alter ego: counterpart: second self: doppelganger
a) one remarkably similar to another b) one having the same function or characteristics as another

True Blood is structured around character pairings. Each major character and some minor ones have alter egos who share many characteristics and find themselves in very similar situations. Studying these pairings can provide insight into the characters and also allow us to make predictions about upcoming seasons.

There are some surprising parallels between hero and villain in Season 1 of True Blood. One is a monster who finds his humanity in Bon Temp while the other is a man who loses his and subsequently turns into a monster.

Both are new men when they arrive in Bon Temps. Rene, whose name means reborn, has indeed been born anew with a new name, background, and Cajun accent. Bill has a new life as a mainstreaming vampire and dons the mantle of a landed Southern gentleman. After his speech at the Descendants of the Glorious Dead, his accent, too, seems to start growing thicker and more old fashioned in accordance with his new persona.

Additionally both men arrive in town as murderers with hidden agendas and go on killing sprees once settled in. They ingratiate themselves with the locals and both fall in love with waitresses from Merlotte’s.

Bill and Rene both discover Sookie’s secret and have issues with both vampires and women. Even though Bill is a vampire himself, he is a self-loathing one who doesn’t like or approve of any of his fellow vampires. Rene is a bigot who doesn’t believe that humans should be interacting with vampires.

Both vampire haters believe women should be attractive, innocent, and compliant. The names of Sookie and Drew’s sister, Cindy are linked with the ‘s’ alliteration at the beginning of their names and the ‘ee’ rhyme at the end. Sookie and Cindy are both waitresses who have relationships with vampires, and to confirm the connection between these two characters, Rene tells Sookie that she reminds him of his baby sister. Sookie and Cindy also share an independent spirit that refuses to be squashed, not to mention an over protective, domineering older male authority figure with an explosive temper that can turn violent. Both are the perpetrators of domestic violence.

Since adult siblings don’t usually move from town to town together, let alone share living quarters, the relationship between Drew and his sister is, at the least, odd, which is how the human and vampire worlds view Bill and Sookie’s relationship.

At Big Pattie’s Pie House, when Sookie and Sam first learn about Drew, the description of him as a loner with a mysterious background could equally be Bill’s. This raises the question of what Bill might be hiding about his recent past.

It is the killer’s unusual fixations with women society deems inappropriate for them that ultimately leads Rene to kill Maudette, Dawn, and Amy and Bill to kill the Rattrays, Uncle Bartlett, and Long Shadow. Alan Ball made a point of equating the two killers by pointing out that Bill’s body count in season 1 was no less than Rene’s. Both killers are masters of deception and of deflecting blame from themselves, which is why I have not attributed Adele’s murder to Rene.

Since it is Bill who needed to remove Sookie’s source of love and stability in order to win her back after she broke up with him, it is possible that Bill killed Adele and planted a false memory in Rene’s mind.* That would provide another parrellel between Bill and Rene because it is be not unlike what happened to Jason when he believed that he had strangled Maudette when it had actually been Rene. While we can’t say for sure whether Bill killed Sookie’s grandmother, it is clear by his lack of remorse for all the other murders that he is as much of a sociopath as Rene.

Bill has a habit of stepping in and protecting Sookie in situations she is confident that she can handle on her own. It is one of the recurring causes of friction in their relationship. Rene does the same thing to Sookie when he assaults a drunken customer who pinches her bottom. She has to tell Arlene make Rene not to interfere.

Jason, the town’s alpha male, is singled out by Rene and Bill who have ambivalent feelings about him. For Rene he is the ultimate bachelor, watched, emulated, and secretly despised. Conversely, while Bill gets off to a rocky start with Jason, after he saves Sookie at the Fellowship of the Sun, Bill comes to identify with him as a fellow soldier.

Sookie and Jason both are deceived in particularly personal ways and taken advantage of by Bill and Rene. In fact, to carry out their agendas, Rene and Bill completely usurp Jason and Sookie’s lives and ultimately put their lives on new trajectories. Jason heads into the arms of the Fellowship of the Sun and Sookie into the supernatural world.

Sam tries to save Sookie both Bill and Rene, but he ultimately fails, just as Rene fails to save Sookie from Bill with his warning about vampires and Bill fails to save Sookie from Rene.

Sookie has to save herself from Rene and ultimately, will have to save herself from Bill, too. For although he finds his humanity through her, all he ultimately offers Sookie is death.

*Midnight Charm develeoped the theory of who really killed Adele Stackhouse.

Revised to include the theory that Bill murdered Adele Stackhouse.  11/08/09