True Blood Recap: “The Sun”

by Sarabeth Pollock:

True Blood Recap: “The Sun”
Original Air Date (HBO): Sunday June 23, 2013
Season 6 Episode 2

Greetings, Truebies!

There is a disturbance in the force in Bon Temps.  A rift is opening between the fairy world and our own world.  Sookie’s manuscript is glowing.  The man who emerges from the rift doesn’t look particularly happy.  Cue the opening credits.

Jason’s car is going out of control.  He’s about to hit a tree when a man appears and shoots fairy beams at the car.  Jason jumps out, gun blazing.  He recognizes the man as the guy who’d been driving the car. “I’m not Warlow.  I’m your fucking fairy grandfather.” (Okay, so he was leading us on last week about being Warlow). When Jason demands proof, the man tells him that he broke his middle finger in fourth grade and was more concerned about not being able to flip off Hoyt.  Hmm.  I think he’s for real.  He’s a fan of Jason’s football career, and he knows about Jason’s “juicy” porn collection.  Fairy Grandfather is disappointed that he’s come all this way to find a Stackhouse, and he just happens to find Jason wandering the road alone at night and willing to spill his life’s story to a total stranger.  He isn’t sure that Jason is ready for this mission.  Jason, however, thinks he’s more than capable of taking on Warlow.  Fairy Grandfather doesn’t agree.

Tara is screaming in agony.  Pam is trying to help her but she’s completely helpless against whatever it is that the police shot into her.  Eric and Nora arrive.  Eric peers into the gaping wound in Tara’s stomach and sees a blue light.  When he tries to take the bullet out, it burns him.  He breaks a bottle and fishes it out as Tara screams.  It’s a silver bullet that emits UV light.  The humans, it would seem, have developed new weapons.  Nora reminds Eric that General Cavanaugh, the general he killed back in New Orleans, had mentioned new weapons to fight vampires.  If it’s a war the humans want, Eric muses.  Pam isn’t so convinced.  Maybe the vampires should be scared, she says.  There are more humans than there are vampires, and there used to be a way to maintain the peace until the Tru Blood supply ran out.  Now they’re screwed.  Eric pledges that the humans will have their war.  He commands Nora to scour the Vampire Bible to figure out what Bill has become.  When she reminds him that she has already done that, to no avail, he tells her to do it again.  That order comes out as a roar.  He stalks from the room, leaving his family looking on in shock.

Bill’s cries wake Jessica from her sleep.  He’s downstairs, blood tears pouring from his eyes.  He tells her he can feel their memories.  He can feel everything.  A boy vampire is being burned up, and another is being dragged behind a truck while his human tormentors are laughing.  Bill can’t help them.  Jessica sobs as Bill becomes comatose.  He wakes up in a sunny field.  He is led to Lilith by three naked vampire women.  Lilith tells him that he thinks that he can still be Bill Compton, but they don’t have much time.  Events have been set into motion.  As the vision fades, Bill’s bloody eyes remain open.

Sookie is tucked into bed when her phone rings.  It’s Arlene, and she’s late for her shift.  Sookie tells Arlene she had a rough night, but that she’ll be in.  Terry is making pancakes.  Arlene is about to call Holly when Terry looks up and sees Patrick’s wife. (Patrick, as you’ll recall, was killed by the Smoke Demon, Ifrit.  Please, let’s not start this again….).  Maggie thinks Patrick ran off with another woman.  Just as Terry starts to tell her what happened, Arlene steps in and confirms that Patrick ran off with another woman; she consoles the heartbroken woman, and although life can be a “shit sandwich” sometimes, she tells Maggie that she can move on and have a better life.

As Sookie makes her way to work, she comes across a man moaning in the woods.  She tries to walk away, but she can’t help but stop to make sure he’s ok.  She reads his thoughts and hears that he thinks she smells like his own blood. He tells her that a vampire attacked him and a hospital can’t help him because he’s half-fairy, too.  She takes him back to her place and asks about the attack.  He smiles at her and says she reminds him of his first love in high school.  He falls asleep before she can get more information.

A group of young people from Los Angeles and Vermont arrive at Merlotte’s.  One of the girls asks Arlene if the vegetables are organic.  She replies that in Bon Temps the term “organic” refers to someone who plays piano in church.  Sam is busy at the cash register and he checks in with Lafayette, who is watching Emma.  They’re having a great time playing dress-up, but they’re hungry.  Given how much pink is going on in that room, I’d say Lafayette and Emma are getting along just fine.  One of the women approaches Sam and tells him she knows he’s a Shifter.  She wants him to come out and tells his story.  She saw Luna shift into Steve Newlin’s form on the news and she thinks it’s time to start a dialogue between humans, vampires and shifters.  She knows that he was hunted by the hate group Human Patriots of America.  Sam takes her into his office.  She introduces herself as Nicole Wright of the Vampire Unity Society.  She reminds him that the governor of Louisiana has declared war on vampires and it won’t be long before the same kind of racial targeting happens with shifters.  He doesn’t want any part of it, telling her that she knows nothing of his life.  Nicole stands her grounds.  Her grandparents were Freedom Riders and they had to deal with all kinds of adversity, but in the end things were better for everyone.  He takes her card.  Let’s see if he considers the offer.

Jessica is beside herself.  Bill is still catatonic, but he’s in his dream state.  Lilith tells him that the beginning of the end has come.  Bill needs to complete her work, given that he won the battle for her blood.  He wonders if he’s a god.  She tells him that God made her a Vampire and then He made Adam and Eve as Humans.  She is worshipped as a god, just as he might be, but “there is no God but God.”  Jessica tells Bill she will be right back.  There is a knock at the door.  It’s Veronica from Human Edibles.  Jessica called thinking that Bill might be hungry. (For reference, it’s $50 for the wrist, $100 for the neck, and $150 for bites “elsewhere”)  Bill is still catatonic.  Veronica tries to rouse him but is unsuccessful. As she leaves, Veronica is stopped and twisted into a pretzel.  She is brought before Bill’s still form, and the blood is sucked out of her body like a fountain.  It pours into Bill’s mouth while Jessica watches in horror.

Sookie tries to care for her new patient.  She touches him and his arm glows.  She tells him that there was a point when she wanted to be rid of her life because she was sick of being different.  The stranger agrees, saying that sometimes no matter how hard you try, it still comes out wrong. Though he thinks she’s a good person, Sookie tells him she’s a liability.  He rises from the couch to leave.  He says his name is Ben and he’s heading on a journey wherever the road takes him.  It has been a while since someone has shown him any kindness.  At the last moment, Sookie tells him about the safe place for fairies.

Poor Andy.  He has a gaggle of little girls and he calls for Maurella while walking through the field where the little girls were conceived.  He begs her to come back.  He’s too old to be doing this, and he has no idea how to be a good daddy.  The little girls seem to disagree.  Even he has to laugh at the situation as the run around and giggle at him.

Jason and his Fairy Grandfather arrive at Sookie’s house.  Jason shouts for Sookie but she isn’t home.  They go up to the bathroom.  FG agrees that this is a portal and that Warlow tried to break through.  He jumps into the portal to assess the damage.  Jason gets worried. “Grandpa!” he shouts.  Soon he also tries to jump into the portal but he ends up on the other side of Sookie’s bathroom.  FG re-emerges covered in goo that reminded me of Poltergeist.  The situation is much worse than he thought.

Ben and Sookie walk along the road together on the way to the fairy club.  She asks what brings him to Bon Temps.  He’s looking to lay down some roots and find something good after all the bad in his life.  He awkwardly asks if he can take Sookie out to thank her.  She tells him she’s not in the best place to start a new relationship right now.  Ben picks up Bill’s name from her head.  Sookie gets nervous and tells Ben how to reach the club.  Walking through the woods with strangers has never ended well for her.  She runs off before he can protest.

Nora is studying the Vampire Bible.  She’s reading a passage that says that “the people” drove Lilith to the sun.  Light and dark will collide and the two will become one.  As she ponders this statement, Pam walks in wearing a very cute pink sweat suit.  Nora has been up all day and Eric is “out.”  She tells Pam that this section of the Vampire Bible has been mistranslated, that “the people” led her to the sun.  She needs to go out and she asks Pam to let Eric know.  Pam says that Eric told her to “fuck off” and that’s what she’s planning to do.  Nora tells Pam that Eric loves her and that he didn’t tell her about Nora to protect her from the damage such a secret could do to her if it fell into the wrong hands.  Pam is his greatest accomplishment, Nora says.  Eric has always spoken very highly of her to Nora.  Pam takes this information in with interest.  Clearly she loves her Maker just as much.  Nora jets off, leaving Pam to ponder this revelation. (How much of that did Nora make up, I wonder.)

Eric is doing recon at the governor’s mansion.  As he watches the house, a lobbyist stumbles down the dark path.  Eric pounces.  The governor’s daughter wants to go out but doesn’t want her “gestapo” security detail following her.  She leads her father’s 5:30pm appointment into his study.  The lobbyist is really Eric, dressed in the reporter’s clothing. He pretends to be fighting for the rights of the whooping crane, and the governor apologizes that he hasn’t read the proposal.  He tells Eric about a vampire attack at Chuck E Cheese where two vampires killed a child’s parents.  Eric sees the plight of the vampires as being similar to the plight of the whooping crane…and so the governor dismisses him.  Eric seizes upon the opportunity to glamour the governor into stopping the war on vampires, ceasing the seizure of vampire-run businesses, and, finally, admitting his love for vampires.  “Guards!” the governor yells.  It seems that they have developed special contact lenses to protect humans against glamouring.  As Eric is surrounded by the security detail, the governor joyfully talks about how easy it was to launch into this little war given that the vampires were dumb enough to take out their own Tru Blood factories.  He sends Eric to “camp.”

Sookie returns home. (Is she ever going to get to work?  I think that might be a sub-subplot this season) Jason is waiting for her and he introduces her to their fairy grandfather, Na.  Na is wrapped in a blanket and he’s very hungry. And he’s going to help them catch Warlow.  Jason relates the tale to Sookie over a spaghetti dinner.  In a classic crossover moment, Jason uses Star Wars to explain to Sookie that Na is kind of like Boba Fett, only without the intergalactic space travel.  Though there is some space and time shit, a la Doctor Who.  Na tells the siblings that Warlow is already in their world.  When Sookie tried to channel the memories through Claude, Warlow slipped through the rift.  Na continues that Warlow is a vampire who has been obsessed with their family line for thousands of years.  Na is the king of their bloodline (Jason jumps at the revelation that Sookie is a fairy princess and that makes him a fairy prince, but he’s deflated when Na tells him that the gene skipped him).  Warlow has been after them for years and years, and he massacred Na’s village.  He was a young boy so he never saw Warlow, but he was there as Warlow killed the village and then finally killed Na’s parents.  Na tracked him up until John Stackhouse signed the pact that promised Sookie to Warlow.  But Warlow was sent back when Claudine blasted him away from Sookie.  Na gives Sookie the power to decimate any vampire it touches.  She can only use it one time, and since she is only part-fae, she will cease to be a fairy once it has been used.  He urges her to practice, and she does so.  Apparently it doesn’t impact her light-bank.  Jason watches as Sookie conjures the magic ball.  “Sookie, it’s more powerful than the sun,” Na tells her.

Eric’s security detail leads him away from the mansion.  He asks if they will read him his rights, to which he is told that he has no rights.  That’s when he leaps into the sky.  “They can fly?” the guard gasps.

Emma is sound asleep in her fabulous leopard coat and pink boots.  Lafayette is yawning tiredly.  Sam gets home with food.  Lafayette wants to know what kind of trouble Sam is in, but Sam doesn’t want to put Lafayette at risk.  Headlights appear outside.  Sam signals to Lafayette to stay inside as he goes out to find Alcide, Martha and Rikki.  They have come for Emma.  They are sorry that Luna lost her life, but Emma is a Were and the feds are going to come looking for Luna and Emma and so Emma should be with family.  Sam wants to keep Emma with him, and he reminds them that the last time they left something important to the Werewolves, Russell Edgington was released, Luna was killed and Sam found Emma in a cage.  Lafayette steps outside to voice Emma’s desire to stay.  Of course Emma wakes up and rushes out to Sam, but Martha catches her and carries her away as Rikki and Alcide fight with Sam and Lafayette.  Sam is on the ground watching helplessly as Emma is taken by the new pack master.  Unbeknownst to all of them, Nicole and her gang are in the bushes nearby filming the whole incident.

The governor’s daughter is getting ready for bed.  She has taken out her special contact lenses.  When she turns around, she sees that her window is open and Eric is floating outside.  She freezes.  “Good evening, Miss Burrell.  Why don’t you invite me in?” he purrs.  “Of course,” she replies.

Jessica has fetched a wooden stake from outside.  She tells Bill that her great-aunt Mathilda was in a coma when she was a child.  The doctors said she could still hear them and feel pain.  Jessica wonders if Bill can feel her pain.  She is scared because so much is happening.  She was raised on the Human Bible and then Bill raised her on the Vampire Bible.  Now she doesn’t know what she believes in.  Jessica gets down on her knees and prays to God to protect her friends.  She prays for Jason and Sookie.  Jason is a good man and Sookie was a good friend “even though she tried to kill me.”  She prays for Eric even though he’s angry, and bless Pam and give her the courage to let happiness in.  Bless Tara and let her find what she’s looking for.  She prays for the people of Bon Temps for “they know not what they do.”  Finally she prays for Hoyt, wherever he is.  And she prays for Bill and prays for his return because she needs him.  It’s an incredibly powerful moment and praise goes to Deborah Ann Woll for an amazing performance.

Lilith tells Bill to “save us all.”  She tells him to trust what he sees, and he will know what to do.  He wakes up, confused.  The television turns on and he watches the news report showing a vampire that has been captured.  The reporter says that since Governor Burrell has rescinded all vampire rights, there is no law being broken even though this vampire is being tortured.  Jessica realizes that this is the event he was talking about earlier.  She realizes that Bill can see the future.  “I can see the future,” he says in wonder.  Then he sees a vision of his friends standing in a room.  The ceiling opens up to the bright sun in a moment reminiscent of Claudia’s death in Interview with the Vampire.  His friends catch fire and scream in agony.  “They’re all going to burn!”

Well, fellow Truebies.  That was some deep shit tonight.  I don’t know about you, but that last scene bothered me a lot.  The room our vampire friends were trapped in was very sterile, but the similarities between Nazi gas chambers were too obvious.  Governor Burrell even ordered Eric to the “camp.”  Whereas last season was centered around religion and politics, this season seems to be focusing on rights.  This season will more than likely raise many questions over the definition of rights and who is entitled to these rights.

After two episodes, we’re already into some pretty heady shit.  What did you think, Truebies?  Please feel free to post your thoughts below.

See you next week!

Sarabeth Pollock is a contributor for Dark Media. She covers The Walking Dead, True Blood, Doctor Who, Fringe and American Horror Story, as well as the True Blood comics and whatever movies and books happen to catch her fancy.  Watch for her coverage of San Diego Comic Con 2013.  She’s an avid writer, reader, and pop culture fan, with interest in everything from Star Trek to Anne Rice to Deborah Harkness.  She’s also a nerd who loves the color pink.  Follow her on Twitter at @SarabethPollock and check out her blog at http://sarabethpollock.wordpress.com