True to the End

I remember walking through San Diego Comic Con in 2008 and seeing ads for a drink called Tru Blood in the Sails Pavilion.  They were all over.

When the show premiered, people who were Charlaine Harris fans didn’t know how true (no pun intended) Alan Ball would be to the source materials, namely the books thr characters were based upon.  Indeed, if Ball had stayed to the books, then we would have lost Lafayette very early in season one. 

The show has made stars of the cast, who are greeted each year by thousands of fans at SDCC. Even short term cast members find fame through their association.  Ashley Hinshaw plays Hoyt’s girlfriend Brigette. She has been in the final four episodes and somehow she has gained superstar status worldwide.  The show has that kind of power.

True Blood pushed boundaries, using vampires and supernatural creatures as metaphors for real-life issues facing our nation and the world at large.  In a short amount of time, True Blood went from guilty summer television to a must-watch cultural phenomenon.

And so tonight when we say goodbye to Sookie and Bill and the good people of Bon Temps, we lose a small piece of TV history. But history tells us that True Blood will never fade into the night.  With rumors of a musical, there is always a chance that our favorite show might be resurrected in another form.

Dissecting True Blood S7E8: Almost Home

There were quite a few things going on in last night’s True Blood.  The title of the episode, “Almost Home,” is very symbolic.

Here is a quick summary:
Eric is cured of Hep-V; he rushes to Sookie to let her know he’s ok, and then he finds out about Bill.

Violet captured Wade, Adilyn and Jessica, and then she catches Jason.  She is about to start killing them off when Hoyt kills her.

Hoyt gives Jessica a pint of blood when he finds out that Bill is dying. From one grieving child to another.

Lettie Mae finally convinces Reverend Daniels to take some V and see the visions.  Together, they see Young Tara almost kill her drunk father.

Sookie is able to ask Bill if he would have turned her over to Sophie Anne way back when they first met.

Bill continues to have flashbacks to the pre-war era, only now he sees Sookie in a nursery with a dead baby.

So there was a lot going on.

It is interesting to note that Eric went straight to Sookie when he found out he was cured.  He sees that she’s in a robe and she’s at Bill’s house, so surely he has put things together.  What’s more telling is that he pledges to help Bill even though it means going against his promise to Mr. Gus.  In spite of the risk, he wants to help Sookie. Clearly he still cares about her.

Violet has the perfect revenge plot in place. In all her years no one has ever cheated on her until Jason Stackhouse gets it on with Jessica. She’s ranting about her angst when Hoyt puts a bullet in her chest, catching her totally off guard.  Though he’d been fighting with Brigette, she rushes in and proclaims him a hero. Hoyt and Jessica see each other and Jessica is overwhelmed at seeing him again. She is perplexed that he has a girlfriend.  When Andy and Holly arrive, they forget their anger and Adilyn and Wade.  They are just glad they’re safe.

Later, after Jason takes Jessica home, they have a heart to heart and decide that they have a beautiful friendship, and that’s how it should be.

When Hoyt visits Jessica later, he offers her a pint of blood because he has always liked Vampire Bill and after losing his mom he knows what she must be dealing with.  For Jessica, it is the ultimate redemptive moment to see that Hoyt is doing well. She glamoured him so he could have a better life, and it worked.  Hoyt has to get back to Brigette.  They are leaving Bon Temps soon to return to Alaska. He is happy with her, and it sounds like a family is on the way for the happy couple.

Tara is finally able to tell her mother that she was a good mom and she wants Lettie Mae to let her go. And when Lettie Mae lets go, it allows Tara to be free as well.  She disappears into the mist with a final glance at her mom at her cousin. Tara is at peace.

Sookie finally understands that Bill had been living in darkness until she came into his life.  And while he had initially accepted his mission from Sophie Anne, who had a master plan to capture and breed fairies for their powerful blood, he quickly realized that he could never go through with it.  He loved her too much.

With Bill’s flashbacks we see him returning to a time when he was human and he was happy. It was shocking when he refused to drink Sarah Newlin’s healing blood…but I think that this is indicative of his newfound perspective.  In a lot of ways, I think Bill knows that he can never make Sookie happy when he can never live a full life with her, and after all these years it is time for him to rejoin his wife and children.  While I’d hate to see it happen, I think this story is going to get sadder before it gets happier.

What do you think will happen in the final two episodes of True Blood?  Leave your comments below!!

True Blood Recap S7E5: Lost Cause

True Blood Season 7, Episode 5: Lost Cause

Airdate:  July 20, 2014

Summary by: Sarabeth Pollock

 

We’re at the halfway point.  It’s really depressing.  Next week I’ll be bringing you content from Comic Con, including the last time the blood drive will be sponsored by HBO.  That’s sad, too.  (Incidentally, all appointments are full on Thursday.  I’m going in Friday afternoon.  Crazy to think how full that event has become, and it’s all thanks to True Blood)

Ginger is doing cleanup outside Fangtasia while the boys from Anubis Air prepare to ship a few vamps.  Willa is yelling at Pam for being abandoned by Eric.  Eric abandoned her, and Pam abandoned Tara.  Tara raised Willa.  Eric wants to go after Sarah Newlin, and Willa probably knows where she is.  Willa agrees to talk provided that Eric releases her.  Eric releases her and she tells him that Sarah has a sister named Amber who is a vampire.  It was a well guarded secret, but it’s true.  She overheard a phone call while Sarah was staying at the mansion with Governor Burrell.  The call came from a Dallas area code.  Eric smiles at Pam and they move to leave, but Ginger interrupts.  She knows that if Eric leaves she might never see him again, and after all these years she’s been his sex slave without the sex.  What does that make her? “A slave?” Pam asks.  Ginger puts her foot down and demands that either she goes with Eric, or Eric fucks her before she leaves.  She tells him she’s diseased, too.  The next thing we see is Eric’s coffin being loaded into the van with Ginger kicking and screaming on top.  Poor Ginger.

Back at Sookie’s house, Sookie returns home to find it quiet.  She’s still in shock.  She sees a leather jacket on the couch.  She’s about to break down when Lafayette and James appear.  Lafayette just heard about Alcide, about everything, and he tells Sookie she should rest.  He tucks her in and she asks him not to leave.  He promises to be there when she wakes up.

The sun comes up and sets again.  Sookie wakes up in her empty bed and goes to the window.  Jackson is outside loading up the truck.  The house is full of candles and food and party favors.  Jackson comes in and tells Sookie that the hardest thing is having to go through someone’s stuff after a death, so when she’s ready she can come out.  Then Lala and James and Jackson’s girlfriend come in and say that they’re having a party. Sookie feels bad but she can’t possibly have a party when she’s so sad.  Death is sad, she says.  Lala disagrees—they’re filling up Sook’s empty house with people.  Even Jackson agrees that it’s what Alcide would have wanted.  They go off to prepare, and Bill knocks at the door.  He sees Sookie in her bathrobe and jokes that he’s early.  He didn’t bring alcohol, but he brought flowers.  She accepts them awkwardly and invites him in while she goes to get ready.  He smiles and goes inside.

Dallas, Texas.  Eric knocks on the door and greets Amber Mills, who is also infected with Hep-V.  Amber was the black sheep of the family.  Her boyfriend Jeremy turned her, and then Sarah got involved with the church and paid her off to stay in the closet.  It worked well for Sarah to say vampires carried her poor sister away when she’d been hiding all along.  Eric says that none of this was her fault and asks for her help.  Amber wants to know if he’s going to kill Sarah, and when he says yes, she says she’s in.  “I like her,” Pam says.  Amber hasn’t made up her mind about Pam, which makes Pam like her even more.  Amber reveals that Sarah called earlier asking for help.  She’ll be holed up at their parents’ house because their parents always fall for her BS even though Sarah disgraced the family.  Her parents won’t be home, though, because they’ll be at some fundraiser.  Amber warns Eric that they won’t be able to get in because “they only invite assholes.”  Eric promises that they can be assholes.

Lettie Mae wants to go to the party.  The Reverend says there will be vampires and alcohol and it’s a bad idea.  Lettie Mae says there will be no goodbyes for Tara in a regular cemetery, but the Reverend holds out and wants her to taste the sauce.  She says it needs cumin, but when she gets it from the cupboard, she grabs some Benadryl as well.

The party is in full swing when Jason and Violet arrive.  James is dancing.  Bill is a wallflower.  Sam stays close to Arlene and Nicole and Holly.  They toast to not dying.  Bill watches them and reflects on the time back in the day when he was a man about town.  He runs into a friend who says that war is coming and they’re bound to be officers.  His friend leads the charge against the Yanks who threaten their way of life.  Bill doesn’t seem to agree.  He wants to know what they’re going to be fighting with.  They’re outnumbered and they won’t win.  He’s immediately expelled from the bar for being a sympathizer.

Jason compliments Sookie, and she compliments Violet but he thinks she’s talking to him.  Violet gives her a hug and says she’s sorry for her loss.  She also adds that she’s lost about a hundred boyfriends die over the years…and that’s when Bill jumps in to rescue Sookie. 

Lettie Mae tucks in Reverend Daniels and heads out.

Jackson reflects on how arrogant Alcide was during a small gathering in the kitchen.  Everyone is in there listening.  Jackson says that he never fought for anything that wasn’t worth fighting for.  Sookie was worth it.  He died for a righteous cause.  “To Alcide,” they say.  Lettie Mae walks in and Lafayette tries to get her out but Sookie offers her a chance to say a few words.  Lettie Mae says that Tara was a hero in her eyes, that she died protecting her mother in spite of the way Lettie Mae raised her and mistreated her.  They raise a glass to Tara.

Andy goes outside to find Jessica alone.  He tells her that her grief about his girls is keeping him from moving forward, and this past week has been hard for all of them.  He needs her help to move on, and he starts by asking her for a ring.  Jessica realizes that he’s going to propose to Holly, so she runs inside and asks Sookie for help.  Sookie tells Andy that Gran left Jason a ring.  Jason gives it to Andy after Violet declares that Jason is already hers and she doesn’t need a ring.  As the happy group goes downstairs, Jason grabs Adilyn and Wade and says that he doesn’t know if they’re fucking or not, but if they are, they’re going to have to stop.

Everyone is in a great mood downstairs.  People are laughing and dancing.  Andy walks up to Holly with a dazed look and he drops down to one knee.  He stutters at first, but then he says that he’s been meaning to do this for a while.  He says that the voice in his head says that he doesn’t deserve a woman like her.  He holds out the ring and she says yes, but he reminds her that he hasn’t asked yet.  It’s the most awkward but endearing proposal ever.  Adilyn and Wade share confused looks.  James corners Jessica and she pushes him away.  Arlene grabs Sookie and takes her upstairs so they can share some girl talk.  Sookie reveals that she hasn’t had enough time to realize that Alcide is gone.  It doesn’t matter how big and strong he was when there’s a gun involved.  Arlene says that she got through it by wearing his jacket at night when no one was looking.  She tells Sookie that you never get over the loss of someone you love.  Jackson is outside the door listening.  He leaves when Arlene says that tequila helps get over it all.

Outside James and Lafayette are on the swing together. They’re laughing and flirting.  Lala recalls the story James told him about the night he was turned.  Lala wants to know if he had been having sex with his maker.  “Yeah,” James says.  The two kiss.

In Dallas, Eric helps Pam dress, showering her with jewelry and telling her about how he told the salesperson that his wife was going to a party and “only the best will do.”  Pam glows, and he smiles.  She laughs.  “I’m a Republicunt,” she says.  She tells him to strip, and then she sees that he’s Stage 2.  He hands her some cover-up and reminds her that he’s going to die. 

Keith, the vampire who saved Arlene, keeps staring at her.  He tells her that she’s the most beautiful woman he’s seen in three centuries.  Arlene is stunned.  She tells him she needs to “go make tinkle” and runs off, but not before Jessica can ask if she’s seen James.  Jessica wanders outside and follows the grunting to a car.  She sees Lafayette pounding into James’ ass.  She rushes into the house and tells Jason to rescind James’ invitation to the house.  She tells Jason what happened and he tells James to “get the fuck out.” Violet tells Jason that it’s ok for him to go to Jessica.  James wants to be alone.   Jessica tells Jason that James must be confused.  Lala interrupts and reminds Jessica that she doesn’t even know about James’ past.  He says that he has watched everyone else fall in love and he’d like to do that, too.  He advises Jessica to let him go if she doesn’t love him.

Downstairs Sookie wanders through the party listening to everyone’s thoughts.  Willa walks in looking for Arlene.  She asks if she’s seen Bill.  Bill is outside remembering how he and African American man were leading their families through the woods to escape the oncoming war.  The man is shot by his friend from town, and they’re threatened.  Bill burns the map to protect those that went ahead.  He’s interrupted when Sookie walks out.  She’s drunk but she sees that something is wrong.  Bill says he’s fine and he compliments the fact that she was able to bring people together.  They’re mainstreaming.  He escorts her back to the porch and she hugs him, thanking him for seeing her the way she can’t see herself.

Once Sookie returns to the party, she hears Lettie Mae looking for Willa.  Before she can stop it, Lettie Mae stabs Willa.  Sam grabs the knife and the vampires in the room go on the defensive.  Lafayette appears and takes Lettie Mae away.  Lettie Mae insists that Tara is trying to contact her from the other side but that she needs Willa’s blood.  Once she’s gone, Nicole flips out at how only a few days prior the town was invaded by sick vamps and now they’re having a party.  Sam tries to quiet her but she keeps going.  She doesn’t see how they can pretend that nothing is happening.  She leaves, and Sam follows.  Violet offers to escort them home.  The mood has shifted at the party.

Upstairs, Jessica contemplates her situation and sees that Lafayette may be right.  Jason admits that Violet is weird.  “Way the fuck off, sometimes,” he laughs.  He gets closer to Jessica and they start sharing stories.  He was upset that Violet didn’t want Gran’s ring.  He was so thankful that he didn’t have to put it on Violet’s finger.  Jessica says that he might be the sweetest man in the world.  They kiss, and then they kiss again.

Pam and Cowboy Eric walk into the party.  They’re scouting the place looking for Sarah’s parents.  Sarah’s mother is in the bathroom and Sarah pokes her head out of a closet.  She tries to tell her mother that she’s in trouble but her mother isn’t buying it.  Sarah is a disgrace.  Sarah asks if Laura Bush is outside, but Laura Bush isn’t taking their family’s calls after the book came out revealing all of Sarah’s secrets.  Sarah says she’s in trouble and that the Japanese men are after her, which seems to strike a chord with her mother.

Jason and Jessica waste no time getting busy upstairs.  Of course, Violet gets back right on time and hears them.  She doesn’t go into their room.  She walks away.

Eric has found Sarah’s father.  He asks him if he’s seen his daughter, but the party gets crashed by the Yakuza, the Japanese men.  They come in, guns blazing, and start shooting everyone around them.  Sarah and her mother flee.  They kill her father.  Sarah runs down the hall and has to leave her mother behind.  She’s quickly killed.  That leaves Sarah on her own.  Eric turns the corner and runs into Sarah.  He grabs her neck and hoists her over his head.  The Yakuza find them and pull their swords out to fight. Eric rushes them and kills them quickly, but not before he rips the leader’s jaw from his face.

Sookie goes into her bedroom and find that Alcide’s jacket has appeared on her bed.  Jackson must have put it there.  Slowly she slips it on and climbs into bed. 

Bill is soaking in the tub.  He recalls being with his wife in front of the family cemetery.  Suddenly he gets out of the tub and goes to the mirror.  That’s when he sees the first signs of Hep-V on his chest.  That’s right, Bill is sick.

Well, that was another first-rate episode.  It’s hard to believe that we only have four episodes left.  I promise that I’ll bring you plenty of True Blood gems live from Comic Con next week.  Keep watching my blog and www.darkmediaonline.com for updates!

Retro True Blood Recap: S5E1 Turn Turn Turn

True Blood Season 5, Episode 1: Turn! Turn! Turn!

Airdate:  June 10, 2012

Recap by: Sarabeth Pollock

 

The weather is getting warmer, the nights are getting shorter, and that can only mean one thing: It’s time to laissez les bons temps rouler in Bon Temps, Louisiana, with the return of HBO’s True Blood.  If you’re like me, you’ve finally picked your jaw up after the ultimate WTF!? moment in the Season 4 finale.  Tara was lying in Sookie’s arms with half of her head on the floor.  Bill and Eric sent Nan Flanagan to the True Death.  Pam was licking her wounds after Eric chastised her.  Sam and Alcide killed werewolf pack master Marcus (who was also Sam’s girlfriend Luna’s ex-husband).  Jason and Jessica were trying to figure out what to do after their hookup, and Jason was also trying to mend his friendship with Hoyt.  Lafayette killed his lover, Jesus, after being possessed by Marnie.  Terry and Arlene’s son, Mikey, is back to normal now that the ghost who had been haunting him is gone, but now one of Terry’s Gulf War buddies shows up at Merlotte’s with unknown intentions.  Sheriff Andy Bellefleur had sex with a woman in the woods who had a glowing finger.  Steve Newlin, the former leader of the Fellowship of the Sun, shows up on Jason’s doorstep.  He’s a vampire now.  Oh, and it looks as though Season 3 villain Russell Edgington has freed himself from his concrete grave.  Yep, Bon Temps is about to roll.

Season 5 begins at King Bill’s mansion.  He’s on the phone with Jessica, telling her that he is going out of town and that she has the run of the house while he’s gone.  Eric is flying around in the background trying to clean up Nan’s remains.  It’s hard to picture the two former adversaries working together, but it’s rather endearing seeing them work in unison to clean up the house.   We flash to a scene of Sookie pulling up at her house.  She goes inside and Debbie Pelt is waiting for her.  Then we return to Bill’s house.  Bill senses Sookie’s fear and moves to assist her.  Eric stops him, reminding him that not only did Sookie refuse him, but the AVL is going to be after them and they need to leave as soon as possible.  Debbie shoots Tara and Sookie screams.  Bill speeds out the door and into the arms of the waiting AVL troops.  Eric is trapped in a silver net.  Looks like Bill and Eric won’t be rushing to Sookie’s aid. 

So much for that theory.

Lafayette hurries into Sookie’s kitchen and takes in the scene.  Before anyone can react, Pam flies in and demands to see Eric.  It’s his house, after all.  She wants Sookie to tell Eric she’s sorry for disobeying him and she wants to mend their relationship.  Lafayette asks Pam to turn Tara into a vampire.  At first Sookie resists this idea, given how much Tara has suffered at the hands of vampires, but she quickly realizes that having Tara alive—in any state—would be better than losing her.  She tells Pam she will owe her one.  Pam is intrigued by this idea of having Sookie owe her a favor, but she warns them that turning Tara might not work and she could wake up and be “f**ktarded.” (classic Pam-inology)  She agrees to turn Tara provided that Sookie agrees to help mend her relationship with Eric, in addition to owing her a favor.  Sookie agrees.

Over at Jason’s house, Steve Newlin is on Jason’s porch and he’s a vampire.  Jason refuses to let Steve in, citing his exposed fangs, which can only mean a vampire hard-on or a hungry vampire, neither of which would end up well for him.  Steve assures Jason that he cannot glamour him because his maker didn’t teach him anything.  He says he was turned as a punishment and he didn’t even know his maker.  He woke up in a hole with a woman, and then she vanished.  Just as Jason starts to feel sorry for him, Steve glamours him and gains entrance to Jason’s house.

Sam is confronted by a pack of werewolves who want to know where Marcus is.  Sam shifts into a bird and escapes them, but he knows they’ll be after him.

Sookie and Lafayette dig a hole in Sookie’s backyard.  While they grumble about doing all the digging, Pam grumbles about her yellow attire: “I’m wearing a Wal-Mart sweat suit, y’all.  That’s the definition of team work.”  She tells Sookie and Lafayette to bury her with Tara, and they do so, both of them hoping that it all works out.  Clearly this is a matter of the lesser of two evils.  Is it better that they let Tara die, or is it better that they find a way for her to live, even though she will be something that she despises?

Luna and her daughter Emma come home to find a naked Sam on their porch.  Emma gets major props in my book for being so nonchalant about finding her mom’s boyfriend standing naked on her front porch.  Must be a shifter thing.  (Totally random aside: in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, Kristin Bauer van Straten talks about Alexander Skarsgard’s sex scene in Season 3.  She and Anna Paquin did “about a hundred takes” and after a while Skarsgard was just walking around naked, which is not a big deal to the Swedes.  To help with the awkwardness, she and Paquin started referring to his member as IKEA…”because he’s Swedish.”  End aside.)  Sam warns Luna that the pack will be coming after them both, and they need to leave at once.  Sam refuses to betray Alcide, who saved them all by killing Marcus.  The pack enforcers arrive at Luna’s house, and though Luna insists that Sam didn’t kill Marcus, Sam gives himself up, imploring Luna to tell Emma that he said goodbye.

Back at Jason’s, Steve puts duct tape across Jason’s mouth and tells him that all he will remember is that he invited Steve inside and agreed to allow Steve to tape his mouth.  Jason nods willingly, and when the glamour is removed Steve admits to Jason that it didn’t bother him that Jason slept with his wife, Sarah.  It was more painful to him that Sarah was the one sleeping with Jason.  All of Steve’s confused feelings led him to the violence that Jason experienced at the Fellowship of the Sun camp.  That’s right.  “I’m a gay vampire American,” Steve says, “and I love you, Jason Stackhouse.”  It’s a classic Jason scene.  I love how Ryan Kwanten plays Jason—Jason would be more upset that his Bon Temps High School football record is about to fall rather than be concerned that Steve Newlin is attracted to him.  He tells Steve that he’s flattered and that it was the “nicest I love you from any male, female, or otherwise…but this dog don’t bark that way.”  Crushed by Jason’s rejection, Steve tries to force Jason to change his mind when Jessica bursts in.  Jason is hers, she says, and given that she’s older than Steve and she’s also the progeny of the King of Louisiana (she’s practically the Queen!), Steve must cede to her authority.  He leaves, and Jessica flashes her red lingerie at the befuddled Jason, who is still reeling from all of the excitement.

Bill and Eric’s AVL enforcers drive into the night, Paul McCartney’s “Silly Love Songs” blaring on the radio.  Bill and Eric are tied up in the back, but Bill figures that they might just be called in for questioning, an idea that Eric quickly rejects.  Together they manage to puncture the gas tank and set the car on fire.  As they are thrown from the explosion, Bill is injured and tells Eric to go on without him.  Eric won’t leave him, though.  Again, I’m loving the camaraderie between them.  Before they can get away, the driver pops up from the wreckage and moves to shoot them, and then he suddenly explodes.  The female vampire from the car is standing there.  In an instant, Eric has her in a passionate embrace.  Her name is Nora, as it turns out.  Bill asks if she is Eric’s friend.  Eric casually replies that Nora is his sister.

Back in Bon Temps, Sookie and Lafayette work to hide the evidence of Debbie’s death.  Lafayette tells Sookie that she could just call the police and claim self-defense, given that Debbie was in her house pointing a gun at her.  Besides that, Sookie is a white girl so the police won’t even question her.  But Sookie tells Lafayette that it wasn’t self-defense; she had possession of the gun and she made a decision to pull the trigger.  How can that be self-defense?

At the dock, Nora explains that she is a chancellor with the AVL and that no one there knows that she is related to Eric.  There are factions within the AVL that threaten to tear everything apart.  She had arranged for their car to be attacked down the road, but the “stunt men” took things into their own hands and now there was no escape vehicle for them.  She gets on the phone to call the AVL in New Orleans to say that there was a delay, that they were going to ground because the clean-up took a little longer than expected.  She tells Bill and Eric that they cannot return to their previous lives or it will mean death to all of them.

The following day, Sookie and Lafayette return to Lafayette’s house to bury Jesus, but his body is gone.  Lafayette tells Sookie that “people need to be said goodbye to” and he starts to talk to Jesus, hoping that he could hear him.  He says that Jesus told him to keep going, but how could he manage to keep going with everything that kept happening?

In one of the lighter moments of the night, two boys walk into Holly’s house to find the good Sheriff, Andy Bellefleur, in bed.  And he’s very naked.  Holly wakes up and tries to console the boys, who are less than pleased to find their mother doing the deed with the sheriff on the couch they sleep on.  Andy hurries from the house (once he finds his pants).

Terry’s Iraqi war buddy, Patrick, is bombarded with questions about Terry’s past over breakfast.  Arlene’s daughter wants to know if Terry “was a badass.”  Terry becomes agitated with talk of the past and insists that all that matters now are his half-cooked pancakes, so Arlene talks about how they’re staying in Andy’s house until they can get back on their feet after the fire put them out of their own house.  The mention of fire catches Patrick’s attention, and he cautions that fires are not to be taken lightly, all the while glaring suggestively at Terry.

Sookie takes a shower and has a flashback of being ridiculed in middle school.  Her classmates don’t want to pick her for their teams and she tells one of the bullies that she knows he plays with himself while he watches his sister take a shower.  Horrified, the bully calls Sookie a freak and the taunting continues until Tara shows up and punches him.  Sookie stares out the window at the freshly dug mound of dirt in her backyard as she reflects on how Tara was always there to defend her.  Once she finishes her shower, Lafayette takes a bath.  As he relaxes, he spies a razor.

Alcide shows up on Sookie’s porch.  Sookie offers to get him some lemonade while he waits in the living room, but as she goes to the refrigerator she spies a tooth on the floor and covers it with her foot as Alcide walks in.  She nervously tells him that she’s embarrassed at how dirty her kitchen is, which makes him laugh.  He says she has an incredibly clean kitchen that smells like lemons covering up ammonia covering up bleach.  Without preamble he tells Sookie that she has to leave, that Russell Edgington has escaped from his concrete tomb.  Sookie insists that Russell is dead, and Alcide realizes that Eric and Bill never told her that they never actually killed him.  Russell will be gunning for Sookie, Alcide says, and only he can protect her.  Alcide doesn’t know that Sookie killed Debbie Pelt, and she tries to tell him that he won’t want to help her when he finds out what she did.  But before she can tell him, Lafayette stops her.  Alcide growls at Lafayette, but Lafayette holds his ground and tells Alcide that they’re done with all of the supernatural BS.  Alcide begrudgingly leaves, and Lafayette remarks that the sun will be going down soon.

Sam’s cries can be heard outside the barn where he is being tortured.  A middle-aged werewolf named Martha tells Sam that the pack needs to know where Marcus’s body is so that they can perform pack rituals.  This is incredibly important for them.  Sam doesn’t care about his own well-being…but Martha doesn’t threaten him with his own life.  She threatens him with Luna and Emma’s lives.

Once the sun goes down, Bill waits for Eric to finish having sex with Nora inside the storage container.  They need to be quieter, he tells them, because New Orleans is only sixty miles away.  Eric’s phone interrupts them, and he tells an angry Nora that his phone is untraceable.  “We fight like siblings, but we f*** like champions.”  His good mood disappears when he answers the phone and hears what Alcide tells him.  We can only imagine that Alcide is telling him about Russell’s reemergence.

The King of Louisiana’s house has been converted into a frat party.  The college kids tell Jessica that she should consider attending their school, which has admission for vampires and special night classes just for them.  (Could this be a subtle dig at the Twilight vamps?)  Jessica thinks this is very funny.  Why on earth would she want to go to school, she laughs.  She’s a vampire.  One of the guys flirts with Jessica, but the doorbell rings.  It’s Jason, and he’s confused about their relationship.  She saved him from Steve Newlin, and now she doesn’t want him anymore.  Hoyt doesn’t want anything to do with him because Jason stole the only woman he ever loved away from him.  Jessica tells Jason she was only trying to protect him and that she didn’t invite him to her party because some of the people were underage.  Jason goes inside and offers to take his uniform off since he’s off duty and ready to party.  He and Jessica sing along to “Cherry Bomb” on Rock Band, and much to Jason’s dismay Flirty Guy slips in and finishes the song with her.  One of the girls offers to go home with Jason, but Jason’s conscience is clearly getting the best of him.  He doesn’t want to have sex with her, he says, and that’s what they would end up doing if they kept going.  He ends up taking her home instead.

Martha and the pack take Sam to where Marcus is buried.  Martha, it turns out, is Marcus’s mother.  She tells Sam he did the right thing.  Luna and Alcide show up, and Alcide says that Marcus deserved what he got.  Martha is angered by this, but the ritual must be completed.  She shifts, and she starts to tear apart Marcus’s body along with one of the male werewolves.

Bill, Eric and Nora are on the dock.  Nora tells them that they will be given new identities to help with their “extraction.”  Bill will become Marcellus Clark, and Eric will become Ike Applebaum…but before they go anywhere, the vampires gathered on the dock are shot down and a voice on a loudspeaker tells the trio that they are surrounded and there’s nowhere to go.

The sun has set at Sookie’s house and she and Lafayette have gathered in the backyard.  Pam rises first and complains, in typical Pam fashion, that she has dirt in her bra.  The yellow track suit has done nothing to brighten her personality.  Soon Sookie starts to dig.  She reaches Tara’s face and starts to cry.  Lafayette approaches.  Sookie shakes her head.  As reality sinks in, the dirt around them explodes.  In the chaos, Sookie screams for Lafayette. 

And the screen goes dark.

There aren’t many programs on television that can pack so much action into one episode.  This season looks amazing and it can only get better from here.  And then there’s the matter of the body that was dragged into the dark underground room.  All we see is blood splattering against the window.  Could that be Russell having dinner?  Is it bad that I’m really excited to have Russell back?

What did you think, fellow Truebies?  Did the season premiere live up to your expectations?  Were your predictions valid?  What do you think is coming our way?  Post comments below or send me your thoughts on Twitter!  Until next week….

True Blood Recap S7E2: I Found You

(Spoliers for “I Found You” below)

True Blood Season 7, Episode 2: I Found You

Airdate:  June 29, 2014

Summary by: Sarabeth Pollock

 

It’s nighttime in…somewhere.  Suddenly Jason comes upon Eric.  Is this real, or is this a dream?  Jason has questions, Eric might have answers.  Eric mixes a drink and offers it to Jason, and then Eric asks about Violet.  Jason can’t get Eric out of his head.  Jason figures Eric has heard that line a lot, but Eric replies that he’s only ever heard it twice.  Then they get naked.  Um, what?  And then Jason kisses Eric.  Ok, this is definitely a dream.  Right?  More kissing.  Nakedness.  A fire in the fireplace.  More kissing.  Heavy breathing. 

And then Jason wakes up in church.  He’s breathing heavily.

Yeah.   So begins Episode 2.

Jason walks outside to find his sister with Alcide.  The town is having a meeting and Andy and Sam are trying to figure how to find the missing people of Bon Temps.  Sookie suggests identifying the body she found in the woods.  Perhaps the strange vampires brought her with them, and they can track them.  Reverend Daniels asks Sam what the people should do with themselves during the day.  Sam tells everyone to keep going, that Arlene would want them to keep things running.  Andy wants to take Adilyn home, but she suggests that she stay with Wade because he’s family.  Lettie May wants to go visit Lafayette.

In Shreveport there’s a fight brewing with the vampires.  One vamp decided to eat one of the hostages, which drains their reserves.  There’s an argument about not having enough food and taking too much.  That means there needs to be another hunting party.  They choose a vampire teacher to do the dirty work.  The teacher, Betty, goes down to grab another victim.  She sees Arlene and chooses another victim.  Arlene asks Holly if her kids had her as a teacher.  She might be their way out.  Arlene attempts to raise spirits by giving a rousing speech. She’s been through too much to “die in a fucking vampire bar.”

Andy, Jason, Sookie, Sam and Alcide find the dead woman in the woods. She’s from two towns over.  Sookie quotes a gravestone that talks about the indifference of life.  Now the gang needs to take a road trip.

Lafayette finds Lettie May at his door.  They are both holding up all right, but Lettie May reveals that she made peace with Tara the night before.  She tells Lafayette that she wants more.  She wants to hold her, and she says that Tara needs help before she can head up to heaven.  She needs some V so that she can communicate with Tara.  Lala tries to convince his aunt that this isn’t what Tara wants. “You’re going to hell!” she shouts.  “That’s what this is,” he replies.

There’s a cleaning crew at Bellefleur’s.  Adilyn tries to console Wade.  Vince strolls in and mocks the people who are following Sam’s orders.  The fact that all of the town’s law enforcement is gone doesn’t leave protection for the town.  Hoyt’s mother finds dead people in the freezer.  Vince tells everyone that the vamps are going to come back.  He tells the story of what he saw the night before, that Sam is a shifter.  Mrs. Fontenberry reveals that she saw Sam transform and had previously blamed the Nyquil. Vince rallies the townspeople into protecting themselves.  Adilyn hears a woman who knows where some extra weapons are stashed.  She grabs Wade and tells him they have to leave.

Arlene and Holly tell Betty that they know who she is.  Betty thinks that they want her to let them go, but they convince her that she was the best teacher their kids ever had.  Betty’s afraid.  She goes to Arlene for a hug.  You can see the effects of Hep-V taking their hold on her.  Arlene tries once more.  Betty’s legacy is at stake, no pun intended.  She can make a choice to help them.  Betty promises to figure out a plan to let them go.  As she leaves, she takes one of the men back upstairs.

As Andy drives through the next town, the group is shocked to discover that the whole town is empty.  The streets are empty.  It’s a ghost town.  Buildings are boarded up. Messages are scrawled on churches and stores.  “FEMA, HELP US” is written on a street in a nod to the Katrina disaster.  Sookie comes across a pit that’s filled with bodies.  Everyone is left.

Adilyn tries to tell Rosie that the Bellefleur mob is going to come to the police station and grab the guns stored there.  Kenya leads them inside and they grab the guns just as the mob arrives at the station.  Vince demands the guns as part of his second amendment right to pretend himself.  The mob starts making Kenya doubt her role with Andy, reminding her that she was passed up for a promotion because she’s a woman of color.  Kenya decides to arrest Adilyn, who blasts her with her Faery powers.  That wakes up Jessica, who is sleeping under Andy’s house.  Wade tries to reason with his brother Rocky, but you can’t reason with a mob.  Jessica tries calling Sookie, but Sookie threw her phone away.  Back at the jail, the mob wastes ammunition with target practice.

Andy and the gang goes into a house where the dead woman once lived.  Jason tastes the pizza on the table and decides that the residents were last in the house two days prior.  The vamps must be raiding each town until it’s entirely cleaned out.  Andy sees a wedding picture and vows to make an honest woman of Holly when he finds her.  “A man ain’t nothing without a family,” he tells Jason.  Sookie wanders into the child’s bedroom and goes through a diary on the desk. Alcide walks in and tells Sookie that it would be ok to read her journal.  Sookie reads that the girl fell in love with a vampire named Henry, who takes her to Fangtasia.  She flashes back to the first time Bill took her to Fangtasia.  She recalls how excited she was going home and getting ready for her trip, a trip that wasn’t a date. “Like I said, I can’t fight it.  I am his, totally and completely,” she reads.  Then she finishes with an entry about an attack on a church.  Henry is infected with Hep V as well.  Sam finds a baby toy in the crib and becomes emotional.  Andy sees blood on the walls.   Mary Beth, the missing girl, writes that she hopes the vamps will spare a child.

Lettie May burns her wrist while she’s cooking.  She decides to burn her hand intentionally so she can call upon Willa for help.  But Willa has never been awakened in the middle of the day.  Willa says Lettie May should go to the doctor, that the Reverend said not to give Lettie May any more blood.  Willa relents when Lettie May begs, and Lettie May has another reaction.  She looks around the cellar and sees a cross in a forest.  Someone is calling to her.  She sees Tara on the cross with a yellow snake on her.  Tara is talking but Lettie May can’t hear her.  “I need the answer,” Lettie May cries.  Willa watches helplessly as Lettie May talks to someone in her vision.

Alcide tells Sookie that she and Mary Beth are nothing alike.  The vampires came out all over the world.  She fell in love with Bill hard and fast.  Sookie appreciates the sentiment, but she’s afraid that Bon Temps will end up like St. Elise.  Alcide knows they could flee right now, but that’s not the right decision.

Betty volunteers to be the sleep monitor.  She tells everyone that she’s the weakest link anyway and they’re waiting for her to die.  She sets the timer for them and then goes down to the basement.  She tells the women that they have twelve minutes to escape, but she needs blood.  Arlene offers her blood, but Betty has to drink from the femoral artery in case they get caught.  That way there are no bite marks.  As she feeds, the Hep V starts to take its toll, and she melts into a pile of goo right in Arlene’s lap.

Jessica’s bite wounds won’t heal, and as she tries to cover them up, Andy gets home.  He’s looking for Adilyn.  Jessica panics, but she knows she has to talk to him.  She tells him she’s in the attic.  She stays with her hands up.  She convinces Andy that she didn’t harm Adilyn, and she vows to find her as soon as the sun goes down.

Sookie and Alcide go home and she tells him to shower before hitting the bed.  She kisses him, and then when he’s in the shower she hurries over to Bill’s house.  When he answers the door, he seems pleased.  She gets right to business.  She wants to know if he can still sense her fear.  “If I get myself into some serious shit, can you still feel me?”

Rhone Valley, France.  Pam is on the hunt for Eric.  She goes down to the basement, where girls cry out that he won’t take their blood.  “You found me,” Eric says.  He’s in a chair, his hair is brown, and he looks years younger, somehow.  Pam stares in disbelief.

Well, folks.  It looks like Eric is back.

This episode moved really fast.  You can tell the writers are trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible, which makes the hour go by incredibly quickly.

So there’s a mob roaming the streets of Bon Temps, Adilyn is in danger, there are more questions than answers and we only have 8 episodes left.  Oh, Jason had an incredibly sex dream about Eric.  What do you think will happen next?

True Blood Season 7 Premiere Recap: Jesus Gonna Be Here

(Spoilers Below)

True Blood Season 7, Episode 1: Jesus Gonna Be Here

Airdate:  June 22, 2014

Summary by: Sarabeth Pollock

Welcome back to Bon Temps, Truebies! It has been a whole year, and now we know that Season 7 is indeed the last season of True Blood.  I admit that I have been approaching this night with trepidation and mixed feelings.  As much as I want the new season to begin, I don’t want the 10 episodes to go by and then have…no more True Blood.  The thought is unbearable, really.  But we’ll revisit that later this summer.

On to Jesus Gonna Be Here…

A fight has broken out at Bellefleurs.  The infected vamps are taking over and Sookie’s faery blood is the only thing saving her.  Tara grabs Lettie May to protect her, then she takes out the vamp who threatens her mother.  Chaos ensues.  Sam shifts and races off to protect Holly and Arlene, and Alcide follows.  There’s a whistle and the vamps clear out, leaving Sookie to survey the area.  She finds Lettie May covered in blood.  Tara is dead.

Oh shit.

Jason calls Andy to report the massacre.  They took Holly and Arlene and killed Tara.  Andy tells Adilyn to stay in the house, then he finds Jessica stationed outside and tells her that Tara is dead.

Sookie is overwhelmed by the thoughts of the people around her.  People are blaming her for what happened because of her affection for the vamps.  One of the men, Vince, sees Sam shift back into a man.  He had been up for the mayor’s seat.  This could be a problem.  Willa offers her blood to Lettie May while Bill, Alcide, Sam and Andy figure out where to find the nesting vamps.  Alcide thinks some uncharitable thoughts about Sookie so Sookie leaves.  Jessica calls James, who is at the bar, and he tells her the news.  James asks if she has fed, but she hasn’t.  “You were a motherfucking dog!” Vince accuses Sam.  Sam begs him to keep this a secret for now.  Vince is a snake.

Sam announces that Bellefleur’s isn’t safe, so every assigned vampire needs to go protect their human.  James offers to protect Lafayette.  Alcide realizes Sookie is gone.

Sookie walks down the road, and she doesn’t answer her phone.  She throws it away.  That’s when she trips over a body in the woods.

In Morocco , there is a party going on.  Pam watches as a man loads a pistol and offers it to Pam.  Russian Roulette.  The other contender says Allah loves him, and he has lasted 27 times.  “My god fucking hates me,” Pam says.  He challenges her faith, then says he isn’t dead.  “I’m alive,” he says, and he pulls the trigger.  Apparently, he wasn’t up for 29.  Pam demands the information she needs to find Eric.

Adilyn peers outside the window where Jessica is standing watch.  She opens the window, which sends a waft of faery goodness outside.  Jessica can’t come inside because she hasn’t been invited.  Adilyn thinks that is weird, but she heard what Jessica said about not wanting to hurt her.  She says she had nightmares about the night her sisters died.  She asks if she smells different.  “I should hate you, but I don’t,” Adilyn says.  She asks if the phone call was from her boyfriend.  She wants to know about him.  Jessica is happy to tell her about James.  The two start talking about boys, and Adilyn reveals her crush on Holly’s son.

Alcide finds Sookie sitting in her kitchen, and he’s pissed that she walked home on her own.  She knows she isn’t supposed to read his thoughts, but she couldn’t help it.  Alcide says it isn’t fair that she’s judging him, and though he says he loves her, she is cursed that she has to hear everyone’s thoughts.  “Tara’s dead,” she yells.  She tells Alcide that she needs to be alone.  He retreats upstairs.

Jason and Violet are driving home.  He asks how many people Violet has seen die.  She’s lost count.  He starts talking about Tara and their childhood.  They arrive at their destination to find Vince and his gang taking things into their own hands.  Vince says that the government isn’t going to help them because they’re stuck in the big cities, so it’s up to them.  Violet threatens the man pointing a gun at Jason, and she tells Vince and company to get the hell out.  They go, but the damage is done.  Jason is one of “them” now.

Lafayette and James arrive home.  Lala insists that he needs to “get altered” before he offers blood to James.  James takes a hit off the bong and the duo starts talking about Jessica.  James is sorry about Tara, but Lala feels relieved this time around.  He grieved her death before.  James reveals that all his friends died in Vietnam, and he talks about how the officers would drive through the neighborhood waiting to see where they stopped.  But James is a draft dodger.  One night he was home and his best friend died.  His best friend’s father beat him for being gay, and a vampire took pity on him and changed him.  James says that emotions don’t matter. “You are one metaphysical fuck,” Lala tells him.  He offers James his arm and James has a bite to eat.

Jason is furious.  “What the fuck!” he screams, stopping the car.  He tells Violet that she degraded him back there.  He confronts her about the fact that she won’t let him have sex, she won’t let him do his job, and his blue balls about to fall off.  He says they’re going to fuck, right there.  “It’s about time, Jason,” she praises.  They fuck on the hood of the police car.

Jessica is trying to ward off the vamp who is threatening Adilyn.  Jessica tells Adilyn that she has to drink her blood to stay safe, and though she’s hesitant, Adilyn acquiesces.

Lettie May is having visions of Tara after drinking Willa’s blood.  She falls asleep calling out Tara’s name.  Reverend Daniels tells Willa not to give her anymore blood because of the issues she had in the past.  He thanks Willa for her help.  “I’ve got nowhere to go,” Willa says.  Eric and Pam are gone, and she was living with Tara but she can’t return to their apartment.  “You’re a lost sheep, ain’t ya?” Daniels says.  He takes Willa to the church and escorts her to the basement.  He offers her the space and says she can stay as long as she likes. 

Pam is on the hunt for the people with information about Eric.  She’s looking for Najat.  She slips the man a large stash of money, and then she is offered the blood of a child.  The only clean blood in North Africa is the blood of children.  Pam doesn’t believe the information she’s given.  Her maker would never…  She leaves abruptly.

Sookie disrobes and curls up with Alcide.  She apologizes to Alcide, who says it’s ok.  They have some makeup sex.

Andy and Bill arrive at an abandoned warehouse that used to house teenage raves.  Bill can tell that they have been nesting there.  They find bodies hanging upside down in a storage room.  Andy throws up.  Vince and his gang comes across them.  Clearly Vince is going to stir up some shit this season.  He accuses Andy and Bill of making them trust vampires.  Bill points out that Andy wasn’t at the mixer in protest, so they should let him go.  Andy refuses to go.  He wants to be the one to end Bill for their shared past.  Andy turns around and aims the gun at Lou, and he tells him that killing someone is a big deal.  Lou backs down.  He tells Vince and their gang to leave. 

The vamps are feasting on the humans while Arlene and Holly are stashed in the basement.  They’re at Fangtasia.  Holly tells everyone that they’re going to be ok.  One woman is pregnant.  A vampire comes down the stairs and kills the deputy.  The women scream.

Andy delivers Bill to his house.  He tells Bill that he only saved him because he needs his help.  Nothing he ever does will make things right, but they need to work together.  “Save your thanks.”  Bill flashes back to when he left his house for the war.  He kissed his family goodbye and left.

Jessica is still in a détente outside the Bellefleur mansion.  Dawn is coming.  Jessica refuses to leave.  Adilyn invites her in and then goes outside so that Jessica is forced to come inside.  Once the door is closed, the vamp outside burns.  Jessica hurries to the attic.

The next day Reverend Daniels addresses the congregation, talking about how the Lord said the dawn is coming.  Sookie arrives and puts her hand on Lettie May’s shoulder, but Lettie May tells her that Tara’s death is her fault.  All of a sudden, Sookie is bombarded with the congregation’s less than charitable thoughts.  She gets up, but before she leaves she tells them that she can hear them, and that though she played a part in all of this, she knows vampires better than anyone else.  She wants to help.

And that, my friends, is that.

If the writing stays this strong, I think we’re going to have an amazing final season.  What did you think?

True to the End: Final Season of True Blood

I’m feeling mixed emotions about the season premiere of True Blood tonight. It’s always fun to see what happens after a cliffhanger…but given that this is the final season I don’t want to rush into it.  Before long, it will be over. And I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.

I suppose the burning questions to be answered are who Sookie will end up with, and whether or not Eric survived his sunbathing, amd what will become of Sam and the good citizens of Bon Temps with the crazy hoard of infected vamps bearing down on them.

There are many questions and surely many answers to be found.

I’m not sure Comic Con will be the same without True Blood.  The blood drive has been a huge success because of HBO’s participation. 

Of course, I’ll be watching eagerly tonight.  But there will be a sad undercurrent this season because summer will never be the same again. (Unless there is a spinoff with Pam and Eric. That would be epic)