True Blood Season 7, Episode 10: Thank You
Airdate: August 24, 2014
Summary by: Sarabeth Pollock
The day has arrived. It’s time to say goodbye to True Blood after seven lovely seasons. I can’t believe the series finale is upon us. It seems like a horrible dream, really. My summertime once-guilty-pleasure-turned-television-sensation-that-everyone-watches is gone.
I will truly miss this show that has come to mean so much to so many. My heartfelt thanks go out to the cast and crew of True Blood. Thank you for making my Sundays amazing for the past seven summers.
And now, on to the recap!
Bill goes inside Sookie’s house, and he looks around the room and comments that the living room is where he first called upon her. She doesn’t think nostalgia belongs with suicidal thoughts. He says the disease is making him feel more human than when he was human. When he stopped in the cemetery he saw his gravestone and realized that he should be with his human family. The gravestone as it stands now is a lie. If he stays with Sookie, then he’d be denying her a real life. He has seen her around children, how she lights up around them. Bill wants Sookie to have a chance at children and grandchildren, and that’s not possible for her to have that life if she is with him. Sookie thinks that Bill should just break up with her, since she can’t seem to get away from him. He loves her too much to do that. He asks her to perform the “ultimate kindness” on him, which would kill him and rid her of the line of vampire suitors who will be coming after her when he dies. If she does this, it will set them both free. Sookie thinks Bill needs to leave, and she threatens to rescind his invitation. He asks her to think about it, and she says she will. Bill takes one final look at Sookie in the room and leaves.
Cue the credits for the last time. Thank you, too, Jace Everett.
The Yakuza are driving fast in their fast cars. Mr. Gus is upstairs drinking. Eric is in the basement staring at Sarah Newlin, who is chained up. Eric wants to release Sarah. He tells Pam that they’re going to kill Mr. Gus and steal New Blood from him. Eric has Pam feed Sarah her blood so they can always find her when she’s frightened. They let her go, but Eric reminds her that everywhere she goes, everyone wants her dead. And as much as Eric and Pam hate her, they’re going to be her best friends.
Sarah escapes, and Mr. Gus demands to know how Eric could let her escape. Pam and Eric take out the guards before they can pull their guns on them. Mr. Gus retreats through the tunnel. Pam wants to chase him, but Eric has a gas can and a lighter. “Humans are slow,” he says. After Mr. Gus blows up, Eric races to Sookie’s house, where the Yakuza are about to attack her. Sookie gets out of bed, dressed in a night shirt, and goes to the window. Eric has already stolen their car, though, and he speeds away, covered in blood.
Meanwhile, Sarah is eating leftover carnival food in a carousel. Pam finds her. Sarah tells Pam that she’s there because that’s where Eric turned Willa into a vampire. She read it in Bill’s book. Sarah asks Pam if she’s a horrible person, which Pam can’t argue with. She thinks she’d make a great vampire, but Pam doesn’t think so. Sarah has spent so much time working behind powerful men but perhaps she was supposed to be behind a powerful woman all along. A vampire lesbian, Pam scoffs. When Sarah mentions Tara, Pam attacks her. She tells Sarah she’d never let her go down on her for a billion dollars, but she does want her blood. So she takes it.
Bill sees that Jessica is home, and that Hoyt is with her. Hoyt is happy to see Bill and asks if he got the blood from him. Jessica tells Bill that she doesn’t want him to die, but she’ll be ok if he does die. Bill hugs her and says it’s what he needed to hear. Bill asks if Hoyt’s decision to stay is because of Jessica, and Hoyt says absolutely yet. Bill wonders if Hoyt will one day ask Jessica to marry him, and while Jessica responds with shock, Hoyt says yes. Jessica pulls Bill away and tells him that she has already dreamed of a wedding, but not like this. Bill explains that love can happen in an instant. He never got to give his mortal daughter away, so this is his chance to make up for that. He has no idea how much time he has left, but he wanted to be sure she was “spoken for” before he dies. They hug. She asks Bill to wait a moment while she and Hoyt talk. She wants to ask Hoyt if he will marry her today.
Sookie is sitting in the dining room in her pajamas. She looks out the window and sees herself as a child running through the rain with Tara. Tara is trying to get away from the rain because of what it does to her hair. We see Gran in the kitchen, telling the girls to call her when it’s raining, but it’s all a ploy to get hot chocolate. When Gran goes into the laundry room, she hears Tara wondering when Jason is getting home. Tara asks who she likes, but Sookie isn’t sure about boys, or marriage. Gran stops her from thinking that way, telling her that she can do anything she wants to do. She makes Tara promise that she’ll hold Sookie to that promise if Gran isn’t around.
Once Sookie is dressed, she heads to Jason’s house, where Brigette answers the door. Jason is still sleeping. Sookie wonders about Brigette, considering that she’s wearing his boxers, but she hears her thoughts and they didn’t sleep together. Sookie uses coffee to wake her brother up, and once Jason is awake she tells him about Bill’s plan for her to use her ball of faery light. She has given it a lot of thought, and Bill looks horrible, but she’s not sure that she wants to give everything up right now. Jason can’t believe that Sookie is asking him advice. He says he loves her. Their phones ring. Hoyt is calling Jason to ask if he will be his best man, while Jessica wants to know if Sookie has anything that will work as a wedding dress. What on earth went on last night?
Later that day, the Stackhouse siblings leave Sookie’s house dressed for a wedding. Bill is dressed in a fine suit, drinking a glass of blood and dressed for a wedding. Arlene, Holly and Andy pull up, wondering why Jessica wants to be married so fast. Could she be pregnant? Holly thinks baby vamps would be cute. Bill calls Andy into his study. Andy had heard Bill was sick but had no idea how bad it was. Bill sits Andy down and tells him that Andy is his only living heir. When he dies, the house and everything he owns goes to Andy. Bill wants Andy to rent the house to Jessica and Hoyt. “Copy that, Vampire Bill,” Andy says. “Consider it done.”
Jason finds Hoyt getting ready upstairs. Hoyt wonders if he should call Brigette. Jason says it’s a terrible idea. Hoyt apologizes for Jason’s eye, and Jason apologizes for Hoyt’s tie, so he fixes it for him. Besides, taking a shot in the eye is worth it to get his best friend back. Hoyt recalls a movie about a man who has amnesia and wakes up with a new life. Jason reminds him that they rented that movie together. Jason says they have to live every day like they’re going to die. Embrace everything. “Let’s do this shit,” Jason says.
Arlene wanders through the mansion. She finds Jessica’s room and knocks on the door. Sookie says they need another minute, but when Arlene walks in, she says that Jessica is beautiful. Sookie finds Bill downstairs and says that Jessica would like him to walk her down the aisle. Of course he would. He finds Jessica sitting on the steps looking beautiful in her cream-colored dress. He says she looks beautiful.
Bill and Jessica enter the living room where their friends and family have assembled. Andy prepares to speak, but he asks Arlene to turn down the music. “Oh shit, I forgot!” she exclaims. Andy apologizes for his notes. He begins the ceremony as Jessica and Hoyt stare lovingly into each other’s eyes. Bill gives his vampire daughter away. When he says the words, Jessica hugs him. He goes to sit down next to Sookie, and suddenly Sookie can hear Bill’s thoughts for the first time ever. She hears him think about how much he loves Sookie. Andy continues that the state of Louisiana might not recognize their marriage, but he does. They don’t have vows written down, and they don’t have rings, so they’re improvising. As they exchange their vows, Bill prays for Sookie to choose this life for herself. Jessica babbles through the vows and needs more tissue. Jason, Holly and Arlene look on in pride. Andy pronounces them husband and wife. Everyone cheers.
Jason pulls his squad car up at his house. Sookie reveals that she could hear Bill’s thoughts, and that he had said this disease was making him feel more human. She said he was thinking all the right things that you’d want to hear from someone who loves you. Brigette comes out, and Sookie tells Jason that she’d approve if he slept with her on the way to the airport. She likes Brigette, and the fact is, she isn’t Hoyt’s girl anymore.
Sookie arrives at the church. She finds Reverend Daniels sitting in a pew. She asks if it’s ok for her to come in. He says he’s writing the week’s sermon. She asks if he ever hears from God, but the good Reverend says he knows that Sookie is there to ask him advice. Sookie says the world used to be a simpler place back before vampires and werewolves came out. He says that Sookie is a telepath. “And a faery,” she adds. He smiles. He knows how much she has done for the community. She is questioning her role, and he says that God gave us brains to exercise free will. His message hits home. She starts to leave, then she gives him advice on his sermon. “Help is on its way,” she says.
Sookie calls Bill and says that she’s made arrangements at the cemetery. She’ll meet Bill there after sundown. She dresses in black and leaves the cheery yellow house on her way to help Bill find peace. As she walks through the cemetery she sees that a grave has been dug. A coffin is at the bottom of the grave.
Bill leaves his house and starts walking. He announces himself, and she says that she’s been standing there for a while. She wants to know why he has a coffin. He explains that it was because it was easier for soldiers’ families if they have coffins. She hugs him and says she doesn’t want to do this. “It’s time,” he says. They kiss. Tears stream down Sookie’s face. “Thank you,” Bill says. He jumps down into the grave and lifts the lid. Inside is a box. It’s a photograph of Bill with his daughter, the one we saw him take in one of the visions. Sookie cautions that he should get in before she loses her nerve. Bill clutches the photograph and says he’s ready. “Bill, I’ll never forget you,” she says. Bill can’t say the same—he doesn’t know what happens next.
Sookie conjures the ball of light. Bill lies down. She stares at it as it pulses in her hand. She says that she didn’t understand the gravity of what he was asking her to give up. She said being a faery is a part of her, whether or not she likes it. And so is Bill. And he always will be. But she can’t give it up for him. She wants to know if he still wants to die. “Please,” he says. She breaks a shovel and tosses the stake into the hole, then she crawls after it. She straddles him and asks if he’s sure. They kiss. “I love you, Bill Compton,” she says. “I love you, too,” he says.
She positions the stake over his heart. She hesitates, and so he helps her to stake him. He explodes underneath her, and she sobs. Sookie is covered in blood when she steps out of the coffin. She closes the lid and sits down on it, crying harder. She climbs out of the hole and starts covering the coffin with dirt using her bare hands. When she leaves the cemetery, she walks away.
A year later…
Eric Northman is pitching his New Blood for a TV commercial. He and his associate, Pam, have found a cure for Hep-V in the blood of Sarah Newlin. They tell the story of how they found Sarah, and though she escaped, they were able to synthesize the few drops of blood they found into…New Blood!
Three years later…
Pam and Eric go public with New Blood at the New York Stock Exchange.
The following Thanksgiving…
A turkey is being fried while a pregnant Sookie gets dinner ready. Jason is prowling the floor with his three kids. Poor Brigette looks exhausted. That would be three kids in three years, if you’re counting. Sam and Nicole show up with his baby girl and older daughter.
Eric and Pam rule over Fangtasia while they accept money from vamps who want to drink directly from Sarah, who is still tied up. She’s haunted by the ghost of Steve Newlin. It’s Thanksgiving, and Steve thinks that they should say what they’re thankful for. He’s glad she’s losing her mind, so he can haunt her every day until she dies, and perhaps after that. He wants to know what she’s thankful for. “Nothing,” she says.
The Bon Temps family is gathered around a huge dinner table. Everybody is happy and healthy. Andy. Holly. Wade and Adilyn. Arlene. Hoyt and Jessica. James and Lafayette. Jason and Brigette. And Sookie and…well, we don’t know who he is. But she’s pregnant and happy.
I will probably think of something more fitting to say tomorrow. But for now…thank you, True Blood.
Random Readings 