True Blood - "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues"

Review by Paul Steven Brown

'True Blood'
Season 3 - Episode 6
"I Got a Right to Sing the Blues"

I can finally say that I'm more invested in Sam's arc now that the nature of Tommy's abuse has finally been revealed. I didn't see it coming, but it makes a great deal of sense, given the details that trickled out over this season. To tell you the truth, I started to warm up to Sam's little brother last episode when he extended what appeared to be genuine kindness to Jessica. While Tommy's parents have been fairly cliché rednecks, especially Joe Lee, there might be some promise in keeping the younger shapeshifter around.

Things are not looking promising for Bill Compton. Even if he does manage to get away from Lorena and Edgington, he'll have the Magister hot on his heels. Everyone is willing to pin the V trade on him, and now he has just staked his second vampire in two and a half seasons of 'True Blood'. Bill may really have to leave Louisiana for a long time, if he wants to live.

As revealed last week, Edgington is very old and very powerful. He literally just shrugs Bill off when the much younger vampire attacks him. He says he’s over 3000 years old. This tells me two things: first, if he’s only the King of Mississippi, than there are vampires above him that are far older and probably vastly more powerful; and second he’s seemed to acclimate to his surrounding fairly well due to his southern accent. I wonder if it’s just for show since he is a very politically minded person.

I think that Edgington is smart enough to see through Eric’s flirtations. There's something just off about how Alexander Skarsgård is playing Eric in these scenes and I think that he's too good of an actor for this to not be intentional. I'm afraid once Mr. Northman finally makes his play for vengeance, he'll find Edgington ready and waiting.

I didn’t realize that Sophie Ann was younger than Eric. This means that he is more powerful and he tells her that he only let her threaten him in the past due to her position over him. I found her character last season to be extremely annoying, but for some reason I thought that the idea of Sophie Ann obsessively playing lotto scratch-off tickets pretty amusing.

Tara finally made her move and with gruesome effect. All of her trials and tribulations over the past couple of years have gone a long way to toughing her up. I liked that when she learned that Sookie was in the mansion somewhere, she was clever enough to try to contact her telepathically. While Tara caved in Franklin’s head with a mace, we didn’t see him melt away like a staked vampire. I have the sneaking suspicion that we haven’t seen the last of him.

Though there wasn’t any more insight to Sookie’s true nature, we were reminded about that incident in season one when she threw a chain and mysteriously wrapped around her assailant’s neck. I had forgotten all about that. Also, is there a connection between Sookie and Sophie Ann? Wasn't a cousin of Sookie's living with the queen?

We also saw the return of the lady that has been doing all the public relations work for the vampires on a new show. This was a good way of reintroducing her, since she is poised to make a return next week. Between her, the kings and queens, and the Magister, I hope we get a clearer picture of how the vampire hierarchy works.

‘True Blood’ seems to be doing a respectable job of raising the stakes (no pun intended) one week to the next. Unlike last season, there definitely feels like this is all (at least the vampire/werewolf part of the show) towards a pretty big climax. I hope that it just doesn’t fizzle out like the Maryann plot.