But it seems short-lived when Sookie walks in on Sam and Tara making out, and runs out. Distraught, Sookie and Tara reconcile their broken friendship. After a tearful goodbye, Bill and Sookie part ways. A warning delivered pointedly to Chuck, Wayne and Royce. Eric delivers a stern warning to the patrons of MerlotteвЂ™s about becoming too comfortable around vampires. The four of them drop by MerlotteвЂ™s, where Bill asks Sam to watch over Sookie in his absence. Eric, Pam and Chow, LongshadowвЂ™s replacement, drop in on Bill and inform him that he must go before a vampire tribunal to be tried for his actions. At home, Jason shows a small kindness to Eddie and the two get to talking about EddieвЂ™s past as a human and why he wanted to be a vampire. At MerlotteвЂ™s the next day, Sookie snaps at Andy for not having found the killer that is after her and Sookie finds some comfort in Amy, and the two start to bond. Sookie and Bill return from Fangtasia to discover that SookieвЂ™s cat has been murdered. Tara later confesses to Sam that she might need an exorcism and he offers to pay for it. Tara later tries it, but is interrupted by her mother. Miss Jeanette gives her a test: look at herself in the mirror and if she can count backwards to ten, sheвЂ™s wrong. Meanwhile, Tara is not entirely convinced she needs to have her demon exorcised. The two immediately start using EddieвЂ™s blood to get high. Jason is clearly distressed about having kidnapped the vampire Eddie, but he and Amy take him back to JasonвЂ™s house and chain him up in the basement anyway. Eric warns Bill that there will be consequences for killing a fellow vampire to save a human. Miss them at your peril.Longshadow reaches for SookieвЂ™s neck and is about to bite, when Bill stakes him from behind, spraying Sookie with blood. What, exactly, does being a faerie entail? Will Eric try to bargain for his life with SookieвЂ™s? Is there any way Russell can live to crazy up season four? The answers to these questions and more will be packed into the next 120 blood soaked minutes.

With I Smell A Rat, season three began the race to its much anticipated conclusion, but itвЂ™s still got some explaining to do. LetвЂ™s hope his denouement is worthy of such a great character. With just two episodes left, his glorious reign is sadly about to come to an end. RussellвЂ™s presence this season has allowed the writers an enormous amount of scope for bringing together lots of disparate characters and storylines, and heвЂ™s been a superb addition to the show. The political ramifications of his newsroom bloodbath were mostly played out on the Bon Temps news networks and, therefore, literally in the background, but Nan FlaniganвЂ™s comparison of His Majesty to Jeffrey Dahmer was hilarious, as was the glimpse of our old friend the not-so-reverend Newlin, smugly proclaiming вЂњI told you.вЂќ Trolling for Talbot-alike rent boys to apologise to and then stake, clearly His MajestyвЂ™s definition of closure is slightly more visceral than that of, say, Jason. ItвЂ™s clear that theyвЂ™ll both have a part to play in whatever vengeance Russell chooses to wreak, but just what theyвЂ™ll be doing, other than being witchy, remains unclear. Having hinted at what might be, the mutual V trip they take through the generations leaves them in no doubt that theyвЂ™re both descended from witchy-types, with the odd Satanist thrown in for good measure.

In an episode with so many revelations, perhaps the most interesting was that of Laf and JesusвЂ™ ancestry. Faerie or no, itвЂ™s unlikely that heвЂ™ll completely sell her out, but if it comes down to a choice between Sookie and himself, we all know who heвЂ™ll choose. With one exception: this time the human in the basement is Sookie. Pam, ever the practical vamp, manages to talk some sense into him, and before we know it, heвЂ™s chaining humans up in the basement, just like old times.

For the better part of the episode, Eric gives in to his Scandinavian roots and mopes around bequeathing his worldly possessions to Pam, kissing Sookie and generally looking forward to what he sees as his imminent demise. JasonвЂ™s not alone in the unusual mood stakes, though.

Watch true blood season 3 episode 8