Monsters of Television

“I’m bored. Take off your clothes.”

Oh my.

The sex and violence contained in the last 10 minutes of “Night on the Sun” alone should be enough to convert any former nonbeliever. The beauty of it (besides all the naked bodies) is it’s not just for spectacle. There is shock value, sure, but there’s real story progression and character development behind it. And probably the most unbelievable part of it: it made Sookie likable. For 10 minutes anyway.

Let’s be honest: Sookie sucks. She’s whiny and stubborn and impossibly, idiotically impulsive. However, this season has managed to do a great job in getting characters and the audience alike to really want to know what the hell she is. While I too find myself staring up at my ceiling as I lie in bed on Sundays night pondering “Just what are you, Sookie Stackhouse?” it doesn’t make me like her as a character. Put a pair of scissors and a shotgun in her hands and then she gets a little more interesting.

Naturally, Debbie didn’t take very kindly to Cooter getting cranium capped and so she came looking for revenge. Both hyped up on V, Sookie and Debbie throw down in an increasing violent cat fight which includes Sookie giving Debbie half a Joker smile with a pair of scissors and almost blowing her out of a window with a shotgun. Seems like she took a play out of the very recent Tara playbook: make a boring, stagnant character fight for his/her life like a badass and the audience will cheer. And cheer I did.

As Sookie and Debbie threw some bows upstairs, Bill and Jessica handled Debbie’s werewolf accomplices downstairs. It was very exciting to see Bill training Jessica to fight earlier in the episode (such a cool scene) and even more exciting to see her putting her new found skills to use. The look in her eyes at the opportunity to use some of that baby vampire blood lust was all the sex I needed from an episode. It’s been great to see the progression of Jessica from the overly powerful newbie amazed by her new freedom and powers to the trying to be responsible and in love young adult that she is now, but to see her with the same joy at her abilities as she displayed chasing down and feeding off a werewolf was a sight for sore eyes not only because I missed that aspect of her but she’s been fairly underutilized this season. I know I mention that about every post but it’s true. Shut up, I love Jessica. Her crying scene with Bill, the training scene, and fighting were all great ways to remind us just how fun she is.

After Bill disposes of his werewolf foe he goes toe to toe with Russell. But Russell prefers spurs to toes and digs his silver spinning cowboy accessories right into BIll’s face. Things look grim for our friend until something suddenly causes him to fly away. What was it?

Talbot getting his shit ruined. Eric kills him, finally beginning his revenge plot against Russell. Ever since learning that Russell was responsible for the slaughter of Eric’s family we’ve watched anxiously as he put himself in prime position to enact his retribution. At last he does, and naked while doing so. Things were getting pretty hot and heavy between Eric and Talbot and just before we’re about to get some hot gay vampire lovin’ (what a tease) Eric stakes Talbot. Sex and violence all wrapped up into one delicious scene. I’ll take two please.

Speaking of which, things get quite steamy back in Bon Temps as well. The sexiest, wildest make up sex is goin’ down between Bill and Sookie. Come on, you didn’t really think they’d stay broken up did you? I dunno if it was the werewolf killing or what but these two really go at it. And all HBO subscribers rejoiced.

Jason got some in this episode too. Duh. Crystal shows up at his house with a fresh shiner given to her by her fiancé. She’s also soaking wet since she had to swim so they couldn’t “follow her scent.” He promises to protect her and then they get busy. Is that really all it takes? Anyway, she takes a shower and he takes a shotgun over to her place and threatens her drug dealing father not to come looking for her anymore. While it seems to Jason that his plan worked, this obviously isn’t the last we’ve seen of daddy dearest and the drug dealing fiancé.

It’s all but confirmed that we’re dealing with another pack of werewolves here. Or possibly another family of shifters. They could smell the shifter in Sam and Tommy when they went looking for Crystal at Merlotte’s. Crystal had to throw them off or they could follow her scent. Having Crystal involved with shifters could be a nice way to combine Jason’s end of the season arc with Sam and Tommy or with the rest of the cast if they turn out to be werewolves. This would be great since the whole cop storyline of his this season is rather meh. Jason is very lost in life and so it makes sense that he’s looking for purpose but jumping from religion in season two to the law in season three doesn’t feel different enough.

Lafayette and Jesús are giving it another go too. Am I the only one who believes Jesús legitimately cares for Lafayette and has no ulterior motives or evil connections? I want to believe it’s real. Lafayette needs someone to believe in him and it seems he may have found him. They are quickly becoming my favorite couple on the show.

All in all, great episode. The lines of loyalty are becoming more and more clear and the climax (maybe multiple) will be grand. Alcide will be back and I hope he’ll continue to play an important part. Surely he’ll join Bill and Eric (who will have to set aside their grievances) in the epic fight with the king of Louississippi and his werewolf army. I’d like Lafayette to get in on some of the action too. With his connection to Eric and his mother and Jesús talking about how “powerful” he is, there’s gotta be something more to him we haven’t seen.

Final Thoughts:

• Ya should have kissed her, Alcide. Ya should have kissed her.
• Tara telling Sookie to forget about Bill seemed more about convincing herself to forget about Franklin. Tough now that she’s started having sex dreams about him.
• Hoyt had a nice little “remember me?” scene. While I like Jessica/Hoyt, I enjoy Tommy’s crush on her.