There are no two ways around it: last night was a very strange night.
I’ll post more details about it later, but in a nutshell, the Television Critics Association Awards took place on Saturday, Aug. 1st, where “True Blood” was named Outstanding New Program. As with all good awards shows, there was a pre-show party and a post-show party, and although neither Anna Paquin nor Stephen Moyer were available to stand with executive producer Alan Ball as he accepted the award, several of their fellow cast members were in attendance, including Sam Trammell, Nelsan Ellis, Rutina Wesley, and Michelle Forbes. Actually, Alexander Skarsgard and Deborah Ann Woll were there for awhile, too, but Mr. Skarsgard disappeared moments after the ceremony was over, and although Ms. Woll stuck around for a bit longer, she managed to slip out before I ever had the chance to speak with her. I hope you’ll enjoy the photos of the folks I did manage to chat with, though. They’re scattered throughout this week’s entry.
Speaking of that, I should probably offer one small warning: I’m out in L.A. for the TCA press tour, and although I had an advance copy of tonight’s episode to watch, I’ll be the first to admit that my mind was going a dozen other places while I was watching it. So if I missed out on anything or perhaps misinterpreted something, let me go ahead and apologize right now.
And, now, on with the show…

Well, obviously, we knew Sam was going to find a way to escape from his captivity, but they managed to wring the suspense out of it nonetheless; we even saw him manage to transform into something other than a dog – a significant accomplishment, I dare say – and fly away to safety. From there, Sammy got his gun and made it quite clear that he wasn’t afraid to use it, but…am I the only one who thought he was heading off to find Maryann? Not that it didn’t make sense that he’d go after Daphne, given that she’d committed such a personal betrayal, but I was still figuring that he was heading to take down the big dog. Daphne managed to stay pretty cool for somebody who was having a gun waved in her face, but Sam was plenty emotional for the both of them. How could you not feel bad for the guy? He thought he’d found his soulmate. Instead, he got stabbed in the back…which is why there was a certain temptation to cheer a short while later, when Daphne got stabbed in the front. Not that you didn’t know it was coming. I think we can all agree that there has rarely been a scene featuring the line “thank you for your service” which has ever ended well for the person being thanked. As far as Maryann, she’s clearly not God, but…what is she? A maenad? Well, I can’t say as I expected Greek mythology to tie into this storyline, but it’s certainly getting more intriguing all the time, that’s for sure.
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