True Blood Episode Recap: "Nothing But the Blood"

from TV Guide

In the second-season premiere of True Blood, we pick up right where we left off, in the parking lot of Merlotte's where there's a dead body with painted toenails in Andy's car. We find out who it is, and what that discovery means for Lafayette's future on the show. Bill and Sookie squabble like old marrieds, except now they can also squabble with their surrogate teen daughter, Jessica. We learn how Sam and Maryann know each other, and why the heck Jason is joining an anti-vampire church.

How you livin', fangbangers? This is Mickey O'Connor (blood type: O+). We heard your fervent cries for more Blood (sickos, all of you), so I'm going to be recapping each and every episode of Alan Ball's phantasma-gory, Southern-fried extravaganza for you this summer.

Full disclosure up front: I am not a Goth, nor have I ever been (save a few Cure albums from the '80s). I am also not what you'd call a fan of the vampire genre. I thought Buffy was aight, but Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting makes my teeth itch, so I was not a regular viewer. Ditto Blade, Moonlight, Angel, Underworld, and the novels of Anne Rice, Stephenie Meyer and Charlaine Harris -- on which this show is based. So I apologize in advance if I miss some of the vamp fundamentals along the way. Please feel free to school me in the comments section.

On the other hand, I'm a huge Alan Ball fan, and of his genius screenplay for American Beauty and the brutal, rough-edged nihilism of Six Feet Under. I'm already seeing how Ball is weaving his favorite themes — self-destruction as redemption, family as a necessary evil, coming out of the closet — into True Blood, and so far I really like the hot, sweaty mess he has created down on the sticky bayous of Bon Temps. Are you ready for seconds? Then let's sharpen our incisors and dig in!

BACK ON THE BAYOU

"Please tell me it's not Lafayette," Tara says, as Andy, Sookie, Sam and Tara lean over the painted toenails hanging out of Andy's car, and it's clear that no time at all has elapsed since the cliff-hanger scene in the finale. But it's not Lafayette (phew!); it's obviously a woman, and someone has gone to the trouble of removing her heart. Ick. But who is it? Yikes! It's Miss Jeannette, the defrauded exorcist, and her facial rictus is harrowing, implying that she was still alive during the extraction. (Cue another scream from Tara.)

BAD THINGS

Can we just pause to give it up again for these incredible opening credits? Now with more subliminal sex scenes!

PSYCHO KILLER

In the immediate aftermath of the discovery of Miss Jeannette's body, Tara tells the cops that she doesn't know her. Sookie, who's in shock and thus can't suppress her psychic abilities, hears Tara's thoughts and realizes she knows the victim, and prompts her to 'fess up.

Sheriff Bud tells Andy to go home, since he's overworked and drunk. "I... am not... overworked," Andy protests. Heh.

The cops bring Tara in for questioning about the murder of Miss Jeannette (aka Nancy LeGuare). Andy thinks Tara is somehow involved, and plays bad cop on her. It's a hilarious freak-out, and much props go to Chris Bauer for finding just the right combination of Southern stereotypes from In the Heat of the Night, Cops and Sling Blade for his vision of Andy Bellefleur. At any rate, Bud has had enough of Andy's badge-flashing bravado, and dismisses him from the case, seeing as he's both a material witness and a potential suspect.

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