Love Bites (Or: Did 'True Blood's' Sookie Stackhouse Go Too Far?)

It's Just Lunch: Does Sookie (Anna Paquin) need to worry about love bites from vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer)? HBO

 

by Joe Matazzoni

"Sookie, no!"

That's what some of us were saying at the end of last week's True Blood episode, when (spoiler alert!) our heroine decided to go all the way — and then a little further — with her new beau, vampire Bill. The "a little further" part came when Sookie, whispering "I want you to," let Bill bite her neck.

Talk about your risky behavior.

"But won't she be a vampire now?" asked my wife, echoing the question on many viewers' minds. My wife is somewhat innocent of vampire lore, so I had to explain that it depends. But I did wonder if Sookie might now risk, at a minimum, becoming one of those vampire love slaves we saw in Episode 3.

So now the question is out there: What are the Vampire Rules in the True Blood mythology?

Answers after the jump ...

The True Blood Web site has a fun Exploring Vampire Mythologies wiki that compares vampire rules and traits in different fictional universes, from the Anne Rice books to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Twilight novels. The collected wisdom remains uncertain about what it takes to become a vampire in the True Blood world: "Not sure yet" is mostly what it says.

But a quick check in the pages of the first Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Until Dark, confirms that the True Blood rules will likely be similar to the better-known Anne Rice rules — with one wrinkle.

"How do you become a vampire?" Sookie asks, strolling through the park with vampire Bill.

"I would have to drain you, at one sitting over two or three days, to the point of your death, then give you my blood," Bill explains. Fairly standard so far. But then Bill adds a touch of uncertainty to the equation: "Other vampires have told me humans they habitually bite, day after day, can become vampires quite unexpectedly. But that requires consecutive, deep feedings."

In other words, "It's OK, honey, as long as we're careful."

So, one mystery solved. Now if we can just figure out what kind of name Sookie is, we'll be somewhere.

11:30 AM ET | 10-16-2008 | permalink

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