'Midnight, Texas' sneak peek: 'True Blood' alum shows up for revenge

Carrie Bell

Given that Midnight, Texas is based on a bestselling book series by Charlaine Harris, it should not come as a shock to hear that the main character, François Arnaud’s Manfred, is constantly (and literally) haunted by the past — his own as well as that of any troubled spirit that decides to waylay the psychic until he helps it find peace.

Since he took up residence in the titular town and became part of the team that includes a vampire, a witch, a were-tiger, and a badass assassin, he’s helped a wife murdered by her racist husband and the victim of a succubus. But in the Aug. 21 episode, his attention has to be turned to his own problems as Hightower, the mystery man who forced him into hiding, finally tracks him down, and as you can see in this exclusive clip, he’s pretty pissed. So pissed, in fact, it appears he won’t even accept full payment with interest in cash for Manfred’s debt. No, from the looks of it, he’s out for blood, which could be very unfortunate for Olivia (Arielle Kebbel), who got roped in to helping Manfred.

Oh, and by the way, Hightower, who is played by True Blood veteran Christopher Heyerdahl in a nice bit of supernatural serendipity, also has black-magic-fueled telekinetic powers, a missing eye, and a dead traveling companion who happens to be his daughter and the ex Manfred left at the altar. This clip leads us to believe that this will be the episode when we finally learn more about Manfred’s backstory. Executive producer Monica Owusu-Breen had promised in a May interview with Yahoo TV that we’d get a few answers before the end of Season 1.

“One of the many pasts that we will unpack along the way is Manfred’s,” Owusu-Breen said. “Did he always have powers? How did this kid come to live with his grandma in a Gypsy caravan? Why is Hightower after him? You have to remember that Manfred is not a true hero. He is a scam artist with real powers. … He has done some things that he should not be proud of.”

We’re thinking pulling a runaway groom is probably on that list, but you’ll have to tune in to (hopefully) hear his side of that story and perhaps figure out why poor Violet became a corpse bride.

Midnight, Texas airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on NBC.

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