True Blood: Strange Love

"I think Merlotte's just got its first vampire!"

- Sookie Stackhouse

"Strange Love" is the pilot episode of the HBO television series True Blood. The episode was written and directed by series showrunner Alan Ball based on the "Southern Vampire Mysteries" series of novels by author Charlaine Harris. The episode first aired on Sunday, September 7th, 2008. Across the country, vampires have come "out of the coffin" after the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood. In Louisiana, Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress with telepathic abilities, falls under the spell of a sexy, 173-year-old vampire named Bill Compton -- whose thoughts she can't read. After saving Bill from the Rattrays, a pair of ruthless "vampire drainers", Sookie tests the limits of Bill's gratitude when the two are left alone in the dark.