True Blood Review: Sookeh You Must Choose

With only three episodes left till the end of season four (has the summer really flown by that quickly?) the different storylines are finally beginning to come together. In a nutshell, Sookie loves both Eric and Bill, so when the witches harm the vampires she fights on their side. Then you have Tara, Lafayette, and Jesus who get involved with the witches because Jesus is a brujo and Lafayette is a medium, like Marnie who is now possessed by Antonia. Holly gets pulled in because she’s a Wiccan; meanwhile she’s also starting to like Sheriff Andy Bellefleur. Andy is still hooked on V and has Jason covering his addiction from everyone else. Jason has feelings for Jessica, who broke up with Hoyt because of general unhappiness with their relationship and her own burgeoning feelings for Jason. Terry and Arlene are staying with Andy in the Bellefleur family home where Lafayette comes to abduct baby Mikey from the last episode because he’s possessed by the spirit of a woman named Mavis who believes Mikey is her son. Lafayette/Mavis goes to Hoyt’s house because in her time, it had been her house with Andy’s gun and Mikey. Jesus comes as Lafayette/Mavis is holed up in Hoyt’s house with Jason, Andy, Terry, and Arlene outside to try and resolve the situation. Hoyt asks Jason to take a box of Jess’s stuff back to her and unable to control their hormones, Jess and Jason engage in some love making in the back of his truck. Alcide, who was unable to stop himself from coming to Sookie’s aid, is in the process of taking her back to her house when Bill comes and snatches her from him and uses his vampire speed to beat him to the house. Sookie drinks Bill’s blood and heals from the gunshot. Alcide then gets fed up with Sookie’s determined actions to interact with vampires and says he’s done. He tells Marcus that he’s ready to move up the pack because it’s what Debbie Wants. Debbie, who looks psycho from finding out that Alcide lied to her, starts doing V again. She goes and offers friendship to Sookie and asks if there’s anything she can do, because she’s doing it for Alcide. Sookie asks for her help to infiltrate Moon Goddess Emporium where she learns Marnie/Antonia wants to use Eric to kill Bill at the Festival of Tolerance event. Marcus asks for Alcide to stand by him as he plans on telling Sam to stay away from Luna. Instead Tommy shifts into Sam and takes the beating for his brother. Alcide intercedes and stops the weres from killing Tommy. Luna and Sam take Emma camping to get away from their troubles for a little while. The two shifters finally consummate their relationship.

I’m glad that the evil baby storyline is finally concluded, as Jesus is able to exorcise Mavis once they are able to find her real child’s bones. Now we can get back to how Jesus and Lafayette are going to help with the psycho witch spirit. Fiona Shaw may have some competition in who can play a better possessed human.

It was also nice of Tommy to try and redeem himself by writing Sam a goodbye note and then taking on Marcus instead. Though that probably made things worse overall, you get an A for effort.

The Bill-Sookie-Eric love triangle takes a not so unexpected shift as Sookie, in her dream world decides to take in not one, but two vampire lovers. Her subconscious tells her that she must choose between Eric and Bill but she decides that she loves them both and is throwing away her preconceived good girl notions of having to pick only one. Ahh isn’t this the classic quandary of so many damsels in distress with two men pining for her (ahem Elena)? But that is just fantasy and I think she’ll still have to choose. Eric and Bill though were looking their best in the fantasy with the sheriff in his Rick Owens leather jacket and black tank and the king in the military-style jacket he wore when we first met him back in season one. Well doesn’t that go to show that Sookie loves the Bill the she knew from before? Perhaps not the Bill she knows now…but I digress.

Tara still can’t catch a break. Now she’s being held prisoner with Holly and the others. The lesson should be that anyone wielding great power is corruptible. In fact, those with the best intentions are the ones to watch out for because they believe whatever they are doing is right. When she catches Sookie inside Moon Goddess Emporium, she does the right thing and let’s Sookie know that she’s going to let her go. Sookie rushes off to the Festival of Tolerance event just in time for the mayhem to start with Marnie controlling three other Louisiana Vampire sheriffs. She orders them to start killing and makes a huge spectacle of holding up Bill’s security team with their insides on the outside. How Nan Flannigan and the PR team of the AVL is going to fix it this time will be nothing short of a miracle.

Since its nearly the end of season four, I’d say that I’ve been pretty satisfied with everything largely because I’ve been waiting to see Eric and Sookie finally get together. This season feels like an introduction to a whole new world where Bill is king and most characters have done some growing up. With the death of Sophie Anne and Russell Edgington out of the picture (at least for now), the landscape of vampire politics and leadership has certainly changed and I’m sure we will find out more about the mysterious “Authority” within the AVL. Disappointingly there hasn’t been much development on Tara’s life outside of Bon Temps or much screen time given to Pam. The Jason-Jessica-Hoyt triangle was definitely unexpected yet interesting, but what happened to the werepanthers? On second thought I’m not sure I want to know. The Mickens are gone for good and Sam has a good woman with him, albeit with a lot of baggage. Arlene can finally rest easy that the ghost of Rene isn’t haunting her child and I really love Arlene and Terry together. Finally, Eric and Sookie. Yes, they are worth mentioning twice because seeing their relationship blossom made the whole season worth it to this viewer.

True Blood Season 4 Episode 9: Let’s Get Out of Here (Originally Aired August 21, 2011)

Images Courtesy of HBO