Russell gives Bill a sort of intake interview over scotch and cigars and creepy Victrola versions of the cello that follows Bill everywhere. What they are talking about is specifically stuff we never really got to hear much about, which is Bill's work for the Queen of Louisiana. For 35 years he was her "procurer," which is a fancy word for "pimp," and which to say there's a difference here is really splitting hairs, if you think about what vampires actually do. Bill promises he was only in Bon Temps on sabbatical, but Russell knows better.

Bill wants more confirmation that Russell can usurp Sophie-Anne's territory -- I guess "via marriage or otherwise" is all one concept now -- and they smoke cigars and generally keep distracted by niceties and historical name-dropping and quotations -- "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke," Rudyard Kipling, who unlike Shakespeare never stole spoons -- and then Bill says he additionally wants Lorena dead. It won't be reported, so nobody will get in trouble. Then he starts getting real treacherous, in a sort of uncomfortable way: "Eric Northman, the Queen's Sheriff of Area IV, has been selling vampire blood, and I believe it is at her behest." Russell knows the Magister would love proof of that, and they reiterate how she's in need of serious cash right now. Anyway, Russell is loving these data, and now he feels like celebrating. Bill makes a terrified face, which I would too in that bathhouse of a house. "'Celebrating' as in... A circle jerk? Or like a tea party? How should I be dressed, basically."

This is all very complicated, because in a minute Pam and Eric are going to sell Bill out for the same thing, which makes me think this whole V storyline is going down sooner rather than later, which is fine. You've got way too many good characters tied up in it as is, and it's really just a hanging doom waiting to come down and turn into something else. The parallel materials have been talking about this "Authority" for awhile now, and we still don't know about Nan Flanigan and the Magister's official roles in the government itself, so that seems like the logical place to go with at least the Sophie part of this.

I still think there are non-financial reasons the Queen wants her blood in a bunch of people -- ooooh, actually that line of thought just got interesting, because isn't that exactly what the vampire head of the FUCrew (Russell, in a minute) is personally doing? And has been doing for centuries? So basically they're both doing the same thing, building an army of people with their blood: It's just that Sophie-Anne also gets money for it, while Russell just gets... Hot naked werewolves. Hmm. That's a tough one. I'm so glad I'm not a vampire! It is always something with those people.