Marnie has always been a confusing character to me. She seeks power because she's always been weak, then she abuses it so quickly that she has to imprison her own coven to keep them around... and we never get an explanation, other than that she is "ambitious."

The whole vampires v. humans thing and Sookie's lost allegiance to her own kind comes out like this, to me:
- Everyone on the show is a "person," not just a vampire or werewolf or faerie.
- However, humans, vampires, and everyone else cling to their racist beliefs that one or the other are monsters and not worthy of survival.
- Sookie, with the ability to read minds and the most delicious faery blood in town, is the great medium between all of them - she detects the human/shifter bullshit instantly and doesn't stand for it or keeps the vampires in check by being so damned desirable. She walks in all of their worlds, and therefore walks in none of them. She sees the softer sides of vampires, the stable traits of shifters, and the weaknesses hiding behind every one of the characters' strengths. It's why they all trust her and want to help her even when they can't stand her.

It's no wonder she has no loyalty to any one race, as she is not really a member of any race herself. She's not fully human, she's known that her whole life. She's only truly at peace when around vampires she can trust, as she isn't drowned by their mental noise. The Fae effectively stole her grandfather and tried to take her too, leaving her with nothing but the vamp she picked up on the side of the road and had Narnia sex with, her brother, her werewolf friend, and Bill (who is a whole paragraph unto himself). She has no real group to belong to, and that's why she's a) the perfect one to fight the inherent hatred between all of these groups b) always mixed up in everybody's business and c) given a certain amount of leeway to do so by everyone involved.

I'm not saying that I really dig that take on her character as it has annoyed me several times, but I think that's they general idea behind her portrayal.

I thought this season had its ups and downs - the touched by an angel episode where Lafayette talked like a jamaican whore and GLOWED at the end was just awful. I don't think we'll get any newscasters getting their spines ripped out before the finale, but hope there's something fun in store.