'True Blood': 5 Scenes That Did Nothing to Advance the Plot

HBO

This week's True Blood seemed to have a bit less plot than usual and a bit more in the way of clever filler scenes—some quirky moments that the writers have been trying to find a way to fit in for the last few episodes and have just now found space for. Some of the plot parts seemed a bit more drawn-out than they needed to be —Franklin's long hysterical rant at Tara's attempted desertion, for one—so this was a good episode to add in some amusing asides.

Fun fillers:

1) The slapstick montage of Jason being slowly bored to death by his first day at a desk job. While utterly failing to file anything, he fingerprints himself (getting inky fingerprints all over his face and clothes in the process), flips his chair over while catching a ball with his face, and builds an elegant paperclip limbo rod. It's a lot like the first half of Marley & Me.

2) When Franklin and Tara arrive at Russell's mansion, the Royal Consort complains that Russell isn't supposed to bring work home; Russell admonishes his lover, "Darling! King!" while pointing at himself, the way someone might remind their spouse "Darling! Shoes!" if they're tracking mud into the house before guests. Love the homey touches—now if only they'd adopt the use of Wet Wipes post-feeding as an additional nicety.

3) Franklin helpfully transcribes text messages from Tara to Lafayette (Tara is still tied up, dictating). Franklin gleefully demonstrates how fast he can type "motherfucker," then deletes the message and retypes it to make sure Tara sees how speedily he does it. A talented psychopath.

4) "She's such a fucking disaster! We could be twins!" –Franklin, on his love for Tara.

5) Lafayette's progression of facial expressions as it gradually becomes clear to him that he's being asked on a date. If this Jesus turns out to have ulterior motives I'm going to be so disappointed.

The plot did set up some interesting questions for next week. What is Crystal's secret? What plan will Eric put in motion to get his Viking-style revenge? Is Tara about to become an unwilling vampire bride? What the heck is going on with Sam's crazy family? And are we finally about to figure out why Sookie is able to read minds and occasionally blast people with organic laser beams?

Stay tuned and/or leave your bets in the comments section! Anyone who read the books and leaves spoilers will be SHUNNED.