When Tara and JB du Rone decide to renovate their bungalow to make a room for their new twins, Sam agrees to help and then gets some tips from Terry Bellefleur. As he is tearing down a wall, Sam finds the hammer used to murder Isaiah Wechsler in the 1930s. The handling of the hammer disturbs the murderer’s spirit, and both the adults and the babies react to the negative energy in the house. JB and Tara’s nanny, Quiana Wong, is a psychic who is able to channel the spirit and realizes that his bones must be buried nearby. Sam shifts to a bloodhound to scent the area and is able to locate the remains in the yard. Sookie and Quiana work together to identify the killer as the youngest son of the Summerlins, the family that lived in the house at the time. He was secretly buried in the yard by his parents after committing suicide. After the bones are uncovered and reinterred in Sookie’s family plot, the spirit finally rests, and Sam and JB make plans to continue the renovations. (DUD, LDID, CD, DTTW, FD, DN, DAAD, DD, ATD, FDTW, DAG, DITF, STW, DR, IIHAH; mentioned L, GW)
Merlotte’s Bar and Grilclass="underline" Shifter Sam Merlotte bought a failing bar with an inheritance from his father, renamed it, renovated it, and turned it around. Carved out of the woods that still surround the parking lot, Merlotte’s attracts a wide range of clientele of both the human and supernatural kind. The bar is open till midnight on weekdays and one a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, serving light meals as well as drinks, including synthetic blood. Sam is still undecided about being open on Sundays and periodically gives it a try. He lives in a double-wide trailer placed at a right angle behind his bar.
Customers park on the black-topped front lot while employees park behind the building on the gravel, using the rear door to enter the bar, passing by Sam’s office and the kitchen on their way through to the main room. Merlotte’s has been through many cooks, including a vampire and a shifter, and many waitresses. Several come to tragic ends: waitress Dawn Green is killed by Rene Lenier, cook Lafayette Reynold is murdered by Mike Spencer and the Hardaways, and cook Sweetie Des Arts is a sniper who is killed by Detective Andy Bellefleur. Sam normally handles most of the bartending himself, but when he borrows bartender Charles Twining from Fangtasia after being shot in the leg (by Charles, as it turns out), the vampire attacks Sookie in retaliation for her involvement in another vampire’s death. Charles asks to be staked rather than turned over to the police, and the patrons oblige. Sam has recently hired Kennedy Keyes, a former beauty queen who has done time for manslaughter, as a regular bartender, with Terry Bellefleur still taking a shift here and there as necessary. Overall, work hours for all employees are flexible and balanced.
The bar takes a double hit when first Vic’s Redneck Roadhouse, a bar full of gimmicks and contests, opens nearby, and then Merlotte’s is firebombed by Sandra Pelt in an attempt to kill Sookie. Suffering financially, Sam struggles to keep his bar going and is both grudging and grateful when Sookie offers part of her inheritance to keep it afloat.
The moment Bill Compton walks in the door, Merlotte’s seemingly becomes the eye of the storm for supernatural events in Bon Temps. Whether it’s vampires as fellow customers, Sam and Tray Dawson shifting in the bar as the shifters announce themselves on TV, or even the crucifixion of Crystal in the parking lot, the regulars at Merlotte’s watch, wonder, and then order another round, apparently taking it all in stride. (DUD, LDID, CD, DTTW, FD, DN, DAAD, DD, ATD, L, FDTW, DAG, DITF, DR; mentioned OWA, GW, TB, STW)
Michael (vampire): No last name given. Michael, an Illinois vampire, abducts and tortures the sister of Wisconsin vamp Jodi’s employee despite repeated warnings to stay away from the girl. In retaliation, Jodi breaks off one of his canines with a pair of pliers while he sleeps, so Michael brings suit against her. His behavior is deemed detrimental to vampires in general, and Jodi is allowed to stake him. (Dies ATD)
Michael (vampire): No last name given. Owner of the gentlemen’s club Blonde in Mississippi, devious Michael pretends to want to ally himself with the Nevada vamps as they attempt to take pieces of Mississippi from Russell, but he is actually playing his own game for financial gain. Unfortunately for him, so is his employee Mohawk, who takes advantage of the situation when Pam literally takes pieces of Michael, leaving him vulnerable and in agony. (Dies TB)
Mickey (vampire): No last name given. Mickey begins a relationship with an unwilling Tara, who has been passed to him as payment of a debt owed by her previous lover, Franklin Mott. Sookie calls in a favor from Eric for help for her friend, and he contacts Mickey’s maker, Salome. She orders Mickey to her side. Angered by Sookie’s interference, Mickey savagely abuses Tara and drags her with him to the duplex Sookie has made her temporary home. He first disables Eric with a rock to the head and then forces Sookie to invite him in. He attempts to attack her, but she is able to rescind his invitation in time and he is forced to retreat, unwillingly leaving Tara behind. Mickey clearly hears his maker’s call but tries to resist, fleeing into the night. Eric is confident that Salome will find and punish her child. (DAAD)
Minas: Minas was the yard slave of Jonas Stackhouse, Mitchell’s great-great-great-great-grandfather. (Deceased; mentioned DUD)
Mitchell, Susanne: Susanne is one of the few longtime barmaids at Merlotte’s. (Mentioned DUD)
Mohawk (vampire): No last name given. An employee at Blonde, a gentlemen’s club run by Michael in Mississippi, Mohawk—as Sookie refers to him—has his own agenda and happily seizes the opportunity to take over the club by finishing off Michael and his half-elf companion Rudy when they are incapacitated. (TB)
Mott, Franklin (vampire): Born in Sicily in 1756, urbane Franklin dates Tara, treating her as his mistress with Tara’s tacit consent. Owing a debt to fellow vampire Mickey, Franklin pays by passing Tara along to Mickey to be used both sexually and for blood. (CD; mentioned DTTW, DAAD)
Murray, Debi: Clarice nurse Debi has seen Claude strip at Hooligans. (FDTW)
Murry (fairy): No last name given. A close friend of Breandan, Murry sneaks up on Sookie while she is weeding her flower beds. He arrogantly announces that he’ll enjoy killing Sookie, which proves to be a fatal mistake. Sookie lunges up at him, metal garden trowel in hand, and stabs him in the stomach. The cold steel does its job and Murry dies, pale blue eyes wide with surprise. (Dies DAG)
Myers, Cal (wolf): Shreveport detective Cal Myers stands as Patrick Furnan’s second during the packmaster challenge between Furnan and Jackson Herveaux, cheating by using gloves laced with a desensitizing drug to handle a silver bar during the second part of the contest so that Furnan can hold the bar longer. Cal’s own thoughts betray him, and Sookie reveals their treachery. Although Furnan remains in the contest and does triumph, Cal is eventually punished by having his head shaved. Cal appears in the ectoplasmic reconstruction performed by Amelia and Octavia to determine who murdered Maria-Star Cooper. He is seen repeatedly stabbing the defenseless woman as another Were holds her down after breaking into her apartment. He is exposed as working with Priscilla Hebert, his half sister, against the Shreveport pack and is no doubt at least partially responsible for the deaths of Libby Furnan and Christine Larrabee as well. He is the first victim in the Were war, eviscerated by Furnan while simultaneously being partially beheaded by Alcide. (DAAD, DD; dies FDTW)
N:
Neave (fairy): No last name given. Lochlan’s sister and lover, Neave helps kidnap Sookie on Breandan’s orders in an attempt to force Niall to step down as Prince of Faery. Neave and Lochlan also gleefully murdered Sookie’s grandfather, Fintan Brigant, as well as her pregnant sister-in-law, Crystal Stackhouse. The siblings are true sadists and take joy in torturing Sookie. When Bill and Niall come to Sookie’s rescue, Bill dispatches Neave, but not before she seriously wounds him with her silver knife and silver-capped teeth. (Dies DAG; mentioned DITF)