I’m pretty sure there’s no character dumber than True Blood‘s Jason Stackhouse. The good-looking simpleton may look like an adult, but he has the mind of a child, someone easily convinced of anything. If you tell him something with enough certainty, he will believe you and follow you blindly.
Viewers got a look at this in season 1 when he fell in love with crazy Amy, a woman who roped him into doing drugs while kidnaping and torturing a vampire. But in season 2, Jason Stackhouse is under the control of something far more sinister than a drug-addicted nymphomaniac. Jason is under the spell of religion.
It needs to be said that not all religion is bad. Faith and spirituality are important to a person’s moral development. However, what True Blood is saying is that when religion becomes synonymous with fact and when your ideology must be forced onto others at any and all costs, there’s a big problem.
Jason’s involvement with Reverend Steve Newlin and the Fellowship of the Sun presents such a problem. Jason will blindly follow his orders, as he’s already told best friend Hoyt that “When I’m there I feel like I’m meant to be a part of it, like I got a ca lling from Jesus. Or Steve Newlin, himself!” Already Jason is committing an act of stupidity by confusing Reverend Newlin with Jesus, assuming that what this one man says is the same as the word of God.
On the bright side, there is one indication that Jason is learning. While talking to his sister, he lied about what church he was going to because he knew she would disapprove of the vampire-hating Fellowship of the Sun. Jason, on some level, knows that bigotry against vampires is wrong, but unfortunately he isn’t strong-willed or smart enough to stand up for what he believes in.
Instead, Jason Stackhouse will take the easy way out, absolving himself of any fault by doing exactly what others tell him to do. He’s just following orders, and until he learns to use his big brain as much as he uses his little brain downstairs, Jason’s simplemindedness will continue to force him into going along with deceitful, cruel people
-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of HBO)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
