What About Eric?! -- Tears and Tender Moments

I think I awwwed more than I ever have in my life tonight. There were so many tender moments in this week's True Blood. There were also really horrible and disgusting moments, but still. Let's talk about the touching moments and leave the upsetting stuff for later.

It's pretty much a requirement that I start with Eric, and in Episode 7: "Release Me," we see Eric's first blood tears. Again, it's over Godric and the realization that he might be dead.

But that wasn't Eric's only tender moment. He also was more than merely curious about the appeal of human-vampire relationships in his conversation with Isabel. She calls him on his fondness for Sookie and his response is, "Stop looking at me like that." A very manly show of emotion.

In another human-vampire relationship, Hoyt and Jessica really made us smile again with Hoyt's romantic gesture of candles (blood-scented...) and rose petals and Jessica's understanding nature. The mood of the scene was no less cute when Jessica warns that she might "look dead" while they cuddle.

That scene sort of segued us into the Bill-Lorena scene where both vampires attempted to go without their day's rest and proceeded to bleed from their noses and ears. Lovely. This differs from the novels, in which vampires very literally die, or at least are in such a deep sleep they cannot be roused. The change in the rules makes sense for the show so that all the characters can be active at all times. We can't watch Sookie run errands and work at Merlotte's all day. At least in the books we gain a little insight into feelings and motivations of Sookie's and other characters through her meditations and telepathy. That's just not doable in the show.

We also see a little more of Bill's past, about 10 years later than the last flashback. Bill's wearing his smoking jacket and Lorena and tap dancer girl have really strange eyebrows, but more importantly, Bill is refusing to be a monster for Lorena and is released from her and that life so he won't kill himself. More tears from his Maker.

Really, this is making the audience much too sympathetic towards Bill for what comes later in the story line, if you ask me. This different direction makes me wonder if they will even follow one crucial element of the later novels. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I'm quite pleased with the way the Sam-Daphne-Maryann-Tara thing has played out. It was especially gratifying to see Sam sock Daphne in the face. The entire opening sequence, through when Sam runs from Maryann and shifts into an owl was the best Sam scene so far this season. It goes to show what amazing actors they hired when you see something so incredibly unreal and it feels real because it's ugly and terrifying in a very human way.

Sam got a few aws too. Like when he poured his heart out to Daphne. Then Daphne, well, she poured out her heart into Maryann's hand. And her blood out of her back-stabbing mouth. I'm not too sad about that one. What does that say about me? That was a little less tender, or a little more, but in a Hannibal Lecter sort of way.

It's nice to know that Tara has at least started to come to her senses. You can see the gears turning in there, but there's still something wrong with that whole picture. I definitely had a moment of frustration when Maryann comes into the house with the rabbit carcass barefoot and covered in blood and dirt and Eggs and Tara just say, "She's weird." and "Poor bunny." I really wanted Tara to do something, anything involving her screaming some sort of expletive and running off. No joy. Or maybe too much on the Maryann front.

The Fellowship of the Sun basement stuff came pretty much verbatim from the book, with the exception that Hugo Ayres was a vampire lawyer who went to the FotS, not just a fangbanger. His cover story was different and he didn't want to become a vampire at all.

The Barry the Bellboy stuff was the same, although we only heard saw it from Sookie's end and there was no Lorena to interfere (She's introduced in Club Dead). Even though I knew Godric saves Sookie from Gabe, I still almost thought it was Eric coming to her rescue. I think that was just because I wanted to be.

Jason's story actually fit perfectly with the Fellowship parts, but I wonder how they're going to have he and Sookie meet up in the current situation, and with how the book events occurred. He's obviously not shot by Sarah Newlin, and I know this mainly because the "Rest of Season 2" Comic-Con promo showed the next scene with a paint ball mark on his shirt. This also happened before Season 2 aired, when they revealed in one promo Sam laying the ton of cash at Maryann's feet before that particular mystery was solved. Maybe they don't count on people remembering every little thing from every 30 second promo.

And of course, we finally find out that Maryann is a maenad and THANK GOD for that. Us novel readers, we're about ready to poke our eyes out during those scenes. (Greek Tragedy reference, get it? I shouldn't make eye gouging jokes. Too late.)

Overall, this episode was excellent. The parts that bored me previously were amazing and suspenseful and the parts I've always enjoyed got even better. This may be my favorite episode of the season. I really cannot wait for more. Not that that's anything new. Maybe a little more Eric? (Because I have to.)