Tuesday Nite's True Blood Spoilers.

It's not much but act like your happy about it.
Ask Ausiello Spoilers!
Question: I have to know — will this season of True Blood have the smokin’ hot Sookie/Eric shower scene featured in the book? Please say yes! —Sam
Ausiello: Yes… and No. “There is a shower scene,” explains exec producer Alan Ball. “But it is not a direct re-enactment of the shower scene in the book. It goes to a slightly different place.” Emphasis onslightly. “Sookie and Eric are in the shower together,” confirms Ball, who assures me that, “Everybody who’s been waiting for Sookie and Eric to hook up, this will be a very good season for them.”

Question: Any more details on Scott Foley’s True Blood role? —Anna
Ausiello: “He was Terry’s platoon leader in Iraq,” says Ball of Foley’s character, Patrick. “So they [share] a military history.” (Rumor has it Terry saved Patrick’s life not once but twice.) Foley will debut in the Season 4 finale and then recur throughout Season 5. Ball, meanwhile, confirms that a deal is not yet in place for him to return as showrunner for a fifth season. “I’m negotiating,” he says. Of course, HBO hasn’t renewed the show itself — but Ball isn’t worried. “There are no plans for this show to end,” he assures. “I’m pretty sure there will be at least one more season, if not more. It seems like it has a lot of life in it still.” That’s an understatement given the boffo ratings for Sunday’s premiere.

Question: In a recent Ask Ausiello, you said that there was a very subtle clue for “one of the biggest (literally and figuratively) twists in True Blood‘s history” in the linked trailer. Now that we’ve seen the premiere — and know the twist in question was the yearlong time jump — youhave to reveal what the clue was! Was it that Eric said “for the past year” at the beginning of the trailer? —Nancy
Ausiello: Nope. The clue was Tara declaring, “It’s been a while since I got attacked by a vampire, and guess what — it still sucks.” Had the show stuck with tradition — i.e. no time jump between seasons — it would’ve only been a few days since Tara’s deadly run-in with psycho vamp Franklin Mott.

Notice HBO is releasing the vids earlier now? I guess since fans do it before them they are stepping up their game. Poor Lala that witchie group used him for his grande forza and he goes to the dungeon again. 

XfinityTV's Q & A with Alan Ball
The first six minutes of the Season Four premiere felt like some summer action blockbuster. Why did you come up with something that big?
It was huge. We did a lot of research about all different kinds of fairies, alien abductions, relativity…..From the time we started writing to the time that episode was locked, it was about four months. What we wanted to do was just jump ahead in time, shake things up and start fresh. The second and third seasons started directly after the season prior. So we wanted to get people to a different place.

And that place is a year later….why leap to that spot in time?
We could pick up this world and shake it like a snow globe. We could make everything different and there’s no real downside. You can make Jason a cop. Andy can be full-out addicted to V. Tara is fully ensconced in her new life. Terry and Arlene are married and the baby is born.

Your fairies seemed more like guerilla fighters. Will they be back?
That’s not the last we’ve seen of them. Time for fairies is different so it takes them a while to react. Our show has 12 episodes, and for them that’s like a minute. They will react (to Sookie’s escape) eventually.

Is there any significance to the watch that Sookie passed along to Jason from their grandfather?
The watch is basically to prove to Jason that she was there with her grandfather in the land of the fairies. The watch has no powers although maybe…now that I’ve got that thought in my head….

More than once, characters refer to AIK, the company that helped Eric purchase Sookie’s house. Do the initials stand for anything?
They don’t. I wish we were smart enough to have all that sort of stuff going on but we’re busy just getting the show done.

Speaking of Andy’s addiction, will you be tracking his downfall?
He’s going to struggle with V addiction most of the season. He is an alcoholic. He is an addict. It’s going to get him into trouble. We’ll learn more about the Bellefleur family, and meet its matriarch. We’ll also get into the history of Terry and Andy when they were children. There’s a nice scene at the end of the season that goes back into their history.

Who is Katie? We first meet her at the gathering of witches, but later she’s off with Bill.
She’s working in a dangerous world. She’s not seriously a witch, but she’s there with them as a mole for Bill. She definitely does have an impact and makes things happen this season.

Speaking of Bill, he’s the Vampire King now and also a local politician. Are you getting political this season?
There are levels of bureaucracy in the vampire world that we’ll be getting into. There are creepy, Dick Cheney-like figures within the vampire authority. I’m not saying we’ll meet them this season but I am saying the vampire bureaucracy goes deeper than you know.

Is Nan Flanagan a part of that? Based on the season premiere, she seems like more than just the head of the American Vampire League.
Nan is going to be a regular this year. She’s in nine episodes and is definitely part of the major story that encompasses witchcraft versus vampires. Which is our main story this season.

There’s literally new life on “True Blood” this year, thanks to the arrival of Arlene’s baby. So, with hobbies like decapitating Barbie dolls, does this mean he should get a playdate with “Rosemary’s Baby?” 
There is something up with Arlene’s baby. Whether that’s evil itself or he’s just attracting some sort of force, I can’t give that away. But Arlene’s fears are not completely unfounded. It’s just not what she thinks.

Of all the main characters, Tara seems to have changed the most. She’s gone from being constantly abused to being the abuser as a part of some female Fight Club deal. Where did she learn to punch like that?
Tara is tough. She’s had to fight figuratively her entire life. Probably once she left Bon Temps, she took some self-defense classes. Now she’s less of a victim and more of a bad-ass. She’s reinvented herself as Toni and put Tara Thornton down. What she has now may seem like happiness to her, but it’s based on a lie. The sexuality part of her new life isn’t a lie, but the idea that she can leave her life and issues behind….she’ll find that’s easier said than done.

Things don’t seem to be going so well for young lovers Hoyt and Jessica. You’re not thinking of breaking them up, are you?
They’re really young, and each other’s first real love. They’ve moved in together and, even if they were both human, that’d be difficult. But she’s a vampire and has a hunger in the center of her, which may mean it’s not possible for her to be in this relationship. We will see an un-sweet side of Hoyt this year. There’s more to come with him. You’ll see that when he gets hurt, he can lash out.

The premiere had no sign of the creepy doll that was on the floor of their new home at the end of last season. What happened to it?
That doll appears in episode three. Be on the lookout for it. It’s not just a doll. It is, but there is an energy attached to it that is specific to the house. It was my idea. They moved in, he asked to marry her and it was all peachy keen. So I thought, “How can we mess that up?” We put the doll in that final shot of Hoyt and Jessica last season, then spent the first part of this season going, “What is that doll?” Now we have to pay that off, so it’s layered into another story. It’ll have impact on a lot of characters. The doll is a recurring character.

Eric and Bill are still fighting over Sookie like a couple of high school boys trying to get a date to the prom. A lot of fans seem to be on Eric’s side in all of this, so does he get the girl?
He gets derailed in the second episode, and goes through a kind of major story. Fans of the books (by Charlaine Harris, upon which the show is based), especially the fourth, will not be disappointed. This is vry much based on what is in the book. Eric becomes a person who feels very vulnerable. Surprisingly vulnerable. Sookie sees a side of him never seen before. And fans will get to see everything they want to see.

What about Bill? As you mentioned earlier, he’s bit of a bureaucrat now. 
He’s putting on a good face for the humans. As King, Bill is going to definitely be in charge. He’s the point person for the war between vampires and witches. He’s going to be tested by a dangerous adversary. He’s going to have to be on his toes and fight for vampires in general because he’s up pretty much up against an entity that has dreams of vampire genocide.

So Bill and Sookie? Are they through?
He can’t turn a switch and say he has no feelings for her anymore. You will get to understand more about his motivation, why he did what he did to her in the past and how ultimately he was protecting her. Bill did generally fall in love with her. Up to the point where he was going to either kill Sophie-Anne or die himself.

Speaking of the men in Sookie’s life, where is werewolf Alcide? He was nowhere to be seen in the premiere.
Sookie finds herself in situation soon where she needs help and she turns to him. You’ll see that his life is also very complicated.

Even though you said nobody is allowed to be happy for too long on this show, Sam seems to be doing all right. He throws the best dinner parties, where people can turn into horses and run through the woods after dessert.
It’s a great season for him. He gets to do some great stuff. It’s not all torment for him. He’s fallen in love. He has found himself in situation where he meets a fellow shifter and she’s really gorgeous and smart and there’s a lot of attraction. But obviously there are going to be complications.

Of all the characters, Jason seems like the least likely to be able to take care of himself, let alone others. Yet with Crystal gone, he now seems to be the caretaker of the Hot Shot kids. Is that really the best job for him?
Jason made a promise he’d take care of them and underneath all his stupidity and immaturity, he’s a man of honor. He’s grown to believe if he doesn’t do this, this tribe of freaks is going to suffer and may not survive. He’s trying to do the right thing, and that’s going to take him to a surprising place. It’s a place where he may finally meet his real match. None of the women in his life so far really challenged him to be something more than what he’s comfortable being.

You’ve mentioned that the big story for this year is the ultimate grudge match, Vampires Vs. Witches. In the premiere, we did get to meet the mystical Marnie. Is she a part of the battle?
There is one other witch who will figure prominently. And who may not be from this century. Marnie is our big villain, the Russell Edgington of this season. She seems sweet, but wait!

Fairy Talking on a Tuesday

The big Ball man talks Fae.



HBO's Inside True Blood Blog
A Land Called Faerie

by Jon Massey (Visual Effects Supervisor)

From a visual effects stand point, Faerie was one of the biggest sequences that we have done on the show. The concept of what it was and where it was went through many stages with Alan and the writers and producers. At every turn, new problems and solutions arose. This creative jigsaw puzzle finally became what you see on the screen now: a single beautiful ballroom in a strange land reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish, with a tree of fruit glowing in its branches, which then turns into a desert landscape, it’s true form, revealed by Sookie’s powers.

The Production Designer, the amazing Suzuki Ingerslev, built this single ballroom on a blue screen stage, so that we could add in the landscape behind them.  The landscape was described as Parrish meets the Sierras, without the snow. Zoic Studios matte painter Jeremy Melton, who had studied Parrish’s work in college, created a fantastic landscape that we could use in a two hundred and eighty degree view. This was then composited in over a hundred and forty visual effect shots.

Once we entered into the desert landscape, which we called Goblinland, several other visual effect elements emerged. The energized fireballs the faeries toss down on each other are a real element of fire, composited into the live action shots. The actors had to visualize tossing these fireballs without any physical object to hold. Though sometimes in visual effects, we like to give the actors something tangible, i.e. a green screen ball, in this case tossing anything at each other would have been more problematic than nothing at all (not to mention also dangerous). When they land, we tied in energized tendrils into the intense explosions created by the special effects team, led by Michael Gaspar.

The last stop in this land called Faerie is the Chasm, the portal through which Sookie and her grandfather re-enter the world. This giant hole in the ground created additional difficulties for us, as it had to be created as a matte painting, composited into the live action footage and then animated as if it was closing up. How it closed was a dilemma, as visually, it needed to be tied into something that you could relate to in the real world. One of Zoic’s lead compositors, Tim Eilers, created a CG particle layer based on the visual reference of magma and lava, as if the earth was really pushing itself closed. Anna Paquin and Gary Cole merely had to jump off a small platform with a green screen below it, into pads, to simulate jumping into the chasm. But now I’m giving away too much, better to leave some things in the imagination...

Due to my lack of spoilers, I will search after some coffee, I am posting some Eric scenes from Lilja @
http://www.alexskarsgard.net/



Ok, how much did you miss Buzz and Andy's Vlogs? They are back and I'm loving it, my baaaybeez are home!



I just can't with this TV Holly and the actress that plays her, this scene cements those feelings. I hope she meets her end this season, oh please TV gods hear my plea.



Ken Tucker get's overly serious with this show, he thinks sex always leads to a bad place for TB's characters. Doesn't he realize EVERYTHING leads to trouble on True Blood? That's life in Bon Temps, one thing after another for our fearless heroine and her scooby gang, sex is just the break they get between dilemmas. Read the proof of his theory at EW 

I guess Jethro Nededog is now with THR fulltime or at least for TB articles, he's a fun read-


10 Things Sookie Missed While Fraternizing with Fairies

1. Jason was fitted with the tightest police uniform possible. While Sookie was away, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) became a full-fledged deputy. He had also sold her home after doing everything he could to find her. Not surprisingly (since we always thought there was a caring person underneath the vanity), he has started taking care of Crystal’s (Lindsay Pulsipher) fellow werepanthers from Hotshot. Despite his kindness, though, he finds himself locked up in a freezer. For what? We’re not sure yet.

2. Bill has discovered a whole new range of emotions. We have to say that Sookie’s absence has been good to Bill or is it power? Somehow, he’s now the vampire king of Louisiana. Gone is the sulking, serious Bill we have known for three seasons. In his place, we have a Bill who smiles, laughs, and generally uses a whole range of emotions we didn’t think possible for him. Who knew?

3. Eric works the man-cleavage (and buys Sookie’s house). Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) wears a deep v-neck like no other vampire we know. While Sookie was away, he contends that he’s the only one who never gave up hope of her returning. It’s a winning argument with Bill canoodling with the interns and Jason having sold Sookie’s home. Of course, Eric knows how to strategize. Didn’t he bide his time plotting Russell Edgington’s (Denis O'Hare) downfall for more than 1,000 years? Sookie’s one-year absence is nothing. We soon learn that his plan to buy her house was tied closely to his plan to make Sookie his property, as well.

4. Lafayette has a gnarly mohawk (and starts hanging with witches). Now that they’ve been together for a year, Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) thinks it’s time Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) explores his magical side. Enter Marnie (Harry Potter’s Fiona Shaw) whose creepy facial expressions, “I give up” wardrobe, and mental instability qualifies her to lead the town’s witch coven. With Lafayette’s magical mojo, Marnie and the group revive a dead bird for a few seconds, which apparently is about as far as Bill will let them get.

5. Tara found a use for her muscles. All this time Tara (Rutina Wesley) has been wasting those guns wiping away tears. Season 4’s Tara has found a better use for her muscles. She has started a new life in which she’s a cage fighter and has a new name, a new history, and a new hot… girlfriend!

6. Jessica and Hoyt argue like an old married couple. And isn’t it sweet? Really, it is. The only problem is Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) is a hot, young vampire with needs. And if Hoyt (Jim Parrack) doesn’t fulfill them at home, that ginger may just make a visit to Fangtasia without him.

7. Vampire-Human relations blow. After Russell’s evening news killing, the American Vampire League has found their mainstreaming efforts are in trouble. So, Nan (Jessica Tuck) has dispatched Bill and Eric to do some damage control. They both handle it with ease, but apparently not much has changed with Pam (Kristin Bauer). Thankfully for us, she still doesn’t play well with others.

8. The Bellfleurs are taking the town by storm. It seems that Andy (Chris Bauer) is barely holding himself together as he has become heavily addicted to V. Jason takes care of him, but, we’re sure he’s possibly keeping Andy’s secret to keep himself in the uniform, as well. Meanwhile, Andy’s sister, Portia (Courtney Ford), is a powerful attorney and the head of the Chamber of Commerce. Did we mention she seems chummy with Bill?

9. A shapeshifter support group has formed. Sam (Sam Trammell) has discovered a whole group of other shapeshifters. They talk, they relate, they turn into horses and run willy-nilly through the forest. The only problem is there’s one shapeshifter who’s apparently not invited. Sam is still on the outs with his brother Tommy (Marshall Allman) after taking a gun shot at him last season. Strangely enough, Hoyt’s mother has taken Tommy in. We’ll see how much longer that lasts.

10. Arlene’s baby is a cute little demon. Terry (Todd Lowe) is raising Arlene’s (Carrie Preston) baby with her, but she can’t seem to get over that his real daddy was a serial killer. And while the baby is the apple of Terry’s eye, we have a feeling Arlene may be right. A mother always knows.

More Post True Blood Ditties.

The Rest of The Season?





Whew LucyLocket wins the fan of the day award from me (I know others must feel the same, somewhere) how cool is this promo for E3? Thank you LL!


Barb of Skarsgardfans has a cure for your True Blood fangovers, read and see her photos at the site, here's just a bit. She put a lot of work into it, you'll enjoy it.

Yes finally Eric Northman fans were able to see a gift for Sookie from Eric. When Sookie arrives at her newly renovated home she sees a few new items. Of course Sookie is not amused. Notice the note on the door “Out with the old” . Perhaps a bit of foreshadowing in that little note? (most definitely).

Now why would Eric be giving Sookie a microwave? Hmmm let me think well perhaps to heat up a bit of blood for him? Too bad Sookie finds Eric’s carafe in her fridge and dumps it out.

The look on Sookie’s face is priceless when she discovers that Eric has built himself a hidey hole. And what a decent sized hidey hole it appears to be! We even get to see some of Eric in that hidey hole in episode 4.03 (from the snippet of trailer shown last night)

She also has some great screencaps from both episodes HERE and HERE, very very enlightening!

Here's the points of the ep in a listicle, first time reading Fancrash, looks good to me.

True Blood Monday Fangover.

1. Jason grew a goatee, complete with soul patch. Oh, and by the end of the episode, he’s just a dick in a box.

2. Andy needs a serious 12-step program to get over his V-addiction.

4. Pam is SO not cut out to be a spokesperson of the AVL.  And that’s why we love her. 8. Anger management, Sam-style, consists of a boozey dinner party, followed by everyone taking their clothes off.
9. We know that Eric owns a lot of property in and around the Greater Shreveport area. Including Sookie’s house.  For those of you who were paying attention (or are seriously Skars-obsessed) A.I.K. stands for Allmänna Idrottsklubben, literally “The Public Sports Club.”  It refers to a Swedish Football Club based at Rasunda Stadium in Solna based in Stockholm County.
10. Lafayette’s hair. ‘Nuff said.
11. The return of Eddie and holy Minerva!


I found this GIF site this year while looking for Game of Thrones info, now they are doing episode GIFs for TB!!!!
Screenjunkies is for all of us TB Junkies.

3. To get over Franklin and the crazy vampire shit, Tara has been holed up in NOLA, living as Toni from Atlanta. Toni likes the underground girlfighting circuit, dinners by candlelight and long walks on the beach.

5. Human food is dead. Oh, and Jessica is HUNGRY. . .for something other than Hoyt.

6. Tommy Mickens now has the mother he never asked for, or ever hoped to have.  How’re those tuna noodle casseroles treatin’ you?

7. When Bill says, “Jump,” Eric is now obliged to say “How high.”

Post True Blood Premiere Monday

I am tardy for the party like never before. Real Life has some nerve interrupting my True Blood Life, I will post more later but some promos are demanding to be seen.

IN THE WEEKS AHEAD
 

Eric and Sookie negotiating in E2, longer version.


EP 2 On Go


E2 Preview


E1 Recap


Inside The Episode


Ball's Intro to the season


Jess is having more problems, poor kid.

True Blood Afterglow

EW Posted as soon as the premiere was over

True Blood' cast member opens up about gay twist

Image Credit: John P. Johnson/HBO

The fourth season premiere of True Blood was full of surprises, and among the jaw-dropping twists was the revelation that Tara (Rutina Wesley), who spent a good part of last season mourning the death of once-boyfriend Eggs and engaged in a destructive relationship with Franklin, now has a girlfriend (newbie Vedette Lim). But Wesley tells EW exclusively that Tara’s new direction is as exciting as it was surprising.

“When I first got the script, I thought it was great. They’ve always given me stuff that challenged me as an actor and that was fun,” she says. “I think Tara — if she is going to have a love interest this season — she’s finally ready for it. She’s had time to find herself and think a little bit. I think she’s finally going to love herself in a way that is beautiful. Her self-esteem is back up and that’s opened her up to love someone else. I think she also needed a new lease on life. She totally comes back more zen, and she’s a feisty season one Tara who we all loved.”

And as shocking as the twist was for audiences, Wesley says she think it was even more so for Tara. “I don’t think she was expecting it. I think it just happened. I think it was one of those things where you just fall in love with who you fall in love with. I don’t think she labels herself as one thing or the next. She just started hanging out and the next thing you know, she was in love.”“I don’t think she was in love with Eggs. Every time she was with him she was either stoned or under a spell. I don’t think that was real. I think it’s going to take her some time to realize that, but I think what she has now is a little more significant.”

From the Wall St Journal

Not two minutes after arriving in a whimsical fairy land inhabited by glowing fruit and scantily-clad residents, Sookie Stackhouse, tells her fairy godmother she sucks. She has a point. Poor Sookie could have used some looking after in her hard knocks life back in Bon Temps.

The glowing land, which looks more like an orgy in San Fernando Valley than an angelic Neverland (this is “True Blood” after all), picks up right where the third season left off with a distraught Sookie discovering she’s a fairy and being carried away. The ever-friendly Sookie quickly runs into old friends in this colorful campy land. Look it’s Barry the bellboy from the Hotel Carmilla! (Also known as the Dallas hotel on whose rooftop the 2,000-year-old Godric burst into flames.) In classic “True Blood” fashion Barry is accompanied by a fairy godfather named Lloyd whose sole purpose appears to be showing off his perfectly chiseled abs (no complaints here).

Look who’s picking a juicy light fruit: Granddaddy Earl, a dashing Southerner in a flannel shirt who doesn’t look very granddaddy-ish. That’s because time stands still in fairy land. He thinks it’s still 20 years ago when Sookie was a wide-eyed, mind-reading chip off the old block.

 Sookie senses that something’s not right in paradise and refuses to eat the glowing lumier fruit, which admittedly looks pretty darn tasty. I’d probably trade my sanity for a bite, too. An evil fairy queen warns Sookie that she put the entire fairy race in peril by giving so much of her blood to vampires. Before you can say CGI, a couple scary goblins appear and the fairy world transforms into a veritable no-man’s land. No, you didn’t accidentally change the channel to “The Walking Dead,” apparently fairies look more like zombies when you make them mad.

A couple friendly pointy-eared fairies tell Sookie to dive into a time portal. As soon as she and Gramps Earl jump off a cliff into the portal, they’re spit out in the Bon Temps cemetery best known as the scene of one of the dirtiest (literally) sex scenes on TV from season one (you know what I’m talking about). Vampires Bill and Eric immediately open their eyes upon the return of the tasty Sookie looking unfrazzled in her floral sundress. But granddaddy isn’t fairing as well. He ate the fruit and is therefore not suited for human existence anymore. He blows away in a puff of smoke leaving behind an old heirloom watch for Jason who is now a policeman.

Sookie finds that her childhood home has been transformed. Turns out Jason sold it to a “real estate company with a bunch of initials.” He didn’t think Sookie would ever come home since 15 minutes in fairy land translated to almost 13 months in Louisiana. Everyone thought Sookie was dead, except the ever-faithful Eric (more on him later). Jason who apparently gained some brain cells in the year Sookie had been away tells her not to tell people she time traveled to a land full of ferries. They make up some story about top-secret vampire business.

Vampire Bill sporting a handsome new haircut and a navy v-neck sweater comes racing to the porch right at dusk. He tells Sookie he felt empty without her. Yeah, yeah, Bill we’ve heard it before. Sookie says it feels like just an hour ago that he broke her heart into a million pieces. Cue Eric who says he never gave up on Sookie. Bill shuns him away and Eric obeys, the first sign that the power structure in vampire land has shifted. Remember Bill used to obey Eric, not the other way around.

Lafayette has a sporty new denim vest and a faux hawk and is still dating Jesus who is more brujo than boyfriend dragging a reluctant Lafayette to a coven in the back of a store called the Moon Goddess Emporium, not my idea of a good date. It’s the kind of new age store that looks more Berkeley than Bon Temps but we’ll let that slide. Eddie, the closeted vampire that Jason and evil Amy sucked dry and murdered in the first season, inhabits the coven leader’s body and confronts Lafayette who thinks the whole thing is a set up. Poor Eddie. Even in the afterlife no one really cares about you.

Moron Andy Bellefleur, who is now hooked on vampire blood, rolls up annoyed at Sookie for causing him to miss out on a crime-fighting award. Shut up, Andy.

Arlene looking as cheap as ever is concerned when her baby Mikey rips the heads off Barbie dolls. In one of the best lines of the episode she says “Decapitating Barbie dolls? What the hell kinda baby does that?” Excellent question, Arlene. Terry, the slow witted Iraq war vet, tells his wife to rest assured. He used to put squirrel heads on lizard’s bodies “to make new animals.” And he turned out all right, right? Um….

Tara finally makes an appearance, except she’s not Tara anymore. She’s a cage-fighting lesbian in New Orleans named Tory. Life doesn’t look so bad. And at least she can finally put her angst and bulging biceps to use and her girlfriend seems more supportive and stable than any of her boyfriends were. (Please don’t turn into a chupacabra and prove me wrong, honey.)

Jessica and Hoyt are having trouble on the home front. How can she cook dinner for him when the grocery store is like a morgue for vampires? (I wonder if I could use that excuse with my husband…) They make up and go dancing at Fangtasia where a fang-banger with a pulsing neck vein makes Jessica question her whole existence. Are vampires wired to be monogamous? (And no, Jessica, you should not be getting relationship advice from Pam.)

In a post-Russell Edgington world (or is it?) vampires are back to making public service announcements to convince humans that they’re tax-paying citizens just like anyone else. “Who would you rather trust, a vampire or a politician?” Eric asks earnestly into the camera. Valid point. (He’s talking to you, Rep. Weiner). Bill is speaking at a ribbon-cutting and gives a sultry lawyer Portia Bellefleur a loving look. (It’s unclear how the Bellefleur family could’ve produced Portia and Andy, but something supernatural must have been involved).

Sookie feels right at home when she gets back to Merlotte’s but Sam isn’t thrilled she abandoned her pressing duties as town waitress. (Give it a rest, Sam, you are so needy.) He throws her some part-time work but tells her a lot has changed…even though it looks as if absolutely nothing has changed, except for the fact that Sam’s white-trash brother Tommy is now rolling with Hoyt’s mom of all people. They order some sweet tea and look both pervy and pathetic together. Future storylines no doubt abound.

Portia gives Sookie some advice about how to get the family house back which was purchased by someone with a shadowy past and an offshore bank account. But when Sookie reads Portia’s mind she gets the feeling Portia has got the hots for Vampire Bill. To make matters worse she orders a cappuccino at Merlotte’s which prompts Sookie to shoot her a classic oh-no-you-didn’t look.

Not minutes after Sam sits down for a civilized dinner with some like-minded shape shifters, do they strip down and turn into a herd of stallions. It’s s step up for Sam who used to shift into a pathetic little dog. Meanwhile, Jason pulls up at the meth din where Crystal (a.k.a. the black panther, and I don’t mean the 1960s radical kind) and her scary family live but Crystal is missing. A born-again do-gooder Jason comes bearing ice cream and raw meat for the skeevy little kids who proceed to lock him in the ice box. Yes, that’s the thanks you get Jason because you make it too darn easy.

On another date from hell Lafayette lets Jesus take him to a séance. As soon as Lafayette joins hands with the group a dead bird flies off the table placed at the center of the circle then promptly nose dives right by Lafayette. I don’t know much about black magic, but I’d say this is bad sign. (Jesus needs to go back “Southland” and play Nate and Lafayette needs a normal boyfriend and less guy-liner.)

Katie, one of the women from the séance, goes to visit the vampire king where none other than Bill Compten holds court behind a desk in a black leather chair in a mansion surrounded by guards. Definitely a step up from his family’s dilapidated Civil War era estate but nothing nearly as elaborate as Russell’s gaudy digs in season two. It looks more “Architectural Digest” circa 1987 than Southern Gothic.

Back in her frilly pink bedroom, which somehow she can still sleep in despite all the murder and general creepiness that has gone on in that house, Sookie disrobes—because it wouldn’t be an episode of “True Blood” without seeing Anna Paquin naked. Just then Eric arrives dangling a fresh set of keys in his hand. Sookie snaps that she didn’t invite him in and to get the hell out. (Quit your whining Sookie. Do you know how many viewers of both sexes wish Alexsander Skarsgard would drop into their bedroom? A lot.)

Sorry Sookie, but you’re looking at your new landlord. Yep, taking advantage of vampire law and low interest rates (Louisiana does have a high foreclosure rate), Eric bought the Stackhouse family home. “Sookie, you are mine,” he says as he flashes those sexy fangs. And just like that, ladies and gentleman, we are sucked back into another deliciously cheesy season.

My hometown paper has a damn good recap, from the Star Ledger,  I'm skipping the fae crap.Again 
Blogger is mixing up the fonts on me, the preview is looking like mierde, sorry. I don't know how to fix it.
Post fairyland-
They land in the Bon Temps cemetery -- we flash to Eric and Bill registering her return in their hidey-holes -- and it's clear immediately that Earl is in a bad way, sort of flashing on and off and looking 30 years older, sunken-eyed and gray. She helps him over to her grandmother's grave, and he gives her his pocket watch to give to Jason, then turns to dust. Sookie cries, but in a refreshing change of pace, does not scream.
She walks home, and sees that workers have done some sprucing up at her house. In fact, someone is still working on the outside, and tries to stop Sookie when she walks inside. He tells her he's going to call the cops. Soon we see Jason, now sporting a little goatee and wearing a Renard Parish deputy uniform, enter the house. He's shocked to see her. She's surprised to see him in uniform. He explains that they thought she was dead and tells her she's been gone for more than a year. She's less concerned about this than the fact that Jason sold her house in her absence. She says it felt like she was gone for 10 or 15 minutes, that time works differently in the fairy world. Jason doesn't really believe her, and warns that no one else will, but when she gives him their grandfather's watch he seems to come around. It's 6:35 p.m., so Sookie knows what that means. Bill speed-vamps over, immediately begging her forgiveness for thinking her gone. Eric then coolly saunters up, saying he never believed she was dead. Bill turns on Eric, masterfully ordering him back to Fangtasia -- there's a switch -- and Eric accedes a little grumpily. "Apparently I have to go, but understand this: Everyone who claims to love you -- your friends, your brother, even Bill Compton -- they all gave up on you. I never did."
Sheriff Andy Bellefleur shows up -- oh, William Sanderson, I miss ye -- and is pissed. Bill explains that they thought he killed her all this time, but no one could prove it. Andy tells Sookie to show up at the station tomorrow and he'll take her statement; maybe they'll find the person who kidnapped her. When Sookie explains that no one kidnapped her, Andy goes ballistic. Bill steps in, explaining that Sookie had been working for him on some top-secret vamp business and apologizes for misleading him for a year. "You owe me a Safe Streets plaque," Andy grumps and turns to leave. Back in the patrol car, Jason accuses Andy of using again. It becomes clear that Andy has become a V addict.

Sookie tells Bill that she feels like she's been gone only an hour or so, so it feels like he just broke her heart. (Because Eric told her that Bill came to Bon Temps to "procure" her for Sophie-Anne, giving him an ulterior motive for their romance.) He's just happy she's okay and wishes her goodnight.

Jesus has dragged Lafayette (sporting a fierce mohawk) to the Moon Goddess Emporium for a Wiccan group meeting. Lafayette's appears tired of Jesus trying to interest him in his supernatural experimentation. "Five minutes," Lafayette says. "Ten if they got dranks." One woman in glasses -- I didn't catch her name -- welcomes them, and Holly, the blond waitress from Merlotte's, brings them into the circle, where Marnie, the head Wiccan, is muttering to herself. Suddenly she looks over at Lafayette and motions him. She appears to be hocking up a hairball or in the middle of a particularly troublesome bowel movement, but in reality, she's communing with the spirit of Lafayette's dead trick Eddie, the one who traded sex for V. Suddenly Eddie takes over -- in a thick, nearly indecipherable accent, she/he tells Lafayette that he was worth it, and when he mentions the merlot Lafayette used to drink, Lafayette gets freaked out and backs away. Marnie comes out of her trance and appears in real life to be an apologetic, timid sort. Looks can be deceiving. Lafayette accuses Jesus of telling Marnie about Eddie to lure him in to the group, and storms out.
While we're at it, let's catch up with our pals from Bon Temps:
Arlene comes home and sees her baby (from now-dead serial killer boyfriend Rene) on the floor surrounded by decapitated Barbies. She calls for Terry and freaks out. "What the hell kind of baby does that???" Terry tries to reassure her -- "When I was a kid, I used to put a squirrel head on a lizard body and invent animals" -- but Arlene is not buying it. She's convinced the baby is evil. She picks him and looks him in the eye: "Mommy loves you very, very much but you have to understand, killing is wrong."
Suddenly we're on Bourbon Street, and we pan down a side street to a ... cage-fighting match? It's Tara, beating the heck out of a brunette beauty and having a blast doing so. Later, we see the brunette catch up with Tara outside; turns out they're an item. A drunk passer-by propositions them, but Tara, showing a newly calm side, tells the guy she's just sad for him, and plucks the $10 out of his hands. "That's for me not reporting you for solicitation." She and her girlfriend -- who calls her Tara -- walk off.

Hoyt comes home to Jessica, and he's in a bad mood, which worsens when he sees that there's no food in the fridge and no dinner on the table. He wants to know if maybe she could scramble an egg for him every once in a while. She says that food is disgusting to her, that going to the Piggly Wiggly is like going to the morgue for Hoyt. "You think bleeding out into your mouth wasn't gross for me at first?" Hoyt tells her. "You get used to it!" Jessica starts throwing eggs in a pan, shells and all, then pours the mess onto a plate. Hoyt starts eating it, crowing about how delicious it is. Jessica starts to see the humor in the situation and laughs, telling him he'll get sick if he keeps eating it. He starts to laugh too.

At Fangtasia, Pam, proper in a Chanel suit, is filming a PSA about how vampires aren't really that evil, but is utterly unconvincing. Nan Flanagan, the face of the American Vampire League, expositions that in this post-Russell Edgington world, they have to win back the human public, one smile at a time. Eric turns up, takes over for Pam, and turns up the charm. "I'm a taxpaying American and small business owner in the great state of Louisiana. I also happen to be a vampire ... We were humans. We ask to be treated as such. We welcome you into our wrold as well. We're always more than happy to serve humans here at Fangtasia. And I don't mean for dinner." Eric's PSA is intercut with Bill cutting the ribbon on the new senior citizen center named for his Confederate-era wife. We get a glimpse of Portia Bellefleur, Andy's sister, and kind of technically Bill's descendant, right? Keep that in mind.

Sookie returns to Merlotte's, where she gets big hugs from Arlene and Terry, a nice welcome from Lafayette and a prickly one from Sam, who tells her she can return part-time, because Arlene and Holly have kids and need the shifts. Back in the kitchen, Jesus shows up. Lafayette is still angry about the Wiccan meeting and thinks Jesus set him up, but Jesus tells him that Lafayette is trying to run away from what makes him special. Andy shows up and orders Jesus out, then hits up Lafayette for some V. He starts roughing him up when Lafayette tells him he's no longer in the business, but Jason shows up and defuses Andy, then tells Lafayette that this never happened.

Maxine Fortenberry shows up at Merlotte's with Tommy, who's sporting a leg brace. Guess Sam did shoot him at the end of last season. Tommy seems to have turned over a new leaf. He's clean-cut, and leads a prayer before the meal. Sam all but rolls his eyes and asks Tommy how the physical therapy he's paying for is working out. Tommy says he may need a couple of more months, and wants to know how Sam's anger management is coming along. Sam says he might need some more therapy as well.Sam's anger management turns out to be a support group of fellow shapeshifters ... and plenty of alcohol. There's a guy, Emory, and a couple of attractive girls, one of whom is named Luna. After sharing some stories, they're ready to move on from wine ... into horses. They go cantering off into the night.
Tara and her girlfriend are in bed when Tara gets a text from Lafayette telling her Sookie is back. Tara lies and says it's from her father, who informed her that her grandmother died. The girlfriend is suitably concerned and asks "Toni" if she needs to go home. Tara says she'll probably just send flowers.

Sookie is meeting with a rather uppity Portia about getting her house back from the mystery concern who bought it. Portia says she'll try to chase down the owners, but they've put a good $50,000 into it and will want to be repaid. Sookie says the house has a lifetime of memories in it -- and here Sookie listens in to Portia, who's thinking, yeah, a lifetime of misery, of murder, and of banging Bill Compton, who hardly mentions Sookie at all. Hmm, are Portia and Bill an item? Sookie looks distressed.

At Fangtasia, Jessica is dancing while Hoyt gets a drink. A cute guy spots her and hits on her, but she says she's here with her boyfriend. He goes off, disappointed, but she gives him the eye while dancing with Hoyt. Pam looks on knowingly. When Jessica escapes to the bathroom, Pam confronts her in her signature snarky way. "We've been worried sick about you," she tells Jessica. As Jessica responds eaglery, "Really?" Pam simultaneously says "Not a bit." Ha. Jessica tells her she and Hoyt are having a date night. "The way you're eye-(bleeping) fangbangers from across the room is especially romantic," Pam drawls. What is Jessica doing, tying herself down to Hoyt? She's a hunter! Pam starts laughing because Jessica so ridiculous. But Jessica says that regardless of what Pam thinks she saw, she loves Hoyt and she'll be going home with him.

Sigh. Back in Hot Shot. My lease favorite subplot. Jason pulls into town, his car loaded up with food. Apparently Felton and Crystal's departure made him the provider around here. One of the kids tells Jason that they're having trouble with the ice box. Jason, who looks like he's had it up to here with these folks, checks it out. While he's poking around inside it, someone -- not the kid -- pushes him in and locks the ice box.

Back at the coven, Marnie tells the group she wants to help guide her dead bird Minerva into the spirit world. Lafayette's sitting off to the side. She starts the ritual, talking about guiding Minerva to her new realm, but then switches course, asking to restore Minerva's spirit to life. Uhhh, Marnie?, the rest of the coven asks. "You!" she orders Lafayette. "Join!" He reluctantly comes in, and the second he completes the circle, a jolt of psychic electricity passes through the group. Marnie continues the ritual, chanting Latin or somesort, and then the the bird takes flight. Everyone is startled, and when Lafayette drops the hands on either side of him, the bird falls to the ground, dead. Lafayette apologizes, but Marnie appears pleased with the effort.

The bespectacled woman from the Wiccan group, apparently a vampire spy, reports to Bill, who has given his crumbling mansion a sleek makeover. She kneels before him. Bill is now the King of Louisiana. Interesting. Guess Sophie-Anne lost.

Back at her house, Sookie is getting changed. She tosses her shirt over her shoulder, and it doesn't hit the floor. She turns around, and Eric is clutching her shirt. She covers herself up. "Mmmmm. Such a strange sensation when the reality matches what you're pictured in your mind so precisely," Eric says. Sookie tells him she's rescinded his invitation, but Eric tells her now he owns the house, holding up her key. "I always knew you were alive," he tells her. "If I owned the house, well, then I would own you. Sookie, you are mine." He flashes his fangs. And Sookie, again to her credit, does not scream.