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Updated 9/28/10

Hold on! What does alchemy have to do with True Blood?

Vampire Alchemy

So why would Alan Ball give True Blood an alchemical structure?

The Alchemy of Dead Until Dark

Charlaine’s Alchemical Magnus Opus

Ok, so if it’s something from the novels, what are these wheels you’re talking about?

The First is the Great Wheel

This is the overarching single alchemical wheel that encompasses the entire series, and it applies to both the show and the novels. The wheel goes from black to white to red. When this cycle is complete the series will be over and Sookie will have reached a state of spiritual perfection. Lead will have been turned into gold, and Sookie will be immortal.

The first three installments of the series start the alchemical process with the negredo or black phase. This is a chaotic time when Bill destroys the old Sookie by breaking her down emotionally and psychologically. This is the reason Bill is so closely associated with death, earth tones, decomposition, and violence. This process ended during the third installment of the series. After nearly killing her and betraying her, he has done his worst.

Next comes the white phase, which is characterized by healing, purification, and spiritualization. In the fourth installment of the series Eric takes over the alchemical process, which is why Dead to the World is such a fan favorite. The albedo stage is the time for order, enlightenment, and personal development. In the albedo stage, without her even knowing it, Eric becomes Sookie’s healer and mentor in addition to becoming her lover. Dead to the World begins with the albedo stage in page after page of cleaning, washing, and light in the darkness imagery. In season 4 there is no doubt that Sookie’s house will finally be cleaned and restored and that Sookie and Eric will have their iconic shower scene. This phase occurs after the holidays when the days are getting longer symbolizing Sookie’s enlightenment. Since True Blood hasn’t made it to the albedo phase yet, I can only speak of the novels from this point. Novels 4-9 follow the albedo pattern; they start with the white phase and end with the black. Sookie recieves a great deal of criticism for her lack of development over the course of these novels. That is because most of the white work takes place beneath the surface and is only revealed in the rubedo stage, which is exactly what we saw with novel number 10, Dead in the Family. Finally, there was a glimpse of a Sookie worthy of being Eric’s mate. This novel broke the albedo pattern by beginning with the rubedo stage and ending with the white, something we can expect to continue to the end of the series.

Second is the Triennial Wheel

Alchemy has been described as wheels within wheels because there is a whole clockwork going on under the surface. In True Blood one of those wheels completes a cycle every two and a half seasons. For lack of a better term, I’ve rounded up and called it the triennial wheel. This is the work that clearly shows where the whole process is leading and that Sookie’s ultimate lesson will one of sacrificial love. It always involves a burned vampire and a sacrifice, and Sookie is always there to witness it.

Cycle 1

Negredo
Season 1 Bill meets the sun in a faux sacrifice. He knew Sookie’s blood would prevent him from dying and conveniently an open grave is nearby for him to regenerate in. Bill’s earth tone wardrobe and the black smoldering ashes that cover him identify this phase.

Albedo
Season 2 Godric meets the sun while Sookie looks on. Godric is ready to die, but his death serves no higher purpose and is not salvific, even though he had hoped that it would the catalyst to bring humans and vampires together. Godric’s white wardrobe and the white hot flames that consume him link him with the albedo stage.

Rubedo
Season 3, as predicted, Lorena catches fire and later allows Sookie to stake her so that Bill might live. Lorena’s death is more noble than Godric’s because she willingly gives up her life for another, in fact, the very vampire who hates her and wishes her dead.

Russell will not let her live if she fails to kill Bill. She knows it’s a case of his life or her life, and she chooses her child over her self. Lorena’s red wardrobe season 2 and the red hot flames that burn her foreshadow that her death will be sacrificial. This is the goal of the alchemical process, but it does not culminate here.

Lorena’s was not a perfect sacrifice because she was far from being spiritually perfected. Consequently the cycle starts over again.

Cycle 2

Negredo
At the end of season 3 Russell meets the sun. Like Bill, he is unwilling and unworthy of a good death, so he smolders and burns to ashes until he is saved from the sun by Sookie. Eric also falls into this category since his willingness to die was based solely on Russell Edgington’s eternal punishment.

Albedo
Season 4 a vampire who is fond of wearing white will meet the sun for selfish reasons. This will most likely be Sophie Anne who gives up on life when she realizes that Sookie’s blood will not make her a daywalker. She will decide to feel the sun on her face one last time. Sookie and Hadley will watch her burn.

Third is the Annual Wheel

This wheel runs through the black, white, and red alchemical stages each season. It shows step by step how Sookie is being transformed from lead to gold.

Phase 1: Negredo

The black work is characterized by depression, powerlessness, chaos, and decomposition, which is a hot violent process. It’s a necessary stage, but nothing good or productive happens during this time. For those familiar with Harry Potter, the negredo stage in that series takes place during the miserable summers Harry spends with the Dursleys at the beginning of each novel. In True Blood its nadir is always preceded by a major conflict with Bill. It also includes some form of  bondage * usually by Eric or one of his doppels. That’s because without the mercy of Christ, all are in enslaved.
Negredo Cycle 1, Season 1
The blacking process starts with Sookie’s encounter with the Rattrays and includes both Maudette and Bill in bondage.

After Gran is killed, Sookie is lost in the darkness. This is the nadir of the negredo phase, and it is preceded by Sookie telling Bill that she wants nothing more to do with him when they return from Fangtasia.

Negredo Cycle 2, Season 2
This cycle starts at the end of season 1 when Ms. Jeanette’s body is found in Andy Bellefleur’s car and Lafayette is kidnapped. He and Royce are held in bondage at Fangtasia.

Sookie’s lowest, most helpless point occurs when the bull-headed beast attacks her in the woods. It is preceded by Bill’s violent anger at her for taking Jessica home to see her family.

Negredo Cycle 3, Season 3
Again this stage starts at the end of the season with Sookie’s distress at Bill’s marriage proposal. It encompasses the first two nights after Bill’s kidnapping when Sookie doesn’t have any leads and can’t find anyone to take his disappearance seriously.

Yvetta and Bill are both in bondage in this period.

Negredo Cycle 4, Season 3
Eric has Russell bound; Bill and Sookie have their biggest falling out to date; and a lost Sookie runs for comfort to her granmother’s grave.

Since the overarching albedo cycle has begun, the albedo phase resets the plot. This is the run Sookie should have made s1 instead of taking the other fork in the path that leads to Bill’s house. Sookie is getting a do over. The albedo phase will be Sookie’s opportunity to do things right with Eric.

Notice how the negredo period gets shorter with each cycle. Season 1 it lasted for 6 complete episodes. Season 2 it was over halfway through episode 3. Season 3 it ended before the first episode, and there will not even be a negredo phase at the beginning of season 4. It already happened at the end of season 3.

Phase 2: Albedo

This  is the stage of personal growth. It  is positive and productive, but it also may be difficult at times to outwardly discern much difference from the negredo. In the Harry Potter novels, the white stage is the school year.

The catalyst for the white stage is the chemical mercury, symbolically it represents the spirit of God. Eric’s sun sign and his personality traits are tied to this chemical because, as the Christ figure, he functions in the series the same way mercury does in the chemical process. In True Blood, the white stage begins and ends with an encounter with Eric. When the albedo phase is complete, Sookie appears in white and a symbolic sacrament is conferred upon her.

Albedo Cycle 1, Season 1
After Gran’s death when Jason is at Fangtasia, Eric texts Bill about arranging another meeting with Sookie. When this fails, he goes to Bill’s house. This is a depiction of God seeking out the lost even before they know to go to him. The albedo stage is complete when Sookie wears white to her second visit to Fangtasia. She is ready to be baptized. This stage lasts from the time Sookie sees the wet ashes from the house fire to Sookie’s second encounter with Eric. (Fire doused with water symbolize the end of the negredo phase.)

Albedo Cycle 2, Season 2
After Maryann attacks Sookie, Eric arranges for her healing through Dr. Ludwig. This meeting begins the white stage, and it is complete when Sookie and Eric come together again in Godric’s house after she has proven herself and earned a new white garment to put on. She is ready for her first communion.

Albedo Cycle 3, Season 3
The white work starts in this cycle when Eric’s emissary, Pam, gives Sookie a lead in her search for Bill. Because Pam reveals that a maker can call his child, Sookie and Jessica are able to locate Bill’s car. Sookie and Eric’s two meetings at Fangtasia bookend the albedo stage in season 3. For saving Bill and nearly killing herself in the process, Sookie earns the white dress she gets when she visits the fairies. The sacrament of anointing of the sick, which is done with healing oil, is conducted when Sookie travels from her hospital bed to the Bon Temps cemetery in a near death experience and drinks the healing water Claudine gives her.

Albedo Cycle 4, Season 4
If True Blood is using the same pattern as the novels, in a departure from previous cylces, season 4 will open with the albedo stage instead of the negredo. The sacrament of confirmation will probably be symbolized by Sookie and Eric making love for the first time.

Note: On two other occasions Sookie has worn white. The first was season 1 when she gave her virginity to Bill in order to reestablish their relationship. This was a faux confirmation. The grace bestowing sacremental one will take place season 4 when Eric and Sookie make love. The second time was in season 2 when Maryann forced Sookie to wear a white bridesmaid gown and lick a bloody egg in a false communion.

Phase 3: Rubedo

After the whitening sage comes the reddening. This stage is about sacrifice and ultimate triumph. It begins with a spiritual death and rebirth. In literature the rebirth is always  marked by a symbol of Christ.  This scene is usually set underground or in a cemetery. In Club Dead, the white Lincoln became a spiritual tomb for Sookie.  In Harry Potter, in the rubedo phase, others sacrifice themselves to save Harry and he subsequently sacrifices himself. In True Blood, the type and quality of the sacrifice depends on who is making it.

Rubedo Cycle 1, Season 1
The rubedo phase begins when Sookie’s white dress is stained red with Long Shadow’s blood. This is Sookie’s baptism by blood.

Sookie experiences a symbolic death and rebirth when she is pulled from an open grave, ironically, by the man who is trying to kill her. (This provides a nice parallel to how Bill functions in the series since it is Bill, Death personified, who causes Sookie’s ultimate salvation.) The necessary Christ symbol is the Virgin Mary statue that René will bludgeon Sam with.

Bill has sacrificed another’s life for Sookie’s by killing Long Shadow at Fangtasia. Back home she emulates Bill and take a life in order to save one. Needless to say, this is a less than ideal sacrifice.

Because Sam sacrifices himself to save Sookie, she is able to repay the favor and save Sam when René knocks him unconscious. Sam is the one who knows how to save Bill, so by saving Sam, Sookie also saved Bill.

Rubedo Cycle 2, Season 2
The reddening stage begins when Steve locks Sookie underground in the church basement, which he claims is his father’s tomb. She is spiritually reborn when Godric saves her and Eric leads her upstairs back to the world of the living. The Christmas nativity decorations provide the Christologic symbolism.

When Luke bombs Godric’s house, once again Sookie’s white dress is stained red, but this time it is with Eric’s blood. He has sacrificed himself to keep Sookie alive. Note how Bill sacrifices others, but Eric sacrifices himself. This is the modus operandi for both vampires throughout the series.

Godric saves Sookie from being raped and killed by Gabe, which allows Sookie to turn around and save Eric on the FOTS alter and bring Godric comfort in his final moments. When Sookie returns to Bon Temps, she replays what she learned about how to distract the religious nutjob intent on destruction to save Sam from Maryann’s attempt to bring forth her horned god using Sam’s heart. He in turn is able to save the whole town.

Sookie experiences the sacrament of the Eucharist when she consumes Eric’s blood. This sacrament was heightened in the novels because Eric asked Sookie to suck the bullets out of his chest in return for saving her life. Eucharist means ‘thanksgiving,’ so by doing as Eric requested, Sookie was in effect thanking him.

Rubedo Cycle 3, Season 3
Sookie’s spiritual death occurs in the basement of Fangtasia and her rebirth is at the hands of Yvetta who frees her. Gone are Yvetta’s chokers that represent her willing enslavement to Eric, The Law.  Now that she realizes she cannot count on him to provide for her financial security, she intends to steal what she can get from the cash registers. She knows that the law will condemn her and counts on  the mercy of the cross to save her.

The red walls of Fangtasia provide the color for this phase. Sookie will give her own blood in this cycle instead of taking Long Shadows or Eric’s.

Sookie applies what she learned in Jackson about saving and healing wounded vampires to Eric.

To be continued next season…


True-Blood

*WaitingForSunday identified bondage as a key aspect of the negredo stage of each annual cycle.
**Screencaps courtesy of Shadow of Reflection and HBO