Straight up confession before I begin, I’m still a bit of a trubie and there are still things about this crazy show that I really do love. So with that in mind, let’s get started on season 5, episode 4, “We’ll meet again”.
First up is Miss Sookie Stackhouse, who seems to be having a really bad day. Laffayette is giving the unfortunate waitress a piece of his mind. Not that he can afford to give much away, as like most other characters in Bon Temps, he seems to be slowly losing most of it. “You the fucking angel of death” is his parting retort, I’m pretty sure that even Joan Rivers would find it hard to think of a come back to that one.
Never mind, at least Sookie will always have her big brother to run to, and when she turns up on his doorstep and announces she’s turning herself in, and his first reaction is “into what?” you just know it won’t end with her spending the night shivering in a police cell. Thankfully Jessica is hanging around and later manages to glamour Sheriff Andy into forgetting all about the missing Debbie Pelt.
Eric and Bill are delivered back by the Authority, dropped off, advised not to fuck it up and left with a waiting car. Only 4 people knew where Russell was buried and if we are really lucky the dynamic duo will remember who the other 2 are. Bill says he’ll drive, of course he does.
Back at Authority headquarters a naked Roman (now sponsored by Apple) is getting his kicks from watching Nora being repeatedly tortured. In slides Salome, and if I was him I’d trust her about as much as a 3 year old in a sweet factory. They are going to use their powers of persuasion to find out who Nora’s traitorous allies are. After another threat to Messers Northman and Compton, she finally gives them a name. The traitor is the boy vampire, and Roman stakes him, thank Godric for that.
Finally we get to Fangtasia and Pam’s mistaken assumption that Sookie “fucking did it” when she sees her viking vampire god maker back on his throne, looking menacing and broody, and in full panty melting mode. All Pam cares about is that Eric is back (and I’m so with you there girl) and hopes that he will in return “let bi-girls be bi-girls”. It’s a little hard to gage exactly how Eric felt when Pam broke the happy news about him now being a vampire grandfather, but certainly there were no enthusiastic offers to baby-sit just yet.
Bill and Tara retire to the office to reminisce on how many people have nearly died to save Sookie’s sorry ass. The ever romantic southern gentleman wants to know if Sookie is safe, cue the sorrowful background love music. Tara tells him that Sookie will always be safe as there is always some fool there to take a bullet for her. And then it’s straight from Bill’s bleeding heart, to Eric’s vicious viking temper as he slams Pam on the table in his efforts to find out what she knows about Russell’s re-emergence. Of course she doesn’t know anything, and a right-minded Eric would know that, but it seems he still hasn’t recovered from his traumas of last season (Have any of us?). Pam tells him to release her, KBVS and Alexander Skarsgard knock the scene out of the park, and the audience is left hanging on whether he did or he didn’t.
It’s daylight at Merlotte’s and Sookie’s day isn’t getting any better, as she drifts through the bar overhearing what the local folk all think about her for letting Tara get turned in her kitchen. Sookie certainly seems to have rediscovered her ability to mind-read this season, is this because she is away from the vampires or is it simply that the writers have remembered the reason that she was an outcast who was drawn to vampires in the first place?
Laffayette arrives for another shift (Merlotte’s seems to be fully staffed for the first time in 3 seasons) but seeing Sookie’s car outside sets him off again on a collision course with that pesky demon inside. Later when Sookie is driving home she has to bail out fast as someone has been tampering with her brakes. After a day like this, anyone could be excused for going home and getting well and truly drunk as a skunk.
Next up Terry and his Marine buddy are off on an Iraq war flashback. I actually found this scene rather convenient, it gave me a good chance to repaint the kitchen that for so many weeks I have been promising to do, and as it seemed to go on forever I actually had the time to stand and watch paint dry for the first time ever. I have been reliably informed that Terry and his friends killed some people whilst I was gone. Whatever.
Back at Fangtasia and back to something that I absolutely do give a fuck about. Eric and Pam. Thankfully he did not release her the previous night in a foul fit of rage but instead we are treated to a magnificent and extremely tender scene between the 2 characters, that no matter what goes on elsewhere, will always make this show worth watching. Eric tells his devoted progeny he is on a suicide mission and he won’t let her go down with him. She is his one legacy and he needs her to live when he’s gone. Tearful much? Just don’t look into his eyes if you want any chance of getting through this scene unscathed.
“You are my child as I was the child of Godric, you were born into greatness. You are a maker now, our blood will thrive”.
Standing ovation for Mr Skarsgard and Ms Bauer Van Straten please. Despite his releasing her, the most believable and beloved relationship in the entire show is still very much alive and kicking.
Over at the Compton mansion Bill is looking for bugs (did he find the large one that’s permanently lodged a long way up his ass yet?), when Jessica reminds him that Sookie and him is different to Sookie and anyone else, cue more sorrowful music. (Somewhere in Hollywood Alan Ball is wiping a “soul mates” tear from his bleary eye).
Nice guy Alcide goes to visit the Pelts, and just as many predicted lays the blame for Debbie’s death on the conveniently deceased pack-master Marcus, whom he apparently killed in revenge. Whilst his confessions have certainly done Sookie a favour, is it me or did the Pelts seems a little unappreciative of his declaration of Debbie love, and saving them the job of going after her killer?
As you would expect, after such a heartbreaking scene Pam finally decides to take her mothering duties seriously and takes a reluctant Tara under her vampire wing. Whilst before the season started the thought of Vampire Tara filled me with horror, with Pam as her maker, I am now firmly on board. She was born into greatness after all.
In other news Sam’s taking the night off, no doubt safe in the knowledge that some of his staff are finally coming into work, and he bounces round to go for a run with his shifter friends, only to find them both definitely dead, with bullets through the head. Someone’s shooting shifters. Another storyline to wrestle for space in the season 5 overload.
Our dear Jason (who I can’t help but love no matter what crappy story-lines they manage to give him) has managed to get himself roped into a dodgy night out with the local judge and sheriff and they arrive at a mysterious nightclub, which looks like it could be some kind of reject from the set of Moulin Rouge. Andy meets up with his forest fairy partner, leaving Jason to run into his long lost cousin Hadley. Hadley tells him that they have to get Sookie to the fairy refugee house, before the vampires kill her just like they did their mom and dad. So is this another shocking deviation from the books? Or have the sinister fae spun Hadley a tale in order to get her, and hopefully the rest of her family, on side? I’m still going for fairy bad things on this one.
Now home alone, Sookie does what every other sane person would do after the day she’s had and gets blind drunk, and begins to sing about making love in a cemetery , obviously she’s the drunkest person in the entire universe if dirty graveyard sex is the highlight of her vampire loving song.
Lafayette calls her up to check she is okay after he sabotaged her vehicle. He says they need to talk and he’s not kidding. That will have to wait though as nice guy Alcide calls round to let Sookie know she’s off the hook. Sookie’s sorry for putting him in the middle of all this and wants to show him how grateful she is. After letting him know that she knows he’s in love with her, she climbs drunkenly onto his knee and starts the alcohol induced seduction routine. (If there actually are any Sookie and Alcide shippers out there they have every right to be seriously pissed off that their first tender moment was nothing more than a drunken fumble). And to make matters even worse for our hapless heroine, stalker Bill is living up to his book reputation and watching them from outside.
Thankfully for Voyeur Bill, his new BFF arrives before the police do, the distress evident in Eric’s eyes as he can’t help but catch a peek at Sookie and the wolf. Eric just wants to go back to looking for Russell, watching the woman who broke his heart a few days earlier make out with a man who will never be even a 10th as sexy as him, is not currently top of his priority agenda and he doesn’t think Sookie wants anything to do with them anymore anyway. Bill doesn’t care, he’s up for using her again, and no doubt next episode Butch and Sundance will gatecrash the Sooicide love party.
So in conclusion – what did I think of “We’ll meet again”. Overall impression is a typical True Blood episode, the very good, the not so good, and the whatever! (At least there was no Hoyt and no Luna this week). Next week Sookie and Eric will share a scene for the first time this season and I don’t mind saying I’m very, very nervous. But heck, that’s next week, I’m off to re-watch this week’s Eric and Pam scenes, True Blood at its finest, proving it can still deliver right on the mark, but it just doesn’t do it often enough anymore.
Let us know what you thought to “We’ll meet again”, what was the good, what was the bad, and what was the damn right ugly?
Screen caps from Barbara at skarsgardfans
