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Part of where the show falls down at this point is in failing to display a cohesive understanding of its own statements. I see signs that the way even the progressive vampires tend to be mired in human limitations on their intelligence and creativity and ambitions is intended to convey precisely that, that they're just folks with ideas bigger than their ability, like everyone else.

We have touches like Eric showing up at the Conan Wheel with highlighting foils in his hair (finally answering that ancient question of whether vampires have some kind of mystical salon power allowing them to magically sprout modern styles and post-punk dyejobs or what the hell), suggesting that the show knows these creatures are just traipsing around in the trappings of posthumanism without ever truly living it. Yet at the same time, the torture and captivity is played to the hilt as supposedly inhumanly awful ("sometimes there are screams" being a shining example of several times the writing in this episode crossed from camp to top-of-mind; more than once I saw an actor deliver a particularly clunky stinker with face turned away, mumbling slightly, as if hoping to disavow ownership of the dialogue).

We're left unsure if the business with the hairstyling is meant to make the situation more creepy or less alien. Are they saying Eric is such a sociopath he'll waltz from barber chair to iron maiden without affect, or that his own vanities belie his rejection of humanity? Really it seems they're not saying anything at all. The Conan Wheel looked cool and scary and the hair foils seemed funny, that's all, and that's a little sad.

Oddly, it's human-fanboy Bill who drags this interesting potential to embrace the "writer not as smart as characters" problem (which of coure has long dogged the genre) into confusion. In the first season we even had a direct, explicit comparison, cutting between how almost supernaturally romantic and thoughtful and mature he was capable of being with Sookie on the subject of sex, and how bumbling and selfish and *human* Sam was made to seem in comparison for his relative frankness with Tara in bed. The message then seemed to be that this man who rejected the tenets of posthumanism was in fact more evolved than either humans or the other vampires -- the humdrum moral lesson being that the ultimate goal of both races should therefore be to blend and achieve a third, higher condition.

As we go on and Bill, who we know must be speaking from a truly pure and inspired heart because he has no social schmoozing skills otherwise, repeatedly redeems his untrustworthy, disrespectful acts by sweeping Sookie's objections away on a surfeit of pretty words -- displaying sudden and suspiciously clear introspection exactly when their relationship most requires it to continue leading to fucking -- the potential to work with the humanity of the vampires gets increasingly corroded. If he doesn't start leaving his dirty socks on the kitchen table and hiding under the mattress antique dirty postcards where the ladies show *both* ankles, the whole possible idea that vampires keep doing stupid human shit because they're actually meant to be just stupid humans will be permanently undermined. Even his transgressions are motivated by vampiric rather than human preoccupations, so again we have the concept that if he can become a third kind of creature, he would be the Perfect Man, that is, devoid of inconvenient human selfishness and awkwardness, but still capable of love and devotion. And, of course, lots of passionate but boring fucking. ("You get the champagne glasses and I'll put the bearskin rug on the bed").

The best way to unearth that potential would be to bring in a truly posthuman character who makes Eric and his crew look even more like little kids pulling flies off wings, and reveal some deep political subterfuge and manipulation emanating from that source. If they did go this way, the obvious choice would involve the Fellowship of the Sun...