She explains that this is gross mostly because Diane, and her compatriots, are totally mean. Bill agrees: "Evil? Yes, they are. They share a nest, and when vampires live in nests they become more cruel, more vicious. They become laws unto themselves. Whereas vampires such as I, who live alone, are much more likely to hang onto some semblance of our former humanity." Sookie's like, "Yeah, and you're doing a bangup job with that, Chief." She hands over the contact info for two electricians willing to come give him quotes at night, and she backs up, ready to bounce. "May I kiss you goodnight?" A world of no. "I couldn't stand it after them." She leaves, and he makes a very intense face. Guess she failed the test.

Sam's stocking the bar, closing up for the night; he and Tara say goodnight to Dawn and Tara asks for a beer, saying she can't go home yet. She tips it way back. "Sam? You think Sookie's getting serious about that vampire?" Sam doesn't really want to talk about it, and keeps working as he plays it off: "I think she's getting to know him. And once she does, I don't think she'll be getting too serious about him." Tara piques his interest by noting that Bill seems to be getting "pretty damn serious" on his own dime, and tells him how Bill showed up at Adele's house last night "all cleaned up and smellin' nice, lookin' like he just stepped out of some piece of shit movie about plantations and shit. Do you know he actually owned slaves?"

(It didn't click for me last week, but this is actually a totally interesting question. They're real people, not history -- they're like time travelers. And while you might not necessarily hold a history person from the Olden Days accountable for everything, given context and culture and all that -- Mad Men is only moderately horrifying because it stays in its box fifty years old -- you'd be hard-pressed to give the same out to somebody who'd actually lived through the intervening centuries. And by the same token, no matter how much TruBlood you drink, your history of murder still follows you. Even the most recovered addict still has a thing hanging over his head; even the most reformed abusive ex-boyfriend is still a guy with history. So what I read last week as Tara being oppositional and weird -- which she was being with Gran, if not Bill -- is a little more textured than that, because it's a fairly fascinating part of the What If. What If Bill not only owned slaves, but owned a slave in Tara's bloodline? Or Rene's? Would that make him better? Worse? Do people actually change? Do we trust epiphanies? Do we need people who have crossed lines -- adulterers, killers, ex-cons, sex offenders -- to always be a little bit sad about their past, so we can stay firmly on the high ground?)