True Blood: I Smell a Rat

"No dancing, no religion!"

Right from the off we start with Bill providing the big reveal about what Sookie is: she's a fairy- this makes me reminisce about Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which is no bad thing. And it's significant; the fae were seemingly wiped out of existence by vampires, their blood having legendary properties for them. Sookie, though, is not fully faerie, just with some ancestry, notably through her grandfather. Still, wow.

Jadon has killed Franklin, which is good, but this sets off guilty flashback of him killing Eggs (and Eddie the vampire; blokes whose names begin with "E" should steer clear), which is not. 

We then get an unexpected flashback of Sam, then a thief, in 2003, being swindled by his then-girlfriend and her bloke. This is completely out of the blue. It's shocking, later in the episode, to see him kill them, and he spends most of the episode in a bad mood, tired of being a nice guy who gets walked all over... but the way this is done just feels inconsistent and out of character, mostly from being so sudden. It's a rare misstep in the writing.

Crystal's family really are scum; apparently she has to marry Frlton; after all, it's not as though women's bodies belong to themselves or anything.this is dark territory, but there are large parts of Afghanistan and South Asia where this goes on all the time, a probable allusion. Oh, and they're all were-panthers... 

A brief cameo of Steve Newlin (remember him?) on the telly in Merlotte's reminds us that, out in the world, Edgington's public act last episode is having huge ramifications. And at last, after a big argument, Tara starts to talk to Sookie about the fact she's been raped. Meanwhile we discover that Holly is a Wiccan and, surprisingly, Jesus wants him and Lafayette to do V together.

This leads to delightfully trippy and well-directed scenes which indicate that both of them are descended from magicians, and True Blood seems to have a very trippy, Alan Moore conception of magic- very interesting, especially Jesus' warlock grandfather.

Meanwhile, Jason tells the truth to Tara with predictable results and, horribly, Jessica finds a burning cross on her lawn. Still, at least it seems that she and Hoyt are back together. So are Sookie and Eric, with Sookie chained up in exactly the same place as Lafayette was...