Mine
True Blood | Season 1 | Episode 3

Mine

TV-MA | 52 MIN

Directed by John Dahl
Written by
Alan Ball

Outside Bill's house, Sookie meets some of his less-than-welcoming vampire friends: Diane, Malcom and Liam (the vamp from Maudette's sex tape). The three circle her, making suggestive comments and baring their fangs, then follow her into the house, where Bill seems unnerved by the situation that's developed. When Diane and her cohorts threaten to feed on Sookie, however, Bill steps in, declaring, "Sookie is mine."

The vampires step back, and the lapse in immediate danger gives Sookie a chance to notice the other humans in the room - a man and woman, both glamoured - who are serving as the group's playthings. As a young man named Jerry offers his neck for Bill to feed, Sookie hears his thoughts: " ... get infected you f**king vampire a**hole ..." She shrieks out a warning that Jerry has Hep D, a virus that only affects vampires, and stops Bill in time. But Jerry - robbed of his chance at revenge for the murder of his boyfriend - turns on Sookie. The attack ends almost before it begins when Bill breaks Jerry's wrist, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Diane wants to know how Sookie discovered the traitor, though Bill manages to deflect her questions and usher the group out the door ... with Jerry in tow.

At Merlotte's, Tara and Sam close down for the night, neither of them in a hurry to get home. After cracking a couple beers, their conversation turns to Sookie, who's been worrying them both. Tara tells Sam his affection for the waitress is obvious and prompts her new boss to make his move quickly, before things with Bill heat up any more. Sam explains how he already told Sookie he didn't mind if she read his thoughts, and Tara stops him: "She doesn't want to listen to anybody's thoughts ... Man, you don't stand a chance."

After Diane leaves with the other vampires, Sookie steps out onto the porch, shaken. Bill explains that when vampires live together in a "nest" they become more vicious. He also cops to having had sex with Diane - back in the 1930s. Pushing a folder into Bill's hands, Sookie says she arranged for some electricians to renovate his home at night. With that, she leaves.

Dawn comes home from work, expecting to find Jason still tied to her bed, but instead a stranger is waiting for her. Grabbing her from behind, the robed and masked man tells her, "I need to taste you again." Dawn becomes terrified when he tells her that he's already "drained" Jason - and she's next. Just as she starts to really lose it, the man pulls the stocking from his face, revealing ... Jason. Laughing, he kisses her deeply, telling her, "Just think of it as foreplay."

When Sookie gets home, Bill startles her by appearing out of nowhere. Once she gets over the shock, she asks why she can't hear his thoughts. "Because I'm dead," he replies. The weight of the past few days hits her all at once, and she tells him they shouldn't see each other anymore. As she steps inside, Bill voices her own deepest fear: "You'll never find a human man that you can be yourself with."

Tara and Sam continue their after-work drinking at his trailer, with Tara explaining how she can't stand to go home to her alcoholic mother. Changing the subject, she asks him why he doesn't have a girlfriend, and after a few minutes of his sputtering, continues with, "Don't you ever get horny?" They're both aware of where the conversation is headed, though Sam drags his feet out of employer-responsibility. Until they start kissing.

Over at Dawn's house, Jason has already skipped ahead to aggressive sex; unfortunately his guilty conscience has started playing tricks on him. At one point, when he looks down at Dawn, he sees Liam's face looking back up at him and immediately looses his "mood." Dawn asks him what's wrong, and he replies, "I hate that you've been with vampires." The moment escalates into an argument, which escalates to Dawn chasing Jason out of her house with a pistol, firing warning shots as he struggles to get his pants on. When he gets home, it's as if the television has read his mind as he flips through channels: A vampire attacks in an old movie. Steve Newlin, son of the recently deceased Fellowship of the Sun leader Rev. Theodore Newlin, blames vampires for his father's "assassination." A vampire bat feeds on cattle.

Bill visits Diane at her nest to demand that they leave Sookie alone. Hinting at powerful allies they would do well to heed, Bill seems to accomplish his task. The evil vampires don't miss the opportunity to criticize him for mainstreaming, though, and when Bill spots the draining corpse of the human woman who'd been at his house, their point is underscored.

Tara comes home to her drunken mother, who rises from the couch ready to fight - literally. After calling her daughter a whore, Lettie Mae smacks her with a liquor bottle, drawing blood. Tara flees, heading to Lafayette's house, where she finds a state senator (who her cousin has some sort of "arrangement" with) in the shower. After the guest leaves, Tara shares the news of the previous night, adding that Sam barks in his sleep. "Damn," Lafayette says. "White people are f**ked up."

Later, Jason comes to see Lafayette, too, but for a different reason: Viagra to combat his newfound shortcoming. Lafayette does him one better, offering to sell him a vial of vampire blood. Disgusted, but desperate, Jason takes the deal, but he can't come up with $600 - and Lafayette doesn't do credit. In lieu of cash, Jason agrees to dance in his underwear for Lafayette's gay porn website - wearing a mask, of course. Tara emerges from a backroom just in time to secretly catch Jason smacking his own ass.

Sookie, relaxing at home on her day off, takes a call from Sam, who asks her to swing by Dawn's house for him. She was supposed to work lunch at Merlotte's and hasn't come in yet. "She probably just overslept," Sam says, promising Sookie she won't have to take over the shift. Sookie goes to her house, but when she knocks, there's no answer. After a few tries, she lets herself in ... and finds Dawn's lifeless body strewn across the bed.

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