Jessica Hamby

Jessica Hamby is a fictional character in the True Blood series, portrayed by Deborah Ann Woll. In the series, which chronicles the life of human waitress Sookie Stackhouse and her friends after vampires make themselves known to humans, Jessica is a newly turned vampire who must learn to deal with her vampiric abilities, weaknesses and altered lifestyle.

Character biography

Deborah Ann Woll (third from left) pictured among cast members and the series' creators.

In her human life, Jessica was raised in a strict, devout Christian family in Shreveport, Louisiana. Jessica and her younger sister Eden were homeschooled and only allowed to go to Bible study and clarinet lessons. Her father would often beat Jessica with his belt to punish her for her faults. Jessica's mother was oblivious to this abuse - in a later episode, Jessica attributed this to her mother's "stupidness".^E-14 Jessica resented the restrictions of her life dearly and secretly developed a rebellious attitude to her father's dominance. Shortly before her appearance in True Blood, she chooses to sneak out after her bible study to attend a friend's party. In events off-screen, she was subsequently captured by vampires and brought to the scene of a vampire trial, where the Magister, the enforcer of vampire justice, intended to use her as part of a sentence for a vampire on trial.^E-10

Plot synopsis

Season 1

While she is still human, Jessica is brought to a vampire trial. At this trial, the Magister (enforcer of vampire law) is reviewing the case of Bill Compton, who murdered another vampire that was trying to kill his girlfriend Sookie Stackhouse. The Magister decides that as a punishment for his deeds, Bill is to "create" a new vampire, and therefore presents him with the human Jessica. Bill is reluctant but willingly goes along with the sentence, draining the struggling Jessica of all her blood and burying her underground with him for one night. This process transforms Jessica into a vampire successfully, but she is under the reign of her "maker", Bill, to which she does not take kindly. Jessica has difficulty understanding what it means to be a vampire and initially cheers over her new-found freedom and enhanced abilities.^E-10 Bill teaches her to drink synthetic blood, as opposed to human blood, but Jessica doesn't like the synthetic blood. Eventually, she becomes such an obstacle to Bill that he leaves her to his vampire sheriff, Eric Northman. However, Eric grows tired of her as well and once again leaves her with Bill.

Season 2

Sookie befriends Jessica and they bond over the grief they feel after having lost their family. Jessica convinces Sookie to take her to see Jessica's family, but Jessica enters her old home, going against what she promised to Sookie, and confronts her father when he prepares to strike her with his belt in retaliation for being away for so long. Jessica states that her family is sick and that she desires to kill her father, but Bill intervenes and saves Jessica's family from harm, later erasing their memories.^E-14 After this, Jessica gradually begins to understand how to be a good vampire and starts a relationship with a human from Bill's hometown, Hoyt Fortenberry.^E-15 At Carmilla Hotel, both admit they are still virgins and Hoyt covers the bed with rose petals before the two finally make love. Later in the series, as Jessica starts to have sex with Hoyt, she realizes her hymen has regenerated to its virginal state and she will always be a "vampire virgin". They break up briefly because of a conflict between Jessica and Hoyt's overbearing mother, Maxine, who is prejudiced against vampires, but eventually reconcile.

Season 3

Jessica drains a trucker, killing him. She quickly regrets it and tries to heal him, but it doesn't work. Jessica is confronted by a vampire named Franklin, who pulls the truckers severed head from a paper bag. He tells Jessica he will help keep the corpse a secret in exchange for information on Bill Compton. Jessica is hired by Sam as a hostess at Merlotte's. While working, Jessica runs into Chip, an old classmate from Bible study. He is stunned to see her alive since her parents have been telling people she is dead. Jessica glamours Chip and convinces him that he never saw her. After a fight with Arlene, Jessica glamours all her customers not to tip her. She later regrets it and glamours the last customer into giving Arlene a big tip- after Jessica successfully feeds on the woman, without harming her.

After Bill returns to Bon Temps, he releases her as her maker. Jessica not wanting to be alone however, declines to leave. The two reconcile and Bill trains Jessica to fight vampires and werewolves. Later that night, Jessica and Bill fight two werewolves in Sookie's house. After one escapes outside, Jessica follows him. She's captured by Russell, who bites her in front of Bill. He convinces Russell to let her go. Jessica captured the werewolf and drank from him. Hoyt shows up at Merlotte's with his new girlfriend Summer, and the couple are seated by a visibly upset Jessica. Hoyt tells Jessica he still has feelings for her and doesn't like Summer. Jessica becomes emotional, and Tommy Mickens only sees the end of the conversation which adds to his hatred of Hoyt. Hoyt tells Jessica that he loves her before he leaves Merlottes. As he leaves, he is attacked by Tommy (who has shifted into his dog form). Jessica comes to the rescue, telling Hoyt she loves him too. Injured, Hoyt drinks from Jessica so his wounds will heal.

After Russell's appearance on TBBN, humans burn a cross on Bill and Jessica's front lawn. Jessica wants to hunt them down, but Bill convinces her that now is not the time for revenge. Jessica and Hoyt get back together. They tell each other how badly they missed one another. When things start getting serious, Jessica tells him about killing the trucker. She explains she's not going to stop drinking human blood and Hoyt immediately offers his own neck. Jessica goes right for it and Hoyt seems to like the experience. At the end of the season she is seen moving into a small house with Hoyt. The camera pans away to show a small voo-doo like doll on the floor. Maxine and Summer are also seen purchasing guns and wooden bullets at a nearby gun shop.

Season 4

Jessica and Hoyt are seen living together for over a year. After working all day, Hoyt becomes angry with Jessica for not cooking him dinner. Jessica said that human food and cooking is now disturbing to her. The brief fight ends with the two laughing over a plate of uncooked eggs. Later, Hoyt brings Jessica to Fangtasia for a date night. Jessica flirts with other men which Pam describes as "you've been eye-fucking every fang-banger in the place."

Jessica has the urge to go back to Fangtasia. She leaves to buy Hoyt some Advil, but after seeing a sign to Shreveport, she heads to Fangtasia. As soon as she enters, she approaches the young guy she saw while there with Hoyt. She feeds on him in the bathroom. Sookie, who is also there, confronts Jessica. She quickly tells Sookie to mind her own business.

Feeling guilty for biting another human, Jessica goes to her maker Bill for advice. She returns home to tell Hoyt the truth. Hurt and angry, Hoyt and Jessica argue before she decides to glamour him into forgetting.

In a later episode, Hoyt and Jessica find Jason Stackhouse passed out and injured on the side of a road. Jessica quickly helps him by giving him her blood, healing him. Because she gave him her blood she is able to sense him and how he is feeling. In episode 6 of season 4 Jessica finds Jason in the woods panicked about turning into a werepanther (which he doesn't turn into in the end). She helps calm him down and talks to him for a while. The two part ways some time later but it is obvious that there is something going on between them, unspoken tension. Jessica later breaks up with Hoyt and moves back into Bill's house. Jason later comes by to drop off a box of Jessica's things from Hoyt's, and they end up having sex in the back of Jason's pick up truck.

On Halloween night, Jessica shows up on Jason's doorstep dressed in a sexy Halloween costume and the two make love and begin a relationship together.

Season 5

Jason is glamoured into listening to newly vampire Steve Newlin's story: he is gay and claims to be in love with Jason, who wants nothing to do with Newlin. Angered, Newlin attacks Jason and tries to bite him. Jessica then appears and threatens Newlin by saying that she has claimed Jason. Later, while partying with College students, when Jason comes in, still having feelings for her. After playing Guitar Hero, Jason tries to make a move on Jessica, but she rejects him, and makes out with a college guy, making Jason jealous. Jason then brings one of the girls with him to have sex, but instead takes her to her home, while Jessica watches him leave, wordless. As a more established, capable vampire, Jessica tries to befriend the newly turned Tara, however the two come to blows over Tara's attempt to go too far drinking Hoyt, who has become a "fang-banger".

While at Fangtasia another night, she is seduced by a young man and leaves the bar with him. She is then captured by a human supremacists group who have been responsible for the recent killings of super natural beings. Hoyt, who unknowingly became friends with members of the group, is brought in to kill Jessica for breaking his heart. They are locked in a room together with a guard outside; making it impossible to escape unless Hoyt kills her. Hoyt shoots the gun so that the guard will open the door, and Jessica is able to break the guard's neck. Hoyt goes to get help, as Jessica cannot leave during the day. After both Hoyt and Sookie are rescued from the hate group, Hoyt tells Jason and Jessica that he plans to move to Alaska to start a new life, but wants Jessica to glamour him first. Tearfully, Jessica erases all of Hoyt's memories of his friendship with Jason, and their relationship as well. She then goes back to Bill's house.

Relationships

Bill Compton

Bill is Jessica's maker, but they do not have a good start: he was reluctant to "create" her and she does not find him a good teacher, calling him "boring" and feeling that he is holding her back from acting like a true vampire. Over time, she learns to follow his commands and he teaches her how to "glamour" (very effective vampire hypnosis techniques) and how to fight. As he disappears at the beginning of season 3, Jessica is very frightened and lost and displays great relief upon Bill's return. Bill does start to care for Jessica as he saves her life later on. In season 4, their relationship becomes stronger, despite him having released her, and she starts to see Bill more like a 'parent', while Bill sees her as his progeny even grieving when he thought she met her demise by a witch's spell.

Hoyt Fortenberry

Jessica meets Hoyt, a road crew worker, in the bar of Bill's hometown, Merlotte's. They have a conversation at the bar, then meet up at Bill's house, where Jessica lives. Jessica is very straightforward about her sexual desires, but Hoyt is a little reluctant. Bill breaks the duo up and forbids them from seeing each other, but as he takes Jessica with him on a trip to Dallas, Hoyt eventually shows up at Jessica's door and they ignite their romance. Jessica comes into conflict with Hoyt's overbearing mother Maxine, who disapproves of their relationship and is prejudiced against vampires. Later on, Maxine comes under the influence of a maenad and loses her limitations, after which she starts dishing out her true opinion on Jessica. Jessica attacks her, so Hoyt breaks up with her. In Season 3 he attempts to get back together with her but she refuses, as she is afraid of her vampire nature. However, after she saves Hoyt from an attack by a shapeshifter, they reconcile. They take their relationship to the next level; Hoyt tells Jessica he intends to marry her, and the two move in together in a new house. In season 4, however, a year into their relationship it has deteriorated. Hoyt and Jessica both have different needs and Jessica cheats on Hoyt twice (first with a random fangbanger, then by kissing Jason after he saved her life). Jessica contemplates leaving Hoyt, but when she does, he reacts angrily and cruelly reminds her of her shortcomings (such as her inability to have children) before kicking her out. She tries to seek Jason's help, but he rejects her also as he chooses his best friend's - Hoyt's - side. Jason eventually gives in to his feelings for Jessica, which earns the enmity of both Hoyt and Jason's former friends. Struggling with the pain of the breakup, Hoyt eventually asks Jessica to "glamour" or hypnotize away all his memories of her and Jason before he moves to Alaska. Hoyt returns in season 7, with his new girlfriend, Brigette. He meets Jessica again after saving her life from a sadistic vampire named Violet. She eventually falls for him again and tells him their story, accepting responsibility for the failure of their first relationship. Hoyt again has feelings for her, despite having only just "met" her. Jessica and Hoyt are married shortly after.

Jason Stackhouse

In season 4, Jessica begins to show interest in Jason Stackhouse. After Jason escapes from Hotshot, Jessica and Hoyt find him. Jessica gives Jason her blood to heal him, which causes him to develop romantic and sexual feelings for her. She comes to his rescue as he is in the woods with full moon and later on, he saves her as she is about to meet the sun under a witch' curse. Jason rejects Jessica after she breaks up with his best friend Hoyt, but later on they give in to their feelings and have sex. Afterward, Jason confesses that he feels guilty for betraying Hoyt, briefly souring their relationship. After Jason is nearly killed in an explosion and is again saved by drinking Jessica's blood, the two reconcile. On Halloween night Jessica comes to Jason's house and seduces him; later she tells Jason that she doesn't want to enter into a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, at least not yet, which Jason reluctantly agrees to. Their relationship ultimately ends as what they describe as a "beautiful friendship," when she is reunited with Hoyt and eventually marries him.

References