Hitting the Ground

"Hitting the Ground"
Season 3, Episode 7
Air date	August 1, 2010
Written by	Alan Ball
Directed by	John Dahl
Episode Guide
previous "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues"	next "Night on the Sun"

"Hitting the Ground" is the 7th episode of Season 3 of True Blood, and the 31st episode overall.

Synopsis

Sookie and Lorena fight

In the basement where Lorena is still torturing Bill, the distraction of Sookie's unusually delicious blood opens the door for Bill to get the drop on Lorena. He uses his last bit of strength to throw his silver chains around her neck, which leads to her death by staking courtesy of Ms. Stackhouse. Tara then shows up with Alcide but Sookie refuses to leave without Bill. As they are wrapping Bill up for daylight transit, Alcide's ex Debbie enters with a revolver. Tara think-tells Sookie to create a distraction, during which she tackles Debbie - Alcide recovers the gun, Cooter enters, and charges Alcide, who shoots him. Cooter continues to charge toward Alcide, who shoots him again, this time in the head, killing him. Debbie flips out and goes after a still-armed Alcide who locks her in the basement. As they make a getaway, Sookie rides with Bill in the back of Alcide's work van, and after giving him some of her blood, she is attacked by the dying, starving, half-crazed Bill. Alcide stops the van to answer nature's call, and Tara gets no response from Sookie when she knocks on the

Sophie-Anne is trapped in a cage

van's rear panel door. Opening the door reveals a confused Bill next to an unconscious, and bloody Sookie. A "V" charged Tara kicks Bill out into the sunlight, and to his own amazement, he does not burst into flames but merely begins to smoke a little. At the hospital we learn that the doctors are unable to identify Sookie's blood type. Sookie's system rejects any transfused blood - including O-, the universal donor type, and she remains comatose. Tara calls Jason to tell him about Sookie, and he rushes to her bedside telling her how much he needs her, with Tara joining him in his sentiment. As Sookie's next of kin, he is not sure how to handle the situation, but reveals that he has a normal blood type, that Sookie has never been sick, and that she was not born in a hospital.

Sookie is in the hospital

Sookie appears to enter a dream-state meeting Claudine, who guides her through the "dream." Claudine, who can communicate with Sookie, urges Sookie to come with them to their home, but that she must swim there. Sookie tells her she can't swim, and after reading Sookie's thoughts, and understanding why, Claudine tells her that it wasn't the flood that killed her parents. Just then a darkness begins to cover the area, coinciding with Bill's entrance into Sookie's hospital room. Claudine asks Sookie to promise not to give her light to the darkness. In the background one of the other people in Sookie's "dream" says in a frightened voice "I've never seen a vampire before." Back in the waking world, Bill convinces Jason to let him heal Sookie with his blood, obviously against Tara's better judgment. Sookie later wakes up to Bill and screams, her last conscious memory being that of Bill attacking her.

Sam tracks down the dog-fighting operation where his brother has been fighting to support the family. We learn he has a new imprint in his bag of shifts when, in order to infiltrate the dog-fighting compound, he changes into the same pit-bull that Tommy uses as his go-to shift. Pit-bull Sam allows himself to be corralled and taken to the dog cages, shifting back to human form to knock out his would-be jailer. As Pit-bull

Sookie meets Claudine for the first time

Tommy's fight begins, Sam triggers the warning alarm and confronts the Mickens about making Tommy fight. Sam shows his ability to control animals by ordering the Rottweiler Tommy was fighting to leave. He convinces Tommy to leave the Mickens & come with him.

Jason pines for Crystal and Hoyt advises him to talk to the drug dealer he helped apprehend, since he is from the same area. Summer brings Hoyt some homemade biscuits and tells him she wants to be his girlfriend. Jason goes to the jailhouse to confront the drug dealer, and learns that he is actually Crystal's cousin. Suffering withdrawals from meth, Crystal's cousin is just about to agree to tell Jason about her when Andy interrupts.

Summer visits Hoyt

Eric brings Sookie's cousin Hadley before the queen to try and get information about Sookie. On the verge of death, Hadley apparently tells Eric what it is that makes Sookie so special, which seems to surprise him. Eric gives Hadley his blood to heal her.

Magnus(the magister) is still torturing Pam in the basement at Fangtasia when her maker, Eric, shows up with the king and queen revealing that the queen had ordered him to sell vampire blood. The king denounces his loyalty to The Authority, and forces Magnus to marry him to the queen. As the king and his party turn to leave, Magnus continues his antagonism, and the king separates his head from his body. The magister is dead.

Notes

• We learn that Sookie has a blood type which does not fall within the current typing system for human blood, that she has never been sick, and that she was not born in a hospital. Jason has normal blood.
• In large quantities, Sookie's blood seems to guard Bill from the normally fatal effects of the sun's rays.
• Sookie's "dream" points more toward her supernatural nature.
• Eric reveals the queen's attachment to Sookie's cousin Hadley. In this sequence, it is shown that while the queen has told Hadley "some" of the secret of Sookie's supernatural nature, she also attributes her knowledge to her family relation to Sookie. We then see that Hadley reveals this secret to Eric, and that he is surprised by it.
• The drug dealer that Jason helped apprehend turns out to be Crystal's cousin.
• Sam has gained a new imprint in the form of the pit-bull that is Tommy's go-to shift, and displays his ability to communicate with animals, successfully ordering the other dog in the ring with them to leave.
• Russell can tell the geographic origin of a vampire's human life from the smell of their blood. With this ability he narrows Magnus' age by stating that he is from the 9th century.
• Bill's maker, Lorena, dies in this episode. (And her brief appearance goes unmentioned in the credits.)
• Alcide's rival, Cooter, dies in this episode.
• Magnus, "The Magister," dies in this episode.

Bloopers and continuity errors

• Lorena says that she's never tasted anything like Sookie before, but this is not true. Only a week earlier did she sample Barry's blood, who is of the same origin as Sookie, and made the exact same remarks.

Memorable quotes

• “What are you?” - Lorena questions Sookie. Her response: “I'm the bitch that's gonna kill you.”
• "You wouldn't know love if it kicked you in the fangs!" - Sookie to Lorena
  
• "How'd you know I was a Tiffany's girl?" - Pam to Magnus(the magister) as he is about to pierce her eyelids with silver Tiffany earrings
  
• "Well I certainly wasn't expecting that..." - Eric, upon learning the truth behind Sookie's supernatural powers
  

• "I think over again my small adventures, my fears. These small ones that seemed so big. For all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing. The only thing. To live to see the great day that dawns. And the light that fills the world." - Old Inuit song spoken by Lafayette to Sookie, Tara, and Jason at Sookie's bedside

Cast

Starring Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton Sam Trammell as Sam Merlotte Rutina Wesley as Tara Thornton Ryan Kwanten as Jason Stackhouse Co-starring Marshall Allman as Tommy Mickens Chris Bauer as Andy Bellefleur Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette Reynolds Jim Parrack as Hoyt Fortenberry Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman Denis O'Hare as Russell Edgington Joe Manganiello as Alcide Herveaux

Guest starring Brit Morgan as Debbie Pelt Grant Bowler as Cooter Zeljko Ivanek as The Magister Evan Rachel Wood as Sophie-Anne Leclerq Lindsey Haun as Hadley Hale Don Swayze as Gus Kristin Bauer as Pam Melissa Rauch as Summer Lara Pulver as Claudine Crane J. Smith-Cameron as Melinda Mickens Cooper Huckabee as Joe Lee Mickens

True Blood Season 3
<< Season 1 • << Season 2	Season 4 >> • Season 5 >> • Season 6 >>
#01 "Bad Blood"	#07 "Hitting the Ground"
#02 "Beautifully Broken"	#08 "Night on the Sun"
#03 "It Hurts Me Too"	#09 "Everything Is Broken"
#04 "9 Crimes"	#10 "I Smell a Rat"
#05 "Trouble"	#11 "Fresh Blood"
#06 "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues"	#12 "Evil is Going On"