That was incredibly stupid and risky, yeah. Tara was right. And I can have timely conversation about this because we got HBO again last week.

I loved Tara tossing Bill off the truck. Good Going!

Bonny Fides: agree about the Claudine reveal. That was cheesy Mariannish stuff. The reveal in the book was so much better - so sudden and matter-of-fact. Oh well. (Responding to her post in Boxed Set.)

I was absolutely delighted by Russell Edington this week. It seems Dennis O'Hare loves this character.

As a semi-fan of the books, I was disappointed in the Cluadine reveal. Granted, it would be impossible to cast the most beautiful woman in the world, but it felt like the depiction of what she and Sookie are was troweled on pretty think. Sort of Maryanne time, without the black eyes. Not at all subtle or even remotely convincing. A fairly major plot line, which was developed over a very long trajectory of hints and what ifs in the books just plopped onto the screen. meh.

On the other hand, could they have chosen more adorable dogs for the fighting scenes? I just wish Sam had bitten off a few limbs before rescuing Tommy.

That mother! Ew, with a capital E. Any mother who would...well, you know. The casting and writing for Sam's family is spot on.

Sumi, right?

And Claudine...to my recollection, never behaved so off balance. For whatever their faults, she and Claude were always self-assured. Her response to the 'darkness' (was that an element of the books I've forgotten?) was a bit too, "EEk, a mouse!"

I loved the matter of factness of which you speak. It made the thing so much more real/believable...if that makes sense. If this were Doctor Who, we would have seen this much later on, with a montage of all the tiny clues that led up to it so the audience could have one of those satisfying, "Oh, THAT explains it." reactions.

Ah well. Books different. And I mean that in a good way. I adored the scenes with Pam, Eric and the Magister.

And, despite not being a real horror fan, the sploosh! effect of a vamp death is really making me gagiggle.

I'm not sure if anyone has said it yet but, YAY demise of Lorena! Was not sorry to see her go in a shower of unset strawberry jello.

Pam rocks - even when she is being tortured.

Sam's mother is the worst mom I've ever seen since the one on The Wire who wanted her son left in juvie because he sucked as a drug dealer and she hoped it'd make a man of him.Even the cop who took him in was all "For reals?"

I want to know how it is that the grubby stepfather has such power over Sam's mother and Tommy - how can he "make" her dogfight? Is it just that she has been brainwashed since she was a teenager?

I had to fastforward the dogfighting bits. i'm not happy that the show went there.

also unhappy with the Claudine reveal. way too cheesy and over the top. does this mean that Claudine is only ever going to be seen when Sookie is unconscious? i hope not.

i'm unsurprised that they just had Bill feeding on Sookie and not {book spoiler} also raping her. since Alan Ball has such a hard-on for Sookie/Bill. it's kind of a point of no return for the character.

this was probably my least favorite of the eps this season. Pam, Eric and Tara notwithstanding. Sookie is pretty much too stupid to live.

tiggy, (re:spoiler) WTF...?

can you explain in white font WTF Bill did that?