So, I missed the premiere of "True Blood" last night, but was able to watch it this morning. And I know that the opening to the episode was supposed to hit you in the face and be a metaphor, but in spite of how annoying the obviousness of the metaphor is, it's a powerful one.
When we left Sookie at the end of season three, once again, her whole world seemed to be crumbling around her and she had this overwhelming sense that she was alone and had been completely betrayed by everyone she trusted. When we find her at the beginning of this season, she has been spirited away to a parallel universe with fairies and what appears to be complete bliss. She's surrounded by beautiful fairies that are the very essence of light, and they are serving all of their human "guests" a fruit that is the essence of happiness. The fruit erases all of the pain, all of the struggle--all of the humanity of life and even time.
She stumbles upon her grandfather who had gone missing twenty years earlier and he is unchanged and unaware that any time has passed. Sookie, who was, of course, too sharp to jump on the fruit-eating bandwagon, starts to suspect that something fishy is going on in this alternative world. The longer she is there without eating the fruit, the more the world around her starts to reveal itself as something else.
It turns out that the world isn't really beautiful, the fairies are somewhat hideous, and the only thing holding the illusion together is the intoxication of the fruit. The "guests" are captives and they can't return to the real world if they have eaten the fruit.
The idea of being invited to a world of "milk and honey" only to discover it is nothing more than a trick and a sham isn't new. That's why the metaphor is so obvious and it nearly hits you over the head like a mallet. At the same time, it seems like we all slip into this trap in our lives and often find it difficult to get out. There's a reason why there's a phrase "if something seems too good to be true, it probably is." It's because if something seems too good to be true, it almost always is.
So what happens?
Of course, there's one rebel in the fairy group who decides to do the right thing, and he shows Sookie and her grandfather how to leave. The problem? Sookie's grandfather had been eating the fruit. As they stand, literally, upon a precipice between the fairy world and the human world, Sookie has to make a choice. The other fairies have lied to her and seduced her into the fairy world--why should she trust this rogue fairy? She could be jumping to an uncertain fate.
She does what most of us won't do, of course, she takes the leap.
The idea of Sookie Stackhouse leaping into the crumbling precipice, not knowing what she was jumping into, is almost a cliche in and of itself. "Taking the leap" is the equivalent of finding the "Holy Grail." Flip through channels all day long and you'll find a hundred television shows all about taking chances and walking away from things we know are harming us in one way or another.
Why are there so many of these shows, and why is this such a popular theme? It's easy. It's because so many of us aren't able to take that leap and the only way we can is vicariously through characters like Sookie Stackhouse.
So, Sookie and her grandfather jump off the cliff and land near the cemetery where the Stackhouse family has buried its dead for generations. It looks pretty good. They made it, right? Well, Sookie did. Her grandfather, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. After wasting twenty years eating the false-happiness--the false comfort and stability that was being offered to him, there was nothing left.
It's another metaphor, of course. Sometimes the devil we know is easier to face than the devil we haven't met, but in the end, if we waste our time in false comfort, we will reach a point where nothing more can be made of our lives.
Is comfort and stability worth losing everything?
http://youtu.be/xJh47LybCkU
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