"There's werewolves? Big Foot, is he real, too? ... Santa?"

I was a little bit unsure as to whether or not I should post my thoughts on the new episodes of True Blood. Because I've read the books, I was concerned I may inadvertently give things away thinking it's happened in the show already because it happened in the books. But, by request from my lovely friend Snow White, I've decided to go ahead and do it. Since I neglected to post last week, I'll make this a two episode recap.

In the first episode of the season, Bad Blood, we pick up pretty much from the exact moment the 2nd season finale left off: Sookie returns to the table after her post-proposal freak out to find that Bill's been abducted, Jason and Andy deal with the fact they just killed Eggs, Tara also deals with Eggs being killed, Jessica accidentally kills a trucker and Sam has set out to meet his biological family. Now, I have to say, the majority of this episode was mostly setting up the new season, which is fairly typical of season premieres. They don't want to go in guns blazing to end up puttering out in the end. Although we do discover a learn about a new breed of supes getting thrown into the mix: werewolves. Plus, we get to see the two best parts of the show, lots of gratuitous scenes of both Jason Stackhouse and Eric Northman. What more do you need, really? I guess that's how Alan Ball decided to start things off with a bang! For which, I applaud him.

Moving along to last night's episode, Beautifully Broken. We get to meet a few new characters this week, which is always fun. After Tara tries to kill herself, Lafayette takes her to see his mother in a psychiatric facility, whom he fears Tara will end up like should she continue down the path she's on. There he meets the conveniently dreamy nurse Jesus. From what I've read, and hopefully not giving too much away, he will become a regular feature in the fabulous Lafayette's life this season. But love isn't only in the air for Lafeyette. While accidentally ending up on a meth lab bust with Andy, Jason sees an enigmatic blonde who will most likely be popping back up in his life in the near future.

We also get to meet three new vampires: Russell Edgington, the kind of Mississippi who we learn orchestrated the kidnapping of Bill, his boytoy Talbot and Franklin Mott, a mysterious character who broke into someone's house (was it Bill's or Sookie's) looking for information about Sookie and a possible love interest for broken Tara.

Beyond meeting the newbies, we (finally) learn that Lorena was also involved in Bill's kidnapping, we get a touching moment between Pam and Jessica about how to dispose of bodies (vampire mentoring at its finest), we get some sweet brother/sister love moments between Sookie and Jason and we are treated to some great sexual tension between our favorite vamp Eric and Sookie.

All in all, a very good start to what's looking to be a very good season. I'm not shy about the fact I'm not team Bill, so let's continue to keep him out of the picture to allow for much more Eric/Sookie time. I'm excited for next week when it looks like we'll finally get to meet Alcide!

Until next time... xo

Title quote: Jason Stackhouse, "True Blood"