Salon.com has a wonderful take on “Beautifully Broken”‘s theme of what happens when “parents” abandon their “children”:
“The children grow up bitter and vulnerable, never having learned how to change quickly from a dog into an owl should they find themselves about to be hit by a Mack truck (Sam). Or they walk away from true love (Jessica) and when they have to dismember the trucker they accidentally killed and hid in the basement, they have no idea how expensive chainsaws are! Or they end up suicidally depressed, grieving the accidental death of their zombie serial killer boyfriend (Tara)… “Life is suffering,” Lafayette reminds Tara, on the way to visit the nasty, cold, grinch-hearted woman in the hospital who is apparently his mother. True. But it’s nice to know you can still rent chainsaws.”
“The vampires also seem a little lost. Bill, because he actually was lost in the woods until he is found by the King and invited to dinner with the King’s authentically French male companion (yes, he really is French, not just another serial killer with a fake accent. I’m from Montreal, I can tell).” (I have to interject here – isn’t Talbot meant to be Greek, not French?)
“But ever since Eric lost Godric, he seems to be using Sookie as some kind of emotional substitute, even while he pretends to be all Viking-ish. “Don’t cry” he says to her. “It makes me feels disturbingly human.” For some reason feeling disturbingly human makes Eric flashback to that time he and Godric were posing as German SS but were really hunting Nazi werewolves. Good times. (Which in case you hadn’t noticed is bon temps in French.) ”Nazi werewolves?” you ask. (Because you don’t care about French. I get it.) Yes, I wondered about that too, until I saw the above faux vintage documentary.
Eric tries explaining this all to Sookie, but it starts getting confusing. Sookie utters the best B-movie mash up line ever: “You mean the werewolves weren’t really Nazis?” No! The whole time the vampires were posing as SS, the werewolves weren’t Nazis either! I’m not sure I totally follow this, but as Eric explains, the werewolves are a highly organized ancient secret society that is actually funded by vampires. If I understand correctly, Eric and Godric thought they were hunting Nazi werewolves but they were really hunting something closer to Rosicrucian werewolves.
Whatever you say Eric. I invite you in. In fact, you’ve been welcome over anytime since you got that great haircut. But I get that you have to focus on getting into Sookie’s house right now, if only because there is a scary man with vintage pointy boots looking through Sookie’s pictures.
Meanwhile, over at the Vampire King’s house, Bill is enjoying a lovely blood bisque, after the citrus flavored “cruelty free” blood drink. In the background a string quartet does a cover of Santana’s “Evil Ways.” The King reveals his plan to marry the Louisiana Vampire Queen, and to make Bill the sheriff of the entire district of Mississippi. Bill does not look as thrilled as the King would like. Perhaps because the rest of his eternal life is flashing before his eyes and he’s seeing himself playing a lot of Yahtzee. Also by now he’s starting to get glimmers of this whole vampire-funded werewolf society. Tempers begin to flare.
At the bar, a stranger enters. Intriguing British accent. Pale. Orders a bottle of True Blood. Tara grudgingly gives him a cold one (the microwave’s broken). Mysterious British Vampire seems to be bonding with Tara. Oh, the wounded children, will they ever develop good people instincts? Obviously not, because the camera pans down and, he has POINTY BOOTS.”
The entire review is quite wonderfully written. Click on the link above to check it out!
“But I get that you have to focus on getting into Sookie’s house right now, if only because there is a scary man with vintage pointy boots looking through Sookie’s pictures.”
Hmmmm…missed the fact that the pointy boots belonged to Franklin Mott and he was going through Bill’s craftily hidden dossier on Sookie in Bill’s house?
Sometimes these reviewers try too hard to be clever and witty only to reveal through their writing that they don’t really watch/follow the show at all.
I agree, the reviewer is trying to be funny and clever but just comes off a bit ignorant. You couldn’t follow the nazi were’s plotline? it wasn’t that difficult, why was this person so confused. Then they think FM went to Sookie’s house when it was Bill’s house.
Why write a review when you didn’t even realize what was going on.
It didn’t take much to follow THAT plot either.
Franklin of the pointy boots couldn’t have been in Sookie’s house unless she invited him in. He was in Bill’s house. Very important distinction because it exposes the fact that bill has been keeping tabs on the Stackhouses for years and was sent to Bon Temps with a purpose.
Yeah, that seems to be understood, but maybe AB will change it so that Bill was sent there to protect Sookie – maybe he’s a double agent for the FAE! (Kidding) Hey – I can fanwank with the best of them.
Yeah, I’ve only seen the episode once and there is a ton wrong with the technical aspects of this article, from missed plot points to dialogue….but the sentiment is great and something I’ve been pondering myself.
I am moved to say that the paragraph about the Nazi/Rosicrucian werewolves was the stuff of genius. As much as I love this series, so much of it is unintentionally just, well, screwball-funny. As for missed plot points, I miss a million. (thank god for the sharp eyes on this site)
I don’t think Bill is working for crazy SA, maybe he was sent by someone else. If Bill was working on such an important mission why wouldn’t SA care when Eric told her he was missing, and she said let him rot?
Sophie would as soon “let him rot” as not…because right now all she’s concerned with is dumping her vamp blood…undetected and unpunished. Bill is the only other vamp who knows Eric is pushing. And Eric isn’t going to take the fall for old Queenie.
Besides…Sookie is a done deal…a known quantity at this point. She’ll work for Eric. Oops…she does already! Bill is no big loss to either one of them.
‘authentically french…Im from Montreal, I can tell’ LOL Please…
This reviewer is a know-it-all!!!
is it realistic to have some1 from across the pond randomly show up in rural lousiana bar? i mean i know TB is fantasy but they could have surely put some reality/consistency into the aspects the show they can control. It’s a bit wierd! But cant complain because I’m loving Franklin Mott/James Frain.
Eh, Franklin doesn’t show up randomly, he’s there for a reason for sure. And about “across the pond” thing, a lot of the vamps are from Europe which don’t stop them from being in Louisiana for the moment. And Franklin could easily have been in America for some years even though he still has his British accent…