After dragging out Sookie’s true identity for three solid episodes, I Smell a Rat finally reveals the truth about Sookie without wasting any time. In the interest of not giving away any huge spoilers I won’t say what she is, but it identifies a whole other breed of supernatural that has only really been hinted at before. When her identity comes out the dangers that her nature brings comes up. Bill’s the one who tells her this, but Eric makes it clear that she shouldn’t trust him (which leads us to a very heated and in your face Bill and Eric argument.) Sookie isn’t so sure if she should trust Eric either, but he has a way of getting inside of her head.
We are given another Sookie-Eric dream. Sookie says she knows it’s just a dream and Eric replies, “Might as well enjoy it then” and proceeds to caress her, telling her all the things he knows she likes. Clearly she does and it’s a bit more than just the blood bond. Sookie goes to see Eric and finds herself wanting to trust him if he can prove he’s more honest and deserving than Bill. Pam interrupts, “blah blah vampire emergency blah blah”, to try to use Sookie to save himself from Eric’s final death, something he doesn’t think he can get himself to do. There’s an attraction between them that can no longer reside in their inner desires. Finally we get some real Sookie-Eric action! Even though it is only to leave us with a completely shocking “what the fuck” ending. True Blood does have a knack for these endings, but especially considering what the episode seemed to be building towards, I could barely believe how this one ended. There will surely be some compelling material to follow.
Sookie isn’t the only one whose nature is revealed. We find out Holly is a wican, which will play a bigger part in things as the series goes on. Far more importantly we get the full story on Crystal. I’ve heard some viewers getting fed up with Crystal and not all that interested in her story line. This week’s episode finally gives us the pay off on her character and all of Hotshot. There’s a lot more going on there than meets the eye and I’m excited to dive deeper and deeper in to it.
We also get the aftermath of Franklin’s death (R.I.P Franklin, you will be missed). Bad ass Tara is in full effect once again. Jason might have been the one who killed him, but Tara takes charge, covering up the blood and disposing of the remains. We see how much Franklin messed with her mind and emotional state, something she is finally able to talk to with Sookie and explain why she sees all vampires as pure evil, including Bill. Tara feels thankful towards Jason and the two end up very close to one another, remembering how Jason has always been there protecting her since she was 9. It finally comes out that this might not be completely true. Jason finally gets to the point where he can’t deal with Egg’s death anymore.
Russell is creepy as ever in this episode as he tries to replace his dead lover with a prostitute. He can’t live with the fact that he wasn’t there and with all of his delusions he tries to recreate what was ripped away from him. Russell regrets that he wasn’t able to be there with him at the end, so he changes that. He murders this substitute lover and gets the satisfaction he was longing for after losing the one he loved. I kind of got a similar vibe as I did with Franklin. They are both traditional, menacing, and evil natured vampires not afraid to release the monster inside them. They are both actually most disturbing when pushed because of the one they love, leading Russell to his outbreak.
