But I have to say that I am impressed with the amount of
attention the writers are giving to Terry’s death, and I kind of wish he had
been given the same treatment in life. All those flashbacks about Terry’s PTSD
immediately after he returned from war, and the first days of his friendships
with Lafayette and Sam? I would have loved more of that, years ago.
This was still a blood-soaked, largely ridiculous episode,
though, so let’s get to my five favorite things. (Obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD.)
1. Vamp Camp is destroyed! Thanks to the one and only Eric
Northman, who tore through a bunch of guards, killed the head scientist
Overlark, and then set all the vampires free, the place is donezo. I like the
emotion Eric brought to this, though—although he is properly smug when he tells
the vampires, “Go on, go kill your captors,” he also sounds almost bored too,
no? That didn’t take any glee, for me as a viewer, out of Eric’s murder of
Steve Newlin (“Every time I’ve lost someone I’ve loved, you’ve been there. …
You have no future”) or his capture of the therapist for Pam to kill (I loved
her cooing “You take such good care of me”). But now that Nora is dead, and
Eric has no relationship with Sookie Stackhouse or the human world, what else
does he have to live for? And so I wasn’t surprised when Eric flew off at the
end of the episode, although Pam was indignant and angry that he was leaving
her. What else is Eric supposed to do? I hope he goes off and fights crime.
Extra-handsomely.
2. Also at Vamp Camp! Jason Stackhouse decided to let Sarah
Newlin go instead of killing her, which we all kind of realized, right? Jason
wasn’t going to lose his soul by killing a human, even though he’s killed a
bunch of vampires, and I imagine we’ll see Sarah again. But I did like Jason
challenging her on her religious rhetoric (as well as mocking her bad cardio: “You’re
too fucking slow, and you’re too fucking evil!” and her bad sex game: “He says
to tell you you’re an average fucking lay”), and calling her out with, “How
dare you speak for God!” It’s obvious, though, that none of Jason’s anger got
through to Sarah, right? So she’ll probably be back sometime, doing more stupid
shit, in glorious pantsuits. So glorious!
3. Oh right, and also at Vamp Camp, practically everyone
lived, since Bill sacrificed himself to all of his vampire friends who were in
that white circular room. Since he couldn’t bring Warlow to them, he let them
feed off his own blood, which had Warlow’s in it—but on the brink of death, as
Lilith’s three messengers beckoned him, he refused to go with them. What that
means for the future, I really don’t know. But Bill lives after feeding off
Jessica and James (proving Warlow’s claim to Sookie that if they were both
half-vampire, half-faerie, they could just feed off each other for eternity),
and is able to see all the other vampires destroying all the Tru-Blood around
the world. Yay, I guess? This can’t be good for the human vs. vampire
situation, right? And how long does faerie blood last, anyway? Are these
vampires going to continue slow-motion skipping in the sunlight forever? Or, at
some point, will their immunity run out? Questions, questions.
4. Aside from all the Vamp Camp stuff, this episode was
rightfully dominated by the memory of Terry Bellefleur, and I really liked how
his funeral was handled. The guiding theme was “Terry Bellefleur believed in
family, and for him, everything, everything flowed from that,” and various
characters did a good job discussing Terry’s personality; Andy’s memories about
trying to connect with Terry after he returned from war were particularly
poignant (“You gotta let me know what kind of beer you want!”). Also mentioned
were Terry’s dedication to his job (Sam: “I don’t think he ever missed a day”),
his desire to do things correctly (“I want to be good at this job. Will
you help me?” Lala remembers Terry asking during his first day), and his
immediate affection for Arlene (“He loved you since the second you walked into
his life,” Sookie shares).
Of all the flashbacks, I think Terry throwing back a
catfish during fishing because “Every life matters” was the most obvious, but
the one of Lala teaching him how to cook fries and dipping low during the process
was clearly the best. Their friendship was one of my favorite things, and I legitimately
will miss Terry quite a bit. Rest in peace, dude. And get that life insurance
money, Arlene.
5. And lastly, I loved the resigned look on Sookie’s face
when Warlow feeds on her after she blasts Bill out of faerie haven with her
ball of light. It’s very put-upon wife dealing with her husband’s baggage,
which I imagine would be how they would operate if we ever see these two crazy
kids get together. However, didn’t Niall say that using her ball of faerie
lighte would zap all of her faerie ability? And yet she’s still able to read
Arlene’s mind during Terry’s funeral? Hmm. Is that a continuity issue, or did I
miss something?
+ And finally, some of my favorite lines:
+ “Jason Stackhouse! Looking good, my friend! … When you
dream of me, dream of nice things,” says Eric before he heals Jason with his
blood. So please let us have sexy dreams of them together, HBO. PLEASE. Also,
would Eric Northman have chemistry with practically anything at this point? A
brick wall? A traffic light? Various other inanimate objects? That motherfucker
is JUST. SO. CHARMING.
+ We can all agree that Eric tearing off Overlark’s junk was
the kind of ridiculousness we keep watching True Blood for, right?
+ “I love you, Jason Stackhouse!” Peace out, Steve Newlin.
You raging psychopath.
+ Gotta love to hate Grandma Bellefleur, as racist and
sexist as she is. Choice lines from her during Terry’s funeral: “Is that the
Stackhouse girl, the weirdo?”; “There’s a lot more Negroes here than I thought
there would be”; and “Is that a boy or a girl?” directed to, of course, the one
and only Lafayette, who brushed it off with class. And I must say, his false
eyelashes last night were amazing, no? So voluminous!
+ Also, an update on Hoyt, who Jessica glamoured into
forgetting everything about their relationship and her subsequent dalliance
with Jason: According to his mother, he’s doing fine in Alaska and has an
ugly-but-nice girlfriend. He’s still one of my most-missed characters, but I
don’t imagine him coming back anytime soon—I think the next love triangle with
Jessica will be her, Jason, and James, so no need for a return of Hoyt, I don’t
think.
+ And finally, I must say that I found Alcide pretty hot
last night. As Hoyt’s mother noted, “He smells like a man!”—which I do agree is
a quite attractive quality. Sure, the show doesn’t really know what to do with
Alcide (he’s a nice guy again now, after all those weeks of useless,
over-the-top werewolf storylines), but my heart swells seeing him and Sookie
together. In the books, they end up married, which I find quite pleasant. And
yes, Alcide, I WILL take your shoulder to cry on! And the rest of your body. To
do other stuff on.
And also, did anyone else find “young” Sam in the fishing
flashback strangely hot, too? Is it the cutoff West Virginia shirt that’s doing
it for me? That’s embarrassing.
