The AE Agenda! Is "True Blood"'s Jesus Just Another Dead Gay Character?

This week saw the season finale of True Blood, and let's just say the show lived up to the "blood" part of the title as a lot of that sticky fluid was shed, including some belonging to characters very popular with AE readers. At the top of that list was Jesus (Kevin Alejandro), Lafayette's boyfriend. Also dying was Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Nan Flanagan (Jessica Tuck), all of whom were at the very least queer characters, if not actually gay.

I've read some folks here and elsewhere complain about Jesus' getting offed, thus giving yet another dead gay character ala Russell T Davies killing of Ianto Jones on Torchwood: Children of Earth. On the surface, that comparison seemed especially apt since both Davies and Alan Ball, True Blood's creator, are gay men, and on both Torchwood and True Blood, the gay/bi men killed were either directly or indirectly offed by their lovers. In case of Ianto, he died when Captain Jack stupidly told the 456 humanity would never surrender, prompting the aliens to immediately gas everyone in their presence (um, duh?). And on True Blood, Lafayette killed Jesus while being possessed by Marnie.

So did Ball give us yet another dead gay character? Well, there's no denying Jesus is dead, but I don't have a problem with what happened. My mantra has always been that a show should treat its GLBT characters the same as its straight characters, and that it isn't fair to hold one TV writer accountable for the sins of everyone who came before him.

So did Ball treat Jesus differently by killing him? It's hard to argue that True Blood hasn't killed off a lot of queer characters over the years including Talbot (Russell Edgington's lover), as well as Queen Sophie-Anne, Godric, and Eddie Gauthier. That being said, it's remarkable the show has had that many GLBT characters to kill off. Furthermore, the show has killed off plenty of straight characters, including this season Debbie Pelt, the whole Mickens clan, Marcus Bozeman, and, of course, Marnie.

Talbot, Godric, Sophie-Anne, Eddie

So from where I sit, when it comes to killing off Jesus and Tara, the show seems to have treated the gay characters pretty much the same as the straight ones. (Now if you want to talk about how the show has handled same-sex sex scenes compared to the heterosexual ones, that's a different kettle of fish.)

I'd also point out that Ball saved Lafayette way back in Season One when his character was supposed to die (he did in the books), not to mention the fact that this season finale not only set up the return of Russell Edgington, but also strongly implied that Reverend Steve might have been playing for our team all along.

But there are actually even more important distinctions in how Jesus died compared to how so many past dead gay characters met their fates. The first is that Jesus was pretty central to the culmination of the season — it was his bravery and powers as a brujo that forced Marnie to free Antonia — and second, the scenes we got to see of Jesus and Lafayette expressing their love for each other both before and after Jesus was gone. Those were pretty great and their relationship was presented as one of the show's better ones, which made it all that much harder when Jesus died.

You can also count me as one of those who suspects we haven't seen the last of either Jesus or Tara. I suspect both will have roles to play down the road.

Let me add, I do acknowledge that Lafayette, Russell Edgington and the show's other GLBT characters have all been secondary or supporting characters and that it would be nice if the show had a lead gay character who got as much screentime as Sookie, Bill and Eric. That being said, even here Ball gets a pass as he's the one who gave us David on Six Feet Under who definitely was a leading character.

File this under neener, neener, neener as the ratings for the first episode of 90210 fell 11% from last year's premiere. That probably doesn't have anything to do with the network's handling of Teddy's storyline, but it's still Karma talking! Speaking of Teddy and 90210, Trevor Donovan won't be showing up again until Episode .... 5. Four weeks with nothing on Teddy's storyline. Hey, I guess if you're going to crap all over a good thing, you might as well really crap on it.

On the plus side, this mean's I don't have to watching 90210 for nearly a month. Woo hoo!

I've watched the next two episodes of Awkward, a show I like quite a bit. And as promised the gay character does show up, but as the show's creator told us, it's a really small part as of right now, basically just the punchline to a joke. Hopefully, he'll get more screentime in the second season, as well as a little more nuance. Right now he's a cliche.

Max and his "gays"

I've also seen the first two episodes of the new season of Happy Endings and while the show hasn't reached Modern Family heights of hilarity, it is still very solid. We also see quite a bit of Max (Adam Pally) in both eps which should make everyone happy. We first see Max  having issues with Brad, as he worries that Brad is "cheating" on him. You'll see what I mean when you watch. And the second episode has Max and Dave trying to work together, as if Max is capable of working with anyone. Or working.

And in case you're worried they've buffed the edges off of Max, fear not. While Adam Pally looks like he's got a new haircut, Max is as edgy and inappropriate as always — which is exactly why he like him so much. Alas, the first two episodes didn't introduce any kind of love interest for him or even have him dating, so that's a minus.

I'm glad the show has the slot right after Modern Family as that should definitely boost its ratings. However, if it loses too much of MF's audience... Let's not think about that, right?

Lastly, I know folks posted a number of comments on the last column asking questions about the site. I intended to answer them this week, but my dad landed in the hospital last week (he's doing better now) and I've been dealing with a lot of extra stuff as a result so I'm afraid I won't be able to get to them this week. Apologies for that!