Episode Title: "I Smell a Rat"
Writers: Kate Barnow & Elisabeth R. Finch
Director: Michael Lehmann
Previously on "True Blood":
After being attacked by Russell Edgington (Denis O'Hare) and his werewolves, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) reconciled with Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and they made mad, passionate love. Later, Sookie's blood sent Bill into the dream-like world that Sookie had slipped into during her coma. While there, he met Claudine (Lara Pulver), whom he was able to convince to tell him the truth about Sookie's ancestry, information which he soon took to Sookie herself. Meanwhile, Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) continued his pursuit of the mysterious Crystal (Lindsay Pulsipher). When Crystal's father, Calvin caught them together at Merlotte's, he provoked Sam (Sam Trammell), who nearly beat him to death.
While Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), Jesus and Crystal rushed to take Calvin to the hospital, Jason came across Tara (Rutina Wesley) who was about to be killed by the vampire, Franklin Mott (James Frain). Jason shot Franklin with a wooden bullet, killing him instantly. Meanwhile, Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) sought sanctuary for killing Russell's husband, but was confronted by the American Vampire League's Nan Flanagan (Jessica Tuck). Out of other options, Eric revealed that Russell was trying to overthrow the AVL, in addition to his murder of the Magister. Eric also admitted that he had been searching for Russell for nearly 1,000 years in order to avenge his family.
Unhappy with the revelations, Nan ordered Eric to kill and dispose of Russell or face his own death. While Nan rode to the airport in her limo, she watched as a local newscaster was murdered onscreen by Russell, who then essentially declared war on humanity by threatening to eat the viewers and their children.
Story:
Following Bill's revelation that she is part faerie, Sookie expresses her disappointment over her ancestry and questions whether his love for her stems from the fact that her blood is intoxicating to him. As Crystal's father Calvin lies dying in his backseat of his car, Lafayette stops to give the man "V" which heals his wounds and allows him to survive. Disgusted that they fed him "vamper juice," Calvin storms off. Crystal briefly tries to reconcile with him until he tries to force her to marry Felton again. When she runs off, he disowns her.
Filled with regret for what he did to Calvin, Sam drinks himself into a stupor and remembers being double-crossed by his lover and her boyfriend in the past. In revenge, Sam killed both of them in cold blood. Over at Fangtasia, Eric prepares for the end of his life by signing a new will that leaves Pam everything he owns. On TV, Nan Flanagan tries to spin some damage control over Russell's actions, while a televangelist gloats over the bad press for the vampires. In the aftermath of killing Franklin, Jason freaks out. Tara helps him hide the remains and they regroup at Jason's house, where they find Sookie and Jason waiting.
Tara opens up to Sookie about what Franklin did to her while Bill extracts a promise from Jason that he will protect Sookie. Eric stops by briefly to speak with Bill. Although Bill and Sookie no longer trust him, Eric wishes Sookie well before departing and indicates that he doesn't expect to live much longer. In a dream that night, Sookie sees a vision of Eric warning her not to trust Bill.
The next morning, Jason confesses to Sookie that he killed Tara's ex-boyfriend Eggs. As he tries to explain it to Tara, she kisses him passionately as her way of thanking him for protecting her from Franklin. Breaking away from her, Jason tells her the truth. Dumbstruck, she runs out of the house; leaving Jason alone to realize that Sookie has run out too. Sookie goes to see Eric, who takes the opportunity to kiss her and start to say his goodbyes. Pam lures him out of his office and beseeches him to hand Sookie over to Russell in exchange for his life. He refuses, but she tells him to at least think of a way to use Sookie to survive.
At Merlotte's, the employees are all scared stiff of Sam, who tells them that Calvin survived. Hoyt shows up later and declares his love for Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). She hesitates to respond, which sends him back outside. Tommy (Marshall Allman) briefly taunts him but is punched out for his trouble. In response, Tommy transforms into a pit bull and mauls Hoyt's arm. Hoyt's screams draw Jessica out, who kicks Tommy into the forest and offers Hoyt her blood to heal him while declaring her love for him.
Meanwhile, Russell picks up a male prostitute who resembles Talbot and promises to avenge his lost love, before killing the very scared and confused young man. Back at Jason's place, Bill confronts him for letting Sookie get away from him, leading Jason to angrily revoke Bill's invitation. Jason then discovers a panther in his bedroom and watches it change back into Crystal. Eric finally gets back to Sookie who yells at him that she's not a prisoner. He tells her that's exactly what she is and proceeds to lock her up in his dungeon.
Breakdown:
If there's one thing we've come to expect from Eric this year, it's that he will almost always act solely in his own self interest.
Every time it seems like Eric's about to take a more heroic turn, he ends up doing something really, really bad. And for most of this episode, it actually seemed like Eric cared about Sookie and he even seemed courageous when he refused to consider turning her over to Russell. Although he seems to have changed his mind about that at the end, or at the very least, he's using Sookie to bait a trap for Russell. Neither of which will endear him to her.
I think that Eric and Sookie actually make a more interesting pair than Sookie and Bill. Paquin and Skarsgard had great chemistry in their scenes together and I'd like to see more of that.
I was a little surprised that there wasn't more fallout in Bon Temps over Russell's declaration of war. The newscasters in the episode mentioned that vampire hate crimes were spiking, but the only local indication of that was the burning cross on Bill's lawn. Although the gloating televangelist on TV was pretty funny. Arlene's brief moment of moral superiority over Jessica was only slightly amusing, as I kind of despise Arlene's character.
As always, Jason's screentime largely centered on his stupidity. In this case, he immediately felt guilt and fear over shooting Franklin, which was probably carried over from the guilt he felt for killing Eggs. But this is the first time in a couple of weeks that his guilt has come up at all. When Jason is trying to be a cop or chasing Crystal, he doesn't seem to feel any emotional responses except gratification. He really is nothing but dumb instinct.
However, he really takes the "dumbest man alive" prize for confessing to both Sookie and Tara about killing Eggs. Sure, Jason's remorseful; but there's no way this ends well for him.
As for Sam, his flashback was fairly illuminating. Maybe we've been wrong about him. Maybe Sam really is a bad guy at heart. But it was pretty hilarious to watch him put his brother back in his place and even funnier to see Jessica kicking the Tommy-dog into the forest for the field goal. I get that the pit bull is one of Tommy's favorite forms, but can't he change into anything bigger? If he was a bear or anything really formidable, he could have done a lot more damage to Hoyt. It seems like a lack of imagination on either his part or the writers'.
The pacing for this episode also felt like it was all over the place. The scene with Jesus and Lafayette's "V" trip in particular seemed to go on and on past the point of welcome. This felt more like half of an episode rather than a complete story unto itself.
All in all, this episode felt more like a placeholder for the last two shows of the season. There wasn't a lot of consequence other than Sookie's capture by Eric and Jason's admission about killing Eggs. Last week's episode had such a great ending that I was able to overlook it's flaws. This episode wasn't particularly bad, it just didn't have what it takes to stand out from the rest of this season's episodes.
Hopefully, "True Blood" will regain its momentum next week.
Crave Online Rating: 7 out of 10.
