TV Verdict

Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) has the distressing ability to say the word “Sookie” in such a growing, guttural way that it is akin to him having non-consensual sex with your ears. It is nothing short of a full-on predator sexual molestation of the English language, and but one of many reasons why HBO’s True Blood is the most compelling show on television today. Sunday night saw the debut of the second season of the swelteringly sexy and seductive vampire drama, bringing us back to Bon Temps exactly where we left off—a dead body outside Merlotte’s.

Recaps (and spoilers) below.

Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Tara (Rutina Wesley) are terrified at the discovery of a dead body outside of Merlotte’s, fearful that it is that of missing Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). To Sookie’s relief—and Tara’s disbelief—it is the body of a black woman, the same who performed a faux exorcism on Tara and her alcoholic mother. Tara knows that once the police make the connection, her mother is going to find out about the death, and it will send her spiraling back down out of control again.

As for poor hapless Lafayette, he is alive and well—well, alive, anyway. He and a few other unlucky sorts, including one of the redneck harassers from Merlotte’s are chained up in a grimy basement, forced to turn a mechanical wheel all day and night. Kept in isolation and darkness, they have no idea how long they’ve been held captive, or who is keeping them. We know exactly who it is, though, because there aren’t many vampires who bleach and streak their hair. Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) has collected a small group of humans to interrogate and question, specifically about a fire that killed a few of his kind last season. Attacks against vampires are on the rise, and the pale ones are getting nervous.

Leading the charge against this new wave of anti-vampire sentiment is the Fellowship of the Sun, the religious cult organization that Jason (Ryan Kwanten) has fallen into in his latest installment of his inexorable, dim-witted decline. Having found salvation in a jail cell, Jason now pledges his heart, soul and checking account to the Fellowship, happy to have found a purpose in his life. The organization’s intentions are as of yet unclear, but the leader of the group Rev. Steve Newlin seems to have taken interest in young, handsome Jason, offering him a spot at their upcoming leadership convention. Jason just needs to come up with the “registration fees” of $500, and is told to pray on it. He does, and lo and behold, the money arrives in a peculiarly convenient twist of fate.

Twists go both ways, of course—the money came from the estate of the Stackhouse children’s uncle, recently found deceased (and previous made deceased by Bill). Sookie immediately suspects Bill of the deed, partly because he’s not exactly in her good books right now, having been caught in the company of his new ward, seventeen year-old and brand-new vampire Jessica. Bill is embarrassed having been caught keeping such an important secret from Sookie, yet another reminder to Sookie at how complicated and distant dating a vampire can be. There’s always another secret. Not that this stops them from, you know, having crazy vampire/human sex full of blood and biting and orgiastic moans of… well, never mind that.

As for Sam… well, Sam’s still miserable. He is lovesick over Sookie and annoyed at Tara’s involvement with the enigmatic Maryann (Michelle Forbes), a wealthy and distinctly supernatural social worker who (we learn) is reappearing in Sam’s life. The two have already made intimate acquaintances in the past, Sam having broken into her house and robbing her during his teenage shape shifting years. He is convinced that Maryann is looking to mess with Tara in order to get him back for past misdeeds, but Maryann seems to have other plans in store for the citizens of Bon Temps than just playing head games with a bartender.

Ah, Bon Temps. I missed you during your absence. This episode reminds me exactly about why people have such a dynamic, love/hate relationship with True Blood. It really is quite the little soap opera. Oh sure, it’s full of vampire and supernatural events and dismembered corpses, but at its core, True Blood is a big sweaty Southern Gothic cyclone of hormones, repression, sexual frustration and blues music. Watching Bill try to educate his “daughter” on how to recycle (blood bottles and plastic in the blue bin, paper products in the white) is more fun in of itself than half the shows on television. And like every good soap opera, people either embrace it without condition, or recoil in horror.

“I just wish people would stop dying around here,” Sookie remarks during “Nothing But the Blood”, and this pretty much sets the tone of the episode, and perhaps even the entire season. Just because you’ve locked up a crazed Cajun serial killer, the bodies keep piling up in poor Bon Temps. At this rate, the dead are going to outnumber the living. I remember expressing frustration in last year’s finale, watching the show break its own neck trying to lay the groundwork to all these new mysteries, but having had some time to reflect, realize that the situations themselves in Bon Temps are absolutely immaterial.

Okay, sure, new killer on the loose. Forget about that. What audiences love about this show is the peculiar moral and sexual energy, the ambiguity between righteousness and reckless abandon, between carnality and civility; a duality that the vampires in True Blood possess in spades. There’s a polite savagery at work that leaks out into everyone, a discordant effect on the poor town of Bon Temps just by having Bill and his kind around—a loss of inhibition and restraint. Before the vampires rolled up, everyone was getting along just fine; repressed and loving it. Now, everyone is exploding with sexual lust, murderous rage, apoplectic fury, deceit, hatred and bigotry. It’s healthy to express your feelings!

I’ll tell you one thing. One immediate improvement in this season is Anna Paquin’s increasing comfort in baring it all in front of the camera. A recent interview suggests she’ll be getting more and more naked as the season progresses. Why bring this up now? Um, no reason… just to state that… uh, I, have no objections to this. And that’s exactly how “Nothing But the Blood” wraps itself up, all naked and blood-covered and sweaty. Coincidence? I think not.

Welcome back, True Blood. We’ve been thirsty.

True Blood airs at 9PM EST Sundays on HBO.