TRUE BLOOD: SEASON 2, EPISODE 2 – KEEP THIS PARTY GOING

Tweet

The second episode of True Blood was even better than the second-season premiere last week. The series has found a wonderful tone of humor mixed with suspense, with a dollop of eroticism (that is, when it isn't ladling on big spoonfuls of eroticism). I'm thinking of short but potent scenes last night such as Bill and Eric in the department store, and the way the saleswoman is turned on by Bill -- vampires are irresistible. And the bigger, more important scene later on, when Maryann casts a spell over everyone in the restaurant and they all start wiggling sensuously.

The subplot I loathe the most is Jason's time at the Light of Day leadership conference, where he's charming both leaders, Steve and Sarah (Jason + Sarah = it's just a matter of time, isn't it?). That silver "honesty ring" is going to come into play in a pretty dramatic way, I'm guessing. True Blood is avoiding cheap shots about evangelical Christianity in favor of a more nuanced exploration of the way people want to find and follow leaders, whether they're charismatic spiritual instructors or powerful otherworldly creatures like Bill or Eric.

Last season, Lafayette swanned in and out of scenes with a devil-may-care attitude; now, he's in league with the devil... or whatever it is Eric represents in his infinite cruelty. Lafayette’s impassioned plea for Eric to spare his life (sort of, because turning into a vampire would technically make him dead) was 100 percent true -- Lafayette's powerful, convincing, and damn sexy, all characteristics Eric prides himself on. Lafayette's survival has already strayed far from the books, and turning him into a vampire would add a fascinating layer to the story.

With Sookie and Bill helping Jessica acclimate to her new vampire life, Jason integrating himself into the Fellowship of the Sun, Tara continuing to delude herself into thinking the mysterious Maryann is helping her out of the goodness of her heart, and Lafayette begging for his life, the season's off to a much faster start than last year's slow-building mystery. Last week, Sookie forgave Bill for turning Jessica into a vampire. This week, Sookie struggled with her feelings of guilt about the whole situation (Jessica's creation being a punishment for Bill defending Sookie's honor, after all), and tried to get Bill to treat the new vampire with a little more sensitivity. Sookie asked Bill, ''Parts of your former self are still in there, right? I wouldn't be with you if they weren't.'' Bill's response was brusque and blunt: ''When a vampire is as new as Jessica is, she has no humanity.'' Still, Sookie was suckered into taking Jessica to visit her family, which culminated in a fang-bearing standoff at Jessica's parents' house (more on that next week).

Maryann is still creepy, we still don't know where she came from, and we still don't know what the crap is up with her. We do know that she's back to screw with Sam for some reason, and that she uses sex to her advantage (seducing a young Sam in a flashback we saw last week, hypnotizing the customers at Merlotte's into all but boning each other on the dance floor). And poor Tara is still under the impression that Maryann is helping her out just for funsies.

I don't understand why Tara's been so implicitly trusting of Maryann from the get-go. Her character has always been so cynical about everything that it seems completely out of character for her to just accept Maryann's help. So when she told Sookie, ''Something inside me says 'this is weird Tara, don't trust it,''' I was glad we finally heard her voice of reason. Here's hoping she listens to her instincts.

As a final note, I hereby move that TRUE BLOOD instate a Shirtless Law upon the men this season…What did you think of last night's TRUE BLOOD?