O Lafayette, Lafayette! Wherefore art thou, Lafayette? Tokenism on True Blood - Oh, Hell No!

In Shakespearean terms, "wherefore" actually means "why", as in, why must Romeo be a Montague - why must he be of the family that is the sworn enemy of his star crossed lover Juliet's House of Capulet?

In True Blood terms, it means why oh why must Lafayette's dialogue over the past few episodes - and especially last week's Spellbound - have him teetering at the precipice of being "the token black guy", uttering nothing but silly exclamations like "damn!", "snap", and "oh, hell no!"?

See Exhibit A below from Not Another Teen Movie and tell me LaLa's meager lines from last week don't put him squarely in this category.




This is a major disappointment because we need more from this erstwhile dynamic character and the gifted actor who portrays him, Nelsan Ellis. Rebecca and I have been talking about this all season, but last week's episode really solidified our stance.

Where has the Lafayette who entranced Tara and Jason with his intoning of a poignant Inuit prayer over Sookie's unconscious body as she lay in the hospital last season gone?

Here's the prayer:

"I think over again my small adventures, my fears.
Those small ones that seemed so big.
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach,
and yet there is only one great thing.
The only thing.
To live to see the great day that dawns
and the light that fills the world."




Listen to him recite this beautiful, poetic verse and as YouTube poster SilverfoxG wrote, you can't help but be moved by the depth and meaning with which he delivered it.

Now, I'm not saying that it's Lafayette's duty as a person of color on the show to be the exoticized psychopomp, the Wise Other that breathes spirit and life into the worlds of others while they (and we in the audience), for the most part, are free to just be regular Joes going about their everyday lives.

But I know that there's more to LaLa than what the writers have been giving us lately, and I want to see our favorite short order cook continue to grow and develop. Yes, he's just discovered that he's a medium. Yes, he has considerable, as-yet untapped magical power. But these new revelations about who Lafayette is and what he's got in him have not translated into scenes with much meat for him, in my humble opinion.

What's up with the pendulum swing in the writing for Lafayette? I realize that the witch-vampire war and Eric & Sookie's romance have taken center stage in recent episodes, and I know that Lafayette is considered a supporting character, but I don't want to see him recede into the background of the show. His character has been too important and stereotype busting to allow him to take the token backseat I fear he has been receiving.

If the writers don't step up for LaLa soon, it's going to be ME saying "damn!" and "oh, hell no!"

Thoughts?

~ Rachel