The first half of Sunday’s episode felt like a LOT of
filler. It was all character work that, arguably, needed to happen, but it felt
obligatory rather than revelatory. But the second half of the episode really
took off, featuring some great moments with Eric, Sookie, LaFayette, Bill, Jessica,
and Arlene. And then it all climaxed with a thoroughly entertaining battle that
featured so much glorious, blood-spattered death. For all my kvetching about
this season, the assault on Fangtasia was one of the
most satisfying sequences in “True Blood” history.

The episode opened very slowly, with Sookie
and Jason informing the next of kin about the deaths of Alcide
and Maxine Foytenberry. That meant brief appearances
by Hoyt, all grubby and adorable on his oil rig (and
still fully mindwiped), and Robert Patrick and his
succulent man breasts. I can’t imagine we’ll see them again before the end of
the show, but it continued this season’s apparent mandate of bringing back
every character who ever uttered a line of dialogue. I look forward to seeing
S2’s manservant Karl bringing in towels when nobody wants them.

After Sookie basically told Jason
to sack up and be a man (Jason has truly become useless on this show, hasn’t
he?), she got to work telepathically forcing a still-in-shock Holly to remember
her captivity at the hands of the Hep V vamps. Andy Bellefleur was none too pleased with her methods, but it
worked: the Keystone Kops of Bon Temps finally knew that the remaining damsels
in distress were stuck in the basement of the most obvious hiding place ever, Fangtasia. Holly may now be a mental and emotional wreck,
but that’s what she gets for working at Merlotte’s in
the first place.

Before we got to the inevitable siege of Fangtasia
we got several interesting character moments. In the quickest possible fashion:

-The Jessica situation was finally addressed, as James,
Bill, and Sookie held an intervention after
discovering that Jess has basically not eaten in months, since she ate those
fairy kids. She cannot forgive herself for what she did, nor could she again
drink from an innocent person. Sookie gave her one of
the most brutal tough-love speeches I’ve ever heard, but it was actually LaFayette who brought Jess around by confessing that he
murdered the love of his life, Jesus, and still has not forgiven himself for it.
(Throughout it all James looked on like a sad vampiric
puppy — albeit one with great pecs). Another point
toward Season 7: LaFayette has been a mess on this
show since the season of unfortunate possessions, and I’m so glad that he’s
awesome again.

-A good chunk of the episode was devoted to flashbacks
showing how Pam and Eric started Fangtasia. While
this wasn’t the most interesting use of time, it did give us Pam and Eric
through the decades, including Pam in more fabulous 80’s jumpsuits and,
amazingly, 90’s Eric in Color Me Badd drag. It also
gave us their first meeting with Ginger, a college film student whose style
icon was clearly Lisa Loeb. I totally want a spinoff with our favorite vampires
appearing in various decades, wearing hilariously bad fashions and rolling
their eyes at stupid humans. Make this happen, HBO! I am dying to see Bill
Compton as Disco Stu (because you KNOW he was that guy).

-Eric and Pam arrived in Bon Temps intending on picking up
Willa, who is justifiably pissed at Eric for being abandoned essentially right
after being sired. But, predictably, they got drawn into the big-picture drama
and joined the crusade against the Hep V vamps. Prior
to that Eric and Sookie had a little chat that
reignited the Eric-Sookie relationship I had thought
totally extinguished at this point. But never count out the power of a
smoldering Eric Northman.

The actual Fangtasia battle scene
brought together virtually every major plotline this season. The Hep V vamps had just started draining Arlene dry when the
healthy vamps started their rescue attempt. Just as that situation blew up the
Roaming Vigilante Idiots showed up in an SUV and started throwing Molotov
cocktails. So you had essentially three armies converging on one place, and it
was a literal bloodbath, with apparently all the Hep
V vamps wiped out and all of the major players in the Vigilante Idiot group
killed off (poor Kenya got battering rammed to death!). I will admit to
cackling like an idiot at the sprays of blood going off every five seconds,
like some kind of Kool-Aid-sponsored water park ride.

And then, something unexpected: genuine emotion. Arlene was
in a very bad way after the Hep V vamps had turned
her into Louisiana’s largest juicebox. When Sookie found her she was fading fast, and calling it out
for Terry Bellefleur. Sookie
begged Arlene to hold on, but via her telepathy saw that Arlene was actually
seeing and hearing Terry speak to her from the other side. For a few seconds I wondered
where this whole thing was going, and I found the whole sequence riveting. It
was like Whoopi Goldberg in “Ghost.” I mean that as a compliment. (Autumn
Sunrise! You like it?) Eventually some random musician vampire — a friend of
James — gave Arlene some of his blood, and she opted to stay alive. Terry told
her to be happy. Maybe I’m a sap, but I liked that whole scene. It took me back
to a place where I still liked Arlene and Terry, before that Ifrit business essentially ruined both characters. (And
BTW: Arlene is totally going to start banging that vampire now.)

So four episodes in we’ve wrapped up the major threat
introduced at the beginning of the season and rearranged the pieces on the
chessboard for the final push. I’m not entirely sure what comes next. Obviously
Eric’s disease has to be addressed. We have the lingering Sara Newlin plotline. The emerging love triangle between
Jessica, James, and LaFayette. Those are all very
character-based narratives, and I suspect that is where they’re going to take
us: the big mega-arc is mostly done, and now the show is just figuring out
where to leave these characters. I find that refreshing. Mind you, it could all
go to shit next episode. But the preview has Ginger riding another bucking
coffin, so it really can’t be all that bad.

This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2014.