Although True Blood is always busy weaving a thousand story lines, I never lose interest for a minute. As soon as one is dropped, another I find equally important is picked up, and it is only at the end of every episode that I find myself terribly upset about all the things I have yet to learn, yet to figure out, and concerned for all the characters who remain in imminent danger.
I think my favourite arc in this episode was that of Franklin (James Frain) and Tara (Rutina Wesley). Franklin's insane obsession with Tara took on a humourous quality for me when he indicated that one of the main attractions was that Tara was as screwed up as he is. Plus, I loved her horror at the end, when she had finally accepted and begun manipulating him, beginning to feel safe, and he made her realize that her danger was all the worse because he planned to vampirize her. There would be no turning back for her after that.
Otherwise, while I am a little curious about this girl whom Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is pursuing, and I really want to know what the deal is with Sam (Sam Trammell)'s family. I don't know what sort of abuse his younger brother has been suffering, or what exactly the father meant when he said he owned him, but I want to know the answer and I want Sam to make it stop.
But the main people we followed were our favourites - Sookie (Anna Paquin), Bill (Stephen Moyer), and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard). Bill has been playing such a dangerous game, trying to keep Sookie safe and sacrificing almost anything for her. Curious why exactly he has files tracing her family tree though. In the end, when he realized that his bluff was lost, the first thing he did was run to her to try to get her to go to safety. Whether he believed she was sleeping with Alcide (Joe Manganiello) or not, he didn't really care. His concern was for her, believing that he was already lost. The last few moments of the episode, my heart broke as Sookie's mysterious light attack saved her from a werewolf one moment, and exposed her, putting her in even more danger the next.
My heart broke the most for Eric. Terrified with concern for Pam, he cannot bare to wait on the whims of a King, though he must, but when he learned that that same King was the man behind those Nazi werewolves, that was even worse. And the most awful part was learning that that insane hatred for this enemy started back before Eric had even become a vampire, before he had even become a man. Utterly devastating.
I'm really hoping for a lot of violence and blood next episode. I was terribly pleased that someone finally shoved a vampire up against the silver doors, though also quite glad it was Bill who did the shoving, rather than being the one to suffer. I can't wait to see Eric go full out, both in vengeance for his father and mother and baby sister, but also for her progeny, Pam. I hate having to wait a whole week to find out the next part of the story.
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I somehow missed most of the big HBO/cable shows of the past ever, so I'm not sure how typical it is, but do other HBO shows plot their episodes/storylines in the way True Blood does? That is, everything chugging along in parallel, with seemingly arbitrary placement of episode boundaries?
ReplyDeleteWhile I enjoy True Blood, I have an affinity for series that manage to juggle both structures, effectively telling a story for each episode and simultaneously a story for each season. Something about that focus on the episode level makes a series connect with me more, I think. (To say nothing of the mess that Heroes became, I think the episode Company Man gained a lot of power by being that sort of focused story after all that multithreaded buildup.)
Perhaps also, with a heavily continuous series such as this (without even technically a break between seasons, and not even enough time passing in the series overall to rule out conception from two seasons past!), I find the wait from week to week takes away some of the momentum? I didn't get into True Blood until after season 2 had aired, so this delaying is new to me. =P
I can see how those endings would be very frustrating, though for me I find they carry on the momentum, leaving me tense for the next week. As soon as the next episode commences, that feeling instantly returns, and it is as if there was no break.
ReplyDeleteBut that's how it affects me. It also reminds me of the way chapters end in the books, prompting you to read the next chapter without hesitation.
As for the lack of episodic plot lines, and I know some people who think True Blood has no plot at all as a result, I can't disagree. Then again, in the end, the coherence of the entire season might work all the better for the lack of episodal resolutions.