True Blood 4.07: "Cold Grey Light of Dawn"

“Since when has any fanatic been held back by the improbability of their righteous mission?”
-Bill

I don’t think I would say that “Cold Grey Light of Dawn” is one of my favorite episodes of “True Blood,” but I wouldn’t say it was bad either. The plot moved long very, very slowly, but there was some good character work. Pretty much the entire episode was everybody waiting for Antonia!Marnie to make a serious move against the Vampires. As people waited, they talked, which is what allowed for the character work. I’m ready for the plot to get moving again, which, judging from the end of this episode, looks to happen for sure next week. Several characters definitely ended this episode in serious jeopardy. I do like when “True Blood” tries to have a bit of depth, but I think this episode might have gone a touch too far in that direction. I like “True Blood” for the campiness, too. There really wasn’t a whole lot of campiness in this episode. Just a whole lot of dread. And character-revealing, but sedate conversations among several pairs of characters.

The episode opens in the prison cells at Bill’s house (which sounds vaguely dirty, but it’s not). One of the guards is trying to keep a Sheriff from hurting Antonia!Marnie. The Sheriff glamours the guard, and it appears that he is under Antonia!Marnie’s control. Antonia!Marnie makes the Sheriff kill the guard, but he has to do so without spilling any blood. I guess she wants to deny him a feed from this mess. The upshot of this is that Antonia!Marnie escapes, and she’s free to terrorize the vampires of Bon Temps. I know, we probably shouldn’t have too much sympathy for the vampires, but I’ve spent a lot more times watch their antics, so I’m pretty much on their side in this mess.

We then pick up Tara’s story, where she and her girlfriend are about to be attacked by Pam. Pam moves in for the kill, but suddenly there’s a huge commotion. People are playing paparazzi and taking video and photos of the attack with their cell phones. To put on YouTube, presumably. Pam leaves the scene without finishing what she started. Probably because the penalty for attacking humans is so steep, and she knows Bill will enforce it. Tara is freaked out about this, and as she and her girlfriend are driving down a road, Tara makes her girlfriend stop and leave her by the side of the road. Tara doesn’t want to have to worry about her girlfriend’s safety in the middle of all this vampire attack craziness. She starts calling out for Pam, wanting her to finish the job, but she meets Antonia!Marnie instead, who promises a way to be safe from vampires. But she needs Tara’s help.

Debbie and Alcide are out in the woods, participating in a ceremony to join the Shrieveport pack. Alcide doesn’t seem too thrilled about it. He’s worried about Sookie being out in the woods on a full moon, and that pisses Debbie off big time. They go searching for Sookie after the ceremony, and they find her still having sex with Eric in the woods. Awkward! Later, Alcide and Debbie are having sex, but Debbie isn’t very into it. She apologizes, and she wants to know if Alcide is still thinking about Sookie and Eric. She also wants to know if Alcide is in love with Sookie. And she turns on the waterworks. It’s really annoying, because Debbie is such a pathetic character. Although I could just be biased by how horrible Debbie is in the books. Alcide tries to reassure Debbie, and he says that he wants to be with Debbie forever. That can’t end well.

At Jesus’s grandfather’s house in Mexico, a major argument is going down between Lafayette and Jesus on one side and Jesus’s grandfather on the other. Jesus’s grandfather reveals that the whole deal with letting the snake bite Jesus was to prove that Lafayette is a medium to Lafayette himself. I guess he can’t argue he’s a medium after becoming his boyfriend’s uncle! Later, at a restaurant, Lafayette and Jesus have a very nice conversation about Jesus’s uncle and what exactly it means to be a medium. Lafayette still doesn’t seem especially thrilled with the idea of being a medium, but he does seem grateful that Jesus’s uncle decided to help them out. Back in Bon Temps, as Lafayette is cooking and Arlene is doing something nearby with Mikey strapped to her, he sees the ghost that has been haunting Arlene and her family all season. The ghost speaks French and sings to the baby. Lafayette is really freaked out. I guess he can see her because he’s a medium. While this is going on, Andy is having the most awkward date with Holly ever during Holly’s break. He’s going through serious withdrawal from V, and he ends up walking out on the date after about 30 seconds.

Hoyt goes over to Jason’s house, ostensibly to check on him, but he really wants to whine about how Jessica is being distant. Jessica, meanwhile, is with Bill, who is explaining about Antonia!Marnie and how she wants to make all vampires meet the sun and experience the true death. Bill calls a meeting with his Sheriffs and tells them to evacuate all their vampires from the state. Any vampire who stays behind needs to bind themselves with silver so they will stay in their coffins and not be compelled to go outside in the daylight. The Sheriffs, understandably, don’t love this idea. They don’t want to hide from Antonia!Marnie, they want to take the fight to her. On the one hand, I see their point. Hiding isn’t going to work forever. On the other hand, I see Bill’s point too. Antonia’s a necromancer, so it’s going to be really difficult to figure out how to defeat her when she has the power to control the vampires.

While the other vampires are preparing to go to ground all silvered up, Sookie and Eric are having massive amounts of sex. As you do. Then they have some pillow talk, which kind of rehashes their dilemma for the umpteenth time (and it won’t be the last time in this episode, either). Eric wants to know if Sookie wants him to ever get his memories back. Sookie is conflicted. She says she wants his memories back, but she also doesn’t know if she’ll want that Eric. She knows that even the Eric who has done horrible things for 1000 years is good at his core, and she hopes she’ll still want him, but she can’t be sure. Later (when both Sookie and Eric are decent, thankfully), Bill shows up at their house. He tells Sookie and Eric about Antoinia!Marnie and leaves silver chain that Sookie is supposed to use to bind Eric.

In the only substantial plot that’s really separate from the vampire/witch war drama this week, Sam has to take Tommy to the hospital after finding him passed out following his skinwalking adventure. The doctor says Tommy probably had food poisoning, and he wants to keep him for observation because he seems to be running a fever. Tommy wants to leave, so he tells the doctor that everyone in his family has a temperature that runs a little hot, and Sam backs him up on that. I think Sam’s going to regret that. Sam calls Luna to chat and flirt, but she’s pissed because she thinks Sam (who was actually Tommy impersonating Sam) kicked her out of bed. Poor Sam has no clue why he’s in the doghouse, so to speak. Sam gets a bit stalkerish and goes to see Luna at her workplace. The eventually work out that Tommy must have been skinwalking, and Luna confirms that Tommy’s earlier symptoms jive with her experience post-skinwalking. They both just kind of look at each other awkwardly, which was kind of amusing. Sam’s not so kind to Tommy, though. He chokes (but doesn’t kill) him, and he kicks him out of the trailer.

We then see all the vampires silvering themselves in for the day. Jessica is not taking well to the silver at all. It’s extremely painful for her, I guess because she’s a baby vampire. Once she and Bill are all tied in, they do have a rather nice chat. Bill is upset that he’s caused Jessica so much pain in both her lives, but Jessica is grateful. She much prefers being vampire to being human. They also talk about Jessica’s problems with Hoyt. She thinks she doesn’t love him as much as he loves her Bill tries to convince Jessica that just because things aren’t working out with Hoyt doesn’t mean that she doesn’t still have a heart. Bill is down about how bad things have gotten under his reign as King of Louisiana, and Jessica tries to convince him he’s doing a good job.
Pam undergoing treatment to try to look how she used to.

Eric’s not taking well to the silver, either, and it’s Sookie who has to tie him down with the chain. Eric wants Sookie to stay with him after the job is done, and she obliges. When there’s still half a day of sunlight left, Eric wants out of the silver chains. Sookie refuses, because she doesn’t want to risk losing him. She’s reminded of a time (in season 2) when pre-Amnesia Eric offered to die to save her. It was the last time he was bound in silver. This makes Sookie realize that Eric wasn’t all bad, but Eric is still not so sure. He tells Sookie that he really does not want his memories back.

It turns out to be a good thing Sookie kept Eric in the silver, because Tara’s been trying to recruit others to help Antonia!Marnie. She’s successful in recruiting Holly, and they have a plan to get a large group together. They all congregate, and Antonia!Marnie has to make a big entrance by having some candles spontaneously light before she enters the room. I thought that was pretty hokey. Antonia!Marnie gives a big speech asking for help and tells the other witches they can leave if they want. A few do leave, but not many. Those who are left start chanting, and Antonia!Marnie stands in the center of the circle, hovering. Literally. That was also quite hokey.

Jason goes to Sookie’s house to give her the good news that he’s not a werepanther. Sookie tells him she already knew that, but before the conversation can go any farther, the wind picks up. Sookie knows this must be the big spell, so she runs off to help Eric. Jason decides to run off as well to help Jessica. The spell makes all the vampires go completely nuts. They all desperately want to get out of their chains and into the sunlight. The people watching over them mostly manage to keep them from doing just that. Although there’s one vampire next door to Maxine Fortenberry who walks outside and promptly bursts into flames. Maxine’s reaction made me chuckle. Things are not so jovial at Bill’s house thought. Jessica manages to get out of her chains, then she kills the guard and takes the key to the prison cell. Meanwhile, Jason is running towards the house full steam, but he’s stopped by a guard. Before anyone can stop her, Jessica starts to open the doors to Bill’s house and steps out into the sun.