True Blood "You Smell Like Dinner" Review

Amnesia. Oh, amnesia. The plot device works rarely yet storyteller and show runner employ the device year after year after bloody year. Sometimes, the device is used because the writers are lazy or they need to waste time before the amnesiac character contributes meaningfully to the story. Other times, the amnesia device works as a subverted retcon, meaning that the amnesiac character and another character grow closer because of the amnesia. Now, I never read spoilers nor had any interest in reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels but I have sense Eric's amnesia will bring he and Sookie closer together in a believable and natural way. Beyond the romantic aspect of the amnesiac device, I have no idea where it leads.

The witch coven became very important in "You Smell Like Dinner." I'm not used to True Blood connecting plots so quickly. Usually, the big bads are isolated until the middle of the season; however, Bill calls attention to how dangerous necromancy can be for vampires should the necromancers succeed in controlling the dead. If they control the dead, they control the vampires. Bill sent his sheriff (Eric) into the coven to stop the meetings before they became dangerous for every undead creature in Bon Temps. Eric failed and left the coven without any memory of self or others. He angered the coven when he bit Marnie, and he angered spirits beyond the physical world (as one such spirit's responsible for his fun amnesia). Marnie's a mystery. She channels the dead and lets them use her body to communicate with others, like Eddie with Lafayette and now some mysterious woman and Eric. Afterwards, Marnie's seemingly ignorant of what happened but I'm dubious of her aloofness in these dark matters.

The witch coven consists of innocents like Lafayette, Jesus and the mute extras but the power Marnie wields will draw the innocents into more daring spells that will eventually seek to control the undead of Bon Temps. Bill and Eric shared brief exposition about past necromancy and possession during the Inquisition. Neither vamp was eager to re-visit such times, which suggests it was bad time for vampires (for lack of a better sentence but it's also a joke me and the Cheese List blogger shared during our college days in the English program--we reduced complicated issues into 'bad times for___________' just for laughs--we wrote thoughtful and introspective long papers about said complicated issues and matters in an academic and respectful way). I'm not interested in the coven yet because the villain's not well-defined. I appreciate the effort to make the coven important, though.

"You Smell Like Dinner" moved each story set up in the premiere along quite well. We learned how Bill became King as well as his history with Nan Flanagan. Apparently, he worked as a vampire spy in the 80s as part of the effort to legalize Tru Blood. His fight with Queen Sophie Ann, which I completely forgot about, ended with her death and his promotion to King. He cares for Sophie but he freely sleeps with his really attractive female spies. He's still a boring character.

Jason Stackhouse moved from the freezer to the bedroom. The story's bizarre. Crystal returned from wherever the hell she went to help Felton (or is it Phelton?) conceive an offspring. The two crazy panthers need Jason's sperm but he needs to become a panther so they turn him into a panther. Crystal's hopped up on V so her behavior can be explained away, I guess. I don't know. It's a weird story and I thought d-bag redneck antagonist was out of the picture. Of course, I forget a lot of plot points with True Blood, which why I won't write another review after this one.

Sam and one his female shape-shifting companions grew closer romantically. He learned that she became her mother during birth because one must die for a shape-shifter to be able to shift shapes. I'm fully willing to admit that I might've mis-understood the girl's story because it doesn't sound right. Sam has a terrible history with people, so I assume that Sam will murder the character by the end of the season. Also, he and Tommy might try to co-exist as brothers who have marginal disdain for one another rather than large disdain.

I didn't hate "You Smell Like Dinner." I like the amusing baby storyline with Arlene. I like Jason's story because I'm a Crystal fan. There's no point in analyzing True Blood episodes because, as Dan Fienberg noted, Alan Ball freely admits there is no subtext or deeper meaning to the show.  So, overall, stuff happened---some good, some bad.

And thus marks the end of my brief time writing about one of my least favorite shows on TV--True Blood.

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