Episode Title: "Trouble"
Written By: Scott Winant
Story: Sookie Stackhouse's (Anna Paquin) search for Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) comes to a shocking head. The twisted relationship between Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Franklin Mott (James Frain) takes some dangerous new turns. Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) is no longer the newest Merlotte's employee, as Sam (Sam Trammell) gives his brother Tommy (Marshall Allman) a new job. Speaking of new jobs, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) officially joins the Bon Temps police force, leading him on a collision course with Crystal (Lindsay Pulsipher). Another romance heats up as Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) seduces Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). In Mississippi, Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) confronts his past while King Russell (Denis O'Hare) suspects that Bill's interest in Sookie is deeper than he'd like to admit.
Check out our recap of "Troubled" after the jump!
And A Whole Lot Of It: For an episode titled "Trouble," there sure was a whole lot of loving — but the episode title itself makes you wonder, how great is it that all of these various couples are starting to get together?
Let's take a few steps back. For the first time all season, Sookie took a backseat while other characters moved into the forefront — until her final moments of the episode, that is, when she showed those unusual light powers for the first time since attacking Maryann last season. Of course, it doesn't look like those powers are going to help her out of the clutches of King Russell and his werewolf minions, but still, it's nice to see this plot point hasn't been ignored. Indeed, it's something that's bound to rise to the surface as the season progresses. But as Russell intimates, it seems that Bill is already suspicious of Sookie's origins... is it possible that he's been playing Sookie from the very beginning? And if so, how much deeper can Bill's secretive nature get?
But Sookie and Bill were only in the spotlight briefly, with much more attention paid towards Tara, Franklin's new captive and resistant lover. The writers really aren't giving her a break after Eggs' death, are they? But Tara is turning the tables on the obsessed Franklin, playing right into his hand with a bat of her eyelashes and a cool and calm head. We'll just have to wait and see if she can finagle her way out of becoming his undead bride — something tells me she won't wind up a vampire, but you never know with "True Blood."
Meanwhile, some of our favorites got some new jobs as Tommy joined the Merlotte's team and Jason joined the police force, with both of them eyeing potential new love interests in the form of Jessica and Crystal. Will these relationships lead anywhere? Perhaps the better question is will they lead anywhere good? That's a question we should ask Lafayette as he cozies up to Jesus, his mother's orderly. They're a sweet couple on the surface, but come on, on a show like "True Blood," nothing is what it seems — there has to be something devious going on between these two. Knowing Lafayette, he wouldn't want it any other way.
But perhaps the most interesting moment of the episode belonged to Eric Northman. Viewers learned that Eric harbors a secret grudge dating all the way back to his time as a viking. A pack of werewolves and a mysterious cloaked man murdered Eric's royal family, and there's evidence to suggest that King Russell was the man behind the crime. With Eric now taking up residence in the Mississippi king's castle, is there a chance that our favorite Swedish vampire isn't really here to fix his own blood-slinging problems — perhaps he's here to satisfy a different kind of blood lust? Only time will tell, Trubies!
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