Review

So Sookie now knows what she is, her race was thought to have been wiped out by vampires, and Bill may not be the person she thought she could trust. With the ever present threat of Russell Edgington looming she decides to hide out at Jason's pad. Eric is also aware of the Edgington threat and has gone fatalistic, drawing up a will, and pretty much giving up - much to Pam's distaste.

We learn that Sam Merlotte has a few murders in his past during his time as a theft! Yeah shocked me up to. Tommy hits on Jessica, which strangely has the result of drawing Jess and Hoyt back together, man do I ever need to see an action movie. And Jason confesses to first Sookie then Tara that he shot Eggs, which isn't quite what the traumatised Tara wants to hear right about now. A couple of shocks round out the episode, we learn exactly what Crystal is, and Eric for some strange reason decides to chain Sookie up in the Fangtasia basement that dripped blood.

Strangely episode ten wraps around to some of the themes we explored in season one. Lafayette and Jesus save Crystal's dad, via Lafayette's ever present vamp juice. Naturally Dad isn't best pleased and pretty much looks a gift fag in the mouth. During the course of this season both Lafayette and Jesus have been out and about helping people in the face of some pretty atrocious homophobic reactions, that's probably one mirror your Southern Redneck doesn't want held up. Interestingly Jesus decides to try "V" after seeing its miraculous curative properties and we learn both dudes have a hoodoo power thing hidden within them. Clearly we're having season four set up as the new Waitress at Merlottes also declares she's a Wiccan. Anyone smell the old cauldron getting ready to fire up? As stated in previous episode talks, the Writers of True Blood have an awesome ability to lay the groundwork for future conflicts without the Audience realising what they are up to most of the time.

I Smell a Rat also brings to light the often stated theme of prejudice once again, which I guess also covers Lafayette's trials and tribulations. Russell Edgington has been branded a Vampire Terrorist by the American Vampire League following his actions on a recent television show, Arlene pronounces that all Vampires are the same, much to the ire of Jessica. Later in the episode a burning cross appears in Bill's front yard. Now how blatant does the symbolism have to be! Bill stops Jessica from following the scent of the perpetrators, even though it's in their nature to be the hunters. Seems Bill is well aware of public opinion, further proof perhaps of Sophie-Anne's influence

Strangely the most complex character in the episode is the apparent shallow and slow thinking Jason. He keeps trying to do the right thing, debatable on the Eggs confession for mine, but it never ever seems to work for him regardless of his motives. And then he gets things right, like ejecting Bill from his house just when you think Bill has the upper hand. Jason doesn't lack in the balls department, clearly thinks about things a lot more than one would expect, and has a well-developed moral code - even though said code takes some time to assert itself on occasion. I'm not quite sure how he's going to handle the Crystal revelation, only in True Blood can someone's girlfriend turn out to be a were, but no doubt it'll fit into the Jason framework in some apparently strange fashion. Jason seems to take the supernatural in his stride and keeps on keeping on.

Are there layers to Jason that we never suspected or is he what he appears on the surface

I guess another aspect to recent episodes that I haven't been writing up is Arlene's pregnancy and the likelihood that the baby has been fathered by Rene Lenier, the serial killer antagonist from season one. Arlene is concerned that her baby will turn into Dexter while Terry, who just found out about the parentage in this episode, thinks love can change the world. So we are definitely headed for some nature versus nurture conflicts sometime in the future.

In a couple of flashbacks we learn that Sam Merlotte has some skeletons in his closet, beyond the changeling one, and wasn't always the mild mannered barkeeper we thought he was. I was actually quite pleased to see that Sam has a dangerous edge, something might just be bubbling away there for a future episode.

Things close out with Eric perhaps getting out of his funk and deciding to take action on the Russell Edgington front. How chaining Sookie in the basement is going to advance that course remains to be seen, though I have a feeling Eric isn't simply the cold blooded killer we all thought he might be. Interesting, new dimensions to Jason, Sam, and Eric, True Blood never ceases to throw surprises in my direction.

During the week I was in a discussion on edgy television, medium usually a wasteland yo, and some dude stated he was male hence not about to dial into True Blood which he perceived as being a chicks only franchise. Got to say we're talking supernatural themes, sex, violence, and a healthy dose of social satire, if this is chicks fare then throw me in a dress and call me Rachel, True Blood rocks y'all. I was also amused by Richard Glover on 702 in Sydney recently who was asking if there wasn't a female audience for the erotic that publishers had completely miss, wake up and smell the coffee Richard, the female light porn has been covered for quite a few years by now. It's called "Paranormal Romance" and it isn't backward in throwing some hot and spicy content at you. Sometimes males can be so naïve ladies, and does my arse look big in these tracky dacks?