Maryann (Michelle Forbes) has suddenly decided to brainwash the entire town, turning them into raving lunatics with a lust for sinful behaviour. As a result, Bon Temps has been vandalized and people are running riot, most compelled to find and capture Sam (Sam Trammell) so he can be Maryann's sacrifice to her God. She's even built her own version of a "wicker man" using rotting vegetables and raw meat, the resulting sculpture stood on the drive of the Stackhouse residence.
Sam is holed up in a hotel room with Andy (Chris Bauer), the only man who'll believe his story that Maryann has infected the townsfolk, but they're drawn out to Merlotte's after receiving a fake S.O.S call from Arlene (Carrie Preston). At the bar, Sam and Andy are forced to take refuge from the baying crowd of zombified customers inside his cold storage room. Luckily, Jason has decided to put his Soldier Of The Sun training to good use, suiting up like a hick version of Rambo to spring his friends from danger, armed with a nail-gun. The escape plan doesn't go to plan, meaning Sam has no option but to give himself up for sacrifice -- but, as he'd being tethered to the roof of a car for transportation back to Maryann's, Jason decides to pose as the crowd's "God" by wearing a gas-mask and clutching lit flares from atop another vehicle. It proves to be an effective disguise as seen through the distorted view of the enchanted acolytes, and Sam stages an effective "smiting" by transforming into a fly to fool his captors that he'd been successfully destroyed.Meanwhile, Lettie Mae (Adina Porter) and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) try to snap Tara (Rutina Wesley) out of her malady, but Maryann's spell is seemingly impossible to break. At the Stackhouse residence, Sookie is shocked to find her family home has become the stronghold of the nefarious Maryann, and Bill soon realizes she'll be difficult to beat when he bites her neck and ingests her nocuous blood as a result. The situation prompts instinctual defense from Sookie, who manages to fend Maryann off when her palms coruscate with white energy...
In last week's comments, I mentioned how the writers appear to have forgotten Sookie exhibiting powers beyond mind-reading in the "Pilot" (incredible strength), so it's nice to see they haven't forgotten that Sookie's a powerful creature herself. Indeed, given the fact even the ancient Maryann looked puzzled and amused by Sookie's nature and abilities, she's clearly not something Maryann's ever encountered through the eons.
In the end, Tara's mental state is reversed thanks to Bill "glamouring" her and Sookie delving deep into her psyche, before Bill concludes that the only person who might know how to deal with Maryann is the vampire Queen -- whom he goes to visit in her grandiloquent pad for help...
"New World In My View" marks the writing debut of Kate Barnow and Elisabeth Finch, and it's a little strange they were given such an expansive episode to make their mark. Sadly, their inexperience showed and it became an episode of jumbled moments -- good, bad, absurd. I don't blame them entirely, as US drama is storylined by committee, so the writing staff must take responsibility for the rather awkward way this episode dropped the Dallas storyline and jumped into the deep end with Maryann and the Bon Temps debauchery.I was just a little confused and disappointed that the Newlin's storyline appears to have ended (although I'm sure they'll be back to resume their grudge match one day) and this episode revealed how poorly the season's two storylines have been woven together. It just felt ridiculous how Sookie, Bill and Jason fell straight into another crazy situation the moment they arrived home. Hopefully the characters who were entrenched in Maryann's storyline (Tara, Sam, Eggs, Andy) will have a stronger role in her defeat, and not suffer the indignity of having Sookie and her gang to swoop in and save the day.
Overall, I guess you just had to either embrace this episode's screwy direction, or not. I fell somewhere in the middle. I appreciated the return of Sookie's additional powers, its smattering of crowd-pleasing moments, and the idea that a Bible belt town has become infected by sin (a shame Lettie Mae's reading of scripture offered no salvation, actually), but there was also a lot of stupidity taking the sheen off everything. It was like the scriptwriters had been infected by Maryann and wrote an episode that felt half-improvised and reckless in its attitude and pacing. If there was ever an episode that carried a whiff of fan-fiction, this was it. So, while "New World In My View" entertained through pure force of will, it left me feeling unsure the last two episodes will pull everything together in a reasonable and organized way.
As two final thoughts: are we to believe that Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) has killed Hoyt's (Jim Parrack) mother, when she snapped over Maxine's (Dale Raoul) bigoted outbursts and bit her neck? And how complex can the vampire subculture get? They have their own system of government (area sheriffs, a magister) and now some form of royal family?!
23 August 2009
HBO, 10pm
written by: Kate Barnow & Elisabeth Finch directed by: Adam Davidson starring: Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse), Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton), Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte), Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse), Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton), Michelle Forbes (Maryann), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler), Alexander Skarsgård (Eric Northman), Mehcad Brooks (Eggs), Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry), Chris Bauer (Andy Bellefleur), Adina Porter (Lettie Mae Thornton), Todd Lowe (Terry Bellefleur), Patricia Bethune (Jane Bodehouse) & Dale Raoul (Maxine Fortenberry)
