True Blood: The Sun

"I was testing you and you failed miserably!"

Something comes through a portal- can it be Warlow? Meanwhile, Jason gets a bollocking from his fairy grandfather and it becomes abundantly clear that humans now have the resources and weaponry to fight back against vampires. Bill can feel vampires being tortured right now in Louisiana, a place where they have no rights and, no doubt, a Kristalnacht is coming.

Sookie meets Ben, a mysterious injured fairy, while Sam meets Nicole, a civil rights activist who knows he's a shifter and wants to fight for the civil rights of "sipes"- an opposite reaction to the new governor. Predictable.

Bill's Lilith-inspired powers provide us with a lot of spectacle, while Andy's kids continue to get older and Niall investigates the portal Warlow may have used.

We get an interesting set piece between Eric and Governor Truman Burrell in which the battle lines are drawn and we learn that the tyrant has an Achilles heel, a daughter, Willa, whose name sounds a bit like "Wilhelmina" and whom Eric later seduces through the window, Dracula-like.

Niall gives another info dump to Jason and Sookie: the Stackhouses are vampire royalty and Warlow is obsessed with them. Niall is a King. Warlow murdered his family; John was his son. Even cooler is that Sookie has a kind of supernova power that can kill vampires- but she immediately stops being fae if she uses it.

Alcide and Sam are also clashing about custody of Emma after Luna's demise, and Jessica has a beautifully shot moment of religious angst. But we end with Bill having a vision of all our favourite vampires about to die by sunlight in an obvious analogy for a gas chamber.

This episode is better but still awkward, and the crudeness of the Nazi metaphor is getting more and more jarring.

True Blood: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

"Whatever happens we keep our heads down, our tits up and the True Blood flowing!"

We get an overdue and, in the end, satisfying resolution to Terry's Iraqi Ifrit subplot and, as a bonus, we get a resolution to the anti-Supes KKK plotline with a genuinely surprising revelation; former sheriff Bud, while very much under his fanatical girlfriend's thumb, is secretly the "Dragon" in charge. It's a well-executed and entertaining end to the subplot, with Andy and Jason shown to actually be capable of good police work, and a clear message that the baleful influence of such racist terrorist organisations persists in the Deep South and beyond.

Otherwise, though, there's a slight sense of going through the motions. Yes, Pam is awesome, but the scenes of Bill embracing his role as senior baddie and thinking of Sookie while shagging Salome simply don't have much traction; the character has become boring and the ambiguous Eric is far more interesting. 

It's amusing to see Edgington and Steve Newlin as delightfully homicidal lovers, taking Emma as their unfortunate "pet" and generally being gleefully evil together. We meet Alcide's disgraced dad, who bears an awfully close resemblance to the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. But, worryingly close to the end of the season, I'm feeling an unexpected lack of enthusiasm. Can things improve?

True Blood: Hopeless

"You're no better than humans with your absurd magical thinking. There is no Lilith!"

Predictably, Sookie saves everyone with her mysterious powers before the Authority arrive to take custody of Edhington, who is seemingly at their mercy. Fatally, they spend most of the episode underestimating him while he mocks their religious certainties.

Hoyt, still desperate to get Jessica back, is getting quite kinkily submissive, while Sam is at Luna's bedside; it seems she isn't dead but they want revenge. And we see more of Lafayette's delightfully twisted relationship with his mother. And Sookie hears how it was a vampire that killed her parents, leading Jason to introduce her to his new-found fairy mates.

Bill and Eric are, it seemed, now heroes to the Authority, their misdemeanours forgotten. Edgington is to be executed. But we know by now that Russell is bound to end up on top and, sure enough, the villainous vampire takes full advantage of an unexpected Sanguinistas coup against Roman from within the highest ranks of the Authority...

This is where the unexpected twists start. Yes, this is the season where True Blood perhaps begins to become over-reliant on its own past mythology. But it's excellence goes on and on.