True Blood

About the series

Contains story spoilers.

True Blood begins in Bon Temps, Louisiana, after synthetic blood has allowed vampires to reveal themselves to the public. They can survive without feeding on humans, but that does not make their new neighbours welcome them. Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress at Merlotte’s, has a different reason to be interested in Bill Compton: she cannot hear his thoughts. Her telepathy normally turns a roomful of people into an exhausting stream of private feelings, so his silence offers relief. Bill belongs to the town’s past as well as its newly visible supernatural present. He was a human resident long before Sookie was born, and his return draws her family, colleagues and the local police into questions about what vampires want and whether their promises can be trusted.

Sookie’s first act of kindness toward Bill puts her in immediate danger. The Rattrays want to drain his blood, which humans use as a valuable drug, and retaliate after she interferes. Bill rescues the badly beaten Sookie and gives her his own blood to heal her. Their connection now has a physical component alongside the attraction: vampire blood changes her senses, and Bill can feel when she is in distress. During their early conversations he explains that vampires can glamour humans, although that power does not work on her. Meanwhile, her brother Jason becomes a murder suspect after women he has slept with are found dead. His connection to Maudette Pickens and Dawn Green brings the investigation directly into Sookie’s life, while vampire blood begins to offer him a dangerous escape.

Gran, Sookie’s grandmother Adele, is more interested in Bill’s memories than in treating him as a monster. He honours his promise to speak to the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, describing the Civil War and responding emotionally to a photograph of the family he lost. Sookie attends with Sam Merlotte, whose interest in her makes Bill’s arrival difficult for him. Coming home later, she finds Gran murdered in the kitchen. The funeral brings visitors and gossip rather than peace: Sookie can hear the thoughts of people who blame her association with vampires, and Jason attacks her before Tara intervenes. Alone with the last of Gran’s pecan pie, Sookie finally has something tangible from the woman she has lost. She later goes to Bill and their relationship becomes sexual, linking comfort with an intimacy the town already condemns.

Tara Thornton has grown up around the Stackhouses because her own home offers little security. Her mother Lettie Mae drinks heavily and abuses her, then pursues an exorcism as an explanation for her behaviour. Tara becomes caught in the same scheme, paying Miss Jeanette for an ordeal she initially believes has helped. Discovering Jeanette working at a drugstore exposes the deception. Humiliated and drunk, Tara crashes her car after swerving to avoid a naked woman beside a pig. Lettie Mae refuses to bail her out or let her return home. Maryann instead offers a place to stay, and her luxurious house makes the rescue tempting. Tara’s need for affection and stability gives this apparently generous stranger an opening that neither Tara nor her friends fully understands.

Jason’s involvement with Amy pushes his use of vampire blood into outright captivity. Together they keep Eddie in his basement and drain him for their drug supply. Eddie appeals to Jason’s sympathy, while Amy treats him as something they own. Jason begins to relent and secretly gives him synthetic blood, but Amy kills Eddie when Jason tries to release him. At Fangtasia, another act of violence has a very different purpose: Bill stakes Longshadow to save Sookie. Eric takes him to answer for killing another vampire, leaving Sookie dependent on Sam for protection. Sam’s ability to become a dog is finally exposed to her, making the familiar bar owner another person whose outward identity concealed a supernatural life. The distinction between predator, protector and frightened bystander keeps shifting as their secrets emerge.

Bill’s punishment is to create a replacement for the vampire he killed. He must turn the terrified teenager Jessica, making him responsible for a new vampire when he wants to return to Sookie. Jessica is not grateful or easy to manage, and Bill asks Eric to look after her. Sookie and Sam are meanwhile following an image she glimpsed in the murderer’s mind. It leads to a dead waitress, Cindy, and her missing brother Drew Marshall. A requested photograph reaches the police station but is buried beneath other paperwork. After Amy is strangled while she and Jason are unconscious from taking vampire blood, Jason assumes he might be responsible and turns himself in. The investigation has the information it needs, but Sookie remains exposed while her brother’s confused confession directs attention away from the real killer.

Rene Lenier, Jason’s friend and Arlene’s fiancé, is Drew Marshall. He disables Sookie’s car and offers her a lift, bringing her back to the house where he murdered Gran. Arlene’s children find incriminating tapes among his possessions, while Sam recognises his scent. Rene’s thoughts betray him, and the pursuit moves into the graveyard. Bill senses Sookie’s danger and goes into daylight, but burning in the sun leaves him unable to stop the attack. Sam reaches her in dog form and distracts Rene long enough for Sookie to kill him with a shovel. Jason is freed, yet the aftermath opens further trouble: the anti-vampire Fellowship of the Sun welcomes him, Tara stays with Maryann, and an unidentified corpse appears in Andy’s car. Solving the murders does not restore the town to its earlier life.