Strange Love - Recap

The first episode of True Blood opens with a couple in a car. The male is falling asleep and the woman who is driving gets bored. So, she decides to start pleasing him in no uncertain times while she is driving him. They see a sign outside of a local liquor store that says "we have tru blood" and the male demands the woman pulls over.

They enter into the store and on the television that the worker is watching there is an "episode" of Real Time with Bill Maher where he is having a discussion with a woman named Nan Flanagan. She is part of the American Vampire League and feels that she and her vampire brethren deserve rights just like anyone else. This is especially since they are all Americans and pay taxes just like anyone else.

Bill Maher is on the opposition and asks her about their indiscretions as far as feeding off of innocent people. She denies it and claims that the human race is also known for their exploitative behaviors. She states that vampires have never owned slaves or even detonated nuclear weapons. She also mentions that the Japanese have perfected synthetic blood (Tru Blood) so that there is no need for vampires to have to feed on humans at any point.

There is a man who looks like a hunter, the couple mentioned earlier, and the employee that is of "gothic" nature. The couple enters into the store and asks about the Tru blood. The employee puts on a fake accent that is closest to French and pretends to be a vampire to scare them. He says that New Orleans, which is where this show is based in, is a mecca for vampires. The man that is part of the couple asks "even after Katrina? Didn't they all drown?" and the employee says that "vampires cannot drown, because we do not breathe". This creeps out the couple, but perks the ears of the hunter that is looking for a tasty beverage in the back.

Immediately the "hunter" looks annoyed. The couple looks very scared, but then the employee breaks out in a laugh and clears up that he was just kidding. The girl in the couple, now known as Kelly, says that it isn't funny but the male of the couple does. The hunter, however, does not find it to be funny at all.

They dismiss him and then ask the clerk if he knows where they can get "v juice" which is vampire's blood. In this world, it is a highly potent drug and it costs a lot of money. Not only that, but the vampires are literally drained of this blood therefore it is inhumane (kind of). The hunter finally tells the couple that they need to leave and they give a little resistance. That is when the hunter shows his fangs and gives a threat off and the couple runs out of the store. He then threatens the clerk never to act like a vampire again or he will kill him. Then he purchases Tru Blood and says "have a nice day now" and leaves.

Enter into a nearby diner where a woman named Suki is serving dinner to people. She can read people's mind just like if they were speaking to her. She keeps her mouth shut table to table until she hits a table that has a kid talking about leaving the podunk town someday. She tells him that he should make sure that he does soon because the more he waits the more stuck he ends up being. After that she gains control of herself and is able to block most of these people's thoughts.

Cut to a store called "Super Save a Bunch" where a woman comes in to find something and they don't have it. The employee, Tara, gets mouthy with the customer and soon her manager--then quits because of her temper tantrum. She leaves and then calls the diner/bar and talks about how she quit and that her boss Sam has quite the crush on her. She then says she's coming to the bar for a margarita.

A couple enters into the diner/bar and Suki must take care of them. These patrons are belligerent and stereotypical ignorant rednecks. She can read the minds of these two people and the man is thinking very naughty thoughts. They order a pitcher of bud and onion rings with mustard. The woman's thoughts are more moronic than the man's as she thinks that Suki must be interested in her disgusting husband. In fact, the wife mentions that she thinks that Suki is retarded.

Suki goes to the back to tell the cook that she needs an order of onion rings and that if he drops them on the floor it is fine with him. The cook is seemingly homosexual and very exciting. He says Suki looks like a porn star with a tan and pink lipstick. She says that she has to look and act dumb because the customers are scared of her otherwise and Lafayette (the cook) tells her that they are not scared of her brain but what is between her legs. It is then that we learn that Suki is a good Christian girl that is innocent for the most part.

It then cuts to a bedroom where a woman is watching some sort of dating show. She seems out of breath, that is when we learn that her partner (Suki's brother) is pleasuring her. After that he notices that she has bite marks on her thigh and is shocked by that. He was put off by her having sex with a vampire. She explains that she was broke and the vampire paid her a lot of money. She said the experience was scary and then she tells him that she has a tape of it.

Suki and Tara are still at the bar and a man walks in. She immediately knows that this man is an actual vampire. Suki is excited and the vampire asks if she has synthetic blood. They have a bit of a moment and he orders a glass of red wine. The male of that idiot couple from a little earlier starts talking to him. Both he and his wife start eying him up so that they can drain him of his blood.

Suki goes back to the table while he is talking to the married couple and she reads their minds. They are gauging him for about how much they can get by draining his blood and selling it illegally. She says she's going to get a free round of beer trying to bide time, but when she gets back they are all gone. After that she runs out to try and save him.

She senses where they are and then finds them draining the vampire's blood. They switch over to her brother and his current lover's indiscretions. They are having sex and he is recording. The sex gets rougher than usual. Then it goes back over to the couple draining the blood of the vampire. The male is going through withdrawal symptoms because he hasn't had v juice.

Suki then saves the vampire by throwing a chain around his throat and threatens the wife with a knife. They threaten her and skitter off. They were holding the vampire down by having a silver chain on him. She pulls him into the woods and then a dog comes over to see if everything is okay. She tries to read the vampire's mind and cannot hear his thoughts. She is happy about that and is not scared of him.

He offers up the blood that they drained and she says she wouldn't touch it. Unlike most humans, this tips him off a bit that she must be a different kind of person. They formally introduced themselves and the vampire's name is Bill. Bill asks that Suki not tell anyone about vampire's weaknesses as they don't like to make it public knowledge. She then goes back to work and Sam asks if she is okay. She says that she is fine and then goes back in.

They are all back in the bar Tara and Sam are talking about her working the bar. She then gets a job as a bartender by saying that he needed someone else to keep their eyes on Suki with the vampires running around. Suki's brother, now known as Jason, comes into the bar and asks if Suki is around. She isn't around and I do believe that Tara has a crush on him by the way she acts. Dawn, the other waitress, comes up to him and they have small talk.

Jason gets shot down by the waitress and then they show Suki going home. Her Grandmother is there and she tells her about the vampire that came into the bar. The grandmother asked if Suki liked him and she said that he was really interesting. That night while she is in bed, she dreams that she gets up and looks out the window to see him and there he was. She puts her robe on, runs out, and he is no longer there until he appears behind her out of nowhere. She was dreaming that she couldn't believe that they were going to have sex so quickly and he said "Who said anything about sex?" then he bore his teeth and she woke up.

The next morning, Suki is sunbathing and her brother comes up asking her about the fight she had the night before with the married couple. She told her brother that she fought him back when he pulled a knife on her. Her brother makes sure that Bill is not the vampire that he saw in the video. They then have breakfast and they find out that the woman that Jason slept with last night was found dead.

Jason goes to work and then is picked up by the police because he was seen on video allegedly choking the woman that died last night until she died. He did not know that he was being videotaped while they were having sex. He spent twelve hours thinking that he really did kill her because she pretended to pass out dead. Soon she eventually wakes up at the end of the tape and laughs at him. So, while he thought that he killed her-he really didn't.

Suki's grandmother asks her if she could ask if her vampire friend would like to talk about the civil war. Then they switch over to the bar and Tara and Lafayette talk about Jason being arrested earlier in the day but everyone knew before Suki, so she had to find out at work. Then the vampire, Bill, shows back up at the bar and Suki walks over to him. She seems a bit compelled to go over to him and while she can hear everyone's thoughts she doesn't care.

He asks her again what she is and she says she is a waitress. He knows that there is more to just that and that she is more than just human. He asks her if her name is short for something else and she says her name is plain Suki. He asks her in an old fashioned way if they can spend time together and she gleefully agrees. She tells him that she has a favor to ask him and if he would meet her in the back of the bar at around one thirty and he says that he would be delighted.

He then asks her if she realizes if every person is staring at them at the moment and she says it is because of her brother but he says it is because he is a vampire and she is a mortal. When he leaves Sam grips her up by her shoulder and then drags her into the office. They get into a disagreement over her decisions in regards to the fight with the married couple and now how she is setting up a date with a vampire. He wants to protect her and the bar. She then begins crying because he is yelling at her, then Tara runs in confronting her too. She snaps on both of them telling them that she is a grown woman and she will do what she wants.

After the bar closes, she waits outside for the vampire. Sam offers to wait until he shows up, but she tells him to go home. As soon as he is gone to his nearby home, she is attacked by the married couple. She is beaten near to death by both of them. The episode ends there.




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