True Blood, Season 3, Episode 1: Beck Is Thicker Than Water

Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He's lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood - which happens to be set in

Episode 13.1: Bad Blood

Welcome back to Bon Temps, LA, where the men drink blood, the women hear your thoughts, and the children don't figure much into the R-rated happenings. When last we left True Blood, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) was rushing out of the bathroom of a very nice restaurant to tell Vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) that indeed she would be his until her death did they part when he was suddenly abducted. We pick up the vamp-napping in progress as three hillbillies take turns using Bill like a wine cooler in the backseat in order to get high off his blood.

Blood figures in any vampire series. It's kind of a big deal. But the impression Gothtopia gets is that the concept of tainted blood will play a big part in this season. Are we as people, even undead or shape shifting people, fated to become like those whose blood gave us life in the first place? Certainly nurture battles nature. The children of rock stars become accountants. Last we heard, none of the children adopted from the Manson family, including Charlie's own biological children, have become hypnotic murderers. And yet, 500 years after the death of Vlad the Impaler (Who served as the inspiration of Bram Stoker's Dracula), one of his direct descendants owned and operated a Turkish blood bank. Is a blood link to a bloody past an indicator of an inescapable fate?

Already set up in the first episode of this season is the possibility that Tara (Rutina Wesly) may be unable to escape the violent addictions that her mother possesses, the search by Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) for his real parents described by his foster parents as "bad people", and the plot by the vampire queen of Louisiana to raise herself from bankruptcy by having vampires under her command sell their own blood, furthering the spread of the highly addictive substance.

So bad blood is on everyone's mind, including Beck, whose standing in the world of vampire fiction just grows and grows. Beck was featured in the last season with his song, "Time Bomb," appropriate as the ending of that episode involved a suicide attack by radical anti-vamp terrorists. He is also contributing to the sound track for the latest Twilight film, thereby assuring that like its predecessor it will be a crap film with great music. We feel that Beck needs no introduction, having covered him previously in this column, so instead we'll just drop you kicking and screaming into the song "Bad Blood", released on the Season 2 True Blood soundtrack!

"Bad Blood" reruns on HBO Tuesday June 15 at 9:00 PM. Be sure to visit the Loving True Blood in Dallas blog, where Jef With One F will be a semi-regular contributor to the podcast this season!