Ausiello is reporting today a confirmation from Alan Ball that Sam will face horrible consequences for drinking a gallon of Bill’s blood in the season 2 finale.
Sam shall be tormented and tortured in a hillbilly hotel room with Bill sex dreams!
Sucks to be you, Sam Merlotte.
Since my preferred slash coupling – Eric and Lafayette – don’t look like being realised on screen any time soon, this will just have to do for now.
I was utterly convinced that the consequences of Sam drinking from Bill would be completely ignored next season, with only Sookie and Laf enjoying the sleepy-time benefits of ingesting vampire blood. So I’m really pleased to see some attempt at continuity in this storyline.
But you know there’s a rant coming, and here it is.
After the finale (when I had calmed down enough to think rationally) I wondered if – and how – things would play out between Sam and Bill in the future. I’ve ripped this directly from my little notebook of conspiracy theories, written last September:
One of the following two scenarios must play out after Sam having Bill’s blood. Either:
Sam starts having sex dreams about Bill – since both Sookie and Lafayette are having them about Eric, while insisting that there is no sexual attraction at play. If it’s true there is no attraction (at least for Lafayette), Bill/Sam dreams must occur – since Sam definitely has no sexual attraction towards Bill whatsoever. This means the blood can cause attraction where there was none before.
OR
Sam has no sexy dreams about Bill. In this case, we should get a clearer indication that Lafayette does in fact have a boner for Eric, just as we all know Sookie does. Therefore the blood only intensifies feelings that already exist, either consciously or sub consciously.
So it appears we are getting the first scenario. In Ball’s world, the taking of blood can cause sexual attraction. This is a major departure from the books, where the blood can only intensify an attraction that already exists.
In Ball’s world, Eric (and Bill, for that matter) are manipulating thoughts and feelings, and by extension the actions, of others through their blood. This is so fucking stupid. It removes any genuine emotional conflict and complexity, and lays blame for what remains with the blood. The blood becomes a crutch. Feeling attraction for a vampire that isn’t your boyfriend? Oh don’t be stupid, it’s the blood. Feeling hot for a guy that locked you up in a basement for a few weeks? Nuh-uh silly, it’s just the blood. Suddenly having fantasies about the dude who is dating your crush? That damn blood again! This approach is significantly less interesting than forcing characters to face up to what may lie behind those feelings, and it treats the audience like idiots who need to be spoonfed. The issue of blood ties generally, and the blood bond between Sookie and Eric is sometimes frustrating for book readers. But it is also compelling and beautiful and filled with potential. It is complex, unpredictable and mysterious; we are never quite sure how it’s playing into the characters feelings and actions. This, on the other hand is Blood Ties For Dummies. Blood Bonds for the Masses. It’s insulting, actually.
I’m not really concerned about the implications for Sookie and Eric – her attraction to him was evident well before the bullet sucking in Dallas. And of course, Eric is still one up on Bill, having a genuine interest in Sookie without ever having tasted her. I think both of these factors support an argument for the tables being turned on Bill and Eric at some point down the line – the “evil” one genuinely loves her, the “noble” one turns out to have feet of clay.
You can be sure that as the first real clarification of how blood exchanges are going to work in True Blood, this will be jumped upon by certain sections of fandom to support the case that Eric is an evil, manipulative bastard. Nothing new there. Yet I would also point out that playing things this way has huge implications for Bill and Sookie too. While Sookie was interested in Bill before she had his blood, she went completely into overdrive immediately after the second night when he fed her after she was bashed. Masturbating on Bill’s porch? I don’t think she made a habit of self-pleasuring in public before that incident. Combined with Bill’s comments in Dallas about having “sexual feelings” for Eric after drinking his blood, surely Sookie is going to have to start joining the dots here?
Enjoy that pretty ring Sookie…I have a feeling it won’t be on your finger for long.
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