The first half of Alexander Woo's script got down to tackling the Maryann (Michelle Forbes) problem. Sookie (Anna Paquin) is captured and given a white dress to wear (a recurring image for this show), to become Maryann's "Maid Of Honour" in a ritual to summon her horned God. Needless to say, Sookie's vehemently against this insanity and the repurposing of her family home as Maryann's lair, yet she has no problem helping Maryann to lick an ostrich egg as part of the ceremony. Incidentally, the egg that formed the basis of last week's cliffhanger is revealed to be... well, just an egg.
Sam (Sam Trammell) and Bill (Stephen Moyer) are the only people capable of stopping Maryann, given the fact dopey Jason (Ryan Kwanten) and Andy's (Chris Bauer) attack on the Maenad involved running into a crowd of her followers and being instantly brainwashed themselves. D'oh.
Sam and Bob concoct a plan to kill Maryann, by delivering Sam as her supernatural offering to Dionysus and allowing him to be stabbed by her sacrificial knife. Enraged, Sookie's super-abilities manifest and she destroys Maryann's meat-statue, prompting a Hammer Horror-style chase through the woods that comes to an end when Maryann finally lays eyes on her God Dionysus, who's arrived in the form of a large bull. Unfortunately, the deity gores her with its horns and it's revealed that her God is in fact a shape-shifted Sam (healed from his stabbing by Bill's vampire blood), and the Maenad is killed by Sam removed her blackened heart with his horn/hand.For the most part, ignoring a few stupid moments and a very unsatisfying end for Jason and Andy's heroics (a blink-and-miss conclusion to week's of build-up!), the demise of Maryann was enjoyable pulp, helped by a decent twist and fantastic death scene. It's just a shame that Maryann outstayed her welcome weeks ago and her shtick had become so tedious. Her defeat came as overdue relief rather than the exciting apex of a season-long story.
Following all that, the second half of "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" dealt with the aftermath and charted a course into season 3's storylines. This notion of an extended coda is something True Blood appears to love, but I'm not a fan of this narrative format. It's perfectly fine to tease us with what next season has to offer, but dedicating half a finale to what's ultimately a denouement is a waste. It's as if the finale ran out of plot too early and the writers were forced to just string together scenes that would work better as appetizing "webisodes". Call me old-fashioned, but why not leave something for season 3's premiere and give each subplot room to breathe?
Regardless, here's how it panned out after Maryann turned into a skeleton: the people of Bon Temps have chosen to believe various crackpot theories for their bizarre behaviour (the funniest being that Maryann was an alien and the town were abducted); a lucid Maxine (Dale Raoul) admits to Hoyt (Jim Parrack) that his father committed suicide, and he wasn't killed by a burglar; Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) opts against patching things up with Hoyt to feast on dirty truckers (are we to expect a return to the "wild child" Jessica this season neatly avoided?); Eggs (Mehcad Brooks) is guilt-stricken over his role as Maryann's assassin, and during a perceived attack on Andy he's shot and killed by a trigger-happy Jason (I'm glad Eggs is gone, but this was a very stupid moment); we learn that the vampire Queen (Evan Rachel Wood) is the one ordering Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) to sell V blood; Sam has a sudden urge to visit his adopted parents, so he can find his real parents and understand his lineage (fine, but why start that story here instead of waiting for season 3?); and Bill proposes to Sookie at a French restaurant, only to be kidnapped by an unseen assailant as a conflicted Sookie grapples with her response in the restroom...
Overall, I was entertained but dissatisfied by this finale. True Blood's always had a silly side and a streak of camp, but things went too far here. Even the good moments were, on closer analysis, riddled with plot-holes, and there was the pervasive sense that the writers have been half-improvising the latter-half of this season. As I've been saying for weeks, season 2 reached a better conclusion with the bombing of Godric's apartment, and everything since then has slipped deeper into farcical stupidity.We're left with the remnants of missed opportunities and loose ends, too: Barry the Bellboy, the Newlin's, the vampire Queen, etc. I'm sure those characters will be returned to, but it feels like this season tossed in a lot of distractions that didn't receive enough pay-off this year.
13 September 2009
HBO, 10pm
written by: Alexander Woo directed by: Michael Cuesta starring: Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse), Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton), Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte), Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse), Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton), Michelle Forbes (Maryann), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Carrie Preston (Arlene Fowler), Alexander Skarsgård (Eric Northman), Mehcad Brooks (Eggs), Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry), Chris Bauer (Andy Bellefleur), Adina Porter (Lettie Mae Thornton), Todd Lowe (Terry Bellefleur), Patricia Bethune (Jane Bodehouse) & Dale Raoul (Maxine Fortenberry)
