Director	Michael Lehmann
Writers	Brian Buckner	Tweet
Starring	Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Chris Bauer, Mehcad Brooks, Anna Camp, Nelsan Ellis, Michelle Forbes
Genre	Vampire
Tagline	Ready for New Blood?
Country

Review

Sookie is adamant that she is going to infiltrate the Light of Day church, Isabel (one of the Dallas vamps) brings her human Hugo to back Sookie up. They pretend to be engaged and looking for a chapel to get married in, however Steve Newlin is on to them, and besides having the odd Roo bounding round the top paddock is on his game as he adds them to his vamp collection under the Church.

In a major development Eric brings Bill's creator Lorena to the Hotel Carmilla in order to separate Bill from Sookie, there's clearly another plan afoot. We get some flashbacks where we learn Bill wasn't always the caring human friendly Vamp he now is. Other develops see Jason helping to build a platform for a “Meet the Sun” ceremony, and Sarah telling him that Steve is lying and intends to use the “Soldiers of the Sun” to start a war rather than protect the Church. Tara and Eggs travel out into the backwoods to pick up a part for a water heater and Egg recognises a place he can't remember visiting. And finally Daphne and Sam are getting really close, though Sam is in for a surprise one night in the woods.

Director Lehmann clearly decided it was about time we got back to the basics of True Blood with this episode, and he nailed the requirement. Firstly the PR quota is pushed up, all about love and relationships, that ensures the female audience know we're not going too far off base when it comes to developments from exactly where the novels were settled. Secondly the blood letting was on screen, pretty gory, and the mixture of vamp sensuality with victims was pretty effective. The franchise previously hasn't been backward in demonstrating Vamps don't sparkle in the daytime, here we also learn they like to play with their food, and wallow in the juices like a Voorhees family member at a Counsellor training camp. I was actually quite happy that the genre specifics were nailed to the wall once again as we have sort of been meandering away from the central requirements in season two.

The episode fails on the humour front but hits a gore major point.

Notably the episode ensures that we know there are going to be two major confrontations in the second half of the season. Bill and the Dallas Vamps have a date with the Church of the Sun, clearly the church have Godric hidden away in the basement, which makes one wonder where Jason will fit into the whole tapastry. I wouldn't imagine Bill isn't going to waste much time in getting it on, though his sire Lorena might be the fly in the ointment here. And waiting in the wings is Maryann and her group of demonically possessed towns folk. Maryann clearly has some weird classic Greek looking ceremony thing planned, with Sam perhaps taking central stage as the sacrifice to some sort of pagan god. Some good use of time lapse there inserted into a normal shot that had me wondering how exactly they achieved the effect. Must have, like, some awesome Photoshop type software for moving pictures.

There were a few subtle sub plot movements tossed in that had me grinning. Eric clearly has plans of his own for Sookie but needs Bill out of the way. While the current gambit probably isn't going to work, True Blood has previously ditched a major character but I can't see Bill being fodder for the surprise twist, there are clearly going to be further movements at the station in regards this development. Lafayette when confronted by ex-Detective Andy, displays some post traumatic stress disorder that vet Terry is all over in a pretty touching scene. Clearly some more focus on Scaryminds' favourite character is going to need to go down, and will this prance up to bite us on the butt somewhere? And finally Jason is showing some signs of not being as committed to the Church of the Sun as he was previously, of course he is also facing some solid temptation in the bossom of the Church.

Surprisingly I didn't pick up on much humour in Hard-Hearted Hannah, generally a staple of each episode. Not sure if this was due to the Audience being meant to take things on a more serious level or writer Brian Buckner jettisoning the humour in the face of the higher gore content. Where Buckner does try for humour, Jason wondering if he was being punished for the bathroom Sarah action, it sort of falls flat or at least misses the necessary comic timing. Not convinced we can call an episode of True Blood that lacks humour successful really?

One thing I did notice in this episode, perhaps because it didn't hold my attention as much as previous outings, were the minor characters who feature while being kept on the back burner. Hoyt's mother for example, who keeps poping up through the first two seasons, is clearly going to have her 15 minutes at some stage. The character is being fleshed out in quick scenes which is pretty solid story telling, we don't need a major scene in the future to say this character is like this, as the character has already been established almost by accident previously. Clearly nothing is by accident as a number of minor characters are being gradually fleshed out who may or may not have any role to play this season, but will come into focus at some stage.

Not the best episode in the franchise but still entertaining enough. On the bright side of the “Meet the Sun” ceremony we are gathering pace toward the major confrontations that should define whether or not the season is successful.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...