True Blood: Whatever I Am, You Made Me

Posted by: Andrew Burns  •  June 26, 2012 @ 12:57am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

The best way to slow things down after last week's official introduction of 'The Authority' is do what True Blood does best, random sex scenes. And lots of them. Pam & Eric, Bill, Lorena & a prostitute, Bill & Salome, Salome & Eric, Jason & his old high school teacher, and Roman & Salome to bring the grand total to 6 separate horizontal how-do-you-does. Not bad for only one hour of TV.

This week, when half of the series' characters aren't shacking up with each other, attention is finally given to Tara as she struggles with what she has become. Pam being Tara's maker recalls more of her first encounter with Eric before her own transformation. If Tara wasn't enough to handle already Sookie and Lafayette lie to Andy about what happened to Debbie after her parents come into town looking for answers. Meanwhile Bill and Eric finalize their deal with the Authority's Guardian, Roman, to bring in Russell Edgington. Each on them have a one-on-one session (if you know what I mean) with chancellor Salome, one of the lead council members, to determine their truthfulness and loyalty.

When it comes to True Blood there are always two things you can rely on the series for: blood and sex, and this week it was all about the ladder. With an episode entitled "Whatever I Am, You Made Me" I was expecting more blood than skin but the balance of the two ended working just fine. The episode continues with Tara's first night reborn after she escapes Sookie and Lafayette's poor attempt at vamp-sitting. Pam is, maybe not so surprisingly, absent for Tara considering she is her maker so Tara is turns Sam. After Tara clears out Merlotte's supply of True Blood and crashes in the meat freezer for the day everything starts to get out into the open.

Maybe it's because of True Blood's short 12 episode seasons or the series doesn't play around with typical TV show conventions but it was kind of refreshing to have the majority of the secrets out in the open. Normally with a secret like Tara being a vampire, or even Debbie's death, would linger on for half a season till most people found out. Then just leads to another half a season of characters not speaking to each other because of said secret. That may work on day-time TV but thankfully True Blood likes to build up their character's mysteries only to blurt them out, and that's what gets the best reactions in my opinion. The only thing better than watching the small circle of Bon Temp that knew about Tara grow in gossip was watching Pam's experience before being turned in some more flashbacks.

Not only did Pam's 1905 brothel flashbacks give some great backstory between her and Eric, but they also provided Eric and Bill's first encounter. The overlap was a bit too easy for my liking, yet it seemed to fit for the episode's theme of makers. Eric breaks up Lorena and her supposedly newly turned vampire Bill from sex-feasting one of Pam's ...umm professional female companions. This memory is relevant to flashback to because it lets Pam revisit just how a youth vampire (Bill) is protective of his maker (Lorena) and also that even a maker still has to answer to another vampire if they are older (Eric). Now we weren't treated to any scenes between Pam and her newly turned Tara this week, but this episode basically acted like one big guilt trip for Pam ignoring her maker responsibilities so it's bound to happen next Sunday.

Apart from Jason complaining that he is having too much sex the rest of the meat of the episode was with Bill and Eric (in the present that is). I have to admit the turnaround from Roman about give them each the 'True Death', to believing Eric and Bill are telling the truth about Russell (true or not) was a bit too quick. They did however both get an Authority issued 'Isaac' encase they were lying. An 'Isaac' being: a non-disarm-able remote activate-able stake to the heart/vampire training bra, for the Authority's version of a contingency plan. My favourite part was when Eric and Bill were being fitted for their own 'Isaac' and Tina Majorino (of Veronica Mars fame) cameoed as the Authority's techy. Getting back on topic, if last episode's ultra-silver polygraph torture test wasn't enough chancellor Salome gave each Bill and Eric another once over to make sure they weren't Sanguinistas. Sanguinistas, since I don't think I've elaborated on as of yet, are a quietly growing vampire movement that is against the mainstreaming of vampires into the human's world. Bill seems to be pro mainstream and Eric just seems to be indifferent, so assuming Russell sticks around for at least the majority of the season, the Sanguinista movement is something that will probably be a thing for them to worry about at the end of the season.

Sookie having her confession with Alcide about Debbie, Rev. Newland introduced as Nan Flanagan's replacement, and Jessica smelling what seemed to be a fairy were the last on the important highlights of the episode. Before I finish "Whatever I Am, You Made Me" did end off the sex filled episode with the quote of the week coming from Bill, after Eric and him realize they each had a meeting with Salome:

"You know what they say about gentlemen, they don't brag about sloppy seconds"

Tags: True Blood, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, Ryan Kwanten, Christopher Meloni, Deborah Ann Woll

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Andrew Burns loves film and comics, and can be found writing about when those worlds converge. You can follow him on Twitter at @myAndrewBurns.

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