Evil is Going On

Spoiler Alert!: Almost all (but not the last) spoiler for this episode are revealed in this review.

by Courtney Hilden
"Evil is Going On," the final episode in this season of True Blood, opened up on Eric trying to kill Russell by lying out in the sun with him. After having a conversation with Godric (who, yes, is still dead), decided to punish Russell rather than just kill him. Meanwhile, Talbot's bloody pulp-remains took a trip through the plumping system, Jesus comes out as a witch, and Sam runs after Tommy. Oh, and finally, Sookie broke up with Bill. Hopefully for good.
Dealing with one of the worse things about the episode: Was it really necessary to bring Eric's maker back? Godric was a great character, but using him in some kind of vision is about as original as the heaven world that Sookie and Bill have been making regular visits to. Godric was a great character when he was simply undead, but as an angel/figment of Eric's imagination felt contrived and silly. Even Eric's motivations are obvious through his interactions with characters (like Pam), or they are not. Either way, it could work. But using Godric-back-from-the-dead smacks of some bad tv show I am so unfamiliar with I cannot even give an example.
Sookie's power (whatever it is) has become a deus ex machina. Great, now one of the other good things on this show, conflict, will be sacrificed to make things even easier for the uncompelling character. The only good thing about this is that it gives Sookie her own power within a world where mostly white, supernatural men have power.
The only good thing about Sookie scenes was that, for once, Sookie showed some character and dumped the remains of Talbot down the drain. Her evil laugh was so liberating to watch. Talbot's remains are still gross, but we have assumably seen the last of them.
There were some good moments on the show. Tara and Sam's morning breakfast started out so cute. Tara's reluctance did a good job of capping off her recent struggles with accepting vampires and other supernatural stuff. There's something sad about watching her hate all supernaturals because of the terrible things a few of them have done, but if she really is gone for a season or two, she will come back wiser and more accepting.
Hopefully, Jason is actually going to take care of the people of Hotshot. And it's going to make him a better person. Hopefully.
Jesus's betrayal of Lafayette was awful. Poor Lafayette. He finally gets a good relationship going, and, of course, Jesus has been lying to him. And obviously manipulating him. Lafayette should not trust Jesus.
The scene between Tara and Sookie was great. It was one of the few true friend conversations that have happened. Tara should not have apologized to Sookie, since she was the one trying to help her out of what was clearly a bad relationship. Tara is always setting herself aside for her white friend, and it is so sad to watch. If the show does depict where Tara goes next, it should include her sticking up for her own feelings.
Bill continues to be a disappointment. Eric is one of the few good characters, and although it is nice to embrace my hatred of Bill now that it's clear he truly is in it for himself, I am already missing Eric.
His instance of killing anyone who has tasted Sookie is another great moment of creepy misogyny. "Tasting" here is obviously a metaphor for sex, and to here Bill claim he is going to destroy all of those who share a sexual link with her is just another one of the things to add to the "Nasty Anti-Woman Things Bill Says."
And finally, some positive things about this last episode. One of the things not cover in these reviews is how good the music has been. Every episode has ended with perfect music. The incidental music during the last scene between Tommy and Sam was particularly nice.
Also: Terry has an armadillo?

Bad Blood

by Courtney Hilden
Spoiler Alert!: Certain surprises within the episode are revealed in this review.




"Bad Blood," the first episode of this season of True Blood, picks up where the last episode left off, with Tara still reeling over the death of Eggs, Sookie looking for a kidnapped Bill, Eric trying to sell V (vampire blood used as a drug) to fund the Queen of Louisiana, and Sam out looking for his family.  Although the episode was fascinating and moved all these storylines forward, like most episodes of the show, there wasn't much tying these things together. 

The episode opened with what has to be the longest "previously on..." segment in the history of television.  The show is juggling way too many balls at this point not to be confusing, even to those viewers who have been loyally following (including your's truly.)
It's good also to see some of the book's most interesting characters, including Kendra Jones.  Kendra is always in the background of the early books, and in this episode she gets a brief cameo.  Also seeing the Bellefleur cousins bonding over their mutual killer status was nice.  No other character manages to both be badass and sensitive like Terry Bellefleur.  That badass might be rubbing off on Andy, since he went through Jason's window.  (Also: can someone make a techno song of Andy and Jason's mantra?)  The only thing that's sad is to see Eric at his trashiest and horndoggediness.  As a fan of the books, I want to see Eric like he is in the fourth or later books.  Tara was also hard to watch.  Tara's a great character, but seeing her act like a stereotypical black woman (crazy and violent) was disappointing, since this show is supposed to be all about subverting stereotypes, though the show has always struggled to do so with non-white, non-male characters. 
The show, at this point, is espousing an atheist point of view, which would be fine, if this was a simplistic show.  It would be nice to see the show to work to show an complicated answer to God.  It's also sad that the characters often interested in God are stupid or African American.  In the latter case, it's racist, but in the former, it's simple unimaginative.  Also, in the case of race, is it necessary to make one of the few African American characters to be made a slave to white people and sell drugs, as they have with Lafayette?  Aren't there enough of those stereotypes on tv?  The only thing that was good about it was the interesting commentary about blood and drug use.  The magistrate mentions that using vampire blood for drug use was "blasphemy," a word associated with this simplistic evangelist model.  (The magistrate also mentioned that this situation was "moral anarchy.")  Maybe the show will depict drug use as not so bad or terrible in the same way that sexuality is depicted by fundamentalist Christians.   
Overall, a decent episode, one that was funny in its now-standard way and allowed all the characters the chance to naturally grow.