True Blood: Escape from Dragon House

"Vampires think about one thing, and one thing only: Drinking. Your. Blood."

- Sam Merlotte

"Escape from Dragon House" is the fourth episode of season one of the HBO television series True Blood and first aired on September 28th, 2008. Another killing in Bon Temps finds Jason back in custody with officers Andy and Bud. Tara gets him off the hook, but neither she nor Lafayette has the antidote to his current ailment. Later, Bill demonstrates his own considerable powers when an abusive patrolman stops him and Sookie on their way home.

Synopsis
Sookie walks into Dawn's bedroom and finds her lying on her bed... dead. She lets out a scream and tries to cover her up with a sheet. Jason unexpectedly comes in behind her carrying a vase filled with flowers. He tries to keep Sookie calm until Dawn's neighbor Faye Lebvre comes in. She immediately suspects Jason of murdering her. Jason says that he had nothing to do with it, but it is clear that Mrs. Lebvre doesn't believe him. Angrily, he storms off out of the house.

As news of Dawn's death spreads throughout town, several locals begin crowding around the crime scene including Arlene Fowler, Rene Lenier, Hoyt Fortenberry and his mother Maxine. They all begin exchanging theories as to what happened, but all but Hoyt are all too ready to point the finger of blame at Jason Stackhouse. Bud Dearborne and Andy Bellefleur close off the room and Bud takes Sookie's statement. She overhears Andy's thoughts and see that he is disgruntled that nobody ever affords him any respect. Andy interviews Faye Lebvre and learns that Dawn and Jason had been fighting the night before. Satisfied with what he has heard, and disliking Jason to begin with, he arrests him and throws him into a police cruiser. Jason remembers that he still has the vile of v-juice that Lafayette had sold him. Not wishing to be caught with it, he disregards Lafayette's previous warning and drinks the entire vial.

As the cops drive off with Jason, Sam Merlotte arrives. He offers her his support, but cannot restrain his own grief. He considers shutting down the bar for the day, but Sookie convinces him to keep it open. Mike Spencer and a young assistant coroner pull Dawn's body out of the house. At the station, Andy begins grilling Jason about Dawn. He tricks him into answering a question incorrectly and tries to muscle a confession out of him. As they speak, the v-juice kicks into gear and Jason begins sporting an erection. It is extremely painful and he must excuse himself to go to the restroom. Screaming in agony, he tries to urinate, but finds to his horror that he cannot. While Jason endures great discomfort, Tara Thornton comes into the station. She asks Bud and Andy if they properly mirandized Jason before arresting him. Each of them are impressed with Tara's knowledge of the law. Jason comes out of the restroom and Tara provides him with an alibi. She says that the two of them spent the entire evening making love, so he couldn't have possibly killed Dawn. Bud and Andy don't believe her, but without any evidence, they are forced to let him go.

Sookie meanwhile, returns home and talks to Gran. Mrs. Stackhouse is certain that Jason is innocent, but with two murders having occurred in such a short span of time, she fears that the police might book him anyway. She asks Sookie to use her gift to scan the minds of people at Merlotte's to see if she can come up with anything that might prove Jason's innocence. Sookie agrees and goes to work. As she's waiting tables, her mind is flooded with snippets of people's thoughts, most of which contain derogatory comments about vampires, "fang-bangers" and Dawn. Even Arlene seems cynical and unsympathetic. She mentions how both Dawn and Maudette both liked to go to a vampire bar over in Shreveport.

Tara comes into the establishment and takes her place behind the bar. Sam tries to talk to her about their one-night stand and Tara tells him to forget it ever happened. In fact, as far as he and anyone was concerned, Tara spent the entire evening with Jason Stackhouse. Sam cannot believe that Tara is willing to give Jason an alibi.

Meanwhile, Jason sits at home in front of the television masturbating. No matter how much he tries, he cannot seem to alleviate his painful erection. Blisters begin to form on his hands from all the effort he is exerting. Unable to gain any satisfaction, he gets dressed and drives down to Merlotte's. As he enters, he runs right into Sookie. She asks him outright if he killed Dawn and Jason vehemently denies it. Dismissing her concerns, he heads straight to the kitchen where Lafayette is working the prep station. He tells him what happened and how he consumed the entire vial of V. He asks him for an antidote, but Lafayette tells him that there is no antidote for vampire blood. Instead, he suggests he should try "rubbing one out". Bill Compton comes into Merlotte's and notices how excessively busy it is. Arlene waits on him, but is particularly rude, refusing to serve him his favored brand of Tru-Blood. Sookie takes Bill outside and tells him that Dawn had been murdered. Instantly intrigued by the nature of her death, he neglects to offer his condolences, a fact that Sookie is quick to point out. She tells him how Arlene had mentioned a vampire bar in Shreveport, and Bill confirms the rumor, identifying it by the name Fangtasia. Sookie laughs, thinking the name is very hokey, but Bill reminds her that most vampires are very old, and at one point in time, considered a pun to be the highest form of humor. She asks Bill to take her to Fangtasia so she can scan the minds of the patrons in the hopes of finding out more about Dawn's death. Bill, seeing this as an opportunity to take Sookie out, eagerly agrees. She insists however, that this is not a date. She goes back inside to tell Sam that she is leaving early. When he learns that she intends on going to a vampire bar, Sam begins to bristle. Despite his progressive attitude towards vampires, he in fact dislikes them immensely. He is scared for Sookie's safety, but is unable to change her mind.

A few moments later, Tara walks into the freezer unit and finds Jason sitting on the ground with a frozen ribeye over his exposed private parts. He confesses that he overdosed on some V that Lafayette had sold him. Tara is outraged, both at the stupidity of Jason's actions, as well as the fact that her cousin is apparently selling vamp blood. Forcing him to remove the steak, Tara is horrified to see that he is suffering from a severe case of priapism. After some cajoling, she convinces Jason to let her take him to the hospital. Meanwhile, Bill drives Sookie to Shreveport. The two flirt with one another, but Bill acts coy, reminding Sookie what she had mentioned earlier about this not being a date. They arrive at Fangtasia and Bill warns her to be careful. The bar is filled with loud, heavy metal music and vampires indulging their more primal traits with reckless abandon. Bill introduces Sookie to the bartender, Longshadow. Sookie shows him photographs of Maudette and Dawn and Longshadow confirms that he had seen them. Without provocation, he indicates that the two girls "...wanted to die". Sookie thanks him and turns around. In the back of the bar is a small, raised platform. On it is a blonde-haired vampire sitting on a throne. Many of the patrons begin casting their eyes upon this stoic individual and Sookie asks Bill about him. Bill tells her that the man is Eric and that he is the oldest thing in the room. They watch as an eager human attempts to approach Eric, who nonchalantly kicks him across the room with just a mere flick of his boot.

Back in Bon Temps, Tara brings Jason to the hospital. Doctor Offutt asks if Jason had been taking any Jason, but Jason lies -- especially when he is asked about drinking vampire blood. After looking at Jason's pained member, he says that the only recourse is to aspirate, which is, he has to drain the blood out of his penis. Jason doesn't want to do this, but has little choice. He asks Tara to stay with him and endures the most painful procedure he has ever known in his entire life.

As the evening grows late, Sam gets ready to close up Merlotte's. Arlene is a little skittish after recent events and asks him to walk her to her car. Before they leave, Sam surrepticiously takes a pair of rubber gloves and stuffs them into the front of his jeans.

At Fangtasia, Eric summons Bill and Sookie to his side. Bill and Eric seem to have history with one another and he is nervous about having Sookie with him before this elder vampire. When Eric inquires why Sookie has come to Fangtasia, she shows him the photographs of Dawn and Maudette. Pointing to one of the photos, he admits that he has drunken from one of them, while the other he considered "too pathetic" for his attentions. Sookie gets a psychic flash and learns that one of the patrons is an undercover cop and that a raid will soon commence. She warns Eric about the raid and the group of them exit through a back door as police officers storm into the front of the bar. Bill and Sookie split off from Eric and Pam and drive back towards Bon Temps.

Along the way, they pull over to have a conversation. Their talk is interrupted however when a police officer pulls up to them. He shines his flashlight into the car and asks where they have been. Bill takes offense to the officer shining his light in Sookie's eyes, so he glamours him. He forces the man to hand over his revolver and makes a point to let him know how lucky he is. He keeps the gun and drives off, leaving the befuddled cop behind to urinate himself.

Meanwhile, Sam goes to Dawn's empty house. He lets himself in and begins crawling across the bed. He sniffs at the bed sheets and begins rolling about.

Crew

 * Nathan Barr - Composer
 * Andy Keir - Editor
 * Michael Ruscio, A.C.E. - Editor
 * Suzuki Ingerslev - Production designer
 * Matthew Jensen, A.M.C. - Director of photography
 * Raelle Tucker - Co-producer
 * Alexander Woo - Producer


 * Nancy Oliver - Supervising producer
 * Brian Buckner - Co-executive producer
 * Carol Dunn Trussell - Producer
 * Alan Ball - Executive producer; Creator
 * Bruce Dunn - Co-producer
 * Christina Jokanovich - Associate producer
 * Charlaine Harris - Creator

Notes & Trivia

 * True Blood was created by Alan Ball. It is based on the "Sookie Stackhouse" series of novels by author Charlaine Harris.


 * This episode is rated TV-MA.


 * "TB: Escape from Dragon House" redirects to this page.


 * This episode is included on disc 2 of the True Blood: The Complete First Season DVD and Blu-ray collections. It is also included on the True Blood: The Complete Series boxset collection by HBO Studios.


 * Casting for this episode was provided by Junie Lowry Johnson, CSA and Libby Goldstein.


 * Alexander Skarsgård is added to the opening credits beginning with this episode.


 * First appearance of Eric Northman and Pam De Beaufort. Eric becomes a central character throughout the rest of the series. Pam makes recurring appearances throughout seasons 1 and 2, but becomes a regular character with season 3.


 * First appearance of Maxine Fortenberry. She makes recurring appearances throughout the series and appears next in "Sparks Fly Out".


 * First appearance of Deputy Kevin Ellis. He appears next in "You'll Be the Death of Me". Coincidentally, this episode first aired on actor John Rezig's birthday.


 * When Jason is at home masturbating, he breaks down crying and says "Oh, baby... my baby". It is unclear if he is talking about Dawn Green or his own penis (which he is staring at while he says it).


 * In one scene, Eric speaks to Pam in Swedish. He says, "Vår lilla djurpark börjar växa till sig", which translates as "Our little zoo is starting to grow".


 * Lettie Mae Thornton appears in flashback only.

Quotes

 * Rene Lenier: Too small a town to be losing girls one after another like this.

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 * Jason Stackhouse: I'm too damn pretty to go to prison.

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 * Maxine Fortenberry: I feel like a cat on a hot tin roof. That's from a play.

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 * Andy Bellefleur: Tell me, is that how you do it? Kill them then fuck them. Or do you fuck them and then kill them?

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 * Tara Thornton: School is just for white people looking for other white people to read to 'em. I figured I save my money and read to myself.

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 * Jason Stackhouse: Look, when Maudette died I thought I might of done it, and it turned out I didn't. With Dawn, I don't even think I might have done it, so I know I didn't.

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 * Jason Stackhouse: I got gout of the dick!

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 * Bill Compton: You have to remember that most vampires are very old. Puns used to be the highest form of humor.

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 * Tara Thornton: My cousin is dealin' vampire blood now? God damn idiot. Well, at least that explains why I walked in on you dancin' around in that Laura Bush mask yesterday, 'Cause I gotta tell you, without a reason, that was some fucked up shit!