Lots of storylines in this week’s True Blood episode, with no real developments.
After a pretty decent start to the new season of True Blood, we returned to find Eric and Sookie still doing the will they/won’t they dance they’ve been doing for several episodes now. Eric has amnesia and doesn’t recognize Sookie, the latter of whom seems to be immune to shirtless Eric’s apparent sensitivities.
We’re then privy to Eric’s line, “I know I’m a vampire Snookie.” I’m sure this was enjoyed by some fans, but I found myself saying out loud, “Really? Jersey Shore jokes?” Even though I have been enjoying the season so far, I think some of the story lines could easily go into jumping the shark territory and this joke just reminded me of this factor.
Pam makes an appearance and delivers some high-quality lines, convincing Sookie to hide Eric from the witches who put the spell on him and gave him amnesia. Jason is still in Hotshot, being held captive by an increasingly crazy Crystal. This scene felt very disturbing, but was very much on par with the series as a whole.
What makes True Blood unique and interesting is it’s gritty, even disgusting realism and this certainly is that. Not that it’s REAL per se, but it’s violent and keeps the audience’s attention. It’s not the lighthearted Jersey Shore jokes.
In the first episode of Season Four, Tara’s character finally got a chance to be happy, even though she was living a lie, but she’s not back in Bon Temps and the good times are over. This episode found her helping Jesus stop Lafayette from going to Fangtasia and begging Eric’s forgiveness for being a part of the witch circle.
Lafayette makes it to the vampire club however, only to find Pam and no Eric, because he’s hiding out at Sookie’s house. Pam starts pushing Lafayette around until Jesus and Tara show up. Tara is armed with a gun loaded with wooded bullets (and silver cores just in case) so Pam quickly orders Lafayette to bring Marnie, the leader of the witches to Fangasia by the next day.
Will Tara ever find happiness? I don’t know and don’t care anymore. I think she was at her best in Season One when she was delivering hilariously angry lines.
It will be interesting to see if Lafayette will stop being so afraid of the vampires and realize how powerful of a witch (Wiccan?) he can be. Ideally the rest of the series would focus more on transforming these characters in some way, because at the moment both Lafayette/Tara seem to be in a pathetic stall pattern.
The end of the episode finds Claudine making an unexpected manifestation at Sookie’s house. It appears that the door to the faerie world is not completely closed after all, and Claudine wants Sookie to come back there with her. After her last wonderful experience that ended in a battle and a jump off a cliff, it’s no wonder she decides against this. Eric dashes out and bites Claudine, drinking her to death.
Claudine has a much longer life in Charlaine Harris’ book series (that True Blood is based on), so this was unexpected for those following both series. I’m not sure where they’ll go from here with this development. I would be happy if they were able to connect the witch, vampire, and faerie storylines with Claudine’s death. Because until then, it just feels like a lot is going on but not that much is happening.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.