Events begin with a furious Bill (Stephen Moyer) driving Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) home from her human parent's house, having apparently "glamoured" them into forgetting the unfortunate mistake of seeing their missing daughter again. After rowing over her well-intentioned mistake, Sookie decides to walk the remaining twenty miles home, only to be attacked by a minotaur-like creature that slashes her back open. Bill hears her screams and arrives to find her badly wounded, surprised when his curative vampire blood only causes Sookie to froth at the mouth.
Sookie's rushed to nearby Fangtasia, where Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) arranges for her to be healed by an irritable old lady called Dr. Ludwig (a "goblin", according to sources), who diagnoses she's been poisoned and performs a painful anti-infection procedure to allow Sookie's body to accept Bill's blood. After returning to health, Sookie's telepathy reveals to her that barmaid Ginger is keeping her missing friend Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) in the club's basement -- tortured and feasted on as punishments for his role in the illegal trafficking of vampire blood-drug "V". After rescuing Lafayette from his torment, Sookie is forced to accept Eric's quid pro quo that she help him find a missing vamp leader called Godric in Dallas, to Bill's discomfort.
Elsewhere, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is having second thoughts about his enrolment at the Light Of Day retreat, after an anxiety dream about the kindly vampire Eddie (Stephen Root) that his late-girlfriend staked. After opening up to a group circle led by Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp) about his personal dealings with vampires, his uncertainty over the group's anti-vampire stance cause him to leave the session. However, he's persuaded to give things another go when Sarah reveals that she used to campaign for vampire equal rights until her sister was murdered by one, so understands his uncertainty over condemning vampire-kind.
Later, there's an amusing scene between Jason and Reverend Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian) over dinner, with the pious cult leader failing to notice a few double entendres in their conversation, or notice Jason's quizzical expression when his wife Sarah suggests getting some whipped cream. Yes, it can also be used as a dessert dressing, Jason...
More seriously, Steve makes it clear that there's no grey area in his people's belief vampires are evil. It's simple: there's good and there's evil, with no middle ground. In hating evil you're loving good. Almost immediately after, we find Sookie believing the opposite, as she tells Bill she can see the conflict between good and evil in his eyes, but has faith his good-nature will always win through. Unlike the Newlin's, Sookie's decided to have faith and place her trust in an individual she's taken the trouble to get to know; whereas the cult appear to be wounded people affected by vampire-based tragedies. Of course, the rub with True Blood is that we're still not convinced if Sookie or the Newlin's are right. There's certainly more evidence for vampires being bloodthirsty monsters in this show -- or is that because they're the more interesting side of the coin to explore?
One of the episode's most enjoyable subplots arrived fairly late, with Jessica making the most of Bill and Sookie's absence and venturing alone to Merlotte's, where she almost immediately picks up Hoyt (Jim Parrack). He even surprises her by having a positive reaction to her admitted vampiric nature. It was a rather sweet scene, very nicely played by Woll and Parrack, particularly when Hoyt is taken back to Bill's home and discovers Jessica has more on her mind than just playing Wii. It was also a great moment when Jessica's lust caused her to instinctively bare fangs, causing her extreme embarrassment until Hoyt assures her he doesn't mind.Did anyone else think the ensuing scene of Jessica biting down on Hoyt was a twist that meant she'd successfully lured dinner back to her place? That's a testament to how well the writers are dealing with Jessica right now; we're unsure if she's the "loaded weapon" Bill warns Sookie about, just a delinquent wild child abusing her superpowers, or just a naïve girl dealing with an explosion of sexuality. I was glad when Bill and Sookie arrived home to find Jessica hadn't killed poor Hoyt, anyway -- a character finally given something to do!
The mystery of Maryann continues to flex and twist, although I'm getting a little tired of Tara (Rutina Wesley) and her bland boyfriend Eggs (Mehcad Brooks). Here, Maryann holds a pool party for her friends and the event starts to turn into a sex orgy, to Tara's dismay. We also glimpse some of Maryann's friends with oil-black eyes -- are they creatures like her, or is this a symptom of being under her control? It still seems that Maryann's able to feed on people's moods and feelings, so maybe love is the ultimate feast for her? Also interesting to note the reappearance of the pig Maryann was first seen walking naked with in season 1, with Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) surprised when the swine seemingly vanishes after he discovers it. Is Maryann playing with him and making him doubt his sanity? What's the deal with porky?
The final sting also pushed the series up a notch, with Sam (Sam Trammell) caught skinny-dipping in a lake by his new waitress Daphne (Ashley Jones), who appeared more assertive than usual in preparing to join her boss for a nighttime swim... just as we catch sight of horrific slashes on her naked back, identical to those sustained by Sookie. It seems the bull-headed beast has attacked Daphne, and maybe the result of the creature's poison is a level of brainwashing? Maybe infected people are compelled to mate, as they're part of the creature's life cycle?
Overall, "Scratches" was an episode of mixed successes, but far from boring. I'm enjoying the Jason storyline more than I perhaps should, because of its allegorical ties to religious splinter groups; the monster and Maryann mysteries are still fun to speculate about; and I like the potential in the Jessica/Hoyt coupling. Will that become the antithesis of the fairly successful Sookie/Bill interspecies romance? The rest was a little thin, and the rescue of Lafayette felt anticlimactic given the possibility for something more complex. Still, there's a lot of stuff bubbling on the backburner, so I'm interested to see what True Blood's cooking up.
28 June 2009
HBO, 9pm
written by: Raelle Tucker directed by: Scott Winant starring: Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse), Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton), Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte), Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse), Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton), Anna Camp (Sarah Newlin), Michelle Forbes (Maryann), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby), Chris Bauer (Andy Bellefleur), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler), Alexander Skarsgård (Eric Northman), Mehcad Brooks (Eggs), Stephen Root (Eddie), Ashley Jones (Daphne), Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry) & Michael McMillian (Rev. Steve Newlin)
