Co-Executive Producer Alexander Woo talked to The Hollywood Reporter about what’s ahead for Eric and Sookie and the triangle-that-is-far-beyond-believable.
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WARNING: This post may contain spoilers, so if you don’t want to know…don’t read any further!
Okay, for better or worse…read what Alexander Woo had to say about the future of Eric and Sookie’s relationship and how it will affect Pam and (*pukes*) Bill as well!
The Hollywood Reporter: Can you explain Eric’s sadness as a result of his memory returning?
Alexander Woo: Alex Skarsgard did an extraordinary job of conveying that. He was an innocent again, but all of the things he had done as a vampire kind of vanished, and we saw at his core this kind of humanity that I think Sookie fell for. I think the way Alex has played Eric is very moving and very touching. Both he and Sookie kind of know that that can’t last forever. As we’re getting toward the end of the season, this builds us towards the climax of what’s going to happen between Eric and Sookie, because now they’ve fallen for each other and the person he was when they fell for each other is now gone again. And whether they can last will feed their story line at the end of the season.
I wouldn’t say the man Sookie fell in love with is GONE. WTF are these people smokin’? As recently as Episode 10, Eric told her that the man he was (when he had lost his memory) was still there inside him. He told her to look into his eyes in fact. Obviously Woo has been cursed, just like Eric was this season. That’s the only thing I can come up with to understand this statement.
THR: Eric behaved very coldly to Pam after getting his memory back. Is that forming another triangle involving Sookie and Pam for Eric’s attention?
Woo: You’ll see that there’s a very explosive struggle within Eric between the vampire that he was, and then he doesn’t forget how genuinely happy he seems to have been when he didn’t have his memories. He doesn’t want to admit this to himself, but there’s a part of him that was happier, and he won’t admit necessarily his feelings for Sookie now that he has his memories back, but it’s tough because he was so content and so happy with who he was, and then he was a different person and was so content and happy with what he was then, too. Now that he’s on the other side of this, there’s a struggle with Pam pulling him one direction and Sookie pulling him in the other. We will have that to look forward to in the last two episodes of how Eric decides to negotiate the struggle.
I can’t say how much this struggle troubles me…I love Pam and Sookie’s friendship in the books and I’m troubled that they are not doing the same on the show. Eric shouldn’t have to choose. It’s like cutting off one of your own arms. Either way, Eric will eventually resent one of them for making him choose between them. I can tell you already…this won’t end well for any of them.
THR: Some fans have still not forgiven Bill for all that he has done to Sookie in service to the former queen. Do you and the other writers believe you’ve done a good job of portraying Bill as someone Sookie can still be in love with?
Woo: I still think we feel very strongly that he was Sookie’s first love, and there’s something always very special about your first love. It wasn’t all that long ago either. It’s a very recent first love that was very, very deep. Even though there are all these things that have happened in the interim in the time of the show, we’ve had four seasons since they first met — but in their world, a little over a year. I think it still resonates that there is this awakening that came about in her life with Bill, and he will always be a very special part of her life. I think in the world that [creator Alan Ball] has created Bill is certainly going to be a part of that world.
He doesn’t necessarily have to be Sookie’s lover, but he’s always going to be a huge part of her life. I can’t say for certain that we’ve made any hard and fast decision, but to me it feels very strongly that Bill is always going to be a presence and always going to be a candidate for her affections.
Fine, I get it. You don’t really get over your first love, but what if that person hurt you and endangered your life because of his so-called “love” for you? How in the hell is that person going to remain a candidate for your affections? Sookie should have nothing to do with Bill and should treat him the same way as in the books, as quoted here after she found out about his betrayal: “The abjured one.”
Eric, by the way, in the world that we’ve created is also now, as much as he sometimes hates her and as much as she sometimes hates him, he’s always going to be under her skin for the life of the series as well. I don’t think that can go away either.
There’s always been a fine line between love and hate! PASSION, anyone?
As you can see…I have MANY thoughts after reading this pile of _____ (you fill in the blank). But I do have to add…I always been an angst whore. This is staying true to the books in the sense that Eric and Sookie never really hook up again until book 9; “Dead And Gone”. And this should give us some amount of hope! If Eric were definitely out of the running…they wouldn’t mention him at all. Kind of like it is with Alcide.
What do you think? Share your thoughts below!
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