“There have been times, I’ll admit, when it’s occurred to me that maybe I should put my career on hold and become a maker, but these last several hours here with you have erased those doubts forever.”
-Nan
To be honest, I found this week’s episode of “True Blood” to be a bit boring. We’re getting so close to the season finale, so everything should be barreling forward full steam ahead, but really, not a lot of consequence happened. It was more everybody preparing for what’s coming next, much like last episode was. I think that in a desire to end every episode on a cliffhanger (which is part of what made “True Blood” season 1 awesome, by the way), the writers may have fallen into a pattern of having 45 minutes of filler just to lead up to the cliffhanger moments at the end of each episode. It’s not working for me, which is a shame, because as I’ve said multiple times before here on MTVP, “Dead to the World,” upon which this season of “True Blood” is very loosely based, is my favorite of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books. I’ve been looking forward to this season ever since I read the book in February 2009 (when I was stranded with an overheated car engine on the coldest day of the year in what turned out to be a rather creepy small town), so this season overall has been quite the disappointment to me. Well, look at it this way, at least after you’re done reading this (if you even keep reading), you’ll only have to put up with my probably almost identical rants another three times before the season is over and I let it go.
This episode begins moments after the last one ended. Alcide is taking a badly injured Sookie away from the graveyard battle. Bill escapes from the witches trying to silver him, and he takes Sookie away from Alcide at top speed. That just pissed me off because I’m sick of the show seeming to deify Bill. He’s kind of a creep in the books, and every time that creepiness starts to surface on the show, it gets smacked down again. Bill is really concerned, because Sookie doesn’t seem to be taking his blood. Later, Sookie does eventually recover and regain consciousness, and of course the first thing she does is ask about Eric. Bill says he’s go look for Eric as soon as possible, but Alcide is pissed. I don’t really understand why. He knew full well that Sookie and Eric had something going on. He saw them going on, come to think of it. Nevertheless, he says he’s completely done with helping Sookie and storms out. He gets home and crawls into bed with Debbie, who was just pretending to be asleep. Her eyes start to glow, which is really freaky.
Back at the Moon Goddess emporium, Antonia!Marnie demonstrates her control over Eric to the other witches. They think that’s pretty darn cool. Marnie quickly loses support, however, when she starts talking about bringing Eric to the big Festival of Tolerance that Nan Flannigan is planning. The other witches seem to think that antagonizing the vampires like that is going a bit too far. Marnie doesn’t take kindly to dissent, and she locks everyone in the store. Now they finally start to get truly freaked out. As for the Festival of Tolerance, Nan is in town for the event, and Jessica is at Bill’s house completely loading all her personal Hoyt/Jason troubles on her. It’s hilarious because Nan could really care less and doesn’t want to be bothered. Bill finally arrives at home and saves her from having to hear Jessica babble about her love life. They all have to silver themselves in for the day, and while they’re lying in the prison cell, Bill and Nan get into a bit of a snit over the Festival. Bill thinks the Festival is a bad idea, but Nan is determined to see it through.
Tommy is at Merlotte’s writing a goodbye letter to Sam when Marcus stops by, looking for trouble. He tells Tommy that he has a message for Sam. He wants to meet Sam to hash out their disagreement (which will probably involve a big fight. Tommy takes the message, but it’s obvious that all is not going to go as Marcus planned. Sam is out of town, for one thing. After Marcus left, Sam offered to take Luna and Emma on a camping trip to “get back to nature” and clear their heads, essentially. It seems to go well, with Sam shifting into a bunny and delighting Emma (one of the better moments of the episode). Meanwhile, Alcide tells Marcus he wants to move up in the pack. Marcus says he can start by acting as muscle during this planned meeting with Sam. Alcide somewhat reluctantly agrees once he’s assured he won’t actually have to fight. Later on, there’s a scene of Sam and Luna having sex in their camping tent intercut with Tommy skinwalking as Sam confronting the werewolves. After fighting for a bit, Tommy shifts back into himself, and all the werewolves realize he’s Sam’s brother. Alcide, who seems to be the only werewolf not inclined towards violence, carries Tommy outside.
The morning after kicking Jessica out, Hoyt wakes up hung over, with the destruction that is his house around him. He starts boxing up all of Jessica’s stuff in a box that says “For you, Monster.” Things get crazy when Lafayette, still possessed and holding Mikey, barges into his house. I guess the house used to be the ghost’s house, because Lafayette says it’s his house, and he points a gun at Hoyt to make him leave. Meanwhile, Arlene and Terry are reporting Mikey’s disappearance to Andy and Jason. In the middle of this, Hoyt calls Jason to say what happened with Lafayette. Hoyt needs a pair of pants since he had to run outside unexpectedly, and Andy says he’ll go upstairs and get a pair (Terry and Arlene have been staying at his house). He ends up taking a hit of V instead, not surprisingly.
We’ll take an interlude from the Lafayette drama (this episode’s main plot) to talk a little bit about some silliness going on with Sookie. Sookie is now under the influence of Bill’s blood in addition to Eric’s, and she has quite the dream about it. Bill and Eric fight over her in the dream, which I thought was hilarious. It’s one of the few moments that sort of felt like the books, where Sookie’s never-ending parade of suitors is an ongoing joke that I find quite amusing. Sookie sits both vampires down in the living room for a chat, and she proposes that both of them should be “hers.” They protest a bit, but Sookie makes the argument that there shouldn’t be a double standard when a woman wants to date multiple people. Things are just about to move into threesome territory when Sookie (thankfully) wakes up.
Anyway, back at Hoyt’s house, there’s a big showdown with Lafayette, and Lafayette is winning because he threatens to shoot the gun any time anybody gests to close to the house. Andy holds down Terry to keep him from trying to go into the house, and Terry is surprised that Andy is so strong. Jason correctly guesses that Andy is still using V. The useful part of Andy’s V use quickly wears off, and Jason has to take over because Andy is on a trip. Lucky for Jason, Jesus arrives to help. He goes inside the house and manages to get through to Mavis (the ghost possessing Lafayette). Mavis agrees to stop causing so much havoc on one condition. She wants to see her actual baby one last time. Jesus agrees and offers to help. He has her go through what happened yet again, and she remembers where the baby was probably buried. She then gives Mikey back to a very grateful Arlene and Terry. The guys all start digging under a tree in earnest looking for the baby, and Hoyt eventually finds both the baby and Mavis’ bodies. Mavis!Lafayette holds the baby’s skeleton, and Jesus says a spell to take Mavis’ spirit out of Lafayette. Everyone sees Mavis’ ghost as she heads off into the beyond, and I want to know when “True Blood” turned into “Ghost Whisperer.”
While all this ghost silliness is going on, Debbie, who has fallen off the wagon and is again using V, stops by Sookie’s house. Instead of being threatening, she actually offers to help in the Vampire/Witch conflict. Sookie does her mindreading thing and believes Debbie is being truthful. I’m doubtful, though. Debbie is pretty crazy, after all. Next time we see Debbie, she’s at the Moon Goddess Emorium, and she pledges the Shreveport Pack’s support to Marnie. This actually isn’t a direct betrayal. It’s a nice distraction while Sookie breaks into the shop from the back. Sookie finds Eric, who says, while clearly brainwashed, that Sookie should leave and that he has to kill the King. Then Tara shows up and points a gun at Sookie. Debbie rats out Sookie to Marnie, and all Hell breaks loose. Marnie tells Tara to hold Sookie, but Sookie hears Tara thinking that everyone is being held hostage and that Sookie should charge her. Sookie does so and gets away. Then she tells a rather disappointed Debbie to drive her to the hotel where Bill is for the rally. Marnie leaves for the rally with Eric and one witch, and she locks everyone else in the Emporium. Boils break out on the hands of anyone who tries to open a door, which is just plain gross.
While all this craziness is going on, Jason is helping Hoyt fix up his house from the devastation Hoyt himself caused. Hoyt asks Jason to deliver what he’s calling the “Monster Box” (aka the box of Jessica’s stuff) to Jessica. Jason hesitates, because he knows bad things could happen if he spends too much time around Jessica, but Hoyt keeps pressing, and so Jason agrees. Jason arrives at Bill’s house and hands the box off to Jessica. She asks him to come inside, but Jason refuses. But then next thing you know, they’re having sex in the back of Jason’s truck. Those two are the height of class, right? I’m sure things are not going to be great between Jason and Hoyt once Hoyt finds out. Major violation of the Bro Code there, Jason!
The tolerance rally is kind of lame, really. The only vampires are Bill, Nan, and one other vampire who is introduced by her still-human younger sister. There are however, a whole lot of humans. Nan makes a comment about how civil rights rallies might not have been so violent if there hadn’t been many African Americans there, and I’m not really sure what to make of that. Marnie uses Eric as a lure to get four additional vampires working security at the rally under her control. Those vampires do some killing, which starts mass panic at the rally. Eric is getting closer to Bill just as Sookie arrives and yells for Bill to run. Here’s hoping the beginning of next week’s episode is actually exciting as a result.
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