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Until this season, “True Blood” has been all about how vampires relate to humans. In a metaphoric sense, they’ve represented just about every racial, sexual and political anxiety with which contemporary society struggles. And then all the gushy romance stuff. The long and short: forbidden fruit, the search for humanity. You know, just like “Twilight,” but with S&M.

Now, with all that simmering in the background, “True Blood’s” scribes can dig into an even more obvious side of the vampire: the blood-drunk psychopath. Franklin was great early on — his scene with Jessica and the severed head remains among this season’s best — but his mania got cartoonish the longer he stuck around. Now, with him out of the picture for good (RIP, probably, to Tara’s trembling lip, too), a new psycho emerged last night. He’s the villain we’ve been waiting for on “True Blood.”

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Not that the King of Mississippi was quite on the level before. But once he wallowed in Talbot’s ooze in the opening scene, we said goodbye to the genteel madman of episodes past. In his place: a grief-stricken fascist who carries around a crystal punchbowl filled with vampire innards, rips out a newsman’s spine and asks America, ““Why would we seek equal rights? You are not our equals. We will eat you, after we eat your children.”

Yes!

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Also, Jesus and Lafayette hook up, which prompts a change in “LaLa” that his mother recognizes. When he tells her it’s because of Jesus, she offers, “Maybe God loves fags?” Jessica and Hoyt have a tender moment that involves Hoyt’s well-known hatred of dolls. Crystal can’t deal with Jason’s dumbness. Tommy has loud sex and a confrontation with Sam. Later, Sam, possibly riled from his fight with Tommy, beats Crystal’s meth-dealing shifter (?) father senseless in Merlotte’s. Which seemed way out of character for him, though seeing him unhinged wouldn’t be terrible. And Bill dreams his way into gauzy fairyland for a convo with Claudine, where he finds out — DA DUM — what she is.

Whadda you bet they’re going to stretch the reveal out through the next three episodes?

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