SPOILERS: Is the Shower Scene Happening?

Ausiello has a wealth of True Blood scoop this week, including that shower scene, Scott Foley’s character, and the time jump.

Question: I have to know — will this season of True Blood have the smokin’ hot Sookie/Eric shower scene featured in the book? Please say yes! —Sam
Ausiello: Yes… and No. “There is a shower scene,” explains exec producer Alan Ball. “But it is not a direct re-enactment of the shower scene in the book. It goes to a slightly different place.” Emphasis on slightly. “Sookie and Eric are in the shower together,” confirms Ball, who assures me that, “Everybody who’s been waiting for Sookie and Eric to hook up, this will be a very good season for them.”

Question: Any more details on Scott Foley’s True Blood role? —Anna
Ausiello: “He was Terry’s platoon leader in Iraq,” says Ball of Foley’s character, Patrick. “So they [share] a military history.” (Rumor has it Terry saved Patrick’s life not once but twice.) Foley will debut in the Season 4 finale and then recur throughout Season 5. Ball, meanwhile, confirms that a deal is not yet in place for him to return as showrunner for a fifth season. “I’m negotiating,” he says. Of course, HBO hasn’t renewed the show itself — but Ball isn’t worried. “There are no plans for this show to end,” he assures. “I’m pretty sure there will be at least one more season, if not more. It seems like it has a lot of life in it still.” That’s an understatement given the boffo ratings for Sunday’s premiere.

Question: In a recent Ask Ausiello, you said that there was a very subtle clue for “one of the biggest (literally and figuratively) twists in True Blood‘s history” in the linked trailer. Now that we’ve seen the premiere — and know the twist in question was the yearlong time jump — you have to reveal what the clue was! Was it that Eric said “for the past year” at the beginning of the trailer? —Nancy
Ausiello: Nope. The clue was Tara declaring, “It’s been a while since I got attacked by a vampire, and guess what — it still sucks.” Had the show stuck with tradition — i.e. no time jump between seasons — it would’ve only been a few days since Tara’s deadly run-in with psycho vamp Franklin Mott.