It's getting hot in Bon Temps; Lafayette fans himself on the couch, watching the Harryhausen 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, in which Sinbad and magician Sokurah play out Tara's dance with Maryann -- and, one presumes, Lafayette's oncoming voyage -- scene by scene. "Good evening, Lafayette," says Eric's voice from the window, sending Lafayette flopping painfully to the floor. "No!" he screams. "You can't come in unless I invite you in! And I ain't nowhere near that crazy." Eric threatens that he has all the time in the world: "You have to come out eventually," he says, speaking for the world at large, insensate to Lafayette's pain and fear and longing.

"You let me go!" Lafayette shouts; Eric is unmoved. "I gave you a very generous gift: The gift of not killing you." And alongside, he offers a flourishing wrist and another bit of generosity: "The healing elixir that is my thousand-year-old blood." Lafayette is, to put it lightly, unsure, but Eric doesn't even know what that means. "Your leg's already infected. I can smell it. You don't get that taken care of, you can lose it." At first he says he wants to feed Lafayette because he likes him, which, while not untrue, is patently not the real reason. "You want to be able to keep track of me," he says. That old bond. "You obviously mean something to Sookie. And what Sookie finds meaningful, I find... Curious." Still not sure if that's true either, but okay. "You really have no choice, Lafayette. You know it," he says. And he does, now that he knows it's infected. "Fuck," he groans, and stands, and on the television Sinbad kills a skeleton.

In the Harryhausen films, the skeletons are armies, born of miraculous blood, fighting war which is a chessboard. Nobody's right, nobody's wrong; everybody's at the behest of forces, pains, desires they don't understand. For vengeance, for power, for primacy. Balanced and equal, armies of light and darkness. And nobody knows which is which, and that is the truth of war.

"Leon, look at me. Look at me, Leon." (Sweet, sweet antimetabole! I use you overmuch as it is!) Leon takes his time dragging his gaze, physically, to meet Bill's eyes. "Everything is going to be okay," Bill intones gently, and Leon swears it is not. "My worst nightmares!" he shivers, and Bill shakes his head. "Jessica! What on earth did you do to him?" She has no time for Bill right now, as she screams teenagedly: "I am on the phone!" To Hoyt, no doubt. Hoyt, what are you wearing? What are you wearing, Hoyt? Sookie suggests Bill put his hand on Leon's shoulder -- "Sometimes touching helps me hear their thoughts better" -- and he does. "Who sent you?" The Fellowship of the Sun, obvs. "Are you a member?" asks Sookie, and politely Leon says he is not. They hired him. Who specifically?