So, to interject a little something different into my Buckner Bitching, I couldn't help but notice that Warlow is raising and decorating a maypole with flower streamers in preparation for his upcoming blackmail marriage/murder, which is fucking hilarious to me for some reason, like that will make Sookie happy about you forcing her into marriage, pretty flowers (way to be like Franklin and Bill, there, Warlow).
Now, I couldn't tell you if this was intentional or not, but the maypole was a European folk tradition celebrating May Day/Walpurgis Night, or as it's also known, Beltane (which is exactly six months from Samhain). It celebrates the start of the summer seasons, the driving out the cattle to the fields. Other Beltane celebrations/traditions included bonfires, cleansing fires, appeasing the faeries (because Beltane and Samhain were considered their two most active times), sex. There was a god called Beil (which yes, is a phonetic spelling of how Sookie says Bill's name), associated with fire, who was often included in the celebrations.
Nobody is exactly sure what the maypole was supposed to represent, but the general thought is either the tradition of sacred trees or Yggdrasil, or a great big penis.
