SOOKIE SCREAMS

Sookie Stackhouse is the fictional protagonist and narrator of Charlaine Harris‘ The Southern Vampire Mysteries and the main character in HBO’s television adaptation, True Blood.

In the first season of True Blood, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is introduced as a waitress working at her local establishment Merlotte’s Bar and Grille. It is quickly unveiled that Sookie is a telepath, capable of involuntarily hearing the minds of everyone around her which leaves her constantly trying to block out these thoughts and act normal. From the night of the opening episode, we can deduce that Sookie is a kind, honest if slightly prudish individual who is friends with many of the bar staff. The staff includes the bar owner Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), who harbors a romantic interest in her, fellow waitresses Arlene Fowler (Carrie Preston) and Dawn Green (Lynn Collins), Sookie’s best friend, the sassy and troubled newly appointed bartender Tara Thornton and resident cooks Terry Bellefleur (Todd Lowe) and Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis), the latter the flamboyantly gay cousin of Tara. In the opening episode, we are also introduced to Sookie’s promiscuous brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) and his best friends Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack) and René Lenier (Michael Raymond-James), the latter who is dating Arlene. On this night, Sookie meets Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), the first vampire to visit Bon Temps since vampires ‘came out of the coffin’ two years prior to the show’s story. After Bill is nearly killed by human drug dealers and drainers of vampire blood (which is used as a narcotic by humans in both the books and the show), Mac and Denise Rattray, Bill is saved by Sookie. Bill quickly deduces that Sookie is more than human and Sookie discovers that she cannot hear Bill’s thoughts.