True Blood - Recap: Who is Warlow?
True Blood continued to faery zap its way through Season 6 tonight. An episode filled with bloodshed and death closed with Etta James’ classing love song, “At Last,” and the reveal of mega-vampire Warlow!
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As previously stated, Sookie had her hands full, as Warlow whirled around outside of her home and Jason’s brain swirled on her living room sofa. Ben (Rob Kazinsky) tended to Sookie’s brother as our heroine called an ambulance. Meanwhile, Nora handed her information over to Niall; the vampire bible had been mistranslated. It was Lilith’s progeny that was to lead her into the sunlight of destruction, not her people. Warlow is there only hope of stopping the cataclysmic destruction known as Lilith. Too bad for Nora, though. Her nose got the best of her, and Niall was forced to zap her over the trees and straight into the hands of the police. Inside, Sookie barked orders over the phone, while Ben slipped Jason some of his vampire blood. Correct; you did read that line right. Ben is a hybrid, fangers. He is both faery and vamp, which meant sex for Sookie by the episode’s end, right? Possibly, just wait and see. By the way, this is a good time to note that the boys of True Blood certainly got the group “do your crunches” text from the producers during the production of Episode 4. Did anyone have a shirt on this week?
Eric and Pam found Tara skulking her way through a dirty sewage pipe after she’d hid Burrell away. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; vampire Tara is more human than human Tara ever was, and a lot more likable, too! Pam was pissed, of course, with the way Eric manhandled Tara following her disobedience. Afterwards, the duo snuck around looking for the equivalent of a vampire speakeasy, only to see Pam landing herself in hot water, another victim of the governor’s vampire curfew. Think fast, Tara!
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Eric hauled himself over to the fairgrounds where Tara had left Willa. Willa, strangely enough, hadn’t budged, hoping that she’d have another opportunity to speak with Eric and prove her loyalty to the vampire cause. Why hadn’t he allowed her to taste his ancient vampire blood? How would she prove herself? In a very clever move, Eric decided that it was time to create his second progeny in Willa Burrell, the daughter of the man headlining the anti-vamp movement. The “burial of the virgin” scene was True Blood at its best. I love when this show creates new baby vamps. We never know what we’re going to get. We’ve never truly witnessed a romantic transformation before. We’ve seen Bill turn Jessica and Pam turn Tara out of sheer obligation. The nuances of the scene, like Eric’s use of Willa’s cross to draw his own blood, made it for me. Willa was reborn as a vampire, and after feeding, was ordered to immediately return home. Devastated by her maker’s coldness, Willa obeyed Eric. Could she convince her father that she was still his own?
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Poor Sheriff Andy (Chris Bauer) was in for a rough episode from the get-go. Sassy pre-teen faeries are one thing, but angst-ridden teen faeries was just too much to handle in any case. After the girls, in younger form, playfully terrorized Terry (Todd Lowe) over the murder of Patrick, they were sent straight to bed. We’d witness Andy in his best father routine yet as he tucked his girls in, only to subsequently witness the girls rapidly age yet again. Wild teen faeries are apparently born with the mouths of truck drivers! With the fear of their *gasp* thirties looming on the horizon, the foursome decided to raid Aunt Arlene’s (Carrie Preston) closet and hit the town. Beer! They needed their first taste of cheap light beer before hitting the legal drinking age! (Which would have been in, like, a few hours.)
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Unfortunately for the girls, Bill and Jessica were on the prowl, looking to swipe them for blood samples. Remember; Bill is looking to replicate faery blood using Tru-Blood’s original creator, whom Jessica had captured during the previous episode. Bill had the man locked away in his basement, while Jessica insisted on being the one to approach the girl’s at the convenience store. Jessica wasn’t about to trust Billith with four fresh faeries to sink his teeth into. Jessica, on the other hand, could turn on her teenage charm and play it cool. She offered to swipe the girls’ their beer post-glamouring of the creepy cashier. The girls had never smelled a vampire before, but, aah, teens… they just can’t resist the rush of danger like the underage consumption of light beer or going for a joyride with two bloodthirsty monsters. Back at Casa Compton, Bill manage to play into the flirtatious nature of the girls, who’d obviously just gone through the raging hormones of faery puberty, and managed to get some voluntary blood samples. Unfortunately, the samples were too unstable, coagulating into plain old human blood before the scientist could even consider duplicating the cells.
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Lafayette played “getaway car” for Sam, Emma, and Nicole, driving them to safety just before Alcide and his mongrels could start their chase. They’d obviously realized at this point that Emma had been swiped amidst the murders of Nicole’s friends. Unwilling to put Lafayette and Emma into harms way or to let Nicole limp away on her own, Sam showed her the power of shifting, stripping down to his birthday suit before transforming into a stallion. That evening, the two shared a bottle of whiskey while morning the loss of their friends. I’m not sure talk of watching your recently deceased lover croak in your arms is the best lead into a kiss, but it worked. By the episode’s close, the two were getting hot and heavy. Misery loves company and booze.
Willa Burrell made her way back home, only to find her father in his bedroom with Sarah Newlin (Anna Camp). Surprise! That was the perfect twist. Burrell (Arliss Howard) was devastated to see that has daughter had become one of them, but Willa’s conversation seemed to trump Sarah’s “devil!” shouts. He trusted her!.. until she got a whiff of blood from his scraped hand and went in for the kill. Sarah put her down with a few super-bullets before pleading with Burrell to send her to the camp in order to put her out of her misery. I’m not sure what to think about what comes next. Will Eric step up to help out his new progeny or simply look at Willa as a casualty of war?
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Sookie had read the signs. Drops of peculiar blood by the couch and Jason’s newly acquired temporary super strength gave Ben away, prompting her to quietly concoct a new scheme to test her theory. Jason, meanwhile, got to experience a hilarious dream in which he shaved Ben’s face before leaning in to lick the blood from a nick on his neck. The homoerotic “vamp blood side-effect” scenes always give me a chuckle. Sookie, on the other hand, was not amused. She casually invited Ben over to her place for dinner, setting the scene for a romantic night full of her own carefully conducted tests. Ben, of course, was quick to accept her invitation.
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Meanwhile, Jason’s strange shaving dream got both himself and Niall thinking. If Ben was both faery and vampire, could he also be… incredibly helpful? Kidding. Could Ben be Warlow? Grandpa wasn’t about to wait for Sookie to get back from grocery shopping to finish Warlow off for good. The two, gun in hand, made there way over to Ben’s apartment, where they watched from afar as the hybrid readied himself for a shower. The two thought they were being clever in catching Ben off guard, but, in truth, the faery-vamp is Warlow! He easily outmaneuvered the dumbfounded dynamic duo, incapacitating Niall before glamouring Jason to leave and never worry about the Warlow dilemma again. Jason said goodbye to his grandpa before Warlow began to nearly drink(?) him dry. Hmm… I use the term “drink” loosely because it seemed as though Ben-Warlow didn’t actually swallow a drop. Warlow threw on a sleeveless sweatshirt, because faeries dress like raging ravers, before tossing Niall into the trunk and driving him to the infamous bridge. There, he banished the king to the prison realm following the explanation of his origin. Warlow was a faery from a kin line to the Stackhouses. Ages ago, he was turned into a vampire, now forever cursed to feel both incredible light and darkness; for example, murdering his parents but sparing a child in Niall.
In the end, Jessica couldn't control herself after all, losing it once the girls attempted to tackle her in their escape. Bill's house was getting boring and the blood donating "foreplay" had grown increasingly bizarre. Just as Andy Bellefleur arrived at Bill Compton's front porch, realizing that he must have picked up the girls' faery scent the night prior, Bill burst into the room to find four dead faery teens in the most shocking moment of Episode 4.
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Sookie’s date night was planned impeccably. She’s the new Kevin from Home Alone, folks. This is Season 6 Sookie. She’s ready for anything and seemingly unflappable. Warlow ate her silver-laced fried chicken as though it were nothing. My favorite part of this final scene was that Sookie still spoke to Warlow as though he were Ben, asking her why it is the vampire men in her life seem to incessantly lie. Ben, of course, lied again. The evening closed with Sookie throwing on her record of “At Last” before admitting to Ben that he’d passed all of her tests. As predicted, Sookie seemed as though she was about to get laid, seducing Ben on the couch before arming herself with her faery “supernova.” Sookie has Warlow exactly where she wants him heading into Episode 5, and she barely broke a sweat.
What did you think of True Blood Season 6 Episode 4, “At Last”? What are Warlow’s true intentions? Can he even eat Sookie if he wanted to, or is he looking for something more from her? Are Pam and Willa in deep trouble? Does True Blood enjoy taking their male leads, like Alcide and Bill, and completely vilifying them? What will come of the Andy/ Jessica/ Billith situation?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of True Blood Season 6 Episode 4, “At Last”!