Recap 7.1 True Blood “Jesus Gonna Be Here”

“For every human a vampire. For every vampire a human.”

Why so serious? True Blood usually isn’t this serious. Apocalyptic even, since small towns are being wiped out by marauding infected vampires. Is the battle for existence of Bon Temps the center of their final season? Appropriate, I suppose, but seriously, it was too serious for me. I didn’t laugh once, and True Blood always makes me laugh. Plus there was a lack of the trademark True Blood outrageousness.

Every season seems to start with death at Merlotte’s, which is now Bellefleur’s. Is Tara really dead? If she is, that makes me glad that the touching scene in last season’s finale between Tara and Lettie Mae was genuine, but wow. There was a strong suggestion that Lettie Mae was seeing Tara — are there ghosts in Bon Temps again? And if they’re killing off main characters, what hope is there for Arlene, Holly, the very pregnant Nicole and Jane Bodehouse, who are currently locked up in Eric’s “prison” in the Fangtasia basement?

Most of this episode centered quite effectively around the Bellefleurs, father and daughter, and the Comptons, father and daughter, which was also all about the human/vampire survival pairing thing. Bill is the old Bill, like Billith never happened, and he even offered to sacrifice himself for Andy, despite Andy’s completely understandable lack of forgiveness.

But Jessica was the real story. She was so determined to keep Adilyn alive that she nearly burst into flames in the Bellefleur front yard, ready to redeem herself with death. I thought it was lovely that Adilyn finally let Jessica into the house to save her, and even drank a little of Jessica’s blood so that Jessica would always know where Adilyn was. I’m sure that little plot set-up will return later in the season.

My second favorite scene in this episode was the pairing of Jessica’s laidback vampire honey James and the emotionally exhausted and numb Lafayette, who just lost his cousin Tara. It was so sweet the way that Lafayette and James connected, and James telling Lafayette how he became a vampire was surprisingly moving. I barely noticed that there was a new actor playing James, probably because he plays Jackson on The Originals so it felt like he belonged on a vampire show. The resemblance is strong, too (Luke Grimes as James from last season on the left, Nathan Parsons as James now, on the right.)

(Okay, so Nathan Parsons plays a werewolf in The Originals. It’s still a vampire show, isn’t it?)

In other news, Sookie and Alcide have been together six months, although I keep feeling that the relationship is temporary and I’ve been wondering about the mind-reading thing. Wasn’t that why Sookie couldn’t date humans? In the books, it’s made pretty clear that weres and shifters are much harder to mind read than humans, but I don’t think that’s ever been discussed in this series. And what’s with Alcide? Everyone was blaming Sookie for the vampire apocalypse, and Alcide was thinking it, too?

At least they had make-up sex before the episode ended, with lots of sexy True Blood nudity. (But all I could think of was that since Stephen Moyer directed this episode, Anna Paquin’s husband was directing her having sex with another guy.) The Jason/Violet coupling was even more graphic and a bit more fun. I guess Violet was just waiting for Jason to demand instead of ask. But she made him wait six months? Really? Clearly, vampires don’t see time the way humans do.

While the episode moved quickly and I liked it, I was most disappointed with the extreme lack of Eric Northman. At least his devoted Pam is looking for him in Marrakesh, and I loved the Indiana Jones Deer Hunter Russian roulette scene with the two vampires standing in big buckets for easy clean-up. I hope she finds him soon. It’s not True Blood for me without Eric.

Bits and pieces:

— Skarsgard is no longer in the cast, and wow, does that make me unhappy. Rutina Wesley was, though. Is Tara really dead?

— As mentioned above, this episode was directed by Stephen Moyer. He did a good job.

— Bellefleur’s has a fleur-de-lis logo. That worked out so well for the French royal family.

— I really liked that Willa stayed with the Rev and Lettie Mae. Even though it wasn’t stated out loud, Willa was Tara’s vampire sister. And now she has a home in the church basement.

— Kevin the deputy was a continuing character in the books, and it looks like he just bit the dust, too.

— James was a Viet Nam draft dodger and pacifist, and after his best friend was killed, his friend’s father beat James to death with a baseball bat. That was heavy.

— Vince, who was Sam’s opponent in the race for mayor, saw Sam as a dog turning into his human form. And wow, Vince did not like it, and there are definitely vigilante vibes going on there.

Quotes:

James: “I like your place.”
Lafayette: “Yeah. It’s got a certain ghetto je ne sais quoi.”

Lafayette: “You are one metaphysical fuck.”

Pam: “While your daughter does look delicious, I’ll pass.”

So what did you think? I’m pretty much on board, although Pam had darned well find Eric soon,

Billie Doux
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Billie Doux is the founder of Doux Reviews and has been reviewing her favorite shows for a ridiculously long time. More Billie Doux.