True Blood: Frenzy

SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS WEEK'S EPISODE

"Everything that exists imagined itself into existence."
~Sophie-Anne, Queen of Louisiana

"They're like tiny humans. Teacup humans."
~Eric

OK, so I've watched this one twice already, because 1) I didn't really like it the first time around, and...actually, that's pretty much the only reason why. After the re-watch, I did like it more, and I picked up on some stuff that I missed the first time around, but the things that bothered me the first time I watched still bothered me. Like:

• The Queen. I get what she's all about - I think - but I think the actress (Evan Rachel Wood) missed the mark. By a LOT. However, she did have the unenviable task of relaying a bucket load of exposition, so the over-acting was probably an attempt to insert some character into all the blah-blah. It was very clunky and made what she was saying difficult to understand. I'm hoping her scenes are better next week.
• Why in the world would Sam walk out into the woods by himself? Am I mistaken or aren't there black-eyed zombie sex cult members who want to offer him up as a sacrifice running around in those very woods? Dumb.
• Some of the foreshadowing was a bit clumsy, too: Sookie's cousin Hadley will obviously turn up again, probably next season; I'm sure Arlene's ex Dwayne with the tattoo on his stomach is going to show up at a later date as well; and I would bet good money that the fact there's only one Kevlar vest is going to spell trouble for Jason in the finale.
• All of the good feeling I got out of Tara's intervention last week was washed away by Tara's shitty attitude this week. I hope she was as mean as she was because she's still experiencing some leftover Maryann mojo because, well, because she was just being stupid. Or, as Sookie said, a fucking idiot.

Looking back on this list, I realize that most of these issues are related to writing problems, which is a surprise considering Alan Ball himself wrote this one.

So, what did I like?

• This wasn't in the episode, per se, but I have to share this from io9's recap. What Bill texted to Sookie: "SUUUUKIE I WILL BE RETIRING AT THE PALACE, I WILL RETURN UPON NIGHTFALL. I WILL REQUIRE RELATIONS. ERIC IS EVIL. XO - VAMPIRE BILL" HEE!
• Jason, especially his thoughts on Sam's shapeshifting capabilities and whether or not he would lay an egg if he turned into a chicken. I love Jason.
• Eric was awesome in all of his scenes: in Lettie Mae's dress, in his chat with the children, his "Goodbye tiny humans" and his take off (Eric can fly!). I loved it when he ran into Bill outside the Queen's palace and his hair was all mussed from flying. Oh dear, I just thought of something...I really hope they don't do the cheesetastic romantic flying thing, like in Superman, with Eric and Sookie. Oh my God, they could even use the song, "Can You Read My Mind"! Ha!
• While the naked guy that was sitting in the sink at Gran's house and playing with intestines was a little over the top, I thought they did a really great job making that entire sequence really creepy.
• I was glad that Sookie and Lafayette shared with each other about Eric. It was a good scene, except for Sookie's description of what it felt like to be in Tara's head. Huh? Bad writing again, I think.

Depsite the title, this one moved at a glacial pace, and seemed a bit disjointed to me. I didn't get the sense that we are headed towards any kind of conclusion - at least not as soon as the next episode. I hope they're able to pull all of this together by then.

What in the world is this town going to be like when this is all over?

ETA: Oops, I forgot something! It hadn't occurred to me until I was reading the episode thread at TWoP, and I was wondering if anyone else picked up on the idea that Bill might have been sent to Bon Temps by the Queen, in order to "procure" Sookie for her, and then Bill unexpectedly fell in love with Sookie. I'm not so sure about that, but SA does know about Sookie, and Bill seemed to be acquainted with Hadley and on pretty familiar terms with SA, so at the very least I'd say he's been in communication with the Queen on a fairly regular basis. I'm very interested in finding out exactly what their history is - as long as the Queen quits hamming it up.