Two weeks ago I had a stomach flu that knocked me out for the count and made it impossible to write up a True Blood account.  Last week I was attending my grandfather’s funeral.  I really missed doing these write ups, not because I suffer any delusions that my tens of readers were disappointed with their absence but because it actually increases my enjoyment of the episodes.  I typically watch it the first time just for fun, but then I re-watch it to do the write up and typically catch things I missed the first time or got another level of meaning from something someone said.

I missed writing about some exciting things but I’ll just start with this week’s episode “Night on the Sun,” assuming you’ve already seen and/or read reviews of the previous two episodes.  Here’s the highlights:

• I like my Bon Temps Football t-shirt because it’s a True Blood t-shirt without being obvious; you’d have to be a fan to know.  After seeing Alcide in his Herveaux Contracting t-shirt, I’m thinking seriously about getting one from the HBO store. 
• After Bill was thrown out of the back of the truck shirtless, where did he pick up a track suit jacket?
• In a TV series that prides itself on its gore and violence, its three seasons of vampires crying blood has finally gotten to me.
• Anna Paquin is at her best when she has to cry; good thing Sookie does a lot of that.
• I’ve mentioned this before but I do LOVE the intro.  I watch it every time.  Alex mentioned out loud something that I had noticed earlier in the season though: there are a LOT more names listed in the opening credits this season.
• Other people have already mentioned this but I do love Talbot’s outburst about all of the happenings at the Mississippi mansion: “Excited?   Franklin’s brains won’t wash off the guest linens,  I had to bury werewolves under the gazebo, and that Sookie-bitch staked Lorena.  I’ve had enough excitement, thank you.”  Poor Talbot – a housewife’s job is never done.
• Talbot:  “You can’t buy yourself out of everything!”  Russell: “Of course I can.  This is America!”
• Debbie:  “They killed my Cooter!”  It’s supposed to be pitiful but I just laughed.
• Very much love that Eric has managed to stay in his light blue sweater for 4 episodes straight (Although blood has been on it for the last three.  Perhaps its time for a wardrobe change.  When Bill was staying there, it looked like they gave him a magic closet with tailored clothes).
• While Terry sings to Arlene’s baby-in-the-womb, she dreams its Rene.  I forgot how much I loved his Cajun accent.
• Sookie-please take like a day to clean your house.  I know in True Blood land its only been a couple of weeks since Maryanne held orgies at your house, but seriously, its got to smell around there, especially with the giant meat statue residue still hanging around.  So while you are laying out on your perfectly manicured lawn (?), maybe think about doing some cleaning.
• I guess if you are a shifter, you get used to seeing people naked.  Still, seeing your mom standing naked on your porch after shifting from a dog has got to be a little unsettling.
• I’m going to start calling Lafayette “La-La” like his crazy mother Ruby Jean.  I could do with much more Ruby Jean and Jesus, and far less Sam, Tommy, and the Mickens.
• Ah, yes, glad to see Tara and Sookie talking/yelling at one another again.  With best friends like these, who needs to worry with vampires and werewolves?
• Yay for the appearance of Holly!  In the books, she’s a waitress at Merlotte’s from the beginning, so I’m glad to see her join the cast. 
• Jason:  “Is it a church or cult or something?  Because I did that and they washed my brain.”
• I’m very intrigued by this idea of Lafayette having “power.”  I didn’t think much of it the first time watching the episode because I just thought it was the rantings of Ruby Jean.  However, Jesus agreed.  I have no inkling how this will turn out since Lafayette died in the first book and was not fleshed out as a character.
• When Eric grabs Hadley to get her to deliver a message to Sookie, he’s bleeding out of his ears and nose.  This is not acknowledged during this episode and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why he would be bleeding.  (EDIT:  Around the interwebs they are saying this is a mark of a Vampire that hasn’t slept/is up during the Day)
• I’m disappointed by how little they’ve used Alcide this season; he tended to be just eye candy without much of a plot or many lines.  If he was on screen, it was usually an action sequence or he was brooding over Debbie.  Hope they use him better in the future.
• I really want to fast-forward to Sookie+Eric but I think they are handling this Sookie+Bill relationship demise really well.  When you love someone, you can’t just shut it off, and in the book, it did seem like Sookie was all about Bill up until they ran into Lorena problems and the whole Bill almost killing her thing.
• Talbot to Eric (and what every woman has been fantasizing about saying): “I’m bored.  Take off your clothes.”  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the good bit of man action in this episode, but outside of kissing and some suggestive nudity, they really didn’t show as much as I expected.  Considering what they later showed with Bill and Sookie, I think we could have handled more.
• If I was Sookie, I would have just pulled the trigger, but then again, we would have missed the Girl Fight! 
• During the rough, on the floor, Sookie on top sex at the end of the show, the only thing I could think was “Oooh, those carpet burns are going to hurt tomorrow!”
• The “Postmortem” instructional video for vampires on how to kill werewolves was campy good fun.  A nice light moment after an episode that was pretty dark.