True Blood
I Will Rise Up
TV Flash files “I Will Rise Up” as a desk essential hour — True Blood (2008–2014) on HBO, season 2, episode 9, aired 2009-08-16, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E09: listed hour 21 of 80 in the True Blood guide, hour 9 of 12 in season 2. It aired 2009-08-16 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Timebomb” (S02E08). Next is “New World in My View” (S02E10).
Essential hour: “I Will Rise Up”. I Will Rise Up is the named mid-two hour whose gospel title does the allegory's work — Bon Temps treating liberation as a nightclub number.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A wounded Eric plays Sookie for a sucker, to Bill's dismay, and ends up getting inside her head. Later, Sookie and Jason reflect on their recent adventure, and end up bonding at the feuding Newlins' expense. Blaming Eggs for Tara's bruises and bizarre behavior, Lafayette and Lettie Mae try to figure out a way to pry their kin from Maryann's clutches. Hoyt defends his relationship with Jessica to Maxine over lunch, to no avail. Jailed by Bud along with a group of Bon Temps revelers, Sam finds a novel way to escape his cell - and avoid capture by an increasingly obsessed Maryann. In Dallas, Eric and the vampires defend their recent actions to Nan Flanagan, and are shocked when Godric decides to take the fall for their PR disaster.
Viewer FAQ
Where does I Will Rise Up sit in the True Blood guide?
S02E09 is listed hour 21 of 80 — hour 9 of 12 in season 2, season 2 episode 9.
When did True Blood S02E09 air?
I Will Rise Up aired 2009-08-16 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need the Charlaine Harris books?
No. Ball's HBO series is developed from The Southern Vampire Mysteries, but it plays as Louisiana supernatural soap — sex, gore, allegory — on its own fangs.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse falls into vampire politics when the undead mainstream with synthetic blood. Alan Ball's HBO adaptation of Charlaine Harris: Louisiana heat, sex, gore, civil-rights allegory. Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård — prestige pulp that knew it was pulp.
The first useful image is a bottle of synthetic blood, not a fang close-up. Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse falls into vampire politics when the undead "mainstream" into society with Tru Blood as cover story. Alan Ball developed Charlaine Harris's *The Southern Vampire Mysteries* for HBO; the series premiered September 7, 2008, and ran seven seasons through 2014. Anna Paquin stars beside Stephen Moyer's Bill, Alexander Skarsgård's Eric, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, and Nelsan Ellis's Lafayette. Louisiana…
Filed against
- Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse
Anna Paquin’s Sookie Stackhouse fell into True Blood’s vampire politics as a telepathic waitress — Louisiana heat, synthetic blood, Alan Ball’s HBO adaptation of Charlaine Harris as sex, gore, civil-rights allegory. Prestige pulp that…
- Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton
Stephen Moyer bit True Blood as Bill Compton — the vampire who walks a telepathic waitress into undead politics, synthetic blood as civil-rights allegory, Louisiana heat and prestige pulp. Alan Ball adapting Charlaine Harris for HBO. TV…
- Alexander Skarsgard as Eric Northman
Alexander Skarsgård’s Eric Northman made True Blood’s Louisiana vampire politics look expensive — 2000s catalog pulp, a thousand-year stare, prestige sex-and-gore with a civil-rights wink. Generation Kill and Big Little Lies kept the file…
- Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte
Sam Trammell's Sam Merlotte poured True Blood as Bon Temps bartender weather — telepathic waitress Sookie, vampire politics, synthetic blood, Alan Ball's HBO heat, sex, gore, civil-rights allegory. Prestige pulp needed a shape-shifter…
- Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse
Ryan Kwanten's Jason Stackhouse kept True Blood's Louisiana heat looking like a brother with a pulse — telepathic waitress Sookie falling into vampire politics, Alan Ball's HBO adaptation of Charlaine Harris, sex, gore, civil-rights…
- Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette Reynolds
Nelsan Ellis’s Lafayette Reynolds cooked True Blood’s Louisiana heat into a reason to stay through the gore — Alan Ball’s HBO adaptation of Charlaine Harris, telepathic waitress, vampire politics, synthetic blood, sex, civil-rights…