True Blood: Beyond Here Lies Nothin'

"Was there no god?"

And so we have this truly thrilling finale. Maryann's death is fitting and, interestingly, seems to have an atheistic subtext, albeit one based on disbelief in an Ancient Greek god so as to avoid offending anyone. Again, too, the season finale points forward to next season as Sam sets off to discover his real parents. Shockingly, too, we end with the sudden death of Eggs, the result of a horrible moral dilemma for Sookie and proof that Tara is the most unfortunate person ever.

We learn here that Sam is truly brave (and allowed, here, to be the hero), Bill is a clever tactician, that Eric doesn't like Yahtzee any more than I do and (this is truly horrific) Queen Sophie-Anne plays it to five million. That's just evil. 

It's good to see Hoyt finally rejecting and leaving his abusive mother, and Andy getting his badge back as a reward. Yet Jessica isn't responding to Hoyt's advances, and is biting some other bloke. And Eggs' death is... well. Poor Tara.

If that isn't enough drama, we have Bill proposing to Sookie in a restaurant (where does he get the money for those plane tickets? Does he have any income?)... and her hesitating. Worse, when she returns from the ladies', about to say yes, he's gone, and seemingly by force....

Making people wait for this to be resolved is pure evil. Fortunately I have it all on box set, though, and after a brief cinematic interlude I'll be moving on to Season Theee...

True Blood: New World in My View

"Jesus and me agreed to see other people. Don't mean we don't talk from time to time."

The episode starts, interestingly, with Sookie having an erotic dream about Eric, an obvious consequence of last episode, but the episode is about her, Jason's and Bill's return to Bon Temps and the true decadence they find there. There's nothing like an outsider's perspective and, after all this time in Dallas, that's what they have.

Things in Bon Temps are not going well; Maryann is still planning the ritual sacrifice of Sam as Sookie and Jason arrive back to be filled in by Hoyt on what's been happening as he and Jessica deal with his possessed mother. Sam and Andy are on the run, and Tara is going through cold turkey with Lafayette and her highly unreliable mother. 

It's interesting how fascinated Maryann is with Dookie and her mysterious powers, helping to foreground this ongoing mystery as we learn that it was Maryann who attacked her in the woods. Maryann's doings are bittersweet, though: the controlled Terry is not a damaged person but a highly competent soldier. 

Fortunately, Dookie brings Tara back from Maryann's clutches. Unfortunately, Tata still escapes as a result of her mother's stupidity, and heads off looking for Eggs. But we end with a double cliffhanger as a starving Jessica bites Hoyt's mum and Bill goes for help from a vampire queen...

True Blood: I Will Rise Up

"You've killed a man."

"That was for self-defence, not for lunch!"

The Brotherhood of the Sun subplot is all wrapped up... and suddenly one of them (Luke, whom we've come to know) turns out to be a suicide bomber and blows up most of the cast. That's quite an opening.

Fortunately, Sookie survives because of Eric(!( taking the full force of the blast for her, seemingly selflessly. And yet... he uses his own need for healing as a pretext to "own" Sookie as Bill does, being able to sense her in the same way. And, as Bill warns her, she's likely to experience feelings of attraction towards him. But... are we really supposed to be ok with the implication that Bill did this to her too? I suppose he saved her life, but it feels a bit queasily rapey.

Speaking of Bill, he ruthlessly kills all Soldiers of the Sun present, wisely allowing one to live and tell the tale. Elsewhere, Jessica and Hoyr continue to be the sweetest couple ever and Tara and Eggs are increasingly uneasy about Maryann- but are completely under her control, in spite of Lafayette's managing to take Tara away. Maryann's influence has led to half the town being locked up for lewd behaviour; Bon Temps is an increasingly weird place.

Hoyt arranges for Jessica to meet his horrible, controlling mother and ends up having the chat he's needed to have with her for a long time. Good for him. There's a heartwarming chat between Sookie and Jason, and Sookie has a disturbingly erotic dream about Eric...!

The imprisoned townsfolk are all freed by an increasingly confident and increasingly powerful Maryann; the season is clearly gearing up for a big conclusion as an increasingly strange Bon Temps awaits Sookie. It's a masterful build-up.

The most extraordinary part is the end, though, as the old, wise, tired and Christlike Godric chooses to embrace death by sunrise after his twenty long centuries, with only Sookie beside him. He wants to burn, dying happy, serene and surprised at this sight of a human shedding tears for him. It's an utterly beautiful scene.

True Blood: Timebomb

"I reckon I've already been to Heaven. It was inside your wife."

This episode focuses on Godric; that he's Really Important is signalled by the reverent behaviour of Eric, until now a huge authority figure. And then there's his Christlike bearing and behaviour, far more "Christian" than anyone in Steve Newlin's ridiculous cult, defusing the whole situation (and ending the sub-plot so that Maryann can take centre stage) with enormous grace and dignity. It's tempting to see this 2,000 year old vampire as an older and wiser version of Bill, which has obvious implications. Huge themes of sin, redemption and the wisdom of religious ethics as opposed to actual belief are at work here.

Bill escapes, interrupting Jessica and Hoyt in coitus to get them to flee to Bon Temps. Sam is framed for Daphne's death, joining an awful lot of licentious locals in jail. Daphne was missing a heart...

The grossest bit is, of course, Maryann serving Daphne's raw heart to Tara and Eggs in a pie, but this spectacle is narratively necessary to ficus us on her as the proper big bad of the season, now that the Reverend Mr. Newlin's little sideshow is over. The most tragic bit is that Jessica's hymen has grown back as it always will; for her, sex will always come with the pain of her first time. That's awful.

It's a rich, powerful episode even before we get to the ultimate cliffhanger: Luke as a suicide bomber...

True Blood: Release Me

"I'm gonna kick your ass so hard you'll be shitting boots."

The cliffhanger, and Sam's certain death, gets resolved by... the arrival of a rat-arsed and confused Andy Bellefleur. Only in True Blood! 

Otherwise, things are not going well as Sookie and Hugo are rumbled and caught by Steve Newlin and his nutters. Bill is unable to help because of Lorena holding him captive, leaving to an intriguing flashback from 1935, where he finally leaves her and resolves to stop killing people; stating that he could never love her.

It seems Hugo, jealous at not being "turned" is the traitor, not that it does him much good. He reveals all- not good news for Jason, now brother to a spy. At last his somewhat over-baked plot line is coming to an end.

An angry Sam confronts Daphne but finally gets done answers; Maryann is an immortal, ancient Maenad, presumably from Classical Greece, a worshipper of Dionysus. That explains the Bacchanalian rituals but is a genuine surprise. So is the fact that Daphne is killed by an increasingly evil-seeming Maryann. Yep. She's the big bad.

We also get a lovely series of scenes where Kessica and Hoyt pop their cherries with each other, and quite a cliffhanger in which Sookie finally meets the mysterious Godric...

True Blood: Hard-Hearted Hannah

"Did you know that there was an actual vampire pope back in the Middle Ages?"

Sookie's undercover mission into the cult is going to be assisted by Hugo, also a human love of a vampire, in his case Isabel. After Barry, Sookie finds yet another parallel to herself in Dallas.

Before the mission, though, a flashback from 1926 ("Fuck Prohibition" indeed) introduces us Lorena, Bill's maker and former lover; for us Buffyverse fans, his Darla. And yet... he never loved her, and when he realises this he stops killing humans. I'm sure this relationship has a long way to go; she certainly still loves him.

Sam and Daphne, both shapechangers, are really connecting, and by all rules of drama they therefore cannot last. She encourages Sam to be more open about what she is, and reveals she was attacked by the beast that went for Sookie, and survived.

Sookie and Hugo have an interesting chat: she won't "turn" him, and he feels unwanted for this; will she still want him when he's old? This is an awkward question that Sookie and Bill will have to face.

Maryann is coming across more and more like a child, but Tara finds evidence of what has been happening during one of Eggs' increasingly prevalent blackouts- a clearing, the site of what looks like an orgy and, perhaps, human sacrifice, although both of them hide from the inplication. By now, for the viewer, there's no doubt that Maryann is the big bad of the season.

Meanwhile, Lafayette suffers a panic attack. It's devastatingly powerful to see someone so confident and witty so vulnerable and afraid. Strangely, Eric wants him to deal in V again.

Meanwhile, Jason gets further indoctrinated and has more sex with Sarah, Hoyt and Jessica continue to be the sweetest couple ever, and we end with a shock; Daphne was leading Sam into a trap all along. She's working for Maryann, and it seems he's to be sacrificed...

Brilliant. Again.

True Blood: Never Let Me Go

"I would no more allow you to feed on that young man than watch pornography on television!"

Sam has a shock; Daphne knows what he is, being a shifter herself. At last he's not alone, and has a lover he can really feel close to. Nothing bad will come of this, right? This is narratively paralleled with Sookie finding another telepath in the unwilling Barry and, embarrassingly, Sam and Daphne also find Arlene and Terry arriving for their own woodland sexual adventures. This series is plotted with the precision of a farce. I love it.

Meanwhile, we discover why Eric is so keen to rescue Godric; he's Eric's maker, as we establish with an unexpected flashback set in (roughly) Beowulf-era Sweden. The fact we've seen nothing like this before makes it extraordinary to watch, and our first sight of Godric is in this context, an interesting choice.

We also have Maryann and her tribe moving into Sookie's, after a little manipulation of Tara, and Jason's continuing experiences woth his religious cult. This plot strand still feels a little dragged out, but ends rather interestingly as Sarah visits Jason for rather unpuritanical reasons. That Jason...

True Blood: Shake and Fingerpop

"I am a vampire- I'm supposed to be tormented."

It's becoming increasingly apparent that the character of Bill works quite well, intentionally or not, as a deconstruction of Angel from, er, Angel; he's tormented, yes, but he's not stupidly guilty about it. He's mature, realistic and, best of all, not treated over-seriously by the script as this big romantic Byronic hero. After all, it's a trope that practically invites mockery.

Anyway, Sookie is off to Dallas with Bill, Jessica is prevented from popping her cherry with Hoyt (those two are sweet), and Jason is continuing to be rather crudely indoctrinated by the Fellowship of the Sun in a storyline which, while both amusing and serving to get us to know the organisation, feels as though it's being dragged out somewhat.

Meanwhile, that monster in the woods has another victim, and Tara has the first nice birthday of her entire life, poor girl, but the disturbing presence of Maryann hangs over everything. She seems wise, in a way, but also immature and hedonistic. I'm still not sure what she's about.

Andy continues his downward spiral, handing in his badge. Lafayette, now Eric's bitch, gets healed with his 1,000 year old blood and watched The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, sensible chap. Sookie and Bill arrive in Dallas to intrigue; there's clearly a traitor about. 

Godric, the missing sheriff vampire, is over 2,000 years old, twice Eric's age. I suggest this storyline is going to lead to some epic revelations. Oh, and Barry is a mind reader- Sookie isn't the only one?

In other storylines, Daphne knows what Sam is. And Maryann's party tonight is huge and mad. Again. There's so much going on at the moment. I love this season.

True Blood: Scratches

"It's always a pleasure doing business with you, Dr. Ludwig."

"Fuck off!"

We begin, after last week's unpleasantness, with a blazing row between Sookie and Bill leading to her running off into the woods... and being attacked and nearly killed by some mysterious creature that's clearly going to loom large this season. She can only be saved by the intervention of Eric; Sookie and Bill now owe him an awful lot, much to Bill's annoyance.

Eric, incidentally, is more than 1,000 years old, and therefore a Viking. He's Swedish, mind, so he can't be in America because of Vinland... what's his background, I wonder?

Maryann, meanwhile, continues to disturb- Sam warns Tara against her, and Karl seems simply to be a slave. She and all around her seem to smoke an awful lot of weed, too. 

Jason is still being steadily indoctrinated by this Fellowship of the Sun cult in spite of his doubts; he's so easy to manipulate, especially by the flirty and attractive Sarah. She also seems more intelligent than her husband; is it she, rather than Steve, who is in charge? 

Behind all this... the Fellowship may be evangelical fanatics full of all sorts of bigotries but, while there are exceptions, the evidence we've seen so far indicates that most vampires are indeed evil. Yes, that's in spite of Bill's big speech about everyone, human and vampire, having agency. Vampires are still, on average, evil.

Sookie and Bill are off to Dallas for Eric, in return for Lafayette's freedom; this is intriguing, and no doubt will show us much more vampire lore in due course. Who is this mysterious, missing Godric?

Jessica and Hoyt getting together is, of course, the sweetest thing ever, and I hope the start of something beautiful. Less nice is Tara's situation with Maryann and her tribe; she's beginning to notice, and be disgusted by, what look to be Bacchanalian excesses.

Meanwhile, Sam and Daphne seem to be getting on well during a midnight swim... but those scratches look awfully like Sookie's. Curiouser and curiouser.

This is already an extraordinarily complex and compelling season, full of contrasts and questions. I suspect, behind it, there are themes; it's going to be a fascinating ride.

True Blood: Keep This Party Going

"This isn't a fight."

"Yes it is!"

Ooh, intriguing- Lafayette is about to become a vampire, and loyal to Eric?

We also hear about a missing vampire, very old, in the Dallas area; this is a plot thread if there ever was one, and Eric will shortly be involving Sookie, whether Bill likes it or not. We get crucial scenes establishing the togetherness of Sookie and Bill, all loved up; something is therefore going to go pear-shaped for them very soon.

We see Jason's experiences at the absurd and transparently pointless "leadership conference". He's a fool, and everyone knows this; others have to wait years to get on the course, years of abstinence from sex and alcohol, two things that I for one could not live without. No wonder we begin to see signs of resentment. I wonder also if Sarah, a himbo on the surface, may really be the manipulating hand behind it all.

We see more about Maryann, ensconced in Sam's bar for several hours. She eats a huge amount of food; whatever she does- and everyone seems to be in high spirits- must clearly take a lot of energy.all very curious. Apparently she's from Cape Cod but, when Sookie reads her mind, she hears a language other than English. And she's powerful enough, and cruel enough, to turn poor Sam into a dog at will.  Curiouser and curiouser. Still, at least she's brought Tara and Eggs together- quite clearly on purpose.

This isn't a good episode for Sookie; she falls for Jessica's transparent plea to look at her family from afar; it's obvious, at least to the viewer, that she means to kill her abusive dad. Bill arrives to save the day, but he's not best pleased with the gullible Sookie. At all.

There's a lot going on this season; this is absolutely fascinating.

True Blood: Nothing But the Blood

"My ass is magnetic now!"

Season Two, then- but we continue straight on. There's even a reprise. The body isn't Lafayette: it's that fraudulent "exorcist", which is a relief. Not for Andy, though: Bud isn't impressed with his behaviour and, arguably, he could even be a suspect. His career, post-Rene, seems to be going quickly downhill.

Tara's mother doesn't take the news well, but then she's a bitch. And it's glorious to see the bollocking she gets from Maryann. Less glorious is the position of Lafayette, being kept as a prisoner by Eric and in far from luxurious circumstances, quite a contrast with his cousin.

Sookie isn't pleased to find out about Jessica; Bill had two weeks to tell her. It's a bloody good job for him that he earned all those brownie points in the season finale. Sookie doesn't like secrets. I suspect they're going to clash later about other secrets still to be revealed.

We find more of Maryann- Sam burgled her, aged 17, and stole a huge wodge of cash with which, presumably, he proceeded to set up in business. I'm not sure, at this stage, whether the big bad if the season is going to be her or religious cult leader Steve Newlin, who has the gullible Jason in his clutches for an expensive "leadership course" which he can suddenly afford after the death of his and Sookie's paedo uncle.

Maryann is fascinating, supplying her guests with both pot and good conversation yet treating her British underling like shit. And she clearly isn't human. What is clear, though, is that Tara and Eggs are getting on very well. I hope Tara doesn't get her heart broken.

A lots being set up for the new season and it could go in any direction.whatever, this is still bloody good telly.