Thursday, July 22, 2010

True Blood episode recap “I Will Rise Up ” (S2E9)

Remember last episode? Well, the Luke-suicide bomb went off in a big way. When the smoke clears, there are bodies and body parts everywhere, and Luke is splashed across the walls. Bill checks to make sure Sookie is okay – she is; Eric shielded her with his own body – then takes off after the two Church men who drove Luke here. He yanks one out of their van and buries his face in the screaming human’s neck. Blood spurts. Bill is drinking more human blood this season, isn’t he?

Godric stands in the middle of his destroyed house, silent, unhappy, unharmed. Sookie pushes Eric off her – “You weigh a ton!” – and calls for Jason. He’s fine. Eric, however, is not: he is riddled with silver shrapnel. In a weak voice, he tells Sookie that he can’t heal himself from this and she must suck the silver bits out of his body. Sookie: “I can’t – it’s … gross, and it’s you.” But her soft heart prevails and she bends over him, sucking the silver out like snake venom. Eric, of course, is really fine and gives the camera a shit-eating grin.

Bill comes back in: “What are you doin’?” She explains that she’s helping … and then Bill tells her that Eric lied to her, forcing her to drink his blood and draw a connection between them: “He will now be able to sense your emotions.” Sookie is furious: “You big lying a-hole!” Eric: “Bill, you’re right – I believe I can sense her emotions.” Heh. Bill is upset but tries to rein it in for Sookie’s sake, because she’s beside herself. Eric is smug, of course.

Back at the hotel, Sookie showers and tells Bill that she feels like an idiot. He reminds her that Eric has had 1,000 years of practice in deception – there wasn’t anything she could do. Also, an additional side effect to Sookie having drunk Eric’s blood is that she may become sexually attracted to him. Sookie’s all, “Eric? Eeuuuw – I can’t stand him!” Bill is just resigned.

Jessica is also resigned to always being a virgin. Hoyt is very sweet to her, saying that they can have sex lots of other ways (once they figure them out), plus he doesn’t care because he just really loves her. In fact, he wants Jessica to meet his momma. She squeals, pleased and surprised. He warns her that his mother hates vampires and may say some nasty things – or if Jessica is lucky, Maxine won’t say anything to her at all. Then it’s almost morning and Jessica has to go to her cubbyhole under the stairs, so dear Hoyt sits outside the door and sings her to sleep.

In this morning after, Tara and Eggs are a mess: bruised and scratched and embarrassed at their lack of control. Maryann, of course, tells them that a lack of control can be a good thing – the blackouts could be ecstatic trances: “A few bumps and bruises are a small price to pay for bliss.” Tara’s not buying it entirely.

At the hotel, Sookie can’t sleep so she goes to see if Jason is still awake. They hang out, watching television, and he tells her about his Church experience, how it made him feel important. Then they talk about how much they miss their Gran, and their parents. Blah blah blah - boring.

Merlotte’s is hopping and Arlene is way stressed out, snapping at customers and wigging out about Daphne, so Lafayette pours her a calming shot of tequila. Arlene, about the recent killing: “Gosh, I mean, Daphne was stupid, clumsy and mean, but I wouldn’t wish that kind of death on a possum.” Shortly thereafter, Tara and Eggs come into the bar and Lafayette is all over them immediately, examining the bruises and swellings on Tara’s face. They try to claim it was an accident but Lafayette isn’t having any of that bullshit. He turns on Eggs: “Keep your hands off my cousin, you bitchass muthafucker!” The restaurant quiets and watches. Lafayette tells Tara that Eggs is poison and he’s going to end up killing her. Enraged, Eggs lunges at him, hitting Tara in the jaw as he does. Oops. Tara pushes the two men apart and drags Eggs out of the bar. The restaurant patrons hoot and holler, much to Lafayette’s disgust.

Over at the Fortenberrys’ house, Maxine is making Hoyt a grilled cheese sandwich and railing about his new girlfriend. She is full of nastiness and hate; her son points out that she hates Methodists, Catholics, nuns, African Americans, people who park their trucks on the lawn, people who don’t take care of their gardens, ladies who wear red shoes (“It looks cheap!”), people who have too many kids, cats, dogs and checkered curtains. The list goes on. Finally, Hoyt tells Maxine that he wants Jessica to meet her and if she can’t be nice, he will leave this house and never come back – “I’m a grown-ass man!” And with that, the grown-ass man takes the sandwich his momma made for him and leaves.

Sookie tosses and turns, unable to sleep. And when she rolls over, she’s naked in bed with Eric. They talk and canoodle, displaying more chemistry than she and Bill do. And this is obviously a dream because Lorena is also there, commenting on how quickly Sookie has tossed Bill aside. Sookie and Eric start to go at it, Lorena just chuckling at them, and as Sookie starts to moan in earnest, she wakes up. In bed next to Bill.

Maryann saunters into the busy sheriff’s office, calling for Bud. The Maryann-groupies packed in the cell next to Sam’s start to clamor for her. Sam gets a little agitated at he finding him here, but then notices a fly buzzing around a vent in his cell. Out in the lobby, Bud offers Maryann some coffee. He is exhausted, having been up all night arresting people for doing weird stuff. Maryann quickly puts her whammy on him – “Oh, you went fast!” – then takes the sheriff’s keys and heads back to the cells, declaring, “I want Sam Merlotte!” She looks in his cell but there’s nothing there but clothes – guess he buzzed off. Now she’s really angry, but she opens the other cells and lets her followers out.

Yawn: Hoyt, Jessica and Maxine have gotten together at Merlotte’s and it’s not going that well, despite Jessica being on her best behavior. For a while. Finally, Maxine and Jessica start snarling at each other, and then Maxine makes the younger woman cry, and Jessica and Hoyt storm out. Maxine finishes Hoyt’s beer and immediately orders another one.

Tara, Eggs and Maryann are drinking tequila and playing poker at Sookie’s house when Lafayette and Tara’s mom show up. They ask Tara to come with them but she refuses. The shouting starts and soon enough Tara and Eggs switch over into zombie mode. It’s very ugly: Lafayette easily gets the better of Eggs, but Tara starts hitting and choking her mother. Lafayette kicks Eggs to the floor, then hoists his cousin up over his shoulder and carries her to the car. Tara is screaming for Eggs like a banshee. Her mom jumps into the driver’s seat and they tear on out of there. Maryann stops Zombie Eggs from chasing after them: “Let them go. She’ll come back and she’ll bring them with her.” Maryann does not notice the fly on the porch railing.

At the Dallas hotel, Whatsername Flanagan the slick blonde lawyer vampire is tearing Godric a new one. He sits there, looking like a little boy, and takes it calmly, pretty much throwing himself on the sword while Eric and Isabel watch unhappily. Bill and Sookie are there too and Sookie can’t keep herself from sneaking looks at Eric; Bill catches her doing it. Finally, Godric says that he voluntarily removes himself from all positions of authority. “Fine,” says Flanagan, “There are some papers you have to sign.” You all see where this is going, right? Godric’s a martyr, a Christ figure. “I will make amends, I swear,” he says. Eric wants to talk to him so Godric says he’ll meet him up on the roof.

Maryann storms into Merlotte’s bar, voice ringing out: “The god who comes demands his sacrifice – where is Sam Merlotte?” Everyone’s eyes go zombie-black and she shrieks, “Bring him to me!”

Meanwhile, a fly lands on the doorknob of Andy’s motel room door. Andy is inside, drinking hard and watching Dirty Jobs (ostrich wrangling episode) on television. There’s a knock and he answers the door: it’s naked Sam, of course. Andy lets him in without a word.

Bill intercepts Eric as the meeting breaks up and punches him in the mouth, hard. Eric: “It’s done – I’m part of her now.” Bill has nothing to say to that. Once Eric leaves, Sookie tells her man that she’s going to find Godric: he’s in pain and she feels like she needs to do something. “Don’t you think we done enough for Dallas?” says Bill dryly. But he understands that she needs to do this, that she feels obligated since Godric saved her from Gabe the rapist.

Up on the roof, Sookie finds Godric saying goodbye to Eric, simply stating that 2.000 years is enough. Eric is nearly wild with grief, threatening to keep Godric alive by force. Godric, gently: “Even if you could, why would you be so cruel?” Then they speak, I don’t know, Norse or Viking or something, and Eric falls to his knees, sobbing. Godric places his hand on Eric’s head and whispers, “Father, brother, son – let me go.” He is tired and has had enough of this world that he should have changed but didn’t, and now believes he cannot. He sends Eric away; Sookie catches his hand as he passes by her and promises to stay as long as it takes.

“It won’t take long, not at my age,” observes Godric. He turns to Sookie and asks her if she believes in God. When she says yes, he asks how he’ll be punished. “God doesn’t punish,” says Sookie, “He forgives.” “I hope for that,” says Godric. He asks her if she’ll care for Eric after he’s gone. Sookie: “I don’t know, you know how he is!” Godric: “I can take the blame for that too.” Sookie: “Maybe not – Eric’s pretty much himself.”

They look towards the east and the rising sun. Sookie starts to cry and tells Godric that she’s afraid for him, for the pain he’s about to feel. He is amazed: “A human is with me in the end, and in tears. After 2,000 years I can still be surprised. In this I see God.” Then Godric steps towards the edge of the roof and takes off his tunic.  He stands, arms outstretched and as the sunlight hits him, he burns. He was right: it doesn’t take long.

I sort of have mixed emotions about Godric. I ended up really liking him a lot, and wishing that he would have been around longer … and so I don’t really see the point of all the build-up, only to kill him off after three episodes.

Previously on True Blood / next time on True Blood

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