"Cold Ground"
Season 1, Episode 06
Air date	12 Oct 2008
Written by	Raelle Tucker
Directed by	Nick Gomez
Episode Guide
previous "Sparks Fly Out"	next "Burning House of Love"

"Cold Ground" is the sixth episode of Season 1 of True Blood and the sixth episode overall.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Notes 2.1 Trivia 2.2 Accolades 2.3 Allusions 2.4 Bloopers and continuity errors 2.5 Featured music 2.6 Title 3 Memorable Quotes 3.1 Lafayette 3.2 Sookie 3.3 Tara 3.4 Bill 3.5 Maxine 4 Memorable Dialogues 5 Trailer 6 Cast 6.1 Starring 6.2 Recurring cast 6.3 Guest starring 6.4 Co-starring

SynopsisEdit

"Give us a little girl time...come on Lafayette."-Tara

Gran is clearly dead, glassy-eyed and covered in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. Sookie stands, barefoot, in shock. Bill comes up behind her and grabs her, trying to calm her. As he holds onto her, someone enters the front of the house. It's Sam. Bill grabs him by the throat. Sam says he was making sure Sookie got home safe, the door was open. He sees the blood and asks what happened. Sam puts a blanket around Sookie's shoulders and suggests she go upstairs to lie down.

Sookie hears Andy with the other police in the kitchen, disturbed and saying the Stackhouse kids, while crazy, didn't deserve this. Mike Spencer the coroner thinks they have a serial killer on their hands.

The next day, Sookie holds a wake for Adele in the house, which is full of nosy townspeople. Sookie loses it when Maxine Fortenberry attempts to make room in the fridge by moving the last pie Adele made before she was killed. Tara and Lafayette take Sookie upstairs, tell her not to worry about entertaining the people downstairs and to just feel whatever she’s feeling.

Sookie confesses that she doesn’t think she is feeling anything at all. Jason, oblivious to his Gran’s death, shows up at work stoned on V and learns the news from Hoyt and René. He races over to the wake, storms into Sookie’s room and smacks her square on the face, screaming that it was her fault that gran was killed. Tara pushes Jason out, telling him she doesn’t even know who he is anymore. Tara tries to comfort Sookie, but the damage is already done. Outside, Andy confronts Jason and practically accuses him of murdering Adele. Jason shoves Andy down as though he weighed nothing.

Gran’s funeral the following day is more or less a disaster. Jason invites his and Sookie’s estranged Uncle Bartlett, which aggravates Sookie. Tara’s mother Lettie Mae shows up and makes a speech about a woman she barely knew. Jason continues to struggle with his V addiction and Sookie makes a fool of herself when she cannot block out the townspeople’s thoughts and tells them all to “Shut the fuck up!”

When the funeral is over, Lettie Mae approaches Tara and tells her that she has a demon inside of her that makes her drink. She says she needs money for an exorcism. Tara thinks this is ridiculous and storms off. Sam takes Sookie home where she tells him that she needs to be alone, Sam doesn’t think so and neither does Tara.

Finally alone, Sookie takes the pie out of the fridge and finally lets out her grief as she eats it, sobbing over every bite. Tara takes Sam back to her hotel room and they have sex. Afterward, Tara starts to feel conflicted about her mother’s problem and leaves Sam alone in the room.

Sookie races to Bill’s house, and Bill hears her footsteps and sweeps her up. In Bill’s house, they finally make love and Bill’s fangs extend. Sookie tells him she wants him to do it. Bill buries his teeth into her neck and starts to drink.

NotesEdit

TriviaEdit

• In Sparks Fly Out, Bill states that no Vampire could resist feeding on a fresh corpse full of blood. However, when Bill goes to Sookie's house to discover the murdered Adele, he does not feed on her, nor do his fangs appear. This suggests that either Vampires have some control of their bloodlust around corpses, or Bill was able to resist his bloodlust due to his emotional connection to Sookie.

AccoladesEdit

• Bill and Sookie's love scene, begun in this episode and continuing in "Burning House of Love", was nominated for a Bravo A-List Award for TV's Sexiest Moment
• Suzuki Ingerslev, Cat Smith & Rusty Lipscomb were nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction for a Single-Camera Series

AllusionsEdit

• In the scene where Tara and Lafayette are cleaning up after the consolation party held at Sookie's house, Tara asks if she should check on Sookie sleeping upstairs, to which Lafayette replies "Trust me, that child is dead to the world right now." Dead to the World is the title of the fourth installment of the Southern Vampire Mysteries written by Charlaine Harris upon which "True Blood" is based.

Bloopers and continuity errorsEdit

• While Sookie is eating Adele's pie, the amount of pie she picks up with her fork does not match the amount on her fork from other angles.
• When Sookie finds William's grave, the amount and placement of the dirt over the plaque changes between shots without her having made any movements that would alter its position.
• In the scene where Tara and Sam are in Tara's motel room, they are drinking Steam Whistle beer. This particular brand of beer is not sold anywhere outside of Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. It is highly unlikely that Tara would have possession of this brand of beer in Louisiana.
• The Capital "M"s in the "BON TEMPS CEMETERY" sign are installed backwards with the wide stroke to the left. On "M"s and "A"s the wide stroke should be to the right.

Featured musicEdit

• "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC
• "We'll Meet along the Way" - Hem
• "Lullaby" - Dixie Chicks
• "Half of You" - Cat Power
• "Take Me Home" - Lisbeth Scott
• "Cold Ground" - Rusty Truck

TitleEdit

The title and the song of the episode probably notes Sookie's empty soul after Gran's death or it's an indirect allusion to Adele's funeral.

Memorable QuotesEdit

LafayetteEdit

• "What the f*** is it with white people and jello? Sookie don't need no bad ju ju cookin'. Smell this. You can smell the fear and nastiness coming up off that corn bread."

• "Sook, relax. This is not drugs, this is just a Valium."

• "If she talked any more shit, she'd be shaped like a toilet."

• "Oh my f***ing God, girl! This is about to get ugly."

SookieEdit

• "This is Gran's pie!"

• "Go on and do it! I want you to bite me."

• "Do it. I want you to."

TaraEdit

• "Nothin' says I'm sorry like a tuna cheese casserole."

• "Y'all excuse us. I need Sookie upstairs. Just give us a little girl time. Come on Lafayette."

BillEdit

• "This isn't the time or the place for you to be marking your territory."

MaxineEdit

• "I heard they almost cut off her head. I don't see any blood. Should have got here sooner. Maybe I should have brought my red velvet cake instead." [thoughts as overheard by Sookie]

Memorable DialoguesEdit

Jason: Sookie, please. I mean, we're all we've got.
Sookie: We've got nothing.

Tara: Do you think they're capable of lovin' a person?
Lafayette: Who knows what they're capable of.

TrailerEdit

CastEdit

StarringEdit Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse Rutina Wesley as Tara Thornton Recurring castEdit Chris Bauer as Detective Andy Bellefleur Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette Reynolds Jim Parrack as Hoyt Fortenberry Adina Porter as Lettie Mae Daniels Carrie Preston as Arlene Fowler Bellefleur Michael Raymond-James as René Lenier William Sanderson as Sheriff Bud Dearborne Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman

Guest starringEdit Lois Smith as Adele Stackhouse Todd Lowe as Terry Bellefleur John Billingsley as Mike Spencer Dale Raoul as Maxine Fortenberry William Schallert as Mayor Norris Danielle James as Randi Sue Co-starringEdit Cheyenne Wilbur as Uncle Bartlett Stewart Skelton as Minister Kevin McHale as Neil Jones Linda Harmon as Hymn singer Sally Stevens as Vocalist

True Blood Season 1
	Season 2 >> • Season 3 >> • Season 4 >>
#01 "Strange Love"	#07 "Burning House of Love"
#02 "The First Taste"	#08 "The Fourth Man in the Fire"
#03 "Mine"	#09 "Plaisir D'Amour"
#04 "Escape from Dragon House"	#10 "I Don't Wanna Know"
#05 "Sparks Fly Out"	#11 "To Love Is to Bury"
#06 "Cold Ground"	#12 "You'll Be the Death of Me"