TRUE BLOOD Season 2 Episode 1: "Nothing But The Blood" - Review
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HBO's "True Blood" returns with this first episode of it's second season. "Nothing But The Blood" wastes no time thrusting the viewer back into the crazy world of Bon Temps Louisiana, and it's residents such as barmaid Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), her vampire boyfriend Bill (Stephen Moyer), her brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley), and their boss Sam (Sam Merlotte). When we last left Bon Temps at the conclusion of season one, the Bon Temps killer was revealed to be Renee, and Sookie killed him before he killed her. Albeit not an easy battle, and it took many of Sookie's friends and lover to interfere in order to save her life. But the murdering in Bon Temps wasn't over, as a corpse discovered in Andy Bellefleur's car sent shockwaves through the community and sent Tara and Sookie into a panic. |
Throw in the arrival of the stranger known as Maryann, who possesses some freaky dimensional abilities, and her odd and mysterious connection to Sam, and yes...season two has more than enough material to run with. In episode one of the second season, we learn the identity of the car corpse, and the real identity might surprise you. Many people thought based on a small scene where a main character escapes into a dumpster at the end of season 1's final episode -- trying to avoid attack by someone or something...that the corpse was surely theirs. They might be surprised however at who it turns out to really be. We also get some more bits and pieces of Sam and Maryann's past endeavors and encounters.
These scenes are truly strange, but fill in more blanks between the two quite nicely. And for those of you who think Maryann is a peaceful, zen, hippie type...one particular scene at her mansion where she confronts the hired help over a small error, will make you think twice about that. Tara meanwhile seems to have found herself a knight in shining armor, and this kind of pushes her love-life away from another tryst with Sam, or any hope of a childhood friendship becoming something more with her and Sookie's brother Jason. Speaking of Jason, he seems to be headed down an even worse path than he was on near the end of season one, with his indulgence in "V" with his "friend with benefits" Amy.
Jason hooks up with a religious fanatic/preacher, who along with his assistant Sarah Newlin, manage to rope Jason into joining their "church", which is pretty much a hate-mongering "stormfront"-esque group of vampire haters. The problem is though, Jason doesn't have the required funds to begin his membership with the church. But an ironic twist of fate which ties into Sookie, manages to possibly change all of that. Of course returning for the second season are the clueless cops Bellefeur and Sheriff Dearborne who after finding the corpse in the car outside Sam's bar, begin the questioning into who was responsible.
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Of course the identity of the victim, which I won't reveal here, will make this mystery one that won't be easy to solve this season. And normally, poorly written shows drop storylines and story arcs like this because the writers either wanna concentrate on new and more important characters or subplots, or simply because it gets lost in the pile of other substories and such. But this show certainly isn't poorly written, and there's also some ominous dialogue involving a deceased character which is tossed atop the whole "car-corpse" mystery, and that either will be an intriguing "what if?" for season 2's duration, or a deadly prophecy to be fulfilled possibly very late in the second season. |
Sookie and Bill's relationship meanwhile hasn't changed much. They're both still crazy about each other, but their relationship is more complicated now that Bill has to watch over and keep in line, the girl he killed and turned last season. An act which he had to commit in order to appease the head of the vampire court after he killed a vampire to protect Sookie. Fans of Sookie and Bill's storyline will probably enjoy a steamy scene the two share in the final 30 of season 2's debut episode.
But the first episode sets up some very intriguing story arcs for us to follow along with in the second season. Many questions are left unanswered such as Maryann and Sam's relationship, Maryann's plans for Tara and the rest of Bon Temps, the motives of Tara's new love interest, Lafayette's fate, the identity of the "new" Bon Temps killer, Jason's further descent into the anti-vampire cult, and the sure-to-come new twists, turns, curves, and bumps in Sookie and Bill's relationship. Not to mention Eric and the vampires in his clan who are still out for blood against Bon Temps less "embraceful", and anit-vampire-minded residents. So best to fasten your seatbelts, because we're in for one wild season.
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