6.3 “You’re No Good” thoughts *spoilers*

My thoughts on tonight’s episode below the Read More since I fully intend to indulge in both future spoiler talk and spoilery speculation.

Wow, I really enjoyed this episode, not least of which because you can see the groundwork being laid for several interesting developments.

Eric abducts Willa. We start off with the previewed clip of Eric talking to a glamoured Willa in her bedroom, explaining how he is going to kill her.  (To which I have to say, dude, if just killing her was your intent, you could have done that in mere seconds.  Why talk about it for so long?)  Willa may look like a timid virgin in that white nightie, but the girl clearly has guts — not unlike another “girl in a white dress” that Eric was just reminiscing about recently. Willa is brave enough to speak up (even while glamoured!) and tell Eric she has valuable information.  As troops storm up the stairs to her room (and how did they finally recognize Eric was in the house, anyhow?) Eric abducts her.

Back in Fangtasia, both Pam and Tara are horrified that Eric has kidnapped the governor’s daughter, but for different reasons. Pam feels Willa should just be killed ASAP. and preferably in a gory symbolic way (very much akin to Eric’s actual plan, actually) while Tara urges Eric to just let her go.  Eric declines both recommendations and tells his girls that they need to say their goodbyes to Fangtasia:  they will not be coming back.  As he casts a longing look at his throne on the stage, he looks tremendously wistful, but my guess it that his nostalgia for the bar is more about having met Sookie there than the bar itself.

House Northman and their hostage head off to Ginger’s home in Bossier.  Eric persuades Ginger to let him in — and then everyone else with him.  (And may I hope we never actually have to see Eric fulfill the promise he made to Ginger after she realized they really weren’t going to sleep together — at least not that night? Love her, but I don’t want that visual, thank you.)  Eric takes the velvet-line double coffin while Pam and Tara get the crummy cubby under the house.  When Pam complains about the sleeping arrangements, Eric points out that if he could trust Pam not to kill Willa, things would be different, so Willa is sleeping with him.

Willa is clearly attracted to Eric and she prompts him into some pillow talk.  She obviously knows a lot about vampires — including the fact that they get the bleeds.  And while Eric has threatened her multiple times over the course of the night, she is still intrigued enough to reach out and wipe away the blood from his ear.  Just as she is about to slip it into her mouth, Eric stops her.  I have to wonder, did she know what taking a vampire’s blood does? Eric certainly does, and stops her, instead thoughtfully sucking his own blood from her finger tip.

As a Sooric shipper, I have mixed feelings about seeing Eric and Willa begin to hit it off so well.  After the beating his ego has taken from Sookie’s rejection, it was interesting to see what it looked like to see an intelligent brave woman so much like Sookie be attracted to him.  I felt as if Willa could really give Sookie a run for her money if she wanted to.  However,  the fact that Eric refuses to give her his blood — when it would obviously be to his advantage to do so and with Willa appearing very willing – tells you his heart is still with Sookie.  Sookie, girl, you better not take too long getting your head together where Eric is concerned, because Willa is the first real threat to Eric’s heart that we’ve seen, IMO!

Meanwhile, Bill discovers that he isn’t quite as indestructible as he thought.  Bill tests his new powers and is convinced that when he faces the sun, he will now be immune with Lilith’s powers.  He turns out to be completely wrong, bursting into flame just like any vamp!  But will it kill him? The Vampyr bible does say that Lilith died in meeting the sun and that she will die that way again, so is this the way that Billith can be killed?

Billith is at first distraught over his failed experiment, but it does give him a new idea, however.  Obsessed with his visions that show vamps, including his beloved progeny Jessica, burning in the sun, he decides that the way to prevent that is to have the scientist who synthesized TruBlood begin to work on synthesizing fae blood.  I imagine he’s thinking that it will provide immunity to vamps and save them from at least that form of True Death. He delegates Jessica to tart herself up and bring the scientist back to him using her teenaged girl wiles.  (Way to pimp out your baby daughter, Bill.)  He himself goes to Sookie’s house, where he demonstrates that the old rules (except for that pesky sun one) no longer apply to him.  He tries to appeal to Sookie’s fondness for the other vamps she knows — leading with Eric and Tara, of course — but she still refuses to follow Bill’s wishes.   Bill informs her coldly that she is now “dead to him” because of her refusal to cooperate.We had Sookie telling Billith that the Bill she knew died, and she felt it.  Now we have Bill telling her his loyalty to her is gone as well.   Can I hope, please, that that is truly the end of the Bill/Sookie ship?

While Sookis is unwilling to give her blood for the cause, Bill has a fortunate (from his perspective) encounter with Sheriff Andy, who apologetically tells “Vampire Bill” that he needs to get home because of the vampire curfew.  Bill notices a stuffed toy in Andy’s car and picks up right away on the fae scent that clings to it.  (Shades of Warlow!!!) As Andy tells him that he is a father now, you can see the wheels turning in Bill’s head.  Andy hasn’t even had a chance to name his girls yet — he’s just sticking with their numbers for now to keep them straight — but I don’t that he ever will, to judge by the evil smile Bill had as he wished Andy goodnight!

The weres and Emma. In another part of the parish, the police have come a-callin’, looking for Emma.  Rikki is able to warn Martha and convince Emma to shift into wolf form by being a bitch in the way that only a werebitch can be.  She clearly isn’t doing it for Emma’s sake — Rikki obviously views Emma and Martha as putting the whole pack at risk and she wants nothing to do with it, but she will obey Alcide as packmaster and this is what he wants.

The police leave, but Nicole and her band of educated activists show up.  When the entire pack acts hostile, they quickly decide to back off, but not before their film footage is discovered.  Alarmed that weres are on film, several pack members shift (defying Alcide’s orders) and chaos ensues.  Nicole’s friends are injured or killed (it isn’t killed) and she herself is hurt in the fray, but managed to run into the woods, where Rikki’s wolf appears ready to kill her, only to be turned back by Alcide in wolf form.

Throughout the confrontation, an owl sits nearby and as the chaos reaches peak, Sam shifts into his human form, slips into the house and absconds with Emma.  As they are running through the woods, they spot the injured Nicole and the three of them escape into the dark.

Sarah and Steve Newlin, together again.  We get our first sight of the vampire concentration camp, where Steve Newlin has been captured and detained.  His first visitor? His ex-wife, Sarah Newlin, who tells him the facility he is in the fulfillment of everything that they believed in while with the Fellowship of the Sun. And how ironic is it that now that he is a vamp, he is going to be subjected to all they now have to offer? Lots of good back and forth between the two exes, including Sarah pointing out that if you want real power, you go with politics, not religion!  (A hint for Billith, perhaps?)  But then Sarah turns Steve over to Dr. Overlark, who is mostly interested in finding out what Steve knows about Eric Northman….

Something is wrong with Jason.  While Grandpa Niall goes looking for fae allies to help him protect against Warlow, Jason confesses to Sookie that he’s been having a lot of hallucinations and is having a lot of headaches.  He admits that he is sad to realize that he has projected racism onto his much-beloved parents, but Sookie points out that they were not perfect. Mom, for example, was afraid of Sookie up until the day they died.  But that doesn’t mean you don’t love them, imperfect as they are.  It is not clear why Jason is having this experience yet, but he is increasingly incapacitated as the episode wears on, with headaches even before he gets thrown around by Bill.

And. I saved the most intriguing developments for last…  Niall goes to Hot Wings and finds carnage. The club has been devastated — blood (both red and something greenish black?) is everywhere, and things are turned over.  Niall does something with the blood to read the situation is able to learn that someone came into the club and slaughtered all the fae, except for one lone survivor who is near death.  Niall assists him to “go home” in some way I don’t fully understand, but leaves the fae as a pile of dust on the ground after his light sparks up and dissipates.  Before he dies, the fae tells Niall that they were slaughtered by a vampire, but he is baffled as to how the vampire got into the club.

As Niall is leaving the club, who is lurking in the woods outside but Ben, who claims he has been looking for the fae club all night long and not been successful in finding it.  He knows who Niall is right away, and kneels down to the King of the Fae.  Niall is slightly suspicious at finding Ben when he came looking for Warlow, but still ends up accepting Ben’s offer of assistance in protecting Sookie and the two head back towards Sookie’s home.

Because I’m still liking the idea that Ben = Warlow, I was pay very close attention at this part and noticed some intriguing clues.  First of all, the fae didn’t know how Warlow got into Hot Wings.  If Warlow and Ben are the same person because Ben was a halfling before being turned, then naturally his fae blood would allow him entry into a fae safe haven! And how else has he been traveling through portals all over the place? And of course, if Warlow drank a bunch of faeries, there is no reason he couldn’t be out in the sun. Ben also shows Niall his “wound” again — you know, the one on his right forearm where he could have bitten himself with his own fangs.  Niall also have a vial of blood that he brings back to Sookie’s house, where he says that there is something odd about it.

Sookie spends some time chatting with Ben and she notices something odd: she can feel Ben when he tries to read her mind.  That has never happened before even though she has been around many faeries. He bashfully says he can feel her, too. I suppose we are supposed to think it means they have a potential special bond, but all I can think is that it is more proof that he is different and he IS Warlow!

Of course, just as I’m squealing over my theory, it appears that Warlow is outside Sookie’s house, which briefly dashed my hopes, since even Ben can’t be two places at once (that we know of, anyhow.)  But yay! It is Nora, and not Warlow at all!

Other little details that I loved:

• Under the governor’s new orders, police don’t need to bother with warrants any more.   Civil rights are more or less suspended for everyone, not just vamps!

• While teaching Holly to shoot at Fort Bellefleur, Andy tells her that when she is ready — and he knows that is not right now — he wants to be her Fort Bellefleur, offering her safety and security.  Awww!
• Andy calls his daughters’ light powers their “hand lasers.” ROFL!

Also check out the Inside the episode, which reinforces my sense that Bill’s and Sookie’s conversation may have been their goodbye, and also talks about the attraction Willa has towards Eric.

http://www.hbo.com/video/video.html/?autoplay=true&vid=1326175&filter=true-blood&view=null

All in all, good episode and I’m even willing to tolerate Ben/Sookie scenes since I am still thinking he is Warlow!  What did you think?