Good ones and bad.
Synopsis so far: Bill has been kidnapped by werewolves and taken to the neighboring territory of Mississippi, headed (vampire-wise) by King Russel Edgington. He wanted Bill so he could stage a takeover of Louisiana. It appears that Bill is on a special mission for Queen Sophie Anne and he wants to know what it is, so he has him taken in the middle of his proposal dinner to Sookie. Bad timing! Russell apparently has werewolves that work for him and do his bidding in exchange for sips of his extra old and vintagey vampire blood. He only chooses the most redneck werewolves, though, so at least we know he has a screening process.
Since Bill is all kinds of missing, Sookie tries to track him down, figuring out through Jessica (who still rules) that he was taken by werewolves hopped up on V. This leads to her getting Eric involved and eventually going to Jackson, Mississippi with Eric's business associate Alcide, a werewolf who promises to protect her and give her some werewolf contacts.
Shit hits the fan, though, because when Bill is taken to Russell's mansion, he finds Lorena there, all up in this scenario. Russell's "official consort" boyfriend Talbot, who worked all night on a dinner of blood soup, with blood sorbet for dessert, was supremely pissed when Bill set Lorena on fire, destroying a rug. He queens it up big time in every scene, and even though he's awful, I love him. Anyway, stupid Lorena lives through his fire bombing.
Meanwhile, Eric has been selling V for Sophie Ann in an effort to make money for the failing queendom of Louisiana and totally gets caught by the Magister, who dickishly takes Pam hostage as punishment! In a pinch, Eric blames Bill for the V sales and goes to Mississippi to bring him back to the Magister in exchange for Pam.
At Russell's manse, he finds he has to act all sorts of gay to charm both Talbot and Russell into giving over Bill, getting back at Sophie Ann for selling him out to the Magister, and reclaiming his human-life era Viking crown that was taken by Russell after he murdered his whole Viking family! So Eric is a super multi-tasker this season. He also has time for secret fantasies about Sookie being into him and knowing things about him and touching his hair. He's crushing hard and fighting it big time. Oldest guy story ever told.
Meanwhile in Tara's sad corner of the universe, she is so depressed over Eggs' death that she goes to bed with a vampire who totally stalks her life! He is in psycho love with her and wants to make her his vampire bride, so he tortures her for days and she has to play along to survive. In a show with Sookie Stackhouse, how can you possibly be labeled the Queen of Bad Decisions?
Franklin Mott (Tara's vamp) is apparently a spy for Russell who finds out that Bill has been researching Sookie for Sophie Ann. Bill, it turns out, has a special skill, besides brooding. Who knew? He procures things. And since Russell is obsessed with having special souvenirs, he wants a Sookie. So he manages to get her by luring Bill and paying Mott to find out about the situation. She does the big light thing that she did to Maryanne in response to being abducted, but still gets taken to the mansion anyway.
Everyone's at the mansion, snug as bugs in rugs for the day, when Tara manages to break free of Franklin, break Sookie out, and rescue Bill. This results in several amazing things:
Tara takes a mace and bludgeons Franklin Mott! Even though every vampire movie/tv show/book ever says that decapitation is best. And having the option of several axes over the mace. DUM.
Sookie kills Lorena!
Bill drains Sookie in a starving vampire rage blackout!
Alcide seems to shut the door on his redneck ex, Debbie Pelt! Or does he?!
Other things happened, but basically, at the end of "Hit the Ground" we're left with a barely surviving Sookie, a free Pam (Russell hates the Magister, and loves his cane, so he separated our Magister from his head. Bye Bye Magister), and also there's a BIG SECRET ABOUT SOOKIE. That I totally know.
Some things about this season:
Thing 1: Bill Compton is the Worst Dad Ever. AGAIN.
Not only did he not visibly worry once out loud about Jessica (which is exactly like last season), but he never taught her anything about being a vampire, including the depth of the sire/child bond. And yet he had time for a lecture on recycling. Bill, no pun intended, sucks in general, but you'd think he'd be better at handling a newbie vamp what with him being over a century old. Just sayin'. He also manages to play almost every angle of his capture poorly. For someone so old, and on a secret mission to procure Sookie for the queen, he's really bad at lying.
Thing 2: Alcide Herveaux, Were-Abs
I didn't really like Alcide in the books, and I know that I was supposed to (at least in the beginning). He had really dumb werewolf qualities, like being all 'master race' about being a wolf, wanting to marry only a wolf bride so he can have wolf babies, getting erections after killing other wolves...you know, dumz, right? But in the show, well, see the picture above. Nice. Also, he is bummed on the werewolf rules and doesn't want to procreate with another wolf. Kind of a departure from the jerk in the books. We'll see how it goes.
Thing 3: Gay Eric Northman
Yay for Gay Eric, who has a special smile just for his gay times! Its hilarious. He's in a really tough situation this season, so I can't wait to see how he comes out of it in the end. His brutality is somewhat balanced by his fascination with Sookie, but this Eric isn't the book Eric. Book Eric seemed to care about Sookie, making sure to follow her to Jackson and keep an eye on her, focusing his time on rescuing Bill (even though he knew it was in his best interest to let him rot) because Sookie felt the need to rescue him. Also, book Eric has a funnier nature. Though calling the Hotshot folks "brother-cousins" earns him major points for this season.
Thing 4: The Mickens'
These people are proof that just because you're related, doesn't mean you need to ever have contact with them. They make their kid shift into a pit bull so he can win dog fights. Wow. I don't get it, can't you shift into all sorts of things that would allow you to finagle money and free stuff? Anyway, Sam has to deal with his bio-family in a big way this season, and since Sookie is off galavanting around Mississippi, he has no one in his corner. I hope that changes. At least he seems to have his brother Tommy.
Thing 5: Lafayette Loves Jesus
I'm still pulling for L+J, even though it seems like they have hit a rough patch. Their one date was magical. It ended with Lafayette saying, "Tell yo mamma two faggots kicked yo ass." Sweet.
Thing 6: Talbot Plus Russel Forever (or at least until their inevitable end and or ends this season)
I love this relationship.
Thing 7: Goodbye Lorena
Thing 8: Goodbye Book Sookie
Just for the record, the Sookie in the show is a total moron. I get naivete in the first season, given her sheltered and chaste upbringing, but it's season 3. She's seen a vampire staked in front of her, a maenad out of control, a vampire suicide by sunrise and killed a serial killer with a shovel. What gives?! In the book she staked Lorena without help, she managed to silently extract Bill from Russell's mansion, and she had a more sobered approach to Bill's betrayal with Lorena. She knew that he was an ass for giving her up, but she felt that he shouldn't die for his connection to her, and so set out to rescue him anyway. This Sookie yells and screams and pleads and cries and seems to be kind of an asshole sometimes. And she wears clothing that is inappropriate for being chased, chasing someone, or being stealthy. I'm not as in her corner as I was in the books, especially book 3, Club Dead, one of the best of the series in my opinion. Breathy Sookie in the show needs to get a pair. Maybe by the end of the season, we'll see that.
Thing 9: Jason Stackhouse Continues to Steal Minutes from Important Storylines
Sorry, I love the actor, and his Jason gives me all kinds of giggles, but I don't care about him, his ridiculous plan to be a cop, nor his attempt to save Crystal from Hotshot because he's such a better catch.
Finally, Thing 10: Jessica Continues to Rule
I loved Jessica and Pam's discussion on how to get rid of a dead body. Even though she's been totally abandoned, she's managed to do much more than anyone else in this whole show. She was proactive about getting rid of said body by asking good questions, trying to rent a chainsaw instead of buying, she got a job, keeps up the Compton house, pines over Hoyt but doesn't kill him or anyone he likes, and barely even eats people because she's trying to be good. She's all Lestat about only eating evil-doers, too. She only eats a really nasty, bitchy customer. It's fitting punishment for someone who has the audacity to show up in public to eat in curlers and proceeds to stay past closing.
In closing, True Blood Season 3 has so far kept me interested, but it has changed the core values and qualities of some of the characters from the books so much, that I feel a bit disconnected from all of them, leaving me without someone with whom I can really identify.
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