"True Blood" (1.08) recaplet: The Fourth Man in the Fire

On this week's episode of True Blood, we learn if Bill was in one of the caskets that was fricasseed last week, if Tara's mother has successfully exorcised Jose Cuervo, and whether vampire grand high poobah Eric will become the latest male cast member to doff his clothes!

Join us after the break for the bare facts!

Sookie rushes to the still smoldering caskets, and is informed that there were four "remains" found. They open one, and the inside looks exactly like my living room wall looked after my (now) ex told me he wouldn't be home to try the lasagna I slaved for hours over, and I threw it into the floor fan.

...Anyway, Sookie is horrified, but I was distracted at this point playing the "hey, it's that guy!" game. You've played it before, where you're absorbed in a movie or tv show, and suddenly you recognize one of the actors from something else you've seen, and it takes you out of the moment.

There are several instances in this episode where I said "hey, it's that guy!", and the first was when I finally recognized the coroner as John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise. So he went from playing a major role on Enterprise to a bit part in this show ... is that a step up or step down?

Tara is perplexed when she wakes up to find that not only is her mother getting rid of all her "devil juice", but she also spent the morning making a sprawling breakfast, crafted from bacon grease and other artery-exploding ingredients. Tara smiles at the thought, but she should be terrified. It's obvious that her mother has just replaced her old demon with an even more terrifying one ... Paula Deen! (And trust me, I'd rather have a thousand Pazuzus pounding in my chest that one of her Southern-fried slabs of stroke-on-a-stick.)

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Jason and Amy wake up after a long night of ... well, I'm not really sure. They've shared vamp blood, and Jason says "It felt like the whole world came together, you me, the house, we were all one big ...", to which Amy replies "organism", which prompts this classic response from Jason "yeah, mine was huge!"

Oh, Jason ... don't ever change.

Actually, he's in for a shock when he learns that the bonding they shared was strictly metaphysical, and they never even had sex, which I find hard to believe considering that even I'm mesmerized by Lizzy Caplan's breasts. Unlike most actresses her age, they don't look like Bocce Balls surrounded by flesh, but actually look ... natural.

We cut to Tara arriving at Sookie's house, and in a hilarious scene, sees her with her head in the oven. She pulls her out and asks why, and Sookie says "I don't know ... I'm having a bad day". Okay, that's not what happens, but my undying love to anyone who gets that reference. Turns out that Sookie was just cleaning the oven, and after Tara sees the fang marks on her neck, they have a hellacious fight, and I haven't seen this kind of white girl/black girl conflict since the Nikki Blonsky/Bianca Golden airport throwdown.

Ryan Kwanten, Lizzy Caplan

Terry asks Sam if it was him that was running naked in last week's episode, and Sam turns it around on Terry, insinuating that because he's shell shocked from his time in Iraq, that it's only natural that he sees ... naked men running through the forest?

Sookie is at home, heartbroken over Bill's apparent demise, so she gathers a bouquet of flowers and visits his grave. As she tearfully starts to leave the cemetery, a hand reaches up from the ground and grabs her ankle.

She screams and falls to the ground, as a naked Bill, covered with filth, rises from the dirt and squirms after her (and you can call me a freak if you want, but that is the hottest scene this show has given us). They make passionate love on the ground, and Bill feeds on her again.

She arrives at work later, giddy with joy, and doesn't hesitate to tell anyone who listens that Bill survived the molotov massacre. She also meets Amy, who has taken it upon herself to help out waitressing, but is still too pissed at Jason to give him the time of day.

When she gets a chance, she tells Amy that his track record with women is deplorable, but Amy responds that there's more to Jason than anyone knows, and he may "surprise people with what he's capable of." Foreshadowing, anyone?

Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer

Meanwhile, Arlene is having a rough go of it. Her babysitter has canceled, and she needs a replacement. Terry offers to help, but she politely declines, and when he tells her "I like your voice ... and clavicle", my "speculative spoiler" meter went through the roof. There is definitely something up with him.

Arlene is desperate, though. She and Rene have tickets to see the Oak Ridge Boys tribute band (I think they're called the Ba-oom papa oom papa mow mows), so she breaks down and sweet talks Sookie into doing it.

When she shows up at Sookie's with her two kids, she's not prepared to also see Bill, who'll be helping out. She's nervous about leaving them with him, but she needn't be. He turns out to be a natural with kids, and even makes fangs out of candy corn.

She gets another surprise on the way home from the concert, when Rene pops the question. She accepts, and back at Sookie's house, delivers this great throwaway line "I know I've done it four other times, but it never gets old!". Rene turns to Bill and says "maybe you're next", and in an obvious nod to gay marriage, then says "You know, when it becomes legal".

Sam Trammell, Rutina Wesley

Tara is becoming increasingly erratic, almost as if she's ... possessed by something. When her mother comes home from church wearing a hideous hat and accompanied by a church biddy, she spits venom at the meaninglessness of it, then later after she and Sam are laying in bed, she goes off the deep end when he compares her grunting to Serena Williams (which is completely understandable, actually).

We finally find out who the fourth man in the fire was, as the Sheriff has to break it to Dr. Phlox that it was his young assistant, Neill, who had become a fangbanger.

Amy (who apparently is not as "peace, love and understanding" as we thought), is going through major V juice withdrawal, and convinces Jason to tail Lafayette in the hopes of finding out where he gets his V supply. They follow him as he pulls up outside a middle class house in the suburbs and watch as he enters and meets up with "hey, it's that guy!". The source of Lafayette's v juice supply is Eddie, played by Stephen Root, from Newsradio and King of the Hill.

Nelsan Ellis

Turns out that Eddie is lonely, and is more than willing to trade his blood for a little "quality time" with Lafayette. I love the fact that in this show not all vampires are mysterious, glamorous creatures, but some are ... accountants.

After Lafayette gets what he came for, he leaves, and Amy and Jason prepare to do their own "negotiating". Eddie is watching TV, and I was thrilled to see two more examples of "hey, it's that guy". First, from the young televangelist on screen, who was played by Michael McMillian (from the gay themed movie Dorian Blues), and I instantly recognized the talk show host as Stephanie McVay, from such awesomely titled films as Edge of Seventeen and Gypsy 83.

Amy and Jason creep up to the house and knock on the door, and Jason is shocked when Amy throws a silver mesh bag over Eddie's head, rendering him immobile. She orders Jason to tie Eddie's hands and feet up with silver cord, and then they throw him into the back of the truck and drive away. Jeez Jason, you sure can pick 'em.

Alexander Skarsgard

Bill comes home to find a special treat awaiting him in the bathtub. No, it's not Sookie ... it's Eric! I guess they know each other, um, pretty well for Eric to just come in Bill's house and decide to take a bath ... a hot bath ... a hot, naked bath ... with candles, and scented soap.

Eric has a "favor" to ask, and unfortunately, it doesn't involve helping him scrub those "hard-to-reach" places. There's a problem at Fangtasia, and he needs Sookie's special talent. Bill tries to explain to Sookie that when Eric asks for something, it's best to "heed to his wishes", but a night at a vampire bar is not what she had in mind when he asked her out for the evening.

She mentions that she had a dream in which he was hit by sunlight, and burst into flame, and he explains that it wouldn't happen in exactly that way. The sunlight would severely weaken him until he was dead, but he wouldn't catch fire ... immediately. She bemoans the fact that they can never have breakfast together (apparently she doesn't know that Denny's serves their Superslam all day and night.)

They arrive at Fangtasia, and Eric explains that he, Pam, and bartender Longshadow are partners in the bar, and have found out that someone has been stealing from them. They need her to "read" all the humans in the bar to find out who the thief is.

They start out with the bookkeeper, but after finding out it wasn't him, eventually work their way down to the last human. Sookie reads that it wasn't her either, but the woman knows who is responsible. She also learns that the memory has been wiped from the woman's mind, which means she's been "glamoured"... and the real culprit is actually a vampire ... at which point Longshadow flies across the bar and grabs Sookie by the neck!

End of episode

Well, this episode sets up a lot of intriguing stories for the upcoming weeks. Does Tara have a demon inside her? (and if she does, my guess is it's Shirley Hemphill) ... What is the deal with Terry? ... What will become of Eddie now that we know that Amy isn't the granola cruncher we thought (and will Jason really go along with draining a vampire against his will)? ... Will Sookie be able to remain human much longer? (in next week's preview, they show her bathed in blood, like a cajun Carrie).

What did you think of this week's episode? let us know in the comments, and come back next week as we (hopefully) learn the answers!