Last Sunday’s episode of “True Blood” marked the end of another crazy season. New villains, new lines that were crossed, new decisions to be made, and of course, much anticipation to be had about the next season. So let’s discuss a few things, and allow me to share my thoughts of season 4.
Bill and Sookie, or Sookie and Eric?
The love triangle we all knew was there finally bloomed and ventured into the official thought process of Sookie Stackhouse. As Sookie put it to Eric in the finale, “I’ve always had a thing for you.” The means to this end, or rather the event to lead to Sookie’s seduction, was Eric having his mind erased by a potent witch, Marnie Stonebrook, which brought out more of the good in him and less of the bad.
This is where a problem with this season rears its ugly head. While this act was entirely necessary to get Sookie to lay her guard down to Eric, the mind erasing angle lasted practically 8 episodes. And while there were a few intriguing moments, like Eric getting drunk on fairy blood and bathing in the lake in daylight, there was too much filler, too much hyping up of the eventual lovemaking. Badass Eric is one of the highlights of the show, and losing that character for so long brought down my interest a tad.
As for Bill, now King of Louisiana, he was more of a background player this time around, with some of the focus shifting away from him and towards Eric. He was still paramount to the main plot, though. They gave him a compelling story, as he tried to reign over his vampires and at the same time keep a watchful, protective eye over the woman he still loved. Throughout the season, we saw frequent longing looks traded between Sookie and Bill, and we knew it was only a matter of time before the dramatic tension flared too much for any of them to control, causing Sookie to split apart from both her current love and her former flame.
From Russell to Marnie, Villains Galore
Russell Edgington was quite the awesome villain, and some might even suggest he was the epitome of the words “bad guy” for a show like True Blood, which might even be true, as we’ll see his return in season 5. However, Marnie Stonebrook proved a very capable replacement, and that is largely thanks to Fiona Shaw’s wonderful portrayal of the inward, wounded witch, obsessed with bringing down the vampires after one of her magic sessions was interrupted by Eric.
Her character transition was marvelous, as we immediately sympathized with her, and saw her as mostly harmless, a decent woman caught under the spell of darker forces. With each episode, we saw her slowly cling to more of her hatred, harness more power, and when her ancient spirit Antonia wanted to break free of her, Marnie trapped her in a binding spell to hold on to her power. There may have been a few still wishing for more Russell Edgington, but it was hard to fault Marnie’s character, and even harder Fiona’s delicious performance.
The Noise in the Background
While I was a big fan of the main storylines, a lot of the background filler and sub-plots didn’t do much to hold my interest.
Jason was able to entertain as always, his usual work is a highlight as he falls from one crazy set of antics to another, but the Jessica/Jason story seemed to fall a bit flat, especially when he unveiled the truth to Hoyt. I can only hope Jason being potentially tied down to a vampire doesn’t stop his reckless abandon.
Terry and Arlene briefly went through a spell where they suspected their baby was possessed, a story simply brought in to fill some minutes and wrapped up in generally mindless fashion.
We learned more about Lafayette and Jesus and the powers each of them possessed, powers that seemed given to them purely to push the acts of season 4. I’m not too surprised or distraught at Jesus’ death, and I think it might even be good for Lafayette’s character, who’s been stale for some time.
With what we saw from the finale, Tara might be dead. While I usually don’t believe cliffhanger deaths in a finale, I won’t be shocked if this one turns out to be for real. Her character has been in limbo, and the focus was heavily shifted off her in this season. I found her genuinely interesting in season 2, but they haven’t done much since then to really push her character along or give us many reasons to care. The “my life is so hard, vampires ruin everything” angle can only go on for so long.
The best sub-plot by far was among the shape-shifters and werewolves, which saw Sam meet a new love interest, one who shared a child with the leader of the local werewolf pack, the same pack Alcide and Debbie joined. We’ve all wanted to see Alcide get treated the way he deserves, so it was a sweet release for all when he finally denounced Debbie from his side. He even followed that action with a move on Sookie, saying he was the one who deserved her and he wanted a shot to prove it. Sam’s internally troubled brother caused quite the amount of mischief, especially in one darkly hilarious episode where he shifted to Sam’s form, fired Sookie, and had sex with Sam’s girlfriend, then booted her right out of bed. He met his end late in the season when he was he was beat to death by the pack leader, who thought he was beating Sam. The whole thing was a mess, and a bloody one, but a tightly written plot with a genius mixture of comedy and drama.
Season 5, What’s to Come?
Overall, season 4 was a good continuation of the series, and gave us a great teaser to what might come about in season 5. How will Sookie handle life without Bill or Eric? Will she give Alcide that chance he asked for? What dark secret is in Terry’s past? What does the Reverend want with Jason? And the biggest question of all, who the hell released Russell Edgington out of bondage and allowed him back into the world?
4 season in, and True Blood still knows how to hook us. I’m excited for what comes next already.