The reason I love these little "this is the way things go" speeches she's always giving is because every single person on this earth has to come up with a moral structure by which to live his or her life. Even the Rattrays and the vampires have rules, even if they're destructive or ignorant or whatever. Usually they come from somewhere, usually they come from somewhere stupid and received-wisdom oriented and lazy and we live our lives afraid of everything in the world because we're not sure what to feel guilty about. But some of us, the best of us I think, manage to think their way there on their own, by looking logically at the world and their place in it, and acting accordingly. Sookie has had to come up with a really good set of principles that proceed entirely from the very specific tragedies and triumphs and capabilities of her particular existence: We don't talk about sex, because if we did we'd never stop; we don't let bad things go down if we can stop them, because that shit gets in your head. I love Sookie's ethics because they are totally categorical -- besides taking her superior abilities into account -- which frankly means that if we all followed them we'd all be okay, which is my favorite sort. People were doing bad shit, she wasn't having that on her watch, so she fucked them up. Little Sookie Stackhouse.

"Sookie. You do not want to get mixed up with vampires, trust me." She tells Jason to shut up, and points out the logic: "Even if you hate vampires, you can't let trash like the Rats go and drain them. It's not like siphoning gas out of a car. They would have left him in the woods to die." Which would not bother Jason in the slightest: "He's already dead!" Sookie protests that it's not his fault, and Jason gets a new, terrifying idea. "What did he look like?" ("Handsome, in a sort of... Sort of old-fashioned, like from a movie on TCM.") "Was he bald-headed?" No: "He had really nice hair." Any tattoos? Sookie giggles to herself about how she hasn't seen any tattoos yet, and Adele comes sweeping in before Jason can bug her about their storylines possibly connecting. Adele makes tea and lunch.

Later, at the kitchen table, Jason teases his sister, spearing food off her plate and chewing it quickly: "If you're gonna wear that suit, you might want to start watching watch what you eat." She stares at him and he grins rakishly. "You look nice." Adele comes running in, doing a perfect "Southern grandmother with intensely gruesome gossip, which is Christmas for Southern ladies," having just heard that Maudette Pickens was found in her apartment ... strangled to death. Hmm. "She didn't show up for work, wasn't answering her phone. And so her boss called Bud Dearborne, he rode over, got the manager to let him in, and they found her." Sookie is shocked; having gone to high school with old Pickens. "Can you believe it?" Adele delights: "A murder in Bon Temps!"