Review: HBO’s ‘True Blood’ Season 4, Episode 2 – ‘You Smell Like Dinner’

Episode 2 of this season was released on HBO Go this evening alongside the world premiere.  So, along with tonight’s double feature, comes a double review!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Jason wakes up in Hot Shot tied to a bed, and to someone licking a wound on his head.  If you remember from the last episode, he was tricked and shoved into an icebox.  He convinces the kids of Hot Shot to untie him, when Felton busts in with a shot gun; which, after a few choice words from Jason, gets shoved into Jason’s face.

Sookie, on the other hand, has her hands full with Eric, who admits he bought her house while she was away so that she could be his when she returned.  He offers her, in exchange, protection from anyone who would want to harm her for the magical properties of her blood.

Bill, the new King of Louisiana as it would seem, has a spy in the midst of the witch coven.  It’s unclear as to what information he is attempting to gather from her, but he seems quite interested in the fact that Marnie was successful in bringing a bird back to life for a few seconds.

 Pam, Jessica, and Hoyt leave Fangtasia to a group of harsh vampire protestors.  After they insult Jessica, Hoyt picks a fight with one of the protestors, which results in him getting the stuffing kicked out of him.

 Sam Merlotte is still running around naked in the woods.  Only this time, he has company.  Once he tries to get close to a woman named Luna, she jumps up and turns into a horse and runs away.  Pretty normal, I often turn into a horse to get a man to stay away from me.

Sookie runs over to see Bill, who is in the process of entertaining a young lady.  When she arrives at his house, she sees just how much has changed.  She is greeted by a security team loaded with machine guns who inform her that they cannot see the King.  I assume Bill senses her presence, because he stops what he is doing and tells his snipers to stand down.  She urges Bill, as the King, to find a way to force Eric to leave her alone.  He is not optimistic, and asks her to stay in friend’s home for a while.  She asks him how he became King, and then her better judgment tells her not to stay to hear the answer.

Bill, on the other hand, is sucked into a memory of 1982 London of all places.  He rolls into a rock concert looking like Sid Vicious rocking a sporting English accent.  Bill takes the bartender out back for a little drink and glamors him into forgetting all about it.  After the bartender leaves, Nan Flanegan, who we know from the American Vampire League, appears out of nowhere.  She has watched Bill for weeks feed but not kill his prey.  She explains to him that there is a group of vampires that desire to join together to go mainstream, and that a vampire scientist is very close to creating a synthetic blood supplement that would eliminate the need for vampires to feed on human blood.  Nan asks Bill to join her.  At this, Bill is brought out of his memory and back to the present.

Jason is still alive, tied up to a bed in Hot Shot.  Crystal shows up and shoves part of his shirt in his mouth and tells him to be quiet while Andy Bellefleur weasels some V out of them.

Meanwhile, at Merlotte’s, Sam’s horse friend has come back to apologize for running from him, and promising to let him in.  Also, Arlene’s baby has the ability to break blood vessels in your eye just by looking at you.  Don’t make eye contact.

When Sookie gets home from buying groceries she’s greeted, not by scary fairy mutants, but by Tara, who is back to rekindle their friendship!  Sookie comes inside to discover that Eric has made himself quite at home – even installing a “cubby.”  I’m not really sure what it is yet – it looks like a combination between a walk-in freezer and an elevator shaft.  At any rate, it makes Sookie so angry she has to leave.

We, on the other hand, are taken over to Hoyt and Jessica’s, where Hoyt is doctoring his wounds that the protestors gave him.  Jessica offers to give him some of her blood to heal the wounds, to which Hoyt vehemently declines.  I don’t know what his deal is.  Personally, if I lived with a vampire, I would have them heal my every paper cut.  Jessica gets offended and leaves.  Instead of going to town to get Advil for Hoyt, though, she drives in the opposite direction.

   Meanwhile, enter Bill on a power trip.  He has called Eric to discuss important matters, like leaving Sookie alone, which he adamantly refuses.  Bill also informs Eric that there is a new coven of Wiccans in town who are practicing Necromancy, or controlling the dead.  This is apparently a big deal, because if they can control the dead, they can control the vampires.  After Eric leaves, we discover through Bill’s memory that he is just a puppet of Nan and her AVL agenda.  It was her who commissioned the death of Sophie-Anne, former Queen of Louisiana. It was under her control that Bill ascended the Louisiana throne, and it is her that will do the same to Bill if he does not stay away from Sookie Stackhouse.

Speaking of Sookie, she is still on the warpath, doing everything in her power to be rid of Eric.  She goes so far as to request an audience with Pam at Fangtasia, begging her to convince him to leave her alone.  Pam tells Sookie that because of who she is, she needs someone to protect her if she wants to survive, and she could do a lot worse than Eric Northman. Jessica then shows up at Fangtasia to find the man that was flirting with her the other night.

 Jesus, Lafayette, and Tara find themselves in the company of the coven.  Lafayette has concerns about Black Magic, which he has shared with Jesus, and Tara is, as always, a skeptic.  When Marnie is asked what they will bring back next, she simply says, “A person.”  This goes over REALLY well with everyone.

Sam and his “support group” are having a camp out, swapping crazy shifting stories.  Luna shares that she had the ability to shift into other people, like her dead mother.  CREEPY.  They then smell another shifter nearby, and Sam automatically knows who it is.  Tommy runs, Sam chases after him, and then they both change into birds.

While the witches are discussing where they’re going to find a dead body, enter Eric Northman!  Dead body!

Back at Fangtasia, Jessica is snacking on some dude in the bathroom when Sookie comes in.  Jessica tells Sookie to mind her own business when it comes to discussing Hoyt; and that she has no leg to stand on because she hurt Bill so much when she left.

 Tommy and Sam turn back into naked men.  Sam learns that Tommy has been faking his limp.  Tommy learns that Sam’s support group is a group of shifters.  Their conversation turns into one giant naked brotherly heart-to-heart.

Eric is still in the midst of the coven of witches.  He tells Marnie that this is the last time they are to meet.  When Marnie refuses, Eric bites Marnie and grabs Tara.  Everyone joins hands and starts chanting, and suddenly it gets really windy indoors.  Marnie starts yelling another language and looks at Eric with flames in her eyes, she then momentarily transforms into someone else, someone Eric seems to recognize.  This new face gets Eric really scared and he flees.

Back in Hot Shot, Jason is still tied to that bed.  Crystal lets him know that Felton is unable to make a baby, so Jason must make a baby with her to carry on the bloodline.

However, to make sure that the child can turn into a panther like every other weirdo in Hot Shot, they have to turn Jason into a panther first.  So then they both turn into panthers and start eating Jason.  Totally normal.

Sookie is driving home from Fangtasia when she sees Eric walking down the side of the road.  When she calls out to him, he doesn’t know who she is, and asks why she smells so good.  After effects from the witch, methinks.

 The season is gathering intrigue, which I appreciate!  I’m more interested in these witches than I thought I would be.  I’m as uninterested in Sam’s storyline and anything to do with Hot Shot as I knew I would be.  However, we’re getting some background into the vampire politics, which is super awesome!  All in all, a good episode.  I give it four out of five bears.