Recap: True Blood 2.03 “Scratches”

Bill, Sookie and Jessica are in a car and Bill’s driving like a bat out of hell (what does that expression even mean?). Sookie begs him to slow down as Jessica whimpers in the back. Bill abruptly pulls over and Sookie apologizes for taking Jessica to visit her family in the previous episode. Bill is seriously pissed that Sookie did what she did and reveals that he only glamoured Jessica’s family, he didn’t kill them. So….is the show wimping out on all the gratuitous violence then? Will these words come back to haunt me?

Bill hurls some harsh words at Sookie and she storms out of the car and down the road. Jessica tells Bill to go after Sookie, but he says she’ll be back.

Sookie is not coming back. She’s actually walking through down the appropriately foggy and creepy road, bordered by foggy and creepy forests. She turns and sees some sort of demon (I think) behind her and takes off in a run. But the demon catches up and scratches her back (and when I say “scratch” I mean “seriously gouge her”).

Alerted by her scream, Bill runs towards her and sees her bleeding to death on the ground. He feeds her some of his blood, but she goes into horrible spasms, complete with foaming at the mouth.

Bill takes Sookie to Fangtasia and orders Jessica to go back home.

Cut to Merlotte’s, where Daphne finds Sam alone in his office. Sam yells at Daphne for not being able to reconcile her cash with her receipts and makes her pay him the difference. Tara comes in, spouting about how people don’t learn without positive reinforcement and Sam wonders if Maryann is teaching her all about this affirmation nonsense. Sam says he doesn’t want Maryann in Merlotte’s anymore and warns Tara to stay away.

Sookie’s laying face-down on a table at Fangtasia, her back bare and bloody. An old lady, Dr. Ludwig, is there to try and help her. The doctor says Sookie’s been poisoned by a komodo dragon, which is sure to kill her. No, wait, the doctor uses the dragon as a simile – Sookie was just bit by something similar. The doctor sends Bill and Eric out while she tends to Sookie.

Outside, Eric is questioning Bill about what happened to Sookie. Eric sends Pam and Chow to search the woods where Sookie was attacked. In the other room Sookie screams out in agony and Bill rushes in to see Dr. Ludwig pouring something onto her wounds. I’m not even going to tell you about how the doctor then starts running her fingers through the gouges, because it’s so gross. Ok? I’m not saying anything about that.

At the leadership camp, Jason wakes up, screaming. He seems to be having a dream, because Eddie (the vampire he helped Amy kill last season) is lying in bed with him. Jason soon wakes from his nightmare and prays.

Back at Fangtasia, the doctor says Bill can give Sookie his blood now. Eric offers his blood instead, but Bill refuses the offer. The doctor leaves as Sookie sucks down on Bill’s blood. Pam and Chow return with news that the tracks in the woods were human, but the smell was animal. Eric offers Bill a coffin at Fangtasia so he can remain close to Sookie. Bill thanks Eric for his help and Eric alludes that there’s a way for Sookie to repay him.

At Maryann’s house, she’s tasting some food prepared by her manservant, Karl. When Tara enters the kitchen for breakfast, Maryann says she’s going to be having some people over. Tara asks why Sam hates Maryann and tells her that he warned her to stay away. Maryann lies that she barely knows Sam and thinks that Sam is just jealous. Then Maryann hands Tara some weed. Good morning!

Sam’s packing boxes into his car when Terry Bellefleur comes by. Sam says he’s taking a trip and asks Terry to take care of the bar for him until he returns. Terry is hesitant to do so but eventually agrees when Sam tells him he was the eighth choice for the job (nice, Sam). Terry also yells at Sam for running away, calling him a coward.

At the camp, a woman is talking about how a vampire used her and then left her. Sarah is leading some sort of group therapy session and asks Jason to share a story. Jason says his sister is dating a vampire who seems pretty decent and he generally has no problems with vampires. He also mentions that Amy staked a vampire in front of him. Sarah tries to convince Jason that vampires aren’t people, but he’s not convinced. Jason storms out of the meeting and Sarah chases after him. She tells him he’s special and says they’re alike.

Sarah relates her story: she and her sister once fought for vampire rights until her sister got hooked on V and disappeared. She thinks the vampires killed her sister and is very pissed at vampires now. Jason beats himself up for not saving his grandmother and Amy.

At Fangtasia, Sookie wakes up and discovers that her back is now completely healed. Ginger, the human who helps out around the bar and guards the place during the day, brings Sookie a sandwich. Sookie reads Ginger’s mind that Lafayette is in the basement and threatens Ginger with a gun unless she takes her to the basement. Sookie finds Lafayette looking like crap down in the basement and promises to get him free.

Maryann’s having some sort of party and Tara is chatting up Eggs, who’s playing the guitar. Tara realizes she’s late for work but doesn’t really care.

Bill wakes up and is very happy to see that Sookie has recovered. She, on the other hand, demands to know whether he knew about Lafayette, but he says he didn’t. Eric comes in and Sookie slaps him for what he’s done. She demands that Eric let Lafayette go and he vamps out on her. He suggests they come to an arrangement instead.

Sam’s leaving a message for Tara about missing her shift and warns her to keep her eyes open (especially for Maryann). Arlene comes in late and is surprised when Sam doesn’t bite her head off.

At Bill’s house, Jessica awakens and finds no one home. She seems sad to be alone, so she gets all dolled up and heads to Merlotte’s. She catches Hoyt’s eye and he starts chatting her up. She eventually reveals that she’s a vampire, but that doesn’t seem to scare him off. In fact, he’s totally into it and goes to get her some Tru Blood.

At Fangtasia, Eric has provided Sookie with a proposition: she heads to Dallas, on his dime, to try and figure out what happened to the missing vampires, and he’ll let Lafayette go free. Bill isn’t keen on this, but eventually asks for $10,000 for Sookie and insists that he will accompany her. Pam throws Lafayette into the room. Lafayette insists that he’s done with vampires and will be retiring. Bill carries him (like, literally carries him) out of the room.

The swinging party is still rocking at Maryann’s place and Andy Bellefleur stops by. Tara is surprised by Andy showing up. Andy, meanwhile, is greeted by Maryann. He says he’s come by because of noise complaints and then hallucinates a pig (or Maryann made the pig disappear). She hands him a drink and invites him to stay at the party.

Steve is having dinner with Jason and spouting about good and evil. Sarah comes in to deliver pudding and I wonder whether Sarah’s flirting with Jason or just pretending to. Then I figure we’ll learn more later and I’m not going to dwell on this now.

Jessica brings Hoyt over to Bill’s house. Hoyt shows Jessica how to play with the Wii (why does Bill have a Wii and I don’t?) and she starts kissing him. She gets freaked out when she vamps out on him, but he’s into it. He wants to keep going and she seemingly attacks him.

Cut to Bill and Sookie dropping Lafayette off at his house. He insists that he’s alright. Inside, he collapses on his chair and starts to cry a little.

In the car, Bill complains about Eric putting Sookie in danger again, as well as showing her the bad side of vampires. Sookie tells Bill she believes there’s goodness inside of him.

Party at Maryann’s? Still going. A topless girl intrudes on Eggs and Tara’s hot tub private party. Tara finally takes her eyes off Eggs’ chest long enough to realize that nearly every woman is topless and the party is basically like a giant orgy. She angrily storms off and we see that a lot of the party guests have weird black eyes. Eggs chases after her and Tara tells Eggs she’s not into him if he’s into big orgy parties.

Sam finishes packing up his car and a dog comes by. Sam rips off his shirt and goes to run and play with the dog.

Bill and Sookie return to Bill’s house. They come across Jessica drinking from Hoyt. Well, actually, she’s not drinking from Hoyt, but Bill is very upset.

Sam jumps into the lake, but the dog doesn’t follow. Daphne, however, comes out onto the dock to chat with Sam. She strips down and jumps into the water with him. Oh! Interesting! She takes off her shirt and we see that she has the same scratches on her back that Sookie got from the monster.

Cut to credits. See you back here next week.