True Blood: Love Is to Die

"I'm choosing the true death."

Bill is choosing to die because Sookie will never be able to move on while he's alive, as she could never quite manage to with Alcide. Hmm. Not sure I buy that either from the character or as a plausible motivation from a more diegetic point of view, but it's written well enough that you can't see the joins so I'll let it pass. Development of this takes up much of the episode.

Elsewhere Sam leaves for a new life in Chicago with Nicole and the bump, and Jessica starts to properly reconnect with Hoyt, telling him "the story of us" while Jason seems to be getting on rather well with Brigette, who's just dumped Hoyt. He's resisting the temptation to shag her, though... and this is Jason.

This is fascinating to watch, knowing as we do from our privileged position outside the text that this is the penultimate episode of True Blood ever. Big things happen, such as Bill releasing Jessica and Eric finally giving Ginger the fucking of her life after fifteen odd years of frustrated celibacy for her. But the Yakuza are after Sookie, which will provide a bit of conflict for the final episode.

But this episode, quite rightly, is fairly short on incident and long on letting all the characters be themselves for one last time. I've no idea where all the pieces will land in the finale- will Bill die? Will Sookie use that exploding ball power and lose her specialness? Will Jessica and Hout get back together? I have no idea; im sure there are some twists and turns to come. But I'm also sure the finale will be fast and furious, so it's wonderful to have a slow episode like this. Sublime, again.

True Blood: Lost Cause

"I have been your sex slave for fifteen years, Eric Northman, and we ain't never had sex!"

It's the aftermath of the big battle, and there's a lot of healing to be done, especially for the bereaved Sookie. This being Bon Temps, it's decided (by Lafayette, mostly) that the solution to this is a party at Sookie's. A good time is had by all, and it's left to Nicole, an outsider, to point out how weird this is, and what awaits place Bon Temps has become.

Eric and Pam meet Sarah Newlin's estranged vampire sister, Amber, who has Hep V. She wants Sarah dead too, which usual ful. But everyone else is partying, except Bull who stands outside experiencing flashbacks from the Civil War. We now learn of his scepticism towards the cause of "freedom" to own other human beings, although of course he must be shown to have such views, or he would lose our sympathies. Interestingly, it is this scene that gives the episode its title as Bill knows the war is futile.

There are lots of little character moments; Andy is finally able to forgive Jessica for what she did. Indeed, the wounds and even the distinction between human and wan pure in Bon Temps appear to be slowly withering away. Good. It's a season about subtle shifts, character development and, I think it's clear by now, no Big Bad. It's refreshing.

There are deeply touching moments; Lettue Mar makes a dignified tribute to Tara. Andy makes a sweet proposal to Holly- and she says yes. There is death, but life goes on. Sookie and Arlene have a lovely long meaningful chat about losing your man. And Jessica sees James and Lafayette, who've grown increasingly close, fucking... and Lafayette stands his ground, insisting that Jessica has been neglecting him and that he deserves as much happiness as straight, white people! As for Jessica, she still has Jason, Violet or no Violet.

Meanwhile, Eric and Pam learn that Sarah Newlin'sparents are truly evil; they're at a fundraiser for Ted Cruz and the far right Republican Party. Fortunately they're all massacred by the Yakuza; things could have got nasty. 

The party offends unpleasantly, as Lettie Mae stabs Willa, desperate for her blood. And the episode ends with Eric finding Sarah... and Bill realising he's infected with Hep V.

Another brilliant episode, then, typical of the season. But I'm not sure what the present day "lost cause" was intended to be.

True Blood: I Found You

"Don't you try that NRA hillbilly shit on me!"

One episode later and, after an initially worrying first episode, it all looks so different. Can it be that True Blood has found its mojo again? This is all I wanted: character-driven storylines where character serves plot, not vice versa; bloody good writing and acting; and actually being about something, in this case with the return of Eric turning Hep B into a proper, functioning AIDS metaphor.

The whole thing is just a superb script, superbly shot, slowing down to deal with the interiority of its characters; what True Blood has always done best. We begin with a dream sequence in which Jason has sex with Eric (Eric is the bottom!) while Sam is a good mayor and all the characters we know and love are brilliant in handling a crisis which personally affects them as much as anyone. People can be magnificent. And then we have Vince, the epitome of small-minded bigotry, which is depressingly effective at whipping up a mob. People are great as individuals; as a group, less so. Consider 52% of my own country, for example.

Arlene, Holly and the pregnant Nicole are also heroic, in captivity and waiting to die as food but not giving up. Bon Temps is cut off but its population is good in an apocalypse.

We get a disturbing sense of the town's future of the neighbouring town of Saint Alice, its population entirely dead, and this made personal for us through the diary of an obvious parallel for Sookie. It's the apocalypse, but this is used as a jumping off point for character development. 

The episode is triumphant, and the end, with Pam finding Eric in France, promises even more...

True Blood: Don't You Feel Me

"I'm gonna need you to tie me up..."

Predictably it's Warlow who saves Sookie, and Lafayette is himself again. Warlow is now in her good books and she's utterly disgusted, unsurprisingly, with her father.

Jason joins the anti-vampire Gestapo undercover in an attempt to rescue Jessica, and impresses people; he may be dim, but he's loyal and has skills, bless him. Sookie and Warlow get closer and closer, with hints of kinkiness in his vampire side. And Andy gets so close to his surviving daughter that he gives her a name: Adilyn. Number Four just won't cut it now.

Lafayette lets Arlene know the rather blatant fact that Terry is suicidal. They attempt to change his feelings by means of Lafayette's powers, but unfortunatwly this makes her m forget the danger he's in. He dies in Arlene's arms, and it's shocking and horrible. 

This dominates the episode. Other things happen- Sam vs Alcide, the revelation that Warlow want to turn Sookie and marry her, Jason and Sarah confronting each other- but this one, awful event hangs over everything.

A vampire called James turns out to be a gentleman, not raping Jessica as ordered in spite of both his torture and her low self-esteem. Oh, and Bill unexpectedly walk up to Truman and beheads him. Nice. Rather more upsetting is the death of Nora in Eric's arms; there's a lot of death in this episode.

We end with the revelation that Sarah (now clearly on charge) means to manufacture new Tru Blood spiked with Hepatitis V: genocide. And Sookie is, er, getting in rather well with Warlow. An unexpectedly gripping and emotional episode.

True Blood: You're No Good

"I was crazy and more racist than usual..."

Eric and Wila have this very appealingly twisted erotic attraction, very much reminiscent of Dracula as I've already said. This is clever, but does it really mean anything other than pure reference in the sixth season of a series about vampires when we've already learned what vampires are like?

Bill's vision is clarified: Jessica, Pam, Tara, Eric, all to burn in the Sun. Understandably he's upset and determined to stop it. Willa gives Eric all sort of sordid details about her nasty dad. There's confusion about the extent of Bill's powers now. And Niall finds that there's been a massacre at the dairy club and they're all dead, which is awful. This is all entertaining enough but with a definite side order of meh.

More interesting is the return of Sarah Newlin, clever, deliciously evil and fanatical as ever, now working for Truman and aiming to be a politician- Republican, of course. And Bill tells Sookie that she's dead to him for refusing to help prevent his vision. Again, meh.

Also meh is Sam and his new civil rights friends' successful rescuing of Emma from the werewolf pack. Even the cliffhanger with Jason badly hurt can't liven things up. I'm seriously worried about this season.