 |
| A scene from True Blood season 6, episode 2 titled "The Sun" |
With True Blood currently dealing with serious issues that mirror racism and gay rights, it’s nice to see romance creeping into the picture as it does, ever-so-slightly, this week in season 6, episode 2 titled "The Sun". With Bill Compton’s “Billith” (Stephen Moyer) either transforming into a vampire-world savior or a pawn in Lilith’s evilest scheme yet, and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) busy gearing up for war against the government hell-bent on destroying his species, neither have time to consider love or sex with Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin). Luckily for her then, she meets a fellow faerie on her way to work.
It’s charming to see Sookie discover Ben (Rob Kazinsky) laying on the side of the road (he's been injured in a vampire attack), then watching her discover he is also half-faerie and shares her ability to emit light and read thoughts. She takes him home to tend to his wounds, but nothing happens between them this episode. “I just shouldn't be taking walks with handsome strangers,” Sookie tells Ben. “It never ends well.”
Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) gets his tender moments with the dubiously paternal Niall Brigant (Rutger Hauer) acting as faerie Grandfather and taking him under his wing (Jason calls him the “intergalactic Boba Fett”). Still, it’s almost certain that Gramps has an evil side that he’ll use against the Stackhouse family, sooner than later. For now, his explanation of Warlow’s history (an obsession with the Stackhouse’s royal blood) suffices, and Brigant even encourages Sookie to hone her light throwing skills.
There’s not much light throughout the rest of episode, despite its title.
Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) gets an angry earful from Nicole Wright (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), co-founder of the Vampire Unity Society, who pushes Sam to “come out” openly as a shifter, only to hear him yell, “I stay hidden!” Wright tells Merlotte to man up - she’s seen what happens when people truly stand up for their rights: her white grandmother and her black grandfather were persecuted in 1961 for getting married and moving back to the deep South. “Their actions helped start the civil rights movement,” says Nicole. “You can’t afford to sit this one out.”
Merlotte has more problems this week. He and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) are beaten in an altercation with wolfpack leader Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello) over the daughter that Sam’s deceased girlfriend Luna (Janina Gavankar) entrusted to him. By fight’s end, the wolves ride off with the child.
Meanwhile, Bill and Eric are separately concerned with the survival of vampires as a species.
Bill goes into a catatonic state as the spirit of Lilith (Jessica Clark) enters his mind and soul so that he feels and sees the pain of vampires in trouble. Once inside this sun-dappled dream state, Lilith tells Bill that “It is beginning. Events have been set in motion.” She wants him to rid the world of the “tyrant” who will eliminate the vampire species.
In the dream, Bill is hungry to know what his next move is. In his home, Bill is hungry and completely drains a prostitute who trades in plasma in one long swallow after twisting her body and snapping her limbs. Upon witnessing the plasma-tute's death, Bill's progeny, Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) begins praying to him as if he is God, confessing her sins and begging him to bless their friends and family. Bill comes out of the catatonic state and has a vision of the devastating future that he must fight, one that has the vampires closest to him interred and being destroyed by fire.
This leaves us with Eric and his fight against the Louisiana governor (Arliss Howard), whose storm-troopers wield new weapons to use against the vampires (like the silver bullets that emit UV rays that were shot into Tara in the season 6 premiere).
Eric pretends to be a conservationist in order to enter the Governor’s office. There, the politician relates a story about a recent vampire attack on a Chuck E. Cheese that resulted in two children being turned into vamps, and then killing their own parents.
Eric tries to “glamour” the Governor and plant the idea that he loves all vampires in his head, but the politician is wearing special contact lenses that keep the mind-control from working. Eric is caught, but then escapes and uses his vampire wiles to gain access to the Governor’s daughter Willa (Amelia Rose) as she prepares for bed. Perhaps Eric’s plan is to turn her into a vampire so that she will kill her father. We shall see.
To see all of our True Blood coverage click here
True Blood airs on Sundays 9/8c on HBO
Photo ©HBO
Posted on Monday, June 24, 2013
