This week’s episode of True Blood, entitled “I Got a Right to Sing the Blues” could be deemed one of the bloodiest of the season! To go hand-in-hand with that I wasn’t immediately clawing my eyes out whenever Tara arrived as she was not only bad-ass but relatively minor this week. The Stackhouse clan is a bit unimpressive this episode and the werewolves continue to be portrayed as dumb animals but all things considered this Alan Ball penned episode was a return to form for the series.
Eric and Russell go to Queen Sophie-Anne putting her in a position in which she’s forced to accept Russell’s proposal. Tara finally breaks free of Franklin with bloody results in order to save Sookie who herself is trapped in Russell’s house. Lorena is commissioned with killing Bill for hiding Sookie and the maker is torn between her love and duty. Lafayette and Jesus go on a date but it ends in disaster. Jason finally connects with the mysterious Crystal but ends up with his heart broken. Sam and Tommy continue to bond but Melinda forces Tommy to choose between his new brother and his family.
One thing this episode had more than any in recent memory is humor. The one-liners and jokes have decreased significantly in this season but they return in full force from Talbot’s screams when Bill starts destroying his home to Sophie-Anne’s shouts of “I want my Hadley,” I found myself chuckling more than I have in awhile. The script, penned by creator Alan Ball, was also sharp with several rapid-fire discussions and conversations that have also been absent of late. The confrontation with Sophie-Anne, Russell and Eric was particularly tense and that air of tension hasn’t been felt since this season started. Sophie-Anne’s wedding to Russell is setting up to be the climax of the episode and any episode that goes in-depth into the vampire hierarchy is always engaging as there’s so many different levels of the royalty and beyond in that. Lorena’s torturing of Bill also grounds things back into the third novel, something book fans have been urging from the beginning. Hopefully by now fans of the books can figure out where things are going as the end of this episode can easily be figured out if you’ve read the book. And who didn’t love Tara finally bringing some of her normally feisty attitude to the forefront and getting the best of Franklin?! While the love scene was a bit over-the-top just watching Tara return to the badass we’ve seen in season one was fantastic!
With all the discussion of the vampire social strata this episode put in stark relief how wasted the werewolves are this season. The wolves are being portrayed as stupid and in-bred with two really big moments being laughably bad, mainly how Sookie and Tara could take out a huge wolf and the stupidity of Cooter and Debbie. If the wolves are supposed to be on equal footing with the vampires then the vamps are pretty stupid as the wolves are looking to be the most inept group of idiots out there. Sam and Tommy are continuing to develop a sweet brotherly love but the added element of dog-fighting was the worst kept secret of the season, I mean who didn’t know what it was? The fact that the ads played it up to be such a big secret one would assume there is more to it. At this point it just seems like something that was to be expected. Jason continues to be bipolar with his obsessive love of Crystal and need to pummel the new high-school quarterback. Maybe there is something “wrong” about the kid like Jason says but he just looks to be bullying a kid and a bigger question, if everyone knows Jason isn’t a cop why hasn’t someone complained about his brutality? That would definitely put a fork in his cop career and probably land him some jail time.
Overall “I Got a Right to Sing the Blues” was a return to form after a few weeks of blandness. Sookie continues to whine and cry too much and her relationship with Bill just seems weak but we learned more about Lorena and the vampires forming a tighter bond is gearing up to lead to some fantastic results, possibly a wedding between the King of Mississippi and the Queen of Louisiana?
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