True Blood: Season 2 Premiere – Recap & Review
The Identity of the Body in the Car is Revealed
Jun 15, 2009
Fans of hit series True Blood’s arguably most intriguing character, Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis) – a gay African-American cook and sometime hustler, Internet-porn entrepreneur and V-juice-dealer – may have been dreading what would be revealed in last night’s season opener.
Season One Finale - Cliffhanger
Last season’s high-tension finale concluded with the discovery of a corpse in a car in the Merlotte’s restaurant parking lot. The foot that protruded through the vehicle’s open door sported red nail polish and could well have belonged to Lafayette, who was last seen taking out the garbage at Merlotte’s and raising his hands against an unseen attacker.
Lafayette and Miss Jeanette
The identity of the deceased was revealed moments into the new season. Lafayette lovers breathed a sigh of relief, because series creator Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) had the good sense not to kill him off. The body in the car was that of Miss Jeanette, the con-artist who performed the “exorcism” on Tara’s mother and cured her of her acute alcoholism. Miss Jeanette’s heart had been cut out. Who her killer might be remains open to question.
Ball and crew deserve a lot of credit for managing to keep the identity of the murder victim under wraps. Where other shows have failed in this regard, they covered all their bases. There is no sign of Lafayette in any of the Season 2 video promos. The show’s imdb page shows other True Blood regulars as having appeared in 23 episodes (to the end of the current season), but Nelsan Ellis is down only for the 12 episodes that comprised last season. All indications were that Lafayette would not be back.
For Lafayette, though, there was good news and bad news. The good news is that he escaped death; the bad news is that he is suffering a fate only slightly better. He has found himself in a dark basement, chained with several other people to some strange industrial merry-go-round. His companions are disappearing one-by-one. Viewers find out at the episode’s end that Lafayette’s captor is head vampire Eric. And by then, Lafayette is the last man standing.
Sookie and Bill
It’s been two weeks since vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer)’s self-sacrificing venture into broad daylight in a failed attempt to rescue Sookie (Anna Paquin) from serial killer Rene. Bill was presumed “dead” but subsequently recovered, and Bill and Sookie have spent much of the intervening time together. But Bill has neglected to tell Sookie that he was forced to turn a teenage girl into a vampire to atone for the vampire he killed to save Sookie last season. So Jessica’s presence at Bill’s house threatens to intrude on the big, romantic evening that Sookie and Bill have planned. And Bill has some explaining to do.
Sookie arrives at Bill’s only to discover a towel-clad Jessica emerging from his bathroom. Bill’s failure to tell Sookie about his new charge, or his role in her becoming a vampire, causes Sookie to doubt their relationship. She storms out of the house, but, later, an offhand remark from Jason prompts her to reconsider. That is, until Sookie learns that the great-uncle who had sexually abused her as a child was found dead down-river. Sookie puts two and two together and realizes that Bill killed the man who had tormented her. And this causes her to storm back over to the house and confront Bill.
In the end, Sookie makes a deal with the teenage vampire to absent herself and give Sookie and Bill some privacy. The two share an emotional reconciliation and declare their mutual love.
Sam, Maryann, Tara and Jason
Please click to find out about the other charactters, including Sam, Maryann, Tara and Jason.
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