True Blood had been riding so high the last couple weeks, I guess things had to get bad somewhere, and "Night on the Sun" was just that, with scene after scene of miserable breakup talk and tears and Jason being an even bigger fucking idiot than usual. The episode was rescued somewhat by the final act, which had a terrific knock-down, drag-out fight AND Eric and Talbot getting naked together, but mostly I'll count it as the latest, most ridiculous chapter of Sookie and Bill's relationship.
From her screaming her head off last week, I figured Sookie was going to want a break from Bill, and she did indeed break up with him at the start of the episode, very tearfully, admitting that him forcibly draining her of blood was the last straw. The main point of her breakup speech seemed to be that she had finally realized that a normal life was not within her and Bill's reach. Was this always her goal? Sookie's character feels very muddled to me at this point. Considering she's never been very normal and that Bill's otherness was one of her big turn-ons about him, the course of their relationship has never been geared towards white picket fences and life and Gran's house, I think.
Anyway, that it took this long for Sookie to realize that dating Bill would test her sanity doesn't reflect very well on her. But really, it's not Bill's fault, it's True Blood's fault: even the show's most ordinary characters have been through some crazy shit in these last couple months. But I accepted the breakup scene, and Bill's boring tears, because I was happy the show was making this step to explore some new story ideas for Sookie. And then they had to go and dash it all by having her and Bill get together and get nasty after he saves her from some lame werewolves. They couldn't even wait one episode?
The only positive note I got from all this is that the tenor of Sookie and Bill's relationship has clearly changed into something darker, which ties into Claudine's warning that Bill would drink up all of Sookie's "light." But still, even in the accelerated universe of True Blood, it's ridiculous that we wasted so much time on a breakup that barely took.
Sookie then proceeded to bore me silly by commiserating with Alcide, and then Tara. Regarding Alcide, the major problem between these two is that even though he was introduced as a looming hunk of meat for us all to drool over, all he and Sookie talk about is how much their boyfriend/girlfriend sucks, and how tough it is to get over them. It's why, in their almost-kiss scene, there just wasn't any chemistry cracklin' between them. I'm sure we'll see more of the sexy werewolf but I think the writers should starting thinking of who else to pair him with.
Tara is, as usual, frustrated with Sookie for being such a dumbshit (wondering five minutes after dumping Bill if she should have dumped him) and snorefully obsessed with the latest horrifying thing that's happened to her. "Maybe you can flirt some sense into her," she begs of Alcide, but nothing doing there. I like the direction we're going in with Tara and Franklin, though. As traumatized as she might be, there was definitely a side of her that was into him, which both he and she recognized. Next, we need to absolutely resolve that he's alive. Talbot bitched about cleaning up his brains but I still don't see any reason why he'd be dead, especially as we've seen so many other vampires turn to mush this year.
Jesus, like Sookie, can't quit Lafayette despite his dangerous background because … well, I dunno. Something about his energy? I'm getting sick and tired of this guy's lame platitudes and general kindness. No one on True Blood is that nice, he's obviously hiding something. Jesus reappears in our life because Ruby Dee runs away from the institution and chucks a Buddha at her son, all so we can enjoy the experience of Alfre Woodard saying, "I gotta pee, Jesus," and "TV's all faggots and murderers and hoes!" The pointlessness of Ruby Dee so far, and the general blandness of Jesus, suggests to me that there's some crazy shit coming down the road. Maybe Ruby's ramblings have a shade of truth to them, and the hospital she's in is keeping her quiet. Then again, when Lafayette was five, she told him he could swim underwater. "My little ass almost drowned."
And Jason, in True Blood's most head-smackingly dumb plot of the week (beating out the usually reliable Merlotte family mess) finally gets to bed Crystal when she renounces her hillbilly betrothed, but even though she drops numerous hints about her clan being supernatural in some way or another, doesn't bother to ask many questions and then decides, instead of protecting her, to leave her in the house alone and drive over to the meth shack and wave a gun in her family's face. I know Jason's stupid, but what kind of dumb motherfucker leaves a girl with a black eye who SWAM away from her family alone in the house … so that he can go provoke her family? And the intentional teasing of Crystal's background got boring a few weeks ago. The Sookie mystery, I can handle, but not this.
After a whole lotta bullshit, things finally heat up in triplicate as Russell and his wolves come to Sookie's house but are fought off by Bill and Jessica, who he trained in self-defense in a pretty awesome sequence earlier. Sookie and Debbie beat the shit out of each other upstairs, trashing her grandmother's house for what feels like the zillionth time, and over in Mississippi, Eric lures Talbot to bed, only to stake him silly as step one in his planned revenge, which calls off Russell and his silver spurs. Every step of the fight was pretty exciting stuff, and Jessica's prowess was especially fun to watch since she's been so underused this year. My only major qualm is why Sookie didn't finish Debbie off, considering how annoying and worthless she is. Oh, and the aftermath sex with Bill on the floor. That too.
Stray observations:
Talbot gets huffy with Russell over killing the Magister. "You're acting like a century-old child!" After not knowing his name for the first part of the season, I gotta say, I'm gonna miss that swishy Grecian house-husband.
Nice, if weird to see the return of Rene in Arlene's dream sequence. That guy's Cajun accent was a step away from Gambit in the X-Men cartoons but he was good at being charming, and then switching late in the season to being creepy.
Not much to say about Sam taking in Tommy, except that Tommy really seems to be itching for a fight. He made Hoyt cry at one point!
Jason is wary of Crystal being in a church or a cult. "I done that, and they washed my brain."
Sookie checking out her empty Bill photo album and reliving him biting her neck was a strange, seemingly meaningless sequence given what followed. It was also pretty hilariously campy.
Crystal's dad is even trashier than Tommy's. "I'm gonna rip your dick off and feed it to my hog!"