Spoilers. The penultimate episode of True Blood isn't the exciting flurry of activity I was expecting, as it's more skewed towards character-building, although there are some big developments and a sizeable reveal at the very end. Quite why the series has chosen to introduce two new characters at such a late stage is anyone's guess, though..."To Love Is To Bury" catches Bill (Stephen Moyer) in the act of "making" his first vampire "offspring", which we discover (thanks to the silly, expositional presence of fellow vamp Pam) requires a ritual where Bill sleeps in the earth with his recently-bitten progeny -- Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). Like planting a seed and helping it germinate, you might say. Bill himself is disconnected to the main storyline this week, as the fledgling vampire Jessica subverts expectations by finding it a genuine thrill to have been transformed from humble teen to powerful lady vamp. Indeed, Jessica's personality is that of an overexcited adolescent, with Bill unprepared to deal with her rebellious streak and short attention span as he attempts to teach her a vampire's lifestyle...
Bill's absence is required to allow Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Sam (Sam Trammell) to grow closer while he's away, although this episode annoyingly paints Sookie as rather unsympathetic about Bill's plight. Writer Nancy Oliver's story needs Sookie to feel annoyed and disappointed by Bill's absence, which is at odds with the accepting and empathetic Sookie this series has spent time developing –- not to mention the fact she knows Bill's in political trouble for killing a vampire. Her disparaging remarks about his whereabouts just didn't sit right. Still, while her negative reactions feel forced, getting Sookie and Sam together makes for good emotional drama later, when Bill returns to find them in a clinch...
The search for Bon Temps' killer also gets its biggest boost in awhile, not least through Sam and Sookie's private investigation, after Sookie remembers fragments of the killer's thoughts when he attacked her at Merlotte's. The mental visual of a waitress identity badge belonging to "CINDY" takes them to Big Patty's Pie Shop in the nearby town of Bunkie. There they discover waitress Cindy Marshall was killed recently, and her brother Drew Marshall was implicated in her murder before he vanished. Sookie uses her mind-reading to blackmail a cop into faxing details of suspect Drew Marshall to Bon Temps' police department, where it might help with their own town's investigation…
A rather odd storyline is shouldered by Tara (Rutina Wesley), who is arrested on a DUI charge, after crashing her car to avoid hitting a half-naked lady walking in the road with a pig (don't ask.) Tara's thrown into jail to sober up and, maddeningly, her mother Lettie Mae (Adina Porter) arrives but refuses to release her daughter on bail -– deciding instead to renounce her! Lettie Mae's un-Christian attitude doesn't go uncommented on by Tara, who is just as confused by her mother's attitude as the viewers. Of course, that doesn't alter the fact that Lettie Mae's inaction (particularly now she's not drinking) doesn't really make much sense.
Again, it just seemed that the script had to dictate the actions of its characters, instead of the other way around. Why, for example, doesn't Tara call her best-friend Sookie for help? Anyway, Tara is later freed from jail thanks to the intervention of a mysterious social worker called Maryanne Forrester (Michelle Forbes) -- who the eagle-eyed will recognize as the half-naked lady Tara avoided hitting in her car. Understandably, Tara doesn't recognize Maryanne (indeed, I'm sure most viewers didn't either), and the plot thickens when Maryanne whisks Tara away to her snazzy antebellum mansion in an expensive red convertible. Quite what Maryanne has in store for Tara remains to be seen, but I hope it somehow ties into a main storyline, and isn't just a late tease for season 2.
Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) is given a very brief story, where he becomes incensed by a state senator's anti-vampire campaign message (claiming their blood turns citizens into addicts, drug dealers and homosexuals), so decides to visit the senator to threaten him for being a hypocrite. Clearly the senator is either gay or a junkie himself? There has been a thread of human/vampire politics throughout the series (usually glimpsed on television), but this is another development that just seemed too sudden.
The final subplot focused on Jason (Ryan Kwanten), who is having difficulty forgiving girlfriend Amy (Lizzy Caplan) for killing their captured vampire Eddie. Amy's callous actions force him to reassess their blossoming relationship; so he tells his friends about Amy's V addiction, and makes her agree to give up V to focus on their romance.
Sadly, Amy talks Jason into one last bedroom romp with V as a sexual stimulant, which leaves them both vulnerable to attack from the Bon Temps killer. Yes, in one of the series' most bizarre moments, Amy and Jason share a vivid dream of frolicking outside half-naked, while in the waking world the Bon Temps killer strangles poor Amy to death. When Jason wakes up later, he's astonished to find Amy's lifeless body lying next to him, and reasons that he must somehow be the Bon Temps killer, and immediately gives himself up to the police...
Overall, "To Love Is To Bury" was certainly an episode crammed with incident that delivered a few crucial pieces of True Blood's mystery – the last-second alone reveals the identity of the Bon Temps killer (although I had to stop and consider the faxed mug-shot until I realized who it was!) Sadly, most of this episode was taken up with new storylines that, while interesting and entertaining, seemed like they'd been shoehorned into the penultimate episode.
I just can't see how Maryanne's character will be fully explained next week, and the appealing idea of Bill becoming a father to Jessica seems to have been passed on to Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) already. Indeed, it was perhaps only designed to keep Bill away from Sookie for an extended period of time, so Sam could ease into her affections more easily. Lafayette's subplot was also rather unexpected and gave off the impression of a late-idea included in the penultimate episode for a quick pay-off next week. Indeed, True Blood appears to have suddenly panicked that the last episode is just round the corner, and could perhaps have done with a few more episodes to fill out the time.
16 November 2008
HBO, 9/8c
Cast: Anna Paquin (Sookie), Stephen Moyer (Bill), Michael Raymond-James (Rene Lenier), Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Rutina Wesley (Tara), Ryan Kwanten (Jason), Sam Trammell (Sam), Alexander Skarsgard (Eric Northman), Lizzy Caplan (Amy Burley), Chris Bauer (Andy Bellefleur), Adina Porter (Lettie Mae Thornton), Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica), Kristin Bauer (Pam) & Michelle Forbes (Maryann)
