True Blood, you’re back on the right path.
I feel like a mom whose 7-year-old forgot her lines in the school play, but then suddenly, remembers them in a burst of brilliance.
It’s an awesome sensation.
But anyhoo, enough about my bosom swelling with pride, let’s talk about what happened on the episode. And we’ll really get into it on Tuesday, aka Truesday, but I just couldn’t wait. So let’s go with eight points about tonight’s episode.
1. Crimpin’ Ain’t Easy
No. Way. Did Pam really break out the old-school Con-Air crimpers and turn her ‘do into a don’t? This is one of my beloved characters, so I will go no further, but I hope her brush with 80’s nostalgia is over. What’s next, will she break out the Aussie spray and do big bangs?
2. Pole Position
Chris Rock famously noted that he would know he failed as a father if his daughter ever ended up swinging on a pole. Well, maybe that’s what Tara’s sanctimonious mother was feeling when she came into Fangtasia (horrible wig askew, as usual) and saw her baby making like she was in Magic City. I was annoyed that this not-good-enough-for-a-church-play performer made a fresh appearance, but it paved the pathway to this season’s warmest very special moment. Pam consoling her new “daughter” and Tara hugging her– hyper fast, as vamps are prone to do.
3. Gone Off that Lilith
Check it out, the newest drug of the undead…the Kool-aid blood of Lilith. After Russell Edgington so wonderfully executed his return to the main plotline, I thought it could get no better. But then, the Authority– under the new leadership of Salome, mind numbinbly terrible Nora and Russell– led them on a blood-induced bender through Bon Temps, which in turn led to an unfortunate run-in with some karaoke lovers. I am wondering what’s up with the special effects, as the clunky, computer-generated rise of Lilith looked like it was created by some pupils at a low-rent arts school advertised on late-night TV. But maybe the Smoke Monster creators had some downtime and were given the opportunity to raise Lilith.
4. Smoke Alarm
Speaking of Old Smokey, that pathetic thing came back, but luckily not for long. When, oh when, will someone disperse this sad cloud of pepper spray? I’m liking the tapering of this silly arse plotline, even though it required me to watch Arlene re-watch her wedding ceremony. It was a sneaky way to fit more Arlene and Terry into the show, but I won’t complain. It’s a start.
5. Fairy Tale
I’m shocked at this, but I could actually stomach Sookie this ep. When she’s all introspective and unsure, plus fully clothed, she’s not all bad. And even though her decision to “use up” her fairy power to become human looked like an off night at Navy Pier (again, special effects, what’s your deal?) it was an interesting development. I’ll allow it.
6. Head Case
Yuck to Jesus’s decaying head on a chair. An equal amount of disgust goes out to the sight of LaFayette with his lips sewn with thick black thread (though it did stop him from sounding as dumb as he has the last few weeks). Triple “ewww” to Jesus’s ummm….step-auntie? cutting LaFayette’s lip threads with the same bloody knife as she dispatched the evil uncle from hell. Also, I’d like this plot line involving lucha libre masks and Alfre Woodard over-emoting to vanish. Now. Maybe it could lock hands with Smokey and skip off to another network. Syfy, mayhaps?
7. Haterade
Though it is too ham-handed a point for me to fully applaud, I’ll give a slight nod to “True Blood” take on the mindset of hate groups. When Hoyt foolishly decreed he felt more love among the hate group than he had at church, it sounded like something the real-life racist/prejudiced morons of the world should heed. I’m sorry Hoyt is going the way of Jason in the Fellowship of the Sun plotline, but it’s so much better than what my good friend Georgia Garvey refers to as emo Hoyt.
8. Aw, Shoot
I have occasionally questioned Jason’s usefulness to the show since he stopped serving up the duh! comic relief, but he stepped up this week. And I loved how he shot Jessica dead in the baby hair right after she kissed him with another man’s blood on her lips. (Egads on the cross contamination. Has she checked out the CDC Web site lately?) Guess their on-again/off-again dalliance is done with. Man-up Jason is definitely better than were-panther Jason. Upgrade.
Overall, it was a solid episode. Not as good as last week, but nowhere near as horrible as the first three shows. I’m back in the saddle… Fang you, very much, TB writers.
Your turn: Did this episode do you proud or did it bite harder than Eric Northman on a nubile young fangbanger? If you come with the hot comments, I will add them to the post.
