Original Air Date: 21 August 2011
Nan: There have been times, I'll admit, where it's occurred to me that maybe I should put my career on hold and become a maker. But these last few hours here with you have erased those doubts forever.
Jessica: You are nothing like you are on TV.
Nan: Aw, thanks.
The Review: There was a lot of action in this episode as well, so I'll break it down into plot lines, as it's easier to keep track this way.
The main love triangle. It's been clear since this whole story began that Sookie is in love with both Eric and Bill. Am I excited? Of course not, I'd like Bill to just stay in the background and only be heard of on very rare occasions, he's boring and I never liked him. The dream sequence, other than showing us how fit Anna Paquin is and how hot she looks in red, didn't really bring anything new or remotely interesting. It ran for too long and even as a dream sequence, it was so uncharacteristic for Sookie that it just made me yawn. Alan Ball seems decided to keep Bill around and that is just one of the things that pisses me off.The war. There wasn't much development, except for the finale, with Eric going after Bill while under Antonia's spell. On the other hand, the interesting thing that happened was Debbie coming to Sookie's assistance. Of course, it would have made a more believable story to have her try to sell Sookie out, especially since she's back on V and thinks Alcide has the hots for her. The conflict between Nan and Bill seemed far-fetched, as we haven't seen them have different agendas before; this could have been better built throughout the season instead of just dropped on us out of the blue.
It doesn't stop to amaze me how Tara's character is just going in loops and never really evolving, despite Rutina Wesley's promise that Tara will be a stronger character this season. She just keeps doing the same things over and over again ever since the beginning: align with the evil side - check; go against her best friend in the process - check; self-pity - check; change her mind after realizing the evil side is not what she expected - check. Tara is another character that this show could easily go without.
The evil baby and Lafayette. We got closure for this plot - I hope -, though there's still the possibility of Rene resurfacing (though the whole "baby not yours" seems, at this point, more of Mavis' doing than Rene's). I wouldn't say it dragged on for too long, but the ending was not to my satisfaction. It was too Ghost Whisperer (don't get me wrong, I loved that show, but it's not what I want from True Blood), with Mavis coming to terms with her death and going into the light. Not original, definitely not very suspenseful, and I didn't really care about how things went down, with everyone just running around the house like decapitated chickens. Since this medium thing for Lafayette didn't really go as far as it could have, I'm hoping he will at least have a role in the final battle between vampires and Antonia.
The Sam stuff. Not really much action for him, except or the hot tent sex with Luna (is he really turning into a cuddly rabbit instead of the badass shifter he used to be?), however we got to see Tommy turn into Sam yet again and face the wrath of Luna's ex. We're seeing too much of Tommy, he's another character I could go without. Also, Alcide suddenly having enough of Sookie's allegiance to vamps and deciding to work his way up in the pack (supposedly because it's important to Debbie) makes me yawn, he acts like a scorned schoolboy and it doesn't really suit him. I didn't mind the naked scene though, Joe Manganiello is very impressive.
The other love triangle. Hoyt is, of course, very immature when it comes to relationships, and I would have expected him to act like he does, seeing how Jessica was his only girlfriend. Jason is also immature, despite his being repeatedly raped by a pack of werepanthers and having to put up with a boss who's addicted on V. If you add this up to Jessica herself being a baby vampire, with uncontrollable impulses, this can only go badly for all of them. In the meantime, we can console ourselves with hot pickup truck sex, but how in the world did they get there, seeing how they had an entire house at their disposal? On the good side, I loved the moment between Nan and Jessica, who knew Nan could actually be funny? She reminds me of Pam sometimes (oh, how I missed Pam in this episode!).
Overall, this episode seemed like a filler and didn't have me involved as much as the rest of the season did. Hopefully we will get some more action next Sunday.
True Blood 4x08: Spellbound
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