Strange Love

## Related Pages

"*Bill? I thought it might be Antoine, or Basil, or-or-or like Langford, maybe. But, Bill? Vampire Bill?!*"
—Sookie Stackhouse to Bill Compton

**"Strange Love"** is the first episode of Season One of HBO's *True Blood*. It was written and directed by Alan Ball. It is the first episode of the series overall, and premiered on September 7, 2008. This episode is the series permiere.

## Synopsis

Across the country, vampires have come "out of the coffin" after the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood. In Louisiana, Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with telepathic abilities, falls under the spell of a sexy, 173-year-old vampire named Bill Compton – whose thoughts she cannot read. After saving Bill from the Rattrays, a pair of ruthless "vampire drainers," Sookie tests the limits of Bill's gratitude when the two are left alone. Meanwhile, Sookie's best friend Tara quits one job to work for Sam Merlotte at his bar and grill, and Sookie's roguish brother Jason finds himself in hot water when a "fangbanger", whom he has been intimate with, meets a tragic end.

## Recap

*This section is a detailed recap of this episode. **There are major spoilers.** Click to expand.*

At night on a rural Louisiana highway, a frat boy driving his girlfriend's SUV - while her hand works busily in his lap - notices a neon convenience store sign for Tru Blood and pulls into the lot. Inside, an evil-looking clerk watches Bill Maher interview American Vampire League spokeswoman Nan Flanagan, who deftly parries his questions about vampires' historical violence. "We never owned slaves," she says, "or detonated nuclear weapons. Since the Japanese perfected synthetic blood, which satisfies all our nutritional needs, there is no reason for anyone to fear us."

The frat boy steps up to the counter and smarts off about the vampires of New Orleans drowning during Hurricane Katrina, and the pale, angular clerk replies that vampires can't drown "because we don't breathe." Frozen in terror, the frat boy mumbles an apology, but a moment later the clerk breaks into a goofy cackle, dropping the act and saying how he "totally had them." A camo-clad good ole boy in the back of the store isn't amused, however, and when the frat boy asks the clerk about scoring some drug-like vampire blood, the real vampire in their midst reveals himself - and his fangs. As the frat boy flees with his girlfriend, the good ole boy steps up to the counter, slams down a four-pack of Tru Blood and tells the clerk, "You ever pretend to be one of us again, and I'll kill you. Got it?"

At Merlotte's Bar and Grill, Sookie Stackhouse serves beer and burgers to her customers, hearing snippets of their private thoughts as she makes her rounds. For a moment, the vague, watery musings of everyone in the room seem to close in on her, but she takes a deep breath and banishes the noise. Sookie's boss, Sam Merlotte, pulls her aside to let her know that her friend Tara Thornton is on the phone. Sookie takes the call, apologizing to Sam, only to find out that Tara, a bit of a hothead, has quit her job and is coming to Merlotte's. Another waitress, Dawn Green, catches up with Sookie to warn her that Mack and Denise Rattray - problem customers and even worse human beings - are sitting in her section. She takes their order, trying to ignore Mack's perverted internal assessment of her.

In the kitchen, Sookie tells the cook, Lafayette Reynolds, that it would be perfectly fine if he served the Rattrays' onion rings off the floor. He compliments her makeup, and she responds that she it helps her tips - even though rumors about her "talent" have led the whole town to fear her. Back in the barroom, Tara has arrived and started complaining that she needs a new job. Just as Sookie steps into the discussion, she's distracted by a strange force.

Looking up, she see Bill, a 167-year-old vampire, step into the bar. Laughing nervously, she approaches his table. Sam looks on protectively as Sookie apologizes that Merlotte's is out of Tru Blood - they've just never had a vampire come in. Bill replies, "Am I that obvious?" As Sookie steps away to get him a glass of red wine, the Rattrays lean in to introduce themselves. At the bar, she gushes about Bill to Tara and Sam (who think she's insane for not fearing the vampire) and wonders why "the Rats" are so interested in him.

Across town, Sookie's brother, Jason Stackhouse, sits with a local girl named Maudette Pickens. He's simultaneously turned on and revolted by the video she's playing for him: A homemade porn starring Maudette, a vicious-looking vamp and a bondage hook hanging from her ceiling. The video is only foreplay, however, and as Maudette gets the main event started, Jason's disgust takes a back seat to his libido.

As the Rattrays continue cozying up to Bill at Merlotte's, Sookie listens in to their thoughts, only to realize that the couple plans on draining Bill's blood for sale on the black market. Tara and Sam assure her that a vampire can take care of himself, but when she notices the Rattrays have left with Bill, she runs to the parking lot, grabbing a heavy chain to use as a weapon. Sure enough, Mack and Denise have snared Bill using fine silver chains, which have burned their way into his skin, and begun draining him a pint at a time. Sookie sneaks up on them and smacks Mack in the head with the chain. When he turns on her with a knife, the chain, as if by magic, wraps itself around his neck. Sookie, too distraught to notice a strange blue-eyed woman nearby vanishing into the night, picks up Mack's dropped knife and focuses on Denise, who collects her wounded husband and leaves, promising, "This ain't over."

Sookie rushes to Bill's side, and after freeing him from the chains, is shocked to watch his burns disappear before her eyes. Though he gruffly thanks her, Bill also probes Sookie's boundaries, first mentioning the "juicy arteries" in her groin then offering to let her keep his drained blood. Both comments disgust her, which seems to please Bill, as if she's passed a test. He asks her to keep his weakness to silver a secret, and she agrees before abruptly returning to work. Sam waits for her outside the bar, and inside, Tara has managed to bully her way into a new job pouring drinks. When Jason enters the bar, appearing nervous and looking for Sookie, Tara softens and says hello, but she immediately scoffs when Jason starts flirting with Dawn.

Sookie goes home and tells her Gran about meeting Bill, leaving out the part about the parking lot brawl. In bed, she has a dream that Bill waits outside her window, but when she comes down to see him, thinking they'll have sex, he extends his fangs to bite her. Unsettled, she wakes up before his teeth sink in.

The next morning, Jason comes by the house to reprimand Sookie for fighting with the Rattrays: Word is already making its way around town. She shoots back that they were going to kill Bill, and though Jason doesn't understand why she'd want to help a vampire, this ends the argument. Over breakfast, Gran answers a phone call and hears that Maudette Pickens was found strangled in her apartment. Jason seems angry and frightened at the news. He leaves for work, but later the police pull up to his road crew to question him about Maudette. Sheriff Bud Dearborne and Detective Andy Bellefleur feel him out before eventually telling him they found a video tape of him having sex with the victim on the night of the murder.

As Sookie puts on her makeup before work, Gran asks her whether she thinks Bill was around during the Civil War. Her historical group, the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, would certainly love to hear a first-person account of the war. Sookie, amused, promises to ask. She gets to Merlotte's just in time to hear all her coworkers discussing Jason's arrest. Frightened - and furious that she's the last person to know - she demands that Jason's friends, Rene Lenier and Hoyt Fortenberry, fill her in on the details. Just as she becomes so worked up that the thoughts in the room start to overwhelm her, Bill walks into the bar. When she greets him, he asks, "What are you?" The vampire has picked up that she's different, but only asks if he can visit her at her home. She consents and then remembers her Gran's request and asks him, "Would you mind meeting me at the back of the bar when I get off at, probably around 1:30?" Bill agrees but, feeling uncomfortable under the gaze of everyone in the bar, decides to leave.

As soon as Bill is gone, Sam pulls Sookie into his office and admonishes her for associating with a vampire: "What do you have, a death wish?" Before she can finish her retort, Tara bursts through the door and delivers a similar message. Hearing their thoughts - Sam's love for her and Tara's concern for Jason - Sookie finally loses her cool and, yelling that she can take care of herself, slams the door on her way out.

Late that night, as she's leaving work, Sookie notices a beat-up car in the parking lot, and just as she places her recognition of it, the Rattrays jump from the shadows and knock her down, kicking viciously. They have every intent to kill her, but all she can do is curl into a fetal position as she spits up blood.

## Cast

* Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton
* Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte
* Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse
* Rutina Wesley as Tara Thornton
* Chris Bauer as Andy Bellefleur
* Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette Reynolds
* Jim Parrack as Hoyt Fortenberry
* Carrie Preston as Arlene Fowler Bellefleur
* Michael Raymond-James as René Lenier
* William Sanderson as Bud Dearborne
* Lynn Collins as Dawn Green
* Lois Smith as Adele Stackhouse

Guest Starring* James Parks as Mack Rattray
* Karina Logue as Denise Rattray
* Danielle Sapia as Maudette Pickens
* Josh Kelly as Frat Boy Brett
* Jessica Stroup as Sorority Girl Kelly
* Lorna Scott as Super Save-A-Bunch shopper
* Jessica Tuck as Nan Flanagan
* Graham Shiels as Liam
* Bill Maher as himself
* P.J. O'Rourke as himself
* John Henry Canavan as Good old boy vampire
* John F. Schaffer as Super Save-A-Bunch manager
* Larry Udy as Man at bar
* David Lewis as Teenage customer
* Brendan Patrick Connor as Man with beer
* Jennifer Hasty as Woman with fries

Uncredited* Ken Kobus as Man at bar
* Retson Ross as Riot boy

## Trivia

### Production Notes

* The pilot was shot in the Summer of 2007. Actress Brook Kerr originally played the role of Tara Thornton, but when the show was ordered to series she was replaced by Rutina Wesley.
* An unidentified woman is seen in the woods watching over the fight between Sookie and the Rattrays. It is implied that the unidentified woman is responsible for the telekinetic choking of Mack. This is confirmed in Season 3: the woman is Claudine, Sookie's fairy godmother.
* About 2.1 million viewers tuned into the premiere episode, with 1.4 million coming from the original 9pm broadcast and an additional 700,000 viewers from a 10:30pm rebroadcast.
* "Tru Blood" takes its name from the brand of synthetic blood that the Japanese have patented in Harris' novels. Vampires can actually drink it, thereby bypassing their need for human blood.
* In the first scene featuring Sookie's grandmother Adele Stackhouse (Lois Smith), Gran is reading the novel *Last Scene Alive* by Charlaine Harris, creator of the Southern Vampire Mysteries/Sookie Stackhouse series of novels that inspired *True Blood*.
* In the opening credits, there is a brief glimpse of an old Victorian house. It is actually the "Florentine", an over 100 year-old former club and home in Shreveport, Louisiana. Gas Light Players did a fall haunted house there in 1999, called "House of Terror".

### Title

* The episode title and the song is probably a reference to the mysterious chemistry between Sookie and Bill the first time they look each other.

### Continuity

* This episode marks the first appearances of main characters Sookie Stackhouse, Bill Compton, Sam Merlotte, Jason Stackhouse, Tara Thornton, Andy Bellefleur, Lafayette Reynolds, Hoyt Fortenberry, Arlene Fowler, René Lenier, Bud Dearborne, Dawn Green and Adele Stackhouse.
* This episode also marks the first appearance of vampires who are publicly known to exist by all human members of the world.
* The character of Nan Flanagan makes her first appearance in this episode. She will have a recurring role for the first three seasons of the show and become a main character during its fourth season.
* Hurricane Katrina is referenced in the opening minutes of the episode. In *The Sookie Stackhouse Books*, Hurricane Katrina does not occur until before the storyline of the sixth book, *Definitely Dead*. The first season of *True Blood* is based on the first book in the series yet the timeline has been moved forward for the show.

### Goofs

* When Lafayette and Tara are talking at the bar Lafayette has a coffee cup. In one shot the handle of the coffee cup is facing left and in another it is facing right.

### International Titles

 French
 German
 Spanish

## Multimedia

### Soundtrack

* *"Bad Things"* - **Jace Everett**  (True Blood opening credits theme)
* "*Y'all'd Think She'd Be Good 2 Me*" - **C. C. Adcock** (Intro scene where couple in truck see Tru Blood sign)
* "*Goodbye, Good-Lookin*" - **Robbie Fulks** (Inside Merlotte’s, Sookie's first appearance)
* "*Soulful Garage*" - **Southern Culture on the Skids** (Sookie talks to Sam while leaning on the bar)
* *"Until I Wake Up*" - **Dishwalla** (Plays when Sookie sees Bill for the first time in pre-air screeners only, not in broadcast episode)
* "*The Dreaming Dead*" - **Jesse Sykes & the Sweet HereAfter** (Sookie turns around, as Vampire Bill sits down at a table)
* "*Strange Love*" - **Slim Harpo** (Sookie talks to Tara as she drinks her margarita)
* "*Lake Charles*" - **Lucinda Williams** (After fighting off the Rattrays, Sookie and Bill get acquainted)
* "*Still Beating*" - **Josh Ritter** (Jason comes into Merlotte’s looking for Sookie, wants to go home with Dawn)
* "*Dang Good Stuff*" - **Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars** (Jason interrupts Sookie’s sun-bathing)
* *"Bill’s Entrance"* **- Nathan Barr**  (Plays when Sookie is walking to Bill’s table during their second meeting at Merlotte’s)
* "*Stumble & Pain*" - **Joseph Arthur** (Plays while Sookie & Bill are talking at table)
* "*Bones*" - **Little Big Town** (Plays over end credits)

## References

1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20090704100318/http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/307154-Cable\_Ratings\_HBO\_s\_Sunday\_Huge\_With\_Hung\_Premiere.php
2. ↑ http://hboasia.com/HBO/en-sg/shows/true-blood/season1/episode1/#show\_content\_start