Joanna ‘Teahead’ Bogus?awska is a published writer, college instructor and lecturer living in Gdynia, Poland.
Is it good to be king?
Well, if you ask Bill Compton, he might beg to differ. We just watched another episode of season four and we learn that insanity is a pretty valuable asset on any vampire monarch candidate’s resume, which doesn’t sound too promising, does it? So far we’ve seen King Bill tormented by having his hands tied due to the Authority which seems more to care about him as an official countenance of the AVL than his problems and straits he needs to face as a monarch. And there’s far more of those when one rules Louisiana than one might imagine.
In this episode Bill had some really great moments. He proved himself to be a truly honorable and wise man and it wasn’t until the very last seconds that his emotions took power over him.
The first time we see Bill in “Me And The Devil” is when his great-great-great-great granddaughter comes to visit him. Their recently discovered personal kinship was shocking, but it turns out only Bill felt discouraged enough to break off their sexual relationship. I must admit that up to a point I did understand Portia’s argument. From legal point of view there was nothing wrong with her having sex with Bill, but Bill’s strong negative reaction towards it only proved that he’s a righteous vampire. It did not matter to him if they were generations apart in their kinship bond, he did not care for Portia’s points and legal searches to prove to him they would not be doing anything bad if they sustained the sexual element of their relationship. Bill drew the line very vividly and despite Portia’s insistence, he decided to resign from her legal counseling and glamor her for the sake of their mutual peace of mind to make Portia not to feel any attraction towards him and even to be scared of him.
We don’t know when Portia started to be his lawyer, but she must have been his trusted employee since he had decided to cross the line between their professional and private relations. And yet he strongly objected to sustaining their relationship, even if it meant the end of her being his legal adviser. Glamoring her to be afraid of him was a very determined solution to the problem but seemed the only way to make her disappear from his life. On the other hand, Bill could have just told her not to have any feelings for him, yet he wanted to make sure she would stay away from him. Perhaps it was his way of staying away from her? Their sexual tete-a-tete seemed very passionate and intimate, so maybe Bill wanted to be sure he wouldn’t not be tempted into making this mistake again? Or he simply wanted to have fun seeing Portia terrified and screaming whenever being near him? I mean you did see the smirk on his face once the terrier rushed out of his office, right? But then again, since Bill is the face of the AVL and his job is to build a positive image of vampires, wouldn’t it be risky to have a woman having panic attacks whenever she would see him? Bill was definitely desperate to discourage Portia from wanting him, but somehow it felt as if he just did not foresee the possible consequences of this way of handling the situation.
Very soon after resolving the Portia problem, another problem, impersonated by Pam, steps into Bill’s threshold. It’s with a mixture of anger, amazement and true pity, that Bill learns that Pam decided to handle the Eric situation by herself and, just as her maker, she messed with the wrong people. It is great to see Bill really feeling sorry for Pam. It’s obvious he’s shocked and disoriented when he sees her
face. Her disobedience is immediately forgotten when he sees what is happening to Pam’s skin. He even tries to relieve the tension by making a light-hearted remark about putting on some make-up, but he knows the situation is serious.
Now he has his two subjects possibly attacked by witches; a 1000-year-old sheriff who’s been missing ever since Bill sent him a on a mission to explain to the coven’s members that they ought not to mess with dead, and Pam who is losing some pieces of her own face around his office while asking him for permission to get the w(b)itch who had done this to her. Bill replies he cannot let her do this since his hands are tied by the Authority. It’s getting more and more obvious why Russell hated the Authority so much. It looks like being a king is not much more than being a representative of the Authority’s will. Bill’s had problems with the way reigning truly looks like since the beginning. He’s frustrated the Authority does not want to listen about the witches, instead he is being reminded by Nan that there are no retired kings, i.e. do as we say or you meet the true death. He clearly wasn’t at ease with signing a death sentence on a vampire caught feeding on human, and now he can’t let Pam take care of matters because the Authority clearly does not wish any vampire-human violence. It’s really interesting to see how much the Authority forbids the vampires from living according to their nature in the name of peaceful mainstreaming among humans. Is it so worth it to get so easily rid of the representatives of their own kind? Apparently people have no idea how valuable humanity really is.
Pam’s problem pushes Bill to act. We see Marnie captured and put into prison in Bill’s mansion. Bill questions her via an intercom. Having two vampires in trouble he knows he cannot mess with her. That said his approach is totally different than Eric’s and Pam’s. Bill talks to her, tries to make Marnie feel comfortable and calm. He doesn’t demand answers, he doesn’t intimidate her, nor threaten to bite her neck off if she doesn’t provide them with answers about Eric and Pam. What is more, he shows a total understanding that what Marnie did was a self-protection action, that Eric attacked her even though he did not have any obvious and direct reason to violate her and her group of followers.
Bill has proven himself to be a really good psychologist with a great understanding of human emotions and reasons behind them. And guess what, Marnie starts talking to him, explaining to him why she cast the spells and that she had no idea how to reverse them. Bill goes to her directly to glamor her to make sure she wasn’t lying, but he does that only to prove to Pam that Marnie was telling the truth. Bill himself had already known that, he knows humans only too well not to see them lie. Doesn’t he?
The last time we get to see Bill in “Me and the Devil” is during a meeting in his living room with four Louisiana sheriffs. They are discussing the witch situation and Pam is listening to them. We get to know a bit of a vampire history and Bill gives a wonderful glimpse of his power when he chokes one of the sheriffs who made a disrespectful comment about the problem with the witches. What a grip! What speed! You messed with a wrong person, my friend! I am your king, we’re all in trouble, it’s not a time nor place for jokes! I loved it as Bill finally showed he’s not one of them anymore, he’s beyond them, and although such methods of gaining respect do not seem to appeal him, he finally lost his patience. Yes, Bill is getting worried and truly dismayed by the witches, especially now that he’s lost a sheriff, probably the oldest vampire in his territory who might have proven to be the exact weapon and support the vampires in the area would need to face the powerful necromancers.
And here is when irritated Pam has a slip of the tongue. She admits what happened to Eric and that only infuriates Bill as it means that since she knows what’d happened to him, she must also know where he is. Confronted with Bill’s anger, she silently admits that Eric lives at Sookie’s. In a split second there are about 100 emotions on Bill’s face. Shock, disbelief, feeling of betrayal. Sookie has been harboring Eric in her home for days and she lied to him, intentionally and coldly staking his emotions through and using his sense of guilt to cover the vampire who sold her out to Russell, tricked her into drinking his blood and tortured Lafayette, the vampire she’d rather get cancer than get close to.
Bill clearly had no idea Eric was at Sookie’s. If he had he would never let her stay alone with Eric and Bill’s inner directive to protect Sookie against any danger would have never allowed him to succumb to her emotional blackmail. If he’d known Eric was there Bill would’ve entered the house and had Eric handcuffed. He decided not to search her home because he trusted her and because he still feels guilty for what he had done to her. A double betrayal. Pam lied to him, Sookie lied to him. And the Authority doesn’t allow him to do anything. Or does it? Bill storms out of his house …
