Recap 7.4 True Blood “Death is Not the End”

Pam: “I hate Shreveport.”
Eric: “Oh, come on. It’ll be a trip down Memory Lane.”

And what a trip it was. Maybe having an end in sight is giving the writers creative juice, because this was an absolutely excellent episode.

Although they probably couldn’t miss with an episode centered on Eric and Pam that included flashbacks to the founding of Fangtasia. I am loving how they keep bringing old friends back. Let me amend that. I wouldn’t call the despicable Magister an “old friend”, but I was surprisingly happy to see him. And what a surprise that Fangtasia was a punishment, back when it was a skeezy video store with Twizzlers, not Red Vines.

Eric was made the Sheriff of Area 5 in 1986, and he and Pam ran that video store for twenty freaking years. I laughed out loud when our beloved screaming Ginger showed up in 1996, looking like a completely different person who was just deeply into the vampire movie genre. I laughed when Eric came in with big hair and said “Good evening,” just like Bela Lugosi. And 2006, when Ginger burst in with Eric’s throne and her idea of making it into a nightclub, I grinned like a loon. How perfect that Pam stole the idea and the name of the club from Ginger, and glamored it out of her. Pam is such a bitch, but just like Eric, we love her.

In fact, most all of the episode was a trip down Memory Lane. We got Jackson Herveaux in Jackson, Mississippi, receiving the unfortunate news of his son’s demise. And then “poor sweet fucking Hoyt” in Anchorage, Alaska learning of his mother’s death from his best friend Jason, whom Hoyt doesn’t even remember, and that was sad. I’ve always been fond of Hoyt and I hope we’ll be seeing more of Jim Parrack in the final six episodes. Something tells me that he and Jessica might get back together, now that they’ve had time to learn and grow and experience the world separately. Except that he won’t remember her. Maybe they’ll get back together, anyway.

Can I say how relieved I was that Jessica wasn’t healing simply because she was starving herself out of guilt, and how happy I was that James made her drink Lafayette’s blood? And speaking of the inevitable (although I could be wrong), Sookie offered herself to Bill because she knew he needed to be strong for the Battle of Fangtasia, and there were heavy romantic vibes going on there.

Surprisingly, there were also heavy romantic vibes when Eric showed up and Sookie threw herself into his arms and they obviously reconnected in a big way. Thank you, True Blood writers, for not ignoring the Sookie/Eric shippers. Even though Eric’s weakness during the final scenes made it look like they’re still planning to kill him off.

This last season is about our humans and our vamps coming together as a community, and the Battle of Fangtasia was a blast: Sam infiltrating as a rat, Eric and Sookie undercover with her as his human, all of our vampires coming in via the Underground Railroad tunnel (no, no symbolism there), the humans backing them up, slomo action, and a lot of bad vamp puddles and bad vigilantes on the tarmac. I thought we were going to lose Arlene for sure, especially when she saw Terry coming for her, but we didn’t, and that scene was a lovely goodbye to Terry. And then there was a terrible moment when I thought Eric was gone, but no — he was just busy eating Kevin’s widow.

The only thing wrong with this episode was that it was so good that it had the impact of a series finale, and there are six episodes to go. Let’s hope it’s not downhill from here.

Bits:

— Hoyt (Jim Parrack) is back in the cast. As I said, I really do hope it’s not just for this one episode.

— I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: nearly everything Pam says makes me laugh out loud.

— Sam wanted to fly (or gallop) to Fangtasia immediately to rescue Nicole, but was smart enough to listen to reason and wait for the vampires.

— Along with death notifications for Jackson Herveaux and Hoyt Fortenberry, Jason also had to tell Kevin’s widow Rosie that he was dead. And he held her, just like Andy held Holly. I was glad that Holly made it, because Andy has had enough grief.

— Lafayette still feels responsible for Jesus’s death, even though it wasn’t his fault. I noticed that James was interested and affected by that revelation.

— I wonder if Jane Bodehouse is thinking that she just has a particularly bad case of the DTs?

Quotes:

Jackson: “He loved the fuck out of you, Sookie.”
Class with a capital K, Jackson.

Magister: “This place smells like sperm and piss and bad hair dye, and it’s all yours.”

Eric: “Leave it to humans to make sex this depressing.”

Pam: “A girl who knows a thing or two about good vampire cinema. It’s rare.”

Jason: “Kevin was a good man. With a funny voice.”

Sookie: “It’s just lunch.”

Lafayette: “Wakey wakey, vampire homies.”

Ginger: “You are never going to guess what I found!”
Pam: “Is it a shitty chair?”

Ginger: “Sex sells. And Eric Northman is nothing if he’s not pure fucking sex on a throne.”
I think most of us would agree with that sentiment.

Eric: “You didn’t.”
Pam: “I did.”
Eric: “Such a bitch.”
Pam: “But you still love me.”
Eric: “Always.”

Jason: “This is our Normandy. Who’s with me?”

Eric: “Pam tells me you wrote a book in which you claim not to be an asshole anymore. Is this true, Bill?”
It was Skarsgard’s delivery that made this line so funny.

Eric: “As your maker, I command you… later.”

Pam: (re: Sookie) “She’s like a fucking fungus that just won’t go away.”

Arlene: “I’m sorry. Were you just a rat?”

Terry: “Be happy.”

This is what I was hoping they would do in their final season, but was worried they wouldn’t. Four out of four Twizzlers,

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.