True Blood: “The First Taste” (recap)

By Jen Smith
Fancast.com

This week, True Blood started to feel slightly less awkward. The first episode is always rough, so it’s nice to see that they got over the hump. That’s not to say it didn’t have its fair share of problems, however. The show begins where it left off—with Sookie getting the living daylights kicked out of her by the hick couple. That’s what she gets for interrupting a desperate man and woman when they’re just trying to steal some vampire blood. They celebrate their triumph and begin to leave Sookie for dead, when suddenly the atmosphere changes and something doesn’t seem right. Quicker than the human eye can see, the man is thrown against a tree as if from an invisible force, followed by the snapping in two of the nasty woman. Sookie barely recognizes what’s going on but knows that Bill the Vampire has just saved her life. He carries her away from the scene and down to the water’s edge where they have more privacy. He bites his wrist open and tells her to drink his blood before it’s too late. She tells him she doesn’t want to be a vampire, but he assures her she won’t be. The blood is too tempting, and she clutches at his arm as she drains the blood from his wrist. She sucks on it ravenously, and having established that vampire blood is an aphrodisiac, the sexual undertone wasn’t lost on anyone.

Meanwhile, Sookie’s brother Jason is still at the police station under investigation for the murder of Maudette. He and the Sheriff are watching the videotape of him and Maudette having sex… the one that could incriminate him for murder. He watches in horror as he sees himself get out of control, choking Maudette until she falls limp. He doesn’t seem to notice at first because, well, guys don’t notice a lot right after they orgasm. But once he realizes what’s going on, he freaks out and runs away. As soon as he closes the door, Maudette starts laughing and calls Jason a moron. Jason’s confused at first, then begins laughing and saying that he didn’t kill her after all! The cops aren’t so sure. They think he probably returned to the scene later and finished the job. “Oh come on,” he says. “I’m not that smart.” He still insists it was the freaky vampire he saw in one of Maudette’s sex tapes. Without proof, Jason is set free to scour the countryside for his next sexual conquest (a.k.a. Dawn, the waitress who turned him down last week).

There’s nothing better than waking up with a hot guy licking blood off your face. Sookie didn’t seem to mind, and asked if she tasted different than other humans. He says that she does, and then asks again what exactly she is. She finally confides that she’s telepathic, which is why she likes him so much… because she can’t hear him, and that’s relaxing. After some small talk, she realizes she’s mostly healed and wonders if the doctors know that vampire blood can heal humans. Bill says that they don’t know, and they want to keep it that way. Then he walks her to her car, promises to speak to Gran about the Civil War, and disappears. *sigh* Men.

Don’t forget about the BFF Tara. I guess we’re getting to know her better by finding out that her mom is an alcoholic and her gay cousin hits on straight men, but I personally found it forced a bit. Speaking of forced, Jason is now at Dawn’s place screwing her brains out. They seem to enjoy it rough. Jason also appears to be a narcissist as he points to himself in the mirror (and I laugh at the obvious nod to the famous scene in American Psycho when Christian Bale does the same thing). The next day, Gran is fixing breakfast for Sookie, Jason, and Tara. They’re giving Sookie crap for seeing a vampire, but she doesn’t seem to care. Gran gets a phone call and informs everyone that a tornado had touched down and killed a couple… yup, the same hick couple from earlier. I guess Bill got creative with his method of covering up a crime. Sookie’s curious to see his handiwork and goes to the scene. The Sheriff shows up and pretty much figures out that a tornado couldn’t have done it. He knows about how the couple tried to kill Bill (hehe) and Sookie saved them. She tries to defend Bill’s honor to no avail.

That night, Bill comes over to meet Gran. Tara and Jason have invited themselves over to watch guard, presumably. Oh, and apparently the whole “vampires can’t enter your home without being invited” thing is true. Gran is enthralled with Bill’s family history. The Stackhouses and the Comptons lived near each other for hundreds of years. He even remembers Gran’s ancestors. Tara isn’t thrilled with his family’s ownership of slaves, while Jason just doesn’t like any of it. Bill asks Sookie to take a walk. Bill reminds her that she drank a lot of his blood the night before, which will give her keener senses and, ahem, a sharper libido. I could deal with that. He also says he’ll always be able to feel her and if she’s ever in trouble he’ll be able to find her fast. He shows her his house but admits he’s having problems finding an electrician and she offers to find someone for him. They look at each other for a long time until Bill breaks the silence. “Take your clip out,” he says. She obliges, and he reaches for her hair to feel it in his hands. He smells her hair, smells her neck, smells her skin. He says he can smell the sunlight on her. Sookie grabs Bill’s head and pulls him in for a very passionate kiss. It was going well until Bill’s fangs came out. I guess that’ll ruin any moment.

The next night at work, Sookie has to deal with the usual pervs thinking indecent thoughts about her boobs and butt. She has a talk with Sam who wants to know more about her mind reading. She says she tries not to read his mind because she wants to keep her job. He says not to worry, that she’ll always have a job if she wants it. He’s a sweet guy. I wonder if he’ll find a lady love soon, because he’s obviously not going to hook up with Sookie. After work, she decides to drop off the information about the electrician to Bill. She shows up at his house only to be greeted by three “scary” vampires. Sorry, they didn’t seem all that scary to me. They were just regular looking people with fangs who hissed like cats. Anyway, they smelled a midnight snack. That’s where the show ended. Looks like next week, Bill will have to save the day again. My, oh, my… what a hero.

So like I said, this episode was incrementally better, but only by a little bit. It wasn’t as confusing, but it was still trying too hard. The kiss was very hot, passionate, sexy, etc. It’s obvious these characters have chemistry, but is that enough? And I know this show is based on a series of books, but maybe that wasn’t the best idea to be so literal with it. When I was watching the show, I felt like I was reading a book and this was the image that I saw in my head. That’s good in a way, but bad in the aspect that it tends to be a little boring in translation. I wonder if others are feeling the same way. Should the action pick up a bit? Do we need to see more of the supporting characters? Less? Regardless, this show needs somewhat of a pick-me-up before I give up on it.