping hole for Eric for those days he chooses to sleep there.She is PISSED. Trust me girlie, it’s going to come in handy. When Sookie goes to find Eric at Fangtastia, Pam rightly points out that if you are going to have a vampire taking care of you, Eric’s not such a bad choice. And he does care about Sookie. (One book side note: in the books, Pam and Sookie are much closer. I hope we go more in that direction this season) Sookie also spies Jessica who is busy drinking the blood of that boy she flirted with last week. (She’s rebelling against Hoyt who earlier called Vampire blood “that sh*t.) She doesn’t want to hear any of Sookie’s step-mother lectures, and basically tells Sookie to leave. Sigh… Eventually, Sookie gives up waiting and heads home where she finds…. (wait for iiiiit)

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble….

After the success of last week’s bird resurrection, Marnie wants to move up the evolutionary food chain a bit and this time bring back a human. To which about 70% of the coven (which includes Holly, Jesus, Lafayette, and “just visiting” Tara) responds with: Are freaking INSANE??? (Spoiler alert: yes, yes she is.) Before this discussion can go on too much more, Eric comes in, to which Lafayette rightly responds with a “Oh sh*t.” Because he knows the damage this particular vampire can do. Marnie gets the coven together to do a spell (that they are unaware of the outcome), but Lafayette wants nothing to do with it. However when Tara comes at Eric from behind with a stake/cross (dummy) and Eric grabs her, Lafayette joins in. (Time out: really, all she had to say was, I’m Sookie’s BFF and he would have dropped her. We all know this, right? Time in.) Suddenly the winds get really heavy which is weird because they are inside and Eric gets a “WTF is going on?” face. Then he sort of goes blank, looks around somewhat frightened and the gets the heck out of there. Marnie is pleased but the rest of the coven is rightly confused. Next we see Eric walking along the side of the road where Sookie finds him, annoyed. But when she tries to talk to him, he is confused because he has no idea who she is. And I welcome you to the most beloved story arc in all the books: Amnesia Eric.

Ok…. about Bill. (A relatively spoiler free discussion)

In the books, the Vampire Monarchy is a major part of the story in most of the books past this point. However, while the Vampire Kings/Queens retain a front and center position of the Sookie Stackhouse series, one character does not: Bill. But Alan Ball, well, he loves him some Bill Compton. I think this change stems from that. While I don’t think this show will go on the 11 seasons (so far) to match the books, I think it will go far enough that Alan needed to think ahead on where Bill is going to go. Whether or not they follow Sookie’s love life from the books, they needed to give Bill a way to remain in the forefront, and I get that. I think they can do just as much with the Vampire Monarchy and the way it messes with the characters with this change as they can if they followed the books. So there you have my opinion on the matter… for what it’s worth.

What did you all think of Episode 2? Ready for a new kind of Eric Northman? (Too bad if you’re not! HA)

Written by Melissa Miller. Find her on Twitter: @serrae

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