[US] 3x10-"I Smell a Rat" [** SPOILERS WITHIN **]

Tristram

Summary: Sookie gets a dire warning from Bill; Sam's emotional outburst takes him on an unpleasant trip down memory lane; Arlene asks Holly for help with a dilemma; Jessica faces a romantic conundrum; Russell vows revenge on his foes; Jesus changes his opinion of a certain mind-altering substance.

shinny

So it looks like this episode was about everyone coming clean! Arlene finally told Terry and you just knew that was going to be his reaction. Love Terry, he's just a good guy. Arlene is still determined to get rid of the "evil" baby. Hoyt and Jessica coming clean to each other about their love. Sam coming clean about his past, wow, didn't really expect that but then on the other hand I didn't really care. Jason coming clean to Tara about Eggs.

Sookie's reaction to finding out what she really is was kinda funny "I'm a fairy? How fúcking lame"

Crystal is so much better in her true form, I wonder can we have her like that all the time!!

Lafayette and Jesus' V trip was pretty well done. It was freaky when they started speaking in each other's voices! As we got to see that both have magical backgrounds. I'm guessing we won't get to see all of this until next season.

Russell saying goodbye to "Talbot" was sad and bizare at the same time. You just know that means he's going to unleash a whole lot of pain on everyone.

The "real" kiss between Sookie and Eric was a real let down for me. It just seemed wrong. I think they played that scene very wrong and I'll be extremely pee'd off if they do go down the route that Eric uses Sookie. I really hope his "greater" plan includes him doing that for Sookie's own good!

*edit* Now that I think about this I think Eric is going to use Sookie's blood to "walk in the day" to catch Russell out. I guess he's figured this might be his only way to kill him. He's being pragmatic but I wonder will Sookie forgive him when all is said and done?

*edit again!* I loved the part when Jason rescinded his invitation to Bill and how he had to back out of the house. Almost floated out.

tvnutz

Not as good as the last few,it was far slower and with only 2 eps left I was expecting it to pick up a bit more pace.

Still not a bad episode though.

Not enough Russell,too much Lafayette and Jesus. Lafayette is a good character but that whole V trip they were on was boring and I found myself looking at my watch. Don't really care about that story.

Jason uninviting Bill was good,and Crystal revealing herself was also pretty good. So it seems she is a shifter,yes? Then why is did her dad keep referring to same as that "shifter" as if he didn't like his kind. Are they some different type of shifter or something?

Sookie is a fairy then,interesting history to it. Vamps wiping them out because of their blood.

2 episodes left,hope its a great ending to what has been a great season.

FreudianSlippers

Overall quite a disappointing episode. Direction was poor and the story was weak. Not what I was expecting with only 3 episodes to go.

opr

Awful episode with the torture of watching far too much cringe acting from Moyer as he bundles his way from scene to scene overacting and overemphasizing every word as if he is projecting from a stage. It really is ****ing horrendous!

"I KNOOOW SOOOOKIE BUUUT I MUUUSST PROOOTECT YOOOOOU"

Moooar Russell please!

Opr

SadieSue

This episode was a bit slower than the last couple so far.

I hate to say it but Tara is really starting to grate on my nerves. I'm starting to agree with everyone, she is just so whinny!

Sookie is a Faerie.. how weird! Does that mean her nephew (Hadley's son) is also a Faerie ?

shinny

tvnutz wrote: »

So it seems she is a shifter,yes? Then why is did her dad keep referring to same as that "shifter" as if he didn't like his kind. Are they some different type of shifter or something?

They are Werepanthers and sort of look down on shifters.

iguana

shinny wrote: »

They are Werepanthers and sort of look down on shifters.

Out of inadequacy? The ability to turn into any animal at all beats the shít out of the ability to turn into just one animal.

C_Dawg

I have to disagree with the previous posters and say I thought this episode was excellent.

Great to see some more of Sam's mysterious past. His little sh!t of a brother is really annoying though and I was delighted to see Hoyt deck him.

Russell has truly lost his mind altogether.

Crystal being a werepanther was a bit of a letdown. I never read the books so I don't know if that's how it plays out there but it seems a bit lazy to me considering all the other creatures her kind could of been. It's a small bit of the story though so I can't complain too much.

shinny

iguana wrote: »

Out of inadequacy? The ability to turn into any animal at all beats the shít out of the ability to turn into just one animal.

They sort of see shifters as mongrels were they see themselves as "purebred"

Sparky

shinny just spoilered your post there to be safe.

FreudianSlippers

iguana wrote: »

Out of inadequacy? The ability to turn into any animal at all beats the shít out of the ability to turn into just one animal.

Yeah, I was thinking that... can Sam turn into a panther or a wolf if he wanted to make it a bit more even.... or hell, just turn into a bear or something lol

takola

Only 3 episodes left? Really? It feels like very little has happened so far. I don't think this season is matching up with last season at all.

Got bored with Jason and Andy's storyline.

I really really wanted Franklin to kill Tara. I have to admit, I kind of liked him, creepy and psychotic though he was.

I love Pam. She makes me laugh.

The ending of this episode was quite sad. I'm looking forward to seeing what Russell is going to get up to.

Scarydoll

I thought this was an alright episode. Finally Jason told Tara he shot Eggs. Crystal is a warepanter? Poor Rusell! He has lost the plot. Carrying Talbots remains around with him. Wonder what he's going to do next.

titan18

Did Pam call Ireland a windy sh1thole?Sounded like it.If it was, that was funny.

Poor episode though

iguana

I guess they are setting next season up to be about magic and witchcraft. Perhaps Lafayette and Jesus will want to explore their magical heritage more and hook up with Holly at some stage. I suspect her Wiccanism will have more in common with supernatural fiction than real life religion, seeing as True Blood is supernatural fiction.;)

See Ye

titan18 wrote: »

Did Pam call Ireland a windy sh1thole?Sounded like it.If it was, that was funny.

Sadly not she was talking about his farm on a Scandinavian island he was leaving her in his will. I think Eric could do with trusting Sookie with the truth... she might even agree to help him!

Eddie Ere

Do spoiler tags in this thread indicate book spoilers or episode spoilers?

Is telling everyone Crystal is a werepanther not a spoiler from the book also? There was no mention of it in the episode.

Sickened that there is only two episodes left

Sparky

Generally spoilers in the title is like a warning to users in the same way as "beware of dog"
Using the spoilers in thread is acceptable if it may spoil whats ahead, or if you wish to be safe.

As for this weeks episode. It wasn't the best. It seemed very slow for me. Not much really happened. There was a couple of things confirmed as to what we expected to happen.
I found Sams flashbacks interesting.

titan18

See Ye wrote: »

Sadly not she was talking about his farm on a Scandinavian island he was leaving her in his will. I think Eric could do with trusting Sookie with the truth... she might even agree to help him!

Oh,sounded like Ireland

Eddie Ere

Fair point, but I still don't think the books should be mentioned at all seeing as this is discussion about the episodes only. Even with spoiler tags it's never specified whether it's from the book or the show.

Just my two cents. Besides that I thought Lafyette and Jesus's trip seemed like filler, be interesting to see if it's expanded on.

Neyite

sams little brother is a pain in the ass. but i did like the sam flashback bits. cant warm to Jesus, it looks to me too much like hes leading Layfayette on or something. was bored with their tripping. i dont want Layfayette to have any powers - hes a great character just the way he is.

Bill is starting to grate as well...Shhhooookkkaaayyyy... and as for Tara, every time i see that lip quiver i want to slap her or something.

not enough pam in this episode either.

and where have all the funny quips gone?

madrab

Pretty crap episode, and werepanther?!? WTF is a werepanther? never heard of them

Last 2 weeks were really good but this was a real let down


ps werepanther?!?!

E.T.

It just took me 3 hours to stream it because the internet seems to have gone haywire everywhere tonight. Kept going out of pure stubbornness and the hope that it had to get better. But it didn't! Very disappointing episode. I've enough of all the Sam stuff it's boring.

I think Pam said Urland, it's in Sweden.

J-blk

It was difficult to follow last week's excellent episode and this one seemed more designed to get certain plots to the end rather than anything else.

I'd been spoiled to Sookie's "big" reveal awhile back so her reaction to it about it being "f***ing lame" was pretty funny.

Crystal's reveal was pretty useless IMO. So she's a werepanther or whatevever, big deal - I still don't see why any of this matters.

Lafayette and Jesus' V-trip didn't add much either, but they have to set up some theads for next season I guess. Though the best part about it was Lafayette's facial expressions throughout, very funny stuff at times.

Tara... ugh, back to her full on angry/whiny self. Fantastic. Can't she die already?

The Eric/Pam and Eric/Bill scenes were decent enough though my absolute favorite part of the episode was when Tommy was attacking Hoyt in dog form and Jessica speeds out and flings him into orbit .

fillefatale

So we finally get to see what Crystal and her kin are, well I was surprised, panthers always seemed to be graceful creatures to me so how come her family are such rednecks?!

Well damn, another reason for Tara to whine for another while now, it was a bad move to get rid of Franklin, he made her bearable.

Fairly slow moving episode, I was a little disappointed and bored at times to be honest, the Jesus/Lafayette stuff was interesting but got tedious after about three minutes.

Damn, I love Pam! The Eric/Pam scenes were the best thing about this episode. The last two better be killer episodes.

Nevyn

Wiccanism

/twitch

So far she's a witch, and the word Wicca/n has in the usa has started to replace the word witch and witchcraft which is wrong and a corruption of the term.
A person can be a witch and not be of any religion or can be of a whole range even christian. Haven't seen anything to suggest she's pagan never mind Wiccan

not even in the books

AB1980!

Actually I think you have that backwards T. I'm almost 100% sure she referred to herself in this episode as Wiccan and the word witch has not been used in the show to date (except by Lafayette's mother)

iguana

Thaedydal wrote: »

Haven't seen anything to suggest she's pagan never mind Wiccan

not even in the books

She told Sam that she's Wiccan and he told her he doesn't allow religion in his bar.

madrab wrote: »

Pretty crap episode, and werepanther?!? WTF is a werepanther? never heard of them

They aren't as well known as werewolves but they have existed in folklore in some form or another for centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werecat#In_popular_culture

Overall I enjoyed this episode.
+Jason finally admitting to Eggs' homocide.
+No more Franklin! Yay!
+Serious respect points for Terry Bellefleur when he found out about Arlene's baby.
+Sookie finally giving in to Eric.
+Jason recinding Bill's invitation. About time that sh!th3ad was put in his place. He always seems to forget that Jason's been looking after Sookie since LONG before he showed up.
+Jessica and Hoyt making up
+Have to admit, though I don't like Russell, I felt sorry for him when he was apologising to 'Talbot'.
+Eric doing his will was T^T
+Something tells me Jesus is going to turn out to be a warlock or something.
+Crystal revealing herself to Jason.

-They seem to kind of be rushing the story. Perhaps they don't want to make as many seasons as there are books? Either way I don't think the plot was ready for some of the new developments.
-I did NOT like what they did to Sam's backstory. Turning sweet little Sam Merlotte into a crook.
-EFFING TOMMY MERLOTTE! Someone shoot that kid, please.
-Stephen Moyer's acting is just painful.

kylith

I thought that the Lafayette/Jesus thing went on too long, and was pretty boring. It could definitely have been done better.

Poor Tara just keeps getting **** heaped on her. I have to admit I'd been hoping that Franklin would terrorise her for a few episodes so that she could drive a stake through him and get some self respect.

Nevyn

AB1980! wrote: »

Actually I think you have that backwards T. I'm almost 100% sure she referred to herself in this episode as Wiccan and the word witch has not been used in the show to date (except by Lafayette's mother)

iguana wrote: »

She told Sam that she's Wiccan and he told her he doesn't allow religion in his bar.

She says she is Wiccan, but have yet to see or read anything to suggest that she is, or if it is the populist incorrect version of the term being used, to mean pagan and a witch.

RolandIRL

I love Pam
"blah blah vampire emergency blah"
strange seeing her being a wee bit emotional :eek:

jesus and lafeyette's trip was weird. spent too much time on it imo.

MOAR russel needed.

bit of a slow episode but true blood sorta doesn't continue on with the immediate story (ie russel) episode by episode. goes somewhere else.
2 episodes to go then another 9 months til season 4 :(

tvnutz

This week's postmortem is really good.

http://www.hbo.com/true-blood/episodes/3/34-i-smell-a-rat/video/postmortem-praise-his-light.html?autoplay=true&cmpid=ABC123

Love how he cut the video clips of Nan Flanagan together Simpsons style. And then at the end. I love Betty White too! Brilliant.

Toots

Thaedydal wrote: »

Haven't seen anything to suggest she's pagan never mind Wiccan

not even in the books

What about

in Dead to the World, when Sookie's outside Hallow's house and Holly's the watchman (or woman) because they tracked her down because she's a local Wiccan and threatened to curse her son if she didn't agree to help them?

Nevyn

Toots* wrote: »

What about

in Dead to the World, when Sookie's outside Hallow's house and Holly's the watchman (or woman) because they tracked her down because she's a local Wiccan and threatened to curse her son if she didn't agree to help them?

Nope

Still does not equal priestess of that fertility cult, which is what Wicca is and what all Wiccans are, it is a religion but threatening to curse someone's family member would be breaking the ethics of the Religion. So Yes she's a witch but that doesn't make her Wiccan, like I said in some parts of america they seem to think the two terms are inter changeable and they aren't

m0nsterie

Can we keep the discussion of the books to the books threads and the tv episodes to the tv episodes threads? As mentioned before even saying there is a spoiler is a spoiler in itself.

Daith

iguana wrote: »

They aren't as well known as werewolves but they have existed in folklore in some form or another for centuries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werecat#In_popular_culture

Jeez I was thinking that I didnt know what they were either then I remembered Crystal is like Catra from She-Ra. Except Catra is awesome and Crystal is not.

Beruthiel

Best line in the whole episode:

Pam - "Blah, Blah, vampire emergency, blah"

matrim

Neyite wrote: »

sams little brother is a pain in the ass.

Yeah he doesn't really offer much at the moment but I did love when Hoyt just clocked him as he was walking past

Handsome Bob

Neyite wrote: »

sams little brother is a pain in the ass.

Yeah, both actors have said we will feel sorry for Tommy and root for him but I have yet to see anything that makes me root for him. That being said, I thought it was brilliant the way they played up his family dynamic. I mean it was really original and fresh to see a fictional character who has never been given anything from his parents other than pain and mistreatment, yet still has this overwhelming sense of responsibility towards his parents. He found it excruciatingly hard to walk away from them because even though he owes them nothing, they have leaned on him for so long that he can't handle the idea of them not being able to fend for themselves.

But they only focused on that for one episode, two tops, and instead they have focused on building him up as some kind of cocky player which is just boring. It's been done, on countless occasions. They need to get that character back on track fast.

Another problem I have with the show is that it's getting a bit carried away with the supernatural stuff. Everybody has their own little "niche" be it fairy, vampire, werewolf, werepanther, maenads or shapeshifter. There was even a little hint at shamans and wiccans.

I respect that they are just trying to expand the universe but they are every so slightly blowing their load this season.

AB1980!

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Another problem I have with the show is that it's getting a bit carried away with the supernatural stuff. Everybody has their own little "niche" be it fairy, vampire, werewolf, werepanther, maenads or shapeshifter. There was even a little hint at shamans and wiccans.

I respect that they are just trying to expand the universe but they are every so slightly blowing their load this season.

Isn't that the story though? This girl who thought she was a freak all her lifes has her eyes opened to all the other freakiness in the world, and suddenly she is the 'normal' one and has a whole new set of issues to deal with.

As much as everyone hates discussion of the books here, that is the framework the tv show is working within. Characters and storylines have to be introduced now to keep the whole thing rolling.

ncmc

Very poor show this week IMO!

-Not enough Russell and the scenes with him weren't great, I prefer him as a smooth talking psycho rather than mooning around like a love sick puppy.
-Jason & Tara/Jason & Crystal - Boring, don't care anymore. They're not doing anything with Jason's character.
-Lafayette & Jesus - That scene went on waaay too long and I also prefer Layfayette before he met Jesus, Jesus is very creepy and I agree with the previous poster, why does EVERYBODY have to be a magical creature of some sort? Must be something in the water in Bon Temp!

The best bits were Eric & Pam (yet again), Jesicca & Hoyt (again they are being underused this season) finally....
Eric returning to his bad-ass self and kidnapping Sookie... Yay! He is a super baddie, I hate when he's been all mopey and caring, bring back the psycho from Series 1&2 I say!

neveah

I have to agree with some of the previous posters - Stephen Moyer's acting is terrible!! Plus I think he has no chemistry with Sookie in comparison to the chemistry between Sookie/Eric, which is surprising considering that Sookie/Bill are married in real life. I can only put it down to Moyer's acting, his character gets worse and worse with each episode and I'm starting to dread seeing him on-screen!

FreudianSlippers

Eddie Ere wrote: »

Do spoiler tags in this thread indicate book spoilers or episode spoilers?

Is telling everyone Crystal is a werepanther not a spoiler from the book also? There was no mention of it in the episode.

Sickened that there is only two episodes left

Except for the fact that at the end of the episode she turned from a panther into a person.

tvnutz

OisinT wrote: »

Except for the fact that at the end of the episode she turned from a panther into a person.

Well maybe people might have thought she was a shifter that happened to turn into a panther. I had heard of werewolves in fantasy type shows like these but never werepanthers. If someone hadn't have mentioned it in this thread I still wouldn't know what to call them.

mandz

neveah wrote: »

I have to agree with some of the previous posters - Stephen Moyer's acting is terrible!! Plus I think he has no chemistry with Sookie in comparison to the chemistry between Sookie/Eric, which is surprising considering that Sookie/Bill are married in real life. I can only put it down to Moyer's acting, his character gets worse and worse with each episode and I'm starting to dread seeing him on-screen!

I think the fact that they are a couple in real life could perhaps be the reason why there isn't much on screen chemistry. The two of them were much better together in the first season in my opinion.

Handsome Bob

AB1980! wrote: »

Isn't that the story though? This girl who thought she was a freak all her lifes has her eyes opened to all the other freakiness in the world, and suddenly she is the 'normal' one and has a whole new set of issues to deal with.

As much as everyone hates discussion of the books here, that is the framework the tv show is working within. Characters and storylines have to be introduced now to keep the whole thing rolling.

But you can still have all of that with a limited amount of supernatural beings. Sookie can feel normal just by observing vampires and werewolves, you don't have to throw the likes of were-pantehers into it to make that point any better.

Agreed on keeping the quality of the story going, but that shouldn't be hard with just 12/13 episodes a season without resorting to introducing more and more new supernatural beings. All this being said, I know this is all a bit redundant as they are only following the story of the books. :pac::pac:

mandz wrote: »

I think the fact that they are a couple in real life could perhaps be the reason why there isn't much on screen chemistry. The two of them were much better together in the first season in my opinion.

His acting has been poor from the get go, and to the best of my knowledge Paquin and Moyer were not initially dating. I think he's concentrating so much on getting the accent right that he's forgetting about the actual quality of his acting. :P It's way too wooden.

Eddie Ere

OisinT wrote: »

Except for the fact that at the end of the episode she turned from a panther into a person.

tvnutz wrote: »

Well maybe people might have thought she was a shifter that happened to turn into a panther. I had heard of werewolves in fantasy type shows like these but never werepanthers. If someone hadn't have mentioned it in this thread I still wouldn't know what to call them.

What he said.

evil_seed

LZ5by5 wrote: »

It's way too wooden.

he's playing a dead being, devoid of emotions or suppoesedly. Wooden is expected

FreudianSlippers

evil_seed wrote: »

he's playing a dead being, devoid of emotions or suppoesedly. Wooden is expected

I think the problem is that Eric is such a badass character with a good actor that it makes Bill unlikeable. Stephen Moyer is a very good actor, but the character he plays is a very emo one. I think of him to be like Michael Dawson (Lost) - a good character with a good actor that is just grinding on people's nerves because it's just the same thing every week!