True Blood - Recap: Oozy, but Productive

By Joe Tranchina ·

And just like that, I’m addicted to True Blood all over again. Season 6 is the best string of episodes this series has put up for our viewing pleasure in years. I’m chalking it up, in part, to the badass that is Season 6's Sookie Stackhouse. What is death, anyway? It's a pit stop.

Season 6 Episode 8 of True Blood, “Dead Meat,” threw all new twists into an already well-developed season. From murder in the name of Jesus to a Viking vampire on the warpath, there’s no telling what will come of the last few episodes in this year’s shortened block. Meanwhile, you know what they say about secrets. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. (That's a reference for all of my PLL recap and review readers!) When we’re considering about six or seven desperate and hungry vampires, let’s not even pretend that keeping the contamination of the Tru-Blood supply under wraps was an option. Also, credit where credit is undoubtedly due. Carrie Preston, Sam Trammell, and Joe Manganiello have me invested in their characters’ side story lines more so than I’ve been in a long time. Here is the Recap and Review of Season 6 Episode 8 of True Blood, “Dead Meat”!

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Episode 8 opened with Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) quickly spiraling away from devastating sadness and straight into psychopathic craziness. With Bill (Stephen Moyer) lurking in the doorway, having witnessed the true death of Northman’s sister Nora, the insane fun that is "Eric out for revenge" would begin with a scolding of the vampire he’d looked to as a god mere hours prior. Bill’s seeming lack of effort in his quest to apprehend Warlow (Rob Kazinsky) was initially held to blame for Nora’s passing. Of course, Eric's attention was brought back to Sookie (Anna Paquin), as it so often is, for she held the key to Warlow’s safety. Was Bill weak in his effort to convince Stackhouse to comply with their demands? Probably, but was there any real reason to believe that Warlow’s blood would heal Nora in the first place? I thought that was sort of a shot in the pitch dark to begin with. By the way, was anyone else under the impression that Bill’s dose of Warlow’s blood would wear off? It seems like Compton’s mere sampling of the faerie/ vamp hybrid’s blood has worked permanent wonders, as he spent Episode 8, yet again, fully able to trek through the sunlight.

"True Blood" HBO

Meanwhile, the situation in the government-run vampire concentration camp went from terribly bad to tragically heinous pretty quickly, wouldn’t you say? Baby vamps shouldn’t be trusted with secrets, especially those baby vamps as vulnerable and innately human as Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). After stirring from her quick passionate romp with James (Luke Grimes), she made sure to remind her new flame that the Tru-Blood supply had been contaminated with Hep-V. Of course, the very reason Jessica is enamored with James is the same thing that would come back to bite the lot of her friends in the ass; his compassion and humanity. James, pitying Steve Newlin (Michael McMillian) for his complete and utter lack of support from his own kind, clued the former reverend into the government’s plot to eradicate their race. Poor James didn’t stand a chance with Newlin as a “friend,” did he? All it took was some slight interrogation from Newlin’s ex, Sarah (Anna Camp), for Steve to spill the beans to the folks in charge. James and Newlin would be the first victims brought into the now infamous “sun room” from Billith’s visions, forced to await their looming dooms. Of course, by the close of Episode 8, they would have company.

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What do we think about Violet (Karolina Wydra), the Roman Catholic lady-vamp from the dark ages who currently holds Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanted) hostage in the gen-pop cell? I realize we know very little about her, but so far so not-so-good, correct? I mean, we aren’t supposed to root for her by any means, but this is a show that is filled to the brim with antiheroes and likable villains. This woman just seems like a nuisance; an added hurdle for Pam (Kristen Bauer van Straten), Tara (Rutina Wesley), Jessica, and Willa (Amelia Rose Blair) to jump while navigating the hell and high water hurled at them by Sarah Newlin and her drones. Jason is now Violet’s, forever and always, it seems. I won’t doubt that she’ll have Jason begging for sex in the near future, as she promised, but Stackhouse has always been one to be hilariously shameless with regard to his promiscuity. That kind of brazenness is almost liberating, so can there ever be any real power over him sexually speaking? Of course, anyone not drinking the Tru-Blood was put under heavy watch, and Violet’s use of own personal blood sack seemed to annoy the higher-ups. Nearly forced to drink her ration of the poisoned supply, snarky comments from Tara (Come on, Tara!), and subsequent damage control from Pam, did enough to reveal their knowledge of the ploy, landing the entire group in, you guessed it, the “sun room.”

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As all of this was unwinding, Alcide found himself in quite a difficult predicament. Following the lies he spewed in order to protect Nicole (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and her mother, the pack master faced an enraged Rikki (Kelly Overton), who challenged Alcide for the role of pack master. She-wolves unite, apparently! Alcide wouldn’t kill his former first lady, but he certainly roughed her up in the process. Honestly, I found that kind of uncomfortable to watch! I know Rikki is an enraged she-beast at the moment, but the visual effect was still that of a giant man beating up a woman. In the end, Alcide stepped down from the role of pack master, returning Nicole and her mother to the safety of Sam’s trailer in the process. It was great to see Sam and Alcide reconciling as friends over several shots of whiskey, especially considering the incredibly rough season Alcide has had as a character. Let's hope True Blood fully rescues him from the edge of darkness. I mean, Bill seems like he's too far gone at this point, right? I’m just hoping Season 6 has shown us the last of the werewolf storyline we’ll ever see. Let’s keep Alcide and Sam together. I enjoy that shifter/ lone wolf chemistry. Speaking of chemistry, it looks like Nicole might be sticking around after all. A whiff of her hair revealed a bun in the oven to both Sam and Alcide. That bun is that of a baby shifter, fangers.

"True Blood" HBO

Most of my favorite moments this week surrounded the ever-evolving Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie has hit some bumps in the road over the past few years as a character. I think we can all admit that much. There were even moments in their where I’d completely forgotten that she’s the series' lead! The moment she had with Sam in the back of Merlotte’s, in which she admitted to always feeling some sort of a sense that her path would lead to him and a sense of human normalcy, was totally out of the blue, but very reminiscient of the Season 1 chemistry between the duo. We haven’t seen much of this pair together ever since Sookie completely stopped showing up for work. Needless to say, Sookie’s revelation couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time, and a distraught Sam ended up shooing her off of the premises. Something about the way Anna Paquin delivered her tearful “goodbye, Sam” certainly had me wondering if this is the last we’ll see of this pair on screen for a good while.

"True Blood" HBO

What had Sookie Stackhouse so irrationally running to Sam Merlotte for emotional support? With the fate of her friends on the line, Sookie discussed Bill’s demands with Warlow, who, in turn, delivered his own ultimatum. Agreeing to hand himself over to Bill if Sookie would accept his proposal, Warlow sent Sookie through an entire episode's worth of soul searching and self-discovery. Is Sookie ready to be a faerie vampire bride, cursed (?) to walk the Earth as a living corpse for all eternity? Bill’s complete and utter lack of compassion for Sookie’s predicament was certainly no help, but a quick chat with her parents seemed to give her some peace of mind. That is, an enraged conversation with her parents’ gravestones. I thoroughly enjoyed Sookie’s speech on the “pit stop” that is death, a mere blip on the road to hopeless and bleak endlessness. In the end, isn’t forever just as scary as the true death? Rather than suffer through an eternity of seeing her body buried alongside the people who most betrayed her, Sookie decided to accept Warlow’s proposal, donning herself in a black dress before calling Bill with her final decision. Sookie had dressed for her own funeral.

"True Blood" HBO

We knew Sarah Newlin had to cross the line from over-zealous, to slightly crazy, to murderously insane at some point. This is True Blood, fangers. Reasoning that vampires are an inhuman menace (Hey, Pam relishes in that sentiment!) is one thing. Murdering a snooping executive representing Tru-Blood was another entirely! That’s right, fangers. After a very entertaining catfight between Newlin and the head honcho who’d green-lit Burrell’s plans to use the abandoned bottling factory to produce a new supply of the synthetic blood early on in Season 6 took place following the woman’s refusal to stay out of the government-run camp. Once she’d realized the Tru-Blood supplies had been compromised with Hep-V during an impromptu inspection, it became a kill or be killed situation. I’m not sure which I preferred; the embarrassing and feeble attempt by Sarah Newlin to snap the woman’s neck or Sarah’s actual kill-by-smashing-through-floor-grate moment. A high heel to the back of the head would do the trick, sending the woman’s blood splattering down in a river to the hungry vampire boys below. “Thank you, Jesus.”

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Arlene’s plot during Episode 8 centered on the planning of Terry’s funeral, and in turn, dealing with Terry’s rich, snooty, and entirely naïve relatives. Remember, Terry’s life was completely destroyed by his wartime torments. The Bellefleurs, on the other hand, seemed to fuel their family’s respect based on time spent serving the country. Meaning, Terry’s grandmother was dead set on a military inspired funeral, while Arlene was adamant regarding honoring the real Terry, the husband she knew and loved. Would it make sense to anyone to have a twenty-one-gun salute at the burial for a man who loathed war and was killed by a gunshot to the neck? Arlene just wanted carnations and Terry’s favorite reverend to give the service. This plot seems simple and wonky in print, but Carrie Preston has been a pleasure to watch, and the mourning of Terry is important because it reminds us of the value of life in a show laden with frivolous death. It's also important to watch Arlene grieve through the process of recognizing Terry's death as a second-hand suicide.

Unfortunately, Arlene wasn’t entirely a superwoman this week. A few hurtful, yet entirely honest, thoughts mind-read by Adilyn (Bailey Noble), Andy’s (Chris Bauer) new daughter, revealed the widow’s harbored animosity towards Andy’s invasive children. Remember, they did indeed pick at Terry’s mind, reminding him on occasion of the fact that he murdered his old war buddy. Adilyn, embarrassed and upset, found solace in Holly’s (Lauren Bowles) two sons, who invited her to spend the night drinking and, well, getting naked in the cemetery. With one boy passed out, and the other getting hot and heavy with Adilyn, no one saw Eric Northman coming. Having recognized the vibe of the faerie realm harboring Warlow in the same graveyard, Eric would glamour the boys before taking a sip from Andy’s daughter. Bill and Sookie were devastated to find a nearly drained Warlow. Eric Northman can walk in the sun.

I'm getting nervous for Eric's fate now. They've paired up Pam and Willa, and the writers are doing a great job of giving them a new kind of chemistry. In a past recap, I mentioned that the bond was more so that of sisters than of a parent/ child kind of maker relationship. Have they squeezed the drama between Eric and Pam dry? With a massive death teased in the coming episodes, could Eric meet the true death, leaving Pam to "raise" Willa on her own and in his honor?

What did you think of True Blood Season 6 Episode 8, "Dead Meat"? Do you love Sarah off her rocker and all in the name of Jesus? Are we looking at Jason's story arc heading into Season 7 (surrounding Violet)? Will Sookie take the plunge and wed Warlow? Do you like Sam and Alcide better as friends than enemies? Will Andy get some sort of revenge after the abuse his daughter's have suffered this season?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of True Blood Season 6 Episode 8, "Dead Meat"!
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